Note: This is Part 27 of the Ruminations for Aspiring Designers series.
[I]n theory there is no difference between theory and practice, while in practice there is.
Source
In practice, research doesn’t really follow a linear process.
It’s a lot more like a state machine, where we constantly switch between different states even when the research activities remain the same.
In practice, there’ll never be ideal conditions that allow us to do it by the book.
Instead, we do it by the rule of the reality jungle. Like a scavenger, we go back and forth, up and down in design research. We get what we can get and save who we can save.
While most important of all, we are constantly opportunistic, taking any chance to listen, analyze, synthesize, ideate or test. Sometimes, we’ve got everything everywhere all at once.
That doesn’t mean we don’t have a process for research. Process is in the mind, not on paper.
Research effort is often driven by conditions for making progress. We don’t ask, are we doing research by the book? Instead we ask, do we have enough information to move forward – to make an important decision, to improve the product, to determine what’s next.
In practice, “by the book” means increasing the probability of success or higher confidence level of it.
How do you frame your design research?
How do you practice it?
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Noah Fang 
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