Blog 3 - Generative Research - Due 25-Sep-2013

For this one, I'd like you to get some experience with a few of tasks that we'll review in class as examples of generative research.  Blogger will only allow me to upload images, so I am going to add these tasks as a PowerPoint file to Blackboard under Course Documents/Blog Materials.  It is probably best if you print these out and use a Sharpie-type marker to complete them.  If you can, please save whatever you do as an image file (i.e., take a picture) and upload it to your blog.  If you need to bring a physical copy, please speak with me about that.  The writing length guidelines for this one will not be as strictly applied - we will be judging effort based on the instructions provided below.


1.  Close to You
There are 2 concentric circles on the page.  First, identify the "stuff" you can not live without (5-6 items should be good).  This "stuff" can truly be anything that comes to mind.  If you can, take a photograph of the item or, if a photograph isn't possible, then feel free to capture an image from the web, draw a representation of it, or, as a last resort, just type it/write it down on the page.  Place of these artifacts in the inner circle, closest to the icon of a person. 
In the outer circle, identify the stuff (again, 5 or 6 items) that you care about but may not rise to the level of "can't live without" and do the same thing (photograph, image, drawing, or type/write). 
In addition to what you placed in the circles, please give a very brief description of the item, if it's not obvious, and provide a VERY brief reason for why you either can't live without it or care about it so much.  You do not have to do this for every item, just the 2 or 3 in each circle that you want to tell us more about.

2.  Digital Ecosystem
For this exercise, we would like to understand your digital or online world, especially in terms of how you receive news, information, updates, and other content.  Please indicate which of these digital and online sources you commonly use to get news, information, updates, or other content by drawing a line from the appropriate circle to the image of the person in the center. 
Next, if there are any sources that you use a lot more frequently than the others, please draw a second line from the appropriate circle to the image of the person in the center.
If you use something that you believe does not fit well in the categories provided, describe what that is and how you use it in one of the corners of the document. 
Finally, for the 2 or 3 you use most often, please explain for what, how, and/or why you use that source.

3.  Typical Weekday
Using the timeline towards the bottom half of the page, divide up your day from when you wake up until you go to sleep.  Please draw small lines intersecting this timeline at points where you transition from one part of your day to the next and please write some very brief description of that part of the day just above or right on the timeline.
Next, browse through the categories of information/content that we have provided in the top half of the page and, for the information that you might receive or access during a typical weekday, draw a line from that category box to the appropriate place on the timeline for when you receive or access it.  If it makes it more visually clear which content you are drawing from, then circle or highlight the box - if it does not help, don't worry about doing that.
Finally, look across your timeline and see if there are any parts of you day during which you seem to access a bit more information categories and, just below the timeline for that part of the day, provide a brief description of what is going on that time of day and why you are more likely to access this information then.  If there is anything else about your timeline and information accessed that you would like to describe, also provide that just below the timeline in the most appropriate place.

Blog 2 - Journey Mapping - Due 16-Sep-2013

For this next blog, I'd like you to explore the Journey Mapping tool.  Journey Maps allow us to understand what happens to people as they navigate a particular context in which we are particularly interested.  It is an important research and evaluation tool in our process, but we are going to explore it here as a method to greater empathy through understanding a person's set of experiences.

For this one, you'll need to interview someone about their experience, as described below.  Be sure to describe who this person is, including relevant information about them that will help us know this person a bit better.  As always, feel free to disguise the identity, given this is a public blog.

The context you'll be exploring is the journey to plan a group vacation with their family or friends. It is best to choose a trip for which they were the or one of the primary planners, but just do the best you can. In your interviews, the starting point will be when your participant first thought of planning or was contacted by a family member or friend to plan a vacation.

You should begin by asking about the original goal for the trip.

As you ask them about their process of planning the trip (their journey), be sure to capture the following factors for each milestone they identify:
- what was actually happening at this point (i.e., the process step - e.g., searching a travel magazine website for great family vacation spots)
- what or who was the primary influencer, being sure to categorize the influence however you think makes sense (e.g., a person, travel reference site, their own experience, etc.)
- what was their emotional response or sentiment at the point (i.e., how were they feeling about the trip and the process)
- why for all of the above - why this step, why this influence, & why this emotional response
- anything else relevant to them at that point in time

You should try to leave it open for your participant to identify their steps or milestones, but it is a good idea to be ready to prompt them with some of the following items (and feel free to add or take away):
- the very first thing they did to start planning
- deciding who would come and/or handling inviting people on the trip
- deciding on the exact location
- deciding on lodging & transportation
- deciding on activities for individuals or groups, including meals, excursion, free time, etc.

Feel free to use the attached template for your field notes as a starting point.  A picture of it is below and the original Word doc is available on Blackboard.

You will use the information you capture to build a visual representation of the journey map. An example of one is provided for you. 

Blog 1 - Empathy Map - Due: 11-Sep-2013

Well, here it is... your first blog topic. Think about the kind of information that a marketer would need to create a detailed and rich persona of someone you know fairly well, but who does not fit within your segmentation profile (skeleton).  The goal is to play with a tool that is intended to help you begin to gain empathy for someone who has a background and/or experiences that are different from yours.  With that in mind, choose someone who is more than 5 years younger or older, not your gender, and is not in the MBA or MPA program (or just finished or about to enter).  Beyond that, I'll let you figure out if the person is dissimilar enough from you to benefit from the exercise (so there is no need to clear your choice with me or Sirisha).  

Keep in mind that this is public blog and that it is probably best not to use real names, so consider using an alias for the person. I'd be curious to know your relationship with this person, but if you have any concerns that they might read this and be upset, you can certainly choose not to tell me that.

With that in mind, create a persona for this person in a way that would be very valuable for marketers. Remember, what we are looking for here are detailed and nuanced descriptions about them that would lead a marketer to discover or identify key insights.  Of course, what you provide may just be the first nugget and the researcher might have to dig deeper to uncover the real insight, but the information you provide should be a great start.

To give you structure, I would like you to use the Empathy Map in the creation of your persona (which is on our class slides, the Business Model Generation book, and I also describe it below without the visual canvas).  I will also encourage you to use this in your project. The Empathy Map has 6 sections (numbered) and sub questions (bulleted) for you to consider:

1. What does he or she think and feel?

-- what really counts?

-- major preoccupations?

-- worries & aspirations?

2. What does he or she see?

-- environment?

-- friends?

-- what the market offers?

3. What does he or she say and do?

-- attitude in public?

-- appearance?

-- behavior towards others?

4. What does he or she hear?

-- what friends say?

-- what bosses say?

-- what influencers say?

5. What are his or her pain points?

-- Fears?

-- Frustrations?

-- Obstacles?

6. What does he or she hope to gain?

-- Wants/needs?

-- Measures of success?

-- Obstacles?

In addition to what you write, try to be as visual as possible with this.  Consider including 2-4 images for each of the 6 sections of the Empathy Map - these can be photos you have, images from the web, or drawings/sketches you create (remember, artistic ability is not important here).

Please remember the length requirements for blogs as well as the grading criteria (all of which are available in the syllabus and on this class blog home page). Have fun with it!