Synthesis is the thing that separates research from validation.
Validation:
- come up with 1 idea
- talk to users until you find one that agrees with it
Research:
- establish what you don't know
- talk to many users and gather many perspectives
- perform synthesis to make that data meaningful and actionable
Validation is incompatible with synthesis because you presume the meaning ("we were right") before you gather the data.
@PavelASamsonov research may validate a hypothesis (within reason), but only if it is given the opportunity to invalidate it instead.
@PavelASamsonov Exactly. You can say, "I will attempt to validate" or even (a little more questionable) "I expect to validate," but "I will validate" is actually the opposite of research (and in some respects the opposite of validation).
@sakhavi Oh, for sure - I like the way you phrase this actually.
One can't say "the team will validate XYZ." The team can only do research. The RESEARCH validates.