Whenever you start a new project - either you just inherited this project from a previews designer who left the company and you joined the team or you are strategizing for a new product/project entirely, this is a good checklist to keep in mind:
Framing the problem
What problem is this project trying to solve and what are we trying to learn from it?
What is the scope of the project? What should and what shouldn't this project try to achieve?
What existing data or research do we have on this problem?
Has this project idea or similar been tested before by this team or other teams in the organization?
Understand what are the user needs
Who are your primary users? Are there any subgroups?
What are the user pain points in the current way people accomplish those tasks?
What are their current workarounds? Do they have any or is it a unique opportunity? If they do where does the workaround fall short?
What are the assumptions that you believe are true about the problem, the user needs and the solutions that people in your team might have? Have you thought of the riskiest assumptions?
Have you used qualitative and quantitative research methods to validate those assumptions?
What were the key findings?
Have you documented the findings about the assumptions to define patterns and themes?
Have you shared those results with the relevant stakeholders?