[Sigia-l] making the case for field research for innovation

[Lord, Ralph]

I might refer my management to obscure tinkerers like Thomas Edison or tiny
dry-goods purveyors like Proctor and Gamble and those backwaters of the auto
industry like Toyota, Ford, GM, Mercedes, etc. 

All were/are known to have engaged in no small amount of field research and
last time I looked had invented a few things and sold a few gazillion
dollars worth of stuff.

Ralph Lord
TRW Systems
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
404.639.7382



> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Heller [mailto:hippiefunk at hotmail.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 4:08 PM
> To: sigia-l; CHI-WEB at ACM.ORG
> Subject: [Sigia-l] making the case for field research for innovation
> 
> 
> I'm having trouble making the case for field research (contexual
> inquiry) as a basis innovation and discovery. Management is 
> very clear in its use for validation, but doesn't see value 
> in going into an ethnographic methodology without any 
> substantive vision to present to the user. I explained that 
> presentation is actually contradictory to field research, but 
> they don't see how observation & interview leads to invention.
> 
> If you have any sources for articles or information that 
> would be great. I've looked at incent.com, cooper.com and 
> forUse.com already. Thanx!
> 
> -- Dave
> 
> David Heller
> Sr. User Interface Designer
> Documentum: The Leader in Enterprise Content Management 925.600.5636
>  
> david.heller at documentum.com
> http://www.documentum.com/
> AIM: bolinhanyc  //  Yahoo: dave_ux  //  MSN: hippiefunk at hotmail.com
>  
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