When the Framework Starts to Feel Like a Cage

We pick up a lot of habits in research.

Ways of working. Assumptions. Shortcuts. Some are useful. Some just hang around because no one stops to ask if they still make sense.

Over time, I’ve found myself unlearning things. Not in some grand, dramatic way. Just bit by bit. A moment here, a project there. Realising something I’d always believed didn’t actually hold up.

Here are a few that didn’t make it with me.

“DIY is risky”

“*It’s not the plan B. It’s the plan that actually happened.*“

I used to think if research wasn’t coming from an agency, it couldn’t be trusted. That it needed a big team, a long timeline, and a long paper trail.

Then I went client-side and ran my own studies. Quick. Scrappy. Spot on.

DIY isn’t the risk. Sitting still and waiting for budget is.

“Qual is only colour”

*“This isn’t decoration. It’s direction.”*

This one ran deep. Quotes were nice to have. Something to soften the stats. Something to make a slide pop.

Then I saw qual change the direction. Not support it. Change it.

It didn’t decorate the data. It rewrote the brief.

“The method matters more than the question”

*“It doesn’t matter how sharp the tools are if you’re building the wrong thing.”*

I used to focus hard on getting the method right. Getting the sample size right. The grid. The logic. All of it.

Now I care more about the question itself. Is it the right one? Is it sharp enough to cut through the noise?

If the question’s weak, the rest doesn’t matter.

“Storytelling happens at the end”

*“If you leave the story until the end, you’ve already lost it.”*

There was a time I thought the story came last. After the numbers. After the fieldwork. In the debrief.

Now I start with the story. Not the plot or the spin. The direction.

What are we actually trying to uncover? What needs to change?

Leave the story till the end and the work will wander. Build it in from the start and it hits harder.

“We’re here to be objective”

This one stuck around the longest. That research had to be neutral. That my job was to present what people said and step back.

But research is never neutral. Every decision, what we ask, how we ask it, who we ask, shapes the outcome.

Pretending otherwise isn’t noble. It’s lazy.

Still unlearning

*“The work’s never finished. Neither is the unlearning.”*

I’m not done. There’s more to question. That’s the point.

We talk a lot about insight in this industry. But maybe the best insight starts with ourselves. Spotting the things we’ve accepted for too long without asking why.

When the framework becomes a cage, don’t sit quietly. Kick.