Seven Rules for Observational Research

Seven rules for observational research: how to watch people do stuff

Observational research, ethnography, or, in plain English, watching people do stuff, seems to be hot these days. Newsweek touts it ("Enough Talk," August 18, 1997), which means it's getting to be mainstream, but I find that a lot of clients aren't very comfortable with it.

Certainly, compared to traditional focus groups, mini-groups, or one-on-one interviews, observational research accounts for a pitiably small portion of most research budgets. Yogi Berra's famous line that "You can observe a lot just by watching" is widely acknowledged, but observation remains the most under-utilized qualitative technique in marketing research.

One of the reasons seems to be that many clients (and researchers) just don't know how to get value out of watching. Nothing sours people on a good approach more permanently than a few "interesting but useless" projects.

Learning from watching is, in fact, hard. If you ask a not-very-deep question in a focus group, you still may get a deep and revealing answer. But if you don't know how to think about what you'll see when you watch normal people doing stuff, you won't learn much from it. And in observational research, as in all qualitative research, it's the "thinking about" that's the key.

Since observation skills don't get sharpened up in real life the way questioning skills do, you need to train yourself to see, learn, and think when you watch people do stuff. It takes some practice, and some discipline. I don't pretend to have mastered the art, but I've learned some techniques that will help. So here are my "Seven Rules for Observational Research."

Look for the ordinary, not the extraordinary

Remember the qualitative project when the lady in the third seat on the right side of the table told the story that really made it all come clear to you? You know how you wait behind the mirror for the moderator to show the new concept so you can hear real consumers respond to it for the first time and all the questions that have been running around your mind for weeks will finally be answered? That's probably not going to happen in an observational study.

Most observational projects I've worked on have begun with a pretty nervous period while we all get past our first impression that nothing's happening! People aren't "doing" anything! They're just going about their business, and nothing that they're doing looks surprising! They're making lunch for their kids, the same way I would if I were in their shoes. They're waiting for their cars to be serviced, the same way I do. If my clients are along, they begin to get very antsy at this point, because they're seeing the same thing I am: nothing out of the ordinary.

Rule 1 for observational researchers: "Ordinary" is what you're there to observe. If you don't go looking for something extraordinary, you won't be so anxious when it doesn't appear. What you're really looking for are the insights hidden in "ordinary."

Observation gives you the chance to answer those questions such as "What do you do when that happens?" that come up all the time in focus groups. Suddenly you're not restricted by respondents' memories, or their reluctance to discuss the issue in a group, or their desire to conceal what they really do in order to present a more admirable face to the rest of the group.

Nothing people do is "natural"

The first time you try observational research, I guarantee that you'll find yourself wondering what there is about the things you're seeing that requires an explanation. You may watch people walking into a retail environment. They'll walk in, look around to get their bearings, walk over to a display or proceed down an aisle, maybe pick up an item or two or compare prices. "Of course," you'll say to yourself, "that's just what I'd do in their shoes. It's just common sense."

Rule 2: Whatever you saw could have happened differently. Your shoppers could have taken more time to get their bearings, or less time. They might have gone down a different aisle. They might have picked up more items, or not as many. They might have sought help from an employee. They might have, but they didn't. What they did needs to be explained.

Start noticing the regularities: do most people need a period of time to get their bearings when they come into the store? Where are they when they do this? Where do they look? What do they see there? Is there something about the store environment that makes them do things they way they're doing them? Is the way they're behaving the optimum way you want your customers to behave? Look at the "rule breakers." Who are they? What regularities are they defying?

Once you recognize that everything people do is the result of something, you can begin looking for that something. Maybe it's something about them. Or the people they're with. Or the environment they're in. Or something. How do you find it?

"I am the master of the obvious"

When I was first learning to conduct and analyze focus groups, Saul Ben Zeev, who founded C&R Research and is now its chairman, told me that the psychologist, Bruno Bettelheim, his teacher, referred to himself as "the master of the obvious." For Bettelheim, it was the secret of his success. Saul trotted that out whenever one of us was stuck for a place to start working on qualitative data (and still trots it out from time to time, now that I mention it).

Think about the last series of focus groups you conducted. What was the most obvious thing about what you saw and heard? That's where to start: If it's really obvious, then it must be really basic. What does it mean? How did people get there? What does it lead to? This was one of the first things I ever learned about qualitative, and remains one of the few really valuable generalizations I know about qualitative analysis.

The same thing is true about observation. Rule 3: Be the master of the obvious. Take the most obvious thing you've observed. Maybe you were watching people wait to have their cars fixed, and they "didn't do anything." Maybe they actually nodded off in the waiting area! Maybe they spent the whole time looking bored. That's about all you saw, and you've been poring over your field notes looking for something to get a handle on ever since.

Ask yourself