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    "---\n",
    "title: \"Planning Investigations\"\n",
    "pagetitle: \"Planning Investigations\"\n",
    "description-meta: \"Start here\"\n",
    "description-title: \"Start here\"\n",
    "author: \"Leon Yin\"\n",
    "author-meta: \"Leon Yin\"\n",
    "date: \"08-13-2023\"\n",
    "date-modified: \"01-04-2025\"\n",
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    "Investigations can get complicated and you might not know where to start.\n",
    "\n",
    "In this section we'll introduce you to a planning checklist that we use for our own investigations.\n",
    "\n",
    "The checklist will help you choose an accountability angle, identify tangible harms, and form a testable hypothesis. \n",
    "\n",
    "Most importantly, the checklist covers questions you'll need to answer in order to develop a defensible methodology and a bullet-proof story. \n",
    "\n",
    "Your readers and future self will thank you for being forthright about your investigation's vulnerabilities. Moreover, you'll get a sense of the experiment's feasibility before you invest too much time into it.\n",
    "\n",
    "Although grim, the checklist can help expedite the decision to kill a story. Killing a story is a difficult process-- there's even a podcast on the topic called _[Killed Stories](https://killedstories.com/)_, but it's better to catch fatal flaws and irreconcilable uncertainties early. Trust that doing this efficiently is a gift to yourself and your colleagues. \n",
    "\n",
    "The questions in the checklist cover fundamental topics we'll discuss throughout the practitioner's guide such as:\n",
    "\n",
    "1. [Data collection](/build-your-own-datasets.html)<br>\n",
    "2. Quick viability tests<br>\n",
    "3. Classification<br>\n",
    "4. Limitations<br>\n",
    "5. Communicating findings for a general audience<br>\n",
    "\n",
    "You won't need to fill out a checklist for every story, but it is **super helpful for projects with original data collection and/or analysis**.\n",
    "\n",
    "Lastly, view the checklist is a starting point. Add and edit questions with your team to assure you can publish your findings with certainty.\n",
    "\n",
    "Good luck."
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