Raw Drafts / Method archive / 2026
A searchable field database of tools, methods, artifacts and operating frameworks encountered across the Raw Drafts research archive. Every record includes a concise explanation and a custom inline SVG diagram.
Frameworks / Framework
A familiar sequence of empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test that helps teams move from human needs to evidence-backed solutions.
What sequence will help us learn without locking the problem too early?
Frameworks / Approach
An approach that starts with the people affected by a system and keeps their needs, capabilities, contexts and rights central throughout design.
What sequence will help us learn without locking the problem too early?
Frameworks / Approach
A collaborative problem-solving approach that combines empathy, reframing, divergent exploration, prototyping and iterative learning.
What sequence will help us learn without locking the problem too early?
Frameworks / Workshop format
A time-boxed process for mapping a challenge, choosing a target, sketching solutions, building a prototype and testing it with users.
What sequence will help us learn without locking the problem too early?
Research / Synthesis artifact
Evidence-based profiles that represent meaningful behavioural patterns, goals, constraints and contexts across a target audience.
What do we still need to understand from the people and context involved?
Research / Research method
Structured or semi-structured conversations used to understand people's experiences, motivations, workarounds and decision-making.
What do we still need to understand from the people and context involved?
Research / Research method
Interviews focused on how people currently experience a problem, what they already do and how important the problem actually is.
What do we still need to understand from the people and context involved?
Research / Recruitment tool
A short set of questions used to identify research participants who match the behaviours, experiences or constraints relevant to a study.
What do we still need to understand from the people and context involved?
Research / Research method
Direct exposure to the environment, routines and constraints surrounding a design problem through observation, participation or fieldwork.
What do we still need to understand from the people and context involved?
Research / Research practice
The ongoing collection of observations, feedback, behavioural signals and contextual evidence about people using or affected by a system.
What do we still need to understand from the people and context involved?
Research / Analysis method
The grouping of people or organisations into meaningful clusters based on behaviour, needs, context, value or constraints.
What do we still need to understand from the people and context involved?
Research / Framework
A way to understand the progress people are trying to make in a particular situation, including functional, emotional and social dimensions.
What do we still need to understand from the people and context involved?
Research / Testing method
Usability testing conducted on phones or tablets, accounting for touch, screen size, interruptions, connectivity and mobile context.
What do we still need to understand from the people and context involved?
Research / Testing method
A method where representative participants attempt realistic tasks while the team observes comprehension, behaviour, friction and recovery.
What do we still need to understand from the people and context involved?
Synthesis / Synthesis method
A collaborative method for grouping observations, quotes or ideas by similarity so patterns and themes become visible.
What pattern becomes visible when the evidence is arranged differently?
Synthesis / Synthesis technique
A lightweight form of affinity mapping that uses movable notes to organise observations, ideas or issues into emergent groups.
What pattern becomes visible when the evidence is arranged differently?
Synthesis / Analysis tool
A matrix that records how frequently items are grouped together, often after card sorting, to reveal strong and weak conceptual relationships.
What pattern becomes visible when the evidence is arranged differently?
Synthesis / Mapping tool
A visual representation of a person's experience across stages, touchpoints, goals, emotions, pain points and opportunities.
What pattern becomes visible when the evidence is arranged differently?
Synthesis / Mapping tool
A layered map linking the customer journey to frontstage interactions, backstage work, supporting systems and organisational responsibilities.
What pattern becomes visible when the evidence is arranged differently?
Synthesis / Systems tool
A model that moves from visible events to recurring patterns, underlying structures and the mental models that help produce them.
What pattern becomes visible when the evidence is arranged differently?
Synthesis / Framing tool
A simple structure for clarifying purpose, affected people, intended value and the means of delivery.
What pattern becomes visible when the evidence is arranged differently?
Synthesis / Mapping method
The identification of people and organisations who influence, deliver, use, fund, regulate or are affected by a system, followed by meaningful grouping.
