This week involved a bit of a shakeup in our plans. Last Sunday, our team put together an action plan for the rest of the semester and added finishing touches to our charter. On Monday, we had a phone call with our client. We discussed the qualitative research that we had completed at that point as well as our future plans. He listened, gave feedback and ultimately challenged us to think more creatively.
One of the big obstacles in our project has been trying to figure out how to deliver value to a company with seemingly infinite resources and a highly sophisticated marketing apparatus. Initially, we thought our project would focus on Systematic Inventive Thinking, a technique new to our client’s division of the company. As the semester has unfolded, SIT has become more of a peripheral tool. Behavioral economics has become the core of our project, which happens to be a field new to my teammates and me.
Before our Monday call, we planned to continue one-on-one interviews while we designed and executed two phases of quantitative research through Qualtrics surveys. Our client indicated that we should broaden our approach to include more observational and/or innovative methods. The standard qualitative and quantitative research won’t be enough for this Capstone project.
While this revelation has been challenging, my group had a productive chat after the phone call. We developed several ideas to incorporate additional research and adjust our action plan. I’m not sure if it’s feasible or even advisable to attempt all of our ideas, but we certainly have a rich list from which to choose. I also have noticed that with each client conversation we have, I understand more and more what they want from us.
At the beginning of the semester, I thought this understanding would be achieved after our second meeting at the latest. I now see that that expectation was unrealistic. We are continually realigning and reevaluating as we go.
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