Post #3 - Generative Research

I’d like to think I’m a very simple being.  Very straight forward with simple tastes, not overly dependent on technology…and not blessed with the best artistic skills.  Unfortunately, sometimes the way we perceive ourselves is not completely the way things are.  This experiment in Generative Research (with me as the subject) should be a firsthand demonstration of how customer research methodologies are good at communicating ideas about the customer that the customer can’t (in free narrative) detail about himself. 

There are a few things I’ve grown accustomed to depending on.  Though I’ve been in situations where I comfortably live without them for months on end, I know that if these articles are within arms’ reach then I’ll be reaching for them.

My iPhone.  Like the rest of the Apple Mafia, I’ve grown dependent on the ease with which desired information flows from this device.  It sings me to sleep at night and wakes me with everything from NPR to Stevie Wonder.

My beloved Surface.  Though I was skeptical about whether I could return to the PC world, my Windows Surface continually lures me in.  It assists me in doing everything I need done in terms of work.

My pen and notepad.  Yes, you read that right.  Because part of me is stuck on analog and I like the feeling of writing things down, this pair is always by my side.  Batteries can’t go dead on these things, and I can record things much quicker too. 

Now my Surface and iPhone, as awesome as they are, wouldn’t be as addictive without the internet and its bottomless pit of data.  The data sources that I access through them are ultimately what trigger the anti-social stints of staring blanking into a screen as I fall down the informational rabbit hole.  The foremost information sources, for me, are Google, my email, and Facebook.

Google is the Pandora’s box of information and answers all of the questions I have, the questions I don’t have, and even the questions I don’t want to have.  Everything from exploring random ideas for next year’s vacation to determining the GDP growth for Kenya to prepare for a global policy discussion happens for me through Google.  Any question I have, Google is the first secondary research source I use.  I Google most often immediately before classes and during study periods for school or for researching and planning activities outside of school.

My email is not only the reception point for most of my incoming communications but is also a repository for records, plans, ideas, and future engagements.  When I am not engaged in meetings I usually check my email at least four times an hour because I have faith that it is the one place I am likely to receive my important messages.  It is also the one place that I can find all of my personal records and information.  I check my email first thing every morning and last thing before I go to bed.  I frequently tell people that if they want to contact me in the long term to throw away my phone and keep my email.

Facebook and I have a true love hate relationship.  I hate that it has replaced bumper stickers in telling me more about people than I would like to know.  On the other hand, Facebook does an amazing job of keeping me up on “social current events”.  At times, when I feel like my web calendar is missing an engagement I will scour Facebook to see if there is any inkling of what event I may be missing.  As well, Facebook offers spouts of mindless entertainment and funny quips.

As the timeline depicts, information bursts populate my entire day.  When I wake up, I take a heavy dose of email, Facebook, and international news followed by a calendar glance to tell me what I’m doing for the day.  As I leave home and head for school, searching the internet becomes more frequent as I prepare for my classes.  “Information breaks” take place throughout the day as I visit my favorite fitness and exercise sites to plan my workouts and visit my favorite cooking websites to plan my meal for the evening.  Upon arriving home I tend to tap information streams for pleasant diversion.  This may be NPR again, or Pandora to stream music. After the brief breath of fresh content I return to my homework supported by Google.  The night finally ends with an email check, a Facebook check, and some streaming tunes to my iPod.

This exercise provided me with a very objective view of my interaction with the world.  Just as many assume they can explain exactly what they want but in actuality can’t fully express their desires without assistive tools, I feel like this exercise provided an objective means of detailing a framework surrounding a person’s dependencies or patterns from a customer in any case where an open ended question would not suffice

Designing Cara - Post 1

For today’s post, I will explore the idea of developing and mapping personas in a manner that would most accurately reflect how people are biased in absorbing and interacting with the world they live in.  In this iteration, I will take my friend Cara and relay to you the essential points of what she thinks, sees, says, hears, hurts because of, and hopes for in day to day life.  In learning to understand her, I hope to gain insight on how best to understand and empathize with those consumers with whom I hope build a relationship with as customers in the future.

What does Cara think about most?  If I asked her how she felt every 15 minutes, what would the answer most likely be?  Aside from the answer of being annoyed by hearing the same question every 15 minutes, the answer provides us insight into the base ideas and emotions that come from analyzing the elements of information that we absorb from the world around.  This ultimately creates the ideas and feelings that drive our desires, our actions, our opinions, and drive us generally as people.

For Cara, the thoughts of family and friends are ever present.  Though it would be impossible (at this point in history) to know exactly what she thinks and feels, and I can infer her thoughts and feelings based on recurring events and ideas in her life.  The value she places on meaningful, emotion heavy social interaction is displayed through her habits and recurring activities, as she calls each of her family members and close friends several times a week.

Additionally, the idea of professional success and ultimately leaving a memorable, positive mark on the world ring through.  The countless hours spent in the fight against cancer through weekend workdays over several years shows the importance that this role has in her life.  On the other hand, at times her expressed feelings portray disappointment and angst at a slow moving process.  The fact that family and close friends rarely if ever warrant an aired feeling of disappointment and account for so much of her time communicate to me that these people ultimately hold the highest place among her thoughts and feelings.  The worry of not leaving a positive, eternal mark on the world or achieving something great bleeds through in her time of frustration with work, while also betraying and communicating her aspiration to achieve something great in an altruistic fashion.

