Descriptions of methodology and the content of research that treats them as separate endeavours can hide the work done in how researchers come to make sense of and understand what they are doing together. Dan Schendel, the joint founder of Strategic Management Review, expressed his concern thus: ‘The separation of content and method is artificial, and that processes must be studied alongside or coincidentally with content (Schendel, 1992).’ This can be uncomfortable yet building more sustainable research requires us to do just that, to look at our own practice, to be aware that we are both the subjects and objects of our own work (Empson, 2012) and how we shift our approaches in the face of experience and carry on. These are insights that can both shine a light on our methods as well as the content of our research.