What pattern becomes visible when the evidence is arranged differently?
Framing and ideation / Framing tool
Open-ended prompts that turn research insights or tensions into invitations for exploration without prescribing a single answer.
How can we open the problem enough to generate genuinely different responses?
Framing and ideation / Ideation method
A group process for generating many ideas quickly by temporarily separating idea production from evaluation.
How can we open the problem enough to generate genuinely different responses?
Framing and ideation / Ideation method
A silent or asynchronous ideation method where participants write ideas before sharing or building on one another's contributions.
How can we open the problem enough to generate genuinely different responses?
Framing and ideation / Creative practice
The deliberate generation and shaping of possible product, service or system concepts in response to a defined opportunity.
How can we open the problem enough to generate genuinely different responses?
Framing and ideation / Strategy method
The process of articulating how an offer helps a specific audience achieve desired outcomes, reduce pain or create valued gains.
How can we open the problem enough to generate genuinely different responses?
Framing and ideation / Collaborative method
A process where people affected by a design challenge actively help generate, shape or evaluate possible solutions.
How can we open the problem enough to generate genuinely different responses?
Framing and ideation / Design approach
An approach that gives participants meaningful influence over design decisions rather than treating them only as research subjects.
How can we open the problem enough to generate genuinely different responses?
Information architecture / Research method
A method where participants group and label content items to reveal how they understand categories and relationships.
How do people expect this information to be grouped and found?
Information architecture / Research method
A card sort in which participants create and name their own groups rather than using predefined categories.
How do people expect this information to be grouped and found?
Information architecture / Testing method
A task-based evaluation of a text-only navigation hierarchy that measures whether people can find information without visual design cues.
How do people expect this information to be grouped and found?
Prototyping / Making method
The creation of a simplified representation of a concept so assumptions can be explored before full implementation.
What is the cheapest believable form that can test the riskiest assumption?
Prototyping / Making method
The earliest intentionally rough version of an idea, built quickly to make the concept discussable and testable.
What is the cheapest believable form that can test the riskiest assumption?
Prototyping / Validation artifact
A realistic but non-functional advertisement or landing concept used to test whether a proposed value proposition earns attention or intent.
What is the cheapest believable form that can test the riskiest assumption?
Prototyping / Testing method
The evaluation of a prototype with representative participants to see how they interpret, use and respond to a proposed experience.
What is the cheapest believable form that can test the riskiest assumption?
Prototyping / Testing method
Usability or concept testing performed with an interactive Figma prototype that simulates key screens, states and flows.
What is the cheapest believable form that can test the riskiest assumption?
Prototyping / Feasibility artifact
A focused implementation that demonstrates whether a technically or operationally uncertain idea can work.
What is the cheapest believable form that can test the riskiest assumption?
Prototyping / Product strategy
The smallest coherent product that can deliver core value and generate meaningful learning from real use.
What is the cheapest believable form that can test the riskiest assumption?
Prototyping / Product strategy
A deliberately small release that includes enough emotional quality, trust and craft for early users to genuinely care about it.
What is the cheapest believable form that can test the riskiest assumption?
Prototyping / Product strategy
The smallest release that is coherent enough to position, sell and support as a market-facing offer.
What is the cheapest believable form that can test the riskiest assumption?
Prototyping / Planning artifact
A prioritised list of work required to create and learn from an MVP, including assumptions, experiments, product tasks and operational needs.
What is the cheapest believable form that can test the riskiest assumption?
Testing and evidence / Testing method
A method that measures where people click first when attempting a task, because the first choice strongly predicts eventual success.
What observable signal would change our confidence or decision?
Testing and evidence / Visualisation tool
Aggregated visualisations that show where attention, clicks, movement or scrolling concentrate across an interface.
What observable signal would change our confidence or decision?
Testing and evidence / Visualisation tool
A form of heatmap focused specifically on the distribution of clicks or taps across a page or prototype.
