UX research plan template: copy it free, with a filled-in example
Research plan template
✓ agree the decision before you book a single session
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TL;DR
A research plan is a one or two-page document that says what decision a study informs, which questions it answers, how, with whom, and by when. Its job is to get stakeholders to agree on all of that before anyone recruits a participant, so the findings land with people who already signed up for them.
Copy the template below, fill in the decision section first, and keep the whole thing short enough that your stakeholders will actually read it.
The research plan template
Copy this into your doc tool of choice. The 12 sections cover what a stakeholder needs to approve a study and what a research ops team needs to run it.
# Research plan: [study name] Owner: [name] Last updated: [date] Stakeholders: [names and roles] Status: Draft / Approved / In field / Done ## 1. Background What prompted this study? What do we already know, and where did that come from? ## 2. Decision this research informs What will we decide or do differently based on the findings? Who makes that call, and by when? ## 3. Research questions - [Primary question] - [Supporting question] - [Supporting question] ## 4. Assumptions and hypotheses What do we currently believe? What would change our minds? ## 5. Method Method(s): [e.g. interviews, unmoderated usability test, survey] Why this method answers the questions above: Moderated or unmoderated: Remote or in person: ## 6. Participants Who: [criteria] Who to exclude: [criteria] How many: [number per segment] Recruited from: [own customers / panel / external] Screener: [link] Incentive: [amount and type] ## 7. Discussion guide or tasks [Link, or the main topics and tasks in order] ## 8. Timeline Plan approved: Recruiting: Sessions: Analysis: Readout: ## 9. Roles Moderator: Note-taker: Observers: ## 10. Consent and data Consent form: [link] Recording: [yes / no, and who can see it] Data retention: [how long, where stored] ## 11. Deliverables [Readout format, audience, where findings will live] ## 12. Budget Incentives: [total] Tools or recruitment fees: [total]
Prefer to work in Notion? Researcher Brad Orego's research plan template is free to download as a Notion page.
Get Brad's research plan template
How to fill in each section
Background
Two or three sentences on why this study exists now: a drop in a metric, a new initiative, a question that keeps coming up in planning. Link to what you already know, including past studies in your research repository, so nobody commissions research that was done last year.
Decision this research informs
Write this section first. Name the decision, who makes it, and the date it gets made. A study without a decision attached produces interesting findings that change nothing, and this section is where you find that out before spending the budget.
Research questions
One primary question and two to four supporting ones. These are what you want to learn, not what you will ask participants. “Why do trial teams stop before running their first study?” is a research question; “What did you do after signing up?” is an interview question that helps answer it.
Assumptions and hypotheses
Write down what the team currently believes. It makes the findings easier to read later, because you can say which beliefs held and which did not, and it surfaces disagreements between stakeholders while they are still cheap to resolve.
Method
Choose the method from the questions, not from habit. Questions about why and how point to interviews. Questions about whether people can complete a task point to a usability test. Questions about how many point to a survey. Our UX research methods guide covers which method fits which question.
Participants
Describe who you need in terms you can screen for: role, behavior, how recently they did the thing you are studying. List who to exclude as well, such as employees or people who took part in the last month. Then write the screener survey from these criteria, and note where participants will come from and what you will pay them.
Discussion guide or tasks
Link to the full guide, or list the main topics in order. Stakeholders do not need every question, but they should see the shape of the session. Our guide to writing a discussion guide walks through it.
Timeline, roles, consent and budget
Give a date for each phase and work backwards from the decision date. Name the moderator and note-taker, and invite stakeholders to observe at least one session. For consent, record which form participants sign, whether sessions are recorded, who can see the recordings, and how long you keep them. For budget, total the incentives and any recruitment fees.
These sections look like admin, and they are what a research ops team needs to run studies consistently. A plan that records consent and retention for every study is also your answer when someone in legal asks how participant data is handled.
Deliverables
Say what the output will be (a readout, a highlight reel, a written report), who it is for, and where it will live afterwards. Agreeing on the format up front avoids writing a 30-page report for an audience that wanted five slides.
A filled-in example
Here is the template completed for a hypothetical study at a B2B software company. The details are invented; the level of detail is what to aim for.
Section | Example |
|---|---|
| Background | ExampleTrial-to-paid conversion fell from 18% to 13% over two quarters. Product analytics show most non-converting trials never invite a teammate. |
| Decision | ExampleWhether to rebuild onboarding around team invites in Q1. Head of Product decides at quarterly planning on 14 November. |
| Research questions | ExampleWhy do trial teams stop before inviting a teammate? What does a team need to see before involving a colleague? What alternatives are they comparing us with? |
| Assumptions | ExampleProduct believes the invite step is hard to find. Sales believes trials stall waiting on a budget owner. |
| Method | ExampleEight 45-minute remote interviews, then an unmoderated usability test of the invite flow with 15 participants. |
| Participants | ExampleTrial admins from the last 60 days who did not invite a teammate. Exclude existing customers and anyone interviewed in the last 3 months. $75 gift card for interviews. |
| Timeline | ExamplePlan approved 17 Oct. Recruiting 20 to 24 Oct. Sessions 27 Oct to 4 Nov. Readout 11 Nov. |
| Deliverables | ExampleA 30-minute readout to the product leadership team, a highlight reel of the top 5 moments, and findings tagged in the repository. |
Tips for research plans that get approved
- Keep it to one or two pages. A plan stakeholders skim is better than a thorough one they never open.
- Share it before you recruit, not after. The point is agreement on the questions while they can still change.
- Make the decision section specific: a name, a date, a choice between options.
- Reuse the same template for every study, so people learn where to look and plans stay comparable across your team.
- Link the plan from the readout, so anyone reading the findings later can see what the study was and was not designed to answer.
From plan to study in Great Question
Most of this template maps directly onto a study in Great Question. You set the research goal, participation limit and participant segments, add a screener and incentives, attach a consent form, then recruit from your own customers or an external panel through research recruitment. Sessions, recordings and highlights land in the repository, so the deliverables section has somewhere to point.
If your team plans studies with AI, our guide to AI for research planning and recruiting shows how to draft a first version of this plan in a few minutes.
Frequently asked questions
What should be included in a UX research plan?
At minimum: background, the decision the research informs, research questions, method, participants and how you will recruit them, timeline, and deliverables. Research ops teams usually add roles, consent and data handling, and budget, so every study is documented the same way.
How long should a research plan be?
One or two pages for most studies. Link out to the discussion guide and screener rather than pasting them in, so the plan itself stays short enough for stakeholders to read and approve.
What is the difference between a research plan and a discussion guide?
The research plan says why you are doing the study, what you want to learn, with whom and by when. The discussion guide is the script for each session: the questions and tasks in order. The plan comes first, and the guide is written to answer the plan's research questions.
Who should approve a research plan?
The person who owns the decision the study informs, plus anyone whose team will act on the findings. Getting their agreement on the research questions before recruiting is what makes them trust the results afterwards.
