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        <title>Ethnography and humanizing design</title>
        <link>https://elezea.com/2015/07/ethnography-and-humanizing-design/</link>
        <pubDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2015 23:13:37 +0000</pubDate>
        <dc:creator>Rian van der Merwe</dc:creator>
        <guid isPermaLink="false">https://elezea.com/?p=5500</guid>
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          <![CDATA[I love Hal Phillips&#8217;s story of how ethnographic research changed the culture at Benjamin Moore1. From Escaping a Strategic Cul de Sac: Using Ethnographic Insights to Challenge Organizational Bias: They no longer saw homeowners simply as property owners who were protecting their investments – they were also people whose homes were reflections of their changing [&#8230;]]]>
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          <![CDATA[<p>I love Hal Phillips&#8217;s story of how ethnographic research changed the culture at Benjamin Moore<sup id="fnref:5500.1"><a href="#fn:5500.1" rel="footnote">1</a></sup>. From <em><a href="https://www.epicpeople.org/escaping-a-strategic-cul-de-sac/">Escaping a Strategic Cul de Sac: Using Ethnographic Insights to Challenge Organizational Bias</a></em>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They no longer saw homeowners simply as property owners who were protecting their investments – they were also people whose homes were reflections of their changing selves.</p>
<p>They no longer saw painting contractors simply as skilled applicators who would always choose the best paint for the job – they were also businesspeople facing market pressures from all sides, and who needed a helping hand.</p>
<p>And they no longer saw designers simply as indoctrinated advocates for Benjamin Moore – they were also project managers who still wanted mentorship.</p>
<p>Equipped with their newfound intuition, Benjamin Moore set out to reconnect authentically with their customers at all levels. We provided a road out of their strategic cul de sac – a human heartbeat in all of the hard data, and a way to truly internalize the emotions motivating stakeholder behavior.</p>
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<p>There is, in my experience, no better way to humanize a company&#8217;s design process than doing ethnographic research.</p>
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<li id="fn:5500.1">
<p>Insert &#8220;watching paint dry&#8221; joke here.&#160;<a href="#fnref:5500.1" rev="footnote">&#8617;</a></p>
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