This document discusses tools and methods for ethnographic analysis to generate insights. It outlines different fields that contribute to insights like big data, behavioral economics, and the human sciences. Ethnography is described as a way to study the "cultural why" behind human rationalities. The document then discusses the author's background in social sciences, business, and design. It provides examples of companies and projects the author has worked with. Finally, it outlines concepts from social sciences like roles, fields, capital, and networks that can be analyzed to craft meaningful insights.

1. Tools of Ethnographic Analysis in
Crafting Insights
Contact information
Taneli Heinonen
mail@taneliheinonen.com
+358 44 358 4433

2. Different fields of building insights
Big data and quant
research
Behavioral
economics
Deep insights of
human sciences
Customer / consumer / user / human insights
• Large data sets
• Recorded online
behavior
• Experimentations
• Studying different
rationalities
• Studying the quality
of experience
• Cultural “why”
behind rationalities

3. Different fields of building insights
Big data and quant
research
Behavioral
economics
Deep insights of
human sciences
Customer / consumer / user / human insights
• Large data sets
• Recorded online
behavior
• Experimentations
• Studying different
rationalities
• Studying the quality
of experience
• Cultural “why”
behind rationalities

4. My background – building bridges from social sciences to business
and design
Work experience:
• Insight Delivery, Education, research and
consulting
• Diagonal, Insight Specialist in a service design
agency
• Gemic, consultant and ethnographer in an
innovation consultancy
• Eximia, teacher of sociology and a marketing
assistant in an education company
Education:
• Lund University, MA Applied Cultural Analysis
• University of Helsinki, B.Soc.Sc., Sosiology
Taneli Heinonen, Insight Delivery

5. Companies and projects during the past year
Deloitte took service design into their portfolio in Finland – I’ve
been working with them on the few first projects.
Demos Helsinki is a think tank and I’ve helped them in building
a new service concept for social housing company.
Skog Helsinki is a new creative insight agency and I’ve helped
them in getting few of their first projects and working on them.
JPY is the association for the professional soccer players in
Finland. I’ve organized workshops and helped them build their
strategy for the next three years.
Design for Government is a course organized by Aalto
University. I’ve been part of staff coaching the multi-
disciplinary student teams in the course.
Laurea University of Applied Sciences has a Master’s program
in Service Innovation and Design and I’ve been teaching two
courses: Methods of Service Design & Deep Customer
Insights.
Insight Design
Ethnography
Quantitative research
Psychology
Visual design
UX
Interior design
Business design
Storytelling
Market research
Semiotics

6. Insights need to be relevant for a) strategic level and b) concept
development
• Good consumer insight is not just a piece of data or a market research
finding.
• Good insights explain the world of the consumer by interpreting research
data.
• Good insights introduce frictions in the world of consumers.
• Good insights are relevant for the business challenge at hand.

7. Analytical approach of social sciences fuels the creative process when
it is rigorously executed and well communicated
Insight part of the design process has five stages:
1. Discover 2. Define
1. Re-framing the problem
What are we trying to understand?
What is this all about from the perspective
of people and culture?
2. Designing the research
What will be the research questions?
What kind of methods should be used?
3. Empirical research
How to apply the methods in the real world?
How to document and map the data?
4. Analysis
What is the data telling us?
How should we make sense of it?
5. Communication
What does the analysis mean for the
creative task at hand?
What kind of opportunities can we see?
Insight delivery point

8. Analytical approach of social sciences fuels the creative process when
it is rigorously executed and well communicated
Insight part of the design process has five stages:
1. Discover 2. Define
1. Re-framing the problem
What are we trying to understand?
What is this all about from the perspective
of people and culture?
2. Designing the research
What will be the research questions?
What kind of methods should be used?
3. Empirical research
How to apply the methods in the real world?
How to document and map the data?
4. Analysis
What is the data telling us?
How should we make sense of it?
5. Communication
What does the analysis mean for the
creative task at hand?
What kind of opportunities can we see?
Insight delivery point

9. Analytical Mindset Creative Mindset
From data to analysis
“Analysis is the process of observing and breaking down a complex topic
or substance into smaller parts to gain a better understanding of it.”

