The First Face of Innovation: The Anthropologist
“Design engineers could learn a thing or two from anthropology. Getting out of the office or cubicle from time to time would serve us and our customers well, whoever they may be. ”
I introduced the 10 Faces of Innovation a few weeks ago, a book written by Tom Kelley, but wanted to dive deeper into the first role he describes (The Anthropologist), that you and I can take on when we tackle a new project or are stuck in the middle of one.
Perhaps the most important thing an Anthropologist does is observe. Really observe. Not just look or notice but observes. Yogi Berra’s famous quote “You can observe a lot by just watching” is full of redundancy and humor, but also some truth. It’s shameful how rarely we observe someone else before implementing a decision that could affect them. Perhaps you’ve been the recipient of a new policy or rule or guidance and were caught thinking, “This would never happen if they asked me or at least watched how I do my task…” Place yourself on the other side of the fence and become a “design anthropologist.”
A designer in the role of an Anthropologist will take the time to really learn about the customer and everything that impacts the customer. This includes the surrounding environment, their habits, available resources, constraints, behaviors, preferences, decisions, interactions, beliefs, health, pain-points, and much more. The Anthropologist may even dig deeper and ask piercing questions about motivations, desires, disappointments, and frustrations. No domain should be excluded from consideration including the social, psychological, emotional, physical, and mental domains.
Jane Goodall, famous for unlocking incredible discoveries about chimpanzees--and indirectly about ourselves---was able to perform these accomplishments from literally living with primates for years, not just during an extended safari one afternoon. You might not have a chance “to live with your customer” for years, but there are a few things Kelley shares that you and I can do and attitudes we can take on to learn about our customers. I share just three here but commend you to study the others in Kelley’s book.
The first is to treat all data gathering efforts as if you were a novice, a beginner, a child. Clean your proverbial slate of preconceived notions about the particular product or procedure you are trying to design and observe with fresh new eyes. Ask the question “why?” as if you were a young annoying child--perhaps to yourself constantly but to others occasionally--about everything. Why is that aluminum bar in the bus? Why is that button so big? Why does that cashier always smash my apples? You and I both need to be more curious and we need to open our mind to the reasons behind actions. We all know assumptions can be incorrect so resist the urge to assume until fresh data is found. Furthermore, although interviews can be useful, people will sometimes generate reasons on the spot once you ask them why they did something to justify their posture, their sequence, their words, their actions, their style, when in fact a hidden motivation needs to be discovered and can only be found through detailed observation.
The second is to embrace the concept of “Vujà Dé.” Instead of Déjà vu, where you feel like you are seeing something again that you’re already experienced, Vujà Dé is seeing something for the first time, even if you’ve experienced it many times before. For example, do you step into a car, and then sit down? Or do you sit down in the car and then pull your feet in? Hopefully you’ll see this for the first time when you drive, or see others get into a car, later today. A design anthropologist would certainly care about this seemingly small detail if the particular design had anything to do with the height of the curb, the height of the car, the clearance between the seat and steering wheel or dashboard, the specific door shape, the swing angle, the seat’s material, etc. All those design decisions might be informed by how one enters a car. You and I will likely agree with Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi that discovery is “seeing what everyone else has seen, and thinking what no one has thought.”
The third is to “look in the trash bin.” A good anthropologist will explore the unusual and non-conventional sources to learn about their subjects. Nothing is out of scope. This might be looking through trash piles of pottery shards, exploring what people buried with humans in gravesites, and even carefully rummaging through latrines. As a design anthropologist, we should be equally innovative in how we acquire our data for atypical situations. Is there a way to discover why someone didn’t click on that link? Is there a way to test what someone really thinks about that policy? Does someone’s recycling bin contents reveal to us their opinion about climate change? Do teenagers currently use what adults will be using in five years? Are interviews working or does a video camera placed in an appropriate place capture what we really need?
The above three suggestions are just a few of the techniques we can employ as part of our design fieldwork. Margaret Mead, an anthropologist who studied the South Pacific, states definitively: “The way to fieldwork is never to come up for air until it is all over.” As a design anthropologist, we would do well to follow her advice and really get into the mind, the life, the environment of our customer, and don’t come up until it’s over.
