Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Emotion Economy: Ethnography as Corporate Strategy

Gold
Wednesday, May 13, 2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Share the love for this talk
Emotion Economy: Ethnography as Corporate Strategy
Speakers: Kelly Goto
Link:

Summary

The talk, featuring the speaker's recount of personal and professional experiences, highlights the increasing importance of emotional equity in corporate strategy and product development. The speaker shares a personal story involving their daughters’ innovative 3D-printed casts, illustrating how empathy and emotion underpin meaningful user experiences. They stress that markets are shifting rapidly into complex, dynamic spaces requiring ethnographic methods to understand hidden emotional needs that traditional surveys miss. Collaborating with peers like Steve and referencing experts such as Trisha Wang and Ellen Isaac, the speaker explains rapid ethnography, ethno probing, and insight studies that convert data into stories—vital for convincing stakeholders and guiding strategic decisions. Real-world case studies, including work with educational clients and healthcare.gov, demonstrate how emotional segmentation and continuous feedback loops foster innovative, user-centered products. The speaker also discusses organizational shifts from siloed, engineering-driven cultures to progressive, experience-focused ones facilitated by lean UX, highlighting Lego’s turnaround as an exemplar. Ultimately, they argue that brands must earn trust through emotional connection, balancing ethos, pathos, and logos to build lasting, meaningful experiences in a fast-evolving marketplace.

Key Insights

  • Emotion is becoming a core driver of corporate strategy and product success, beyond just usability or logic.

  • Ethnographic research reveals emotional needs that users themselves may be unaware of, critical for innovation.

  • Rapid ethnography can deliver meaningful, actionable insights in just 4 to 6 weeks.

  • Combining big data sentiment analysis with ethnographic 'FIC data' storytelling enhances understanding of user behaviors and attitudes.

  • Insight studies conducted over time capture evolving user feelings and behaviors, supporting product iteration and loyalty.

  • Emotional segmentation of users (such as brand-driven, frugal, or experience-driven) often reveals marketing opportunities missed by traditional demographics.

  • Storytelling is essential for translating research into impact within organizations and convincing executives.

  • Corporate cultures need to shift from siloed, engineering or marketing-centric models to collaborative, experience-driven models.

  • Lean UX practices help unite business, design, and engineering teams with shared language and processes.

  • Successful brand trust today relies on sustained emotional engagement, aligning with Aristotle’s ethos, pathos, and logos framework.

Notable Quotes

"Empathy is so overused but it’s really important for us to understand we’re no longer designing for single experiences."

"People’s ability to cope with information complexity isn’t increasing exponentially, so we need to find the perfect innovation space."

"Unless your products yield exceptional emotional value, they’re not going to succeed."

"If you don’t know the questions to ask, you should do more ethnographic fieldwork rather than just surveys."

"FIC data delivers stories and stories become very important for strategy."

"We don’t have time for ethnography, yet executives still don’t have answers without it."

"There’s nothing more exhilarating than meeting actual customers using your products and services."

"Storytelling helps convince internal stakeholders and C-level executives that emotional insight is critical."

"Insight studies create ongoing, real-time feedback loops that impact business decisions quickly."

"Emotion is the new brand value; trust is earned over time and emotional connection drives loyalty."

Ask the Rosenbot
Nora Tejeda
Scaling Design Capabilities at BBVA Through a Self-service Design Model
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Victor Udoewa
Radical Participatory Research: Decolonizing Participatory Processes
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Ren Pope
Building Experiences for Knowledge Systems
2023 • Enterprise UX 2023
Gold
Jane Reid
Self-care in User Research
2020 • Advancing Research Community
Tanya Snook
Designing the team experience: Building culture through onboarding
2021 • Enterprise Community
Sam Proulx
Mobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Kelly Goto
Emotion Economy: Ethnography as Corporate Strategy
2015 • Enterprise UX 2015
Gold
Jonathon Colman
How to Maximize the Impact of Content Design
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Angelos Arnis
Our Fragmented Identity
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Kit Unger
Theme 1 Intro
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Chris Moses
Stretching the Definition of DesignOps with Product Development
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Matt LeMay
You Don’t “Get” Anyone to Do Anything
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Christian Crumlish
Afternoon Insights Panel
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Cennydd Bowles
Day 1 Panel
2024 • Designing with AI 2024
Gold
Dorelle Rabinowitz
The Magic Word is Trust
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Andrew Webster
Scaling Design Capability: How Involved Should You Be?
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold

More Videos

Alba Villamil

"Attributing design differences to cultural values overlooks user workflows, constraints, and needs."

Alba Villamil

Stereotyped by Design: Pitfalls in Cross-Cultural User Research

March 30, 2020

Jacqui Frey

"Sometimes you have all the best ideas, but it’s not the right time, and that’s OK."

Jacqui Frey Dan Willis

Panel Discussion: Integrating DesignOps

November 7, 2018

Maria Giudice

"The word user kills your ability to put faces around our customers."

Maria Giudice

Remaking the Making Company: Moving from Product to Experience

June 9, 2016

Mansi Gupta

"Safety is often forgotten because it’s taken for granted, but ignoring safety leads to disengagement and diminished access."

Mansi Gupta

Women-Centric Research: What, Why, How

March 29, 2023

Marisa Bernstein

"Participant experience is everything and it starts with building trust."

Marisa Bernstein

It Takes GRIT: Lessons from the Small, but Mighty World of Civic Usability Testing

December 9, 2021

Margot Bloomstein

"Educating users to be confident in themselves empowers brands and society."

Margot Bloomstein

Fostering Trust in Your Brand and Beyond

March 12, 2020

Matt Bernius

"The self-care industry is commodified; true healing requires organizational change, not just personal coping tactics."

Matt Bernius Rachael Dietkus, LCSW Aditi Joshi Alba Villamil

Learnings from Applying Trauma-Informed Principles to the Research Process

March 10, 2022

Louis Rosenfeld

"We're not trying to cannibalize book sales but want to make the knowledge more accessible."

Louis Rosenfeld

GenAI for UXers: A Rosenbot Demo and Discussion

June 11, 2025

Angy Peterson

"Public sector experiences are unique and not nearly as linear as typical consumer journeys."

Angy Peterson Bob Ainsbury

More Than Technology: Personalized Public Sector Experiences

December 10, 2021