How to Use Business Ethnography

We’ve looked at the methods that ethnographers use to gather data. But how do you structure your research project to achieve the best results? In their 2014 articlefor Harvard Business Review, strategists Christian Madsbjerg and Mikkel B. Rasmussen outlined a process for this:

1. Reframe the Problem.

First, reframe the problem by looking at it from the perspective of your customers, rather than from that of your business.

In our coffee shop example, the question Anton needs to ask is not, “How do I expand my business?” but, “How do my customers experience my business?”

2. Collect the Data.

Next, break down the customers’ perspective into a series of further questions, such as:

• What do my customers enjoy about my product or service?
• What challenges or pain points do they experience?
• Who are they with, and what else are they doing, when they use it?
• How does the product make them feel?
• What meanings or values do they attach to it?
• How do my customers’ social and cultural identities inform their behavior?

These questions provide a framework for your observations and interviews.

3. Look for Patterns.

The third step is to identify the root causes of your customers’ behavior, and see if any common themes emerge. Madsbjerg and Rasmussen compare this process to peeling an onion. The first layer consists of factual observations about your customers: who they are, for example. The second layer is concerned with their behavior: what are they doing? And the third layer reveals their motivations: why are they doing it?

Ethnographic studies can generate a vast quantity of photos, video, audio, and interview transcripts. To make sense of it all, create a data card or file for each participant. Include their demographic details and a summary of their key responses

4. Create the Key Insights.

This stage is to find out what your product or service means to your customers. This can reveal any false assumptions that you’ve made about how they use your product, and it gives you the opportunity to address any unmet needs.

In our coffee shop example, Anton’s key insight is that the experience of “getting a coffee” means something very different to local people relaxing with their family and friends than it does to busy commuters, and he needs to change his strategy accordingly.

5. Build the Business Impact.

Finally, think of the meanings that your product or service has for your customers as opportunities for development and innovation. How can you tap into these meanings, or meet the needs that you have identified?