Introduction: The View from Pixel to Picture

Kannapon Lopetcharat, Dulce Paredes, and Jacqueline H. Beckley

The editors want to thank you for deciding to read this book. Whether you read a chapter or mark up the whole book, we are thankful and delighted. And if you are buying this for a second time because you really enjoyed the first edition, thank you even more. While some of the chapters have stayed the same, we have refreshed this edition with a lot of new materials, and we hope you find the wisdom good.

Let us explain our goals:

1. Think of this book as a mentor: Someone who wants to give you some help, so you don't have to struggle with some of the issues they went through before you.
2. Think of this book as a cookbook: If you like to dabble or work on your own Innovation pathway. We have asked a range of successful "Consumer Explorers" to help us craft chapters that give you tools you can put to work immediately or feel strong enough to modify as if you were adding your own herbs to an interesting recipe.
3. Think of this book as a coach, one you have paid a lot of money to: So that you may have your thinking challenged because some of the authors present ideas or approaches you have not considered.
4. We hope through every chapter that we have done one thing well: If we embraced ideas from another person, scientist, or other professional, we have acknowledged their contribution and made sure they are receiving the credit that belongs to them. Appreciating someone else's work is great - yet recognizing how you have built upon their thinking is extremely important.

Why point #4? We have found in this field of innovation, consumer design, and product development, some people feel it is okay to not acknowledge another person's work. We strongly disagree. Just because you did not take the time to realize that your "new & cool" idea built on something someone else did, spoke about, presented, in our world of writing and journalism, there is By - before you (credited to Bill Maher, a social commentator and sometime comedian, on his HBO show in May 2021). Pay attention and give recognition - whether you improve upon the researcher's ideas, steal, and use completely, or somewhere in-between. It is the right and important thing to do.

Since we are dealing with a field guide for understanding consumers (and people), processes to enable that understanding and the research you might want to consider, we are presenting material in a way that allows you to go to your outcomes quickly.

The three editors and 22 authors are all passionate about grounding innovation from the viewpoint of humans. To do that, we are bringing together a group of authors who have a range of thinking, some more radical or boundary testing to those who are much more classic or traditionally based. People, humans, "consumers" are having a moment. Researchers who believed that classic survey and product research would help solve most questions have come to embrace a more complicated and complex world. To get great outcomes, more and more researchers are realizing they need a much deeper understanding of how people are looking at products, why they are considering the products that they select, and also that there may be a growing or a large group, of individuals in this world, who appear to have ideas about products that behave much more differently than the norms and assumptions we have long held. We hope that the chapters we have provided for your consideration give you strategies that will go beyond the norm and enable realistic outcomes for you.

The book is laid out as a field guide that equips the reader, the consumer researcher, to become a "Consumer Explorer" (CE), an insight leader and strategic innovator who can infuse and apply deep consumer understanding throughout the product innovation process.

A CE differs from ordinary consumer researchers because, in addition to understanding consumers deeply, the CE can guide project teams to connect the dots and comprehend the big picture faster in a systematic manner. We advocate following an "Iterative Experimentation Qual-Quant process" (IEQQR) that will enable companies to understand their product environment comprehensively through knowledge mapping exercises, hypothesis testing, consumer deep dives, clear action standards and key performance criteria, and action-oriented results. The approaches described in the field guide will enable the CE to select and deploy appropriate and efficient consumer understanding and research tools for their current situation. They could also help guide the project team to successful innovation and new product introductions that have the opportunity of taking insight to income.

We use two visual principles to ground you on how to navigate the journey of the Consumer Explorer:

1. The View (What to Why)

   Above and below the surface

2. Pixel to Picture (How you are looking at it and Who sees it first)

   From pixel to picture, winners are the ones who connect the dots faster

We used the image of an agricultural field with an aquifer to show that what can be seen above the surface is often nourished by what lies hidden underneath. Capturing both gives you the What and the Why. An aquifer is any underground layer of water-bearing rock or porous geological formation from which water can move freely providing groundwater for springs and wells. When you relate the aquifer concept to research, what you see when you first scope out the innovation landscape may not always be what it seems. And to get a deeper perspective on what it all means from what is readily visible to what lies below the surface requires different tools.

Think of the Consumer Explorer taking a digital picture of the consumer and/or category landscape to identify breakthrough insights. A digital image is composed of many pixels (pixel is short for picture element; a pixel is a single point in a graphic image) that are close together so that the pixels appear connected. The number of pixels can define the quality of the image resolution, where the more pixels, the more exact the image. But also, a whole image is the sum of its parts, so the individual pixels in a picture make up what we see as the whole image. To gain a competitive edge, the CE must scope the landscape, capture the Aha! moment quicker and connect the dots faster to reveal the breakthrough insight faster than everyone else. Being well-versed in both the pixel and the picture can make all the difference in the strategic direction of a project. Our imagery throughout is to move from pixels, or pieces of the picture, to the whole cross section of the picture to show what is underneath supporting what is readily seen and why it matters. Many legacy and conventional tools can be used to capture the overt space while you need specialized tools to probe for deeper understanding for what lies below the surface, the unknown unknowns and unspoken truths. Another skill for the CE to master is staying vigilant and flexible throughout the learning process, constantly sifting, and becoming aware of deep fakes and misinformation.

This field guide contains 17 major chapters divided in three parts that will transform a consumer researcher into a Consumer Explorer by providing a step-by-step guide that shows how to design an innovative consumer research program from start to finish (pixel to picture).

Part I

Preparing for your journey (Chapters 1-5) defines the foundations and definitions to anyone who is responsible to set up, practice, and direct a sustainable consumer research program.

Part II

Gearing up for your consumer journey (Chapters 6-10) contains time-proven and cutting-edge tools from upfront consumer research where providing direction is key when you get closer in to product launch where finetuning and precision are valued.

Mastering the topics in parts one and two arms Consumer Explorers to set the direction, prepare, and be ready for any product innovation project.

Part III

Words of the wise (Chapters 11-17) covers practical tips and steps to bring the learnings from the earlier sections to life. Seasoned Consumer Explorers share their experiences in working with cross-functional teams and where they see future directions in building consumer-centric business decisions.

In each chapter, we begin with a summary of what the chapter is about and wrap up with suggested discussion questions for you to think through what you just read and what it means to you, your team, and your business.

From the first edition, we predicted that emerging research trends such as blurring the lines between qualitative-quantitative research tools, increasing use of digital technology and the rise of hybrid data will dominate the consumer research world. Ten years later, all of these are now mainstream practices. The future to understanding humans, people, and consumers is happening now as we continue to capture their shifting behaviors, mindsets, and attitudes toward products, done in context and enabled by technology. There are numerous ways to capture consumer data. The challenges for the Consumer Explorer are threefold: understand the why and not just the what;...