I noticed a big connection between design work and academic research I had never thought of before.

When it comes to design, most often it's about getting your ideas out and then picking and choosing the best of them. Then you fiddle with these designs to see if there isn't a better way at going about things. This so-called fiddling shows that you have considered other ideas, and that you have truly exhausted your options.

The same thing holds true when doing (designing) a research project. You first think of a solution for a certain problem, or a means to test certain conditions, and then you also add other ideas and why you chose against them.