Segmentation is crucial to what we do.  Without understanding who we're talking to and the different mindsets within the WHO, it's difficult even to ask the right questions.

I often think of myself as being the protector of research, helping guide what's appropriate when.  This article from Stanford Business School was a great voice of reason.  Thought you'd like to check it out.

Just to pique your interest:

The idea that verbal, visual, or cognitive cues can have predictable effects on consumer behavior might tempt marketers to look for magical cues to herd customers like lemmings. But two Stanford researchers have found that one prime does not fit all and, in fact, can have the opposite effect depending on the group. The moral: Take care to segment your market.

The rewards of qualitative research rest largely on two principles: getting "mushy" and getting "empty."

The Mushy Principle states simply that we "enter and continue our conversation with empathy, patience, and levity."

• Empathy - everyone’s got a story: immerse yourself in his / hers
• Patience - (s)he’s getting to the good part (don’t ruin it)
• Levity - take him / her seriously; not yourself

A way to conceptualize this more broadly is to imagine how difficult it is to leave a detailed impression on a rock.  Now, think about how easy it is to leave a detailed impression on soft and supple clay.
 
When trying to learn about a person's thoughts / feelings in a way that you can later share with others, think about yourself as the soft and supple clay...

The Empty Principle suggests we "enter and continue the conversation with no expectation, no knowledge, and no memory."

• No Expectation - you don’t know this person; all you have are questions
• No Knowledge - you don't know this subject matter; again, all you have are questions
• No Memory - you have never, ever heard any of this before

Looking at this more generally, think about how difficult it is to add more material to a full container.  Now, think about how easy it is to drop that material into an empty container.

When trying to learn about a person's thoughts / feelings in a way that you can later share with others, think about yourself as the empty container...

What does this get me?
Following both principles, your answers will be authentic – as  opposed to filtered or customized to suit your anticipated need - and the responses you record will be fully articulated – so you don’t have to figure them out afterward.

 So, in the last few weeks I've seen my share of airport security lines.

Not until now have I been accused of being a frequent traveler by one of the security dudes.  My life is complete.

I've learned effective habits and practices for successfully navigating the security line and I didn't even realize it until I got two comments from airport workers this morning.  For example:  

- I hold down my shirt when going through the drug-test machine that shoots air at you.
- I grab exactly two plastic bins to put my stuff in - one for my laptop and one for my bag and shoes.
- I know when to put away my license.  
- I get out my flight number and know which screen is next on the Delta check-in kiosk.

Without an outsider's perspective, I wouldn't have realized the adjustments I've made to make it through the system.  That's part of ethnography - I've learned to look at consumers' lives with a new lens, seeing things that they don't realize that they do, behaviors they've adapted, habits they're doing.  

Where have you adapted to a system?  Could that system be improved?  I sure know the airport security system could be (enough said...but then again, who's even asking?).  How can you innovate to make the system better?

These are questions we're constantly asking at Seek, externally AND internally.  Hey, there's always room for growth!

It's easy to forget the assumptions we make before entering a space we've never visited.  This next exercise aims to dredge up a) what we imagine before b) what we experience. 

The "outside" template is to be completed before entering.  After entry, just soak up the next 15 seconds.  Next, the "inside" template can be completed.

What can we learn by comparing the two completed templates?  Are some circles tougher to complete than others?  Why?


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Some great media consumption trends from a recent BusinessWeek article that are definitely worth taking a look at and understanding...

The average American (age 12 and up) with Internet access spends more than 6 hours a day watching movies, shows, news, and sports—or playing games—on screens of one sort or another. That’s up from 4.6 hours in 1996, says Solutions Research Group, which predicts a rise to 8 hours a day in 2013. The group, which studied the viewing diaries of 1,014 people, found that on average TV accounts for 4 of the current 6 viewing hours. The other 2 hours involve the Web, DVDs, gaming consoles, and mobile devices. (The ratio is roughly reversed for the 12-to-24-year-old set.) By 2013, the group forecasts, Americans will spend an average three hours daily viewing or playing with PCs and mobile devices. “Wherever you go,” says Solutions Research President Kaan Yigit, “you’ll be bathing in video content.”

