How to prevent confirmation bias

Here are a few ways you can prevent confirmation bias from creeping into your work:

• Gather empirical data from your target audience early in the design process about their preferences, behaviors, needs, and challenges. This helps reduce bias as less time, resources, and emotional investment are involved, leading to a more objective analysis.
• When collecting user feedback, avoid leading questions that could suggest an answer. Reflect on each question to ensure it doesn't guide the participant toward a specific response.
• Employ multiple data sources such as user testing, analytics, and customer feedback. This approach helps validate findings across different platforms and reduces the chance of twisting data to fit a hypothesis.
• Have someone not involved in the project review your research plans and findings. A fresh perspective can help spot biases and provide neutral insights.^[1]