Experience Ethnography
A hands-on workshop for applying ethnography in your own company

These structured workshops enable teams of 10-15 employees from your organization to gain tangible knowledge about ethnography, experiment with ethnographic techniques, and glean insights that are immediately relevant to your objectives.

Process & Logistics

The customized workshop involves:

• Discovery visit at your company site — where PARC ethnographers who are skilled in a variety of approaches, methods, and settings will uncover unique organizational needs to tailor your workshop curriculum; and
• Visit to PARC — where you and your colleagues will learn basic ethnographic skills, conduct mini-ethnographic studies, and analyze preliminary findings under the guidance of our expert ethnographers.

Participants also choose one of these three tracks to focus the workshop objectives:
-	Outbound-facing customer interfaces (such as call centers or service desks);
-	Inbound-facing practices or organizational processes (such as increasing sharing and learning across organizational boundaries, effectively managing distributed project teams, or improving company culture); and
-	New user-centered product development and evaluation

Scheduling

PARC offers these workshops only 2-3 times each year. The duration of each workshop totals a 2-week or 10-day period – for example, four 2-day sessions or three 3-day sessions, with time in between for participants to complete field assignments. Scheduling and locations are flexible (especially for international clients).

Outcomes

The workshop experience typically yields:

• Solid insights into what ethnography is and how it can create value for your organization;
• Relevant findings that you can implement in your organization; and
• Foundation to build followon ethnographic studies or client service engagements with PARC.

Apprenticeships & Certification Programs

PARC can transfer significant ethnographic capabilities – including field observation skills, a toolkit of methods, and analytical approaches – to your organization.

These apprenticeships occur exclusively within ongoing client service engagements with PARC (at least 6 months). Program components include: fieldwork training, specialty courses (videography, user-centered design, brainstorming), data analysis sessions, field apprenticeships under PARC ethnographers, evaluations, and more.

In addition to gaining specific ethnographic skills, participating employees learn the full spectrum of conducting a field study – from designing the study, to finding an appropriate site, negotiating entry, observing target subjects, analyzing findings, and writing reports/ presenting results. Employees who participate in this apprenticeship often develop the "vision" to see the world in a different way.

Employees who have demonstrated their ability to independently carry out a successful field study may also be eligible for certification from PARC.