Exploratory research part 1: the quest
A documentation as part of a team that did exploratory research: the impact of financial inclusion/exclusion, focusing in on the lives of the unbanked and underbanked of the working poor, specifically in Thailand and Indonesia during this pandemic. We conducted secondary research as well as in-field, remote ethnographic research. This will be a 3 part series broken down into:
Part 1: Set up & secondary research
Part 2: In field remote ethnographic reasearch
Part 3: Synthesis and analysis, wrap up
Explorator-what?
A quick google will have it defined as a research used to investigate a problem which is not clearly defined. For such a research, a researcher starts with a general, unexplored idea and uses this to obtain a better understanding. While it may or may not provide conclusive results, it can uncover issues and other details which can be carried over for future research.
For our team, it started out with a hypothesis: Financial inclusion isn’t a switch that gets turned on/off. It requires a complementary, flexible structure to support a set of beliefs and behaviors from those seeking access to good financial products and services. And through a deeper dive, the team hopes to uncover new engagement methods for banks/fintech via a human angle to include those who face financial turbulence throughout their lives.
Note: To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted confidential information in this case study. This piece is meant to serve as a reflection and quick guide of intangibles that are critical to the success of exploratory research in a team.
Set up: having a safe space for the team
Often overlooked and under celebrated, having a team that adopts a flat hierarchy for this research can motivate and boost autonomy across team members. Communication is clearer and less susceptible to degradation when everyone understands and commits to the fact that there is no wrong/right, and all questions are welcomed from any level. As one of my mentors mentioned to me before, ask and clarify even if you think it’s a “stupid” question. Never assume. I cannot thank my project lead and seniors enough for ensuring this stays in place throughout the project. Given this to be a more emotionally sensitive project, my project lead even went through the trouble of checking in on our emotional well being from time to time.
Go down rabbit holes, not outer space
Set guardrails to steer you back to the main issue you set out to investigate.
Secondary research is essentially gathering information from existing primary research in relation to what you are investigating. They can come in many formats such as white papers, news reports or books.
Secondary research can be fun, it makes you be more aware of the many facets that can affect the user. (e.g religon influencing the outlook of one on their financial aspirations). Each artifiact you read may uncover multiple facets and compel you to dig even further with each, hoping to uncover even more nuggets of knowledge. Given the plethora of information we can easily get in this day and age, one can get lost in the moment, eventually becoming overwhelmed. This is the outer space that we will want to avoid.
“How will jumping into this part of the research help our primary goal, what insight/value can it potentially provide” — while knowing more is never a bad thing, having this as a constant reminder will help a person to prioritise time and effort on what will bring more value back to the team.
A more experienced team member also plays an important role here , they can act as guardrails and steer members back. Again, having a safe environment allows members to voice out and question whether they are going in the right direction.
Be prepared to change course
As mentioned earlier in this article, exploratory research starts off with a problem which is not clearly defined. And as such, we may find evidences that along the way that can challenge/support our assumptions, or even alter our hypothesis. For example, our initial journey set out was focusing on those who live in the poverty threshold and learning on how banks/fintechs alter their products to include them. However, after much secondary research we scaled back and focused on the working poor, as opposed to people living in poverty. They have a different priority altogether when their basic needs like shelter and safety were not even met. We found out the terminology played a very big role here. Our perception of poverty and reality was vastly different.
At the end of our secondary research segment, this was the before and after objective of our research:
Before:
We want to study the impact of financial inclusion/exclusion focusing on those unbanked/underbanked, living in poverty across Thailand and Indonesia during this pandemic, to ensure continued engagement in the digital financial system.
After:
We want to study the human experience of financial inclusion/exclusion, focusing in on the lives of the unbanked and underbanked of the working poor in Thailand and Indonesia during this pandemic, to ensure continued engagement in the financial system.
Preparing for In field remote ethnographic reasearch: Recruitment criteria
Before going into interviews, we have to know WHO and HOW MANY we want to engage with the help of a vendor to maximise this research journey.
HOW MANY
An idea of how many people you want to interview (actually this is highly dependent on your project budget, vendor charges and your ability to haggle haha)
WHO
Usually represented in a table format, you will set certain criteria to help the search for optimal participants. You can range your search from people who are working in certain sectors, employment statuses, household compositions, so on and so forth. What is important to note is that you won’t want to drill it down too specifically, like n=3 MUST be female. Rather have a minimum criterion at most. This is because, in the real world, your final recruitment mix may not always match what you envisioned in your head.
NOTE! Have backup interviewees should someone drop out. We had one incident where the participant faked his profile so that he can obtain the reward at the end of the interview. The vendor had found him highly suspicious during the interview and dug deeper into his background.
Ok, by now you have your project objective, you know who you want to interview, it’s time to move on to part 2, where I will share the challenges and workarounds on conducting in-field, ethnographic research during the pandemic.
