What is the meaning of ethnographic research?

Ethnographic research involves studying the behavior of people in their natural habitat. Businesses employ ethnographic research to study their customers' needs and pain points. It's also useful for uncovering hidden opportunities, testing new projects, or streamlining existing products.

What is the main focus of ethnographic research?

The main focus of ethnographic research is people's behavior and motivations. In business, it involves studying how people interact with a company's products. By focusing on consumer behavior and motivations, companies can identify pain points and offer relevant solutions to satisfy consumer motivations.

What is ethnographic research with examples?

Ethnographic research is the process of gathering consumer data while they are in their natural environment. For example, an ethnographer can observe what it looks like for a student to take an online course. Perhaps they imagine a quiet space with everything a student needs, but find the student attending to their children while cooking dinner with their laptops open to the course. The student can describe the better life she wants for herself and her children while bouncing a child on her knee. Unexpected and real human observations like this can help gather invaluable insights for business and humanize your product design process.

Contributors

Jean Kaluza

UX Researcher & Product Consultant

Experience

Jean has a wealth of experience in the digital space, spanning over a decade. She has collaborated with enterprises and startups, with one having been acquired for $36 million. Jean's approach revolves around Design Thinking, which not only caters to the needs of users but also takes into consideration available resources and the bottom line. This approach ensures that teams and processes remain efficient and focused.

Jean has successfully led product teams and played a key role in implementing streamlined product processes across multiple companies. Particularly noteworthy are the projects initially featured on Code School, which continue to be a central feature for Pluralsight.

Professional achievements

Led Product at Code School
Head of Product for StackPath
Innovation & Experience Designer at Walt Disney
Founder & Researcher at Product Shift
In-demand speaker for tech events since 2016, speaking on topics from Design Thinking to the UX of animation

IOT case study

ZenSpace is an IoT Startup in Silicon Valley. Their pods were manually reserved, but bookings only successfully happened with assistance. Users were completely missing the tablet on the pod's side and reached directly for the door handle. I proposed, designed, and product-managed the implementation of the centralized kiosk. There was additional functionality that managed the lights, lock, and fan within the pods as well.

Disney case study

I had the profound privilege of working as an Innovation & Experience Designer with Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Technology. We leveraged a heavily regulated Pattern Library while being directed by specific business requirements. We designed internal applications for our fellow cast members. After ideation sessions and light ethnographic research, using Axure created complex prototypes and delivered in-depth documentation to the development teams. The solution was so effective that teams as far as California reached out to join and work with us.

You can find Jean on the web at The Product Shift or via her LinkedIn profile.

Skills and expertise

Patient experience Research methods Product development User experience (UX)Employee experience Surveys Market research Customer research

About our editorial process

At Dovetail, our mission is to create and share trustworthy content that helps everyone improve the quality of everything. No complicated jargon or industry terminology. No content written by AI-powered robots. Just what you need to know when you need to know it. And most importantly, every word is checked by an expert before it’s published.

Our independent authors and reviewers include experienced UX researchers, product designers, market researchers, survey specialists, product managers, and more. You can be confident what you read here is relevant, accurate, and high quality.

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