Recently, we've used Facebook, MySpace, blogs and photo websites to screen respondents before qualitative research.  This works best when we've been looking to fill a difficult recruit for segmentation that has visual characteristics that are manifested through a respondent's profile.  This is especially helpful with teenage respondents.

So, we study people. Their habits, practices, why they buy this, why they buy that...

Seek Research has never ceased to provide me an abdominal workout in the form of laughing.  I get to travel the world with friends (also known as co-workers) and meet new people.  There's always a funny story.

Is it a good or bad thing when your client asks the rest of her team if you remind them of Lloyd Dobler?  So, what do you do with that?  Was it more about me being an average kickboxer, holding a boombox over my head, or delivering unsolicited manifestos on the nature of the world? 

I don't do those things.  OK, I do one of those things (hint: never kickboxed, never held a boombox aloft)...

Just returned from some concept work in Columbus.  Tried a new methodology for concept exposure and I think it went pretty well.  For you qualitative research fiends out there, talk to me.  I might have a little something for you.  You know you're sick of the straight up FGI and there's no need to settle--your clients are sick of it, too.  Mix it up with smaller groupings, client interfaces, rotating respondents, and start your debrief while the respos are still in the room.  I didn't do that--but I should have.  I mean, I really should have.

I'm looking for a dare-to-be-great situation.  Wish me luck.

As a Qualitative Research Consultant at Seek Research, I'm finding more and more that I thrive in adversity.

So, today was a great day for me. 

I'm not really sure what set it apart from any other day.  We are working on a proposal for a large global market research/ethnographic study that is a big challenge!  What I loved is that we really came together as a team -- Tracy, Sara, Greg, Renee and several others have played a key role in pulling together a very cool learning experience design.  Our client is a true business partner with us as we've worked to create the right balance of deliverables and cost efficiency. 

Sound boring?  Not to me...I so enjoy the camaraderie between Seek and the client, and across our team.  I so appreciate the ability that I have to bring my best every day and really work in a way that leverages my strengths!

Anyway, kudos out to the Seek team -- great work today!  I'm so humbled to be part of this team!

I was naked in New York City this week...well not entirely naked in the literal sense, but I found myself basically naked in the city that never sleeps..."The Big Apple".  Let me back up and rewind a little.

Over the weekend I flew up to the great northern city of Minneapolis.  "Minnie" is one of my favorite cities in the U.S.  It has a lot of very fun and eclectic places to shop, hang out, grab a drink or dine on some incredible food...and then there's of course the lakes.  Oh my gosh the lakes are amazing and beautiful.  God truly kissed the ground where these lakes formed. 

I traveled to Minneapolis to see my niece's first baptism.  The baptism was at a beautiful Basilica in downtown Minneapolis.  (This is where the story's foreshadowing comes into play...)  While walking across the street to "Joe's Garage" (a little bar) to grab a drink before entering the Basilica, a young man walked out of an alley wearing nothing but a small brown leather "Daisy-Duke-Cut" shorts that laced up the back very loosely.  His outfit would make Times Square's "Naked Cowboy" appear over-dressed.  The laced area of his shorts exposed his entire back-side and his "cheeks" peaked out the bottom.  Oh wait...it gets better, he was a ethnographic study segment that has yet to be categorized.  This barefoot, leather & lace-undergarment wearing individual was covered in a slimy film of body paint and something clear that had all smeared together.  In his hand however was a small step ladder and in the other was a high-end digital SLR camera.  He turned and looked at us and then at the young man walking next to us with a wild eye look.  He yelled at the young man next to us, "what the hell are you looking at?"  Obviously an answer wasn't necessary to provide.  That marked what was the be the "weirdest" moment of our trip.  The rest of the trip was relitively uneventful until we tried to fly back home. 

