Participant Observation

FDEs and Business Ethnography | Turning What a Workplace Takes for Granted into Product

Observation methods capture what people do. Ethnography captures why, in that group, it is taken for granted. The third article in our FDE practice series traces how an anthropological method reached corporate workplaces by way of Xerox PARC, explains Polanyi's tacit knowledge and Nonaka's socialization, shows how to write thick description, and lays out how ethnography differs from observation and why an FDE spends weeks on site. Contract-development business analysis targets "the process"; FDE ethnography targets "what this company takes for granted" and turns what it learns into standard product features. It also covers the time-boxing and deliverables that keep this from becoming live-in contract work.