class 4 case

Notebook: Marketing II
Created: 02-10-2021 10:51 Updated: 03-10-2021 07:44
Author: asd

Qualitative Customer Research

>Qualitative Research Methods in Human-Centered Design

>Design thinking :
-- thought framework that promotes divergent thinking,
customer centricity and empathy building
-- step-by-step approach to the creation of innovative
products or services

>consists of five sequential phases :

1> goal is to empathize with the customer
2> Job has to be defined,
3>brings up potential ideas.
4>solutions - transformed into prototypes.
5>prototyped solutions are tested.

>How to Start the Research Process

>open research: that is, the holistic collection of data

Whom to Address to Build Empathy :

>Giff Constable
1. the typical customer you envision if you get traction with your
idea
2. your early adopters,4 i.e.,
the people who will take a chance on your product before anyone
else
3. critical partners for distribution, fulfillment, or other parts of
your business

Qualitative Methods :
>Qualitative research : (done with only a few participants at the same
time)
-- helps to gain insights into these initial questions
-- concerned with exploration and discovery
of your potential target group
-- start with researching the people you think could be potential
customers.
-- Insights and empathy emerge from these first encounters and guide
the
research .
-- steer the research in the subsequent phase,
how to change the questions or whom to talk to next

>Qualitative research :
>Behavioral and Attitudinal Studies :
>Behavioral :
-- shed light on what people do,
-- how they use a product or service or
-- how they create solutions for themselves
 >attitudinal studies :
-- focus on what people say,
-- what their sentiment is towards something
and
-- what choices they have made in the past.
-- can best be researched by conducting interviews

** Both types of studies stem from ethnographic research.

>Ethnography is a research method : means "description of people"
-- it study the subjects through the behavioral and attitudinal lens.

Behavioral Studies: Ethnographic Observations:

>open research : help formulate a research question.

>best way to understand peoples' needs is through observation

and seeing the world through their eyes.
Your observation can be guided by the following
questions:
• Whom do I see?
• What are people doing? What are they trying to accomplish?
• What is the social setting like?
Are people alone or in groups?
Are they interacting with each other?
• Is the person going through difficulty fulfilling
the task or activity I am observing?
Can I identify any pain points?
• Is the person delighted by something?
Can I identify any wow-effects?

After each observation, write field notes on what you experienced.

notes consist of several parts.
>First, write down the words and phrases you heard on the field site.
>Second, describe what happened on the site
>Third comes the analysis of what you learned about
your research question or other related points.
>Fourth, you reflect about what you thought,
felt and learned when making observations.
>you note down which new questions emerged
or which future actions can be derived from this observation

Attitudinal Studies: Ethnographic Interviews :

>help to gain a deeper understanding of why people do
things the way they do them.
>allows you to gain greater insights about attitudes
and motivations

>Exploring the boundaries of a target group helps :

-- refine it successively

Many experienced interviewers give advice on what to pay attention to

The summary of his points is as follows:
• Interviews should be face to face; one person at a time.
• Listen; do not talk more than necessary.
• Practice active listening (summarize, parrot back or misrepresent
intentionally).
• Note taker or observer takes notes of actual quotes; don't
interpret them yet.
• Start with a warm-up.
• Avoid confirmation bias (do not try to confirm your assumptions).
• Get interviewees to tell a story or give real-life examples of
behavior and usage.
• Look for solution hacks.
• Ask why and keep asking why until you can drill down to the root
causes

Synthesizing Research Data With Design Thinking Tools :

>"Person as" :
-- tool to humanize the target group.
Person as are hypothetical or fictitious consumers
 with human characteristics

> generic target groups :

-- Characterized by demographics and averages, personas make it
easier
to relate to and know who you are designing for
** beware of creating personas that combine the
average traits of everyone and end up representing no one

>extrapolating motivations and lifestyles :

-- how today's personas might develop in the future

>A day in the life :

-- sheds light on the subject's day-to-day routine
-- may yield insights about the typical activities
in a person's everyday life

>The "empathy map" :

-- tool that visualizes what the user says, thinks, does and feels.
-- avoids interpretation biases

>Mapping out the "customer journey" :

-- identify the different phases, channels and touchpoints
the customer goes through before, during and after using or
buying
an offering.

Qualitative Customer Research

Why Do We Need Customer Research?

Companies think they know their customers and their needs, as well as the contexts
in which those needs arise, but in fact they have never holistically analyzed them or
reanalyzed
them in the light of major environmental changes

many factors that shape customer expectations towards offerings. One such factor is
the availability of technology and technological literacy.

