Success with ethnography in Tech

Rose Tomlins and Judith Staig recently presented an ESOMAR paper on best practise for ethnography. This aimed to help both agency and client researchers identify how and when to use ethnographic techniques and how to get the most from them.

Arguably, the technology sector has historically been driven more by product or technology led innovation processes than by allowing innovation to be driven by what the customer really wants. Therefore it is logical that, with the new emphasis on ‘customer centricity’, an increasing number of technology companies are turning to ethnographic approaches to help streamline and improve innovation. The challenges facing the technology sector, as it switches from a product-led to a customer-led innovation process, reflect challenges that are also relevant to other sectors wishing for greater ‘customer centricity’.

Whilst ethnography offers several benefits over and above traditional qualitative research, in our experience there are some critical elements that need to be considered in order to facilitate success: 

• Recognising whether a project is suitable for an ethnographic approach
• Deciding where the project sits in terms of the product life cycle and required breadth of research.
• Starting the programme with a series of planning workshops
• Developing a communications plan early on
• Being prepared to enter into an ongoing journey of discovery