Example Reflection – Ethnographic Research

Challenge & Selection

In my work, I mostly cooperate with students. In our program at the University, we try to build  bridge between the business partners and the academia represented by students. Once we  identify real business needs, interests or problems that are truly unclear and require deeper  understanding, we build teams of students in collaboration with the company representative to  address these challenges. The teams consist of 4-6 students with different scientific and cultural  background. They are mostly international students and one member of the team is from the  company itself. We, me and my colleagues, facilitate the groupwork throughout an eight-week  process. As a new colleague, I do not yet have any experience I could use as an example. So I  decided to present a planned use of a tool that I consider as the most appropriate for the main  question of our starting project.

So, I present now a certain, partially fictitious case, that I think would require ethnographic  research tools in the ‘what is’ phase of the problem-solving process. There is a food company,  that makes dairy products and is facing a phenomenon of the emerging demand for vegan  products replacing milk. They have noticed this trend in foreign markets, but they do not see  the main drivers, consumer preferences and how this tendency will influence the local market  situation. They want to see better their future opportunities to timely prepare for innovations.

Application

I focus on the “What is?” phase in my reflection. I will sketch a design research plan based  mostly on ethnographic tools using projective techniques as well, because this case typically  needs the better understanding of consumer’s attitudes, motivations and unarticulated needs,  just as in the MeYouHealth case. So, the project question is how widespread the phenomenon  is, what are the reasons for this trend getting even stronger, and what opportunities the company  has to develop its business further?

The potential customers, people who consume either dairy products or a vegan substitute, are  very diverse, if possible, even more so than in the MeYouHealth story. However, the problem  and possible answers do not seem as complex as in that case.

The task is to explore the motivations that directs the choices towards vegan substitutes instead  of milk and other animal-based dairy products. Discover what the problems are, the possible  bad feelings for milk that are causing this tendency of altering preferences. Besides the so  obvious problems such as allergies or other food sensitivity issues, look for hidden motivations  trough in-depth personal interviews using projective elements. In addition to primary research  focus I plan to look at online forums, blogs, customer feedbacks on competitor’s websites,  observe the product location in various stores, where milk and substitute products are located  relative to each other, what are the packaging characteristics, etc.

And finally find correlations, patterns emerging from the gained insights by grouping them  through mind mapping, and trying to turn them into design criteria and future business  opportunities.

Insight and Approach

I am very curious about the insights. Do ethnic, cultural issues matter, or do fashion trends, or  other obvious explanatory factors such as allergies, or sensitivities dominate? How many strong  persona, character will emerge? And one can go on with the questions.

I find the wide range of Design Thinking activities very exciting. It is also a real challenge to  find the most appropriate tools for a certain problem, and I think the course was very useful to  highlight the opportunities of different cases, tools, series of activities. Thanks.

