Generative Research

Hey everyone! After gathering some insights about my relatives and friends (see blog posts “Empathy map” and “Journey map”), it is high time to reveal some information about myself. I hope that the insights that I am going to share with you are not too shocking or unpleasant.

I have to admit right from the start that I have several items that are very important to me. To be more precise, I could hardly imagine my life without them. Credit card, water, phone, laptop and glasses are among these items.  I have attached two pictures for you to take a closer look at this “stuff”.

Some of them are rather obvious (water in Austin’s climate or credit card) but some might seem a little more mysterious.

My glasses play an extremely important role for me. I have bad eyesight and have to wear some kind of eyesight correction devices. After nearly fifteen years, my glasses have become to me more than a simple eyesight correction tool. They are an element of my style. And sometimes I feel that they make me feel a bit more confident in critical situations.

The other item that has a huge impact on my life is my laptop. It has accompanied me in every one of my trips: Malaysia, Argentina, South Korea, and throughout Europe. The importance of the laptop (and Skype) grew considerably since it is currently the only tool that allows me to communicate with my family in Russia.

Apart from the mentioned items, I have several things that are important to me but not vital to my existence. Not to keep you waiting for too long, they includes health, environment, United Nations, soccer and ID (passport).

I have volunteered for the United Nations for nearly three years and I know the value that this organization brings to the world. Having changed my career path I still support UN and care about all its humanitarian efforts and youth programs, world heritage and prevention of war conflicts.

Health, which is the other thing mentioned, might seem quite a vague term. I am very conscious about my health and sport plays an important role in my life, I have placed a picture of my sneakers as they help me keep fit while jogging and preserve my feet every day when I am going somewhere. Of course, jogging is not the only way I keep myself healthy – I also enjoy mountain skiing, swimming and cycling.

Passport might sound as an extremely weird thing to care about. But let me explain my reasoning for putting it on the list. I am young and in a foreign country. If I lose my passport, I will lose my identity :) I will not be allowed to enter any bar and more generally stay in the country. That makes a passport an important item that should be with me every time I am going out.

The next area that might contain interesting insights about me is my digital ecosystem. This could sound complicated and academic but in reality, it is quite simple. In fact, these are the ways I use to obtain news, information and any other online content.

My digital ecosystem includes three major areas: search engines, online newspapers or news portals and social networks. The picture below should provide a structured view of my ecosystem.

Online editions of nation-wide newspapers are my primary source of social, economic, and business news. For me it is important to keep up to date with the world’s events. Whenever I read the news (which typically happens several times a day), I try to think about potential consequences of, say, a political speech on the investment climate and businesses. It is always interesting to understand the facts and analyze the journalists’ assessment of events and form my own opinion about them based on several standpoints. Although this might be time-consuming at times, I go through two or three news sources before making comments about an event or news. This approach helps me remain open to different points of view and assess a situation in the best available manner. I also believe that online resources are less biased than the traditional TV or newspapers. Therefore, using online news portals allows me to develop my critical reasoning skills and protects me against brainwashing of certain news providers.

Social networks, primarily blogs, represent the next source of information that I use daily. Compared to online news portals that offer generalized facts, blogs provide me with updates regarding issues of my particular interest. I am an active follower of several blogs on LiveJournal and other blogger platforms. The range of bloggers and topics that interest me varies considerably. For instance, I am fond of several travelers’ blogs that post pictures of distant places with a short description to them. These blogs expand my knowledge of different countries and their places of interest. I often use the information gained at such blogs as a starting point when planning my vacation in a foreign country and creating a list of places to visit.

But I am also interested in gathering information about my hobbies, such as skiing and biking. Blogs and communities created around them help me follow the recent trends and rent different alpine skies whenever I go on a skiing vacation.

Finally, as many other representatives of the Millennial Generation I am actively using search engines. No matter whether I am looking for electronics, patents or presents for my friends, I typically go on Google first. This search engine offers one of the biggest results selection within an incredibly small amount of time. I am well aware that the recent developments in terms of targeted search might result in biased search results. However, using Google has become a true habit that I am unable to give up. And, to tell the truth, I do not really see necessity for doing so. With an exorbitant growth of world’s knowledge and available information, the only way to capture a fraction of this knowledge and get through the noise associated with it is to use web search. Search engines have made my life easier and thanks to that fact I consider myself a very loyal user of this online information channel.

