For several years, during the 1920s, Barnard College anthropology student Margaret Mead immersed herself in the daily lives of a group of Samoan natives in the South Pacific. The results of her study were published in the 1928 classic, “Coming of Age in Samoa.” What Ms. Mead discovered about life in Samoa, and the ways in which she discovered it, apply to more than just the mating habits of Pacific islanders.

Some product development experts advocate borrowing Margaret Mead’s approach — sit down, listen, and watch — when gathering information about your customers. Product strategists are turning to these ethnographic research techniques in increasing numbers. These practices include observational techniques, conducted in the subject’s environment, and participatory techniques, which involve subjects in the design process. One popular observational technique is contextual inquiry, in which the observer observes the subject, possibly making inquiries during the process about the subject’s activities and environment.

Professor Dan Boyarski, head of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Design, is encouraged by the growing popularity of these methods. “We’ve been preaching these methods for a while in one form or another. Fifteen years ago, we at CMU were talking about the need to understand your user community. However, that research was seen as costly and time-consuming.” But that perception has changed, according to Boyarski, as companies discover the value of these techniques. “More and more companies are either hiring people to do this research for them, or they’re doing it in-house.”

A fly on the hospital wall

McKesson Provider Technologies decided to put these techniques to the test when they developed CarePoint-RN™, a nurse's personal workstation that puts medications, supplies and access to clinical systems right at a nurse's fingertips. The McKesson team visited eight customer sites, observing the environment in which the products would be used. According to technical product manager Rick Miller, “We tried to be a fly on the wall, taking copious notes, and asking questions only when necessary.”

McKesson’s use of observational research techniques yielded several benefits, according to product marketing manager Randy Quinn. “Because engineers and product designers participated in the observation, they were able to quickly identify capabilities that would address the nurses’ needs and were feasible for us to implement. We were able to greatly speed up the product development cycle, going from initial thought to deployment within a year.” The resulting product design was better suited for the nurses’ needs, added Miller. “The nurses’ environment dictated how we designed the hardware; where we placed the keyboard and scanners. We were able to put these in the likely place that would be most useful.” McKesson has since deployed this technique in other product development teams.

Shallow questions, shallow answers

Conventional customer inquiries tend to rely heavily on surveys and focus groups. Carnegie Mellon’s Boyarski acknowledges that these techniques have value, but also have serious drawbacks and limitations. A small number of vocal participants often dominate a focus group. Others in the focus group may have equally valuable, perhaps opposing, views that tend to be ignored or overlooked.

Survey questions only expose what the survey designers have the foresight to ask. In conference room brainstorming sessions, Boyarski notes that survey designers tend to come up with “really clichéd notions of what people want or how people behave.”

Boyarski adds that these conventional research methods tend to yield shallow results — “Do they like black or white? Silver or wood? Big or sleek?” In contrast, contextual inquiry techniques often yield unexpected or surprising information. McKesson’s Quinn agrees. “Through these methods, we are able to learn things about our customers’ needs that they themselves may not be aware of.”

Can I afford this?

It’s a common misconception that observational research methods are expensive. This is not necessarily true — these techniques vary widely in cost, complexity, and time. Do they require expensive laboratories? Not generally, unless your customer works in an expensive laboratory. Even so, you can carry out these techniques in your customer’s expensive laboratory, not your own.

What about equipment? Do observational techniques require expensive video equipment? You may choose to video- and audio-tape your subjects, but a full suite of equipment is rarely required. In fact, the less obtrusive your equipment, the better. The tools of observational techniques can be as simple as a giving your subjects a disposable camera or a pocket diary to document their activities.

For example, a company that makes audio equipment gave teenagers a disposable camera, with instructions to take pictures of their rooms. Once the pictures were developed, a researcher interviewed the subjects about the pictures. Some of the pictures included the subjects’ audio system, and all pictures provided information about the system’s environment — the subjects’ rooms. Their answers revealed the answers to questions like “What are they spending money on?” and “Why do they think this is a cool system?”

Stamp of approval

Boyarski shared the power of contextual inquiry techniques in a project Carnegie Mellon undertook for the United States Postal Service. The Postal Service approached Carnegie Mellon to redesign its “customer bible” of postal rates and regulations — a document that customers rarely used. The Postal Service wanted an effective, usable manual that served the needs of all of its customer categories, including residential customers, small businesses, and large-volume mailers.

Before they proceeded with any work in redesigning the document, the Carnegie Mellon team visited area post offices — observing customers and employees and conducting interviews.

The Carnegie Mellon researchers quickly discovered that the manual was designed and organized around the way the Postal Service had organized itself — not around the needs of its customers. Customers don’t think in terms of “first class, third class, bulk mail, pre-sorted.” The Carnegie Mellon team re-designed the document to meet the needs of the Postal Service’s customers, who need to know: “Here’s what I want to mail. Here are its dimensions and weight, here’s where I’m sending it, here’s when I want it to get there. How should I send it, and how much does it cost?”.

The original manual was organized around the way the Postal Service saw itself — not around the needs of its customers. The insights gained by the Carnegie Mellon team were so powerful and persuasive, according to Boyarski, that the Post Office actually began to question whether its internal structure was appropriate for meeting the needs of its customers.

How much is enough?

Determining how much time and effort to spend on research is not always straightforward. But Boyarski urges people who are considering observational techniques to not be discouraged by a lack of time or money. The power to understand prospects in a profound way is available to most product researchers. “You can gather pretty good data from just two people,” he said.

Alan Houser is a Contributing Writer for the Product Strategy Network. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it