The Science of Desire Sarah Ross and Kambria Sauer

History of Ethnography Harnessing the social sciences since 1930’s How to make employees more productive Since 1960’s companies use ethnography to get a better handle on their customers

Advantages to Ethnography Richer understanding of consumers Focus groups, surveys and demographic data still used Intel and its critical transition from chipmaker to consumer-products

Up Close and Personal Corporate ethnography can sound flakey Findings don’t often lead to a product or service, only generalized sense of what people want Takes a long time to produce any real results Possible backlash surrounding ethnography

Accelerated Global Society Markets are sliced into ever-thinner pieces Product life-cycles are measured in months or weeks, not years New ideas zip around the planet at the speed of light

Refreshing a Product Using ethnography to revitalize an existing product or service Marriot hired IDEO to rethink the hotel experience for the young, tech savvy road warrior IDEO dispatched team of 7 consultants on a 6 week trip to 12 cities

What They Learned Hotels are generally good at serving large parties but not small groups of business travelers Lobbies tend to be dark Marriot lacked where guests could comfortably combine work with pleasure outside their rooms