10. Language
Kinship & social
organization
Objects
Distribution of work
Economic circulation
Recreation
Games
Food and nutrition
Gender roles
Law and rules
Myths
Aiming at Thick Descriptions

11. Ethnography in modern settings – studying different social worlds
Photo credits: National Eye Institute. Flickr.com.

12. Studying the experiences in different worlds: properties vs. aspects
• Data points as facts vs. experiencing the aspects
• Biological sex vs. cultural gender (masculinity – femininity)
• Properties of entities vs. relationships between people and brands/people
• Correctness vs. truth
• Detached vs. embedded
• Believe in conclusive facts vs. doubt in “near truths”
• Ethnography as making something familiar strange – and strange familiar

13. User - service Multiplicity of roles – multiplicity of services
helping and hindering
Service design affects different relations

14. Role – The Presentation of the Self in Everyday Life
Props
Framed situations
Backstage
Frontstage
Audiences
Role is not something unreal – we are what we present, and
the roles and stages change over the course of our days.
Roles are combinations of normative expectations towards
the behavior of a person in the role. Roles are always
connected to other roles. (teacher – pupil)
Impression management

15. What Can We Try to Understand
• Look for experiences of conflicting role expectations – How can we mitigate
these?
• Look for situations and rituals where people swithc roles – What happens?
How can we smoothen the transformations?
• Look for props and tools that are failing the role – How do we support people in
maintaining their face?
• Look for how people enter different roles – What is ascribed, achieved, wanted,
unwanted? How do we support the dynamics?

16. Fields and capitals – different social realms and how we
compete in them
Economic
• Wealth and economic
power.
• What you have?
Cultural Social
• Internalized skills and
capabilities.
• Material cultural objects.
• Institutionalized degrees.
• What you know and how
can you present that?
• Networks and relations that
provide social
responsibilities and
entitlements.
• Who you know and how can
you use that?

17. • Look for the fields and positions in the fields related to the research problem –
What are the rules of the field and how do we help people to follow or break
them in a fruitful way?
• Look for the uphill battles in the fields – Where can we leverage the meaningful
change from?
• Look for the types of capital people gather and apply – How can we support
them in their endeavours?
What can we try to understand

18. Access to aspects of urban space that provide good experiences, help save time
and translate into other types of capital.
• Proximity to interesting ”third places” such as cafes and restaurants
• Proximity to local services such as grocery stores, health services, schools,
recreational activities etc.
• Beautiful architecture and visibility of the history of the place
• Access to nature
Example of a new concept: Spatial Capital

19. Case Example from Helsinki: Middle aged men who don’t use the
public health services
Starting point:
A huge health gap between the different socio-economical
groups of men.
Especially middle aged men passive in suing health services
and the main group suffering of national diseases, diabetes 2
and hypertension.
Where do we want to be:
Have a better understanding of the gap in order to find means
of making it smaller –engaging people with the public
healthcare services and healthier lifestyles.

20. Case Example from Helsinki: Middle aged men who don’t use the
public health services
Finding the people:
Men outside of occupational health care.
Day shift – groups of men spending time in the neighborhood
pubs of the suburbs.
Forms of capital
Social capital – network around the place for advice, support
and discussion. Group supports freedom and masculinity.
Cultural capital – knowledge and skills – no health-related
discussions or knowledge.

21. Case Example from Helsinki: Middle aged men who don’t use the
public health services
Roles:
Traditional independent masculinity – fixing working-man
ethics.
Body as a machine – or something you work with. (not on)
Collision of roles and settings:
Negative attitudes towards health care – feminine, patronizing,
“guessing-centres” that try to tell you how to live
Clean white walls, waiting rooms, white jackets – tools used
on you (not by yourself) – making a fuss of “small problems”

22. Case example: Taking healthcare to the neighborhood pubs in Helsinki

23. Case example: Taking healthcare to the neighborhood pubs in Helsinki
Municipality of Helsinki, health care
1. Ethnographic research
Understanding and mapping
the relations of the passive
middle aged men to health and
health care.
Fieldwork – the day shift – in
the pubs of Eastern Helsinki.
2. Co-creation
Discussion the possibilities
for bringing health to the
everyday agenda through
the pubs.
Discussions with the
bartenders and customers.
3. Service prototyping
Pilot of a light health
service taking place in two
pubs every second week
for two hours.
Blood sugar and pressure
measurements and
possibility for discussions
with health care students.
http://www.uppsatser.se/uppsats/55a5fdaa92/

24. RECAP: Study aspects and relations
When looking for patterns consider for example:
• ROLES: What kind of roles are present – what kind of other roles are
they connected to?
• FIELDS: What kind of social worlds are present? What kind of fields
there are?
• CAPITAL: How do people compete on those fields? What forms of
capital do they gather and apply?

25. Some people and books behind these thoughts
Clifford Geertz
Pierre Bourdieu
Bronislaw Malinowski
Erving Goffman
Bruno Latour

26. Insight Delivery
By Taneli Heinonen
Thank you for your interest. Feel free to contact
me anytime.
Contact information
Taneli Heinonen
mail@taneliheinonen.com
+358 44 358 4433