There is a problem with innovation research. Many of the methods used to study people for strategic and design innovation purposes are not up to the task. They are holdovers from market research or are simplified versions of tools borrowed from other fields of research. The problem exists because these methods cannot provide the kind of understanding, or grounding in people’s lived experience to meet the requirements of design and strategy innovation. The world is only becoming more complicated, and innovation’s impacts on people’s lives and the environment are only increasing. It is essential we work to fulfill the promises of human-centered research with better research practices, and create positive interventions into people’s lives while resisting the reductionist, damaging, and wasteful tendencies of design thinking research and human-centered design (HCD). This book critiques many of the common methods used in innovation research and provides directions to overcome their weaknesses by developing a radical human-centric approach.
Author(s): Paul Hartley
Publisher: Anthem Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 237
City: London
Cover
Front Matter
Half-title page
Title page
Copyright page
Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Alexander Manu
Introduction
The Problem of Human-Centricity
The Radical Human-Centric Approach
What is the book you have in your hands?
Notes
Part I The Critique
Chapter 1 The Need for Real Research
Toward Real Research
The Radically Human-Centric Version
Notes
Chapter 2 Reclaiming Ethnography
Understanding Ethnography
Ethnography: Writing About People
What Being There Means: Empiricism, Subjectivity, and Objectivity
Interviews ≠ Asking Questions to Gather Data
Fieldnotes: Capturing the Field Experience
The Possibility of a Micro-ethnographic Practice
Finding the Right People: The Problem of Commercial Recruiting
Remote Research: Working in a Pandemic and Postpandemic Reality
Specialists Do Good Things: It is Time to End DIY Research
Considering Impact: Ethics Before, Ethics After, Ethics Between
Conclusion
Notes
Chapter 3 Rethinking Commercial Research
The Key Conceptual Shifts toward Radically Human-Centric Research
1 Multi-Disciplinarity: Qual and Quant as Real Research
“Quant is more scientific:” Or, People Misunderstanding Research Tools
The Fantasy of Objectivity: How the Qual versus Quant Division Hides the True Nature of Empirical Research
2 Time: Considering the Past, Present, and Future
Insight, Foresight, and the Fantasy of the Technofuture
3 Change Drivers: Understanding Agency and Change
4 Subjects of a Study: Real People versus Idealized Customer/Users
5 Complexity versus Simplicity
6 From Frameworks to a Positive Skepticism
7 Theorizing Needs = The End of Unmet Needs
8 Growth and Homeostasis
9 Impact: Understanding the Complexity of Homeostasis, its Inertia, and Barriers to Change
10 Impact at Scale: The problem of Global and Local Perspectives
Conclusion
Notes
Part II Core Considerations
Chapter 4 Beyond Empathy
How Did We Get Into This Mess?
Looking Beyond Empathy
What Lies Beyond Empathy?
Phenomenologically “Seeing”
Experience
The Meaning made from Experiences
Structuring Shared Experience
Schema and Cultural Models
Ref lexivity – Difference – Perspective – And Bias!
Finding Possibilities Past “Empathy”
Notes
Chapter 5 The World As It Is
Being Radically Human-Centric Means Avoiding Abstraction
What This Requires
What Are the Benefits of the Examining the World as It Is?
Understanding the World As You Find It: Problems and Solutions
The World Is Not Simple: The Problems
The World Is Not Simple: The Solution in Practice
The Parallax View: The Problem of Perspective
The Parallax View: Problems of Perspective – Theory
The Parallax View: Problems of Perspective – In Practice
Resisting the Urge to Control Things
Death to Focus Groups! – In Theory
Death to Focus Groups! – In Practice
Notes
Chapter 6 Radical Storytelling
Practical Storytelling
Context at Work: Thick Description
Insights
Difference between a “House” and a “Home”
Between “Smart” and “Dumb”
Process Changes: Notes Toward a Radical Approach to Storytelling
Expertise in Storytelling
Being “of” the Context
Locating the “Other”
Double Translation: An Argumentative Approach to Actionability
Conclusion
Notes
Part III The RHC Approach
An Outline of the RHC Process
Scope
1.0 The Idea
1.1 The History of an Idea
1.2 Assumptions behind a Need for Research
1.3 The Expectations
1.3.1 Why Are You Doing It in the First Place?
1.3.2 What Do You Hope to Gain?
1.3.3 What Is It Supposed to Do?
1.3.4 How Big Should It Be?
2.0 Framing the Research
2.1 Getting the Brief Right
2.2 Hypotheses Are Created to Be Wrong
2.3 Understanding What Has Been Done Before
2.4 Connecting the Need with Outcomes
3.0 Making a Space for Planning
3.1 The Ethics of Research
3.1.1 The Degree of Engagement with the Participants
3.1.2 The Truthfulness of What They Are Being Told
3.1.3 The Value of the Information They Are Providing
3.1.4 The Way Their Personal Data and Information Will Be Handled
3.1.5 The Way They Are Being Represented
3.1.6 Everyone’s Safety
3.2 Choosing the Right Tool for the Job
3.3 The Right Team for the Job
3.4 Leaving Space for Failure
Notes
Observe
4.0 Set-Up
4.1 Recruiting
4.2 The First Respondent Problem
4.3 Pre-Research
4.4 Know Your Field Site
4.5 Thoughts on Screeners, Discussion Guides, and Moderators
4.6 Planning for Remote/Online Interviews
5.0 Entry
5.1 Nothing Goes To Waste
5.2 Leaving the Consultant’s Ivory Tower
6.0 In Field
6.1 Recording Fieldnotes
7.0 Leaving
7.1 Getting Out
7.2 Building Lasting Relationships
Notes
Understand
8.0 Analysis
8.1 Data Management
8.2 Actually Managing Complexity
8.3 Mitigating the Dreaded “Subjectivity”
9.0 Synthesis
10.0 Return-Test-Verify-Edit
Note
Generate
11.0 Insights
11.1 Description
11.2 Define
11.3 Translate
11.4 Actionability
End Matter
Notes on Activation
Conclusion
References
Index
