How to Connect Research Findings to Product Decisions

Findings are not recommendations. Recommendations are not decisions. Most research stops at findings.

Before the Study

Every brief should name the decision it informs. If it does not, the research has no destination.

Checkpoint: Does your research brief template include a field for the decision this study informs?

After the Study

Checkpoint: Do you follow up on whether findings led to decisions?

Checkpoint: Where do you log decisions?

Connecting to Wider Evidence

Findings carry more weight when they are corroborated by other studies, experiment results, or quantitative data. Building that connection requires the wider evidence to be accessible.

Checkpoint: When presenting findings, do you routinely connect them to evidence from other sources?

What Good Looks Like

Research that connects to decisions has a named decision in the brief, a decision protocol before the work begins, findings framed around the decision, and a log that connects the study to the decision.