Ethnographic and Observational Research
In-depth understanding of your customers and their environment is one of the most important factors in creating meaningful innovation. Ethnographic research is the branch of anthropology that deals with the comparative study of contemporary cultures, acculturation and human ecology.
Ethnographic and Observational Research provides:
- Interaction in the customer's natural environment (home, office, retail, etc.) to gain a more realistic understanding of their attitudes, behaviors, motivations and needs
- Contextual understanding of how products/services are used and identifies direct and indirect factors that impact their use
- Key insights on underserved and unimagined consumer needs and desires
Ethnographic Research applications:
- Determine and understand inconsistencies in customer's behaviors and words
- Observe habitual and methodical processes not remembered by the customer
- Discover actionable, articulated and unarticulated needs, drivers and motivators
- Spur alignment, insight, innovation, creativity and confidence in cross-functional teams around customer need
- Determine the "real" problems and build hypothetical customer requirements for new products and services
Research Techniques
- Psyma Sight: immersion observation and recording of recruited customer site visits
- Psyma Sense: immersion observation, interaction, participation and recording of recruited customer site visits
- Psyma Spy Scout: undercover immersion observation of customers within a retail or public space
- Psyma Search & Self-Study: self-directed, self-reporting customer homework in the form of journals, logs, video, photography, blogs or collages
- Experience Exchange: debrief discussion immediately following site visits to determine key insights, learnings and connections to future product ideas
- Insight Encounter: convergence of data points to identify important themes and highlights from the research
- Data Map: diagram of relational themes and insights
- Hypothesis Development: target recommendations based on data from research, emerging industry trends, thought leader interviews and existing industry knowledge
- Multi-Media Research Report: executive summation and detailed findings brought to life through video, photography and vivid respondent quotations