Now let’s move to my typical weekday. To stir up you interested to this topic, I have prepared a small diagram (attached below). It describes the phases of my typical weekday and contains insights regarding types of information I “consume” during these stages. I hope that my handwriting is clear enough to read. If it is not the case, feel free to post questions about the diagram in the comments.

That’s it for today. I would be glad if you would post comments, make suggestions and provide constructive feedback. Take care and see you next week in my blog or in person.

Journey Mapping

Hey all! Glad to be here again. Today I am going to create a journey map for the group vacation of my friend Paul.

Paul is 23 and we did our undergraduate program in Russia together. Expression that best describes Paul is “study hard and party hard”. Paul was great at teamwork. We conducted together several projects and he often came up with brilliant ideas. But when the partying time came, he was able to paint the town red nearly every time. And his group vacations were typically as crazy as his parties. Paul was very kind to tell me about one of the summer trips he organized.

The original goal for the trip was to take a rest from a difficult semester in a group of nice like-minded friends. As Paul recalls: “it was more like a tradition to go somewhere with friends in summer. We went on a hitch-hiking tour last June and it was awesome. For us it was clear already in March that we need to do something this summer, too”.

But this time the planning process looked a bit differently compared to previous years. Recognition of the need to start vacation planning happened during the birthday party of Paul’s girlfriend, Jess. Her best friend was showing the pictures from her last vacation in the Caribbean, when Jess exclaimed that she would like to go to the seaside. Paul was flabbergasted. He was planning something completely different than lying on a beach for two weeks. This trip promised to be less exciting than previous ones right from the start. Interviewing Paul via Skype I could perfectly see his facial expression. And this seemed to be the first of the several moments of truth that I have noticed during this interview. Such moments are essential for the creation of a deep-dive journey map (for further details, take a look at Designing for Growth, Chapter 4) and I was glad to capture them.

Let’s go back to Paul’s reaction. Though he was not completely satisfied with this suggestion, he did not want to spoil his girlfriend’s party and mood. As a result, the group vacation turned into a trip to the seaside.

Paul started planning the trip with friends by checking upon the disposable funds for the trip. Paul was working part-time during that period and had some money available. He was well aware of the summer trip and started saving early enough to cover an average trip’s costs. The initial check of funds confirmed Paul’s expectations. He was content that he could go on this vacation without borrowing any money from his parents. Financial independence was the thing Paul always worked hard for. Hence, Paul and his girlfriend could proceed to the next step, inviting friends.

Paul called his best friends, the ones he had already traveled with during several summer vacations. Although they had different kinds of obligations and commitments, all of them were able to find a two-week time for this group vacation. This way, the last two weeks of July were established as vacation dates. Paul’s girlfriend also called a couple of her friends. One of her friends (Jess really wanted her to travel with them) had already committed to an art workshop in New York for exactly the same dates. Paul’s girlfriend was certainly upset by this outcome but had to stick to the dates that satisfied the majority of the group. Paul mentioned, “I was glad she could not make it. It meant more time spent with my friends and girlfriend instead of exhausting shopping tours and dull art galleries. In the end, it was vacation with friends and not a traditional visit-all-museums-you-can trip”.

Desire of Paul’s girlfriend to spend vacation at the seaside considerably limited the list of available destinations. Paul and his friends had already visited Greece and Turkey and were unwilling to go to the same place or country twice, which created additional restrictions on the location choice. Paul remembered how desperate he was, trying to combine everyone’s preferences and funds available for the trip. In the end he just went on Google maps (present analogue of the school globe model) and picked Italy, primarily for its great, but reasonably priced resorts. Going from north to south of the country Paul considered all major resorts on the Adriatic Sea. Finally, he decided for Rimini, a city that was known for its combination of sea, clubbing and various tourist attractions. All members of the group were happy with this choice.

Since the friends have already agreed on the location for the trip, finding accommodation was quite an easy task. With the launch and development of booking.com website it has become possible to compare virtually all hotels in a city with just one mouse click. To make this website even more attractive, some hotels often provided special offers to reward early bookings. Browsing booking.com for hotels and hostels in Rimini, Paul was lucky to find one of this offers. He got a 50% discount for a three-star hotel located in a five-minute walking distance from the seaside. Also, the hotel was near the clubbing area and offered free bike rental. “This hotel had everything we needed. For half price”. I could still (after nearly three years!) feel how pleased Paul was with this hotel that offered great value for a discounted price.

