A Project is the highest-level research container in Lookback.
It represents what you are trying to understand, not how you are testing it at a particular moment.
Projects are designed to persist over time. They hold together research intent, evidence, stakeholder perspective, and learning across methods and iterations.
A Project represents a shared research focus
In Lookback, a Project typically maps to something stable, such as:
a product or product area
a feature or workflow
a strategic initiative
a recurring research question
A Project is not a single study or test. Instead, it represents a shared area of inquiry that multiple people care about over time.
This includes not only researchers, but also stakeholders.
Projects are where stakeholder goals live
Each Project contains stakeholder goals.
Stakeholder goals capture what different stakeholders are interested in learning, in their own words. They serve three critical purposes:
They make stakeholder interests explicit
Instead of relying on memory, meetings, or documents, stakeholder goals provide a durable record of what matters to different people.They guide researchers during sessions
Knowing what stakeholders care about helps researchers recognize relevant moments as they happen.They provide context to Lookback’s AI
Stakeholder goals give Eureka the intent it needs to surface automated findings when appropriate.
This makes Projects the place where human intent and AI assistance meet.
Stakeholder interviews are part of the Project context
Lookback supports stakeholder interviews as a way to capture perspective before or alongside participant research.
Stakeholder interviews:
live within the Project
generate sessions just like participant research
contribute context, assumptions, and hypotheses
They do not replace participant research. Instead, they help clarify:
what stakeholders believe
what decisions are pending
what success would look like from different perspectives
This ensures that participant research is grounded in real organizational context, without letting stakeholder assumptions distort sessions.
Why Projects are designed to persist
Qualitative understanding rarely emerges from a single study. It develops through:
repeated exposure to users
comparison across time
iteration on hypotheses
accumulation of evidence
By keeping Projects persistent, Lookback allows learning to compound rather than fragment.
Stakeholder goals, interviews, sessions, and findings remain connected as understanding evolves.
All findings live at the Project level
In Lookback, findings belong to Projects, not to individual Rounds.
This allows:
insights to connect across methods and iterations
stakeholder interests to remain visible over time
AI-assisted discovery to work across the full body of evidence
Projects become the place where patterns emerge - not just where studies are stored.
Projects provide continuity across change
Within a Project, many things can change:
research methods
prototypes or designs
participant segments
stakeholder priorities
The Project remains constant.
It becomes the stable frame that holds evolving understanding together, even as inputs shift.
What Projects are not
To avoid confusion:
A Project is not a single usability test
A Project is not a meeting series
A Project is not a folder for unrelated studies
Projects work best when they are scoped to a coherent area of inquiry and allowed to evolve.
How Projects relate to Rounds and Sessions
Within a Project:
Rounds describe how you are learning at a given moment
Sessions capture individual interactions - with participants or stakeholders
Projects anchor these activities in shared intent and accumulated evidence.
What to explore next
To continue building your mental model:
Learn what a Round represents and why findings are not separated by Round
Understand how Sessions capture raw evidence
Explore how stakeholder roles and goals shape research without interfering with sessions