Methods: survey, interview, or experiment

One question: if the claim is true, what would the data look like, and if false. If you cannot tell them apart, there is no design.

Task: Unsure which method answers the question.

[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
   - the question
   - who is accessible
   - time and budget
   - measurable variables
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.

[Go through each of these]
- classify the question: prevalence, mechanism, causation
- what each method can and cannot deliver
- a minimum viable design
- how the two strands connect in a mixed design

[Process]
1. State the question as something falsifiable
2. Name the observation that separates true from false
3. Check whether sample, measurement and control can support it
4. List three things that could overturn it
5. State the scope

[Output]
Question, criterion, method, counter-evidence, scope.

[Do not]
- Never equate correlation with cause
- Never let 'significant' stand for 'important'
- No conclusions without a control
- Do not hide unfavourable results