You have limited data and two research hypotheses. How do you decide which one to pursue?
When faced with limited data and two hypotheses, making a decision might seem daunting. Focus on practicality, potential impact, and feasibility. Here’s how to navigate this decision:
How do you decide between competing research hypotheses? Share your thoughts.
You have limited data and two research hypotheses. How do you decide which one to pursue?
When faced with limited data and two hypotheses, making a decision might seem daunting. Focus on practicality, potential impact, and feasibility. Here’s how to navigate this decision:
How do you decide between competing research hypotheses? Share your thoughts.
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I tend to follow the practice of “associative thinking”, which was mentioned in Harvard Business Review articles. It is a very useful tool for developing insightful scenarios that can justify the course of action. When data are limited, it is crucial to understand that the key resource here is time. Instead of aligning the available data with the most probable scenario, it is useful to filter the data to avoid biases toward pre-determined decisions. To avoid information bias, I think data quality is the main driver here. Also, the relevance of the data to the decision so that tactical data for tactical decisions and strategic data for strategic ones. Thus informed decision-making is not only about selecting one hypothesis over the other.
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