The Anthropologist Approach

The Anthropologist

Put on an anthropologist hat to develop ideas by observing how people behave and learning about their needs.

 

Ultimately what matters more than what people say is what they do. Sometimes people will say they like something because they think that’s the acceptable thing to say. Product development history is full of examples of customers saying one thing and doing another. From New Coke to Aeron chairs, early conversations with consumers have often led product developers in the wrong direction. Part of the problem is that researchers in these instances were asking consumers about their opinions about a particular product, which is not the same thing as listening to them talk about their lives.

 

But the broader point here is that to understand people’s behaviors, wants and needs it’s useful to look at what they actually do, not just what they say. One of the best ways to do that is to adopt the mindset of the anthropologist, observing people in their daily habitat. Actors do this when preparing for a role as a lawyer, doctor or boxer. When preparing for the role of a product developer who is going to serve people’s needs, it’s equally useful to see what they actually do to try to understand how products and services fit in the daily lives that people lead.

 

Understanding the hectic pace of someone’s workday, or the lack of Internet connectivity in her workplace, or the pervasiveness of TVs in a particular hospital environment can inform your understanding of how media fits into someone’s life.

 

The fact that there are TVs blaring in the senior center where they live may not come in a conversation, but it will be obvious if you set foot there. A teacher may not mention that she has no occasion to access the Internet during the school day, but if you spend a day shadowing her in the classroom, you’ll make that observation. A scientist may not mention that having her hands occupied leads her to rely on voice activation to ask for news updates from her phone during the day, but watching her at work will help you notice that. In each case, your observations of someone’s experience at work may shed light on the ways in which media does or does not fit into their everyday experience.

Observing people at home can be equally illuminating. We often assume that others behave the same way we do (the “false-consensus bias”) so it’s particularly valuable to see the lives of others up close when we want to better understand who they are, how they work, what they do and what their preferences and needs are. Only then can we begin to develop a fully empathetic appreciation for people. That empathy is a crucial ingredient when it comes time to understand an opportunity and begin the process of developing potential solutions.