Systematizing the Fuzzy Front End: Innovation & Ethnography

Hai Nguyen really should have facilitated this one, but he was entertaining visiting relatives from far away and couldn't join this gang in Bolivia.

What we managed to do over the course of three days was discuss and practice some of the basic business of ethnography. Having at least two anthropologists, a semiotics expert (semiotician?), a couple business researchers, and several economic development specialists in the room made it easy—and productive. What we did was send out teams to do a bit of ethnographic observation, documentation, and interviewing in places where micro-business was happening: market stalls, street-corner DVD sales, and the like.

Then, for the last four or five hours we spent together, the groups brainstormed product or service ideas within the contexts they had studied. They specified who the innovation was for, they sketched it, they outlined the design specifications or requirements for the idea, and they described what allied or additional products or services might devolve from their ideas. The result was a delightful demonstration of design built upon multi-disciplnary teams and fieldwork.



There are additional opportunities here and if we had more time we might have explored some of them. Collaborative work with the people who let us into their business lives would be one that comes to mind. The DVD sales guy is in contact with us (the design idea that came from learning about his job is above). Maybe something to connect these kids who not only sell DVDs but know and care about cinema can actually happen; and it may happen in some format that takes DVD and tosses it by the roadside--one result of our work is that this DVD merchant is now a VIMEO member. How long until he posts his first video, I wonder?

There is a great deal to say about production and reproduction, about design for and with end-users of products and services. The discussion about the ethics of design in a context of street-sales of products that are not quite legal were discussed at length. (Okay, these DVDs were pirates, but there is more to say about that). One of the interesting things about this group's work was the willingness to explore the implications of their work in a wider social and cultural context.

All of this happened in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, with a group of Bolivians from up high on the Altiplano, and some from down low on the Eastern Plains. The divisions in Bolivia, if they were present in our workshop, contributed to a diversity of perspectives that made the experience and the design work far richer than it might have been if everyone were from the same place. But, after all, this is Santa Cruz. Everyone is from somewhere else, here. . .