With accomodation booked, Paul could move on to considering transportation options. Russia and Italy are separated by several thousand miles, therefore, the only transportation option considered was a plane. Paul used to be a participant of Alitalia’s frequent flyer program for several years and gathered the necessary amount of points to qualify for the reward flight. That exerted the major influence on his buying decision. But while purchasing plane tickets Paul experienced “the worst disappointment ever”. Just a week before Paul started the flight booking process, the airline changed its policy. Paul was now lacking several hundreds of points to get the flight. Paul was counting on this reward flight as a potential money saver. Moreover, two of his friends bought tickets earlier and qualified for the reward. Paul had to pay for the flight from his own pocket and was extremely upset about the whole flight booking experience.

The next step identified by Paul was purchasing insurance. After an injury in French Alps several years before the trip Paul never neglected buying medical insurance for vacation. This procedure is easy, cheap and could be finalized online. However, as Paul’s uncle works for a major insurance company, he decided to purchase the insurance directly at his uncle’s office. He also advised all of his friends to purchase insurance there. “It was not the matter of money or saving. I was happy to help my uncle reach his sales quota and get a quarterly bonus”, Paul recalled.

The milestone of obtaining a visa could sound weird for US and EU citizens but as a Russian you need to get a travel visa for trips to nearly all major tourist destinations. Application and visa issuance could take anywhere between a couple of days and several months. This explains the fact that Paul mentioned this step. “The whole process was usual but pretty fast”, as Paul pointed out, “we gathered all the necessary documents, printed our tickets and accommodation confirmation, and paid the application fee. Our visas were ready in just three days. Unbelievable!” The embassy issued all the documents on time and the last obstacle to the trip was removed.

The final step in the process involved planning possible activities while on vacation. Paul was not fond of booking every excursion or tour beforehand. Hence, he simply looked through the guidebooks and travel websites for information regarding good places to visit. To his surprise he found a picturesque castle and a bike route to it. “The hotel offered free bike rental. And the castle was just several miles away. A good alternative to wasting the whole day on the beach”. All of the friends agreed to undertake this small adventure upon arrival.

That’s it for today. I would be glad if you would post comments, make suggestions and provide constructive feedback. Take care and see you next week in my blog or in person.

Empathy Map

Hey everyone! Here is my first blog post on a design thinking topic. Today I will try to draw an empathy map of my close relative Helga.

Just to give you a general idea of the person I am going to describe, I will outline a couple of traditional, old school profile characteristics. Helga is in her early 30s, married, with above average income and well-educated (Ph.D. in labor law requires superior intellect, believe me). Also, she is a mother of a wonderful curious boy and this fact will have a huge influence on the empathy map, as you notice later. Due to a significant, nearly nine years, age difference we never had a truly close relationship: no secrets sharing or discussing private life. But having lived together in the parental home for a couple of decades makes me believe that I know Helga and could share interesting insights about her.

But enough about relationships and demographics. It is time to dive into the exciting world of the customer insights.

THINK AND FEEL?

For Helga her family is everything. Although she is blameless in fulfilling her work responsibilities and is unlikely to say it publicly (if it all), family harmony counts for her a bit more than career success. It is family that makes her tick. Nonetheless, Helga is a very ambitious hard-working attorney and project manager. As a result, she spends a lot of her time solving legal issues of the company. Helga is emotionally stable and knows how to control her feelings. I never saw her crying or complaining. She prefers to identify, frame the problem and take actions only after consideration of legal and moral consequences.

Imagining Helga’s dreams will be more like an intelligent guessing for me. As every mother she should be dreaming of a bright future for her son, including but certainly not limited to his robust health, perfect education, interesting and rewarding job and happiness in private life. But as a woman Helga would also like to look beautiful, be loved and successful. Thus, she is ambitious and aspired to combine self-realization in the career field with family life.

SEE?

