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You’ve Chosen Anthropology, Now What?

Creating Value In The Research Plan

Gavin Johnston

Chief Anthropologist, Two West, Inc.

gavinj@twowest.com

816.581.8202

www.twowest.com

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•Make sure the anthropologist understands the business and the product. •Clearly define the need for the research.•Establish the top-priority issues and business needs.

WHY ETHNOGRAPHY?Business Objectives

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Ethnographic Objectives

Defining ethnographic objectives helps distinguish methodology from outcomes.

• Define:• How questions are developed.• Behavioral patterns that influence business needs.

• Lay the groundwork for how data is collected and organized.• The Gods Must Be Crazy.

WHY ETHNOGRAPHY?

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Understand.• What the user or customer does. • Why they believe what they believe.• How your product fits into a larger pattern of life.

Explore.• Environment.• Context.

Analyze.• How do interactions influence patterns of use?• Where improvements can and cannot be made?

Remember Why You Are There

WHY ETHNOGRAPHY?

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PLANNING: BEFORE FIELDWORKPut The User At The Heart Of The Solution

Think through situations where your product will be used.• What other activities are people engaged with when they use your product? • What are all the contexts in which an activity is done?• Who are all the people involved?

These points will determine where, when, and how the work will be conducted.

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PLANNING: Put the user at the heart of the solution•Beer and culture.

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Define The Problem

The problem we see may not be the problem at all and we need to think about the possibilities before we enter the field.

Pain points:• What issues are we trying to better understand?

Rethink the problem:• Frequently what we see as the problem is in fact a facet of something else.• Recall the eBook example.

PLANNING: BEFORE FIELDWORK

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PLANNINGEstablish Outcomes

Who will see the work?• The CEO, a designer, a brand manager?

How will it be used?• Business strategy and development?• Product design?• Marketing and brand development?

Are you building or informing?

What role will the anthropologist have long-term?

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PLANNINGSample

Samples are constructed differently in ethnography than for focusgroups or surveys.

The individual is rarely the unit of analysis.• The number of individual participants involved depends on the

relevant diversity of the target population.• A skilled ethnographer may use multiple methods in the recruiting

process and not rely only on professional recruiters.

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Sampling people and contexts.

Finding the range of contexts where “X” happens.

What is the unit of analysis?

How many is enough?• Remembering that the goal is not means based statistical testing.• Statistical vs. Practical.

PLANNINGSample

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Preparing

ENTERING THE FIELD

The field guide.• Key questions and observational points.• Don’t just think about the questions you will ask, but also include opportunities

for observation, mapping, and participation.

Everything is data.• 24/7 data collection.• Know how far you’re willing to go.

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ENTERING THE FIELD: Preparing•Hospitals, war zones, and claustrophobia.

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Preparing

Tools and equipment.• Video.• Audio.

Fieldnotes.• Codes.• When to write them.• Late nights and typing.

Research teams.• Roles of individuals.• Know why you want to be in the field.

ENTERING THE FIELD

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Fieldwork

Shut up and listen.• Users may give “wrong” answers, but remember you are there to learn,

not educate or judge.• Use open-ended questions.• Sit quietly and let the participant fill the space.

Take it all in.• Map the environment.• Sketch.• Smell, taste, sounds, emotions.• Remember that YOU are the instrument of data collection, not the camcorder.

ENTERING THE FIELD

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Participate.• Be willing to look foolish.• Read social and cultural cues.

Talk to strangers.• Be conversational.• Be interested.• Put away the clipboard.• Ask for introductions.

ENTERING THE FIELD

Fieldwork

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ENTERING THE FIELD: Fieldwork•Drinking in Hoboken and installing furnaces.

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Finishing Up: Get Organized

LEAVING THE FIELD

Notes.• Getting physical.• Key words and phrases.• Dependent and independent variables.• Clustering.• Interactional mapping.• Material culture.

Video.• Time stamping.• Logging elements.• Transcription and notation.

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LEAVING THE FIELD

Finishing Up: Get Organized

Models of analysis.

Collaboration.• The team.• The client.• Cross-disciplinary analysis.

Searching for solutions.

Recommendations and action plans.

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WRAP UPWhat, so what, now what?• Define what is interesting and what is actionable.• Insights mean nothing unless they find application.

What if?• More important than “what now” is the question “what if.”• Risk, change and leadership.

Gavin JohnstonChief Anthropologist, Two West, Inc.Gavinj@twowest.com816.581.8202www.twowest.com