Ethnographic Research
Never Outsource Your Eyes
Traditionally, executives have relied on a combination of quantitative data from surveys and qualitative insights from focus groups and interviews. Unfortunately, second hand observations make third rate results.
Over the last fifteen years we have worked with companies worldwide in the pursuit of breakthrough growth. Central to each and every successful strategy has been a shift from customers to non-customers as our reference point of value creation. Yet the tricky thing about non-customers is that we don't know them and they don't know us. The absence of data undermines our ability to make concrete business decisions - logic without data produces speculation. This is where ethnographic research comes in.
Ethnography focuses on understanding social phenomena to discover hidden and unmet needs. Traditional market researchers drive the conversation, asking specific and prescriptive questions. In our approach we simply observe and listen at a distance. Our goal is to see people’s behavior on their terms, not ours.
...to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought...
Ethnography offers a way to make sense out of complexity. It allows us to see beyond our preconceptions and immerse ourselves in the world of others. Most importantly, it allows us to see patterns of behavior in a real world context – patterns that we can understand both rationally and intuitively. Guided by questions instead of hypotheses, ethnography is indispensable in the process of creating breakthrough value propositions.
Time and time again we've found that breakthrough strategies are forged through a recombination of key competitive factors based on ethnographic research. This approach is driven by cross-functional teams from our client companies. It requires no special skills or insight, but relies on control and perspective “to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought."
“For each new project we develop custom ethnographic research programs with our clients. But there are always four general steps to our working process:”
1. Plan
Identify a game plan for observations and interactions with your customers and non-customers.
2. Watch
Observe buyers as they go about their daily lives — using a product, executing a process or performing tasks.
3. Ask
Delve deeper into customer and non-customer insights through their buyer experiences.
4. Learn
Identify patterns of customer and non-customer behavior to creatively recombine your new value proposition.
What’s Around Your Corner?
We all have a need for meaning in our lives. Ethnography provides rich insights into how we make sense of our world. People incorporate rituals into their lives. Some rituals are large and public, while others are small and private. It’s impossible to understand the meaning of these rituals divorced from seeing them first hand.
Can we help you gain insights from the outside?
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