Cross Border Research Services
When introducing a new product or service to a foreign market, it’s important to do so in a way that’s culturally relevant. That’s why Cross Border Research utilizing Design Ethnography’s human-centered, qualitative approach, is so important -- it highlights cultural sensitivities, barriers to entry and local needs that may be critical to a customer’s adoption and use of a new product.
At Sylver, we approach Cross Border Research a little differently than other firms do. Unlike most global research companies, Sylver provides senior-level expertise on every project, giving clients the confidence that no critical customer insight will ever be overlooked.
And we don’t believe it’s enough to just tell you the “what is” of the culture you are trying to expand into. We leverage researchers from the community we are studying, people for whom the cultural framework is imprinted into who they are as a person. Then we support this research with someone from our U.S. office. We feel it’s important to draw parallels between positioning and operational strategies at home and what should be done in the country you are seeking to enter. This ensures a crystal clear understanding of the critical factors of product adoption.
Sylver Consulting has networks all over the globe, but currently has its strongest presence in the U.S. and Brazil.
Our Cross Border Research is best utilized to:
Determine which product(s) to extend to a new market and how to position them there.
Product Extension Research provides an assessment of local needs, wants and values, as well as recommendations on which of your existing products would be best suited for the new market.
Understand what parts of a product or service need to be adapted for the new market.
Product Adaptation Research gives you directions and recommendations on how features, functions and marketing messages of a product must change in order to be relevant in the local market.
Discover new ventures.
New Ventures Research takes the position that cultural difference is an opportunity rather than a barrier. That’s why this type of research seeks to understand where customers in the local market are underserved in order to determine how new ventures, utilizing the client’s core competencies, can strive to fill the gap.
Case Study
Client: NASA
Division: International Space Station Planning Groups
Assignment
Sylver was tasked with investigating the meaning and role of collaboration among the International Space Station (ISS) planning groups, in order to propose improvements to their planning and collaboration-based tools.
Approach
Leveraging our Product Adaptation Research techniques, we studied ISS planning groups, both on and off console and within the U.S. and cross borders, to understand how each of the groups work together in order to fly the space station daily. We conducted one-on-one interviews, observational research and a series of workshops with members of Johnson Space Center, Marshall Space and Flight Center, NASA Ames Research Center, European Space Agency, Russian Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
One-on-one interviews and observational research helped the research team grasp an understanding of the current state of collaboration amongst the ISS planners. The ISS planning process was mapped, with collaboration points highlighted throughout it. This map, along with the knowledge of how existing tools and products of the group supported their efforts as a team, became inputs for the Envisioning and Opportunity Assessment Workshops. It was in these workshops where the planners ideated ways to improve their productivity and streamline their communications across groups, and then assessed how their planning tools must evolve to support these new activities and/or policies.
Outcomes
Recommendations regarding how the ISS planners’ existing tool set should evolve emerged from this work, which have impacted the development plan for future iterations of ISS’ planning tools.
“We cannot say enough good things about Sylver Consulting. They grasped the NASA landscape quickly, built rapport and gained respect by speaking the flight controllers' language, worked with us at every step of the project, visualized the planning process, created a process map the ISS Planners still use today and made actionable recommendations the User-Centered Technologies team and the ISS Planners could use in the short-term and long-term.”
- J.T., Principal Investigator, NASA Ames Research
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