Innovation Research Services, Defining Human Behavior

Innovation Research applies to all phases of development, from the “fuzzy front end” all the way through to after product launch. The focus of this research process is always on gaining a contextual understanding of user behavior for the purpose of improving or developing new products, services or processes. At Sylver Consulting, we have extensive experience in managing research programs that span business-to-consumer and business-to-business segments involving the design or redesign of physical products, software applications, websites, marketing materials, displays, business processes and service designs.

Our Innovation Research is best for organizations that want to:

Explore new markets or introduce new products and services into existing markets.
Exploratory Ethnographic Research delivers areas of growth opportunity, taking into account customer needs and the core competencies of an organization.

Discover who to target with new products and services, as well as define which features to include in these products and services.
Opportunity Definition Research delivers detailed product functions and system criteria. Clients often use this research to find new applications for technologies not yet offered through mass-market channels.

Improve an existing product or service to stay competitive and/or evaluate the barriers associated with adoption of your product in the marketplace.
Evaluative Research delivers incremental improvements to existing product functions and features, including services and processes. It also provides insight into what's likely to support or hinder the adoption of a product in the marketplace. It can be used either prior to or after a product's launch.

Regardless of the type of research, we always employ rigorous processes related to data collection, analysis and synthesis. Specific research methods chosen to engage customers is dependent on a project's objectives, but can range from observational research to individual interviews to product walkthroughs to focus groups to camera studies to co-creation workshops.

Case Study

Client:      Marriott
Division:  eCommerce

Assignment
Marriott was developing a new reservation tool called Small Groups Online to assist people in making up to 25 hotel room reservations at one time. Sylver was tasked with identifying which event planners the tool should target, as well as providing direction on the feature and function development of the system.

Approach
Using Opportunity Definition Research, Sylver conducted one-on-one interviews, a prototype walk-through and a competitive comparison review with occasional, semi-professional and professional planners. The purpose of the interviews was to understand the participants' current process for booking multiple hotel rooms at one time and to uncover potential behavioral barriers to the system's adoption.

Utilizing a reservation system prototype, participants simulated the process of booking multiple rooms online, which provided insight into points of customer confusion, as well as identified functionalities of the system that needed to be evolved. The competitive comparison review assisted the design team in understanding the preferred visual conventions for displaying information related to online reservations.

Outcomes
We discovered through our research that the occasional planner should be the target for the first version of Small Groups Online. After identifying necessary functions and features of the system, we created a roadmap for development, prioritizing which additional features and functions needed to be added to support the planning behaviors of the semi-professional and professional planners in subsequent iterations of the tool.

"Sylver Consulting is a great pleasure to work with, always providing on-time and on-budget deliverables. They've helped us to expand our capabilities as a department, collaborating intimately with our project teams and offering guidance to our development efforts. With the research expertise they bring to the table, we've been able to speed up our development cycles and deliver more targeted products. We'd recommend them as an A-list vendor to work with at any time."

- M.C., Senior Director, User Experience, Marriott International