> Digital technologies  allow companies to create very customized and interconnected
offerings.
--  leads to the development of highly individualized expectations about customers'
particular journeys and the jobs to be done.

to create offerings that are successful in the market, customers' needs, contexts and
expectations cannot be assumed; they must be thoroughly researched and understood.
Qualitative research methods allow us to reveal the contexts and expectations in ways that
traditional quantitative methods do not.
Qualitative Research Methods in Human-Centered Design

Design thinking is
a thought framework that promotes divergent thinking, customer centricity and empathy
building. Moreover, it is a methodological step-by-step approach to the creation of innovative
products or services that provide real value to potential customers.

consists of five sequential phases :

1> goal is to empathize

with the customer, determine his or her jobs to be done and identify the specific needs that
arise in different contexts.

2> Second, the problem that should be solved has to be defined, based
on the customer's job-to-be-done perspective

3>Third, ideating for solutions brings up potential

ideas. 
4>Fourth, the solutions are transformed into prototypes. 
5>Finally, the prototyped solutions
are tested.

How to Start the Research Process

starts with open research: that is, the holistic collection of data
and the synthesis of observations carried out with a mindset of "all is data". The goal is to get
a
feel for the context of the potential customers, do trend research, collect statistical data and
gather input about competitors or the market.

Once you have gathered these initial insights about your potential
customers and solution field, the way is paved for more in-depth and hands-on qualitative
research.

Whom to Address to Build Empathy

According to the author of Talking to Humans, Giff Constable, the best way to begin
qualitative
research is to first have an idea whom to talk to and observe. He recommends people from
these
three categories of groups:
1. the typical customer you envision if you get traction with your idea
2. your early adopters,4 i.e., the people who will take a chance on your product before
anyone else
3. critical partners for distribution, fulfillment, or other parts of your business
Qualitative Methods

Qualitative methods are used when you begin to design an offering under uncertainty and
many
questions are open. Who is your target group?

Qualitative research
helps to gain insights into these initial questions before coming up with any solution ideas.
This
phase is structured but unpredictable. It is important to take up a curious beginner's mindset
that focuses on details and nuances. At this stage it is not about proving something to be
either
right or wrong but rather engaging in exploration and discovery of your potential target
group
and its contexts.

You start with researching the people you think could be potential customers.
Insights and empathy emerge from these first encounters and guide the following research.
New
insights have a great impact on where to steer the research in the subsequent phase, e.g.,
how
to change the questions or whom to talk to next. Qualitative research is done with only a few
participants at the same time

You start with researching the people you think could be potential customers.
Insights and empathy emerge from these first encounters and guide the following research.
New
insights have a great impact on where to steer the research in the subsequent phase, e.g.,
how
to change the questions or whom to talk to next. Qualitative research is done with only a few
participants at the same time

sampling matters - that is, deciding whom you choose to  interact with and where to collect
the next data slices.

It is important to encounter the

participants in their own contexts or the potential product-related contexts.

Behavioral and Attitudinal Studies

Qualitative research can be differentiated into behavioral and attitudinal studies. Behavioral
studies shed light on what people do, how they use a product or service or how they create
solutions for themselves if something is not working according to their needs. Observational
field studies are the best methods to identify behaviors and should be done first.

Attitudinal studies focus on what people say, what their sentiment is towards something and
what choices
they have made in the past.
> Attitudes can best be researched by conducting interviews

Both types of studies stem from ethnographic research. Ethnography is a research method
that
literally means "description of people". It originated in the social sciences in the times of
colonialism, when academics ventured out to observe and live with people in their contexts
and
environments. Its goal is to thoroughly understand behaviors,

It
serves to study the subjects through the behavioral and attitudinal lens. The use of
ethnographic
research has spread to many other fields: i.e., organizational and business studies like
marketing,
leadership and product design. Design ethnography aims at understanding the future users of
a
design and is the research field that will be focused on in this technical note

Behavioral Studies: Ethnographic Observations

Coming back to the sequential research design process, you begin with the open research.
help  formulate a research question.

The research
question and the idea of who your target customer might be determines the choice of your
first
field site for your research.

It is important to choose a site that is accessible for you to observe

your subjects.
Once you are in the field, you should bear in mind that the best way to understand peoples'
needs is through observation and seeing the world through their eyes. As a researcher you
stay
in the background and observe your subjects. Your observation can be guided by the
following
questions:
• Whom do I see?
• What are people doing? What are they trying to accomplish?
• What is the social setting like? Are people alone or in groups? Are they interacting with
each other?
• Is the person going through difficulty fulfilling the task or activity I am observing? Can I
identify any pain points?
• Is the person delighted by something? Can I identify any wow-effects?

