The Problem: Our client, a leading manufacturer of paint products, feared one of its older product lines was becoming commoditized across international boundaries. A long-time training client, the company again turned to AMS for help.
The Solution: We combined our traditional Voice of the Customer approach with customer site visits, conducting in-depth interviews and observing managers, painters and other professionals in their natural work environment. The team’s findings yielded some big surprises for our client – the factors they thought were most important, such as ease in selecting and matching paint, were ranked far below factors affecting overall quality and performance. Our team therefore recommended that the company shift development efforts into the latter categories. The ethnographic component of the project was essential in several areas:
- Understanding and documenting workflow ("a day in the life")
- Observing common deviations from product instructions
- Enabling comparisons between groups of end-users
- Assessing disconnects between management’s vision and shop-floor reality
For more information on how ethnography can help your team, please contact us.