Helga is currently on her maternity leave and works from home. Thus, her environment could be described by one single word – home. Diapers and toys, baby food and stroller, mobile phone and laptop are the items that surround her in everyday life. Child and husband, mother and father, phone calls with colleagues and friends are the people making Helga’s life. She often encounters small discoveries while taking care of her child. These discoveries are facilitated by invaluable assistance from her parents that share their wisdom in child upbringing.

When the child sleeps peacefully, Helga might have some time to talk to her friends. She is really conscious of maintaining close relationships with her high school, college friends and former colleagues. Helga used to have monthly reunions with them but the birth of the child made her put on hold participation in these activities.

Working at home and spending tremendous amount of time with the child certainly limits market offers Helga is exposed to. Context advertising by Google and Amazon offering law books and diapers, TV commercials promoting baby food and mailed coupons look like an extensive list of the offers and media channels Helga deals with.

SAY AND DO?

Helga is typically very rational in her decisions. But, to tell the truth, her emotions, ambitions and fears sometimes overcome the rationality. For instance, she can be prepared to pay a pretty penny for a fancy dress just to follow the trend. She is affluent but it is the only impact of emotions on her actions that I noticed. Provoking behavior or freak appearance do not seem to match her inner perceptions.

Helga is always polite and responsive. She truly respects every person and always tries to nurture good relationships. However, if she sees fraud, non-fulfillment of responsibilities or crying injustice she is eager to fight for her rights. No matter whether it is dishonest merchant, irresponsible colleague or corrupted governmental official, Helga will take the necessary effort to restore her rights. I could remember lengthy legal proceedings with a corrupted municipal deputy who was unwilling to allocate funds to repair the elevator lighting in the house she lives in. Numerous complaints did require considerable time and effort but were important to Helga from a moral standpoint.

HEAR?

Helga is a kind of person that likes to make her own decisions. But it does not mean that she is perfectly independent in her judgments. As mentioned by Shannon Ford in an article “Creating Quality Personas”, information browsing, shopping mode and decision-making process are key customer insights for creating deep-dive quality persona. The major influencers in Helga’s case include her husband, her parents and her bosses. As I mentioned above, friends’ impact on Helga has declined with the growth of her family.

Helga’s husband certainly has an influence on her decisions regarding the day-to-day business. He has IT background and strongly influences purchases of all electronic devices (phones, laptops, tablets etc.) as well as appliances (microwave or washing machine). Her parents are also sure to exert an influence on Helga’s decisions primarily in the questions related to child care and general moral dilemmas. The bosses’ opinion also matters. It sometimes determines her purchasing behavior for banking services and insurance.

PAIN

Helga has a no-regrets mindset, thus, she is not upset by some opportunities she might have missed in the past. Nonetheless, she has some future concerns and considerations that present a problem. As far as I know she is trying to purchase a house and move out of a small flat she and her family currently live in. But even the above average income of the family does not enable her to fulfill this dream.

Helga is unwilling to run into debts and undertake the insolvency risk. Given the lengthy recession in the economy, high interest rates and layoffs she is reluctant to get a mortgage. The economic downswing also brought reduction in wage growth. This creates a vicious circle, since the disposable income is not sufficient for the purchase of the house and risk aversion eliminates other means to the goal. This remains the major pain of the young family. Uncertainty about the future and growing desire to provide her son with all the best fuel Helga’s dissatisfaction and frustration.

GAIN

Apart from the own house dream, Helga has strived long for entering the C-level of the company. For her it is more a matter of prestige and recognition, rather than greater income. Being a smart attorney she is fond of challenging tasks and cases but places a great importance on the work-life balance and ability to spend time with her nearest and dearest. These are the major criteria she uses to measure personal success or failure.

Helga could use a number of strategies to fulfill her need for achievement. Since the founders of her current company are still actively involved in the decision-making on executive level it might be difficult for Helga to pursue career objectives in this setting. Thus, she might consider switching to a respected multinational law firm or starting her own law practice. However, I am very excited which of two dreams (house or career ambitions) will outweigh. If the own house idea prevails, Helga might try to negotiate an employee stock ownership plan with her current employer or get an interest-free loan from the company. I personally find the second option a bit more feasible but I will not bet on it.

That’s it for today. I would be glad if you post comments, make suggestions and provide constructive feedback. Take care and see you next week in my blog or in person.