Before starting a Design Research, it could be a good practice to have a Research plan that includes 'What activities you plan to conduct for your research. For example - If you want to conduct a 'Store Audits' then mention which stores you want to visit as part of your research and why. Again if you want to interview a target audience then specify in your Research plan which audience you want to interview. 

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This practice helps you to have everything on one page. Your research can be tied to these in a separate document. If in the process you feel you are missing out on a certain aspect in your research add it as a branch and go from there. 

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I applied this process when I was developing 'A New range of Office Travel Accessories'.