How to use a thesis topic funnel to find the right flight level for your thesis?
In short: make different empty sketches of a funnel with a large top that then becomes a triangle with the narrow part down and divided in sections. At the topic comes your topic idea. Then add elements that make it more specific.
For a Master Thesis in Service Design, having a narrow topic helps a lot. But how can you go from a general idea that you are passionated about to a well scoped narrow topic? One of the technics I like to use is a sort of topic bingo. Another one is to draw several topic funnels. That's what I want to share here.
A topic funnel is a simple drawing of a funnel, going from large to narrow, with different steps. At the top you are putting your general idea. It can be something like: helping NGOs. Then below that you add elements that make the topic narrower. These can be elements like:
- Location: in my village
- Age: NGO lead by young leaders or NGO that are less than one year old
- Categories: working on the topic of homelessness
- Part of journey: onboarding new volunteers
- Stakeholders: users, donors, government, etc.
- etc.
There is no specific order, and these are just examples. The most important element is to realize that by adding elements you are narrowing your topic to something that is easier to research.
By creating several of these topic funnels you visualize what are the different ways you could scope down your topic. And then you can pick one funnel and choose how narrow you want to go.
Adding a bit of a formula where you translate it into what you want to figure out and how that will help you then makes it even more concrete.
This article was written on a refurbished Remarkable II tablet with a type folio cover. The illustration was made drawn by hand on the same tablet.
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