What observable signal would change our confidence or decision?
Testing and evidence / Validation practice
The process of testing whether a real audience has the problem, values the proposed outcome and is willing to adopt or pay for a solution.
What observable signal would change our confidence or decision?
Testing and evidence / Evidence system
The structured collection and interpretation of behavioural and performance data from products, services or campaigns.
What observable signal would change our confidence or decision?
Testing and evidence / Measurement tool
A deliberately small set of measures that indicate whether a product, service or experiment is creating the intended outcomes.
What observable signal would change our confidence or decision?
Business and strategy / Canvas
A one-page model of customer segments, value propositions, channels, relationships, revenue, resources, activities, partners and costs.
How is value created, delivered, sustained and measured?
Business and strategy / Canvas
A canvas that connects customer jobs, pains and gains to the products, pain relievers and gain creators in an offer.
How is value created, delivered, sustained and measured?
Business and strategy / Method
A broader process for researching, designing, testing and refining value propositions around customer jobs, pains and gains.
How is value created, delivered, sustained and measured?
Business and strategy / Mapping method
The visual mapping of how an organisation creates, delivers and captures value, including actors, flows, dependencies and incentives.
How is value created, delivered, sustained and measured?
Business and strategy / Comparison tool
A paired representation of how a business works now and how a proposed future model would change actors, flows, capabilities and economics.
How is value created, delivered, sustained and measured?
Business and strategy / Estimation method
A structured estimate of the scale of a market or opportunity using transparent boundaries, assumptions and scenarios.
How is value created, delivered, sustained and measured?
Workshop facilitation / Workshop artifact
Compact participant or stakeholder profiles that introduce background, experience, perspective and relevant context to a group.
How can more of the room contribute visible, usable knowledge?
Workshop facilitation / Workshop material
Small movable notes used to externalise one idea, observation or question at a time so groups can rearrange and discuss them.
How can more of the room contribute visible, usable knowledge?
Workshop facilitation / Facilitation format
Activities completed in smaller groups to increase participation, deepen discussion and compare multiple perspectives.
How can more of the room contribute visible, usable knowledge?
Workshop facilitation / Collaborative method
Co-creation that deliberately brings together design, product, engineering, operations, policy or other relevant functions.
How can more of the room contribute visible, usable knowledge?
Workshop facilitation / Communication method
The use of diagrams, sequences, sketches and visual narratives to make complex ideas easier to understand, remember and discuss.
How can more of the room contribute visible, usable knowledge?
Workshop facilitation / Visual technique
The use of consistent colours to distinguish actors, flows, assumptions, time states or levels of certainty in a business model.
How can more of the room contribute visible, usable knowledge?
Operating methods / Methodology
A collaborative approach that combines service design, lean experimentation and business thinking to create and validate services quickly.
What repeatable rhythm connects discovery, delivery and learning?
Operating methods / Methodology
A human-centred, systems-oriented approach to designing services across journeys, touchpoints, operations and organisations.
What repeatable rhythm connects discovery, delivery and learning?
Operating methods / Methodology
An approach built around explicit hypotheses, small experiments and build-measure-learn cycles that reduce uncertainty before scaling.
What repeatable rhythm connects discovery, delivery and learning?
Operating methods / Methodology
An iterative approach to software delivery that organises work into small increments, frequent feedback and adaptive planning.
What repeatable rhythm connects discovery, delivery and learning?
Operating methods / Practice
A continuous product practice that combines customer interviews, opportunity mapping, rapid assumption tests and collaborative decision-making.
What repeatable rhythm connects discovery, delivery and learning?
Operating methods / Goal system
Objectives and Key Results connect a qualitative direction with a small set of measurable outcomes that indicate progress.
What repeatable rhythm connects discovery, delivery and learning?
Optional Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity measure content performance and usability. They load only if you allow them. Form values, email addresses, and chat messages are never included in analytics events.
