Civic tech is a growing field and an increasingly critical space for service delivery and participation in public...
Tag: friction
How Friction Led to a More Intentional Stakeholder Feedback Model for a Federal Research Program
This paper describes the evolution of the “intentional” model for stakeholder feedback that mitigates risk and...
Sangharsh: (nm) Struggle; Conflict, Friction: Creative Workarounds in Friction Arising from Patriarchy!
India is a country of people belonging to varied socioeconomic backgrounds. Patriarchy is very much evident in...
What You Find When You Find No One: Finding the Light out of Darkness
In the past year, our team encountered unexpected friction when recruiting efforts resulted in zero participants...
Fluidity and Friction: An Experiment in Ethnographic Foresight
Ethnography can be a divining rod for the future. Though speculative, the study of cultural signals to seed...
Seismic Shifts or Seasonal Patterns: After a Tough Year for Research, Do We Need Fundamental Change, or Just Patience?
https://player.vimeo.com/video/882708468?badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479 In this candid discussion, two leaders in research and ethnography explore what's shifted, why, how much, and how they're guiding their organizations forward through social, macroeconomic, and...
From Users to User Ecosystems: Applying Systems Thinking to Ethnography
User research typically focuses on intentional moments of contact between individuals and a product or...
Automate Yourself to Work on What You Love
Behind every great research session is multiple hours and weeks spent recruiting, sharing...
Career Pivots: Strategy & Foresight Consulting
Presenters Rebekah Park is a Partner at Gemic, where she co-leads the Tech and Health practices. Over two decades...
Don’t Fear Friction: Complexity and Contradiction Are Pathways to Better Solutions
As ethnographers, we recognize the limitations of simplistic explanations and seek to delve deeper into the complex web of human existence. In our line of work, the very concept of friction goes from being a disturbing factor that should be neutralized or resolved in the data, to being the very thing we zoom in on to understand the world. Frictions, in their various forms, then become vital entry points to examine underlying issues, power dynamics, and cultural tensions that shape human realities, and unveil opportunities for a deeper understanding and new value-creating solutions.