This case study highlights the transformative power of strategic ethnography in shaping frameworks that gain...
Tag: product development
Friction in Equity Work for Product Development: Getting Unstuck
As part of an internal UX team, researchers at a multinational tech corporation were tasked with improving the...
Creating Resilient Research Findings: Using Ethnographic Methods to Combat Research Amnesia
Product teams, including those I work with, struggle to connect the challenges observed in prior research to issues that endure in the field and market space. As a shortcut for efficiency gains, product partners...
Beyond Representation: Using Infrastructure Studies to Reframe Ethnographic Agendas and Outcomes
The ethos and methods of participatory research have been widely embraced as a powerful approach to address systemic inequity in the design of technology. While there have been many gains and developments that...
Making Tech More Accessible: An Ethnographic Lens on Ability and Disability
EPIC Members Richard Beckwith and Susan Faulkner (Intel) have assembled a panel of luminaries in accessible tech research, design, and engineering for our January 26 event, Seeing Ability: Research and Development for Making Tech More Accessible. In anticipation, we asked them a few questions...
User Research & Engineering: Better Together During Discovery
When we think about the “Discovery” phase in the product development process, we often picture product owners, design, and researchers working to understand a problem area, the needs of end users in that area, and testing product ideas that might deliver on those needs. When no product exists yet,...
Accelerating User Research: How We Structure Insights for Speed At Spotify
(This article is also available in Chinese) Instead of asking how we can further speed up research itself, the question becomes how we can better integrate research into the product development practice and speed up organizations’ ability to learn and iterate overall. For many years, insights was...
When Customer Insights Meet Business Constraints: Building a Go-to-Market Strategy for a Smart Home Offering in a Regulated Space
Case Study—This case draws on work in the energy efficiency industry where many utilities rely on data-driven insights and decision-making to encourage consumers to adopt energy-saving products and behaviors. In this highly regulated industry, utility staff must show value through big data, and...
Ethnographic Tools: From Insight to Intervention
As a social researcher rooted in the traditions of participatory innovation, I set out to take a design anthropological approach to study the early unfocused phases of organisational innovation processes, and explore ways of both challenging and supporting these. With an interest in understanding...
Meaningful Innovation: Ethnographic Potential in the Startup and Venture Capital Spheres
The aim of this paper is to explore the potential for ethnographic approaches in technology startups and the venture capital firms that support and control them. The current practices and model of innovation aim for “disruptive innovation,” but most efforts fall short, prioritizing mass diffusion...