With the fast-moving pace of sequencing technology and the plethora of options available to you, it can be difficult to know which is the optimal platform for your biological question and therefore how to design your experiment for maximum return from your samples. Once you’ve got the data, how do you know if what you’ve got is good enough quality? We’ll take you through the latest developments in sequencing technology, identify common challenges in producing good RNA for sequencing, help you to understand what you can expect from your data and what you can do with it.