While shopping at the mall over the weekend, you noticed a group of young women asking shoppers if they could spare five minutes to answer some questions about their shopping experience at the mall. Given your marketing experience, you immediately recognize that these young women were conducting a marketing research project. Which step in the five$-$step marketing research process were they in$?$

Step $1-$ Locating and defining the problem

Step $2-$ Designing the research project

Step $3-$ Collecting data

Step $4-$ Interpreting research findings

Step $5-$ Reporting research findings