After each observation, write field notes on what you experienced. Effective field notes consist
of several parts. First, write down the words and phrases you heard on the field site. Second,
describe what happened on the site (who, what, where, when, how). Third comes the analysis
of what you learned about your research question or other related points. Fourth, you reflect
about what you thought, felt and learned when making observations. Finally, you note down
which new questions emerged or which future actions can be derived from this observation.6

As a result of the observation7 and analyzing field notes, you gain a data foundation that
allows
you to develop informed assumptions and insights, which potentially change or specify your
initial research question. When analyzing the data pay attention to patterns, connections,
similarities or contrasting points. The overall goal of observation is to learn in the process and
refine your idea of the target group and their needs, iteration by iteration. Most likely after
the
observation rounds, many new questions will emerge

Attitudinal Studies: Ethnographic Interviews :

Interviews help to gain a deeper understanding of why people do things the way they do
them.
Observations and assumptions can be clarified and supplemented in the interview phase. This
allows you to gain greater insights about attitudes and motivations that have remained
uncertain. In ethnographic research, analysis and interpretation take place throughout the
process

Conducting interviews requires several steps of preparation. First, the interviewees need to be
sampled and invited. In order to do this, the target group needs to be refined again. It is also
advisable to invite extreme users who either do not use the observed offering or activity at all
or, on the contrary, use it very extensively.

Exploring the boundaries of a

target group helps to refine it successively. Second, you need to prepare the interview. Think
about the questions that emerged from the observations, which help to support your refined
research question. Make a list of questions and formulate them in an open-ended format.
Ensure that at least one observer is joining the interview to take notes. Choose a room or
setting
that is comfortable for the interviewee and stay in the interviewee's context if possible. Third,
in conducting the interview many points need to be considered. Many experienced
interviewers
give advice on what to pay attention to

The summary of his points is as follows:

• Interviews should be face to face; one person at a time.
• Listen; do not talk more than necessary.
• Practice active listening (summarize, parrot back or misrepresent intentionally).
• Note taker or observer takes notes of actual quotes; don't interpret them yet.
• Start with a warm-up.
• Avoid confirmation bias (do not try to confirm your assumptions).
• Get interviewees to tell a story or give real-life examples of behavior and usage.
• Look for solution hacks.
• Ask why and keep asking why until you can drill down to the root causes
Synthesizing Research Data With Design Thinking Tools

During the process you will refine your target group and the research
questions, ultimately gaining a good understanding of your potential customers' needs.
Several
design thinking tools can be used to structure your collected data and transform it into
communicable artifacts. They help focus your discussion and offer a perspective for the
analysis
of the data.

"Person as" are a classic tool to humanize the target group. Person as are hypothetical or
fictitious
consumers with human characteristics. Although they are supposed to represent a larger
group
of consumers, the traits seem very personal and individual. As opposed to generic target
groups
that are characterized by demographics and averages, personas make it easier to relate to
and
know who you are designing for. However, beware of creating personas that combine the
average traits of everyone and end up representing no one. Rather, define personas in their
contexts including their motivations in that context.

extrapolating motivations and lifestyles. This method takes on the perspective of how
today's
personas might develop in the future. For very radical innovation projects or offerings that will
be used in the future, it is beneficial to build empathy with the future users as well.

Another tool to enhance the insights about your target customer is "A day in the life." This
tool
sheds light on the subject's day-to-day routine and on the day-and-night rhythm. It may yield
insights about the typical activities in a person's everyday life that are performed
subconsciously

The "empathy map" is a tool that visualizes what the user says, thinks, does and feels. Once
you
have completed the ethnographic observations and interviews, bulks of data are at your
fingertips
to fill the map. Make sure you stick with what you saw and heard, and write it down in the
form of
direct quotes. This avoids interpretation biases and helps you communicate your insights to
others
more effectively.

Mapping out the "customer journey" is another helpful method when you already know which
offering you are trying to develop or improve. The goal is to identify the different phases,
channels and touchpoints the customer goes through before, during and after using or
buying
an offering. This uncovers the customers' expectations, wow effects, anxieties and pain points
in the process.
Role of Digital Technology in Qualitative Customer Research

First, technology has improved how data is gathered

today. Observations and interviews are supported by video and audio recording technologies,
which make data collection and storage much simpler.
> traditional research methods
can be enhanced to encompass wider audiences or deeper contexts using technology: e.g.,
through videoconferencing for focus groups; when users create on line diaries or vox pops
with
their mobile phones on the spot; or when subjects are observed using eye tracking
technologies.
> , technology has changed the way qualitative data is analyzed. Computer-assisted
data analysis, coding software and Al tools process data and support qualitative data analyses
by making it more efficient to find patterns, similarities and gaps in the data. When
quantifying
and visualizing qualitative data, infographics, heatmaps, word clouds and many others are
helpful to visualize and communicate findings.