About Methods
Methods is an interactive reference for choosing and applying research, design, validation, and implementation techniques throughout the product development lifecycle.
Built from my experience working across product design and multidisciplinary teams, it helps designers and product practitioners determine which methods are appropriate based on what they know, what remains uncertain, and what they need to accomplish next.
The guide is intended as a practical resource, not a prescribed process. Methods can be used independently, combined, revisited, or skipped when sufficient evidence already exists.
Two-track model
The framework organizes work into two tracks based on how well the problem and solution space are understood — not on project phase or calendar date.
Research Track
Use when the problem, users, assumptions, or solution approach still need discovery work.
Implementation Track
Use when problem and requirements are understood and the team is ready to design and build.
Product principle
Reduce uncertainty, then choose the appropriate method, then understand what you need, then perform the work, then capture evidence, then decide what comes next.
Non-linear by design
The activities in each track represent recommended paths, not a rigid waterfall. Teams can move backward, skip activities when sufficient evidence already exists, or return to research when new uncertainty emerges. The tracks connect: completing a research initiative may lead directly into implementation, and implementation discoveries may warrant returning to research.
Track markers
- Research, discovery, qualitative work
- Implementation, design, validation, build
- Dependencies, prerequisites, what you need