Learn the answers to some common questions we receive about ethnography and how we conduct our work.
Some of these questions come from clients and potential clients, others from conferences we’ve spoken at, and some are just from people we meet day to day who get an earful when they ask what we do for a living.
At your college library or on the web! If you have a particular subject area in mind and have exhausted other sources, send us an email, and maybe one of us can recommend a book.
Yes, all research methods, in different ways, have an impact on their subject of research. But by recognizing and accounting for our impact on the environment, we can minimize the impact it has on the research findings. Our ethnographers are skilled in making people feel comfortable and becoming a natural part of the environment and also on using triangulation to ensure that our findings are trustworthy.
Yes, they can, but we don’t poke! People almost always get used to the camera in a matter of minutes, partially because we are inconspicuous about its use. We usually hold it at belly-level or otherwise out of the way, which is not only easier on our arms but makes the camera less obtrusive. The camera isn’t in the participant’s line of sight and face-to-face communication is unhindered. We also do a good job of explaining that the camera helps us to ensure the accuracy of our field notes.
It is always helpful to use what you’ve learned in one piece of research to aid you in another or to use one piece of research to validate another. It depends on what you want out of each piece of research. Talk to us about it; we can help you come up with the best strategy.
No, we don’t, but team members have had experience in the design, implementation and analysis of surveys, so we can work in conjunction with any quantitative work your team is doing.
Focus groups don’t have the depth, the color, or the human touch of ethnography. Doing the interview in places where people feel at home is important. Observing our participants and “the thing under study” in a natural environment is crucial, as is avoiding the constraints of a focus group, like time limitations and lack of privacy.
Focus groups let you hear what people say they do, while ethnography lets you see what they are actually doing. We have found that oftentimes, people don’t actually know how or why they do things, making it impossible for them to tell you about it. Ethnography allows us to observe real life, which includes a lot of details that get lost in focus groups.
No, we focus on ethnography and just ethnography.
With new product ideas, sales strategies, marketing plans, approaches to B2B relationships, and foundational understandings of their consumers. Ethnography has a long shelf-life and has been used in developing strategic platforms for many of our clients.
Our extensive backgrounds in the social sciences, both in academia and applied to the business world, have made us strong ethnographers. We all have at least a Master’s degree in the social sciences, and collectively we have decades of experience conducting ethnographic studies.
It depends. Usually we try multiple recruiting methods to assemble a diverse sample. We might “snowball” from a primary contact, or simply go wherever it makes sense to find the people we need. When a project is narrow in scope, we sometimes use a screener to select participants.
We don’t like to talk about sample sizes as “number of people” because we also sample contexts and behaviors. A single field visit can yield an army of data points. Still, social researchers often think in head counts: a small project might involve about a dozen primary participants; large projects might mean twenty, thirty, or more field visits.
Cost depends on scope. A solid data-set project typically runs $50 k–$150 k. Smaller, quick-turn work can be less; multi-phase or multi-country work costs more. We’re good at explaining options—and we won’t sell you a river when all you need is a cup of tea.
Most projects last 2-4 months. Some wrap in six weeks; others—depending on topic, population, and objectives—can run a year or more. We’ll work with you to set the right timeline.
Product testing and ad testing: focus groups are cheaper for that. If you need a means-based statistic on a well-defined group, a large survey is best.
Uncovering the “a-ha” findings other methods miss. We work inductively, entering the field with open minds and protocols—so we discover things clients never imagined.
Ethnography is perfect when you have a problem but don’t know where to start. It can be exploratory and tactical, tackling specific goals.
It’s also great for bringing your segmentation to life—putting faces and voices to the data after a large quantitative study (and sometimes revealing surprises).