We got up early and arrived at the Minneapolis airport at 6:00am.  We were flying stand-by and had planned on flying out on the very first flight to Cincinnati at 7:00am.  However the "god's of commercial airline flight" were not so kind to us that day.  The aircraft experienced mechanical issues and was postponed indefinitely and then sent to Cincinnati empty.  This set a domino effect of over-sold ticketed seating into motion.  We ran back and forth literally from one end of the airport to the extreme other end trying to make alternating flights on two different airlines every 60 minutes.  Unfortunately we missed the "Cleared Stand-By List" always by just a few names.  After 12 hours of racing the airport courtesy shuttle carts a decisions had to be made. 

We had checked our Minneapolis bag back to Cincinnati and it was on its way back home.  I had a bag packed with clothes and toiletries for my upcoming New York City trip along with my MacBook Pro and all my qualitative research supplies, but it was also in Cincinnati awaiting me.  The plan was to fly home early Monday morning to Cincinnati, grab my NYC bag with my Mac and catch a flight to NYC from Cincinnati.  It sounded like a good plan at the time.  However, I had to decide whether I risk / attempt to make the next flight to Cincinnati that would give me less than an hour to deplane, take the shuttle to my car, grab my NYC bags, grab the shuttle back to the airport and make the last flight to NYC....or take the last flight from Minneapolis directly to New York City, without any thing but the shirt on my back.  Where's my Magic Eight Ball when I really need it?

After studying the pros and cons, I made the decision that it was more important that I be present rather than not be and have all of my clothes, computer and supplies.  What is qualitative research without the researcher?  And what city would be the best city to have an excuse to go shopping than New York City? 

So long story made just a little bit longer... the qualitative research went perfectly, the client was very happy with the design and the findings and I got to shop in New York City.  Life is good.

Welcome back to Thump Thump Thump.  This is the 3rd installmentation of our Ideation Hurts series. 

To recap Ideation Hurts, Pt. 2, we laid out the 5 degrees of the Isolative Sequence, a behavioral function that can obstruct our creative flow:

Let's talk about how to interrupt the different degrees of the Isolative Sequence.

1st Degree: Discomfort
Not all discomfort is bad.  Spicy food, a roller coaster, a scary movie, a stand-up comedian, or cramming into an already-too-full car with your friends after a night of debauchery can be uncomfortably enjoyable.  Or enjoyably uncomfortable, or whatever.  You get the point. 

It's about how you frame it:  What kind of expectations are set;  How high the stakes are.

If you bite into a muffin and it's unexpectedly spicy, that could be not-so-enjoyable discomfort because you didn't expect that kind of heat from your muffin.

If that spicy fire leads to an allergic outbreak, well, the stakes just got too high.  Now, you'd experience even less agreeable discomfort.

It's the same way in ideation. 

Set forth reasonable expectations.  Keep the stakes low.  For example: "until 11 AM, we're simply going to look at the insights from last months' ethnographic study and other qualitative consumer research to hand-pick seeds we can develop into more complete ideas later this afternoon."  Now, everyone knows what's happening and the feeling of must-be-brilliant-right-this-very-moment can go away.  And you did it without silly rubber toys that make everyone feel like they walked into a kindergarten classroom.  Nothing against kindergarten, of course.  More on that later.

Solution to the 1st degree (Discomfort) of the Isolative Sequence: Dropping the anxiety barometer allows perspective-shifting activities to push everyone into a new space--with anticipation, rather than apprehension.

Next up: the 2nd degree (Can't Articulate)

Have you ever walked in someone else's shoes?  Not literally, I mean.  But, figuratively.  I'll bet you have.  Think of the job you had in college or high school.   Ever close your eyes and try to find your way in an unfamiliar room?  Ever bag your own groceries? 

I worked at Skyline Chili all through high school.  For those of you not from Cincinnati, Skyline is a legend!  Ever since, I'm careful to tip well whenever I eat out...I just have a different level of appreciation for restaurant workers.  I know --because I "lived" it -- what works to motivate and reward..and I understand that just because the food was slow, it probably wasn't my server's fault...and, even if it was, doesn't he or she deserve a decent tip for being on his/her feet all day, dealing with hungry people and cranky cooks? 

