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The Science of Desire. Sarah Ross and Kambria Sauer . History of Ethnography. Harnessing the social sciences since 1930’s How to make employees more productive Since 1960’s companies use ethnography to get a better handle on their customers . Advantages to Ethnography.
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The Science of Desire Sarah Ross and Kambria Sauer
History of Ethnography • Harnessing the social sciences since 1930’s • How to make employees more productive • Since 1960’s companies use ethnography to get a better handle on their customers
Advantages to Ethnography • Richer understanding of consumers • Focus groups, surveys and demographic data still used • Intel and its critical transition from chipmaker to consumer-products
Up Close and Personal • Corporate ethnography can sound flakey • Findings don’t often lead to a product or service, only generalized sense of what people want • Takes a long time to produce any real results • Possible backlash surrounding ethnography
Accelerated Global Society • Markets are sliced into ever-thinner pieces • Product life-cycles are measured in months or weeks, not years • New ideas zip around the planet at the speed of light
Refreshing a Product • Using ethnography to revitalize an existing product or service • Marriot hired IDEO to rethink the hotel experience for the young, tech savvy road warrior • IDEO dispatched team of 7 consultants on a 6 week trip to 12 cities
What They Learned • Hotels are generally good at serving large parties but not small groups of business travelers • Lobbies tend to be dark • Marriot lacked where guests could comfortably combine work with pleasure outside their rooms