If you do desk research as a group, it is important to agree a process and framework for making a note of, organising and tagging your findings before you start. This will help when you come to analyse your findings, or if you need to go back to the source to check something later.

You will need to choose somewhere to put your notes and findings. You can set up a physical research wall or use a digital tool like Mural or Miro (virtual whiteboards), or Excel (a spreadsheet app that you can use as a database tool).

See our guidelines on running accessible sessions in the introduction for tips on making sure nobody is excluded.

Start by deciding on your research question or aim. This should usually be an open question that may have subthemes within it. For example, ‘What are the current and future skills the aviation industry needs, and how are they being taught and learned?’

Especially if you are doing desk research as a group, you might want to divide the work up by theme, to create a bunch of different research streams. In the aviation industry skills example above, you could divide the work into ‘Local training and education’, ‘Government skills policy’, and ‘Aviation industry insights’.

Create a table (for example in Excel) or carve out some spaces (on a physical or virtual whiteboard like Mural) to put different types of information. Choose headings for the spaces that match the types of information you want to capture, like ‘challenges’, ‘opportunities’, ‘skills’, ‘context’.

Now you’re ready to start your research. Copy or summarise any useful information you find and slot it into your table or space.

Consider codifying your findings using a colour code or tags that will help you quickly spot patterns or find specific info.

If you are using colour coding, make sure you choose colours that everyone on your team can tell apart even if they are colourblind. It is a good idea to use a code that doesn’t depend only on colour, but uses texture or text as well.

Make sure your notes would make sense to someone who has less knowledge of the project than you. Avoid acronyms or industry jargon.

Use square brackets to add your own notes that complement a quote. Add page references including page numbers so you can go back to the source if you need to.

By the end of this process, you will have information from lots of sources in one place. Anyone on your team should be able to quickly and easily find the information that is relevant to them.

Next, you will do a thematic analysis to group findings from across your various sources. This will help you to process and summarise what you have learned. It will also add another layer of scrutiny that gives your findings more credibility and validity.