Good digital research is not about finding information. It is about finding the right question.

There is a belief that the research is equated to gathering an enormous amount of data.

If I wanted to have my papers ready and all my details straight, I would go to Google and open 10 tabs, read everything I found on those tabs, and take notes along the way.

The problem wasn’t the data collected. It was how I approached my research. I was looking for answers when I didn’t even know what the question was.

Therefore, as long as your question is incorrect, then the amount of research you do will not create a solution.

Let’s put this into practice.

If you are doing research on Content Strategy for ECommerce brands, asking:

“What is the best content strategy for ECommerce?”

will produce over 1000 generic articles; best practices; listicles and no specifics.

On the other hand, asking:

“Why do eCommerce brands with strong content strategies continue to lose customers after their first purchase?”

will give your research direction and allow for better sources and deeper insights.

It’s the same topic being researched, just an entirely different output.

You will find that all subsequent steps/decisions will be informed by the quality of the question you ask at the beginning of your project and ultimately will lead you to success

• An obvious point of departure in your search for high quality research questions would be to ask yourself where there are tensions or contradictions in the existing literature versus simply thinking about what your topic is.

• Instead of asking yourself what is currently included in the conversations that you wish to contribute to, it can be valuable to identify what you feel has been left out of those conversations.

• Once you arrive at a place where you have a solid question, spend some time re-writing it three different ways. Typically, the third version will yield you the exact question that you need to start your search for high quality research.

Research is more than collecting data. It is a process of thinking using data as one of the tools to facilitate that process.