What we taught and what we learnt in the open learning sessions we conducted

In the last few weeks, we at Pensaar Design conducted a couple of open sessions on ethnographic research and the experience was nothing short of insightful! It was an interesting challenge to take something that has become so much a part of our DNA, and break it down to its simplest form to teach to a group of researchers and non researchers. 

Trying to provide some clarity of thought and simplify concepts, helped us learn along the way too!

So let’s get right to it, to see what areas we covered and how we define the research and synthesis process at Pensaar. We divided the content in to 3 sessions:

1. Session 1 looked at ‘Learning to Design Context Specific Research Tools’

2. Session 2 was about ‘Collaboratively Developing Remote Research Methods and Tools

3. Session 3 was about ‘Learning to Synthesise Research Data’

While each session was independent and allowed an individual to focus and learn a specific skill, in total the content brought together the entire research to synthesis journey.

So What Is Research?

For us research, is at the foundation of everything we do. Before we frame the problem, or explore multiple solutions, we conduct research to build a deep and an unbiased understanding of the customer and their environment. 

Because the research we do is qualitative, it often means we can’t be hardwired in the way we collect customer data, we need to give ourselves the space and freedom to create customer and context specific methods and tools. 

The image below succinctly articulates the value and impact of doing customer research, an important outcome of conducting research is to have rich customer stories that guide us in understanding their behaviours, pain points, needs etc. 

What does it mean to design context specific research tools and methods?

As you design research tools and methods, it is important to immerse yourself into defining what the context really is. 

We reflected on the process of how we designed research tools and methods, and we then worked to create a simple tool that would allow an individual to be able deliberate on their research plan and design research tools. We call it the ‘Research Tool Canvas’ (https://www.pensaardesign.com/research-tool-canvas).

The canvas allows you to dig deeper into the context and objective of your research, allowing you to reflect on what you are looking to discover and understand. It helps you be mindful of your customers and their ecosystem, and what challenges you will need to overcome through the design of the research.

Can You Conduct Research Remotely and How Different from In-Person Research?

In the current environment, where we all are adjusting to a new reality, customer research becomes increasingly important, as a way to understand changing customer behaviour and needs. So should you wait till everything settles and can meet the customer in person or should you go ahead and speak with customers.

It is also a question that applies to global companies, where your customer is in another country and continent. Do you relegate customer research and understanding to someone else, or would you also participate in speaking with and understanding your customers?

While in-person research would always be our first preference, remote research can come a close second if designed properly. There are many constraints that remote research can help you overcome, the image below illustrates how remote research can help

So does the process for remote research change from the way you would think about and design for in-person research? Well not really, every aspect of the process would be the same except for an addition to the list in the challenges section of the research canvas of ‘remote, customer not physically present’.

In fact you would need to focus more on the important principles of customer research (in the image given below) to ensure the quality of your research findings don’t suffer. 

With remote research, you would need to leverage digital tools to recreate the same interactive experience that in-person research has and believe me when I say there is no dearth of tools on the internet to help you do so. We often use google slides and hangouts to do so.

Synthesising Research Findings - What Does It Really Entail?

Synthesising is often the unsung hero in the research process, usually rushed and not given the focus and time to work through all the customer data that has been collected.

Your customer research, no matter how well done is only as good as the quality of the synthesis done. Yes, as much as it may sound harsh, customer research data is a diamond in the rough until you spend the time to make sense of it and carve out actionable and non-obvious insights from it.

For us synthesis is really a 3 step process, that begins immediately after the first customer interview you conduct to after you’ve collected all the data, looked at it from every angle and then derived value from it.

The 3 steps to synthesis are: 

1. Organise - A process that you would do in real time or immediately after an interview to make sense of it

2. Mine - A process that you would begin to do as you have more than one or two interviews done

3. Interpret - A process you would immerse yourself in, after having completed all the customer and ecosystem interviews.

Another way to look at the process is to see it move from

 I the researcher who has interviewed and understood deeply a few of the customers ecosystem

To

Understanding other customers that my team interviewed and sharing my learning as well

To

Honing our customer understanding, plus creating timeless insights that can be understood and valued by others

In the image below we have put together, what constitutes each step and some tools and practices we use to derive value.

In summation, when I think of ethnographic research it constitutes the entire journey from research to synthesis, one wouldn’t have value without the other. Good research (in-person or remote) requires you to delve deep into the context of the research and design methods and tools that elicit rich stories and showcase customer behaviour. Good synthesis requires you to be methodical, work through it along the way, not only as the end goal.