What Women Make » research http://www.whatwomenmake.com women, design, innovation, entrepreneurship Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:11:13 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Recipe for Business Opportunity: Include the Practitioners — Ethnography at work for Innovation http://www.whatwomenmake.com/recipe-for-business-opportunity-include-the-practitioners-ethnography-at-work-for-innovation?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=recipe-for-business-opportunity-include-the-practitioners-ethnography-at-work-for-innovation http://www.whatwomenmake.com/recipe-for-business-opportunity-include-the-practitioners-ethnography-at-work-for-innovation#comments Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:29:25 +0000 Chauncey Zalkin http://www.whatwomenmake.com/?p=2646 Research companies, like everyone else, are questioning their value.  Like everyone else, they are struggling to push beyond the boundaries of their current deliverables. In their case, information is too fluid to rely on one definitive report.  At the same time, I imagine that ad agencies might wish they weren’t called ad agencies.  It’s like naming your medical practice by the diagnosis. You can’t give away the ending in the title and know you’re doing the right thing for every client. Surgeons cut. Ad agencies make ads. And last but not least, design firms prioritize physiological and aesthetic relevance but they do take the time to understand people and groups. They engage in ethnography to get context and use mapping techniques to spur innovation even if their business model does not allow for completely open-ended non-prescriptive discovery.

There are only one or two innovation firms that I’ve come across in my search for a job home that are really ideal settings for ethnography. One of those is WhatIf; they use experts with long backward trajectories in various categories to solve problems. They also listen with purpose. But WhatIf isn’t hiring.

I was recently asked how I would approach bringing innovation for new product development to a traditional quantitative and qualitative research company with most of their DNA in brand and advertising research. Here are the initial thoughts I offered.  Though I didn’t have enough time to develop them further, I thought I’d share them.

‘The Constellation’ I talk about in this blog post calls for a shift in approach

A Shift In Approach #1

Look beyond the super-users and early adopters trend and insights experts tend to seek out. Everyone with an Internet connection is an influencer. The single idea or authoritative voice has been replaced by a constellation of conversations, ideas and stories.

Influence is multilateral. Everyone is pinging around from fact to fact, story to story, idea to idea. Those facts and stories are disembodied most of the time. The antecedent is not always important.

The constellation of input is what we have to look at.

A Shift In Approach #2

We’re living in an age of ongoing experimentation.  Reach across disciplines and cultural phenomena for answers. I did this naturally but was really taught to do it working at Crispin. You look to other categories not just for inspiration but for insight into cultural resonance.

Recipe – the Secret Sauce

Traditional Quant

+

Traditional Qual (as needed)

+

Ethnography (deeper open-ended cultural exploration) that includes designers and other ‘makers’. Find those with a pertinent process-knowledge base and bring them into your research in addition to the end-user you are trying to learn about (not only as the experts they are but as people to learn from, observe, and explore with.)


Triangulate as needed.

Tools & Tenets

Consider all social, economic and cultural factors that effect business and consumers (locally or globally or both):

Visit innovative hubs in emerging markets to look for fresh ideas

Listen to world’s greatest problem solvers and cross-reference findings with best thinking

Engage in innovation research praxis: trends and best practices + practical concerns of the business at hand + research into behaviour and emotion –> put into test scenarios.

In a Nutshell

Innovation starts with observation.

A diversity of well considered perspectives increases the depth and in turn, the value of the proposition.

It is vital to involve makers (designers, engineers, developers) – those versed in design thinking and iterative process – for richer analysis and problem-solving.

Drawing fresh ideas from related cultural phenomena further shapes thinking and brings ideas to life.

Stuff I Like to Do or Lead

Self-documentation / digital ethnography

Journaling, Videography, Brainstorming

Sketches, mock-ups, scenario building, co-creation

Map the Marketplace, Category, Competition, Trends

Shopalong

Develop an ‘app-along’

Workshops for Clients

Designer / Developer/ Engineer/Creator panels

Guided tours

Also Incorporate

Protyping – 3d ideation or narrative booklets and videos of findings and innovation exploration

So…

Trends

Observational Research

Workshops

To create best products, brands, services, business opportunities.

The End

I think I’m now off to do more What Women Make stuff and combine my anthropology and truth-seeking with Peter Crosby’s human geography landscapes. More later from Barcelona.

