Abstract:

One research challenge is distilling or 'packaging' thousands of hours of data from a long-term ethnographic study to ensure it is clearly communicated, understood, and adopted by their organization. Often this hard-won data (e.g., transcriptions, video, artifacts, reports) is underutilized because the volume of information is overwhelming and/or difficult to understand and interpret. Researchers may also face the problem of disseminating the information. The organization may lack direction about how to effectively use the data to improve their products and services. This case study looks at how researchers at Charles Schwab successfully used a design tool, the persona, to distill nearly two years of ethnographic research and other data, ultimately resulting in a massive perceptual shift about how to segment investors on the web.