This document discusses ethnographic opportunity analysis and user-driven innovation. It provides an overview of innovation types according to Schumpeter and examples. It advocates an inductive, ethnographic approach to understanding user needs and identifying opportunities to improve products and services. The document concludes by outlining an assignment for students to conduct field observations and analysis to identify opportunities for innovation.

1. Ethnographic Opportunity
Analysis 2012 part 1
Hank Delcore & Jim Mullooly
aka “TheAnthroGuys” @
www.TheAnthroGuys.com
1

2. n ?
a tio
n ov
In
2

3.  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
3

4.  Innovation in Business (Schumpeter, 1934)
 1. Introduction of a new/improved good
Sweet
Chocolate
4

5.  Innovation in Business (Schumpeter, 1934)
 2. Introduction of a new method of
production
Henry Ford’s
Assembly Line
5

6.  Innovation in Business (Schumpeter, 1934)
 3. Opening new market or territory
Shushi in US
6

7.  Innovation in Business (Schumpeter, 1934)
Sugar Beets
in 1870s
 4. Conquest of a new source of raw
materials
7

8.  Innovation in Business (Schumpeter, 1934)
Japanese
Automotive
Administration
 5. New type of organization
8

9.  Innovation in Business (Schumpeter, 1934)
 1. Introduction of a new/improved good
Sweet
Chocolate
9

10. Steve Jobs
Master of
Innovation as
improvement
of an existing
good
10

11. How
Personal
Computers
were Used
(1984)
11

12. How Music
devices
were Used
(2001)
12

13. How Smart
Phones
were Used
(2007)
13

14. How Tablet
Computers
were Used
(2010)
14

15. BUT
Apple is a
Software
Company
(Steve Jobs)
15

16.  Apple is a Software Company (Jobs)
The Macintosh Interface
16

17. Apple is a Software Company (Jobs)
The Ipod’s Itunes Store
17

18. Apple is a Software Company (Jobs)
The Iphone’s
App Store
18

19. Apple is a Software Company
(Jobs)
The Ipad’s
App Store
19

20. How can you
find these
opportunities?
20

21. 21

22. 22

23. Ethnographic (Inductive)
Opportunity Analysis
 Deductive Approaches
– Hypothesis  Data Collection  Analysis
 from general to specific
 Inductive Approaches
– Data Collection  Analysis  Hypothesis
 from specific to general
23

24. Engineering vs. Reverse Engineering
24

25. 25

26. The AnthroGuy Himself
Professor Hank Delcore
26

27. 27

28. Intel Green Homeowners
as Lead Adopters
28

29. What People Say They
Do
and What They Do Are
Different
29

30. The Business Case for User-
Driven Innovation
 Unprecedented specialization and
segmentation, multiplied many times over
by domestic and international cultural
diversity.
30

31. 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.
31

32. 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.
32

33. 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.
33

34. 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.
34

35. 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).
35

36.  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.
36

37. 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.
37

38.  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.
38

39.  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.
39

40.  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: next
Wednesday March 21 by 3:00pm in class.
– The best observations will be published on our
blog and presented in class on March 21st.
40

41. Ethnographic Opportunity
Analysis part 1
Hank Delcore & Jim Mullooly
aka “TheAnthroGuys” @
www.TheAnthroGuys.com
Thanks for your Time
41