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]]> http://www.whatwomenmake.com/recipe-for-business-opportunity-include-the-practitioners-ethnography-at-work-for-innovation/feed 1 Women in Sustainability Part I http://www.whatwomenmake.com/women-in-sustainability-part-i?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=women-in-sustainability-part-i http://www.whatwomenmake.com/women-in-sustainability-part-i#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:01:08 +0000 Chauncey Zalkin http://www.whatwomenmake.com/?p=1467
*Work of textile designer Marit Fujiwara,  graduate of Chelsea College of Art and Design via Behance

I asked a handful of thought leaders about the top women in sustainability.  Answers came from marketing expert and author of “Don’t think Pink” (Andrea Learned), the award-winning social entrepreneur and innovation strategist who launched the Creative Graduate Prize and now New Frontiers (Melissa Sterry), and an agency CEO who left it all to better the world, giving inspiring TED talks and most recently launching a plan of action in the form of ifwerantheworld.com defn worth a look (Cindy Gallop) — Here’s what they said:

First, former head of BBH NY and internationally recognized creative superstar

Cindy Gallop

1) What is your definition of sustainability?

A virtuous circle.

2) Why does it matter?

Because everything should work that way.

3) Name 1-3 women on the forefront of changes in the way we approach business and innovation?

June Cohen, TED
Rosabeth Kanter, Harvard Business School
Ursula Burns, Xerox

4) Name one sustainable product or service that you’ve come across in your research.

SHE, a fabulous example of what I’ve recommended to founder Elizabeth Scharpf which she calls Ragonomics

Elizabeth Scharpf created ingenious sanitary napkins out of banana leaves for women in Africa

Find her at cindygallop.com

Next: U.K.-based social entrepreneur extraordinaire:

Melissa Sterry

1) What is your definition of sustainability?

My definition of sustainability is an approach which acknowledges and addresses both environmental and social challenges using informed, intelligent, innovative, interdisciplinary and inspired solutions. Truly sustainable concepts are developed when the interactions between humans and their environment are fully understood. While many goods and services are labelled ‘sustainable’, ‘green’ or ‘environmentally-friendly’, in reality few actually are, some are the result of deliberate greenwashing, others are the result of a lack of research and due diligence in the design process.

The best design solutions are built on the most robust research, not off the back of cliches and assumptions. But at a time when most investors are focused on ventures that can potentially provide a quick return, significant R&D will be compromised. Until such time as the international investing community acknowledges the fact that stable and ‘sustainable’ future markets will be built engaging pioneering and at times radically innovative ideas that have been carefully crafted to meet both society’s existing and future needs, the world’s most promising sustainable innovators will find the tide is against them.


2) Why does it matter?

It matters because if we don’t act now and act to the very best of our ability, our species may not walk this Earth by 2150. (read the rest of Melissa’s passionate and articulate answer after the jump.)

3) Name 1-3 women on the forefront of this issue?

Naming just one or two is difficult but three inspirational women from the UK are:

1.) Multidisciplinary scientist Dr. Rachel Armstrong , a senior research fellow at University College London exploring the potential of living architecture and self-repairing buildings with their own metabolisms

2.) Joanna Yarrow, one of the UK’s most senior green living experts and a presenter, broadcaster, journalist, writer and founder of sustainability consultancy Beyond Green.


Joanna Yarrow

3.) Servane Mouazan – founder of Ogunte – the UK’s foremost organization for women leading the Social Economy.

All three are working hard to develop a blueprint for a sustainable society – all thinkers and doers with the creativity, commitment and courage to throw out the rulebook and set out on a journey to find the new frontiers. Often facing adversity and opposition to their ideas, these three women innovate their way around the obstacles, no matter how overwhelming or great they may be.

4) An insight on the future and advice for the female creative entrepreneur.

My insight – the future isn’t going to be easy, whichever way you look at it, the challenges are enormous. My advice – never under-estimate the value of the role you have to play in creating a better future.

5) One sustainable product or service you love or that caught your eye

.

The Aptera epitomizes what sustainable innovation is all about. The Aptera is uber efficient – achieving 300 miles or more to the gallon through minimized air resistance and drag, as a result of having a bullet-shaped body and three wheels, not four. The vehicle has interior and exterior LED lighting and a solar assisted climate control system. The Aptera also features recycled materials and comes in both electric and hybrid versions, achieving a top speed of 90mph and 0-60 in around 10 seconds. While it’s the most sustainable vehicle coming to market in the foreseeable future, it’s founders have pledged to continuously improve the sustainability of the vehicle as more innovations become available to them. Beyond it’s environmental credentials the vehicle is iconically beautiful and a design classic destined for the history books. My only regret about The Aptera is I wont be able to drive one in the UK any time soon.

Find Melissa Sterry at About Me.

Next Expert in Female Insights and Marketing:

Andrea Learned

1) What is your definition of sustainability?

To pursue a state of life/work in ways that mean what you do now will flourish and develop without taking away the resources that others, in future generations, will need to do the same.  I love the awareness raised by something Paul Hawken wrote – there is a difference between “growing” and “developing.”  Developing/development is the sustainable approach.

