What were your research objectives and hypothesis?

Objective 1: Discover existing research specifically dedicated to reasons why trained designers do not occupy high level positions in large corporations;

Objective 2: Establish via engagement with designers and executives, insights that might be impeding designers from assuming high level positions in large corporations;

Objective 3: Generate a number of hypothesis that could be researched and discussed via qualitative research, creating a framework for understanding reality.

We started off with 2 hypothesis, a) the reason why there aren’t more designers in the C-suite of F50 corporations is because there is no reason why they should be; b) there are a number of insights that justify the reality underlying the inquiry, and that those insights needed to be researched and validated.