Product Development Reflections

Gathering insights and data through the prototype project greatly enhanced my understanding for methods of qualitative as well as quantitative research. The idea of truly understanding the needs of the consumer is a thorough exploration and involves several techniques. The generative research we gathered we found to be extremely necessary to uncovering the latent needs of the consumer and the foundation for generating innovative ideas. One of the main steps in generative research involves questioning your assumptions, which is a step that had a large impact on our innovation designs. The process of research that we followed took us to a place of understanding our persona on a new level that exceeded our initial assumptions. The stories that we gathered through interviews with our families we very valuable and even brought in new insight upon further examination of the stories. This value was extracted through discussion of the specific stories among our group and comparisons of our findings to analyze trends and overlapping insights. One technique that was even more effective than we predicted was the in-house tours that proved highly generative and gave more reality and value to the stories we gathered from the interviews. Also, the journals we had our families complete gave great information on the average time spent in the living room as well as the activity during that time. Through using multiple techniques, the method that we discussed in class, we were able to see the benefit and the need for implementing each of the techniques. It became clear how each technique including the interview, the tour, and the journal all complemented each other and made the data gathered from each individual technique more valuable.

Another concept that I understood more thoroughly through applying it in the prototype project is the persona creation. I had previously learned about considering specific target segments of the market, but had never thoroughly analyzed a persona on an individualized basis. This practice was more effective than generalizing on an entire segment of a market and focusing on stereotypes of certain groups as we narrowed in on the underlying needs and unspoken characteristics of a certain persona. The prototype generation was a fun, creative process that was a lot more personal than generalizing a market segment. Through creating a persona family, we were able to imagine the specific needs of one family and strive to meet their needs. Also, we were able to tap into the deeper emotions, thoughts, and feelings of the persona and take time to analyze the questions of why. We were able to consider the reactions and answers to the why questions in the world of our persona. Not only were we able to generate a prototype innovative model based on the needs of our persona, we also created a model that would benefit many more individuals in a broader segment than just our upper-middle income, two child family. It was also very helpful to put on the lens of our persona in seeing our product as we compared that insight to the feedback we received from our families we interviewed and showed our finished result to.

Initially, the idea of creating a completely new and innovative product for the living room seemed like an impossible task as our team asked each other what could possibly be invented that does not exist already. Our ideas started first from organizing aspects, realizing that the living room is a public space used to host guests as well as to be used by all members of the household, therefore it requires a usability and cleanliness that facilitates a lot of users in the room. Our interviews led us to the kids as well as the parents’ interest in technology products, so we had an idea of where we would be headed in terms of product development. Still, we were nervous about creating a new product as well as the ability to create that with the prototype materials. For the first few stages, the uncertainty of identifying a specific product was an interesting factor. The persona and the generative research steps were key in realizing the product that would satisfy the needs of the consumer we targeted. It was not until we reflected on the process as a whole that we understood the need for the initial steps and the importance of not letting a product idea drive our research and persona development. Overall, I feel like our group communicated well and bounced creative ideas off one another in a very effective manner. The product became a mix of all of our thoughts, concerns, insights, and ideas which made it that much more effective. Also, when our group had members who evaluated ideas critically to play the devil’s advocate, it helped to make our product the most straightforward and practical model we could generate with the two step process. I feel like our prototype would only benefit from more edits and additional feedback from the people we surveyed had we conducted our research and development process over a larger time frame. I feel like the time frame we created our project in, however, provided a satisfying and constructive basis for approaching creative design. It was great to receive constructive feedback from Professor Walls that challenged us to go into great detail in our analysis and explaining our process for capturing findings. We were stretched to think more thoroughly through this feedback, and we were encouraged to keep on in the direction we were headed which gave us greater excitement for the work our team was developing. Overall, I feel like I benefitted from the collaboration of our team effort, and it was exciting to see ideas mature quickly with all of our input. Our final product is one that I am proud of and feel that it genuinely provides value not only to our persona, but also to a broader segment of the market. It is a product that has lots of creative potential as our digital game board has endless possibilities for features that can be downloaded to the device. This project was a positive experience and satisfying to reflect on the process and final product as it challenged us to put into practice the research, generative techniques, analysis tools, and feedback steps that served to effectively lead us to creating a valuable prototype, the digital game board!

Blog Searching: A Wide Range of Insights in a Click

The “web log” shortened into the term “blog” is a type of website where individual users can post their thoughts and feelings freely before a virtual audience. Google has set up sites such as blogsearch.google.com where users can use the site to channel them to blogs on various topics and recent news. Blogs have set a new trend in social media where everyone can be a critic, gaining satisfaction from publishing their views, opinions, and product reviews.

Google’s website to search for blogs separates queries by subject, hot topics, and recent posts allowing users to browse various posts as well as subscribe to specific blogs. This blog search engine is essentially a hub for organizing blogs that also provides as a way for one-step look at the current news and gossip. The links to top videos from Youtube and other user generated content sites show a sign of the times and point to the fact that no one wants to be out of the loop. News updates are updated by the second and just as quickly as news happens in politics, entertainment, sports, business, or countless other subjects, bloggers write their opinions and readers comment on them.

One of the main functions of blogs is to create an outlet for millions to share their opinions on any subject which they feel inclined. This gives bloggers a sense of power, commanding the attention of others who they desire to influence. They may be seeking to rally support, gain sympathy, or call others to action through their blogs. Blogging, which is also a verb, has become a phenomenon in social media that meets human instinct to express opinion and share insights. This basic human need is met by the virtual world, existing as a limitless forum. The experience that blogging sites create is one that allows all types of users to interact either as a writer, reader, or commenter.

Sites like blogsearch.google.com turn up interesting finds for blogs, especially in the realm of pop culture. For example, a search on the hot topic pop star Miley Cyrus, brings up extremely opinionated blogs on star news. Blogs such as PopEater.com and The Blemish express racy new information on what the supposed truth is about Miley Cyrus and also express strong opinions attacking the young singer. The validity of such news seems questionable, yet I feel like many gossip hungry readers probably find great entertainment from viewing such Hollywood following blogs.

Marketers who are doing research on topics, trends, or forecasts can use blog searching sites to find not only current opinions, but news on technology advancements and other relative stories. For example, a search for “Holiday Shopping” on blogsearch.google.com produces insight into the predictions for this season’s shopping behaviors as well as guides for shopping deals. There is a wide range of results from different blog sites that provides a great deal of insight into the topic that would not have been located from a narrow search. Since bloggers have such varying interests and specialties, a social media outlet that compiles many blog sites on one search engine, a lot of ground can be covered in just one search. In fact, the user gets the benefit of skimming through blogs and getting the highlights of all the current opinions and aspects of the topic.