2) Why does it matter?

It matters because we’ve hit a brick wall – the perfect storm of bad economy, huge environmental problems due to waste of resources, and an emerging more relational, less linear (all about me) way of thinking by citizens.  People are starting to face the facts that endless growth and consumerism for the sake of it doesn’t really feed and nourish our daily lives – and greatly harms the environment.  If it continues, we will actually leave hugely negative effects for our children and grandchildren to deal with.  Now – that’s a realization to contend with!

3) Women on the forefront:

Eileen Fisher – Fisher and the women’s apparel company she launched in 1984 have been successfully (and fairly quietly) operating with a sustainable approach.  The materials and supply chains used in manufacturing her clothing and the way the company treats employees and contributes more broadly to women’s empowerment has become what I’d call “best practices” long before “sustainable” or “socially responsible” were trendy terms.

Joyce LaValle – Some have heard or read about Ray C. Anderson, CEO of Interface Inc., and his evolution toward sustainability (he is now considered a pioneer in the “movement”).  LaValle is the former Senior Vice President of that company and is credited for originally inspiring Anderson’s vision on the topic.  She also co-founded the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future, which should get more notice (in my opinion) because it brings sustainability thought leaders and best cases to light so conventional businesses might learn (and it is not just about and “for women”).

Kira Gould – By way of the interviews conducted and synthesized in Women in Green, the book she co-authored with Lance Hosey, Gould’s influence has been key in my personal move to study and promote the concepts of sustainable business development.  She is an architect and the director of communications for McDonough + Partners (founded by another quite recognized sustainability pioneer/author, Bill McDonough).

4) An insight on the future and advice for the female creative entrepreneur

Businesses can do well and still “do good” with regard to people, planet and profit – the oft-mentioned socially responsible, “triple bottom line.”   The future is already here in that consumers have become very savvy and are much more intentional/deliberate in their buying.  Businesses, however, have been slow to catch on to that.  So, entrepreneurs that authentically believe and commit to the journey toward more sustainable business practices – in materials, supply chain, human resources, community support, energy use and so on – will have a significant advantage.  Women, in particular, have a natural tendency toward a more holistic perspective.  “Just business” really doesn’t exist, because they naturally know there’s a lot more to it.

Find Andrea at http://www.learnedon.com/

Continuation of Melissa Sterry’s answer on ‘why it matters’:
Professor John Beddington – Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government, summed up the situation when he said we are facing ‘The Perfect Storm’. Dr. Richard Leakey – one of the world’s foremost experts on mass extinction events, said of the environmental challenges facing humankind that it would be complacement to assume that humans are not on the ‘extinction list’. We are currently in the midst of a man-made worldwide mass extinction event, having already destroyed an estimated 1/3 of all biodiversity on Earth since 1970 (source WWF).
It took 65 million years for the planet to recover from the last mass extinction event, yet within one generation humans have put such strain on the world’s ecosystems that many are starting to collapse, some possibly beyond the point at which they could ever fully recover. Simultaneously the world’s natural resources are fast dwindling, as many in the west consume several times the level of resources that our planet can sustain – the average American citizen consumes so much that if everyone on the planet did the same it would take 5 Earth’s to supply the natural resources required to meet the level of consumption.
An estimated one in three in people on the planet live on or below the poverty line. The governments of developing world nations, such as China, understandably want to improve the living conditions for their citizens and those nations that can, are developing their infrastructures and economies to try and ensure that they eradicate poverty within one generation. Additionally, the world’s population is fast rising and, assuming no major multinational disaster occurs, such as the outbreak of a life-threatening pandemic for which there was no cure, or a super volcanic eruption, or an asteroid impact, we can expect to hit a global population of 10 billion or so by 2050. Somehow humankind has to make a lot less go a lot further, because if we cannot achieve this, in coming decades we will see suffering on a scale not yet witnessed in human history. Many of the basic commodities which we rely on to exit and which we take for granted are either running out or in increasingly short supply – there isn’t enough to go round. It’s life or death for humankind and for many other species at our mercy.

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]]> http://www.whatwomenmake.com/women-in-sustainability-part-i/feed 1 Talking What Women Want with High Priestess of Marketing to Women http://www.whatwomenmake.com/marketing_to_women_mbarletta?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=marketing_to_women_mbarletta http://www.whatwomenmake.com/marketing_to_women_mbarletta#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:37:34 +0000 Chauncey Zalkin http://www.whatwomenmake.com/?p=1425 I am at a conference right now called RethinkHer in Barcelona and just had a long chat with Marti Barletta arguably the queen of marketing to women. I tweeted about her on Friday after finding her Twitter feed. In my tweet, I thanked her for her first book, aptly named, Marketing to Women, for getting me through some tough opposition when I was arguing at agencies to take women just a bit more seriously as a market force and as an arbiter of consumer decision making.  It  made me feel less alone in the all male creative wilderness to have her powerful proof at my fingertips.