After breaking down the thoughts and feelings that drive her, we can much more easily review what she sees…or moreso, what is placed in front of her.  Day in and day out, she walks the same path to work early in the morning and later in the evening.  She walks through her apartment, through her lobby, and walks the same walk to work each day seeing the same buildings and billboards, rarely noticing a change. Though many things are in front of her, she sees and notices the cars and the people.  When she arrives at work, she sits down at her computer and commences her workday

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Moving throughout the lab, the sights rarely change.  A microscope here…a beaker there…no changing content. In the entirety of her day, and career, the only things that bring visual change and things that are seen and absorbed instead of just seen are few.  Her laptop, which always has an internet connection, her phone, which remains connected to the “virtualverse” as well, and her colleagues, are the primary sources of new, changing visuals throughout her day at work. 

These technological, social lifelines make her an exemplary case of the world today.  She remains connected not through radio and TV, but through social media where she absorbs idea swaying thoughts, facts, and opinions.  She pipes in music through digital feeds such as Spotify and Pandora.  Her iPhone serves as her lifeline to her loved ones, and her personal locker for emotional tidbits, music, photos, and stories.  This digital connection makes her similar in the sense of “see, do, feel” to a large segment of other consumers that no other aspect of her life can compare to.  A testament to how ignoring the digital revolution can be a costly mistake, as the music industry so greatly exemplified, and showing how this constant connection and stream of information will continue to capture and revolutionize in the future.  Understanding, exploiting, and riding this wave of revolution, as Google exemplifies, can produce exponential rewards and a place for an untold amount of time to come.

For Cara, after work, the process is repeated in reverse as she rejoins society in a more traditional, vice digital, sense. She departs for the gym later that evening.  A few days a week she runs on a treadmill that is equipped with the option to watch television and movies.  Finally, after the gym, she returns home to see, and examine, what is in the cabinets to cook a meal with.  The finally touch of a weeknight is a visual examination of her emails and the world of social media as it pertains to her.

When the weekend arrives, the wildcards are in play and what she sees is much more varied and in turn absorbed.  She goes to see movies, and sees friends at the bar, before seeing the soccer game, but after visiting the farmers’ market to see what it has to offer.   She visits clothing stores like Aldo and Under Armour, to see if anything appeals to her.  When the weekend arrives, she fills her time with active, social, or healthy activities that allow her to visually sample the world around her ina  way that appeals to her.

As she is out and about in public, she remains cordial, polite, and well put together.  Maintaining the outward appearance of calm, collected dignity despite internal circumstances.  Though she may be thoroughly conflicted when considering options in most situations, her decisions are most often predictable and follow the established pattern.

As she maintains the outward air of dignity, the constant milling of thoughts inside are fed by those around her.  Most of her friends are international types of the professional background.  They enjoy America, speak science, and converse about food, clothes, and style in general.  Examining the differences between themselves and the American filled world around becomes a frequent topic of discussion, as does the utopian idea of finding a place with the best of Europe and America without its downfalls.

Her bosses vary widely in what they speak.  Some speak on guiding her towards a life of consummate work towards the next professional goal, working tirelessly in the lab as if it is the only thing that is important.  Others, speak of work as a passion as part of a healthy balance between work and life allowing one to change the world professionally and personally while in a  constant state of happiness.

Amidst all of the sources of information and overall distraction it is easy to see how frustration can potentially arise.  With so much to offer in the world, and so many potential paths, how does one find happiness?  For her, frustration most often arises after having invested, emotionally and physically, in an endeavor that bears no fruit.  Logically, this feeds into her ultimate fear of taking the wrong road and investing in the path that breeds the least happiness per hour of effort.

Luckily for her, the measure of what makes a successful day and successful activity is simple.  Enjoyment, satisfaction, approval, and recognition.  Leaving the gathering of friends with a smile on her face because of laughs and like ideas shared.  Leaving the laboratory with a feeling of satisfaction because experiment results proved a hypothesis.  A comment of admiration or approval from a stranger on the tasteful outfit or the visible, physical results of a healthy lifestyle.  The feeling of seeing her name cited as the author of a meaningful paper that one day is attributed as a meaningful data point that led to the cure to cancer.

 

All of these show signs of the benchmarks of her life and the measures of happiness and success.  Smiles and enjoyment, satisfaction professionally and personally with life’s outcomes, approval from those in the world around her, and acknowledgement of her efforts and successes in making the world a better place.  Ultimately, many things stand between her and these outcomes but the most important is her own perception.  Being in a good mood or a bad mood can be the deciding difference in how she perceives the world around her and how the interactions rate according to her own benchmarks.  Perception is everything and a blatantly important thing to Cara.  Just as understanding how her own perception and her means of interacting with the world give her the tools to control what she gets out of life, having that insight communicates to us her wants, needs, and what drives her.  This is the very essence of consumer insight.