Ethnography is as simple, and as powerful as that! 

Immersing ourselves into someone else's life or living in their "world" for a day -- we learn so much and the lessons live on in dramatic ways. 

Try it out! 

Do your own ethnographic study -- live on the budget of someone with less disposable income than you; call your own company's 1-800 number and go through the endless menu; take out your contacts and try to read the fine print on your packaging. 

What did you learn?  How can you apply what you learned to make your product, service, experience better and more enjoyable?

I'd love to know!

In Fast Innovation: Achieving Superior Differentiation, Speed to Market, and Increased Profitability the authors Michael L. George, James Works, Kimberly Watson-Hemphill drive home the fact that understanding customers and their needs better than your competitors do...is one of the preconditions for getting to market first with superior differentiated offerings.  If you're interested in superior differentiated offerings, which I think most of us are...then how do you deeply understand your customers?    

1. Develop strong links to both the core and the fringes of your market
2. Use ethnography
3. Include customers and knowledge throughout the design process

Why ethnography?  Here are the critical reasons laid out in Fast Innovation:

• In his book, How Customers Think, Gerald Zaltman states, "At least 95% of all cognition occurs below awareness in the shadows of the mind while, at most, 5% occurs in higher order consciousness." So even if customers wanted to tell you what they thought, they may not really understand it themselves consciously.
• Your customers don't know your capabilities as well as you do--so it doesn't occur to them that you may be able to help them solve a problem they're experiencing.
• Current customers' creativity is more likely to be focused on their jobs than on your products/services, and they may dismiss an innovation not related to their goals.
• Few customers have a strategic view of your marketplace.
• People are better at reacting to specific prototypes than at coming up with insights on their own.
• It is often tempting to lie during preview tests as a way to avoid hurting someone's feelings, or to blow off an interviewer to avoid an argument.

Contact us if you'd like to learn more about ethnography or if we can help you conduct your next ethnographic study.  It's one of the things we love to do...and folks say we're pretty good at it.

At Seek Research, we believe that innovation is the foundation of healthy growth...and it's at the core of who we are.  How are you doing influencing innovation in your company?  In The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue And Profit Growth With Innovation the authors A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan lay out a set of questions geared at unearthing the current state of your leadership of innovation characteristics:

From a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate yourself on the following leadership of innovation characteristics:

1. Do you set organic growth goals that cannot be accomplished without innovation?
2. How do you ensure that the consumer/customer is really the boss in the process or innovation?
   
3. How good are you at integrating the end-to-end process of innovation, within your area of responsibility?
4. How well do you review and assess innovation projects?
5. Do you experiment?  Do you iterate to learn?
6. Do you know the tough questions to ask?  Do you have the courage to kill projects?
7. How good are you at molding a group of diverse individuals into an innovation team that can deliver game-changing innovation?
8. How good are you at performing the primary responsibilities of the innovation leader?
   - Do you consistently role-model the behaviors of the innovation culture you are trying to create?
   - Do you set the vision, inspire, integrate, and provide the action orientation needed for innovation to become a growth driver for your business?
   - Are you continuing to immerse yourself in experiences that enable you to hone your innovation leadership skills?
   
9. Do you actively search for new ideas?  Are you open to new ideas?
10. Do you take advantage of all the possible connections - inside and outside your company - for innovative ideas?

How did you do?  Which questions are missing?

I'm so excited to be getting started with my blog!  Maybe someone will be interested in my random thoughts. 

This week, I attended a conference on global market research for shopper insights.  There were several companies there sharing experiences with using ethnography to better understand shopping behavior.  Have you done an ethnographic study to better understanding shopping?  Let's share stories!  We've done a few -- and always learn so much!  One approach I LOVED -- have your TEAM work as baggers in the checkout-lane of a local store -- they'll get such amazing insight from seeing how people spend their money and the emotion that comes with a big or small purchase.  Maybe you can follow it up with an ideation session to make sure you take the learning from observation to insight to action!