But today, in light of my mission with WWM, I asked her, blue sky, to come up with some market opportunities out there that are being neglected.  After all that exposure to the behemoth corporations and the female consumer challenge, I knew some creative ideas of her own must be percolating under the surface.  After a  conversation about everything from the follies of the European car companies (she feels the Asian car makers do the best job of understanding female values) to her advice to companies to make fewer jokey ads that don’t relate to women  — we got to her wonderful off the cuff insights.

Her latest book, Prime Time Women focuses on the 50+ woman and she had this in mind when she answered.

  • Adult camps – ‘I would love to go back to college. Study art history, geology.. but I can´t go back during the day because I have a business – so a two week adult camp to do the things I want to do but can´t all the time would be great. I´m interested in people so Id like it to be a social thing that includes fitness and learning.
  • A fashionable fashion brand for size 14+ women – ‘I know it exists but nothing is flattering. Most of these brands, take Eileen Fisher, you end up looking like a rumpled mess with the fabrics they use and the cuts of the jackets. I’m convinced that the fashion industry doesn’t care about their customers. Fashion brands only care what the other fashion houses think of them and what Vogue thinks of them. If they want to be the artistes of the world, great, but I thought they wanted to sell to customers. Isn’t fashion a business after all?’
  • Home Design that considers reality - ‘It’s still too much about form and not enough about function.  The command center of the house is the kitchen. Why isn’t there a nice big wide desk and lots of places to put things. The woman has to watch the stove, the kids, do her work, have a computer and her files nearby. Why is there only this tiny little desk and chair. Also there are never nearly enough plugs in a house.’

I thought these insights were just fantastic. And her presentation later in the day was thoroughly engaging and right on the money. In fact, there were a lot of presentations that were full of fresh information. I was scribbling like mad.  Stay tuned for another post with all the tidbits and insights from the whole days event including Marti’s.

Marti Barletta’s Chicago-based company is called TrendSight.

-Chauncey Zalkin

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]]> http://www.whatwomenmake.com/marketing_to_women_mbarletta/feed 4 Ethnography: Immersive, Dynamic, and Unscripted http://www.whatwomenmake.com/ethnography-immersive-dynamic-and-unscripted?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ethnography-immersive-dynamic-and-unscripted http://www.whatwomenmake.com/ethnography-immersive-dynamic-and-unscripted#comments Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:58:40 +0000 Chauncey Zalkin http://whatwomenmake.com/?p=1189 Image by Swedish Illustrator, Linn Olofsdotter

Some of you are curious about the foundation of what I do aside from my passion for innovation and writing about women who create. I’m an ethnographer. I was an ethnographer long before I even knew the term. When I ended up in advertising, I would get frustrated with highly regimented approaches to understanding consumers (people basically, consumers makes me think of lever pulling and manipulation which I am dead set against).

I have always approached insights and strategy/concept building with honest, open curiousity and interest – and I’d like to think a strong dose of savvy from weaving in and out of different social and cultural situations. I studied Cultural Studies and Semiotics in school and then attended the school of life where I set out to find the patterns and rhythms of New York City’s inhabitants.  Then I went deeper. And I went broader as I worked with diverse clients with subtle nuances and micro-cultures that required abandoning all preconceptions.  (and moved country. twice.)

The basic questions that make this work worthwhile are: What do people want and need?  How can we make manifest products and services that will make lives better/easier/more pleasant/more connected? How can we bring ideas and the narrative of business’ social role to life in ways that matter and are sustainable? How can we add instead of take away, drain, deplete? And how can we surprise?

I gave a one day workshop hosted by a consulting firm in Barcelona called Brain Ventures.  Antonio Monerris, the partner in the firm who approached me about the project, is just one of those people on this earth that keeps growing, evolving, learning, always with an open mind and an eye on the future. Among those present were representatives from Pan Rico (bread), Gallina Blanca (soups), and Chup Chups (candy).  Here’s the gist of the presentation part.

Ethno One Day Workshop

View more documents from Chauncey Zalkin.

‘Ethno day’ can also work in two to three day workshops where we roll up our sleeves and go deep into your brand/product/service/business model – not just looking at the consumers but the folks that make up your company. That’s where the real work begins.

If’ you’d like to know more, contact me and check out the ‘about’ section. Here’s the slide show from the Ethno One Day Workshop. Enjoy!

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