Customer Experience Audit and Prototype Reflections

The Customer Experience Audit and Prototype was truly a fun learning experience for me. There are many course concepts and skills that I learned from this project, but two that had the most impact on me are generative (qualitative) research techniques and Kotler’s lateral marketing.

The most important skill I learned is using generative (qualitative) research techniques to gather insights about customers, or in our case our persona and research samples. Rather than just learning about the different types of generative research, utilizing it first-hand allowed me to better understand the benefits of it. Kate Canales’s presentation is what first got me interested in this research method. According to Kate, generative research “inspires new ideas, uncovers latent needs, focuses on individuals, happens in natural contexts, promotes dynamic conversations, and is valuable early in a development process.” Employing generative research techniques really helped my group and I to gather insights we would not have been able to by only using quantitative research methods.

There are many generative research tools, such as tours/”in-homes,” analogies, journals (photo or written), walking in someone’s shoes, foreign correspondents, and image collages, to name a few. For our project, we used written journals and our variation of image collages. Every family was given a journal where they would keep a log of activities and emotions experienced in the family room. Through this technique, we were able to see when specific family members were in the room and the emotions felt as they were doing particular activities. For example, we discovered that one child felt bored when watching T.V.

Instead of doing real image collages (with magazine cut-outs), we had the kids from our research sample draw a collage (with crayons) of how they currently perceive the family room. We also asked them to draw what they would like to see in the room that is not already there. This exercise helped us gain insight of the kids’ untapped desires. Across the board, all of the kids drew lots of electronics such as televisions, game consoles, and computers. One boy based his entire drawing on the theme of electronics and drew a large T.V. that was the main focus with an Xbox, PS3, and sound system surrounding it. He also drew two chairs in front of the T.V., and when asked what those were, he said those were vibrating chairs to be used when playing video games. This really demonstrated not only that the kids wanted more electronics, but the extent to which they desired it.

Using generative research also helped me understand the concept of, “don’t ask what customers want, but what do they want their products to do for them.” Throughout the course of the project, I reminded myself of this concept and tried to employ it when conducting interviews with my research sample family. For instance, once I realized the kids in my family wanted more electronics, I dug deeper and began asking why they wanted more and what they wanted the electronics to do for them, both physically and emotionally.

Another course concept I understand better as a result of applying it to this project is Kotler’s lateral marketing. This is when you manipulate a product to create a new innovation, which can be seen as a variance of the product that is manipulated. There are six ways to manipulate a product, including: substitution, combination, inversion, elimination, exaggeration, and reordering. For our project, we were able to manipulate traditional board games, electronic games, touch screen technology, and coffee tables by substitution, combination, and elimination to create our digital game board. Substitution is “removing one/several elements and changing it/them,” combination is “adding one or several elements,” and elimination is “removing one or several elements.”

For the process of creating a new product for our family room, we started by thinking of the key items most used in the family room, traditional board games, electronics, and the coffee table in the center of the room. In addition, we thought of what families wanted from the family room, more family time and increased organization with less clutter. First, we tried to think of ways to substitute traditional game boards with something more electronic. Then, we decided to combine the coffee table with traditional game boards since that is where the games are usually played. This was done by somehow being able to play an electronic version of the traditional game board built-in to the coffee table, through touch screen technology. Finally, we decided the game board built-in to the coffee table was too big and not portable, so we decreased the size and eliminated the legs of the table, creating the portable digital game board.

Through the use of lateral marketing, we were able to create a product that included all of the most-used features of the family room while addressing the needs of more family time and less clutter by developing an all-in-one digital game board. This tool was extremely helpful in initially brainstorming our product. As a result of this tool, we already had an idea of what to make during our prototype work session day.

Initially, I was not very excited about this project because I thought it would be near impossible to create a product that has never been developed. But because we had several phases of completion, it divided up the project in a way that was more clear and feasible to me. In addition, the outside resources such as Kate Canales and her generative research techniques and the lateral marketing tool was really beneficial to my group in gathering valuable insights and developing our product.

Overall, I felt like our group was a bit confused about the project’s main point and process at the beginning, but as we progressed, the confusion faded and we began to understand what our objectives were. Personally, once we had an idea of what we wanted our prototype to be from the lateral marketing exercise, I was not as worried anymore, and became excited about our final product. I really began to embrace the generative research techniques when I was conducting interviews with my sample family. I felt like a real marketing researcher and was excited to hear the responses from my family. It was also pretty cool to be able to dig deeper and gain insights about the “why” aspect of their untapped desires. Through this project, I discovered I really enjoy gathering insights and interacting with potential users, rather than quantitative data which I did more of in my Marketing Research course last semester.

Working with my group also contributed to my learning and enjoyment of this project with the application of course concepts. Although I had great tools and resources to work with, this project would not have been as fun without my group. In addition, I would not have gained as much as I did out of it. Because we had five individuals, we were able to integrate multiple ideas and skill sets. We were able to challenge each other’s ideas, but also work well together without personal conflict, leading us to create an awesome product, which I am very proud of and hope to see out in market one day soon!