What is a Research Planning Document?
A Research Planning Document is a planning document that organizes the direction of your research before it begins. It defines why the research is needed, what problem it aims to solve or what decision it is meant to support, and what insights you hope to gain through the research.
It also systematically captures the research background, core hypotheses, key areas to confirm, expected outputs, timeline, and more — helping you establish an overall framework and direction for the research.
This lays the groundwork for research to go beyond simply running a survey and to connect directly with real business decision-making.
What is a Research Design Document?
A Research Design Document is an execution design document that specifies in concrete terms how the actual survey will be structured. It systematically outlines who the survey targets, how it will be conducted, and what question structure will be used — establishing an actionable research plan.
By designing in detail the respondent conditions suited to the research objectives, the sampling method, the target number of responses, the question flow, and the question structure, it helps you obtain more reliable results.
It also allows you to review the survey structure before the survey begins, reducing inefficiencies that may arise during the research process and enabling more consistent survey operations.
When Do You Need Research Planning and Design Documents?
✅ When you're at the initial planning stage and want to organize the direction of your research
"I'm not sure what objectives to set for the survey, or what questions to ask. 🤔"
Using a Research Planning Document, you can systematically organize the research background and objectives, and clarify what insights you want to gain through this research.
It also lets you capture expected outcomes and how they'll be used — helping you establish the priorities and direction of your research more clearly.
✅ When you want to systematically plan your target audience and methodology before designing the survey
"I need a concrete plan for who to survey and how. 🤔"
A Research Design Document lets you organize at a glance the target respondent conditions, sampling method, target number of responses, question flow, and question structure.
This helps you design a survey structure appropriate for your research objectives, and establishes consistent, actionable standards for running the actual survey.
✅ When you need to share and align the research plan with team members or stakeholders
"I want the whole team to start with the same understanding of the research objectives and design direction. 🤔"
Using Research Planning and Design Documents, you can document the research objectives, methods, timeline, and expected outcomes — enabling team members and stakeholders to work from the same reference point.
This reduces miscommunication that can occur during the research process and allows for more efficient project management.
How to Generate Research Planning and Design Documents
✅ Generate with Dataspace AI
step 1. Freely enter the objectives of the research you want to conduct, the target audience, the insights you want to uncover, and any challenges you're currently working through.
For example, you can describe your research objective in specific terms — such as a satisfaction survey for a new service, a brand awareness survey, or a user experience (UX) improvement survey.
step 2. Based on your input, Dataspace AI will ask follow-up questions to gather additional information and work with you to organize a research direction suited to your objectives.
step 3. Once generation is complete, you can view the Research Planning Document and Research Design Document separately.
The Research Planning Document includes the research background, objectives, key questions the research aims to answer, expected outputs, and more. The timeline and other suggestions help you plan next steps.
The Research Design Document provides a summary of the research objectives, sampling method and target number of responses, expected respondent composition, and questionnaire structure.
✅ Generate directly from a project
step 1. Click the [Project] menu and select the project in which you want to create the Research Planning Document or Research Design Document.
step 2. Click [+ New] in the upper right corner, then select the output you want to create.
step 3. Dataspace AI will guide you through a series of questions to confirm the research objectives and any necessary details. Once you answer the questions, the Research Planning Document or Research Design Document is automatically generated based on your input.
How to View Research Planning and Design Documents
step 1. Click the [Project] menu and select the project to which the Research Planning Document or Research Design Document was added.
step 2. In the Outputs area at the bottom of the screen, click [Research Planning Document] or [Research Design Document], then select the item you want to view.
💡 Tip: You can continue working with Dataspace AI on follow-up tasks based on the generated Research Planning and Design Documents. While maintaining the context of the outputs, you can make consecutive requests — such as refining survey questions, designing additional questions, or proceeding with the survey — enabling a more consistent research workflow.
Have you found this helpful?
Research Planning and Design Documents are not simply about creating documents — they are an important preparatory step for clarifying the purpose and direction of your research and obtaining better insights.
If you have any issues that weren't resolved after reading this guide, or if you have additional questions, please feel free to contact us at any time via the [Help Center icon] in the bottom right corner of the screen. We will do our best to support a smooth research experience.