SIX FIELDWORK EXERCISES
Turn familiar steps
into defensible decisions.
Is the need supported? Does the page add value? Where is discovery blocked? Are the reports comparable? Each exercise handles one decision and retains checkable evidence.
Complete a small lesson first, then choose the exercise that matches your current question. No development and an unknown result are valid outcomes.
Choose an opportunity you can defend
Separate user needs, alternatives and economic assumptions before choosing research, a prototype or no development.
Build a page that earns its own URL
Decide what a reader can accomplish before choosing the title, structure and a separate URL.
Diagnose the stage that blocks discovery
Compare responses, robots, rendering, canonicals and engine records to locate the specific stage.
Read search reports without inventing a story
Align the property, dates, filters and aggregation before interpreting impressions, clicks and change.
Find a channel before asking it for traffic
Check audience fit, platform rules and publication conditions; preserve unknowns when access or data is missing.
Run a test that can end without a winner
Define the question, observation scope and stop conditions before starting. A test can end without a winner.