Ethnographic Opportunity Analysis (Oct.5,2009)

Ethnographic Opportunity Analysis part 1 Hank Delcore & Jim Mullooly aka “TheAnthroGuys” @ www.TheAnthroGuys.com

Innovation?

Innovation in Business (Schumpeter, 1934)
1. Introduction of a new/improved good
2. Introduction of a new method of production
3. Opening new market or territory
4. Conquest of a new source of raw materials
5. New type of organization

Sweet Chocolate

2. Introduction of a new method of production
Henry Ford’s Assembly Line

3. Opening new market or territory
Shushi in US

4. Conquest of a new source of raw materials
Sugar Beets in 1870s

5. New type of organization
Japanese Automotive Administration

Sweet Chocolate

Steve Jobs Master of Innovation as improvement of an existing good

How Personal Computers were Used

How Music was Used

How Smart Phones were Used

Apple is a Software Company (Steve Jobs)

Apple is a Software Company ( Jobs )
The Macintosh Interface

Apple is a Software Company (Jobs) The Ipod’s Itunes Store

Apple is a Software Company (Jobs) The Iphone’s App Store

How can you find these opportunities?

Ethnographic (Inductive) Opportunity Analysis
Deductive Approaches
Hypothesis  Data Collection  Analysis
from general to specific
Inductive Approaches
Data Collection  Analysis  Hypothesis
from specific to general

Intel
Green Homeowners as Lead Adopters

What People Say They Do and What They Do Are Different

The Business Case for User-Driven Innovation
Unprecedented specialization and segmentation , multiplied many times over by domestic and international cultural diversity.

The Value of the Use Case
Entrepreneurs can neither assume that they are socially or culturally close to users nor that they can keep up with consumer trends themselves – unless they seek user-centered insights.

Increased Competition
Increased competition from emerging economies
Companies can no longer rely on the advantages of being the first to introduce new technologies to the market.

Democratization of Knowledge
The democratization of knowledge , driven by the internet and information technology in general
Armed with lots of information and the ability to buy from companies all over the globe, consumers no longer consider the price/quality trade-off as the sole driver of choice.

Democratization of Knowledge
Instead, consumers increasingly consider how a company and its products match their own personal values, behaviors and needs.
To get at this, successful companies must include users in the innovation process .

Just to Stay Solvent
As Squires and Byrne put it: “…companies have to manufacture the right commodities and deliver them in the right way to the right consumers at least four out of ten times every year – just to stay solvent” (Squires and Byrne 2002:xiv).

Traditional R&D departments and entrepreneurs with their own views on “what people want” can no longer keep up with the reality of rapidly evolving needs and desires.

THE ASSIGNMENT
1) Conduct some sort of “inductive observation”,
2) analyze your notes, then
3) expand those notes into a brief report about what you found.

DESCRIPTION
Rather than looking into a completely innovative idea (service or product), the goal is to 1) observe something that already works; 2) observe it in great detail; then 3) begin to understand it in such detail that you can 4) make concrete suggestions about improving it.

In Other Words
Rather than looking for how consumers COULD use a NEW service/product, the goal is to observe how consumers DO use a EXISTING service/product with the intention of looking for opportunities to improve or “add value” to that experience.

Steps
1. Find a routine, taken-for-granted task/service/product,
2. “Hang out” and “thickly describe” it in a notebook,
3. In a one page pitch , suggest some sort of innovation that will add value. DUE: Friday October 16 th by midnight. Submit by attached MS Word Document to theanthroguys @ gmail.com .
The best observations will be published on our blog and presented in class on October 21 st .

Ethnographic Opportunity Analysis part 1 Hank Delcore & Jim Mullooly aka “TheAnthroGuys” @ www.TheAnthroGuys.com Thanks for your Time

Ethnographic Opportunity Analysis (Oct.5,2009)

by James Mullooly

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