Refining Ideas Phase

This is a time for refining your thoughts and ideas, for convergent thinking to close down your ideas and decide on your research focus. It is a great opportunity to involve stakeholders in decision making and maximise your chances of creating impactful work.

Map out or list all of the ideas that you have discussed in the last stage, try to avoid rejecting ideas because you are not keen on them!
Share these ideas as widely as possible, ensure that you share with a wide range of stakeholders (see Stakeholder Mapping)
Gather input on the most appropriate ones to address (you could do this virtually and crowdsource the decision, or with a small group of key stakeholders)
Allow people to vote, and take on board their opinions. Never consult people if you intend to ignore their input!

Barriers

Departmental or organisational agendas can limit the autonomy that you have to set the agenda, be clear on your parameters before engaging people.

Tokenistic involvement of stakeholders at any stage (particularly this one) will put people off and limit your capacity to gather valuable input throughout your research. Genuine involvement at this stage will require time investment, plan for that.

Enablers

Involving stakeholders in refining the focus of your research will create genuine buy-in and ownership of your outputs from the very beginning.

Allow time and consider the best way to involve people meaningfully. Identify pre-existing events, opportunities or networks that you can use to help refine your ideas.

Involving people at this stage may make it easier to gain access to research sites later in the process, especially if people have had a say in deciding that the research is important.

Useful Impact Methods to Integrate at this Stage

Useful Impact Management Methods to Integrate at this Stage