Business
Contexts
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Hello there!
In business contexts and/or the private sector, I often work with and for consultants and conduct research that helps them to better understand their client's needs, or to provide scientifically grounded insights for a concrete offer they mean to make for a client. I have also worked with architects, computer scientists, artists, designers, or developers to provide a scientific basis for a certain project endeavour. Simply put: I provide an easy-to-understand and applicable scientific basis that allows others (e.g. project teams, consultants) to make a scientifically informed decision on "what road to take", e.g. when entering the next project phase or re-designing a product or service.
I use scientific methods to identify underlying or "hidden" themes, concepts, needs, wishes and processes. That is, potentials pertaining to a certain user, stakeholder, or target group, or a specific industry or business sector. In most cases, the target groups or end-users of a given artefact, product, or service are humans. My background allows me to scientifically investigate how humans do or don't think, perceive, and feel about themselves and the world from a cognitive and a social science perspective. My design skills allow me to conceptualise how something should be presented or provided to humans in a way that is actually meaningful and useful to them.
Typically, an innovation is meant to bring about some kind of change; something that is different from how things are now. In the context of innovation, i.e. the creation of something novel, specifics of the "thing" to be innovated are often not (yet) known. But: How do you do research on something that is not (yet) known? How do you anticipate themes, concepts, processes, or potentials for something that does not exist yet?
The short answer to this question is: Data.
My approach
We need to gather data about the area of innovation to gain a deep understanding of the world or "niche" the innovation is supposed to exist in. A multi-level, data-driven approach allows us to understand how things are now, and to identify and understand what construes the problem or "gap" the innovation needs to address. Only then, the way in which the innovation can "solve" the current problem and "fill the gap" can be revealed. Uncovering potentials in such a way allows us to come up with concrete products, services, system-wide interventions or implementations, infrastructures, or design responses that are based on a deep understanding of the issue at hand, tailored to the underlying problem, and geared towards resolving it. In essence, this is what I do, and my "discovering-potentials-tool-kit" can be applied to various areas, topics, and industries.
This may involve...
> ethnographic work-place observations or surveys/questionnaires to "really" get to know a company's culture, routines, values, wishes, and needs from "within" - from the cleaning staff all the way to the CEO
> "outside" perspectives through analysis of digital traces and trends, such as analysis of a company's website, reviews, ratings, forum entries, social media content and comments on it, or interviews with former employees and customers
> user studies and systematic analysis of prototypes that are co-created by developers and users, or
> a science-driven conceptual analysis of a specific industry and its best - and worst - practices
Why do we need data?
Reference Projects
I am usually involved in the first conception, research, and development phases of projects that revolve around innovation, like a new building, office or site that aims to enable novel and innovative ways of working and collaborating, a novel product (e.g a kind of technology), or a innovative service (e.g. customer services, product-related service ecosystems). Alternatively, I am often involved in a kind of 're-evaluation' or 're-assessment' phase in projects, e.g. when a product or service does not work or perform as expected, or is not endorsed by the intended users.
GIZ-mo
Reference Project 3....
Reference Project 3....
Reference Project 4....