1 min lesson
From fuzzy ask to sharp research question
Name the parts in "From fuzzy ask to sharp research question" and give the practical job of each one.
Step 1 of 2
The research-challenge round rarely fails on method. It fails when a candidate accepts the question as handed to them and never reframes it.
A PM at Cursor walks up and says “should we build a chat-history panel?” That is not a research question. It is a business question wearing a feature as a costume. Your first job, before you name a single method, is to find the decision underneath it and the unknown that would actually move that decision.
Senior researchers separate three things that beginners blur together. Keep them on three different lines in your head, because the panel will watch whether you can.
- Business question
- The bet the team is about to place. “Will a chat-history panel raise retention enough to justify the build?”
- Research question(s)
- What a study can actually answer. “Do developers lose work or context when a chat session ends? What do they do to recover it today?”
- Success metric / decision rule
- What evidence flips the decision. “If most sampled users describe a workaround they hate, we build; if they shrug, we don't.”
Mixing these up is the most common reason a research plan feels unfocused.