Discovery Operations Guide

Planning Part 1

Understanding Site Types

Identifying site types not only allows you and the team to make a solid plan for your research, it also contributes to your understanding of your project as a whole by putting work into context. If you make this plan and realize you’ve taken on too much, do not hesitate to revisit your Problem Frame and narrow it further.

If you are traveling to many sites, what does that mean for your project? Do you need to visit all these sites in order to have a well-rounded, throughly researched project, or could you edit down your sites a bit and keep the project tighter and more precise? You must be honest with yourself and your goals when evaluating your site type in light of the project needs. Visiting the right kind and number of sites means strong, focused, yet in-depth work; visiting too few or too many sites can either limit you and the team or spread you too thin.

On the other hand, if you make this plan and realize your project is really quite small, question why that is and if the Problem Frame needs to be expanded. Are you working inside a single institution? If so, think about what that means for this stage of your project; do you think you might need to investigate other locations in order to round out your research work, or does the single location fulfill the needs of the project.

General Site Types

Centralized, Small

A small site type means you’ll conduct all your research within the a single site, like a medical center or administrative building. Transit times between interview locations should be manageable, as they are all within a single or a few closely located buildings. One team of 2-3 people will suffice for research at a centralized site.

Multi-Campus

Many sites may be large and campus-like. Transit times between interview locations need to be planned and can take 30-45 minutes walking, or driving is necessary and parking may be an issue. For this size site visit, consider a site team size of 4+ people to allow for 2 teams of 2-3 people to conduct simultaneous research.

Decentralized

This type of site is actually a collection of unrelated locations. Transit times between interview locations need to be carefully planned and can take over an hour, or even a few hours, considering drive time and parking. For this site type, consider a site team 4+ people to allow for 2 teams of 2-3 people to conduct simultaneous research.