I am in the throws of defining my PhD thesis research topic. You can see the original call for my position, and this is clearly there, it still needs to be narrowed down and be more precise. Under a (very good) mandate from my advisers I’m identifying the two pieces of literature in the field that will guide my research but in the meantime I’ve formulated a kind of elevator pitch for the idea that makes it very succinct.
I invite your feedback as to which is better and your thoughts on them in general.
Here is version 0.4a
“The information needs of research, design, and marketing are complementary. Each builds up a vision about prospective people the interactive product should serve, referred to as ‘users’ and ‘consumers’ respectively and how it should serve them. There is a gap between these visions which should be bridged. I want to see how this can be done in structuring the (work and composition of the) project teams in an R&D organization.”
Here is version 0.4b
“Researchers, Designers, and Marketers all study people to get knowledge about them. The knowledge researchers and designers develop about ‘users’ are the basis for their creation of an interactive product. The marketers ‘insights’ about ‘consumers’ is used to define a strategy, positioning, and to sell. The outcome of the research is a clearer understanding of how these kinds of knowledge about people is complementary. This will be done through the study of and participation in industrial R&D project teams.”
Aaron, I really like where this thesis is going. Very interesting / important topic.
I prefer the wording of the 1st one. It implies that getting the information about people is broader then studying people, which I think is is good because not all marketers (or designers) do this.
I deal with this issue often at work and have a couple of thoughts that you might find useful. I have worked with both desktop apps and web apps and I think web apps are really a game changer as marketing relates to XD.
With online apps:
-It becomes blurry where marketing ends and the application begins. They are pretty infused, especially with no credit card required apps that allow for a free trial. For those 30 days are both providing an application and trying convince them to buy the product.
- Multivariate testing & rapid iterations: Because the sign-up of online apps can be measured and users can easily be re-directed to different marketing material, there is a ton of A/B testing by the marketers to learn which marketing leads to the most sign ups. In many ways this allows for more of a design (thinking) approach. For one of our products, the marketing page and sign up flow went through ~100 variations and a year of multivariate testing before we found a marketing approach we were happy with.
Whoo. Sorry for the brain dump, but it was something I have been dealing with at work and your post prompted me to get it out of my head. Good luck with your thesis!
@Dave
This is a very interesting perspective, and something I had forgotten about. I’ve worked just a little with web apps and I remember the client talking a lot about how they did A/B testing. At Philips we don’t have a lot in terms of online apps, but our new Directlife program does, so I think it may be valuable for me to speak with them. Love to talk to you on Skype or if you’re coming to CHI have dinner/drinks together.