Research and Insights

User-Centered Designs. Innovative Solutions Custom-Built For Your Business.

At Speck Design, we take a unique and unparalleled approach to product design. We believe the cornerstones of high-quality, user-centric product design starts with comprehensive consumer and market research. With our innovative, user-focused approach, our designers focus strictly on the consumer's needs and how every product we help you create provides a much-needed solution that simplifies their lives.

Consumer & Market Research Revolutionized

Throughout our process, each phase is conducted with that mindset and focus on the heart of what we do. First, we define the customer's needs through ethnographic research, a qualitative method during which our expert and experienced researchers observe and interact with a study's participants in real-life situations and environments. Without that dedicated and in-depth time in those environments, we can experience the pain point, or problem, first hand. Through this time with our participants, we intimately understand their values, needs, and psychological makeup to understand better their pain points and how to effectively and adequately deliver value in the products we design. 

While we understand that value is perceived differently from consumer to consumer, we also have seen first-hand how impactful ethnographies are as a tool in understanding individual differences. 

Speck Design is a leading, state-of-the-art product design company that ensures every product we are a part of is designed to the highest standard of excellence. Our comprehensive and personalized approach to research design and implementation is driven by the desire to understand and empathize with every consumer's pain points and ensuring that we are conscious of how every product makes them feel about themselves. 
Whether we're working with you on research and development for a new product or you want to reinvent your brand, we believe that in-depth and customized ethnography is the ultimate problem-solving tool to creating exceptional products. 

Our unrivaled approach utilizes our process to get to the source of complex problems that tackle every design, engineering, brand, and regulatory issue that comes your way. All of our specialists, designers, researchers, and engineers bring their unparalleled level of experience and to drive your products into the future through innovation and outside-the-box thinking, and creativity.

Our Methods

Speck Design is your ultimate source for in-depth and unrivaled consumer and market research that delivers high-quality designs for your products. Our process, while appearing complicated, is designed to simplify the way you approach every product design while maximizing your success and optimizing your manufacturing. We wanted to share more about our entire ethnographic-centered approach and how it works.
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Identify Research Question

To truly understand the complexities of the problem you want to understand better, you first need to know the problem. We develop a problem statement that raises questions that drive us toward the answers you want to know. The unique problem may cover any topic that addresses consumers in a specific environment. Whether you want to better understand relationships, connections, processes, or anything else that directly affects how people think or behave.

Determine the Location for Research

We then identify the best place to conduct the participation study and research. You may feel that more than one location is best to answer a particular problem. However, determining a location for research provides the best opportunity to observe, take notes, and understand how the participants in that specific environment act, communicate, behave, and think.

Formulate Our Presentation Method

We work closely with you to find and identify the most effective way to obtain actionable and objective information. For instance, will you become a member of the specific community or organization you're observing? Are you going to be covert in doing so, or will participants know you're conducting research? Know that if you let your participants know that you're a researcher, that they will act and respond differently. We find the best way to observe is to build a plan that matches your requests and requirements covertly.

Acquire Permissions and Access

Due to the naturally intrusive nature of ethnographic research, we ensure that we obtain all permissions for access into the location you intend to research. And we always do it in writing. We ensure that every decision-maker involved knows and understands your observational methods, how you will participate and observe, and how you will utilize the information collected. We believe in being ethical and considerate throughout every study.

Observe and Participate

Our specialized and detailed ethnography requires far more than just observation. To effectively research and acquire the data you deserve, you will want to ensure that you participate in the organization you are studying to some degree. The best way to understand how to answer your problem is to outline the specific things you are looking for in detail. As you are participating in your own observation, you want to remain as objective as possible. And ensure that you write running descriptions, things that you recall, the feelings evoked during the study, and anything pertinent that comes to mind.

Interview

This part of our process is designed to maximize your understanding of the behaviors and actions of every participant. Conducting interviews is one of the best ways to get to empathize with your participants. We do the interviews immediately after witnessing something in the study, at the end of a designed observation session, at the end of every day, or even at the end of the complete research study. Our team works closely with you to determine who is the best person to conduct the interviews and what questions are critical to understanding the research.

Collect Archival Data

Wherever you choose to conduct your research study, there will be numerous organizations, communities, and cultures with an archival data collection of information and more that you can utilize to assist in your data collection. Review everything from papers, physical artifacts, emails, phone conversations, websites, and any other data-rich source you can find to enhance your understanding of the actual environment.

Analyze Data

We help you code your data in a way that enables you to make sense of every observation. Our team of data analytic specialists works with you to identify which method is best suited to your needs, such as coding and labeling what you witnessed, finding effective sorting patterns, comparing theories, and even reflective remarks. This revolutionary and customized approach to ethnographic-centered research allows us to create innovative, cutting-edge designs that deliver real solutions for your customers.
Featured Research & Insights Projects