Welcome to the latest in a series of brief interviews with guest experts from KnowledgeBrief’s Innovation Programme, providing a window into the experts’ latest ideas and new advice for executives.
Following the Innovation Day in October, Dr David Baxter (DB) from Southampton Business School gave us an interview to discuss the Repertory Grid Technique, a method that can bring new insights into customer satisfaction.
KB: What’s the key business challenge that organisations need to address, that your research tackles?
DB: Innovation projects should solve a meaningful user need. This is only possible if you start with a good understanding of what that user need is. Surveys start with a lot of assumptions, and can only answer very particular questions. Interviews can be a great source of insight, but also usually start with something in mind. If you want to truly explore an area from the user’s point of view, the Repertory Grid method forces the interviewer to leave aside any assumptions about how they think, or what’s important. The Repertory Grid is a simple and powerful method for exploring how somebody else thinks about a given group of things. In essence, The Repertory Grid is tool which allows customers to articulate their experience in the way they see the world, according to their own personal constructs. In our own research it has enabled to obtain key customer insights about key products , which in turn directly influences product development, improvement, and new approaches to marketing. The technique also applies in a wider sense – so you could use it to explore services, methods, processes, policies, or people.
KB: What advice would you give to executives, based on your findings?
DB: If you want to understand how somebody else thinks about something, using non-directive questions is a great starting point. If you want to create a detailed and personal view, then the Repertory Grid is a method which is fairly easy to learn and which can provide new insight.
KB: How does your latest research approach this? What do the results indicate?
DB: Our research showed that the Repertory Grid is a suitable method for innovation projects, in various stages. The insight gained can then provide insights which lead to useful product improvements, totally new products and new approaches to marketing.
Any final thoughts?
DB: It’s not possible to completely set aside your starting assumptions, especially when you yourself are an expert. If you really want to find out what people think then it helps to apply a simple technique that removes your interpretation, your expertise and your bias. Remember, other people think in unexpected ways, so we need to deploy methods with accurately capture this unique way of thinking.
With thanks to Dr David Baxter, Associate Professor of Innovation at Southampton Business School.