I saw that article as a way to shock people off their saddles, especially those who think that the design process is as clear-cut and parceled neatly into stages — we all know that it’s not the case. Research is done at every touchpoint, and it’s not something that you assign only during the initial stages. I’ve seen people who did research as a way of ticking off that imaginary checklist — “Okay, I did research, check. And then I created a persona, got that” — and it’s really time to move on from that kind of thinking. It’s not necessarily as bad as we think it is, it’s part of the growing pains (I think) of anyone easing in to the field. It’s a novice mistake that we hope everyone outgrows and maybe shocking people into that realization may work. (Or so I hope, a bit of data on the readership and their reactions would substantiate this assumption.)

Doing research is a fluid and dynamic activity, and although generative research — exploring and meandering over a certain research landscape — does have it strengths it should be tempered by the awareness that we have to do something about the data that we’ve gathered. Besides, testing is still part of research after all.