Looking in before looking out: a field guide for field researchers
After a ten hour flight over the North Atlantic ocean (without a video display no less) I finally arrived in Berlin. While I had conducted field research overseas before, it was my first time going to a country to do research where I wasn’t aware of the language or culture to a degree that I was comfortable with. Needless to say, it was overwhelming and thrilling to be tossed into an unfamiliar environment with the goal of finding the best research insights I could. Throughout the trip while battling jet-lag, and culture shock, I tried my best to juggle both the physical and mental logistics of doing field research.
I find that doing research in an unfamiliar environment requires the ability to remove oneself from jet-lag, tiredness, and judgment, while simultaneously taking in as much information as one can within a short amount of time. Doing research overseas means having to juggle being constantly aware of everything around yourself, as well as of the emotions developing within yourself, and maintaining the clear mind needed to complete tasks ahead. When travelling, and doing research overseas, it’s easy to find yourself having mood swings between getting irritable, over-excited, and feeling exhausted. It’s part of the experience of being suddenly thrown into a new environment where it can seem like almost nothing is the same or has the same meanings of the place you were before.
I think that in order to conduct good field research not only overseas, but even within a new environment or subculture within your own area, it’s important to be prepared both physically and mentally.
Physically.
Doing research in another country requires one to be prepared both logistically as a traveller going overseas, but also as a professional researcher. As a traveller it means reading as much information as you can about the place you are going, learning about its rules for etiquette, public transportations, and general costs. However, as a researcher there’s another layer of things to consider.
Interviews and interview locations
My current research projects involve exploring how entrepreneurship works in different places around the world, and the best way I can understand entrepreneurship is by meeting store owners where they work (whether it’s shared office spaces, retail stores, or coffee shops). When planning a research trip (after I’ve determined the metrics I’m looking for within a particular sample), I need to decide the rough areas of where I want to go to by city and by area. I like to try to get a variety of cities, such as rural and urban, so I can see if there’s any contrast in a merchant’s experience.
After I’ve determined the cities, and the approximate area that potential participants are located (through looking up their offices or stores), I send out recruitment emails prompting participants to choose where and when they would like to meet via calend.ly. So my interviews are always determined by the participants, not by me, I do this with the hopes of creating interviews where participants can feel comfortable. After interviews have been scheduled, I create a map on Google so I can figure out how long I will have to travel between interview locations logistically, and to determine where would be the best place for me to stay, as well as when I should schedule trains or other transportations.
Tools
In order to do field research, it’s important to have a tool kit of supplies. For me this means:
Consent forms: Before going on a research trip, I always prepare consent forms (explanation of informed consent in ethnographic research) in both English, and the language of the country I’m going to. These consent forms are for participating in the interview, as well as for if Shopify decides to release any information from the interview publicly (for example in the form of a blog post). I always make sure that the translated consent forms, as well as any other content given to participants are not only translated, but also localized. Just because casual English works on a consent form, doesn’t mean casual Japanese will. In Japanese, there’s multiple levels of formality, with each level being appropriate for different situations. In business, it’s inappropriate to speak casually, especially if it’s the first time that you meet a client. So when I was writing the consent forms for my field research trip to Japan, while the English versions of the form were casual, I made sure to give make the Japanese versions linguistically appropriate.
Interview guide: I always prepare a semi-structured interview guide for my research that’s informed by teams across the company for my research. These guides are made with the purpose of providing a base for the conversations I have with participants. I like to let participants talk about things that are important to them as related to their businesses, but the interview guides help me to keep the conversation going. As with the consent form, it’s important to make sure that translated interview guides are also localized and culturally appropriate.
Schedule / logistics guide: I like to keep physical copies of my schedule, appointments, transportation, rentals, and accommodations just in case.
Business cards: Depending on the country, business cards carry varying importance. Nonetheless, they’re a good thing to bring as I never know who I’m going to meet. Business cards are also helpful for maintaining contact, or creating new contacts while on the field. In Japan, for example, business cards are key for both establishing relationships, remembering names, and determining how to interact based on the individual’s position. After exchanging business cards, it’s important to keep the card in a visible place and not put it away immediately to show respect. Whenever I do field research in Japan, I make sure to bring as many business cards as I can.
Voice recorder: It’s personal preference, but I don’t like to take notes during interviews, as I find interviews to already be an unnatural setting, and I want participants to feel as comfortable as possible. Since I don’t take notes, I always bring a small voice recorder to interviews with me. At the beginning of the interview, after I present consent forms to participants, I ask them if they’re ok with being recorded, I turn on the recorder and place it upside down, to take away the blinking red light.
Smart phone (with pocket wifi!): Doing research overseas means that I don’t have access to my regular phone plan. Even still, in order to keep track of appointments, as well as locations, wifi is a necessity. In many countries, like Japan, wifi isn’t always readily available. In order to combat this, I always get a pocketwifi device for whenever I do field research. Smartphones also act as a handy backup for voice recorders if batteries die.
Rechargeable batteries: Some days I have over six hours of interviews in the field, with no time to stop between them. For those times, rechargeable batteries are key.
Cords for charging: During a long day of research, being able to charge devices anywhere is key.
Go-pro: Depending on the research, sometimes it’s important to have a video camera. For example, if a participant is showing a certain process on a computer screen and you want to capture not only the computer screen, but also the environment, and the gestures/emotions of the participant.
Camera: I take countless amounts of photos during field research. Not only when I’m meeting with participants, but also when I’m in the field and I find something relevant to my research.
Laptop: At the end of everyday that I do field research, I make sure to back up all of my data on my laptop, and I also try to upload it all to project folders. I make individual folders for every participant and upload audio and video recordings as well as photos as soon as I can. Information piles up fast, and if I don’t maintain a high level of organization, it’s easy for me to forget what recording was for what interview.
Mentally.
No matter how much you perfect your schedule, or how many videos you watch about the place you’re going, you can’t really be prepared mentally for the culture shock, exhaustion, and unexpected events that come along with being in another country. There are a couple of things, however, that I always try to keep in mind when on the field.
Different isn’t wrong, it’s just different.
Being in another society with it’s own unique systems, cultures, and beliefs often means challenging your own. Whenever I arrive in a new country, I remember what I learned in one of my first year anthropology classes in university: that the first two weeks that you go to a new place, you notice more than you’ll ever notice again. This is true in both good and bad ways. It’s great as a researcher because you can take in a lot of new information, but it also means that you risk channelling or judging these differences with your own biases.
Judging new phenomenon, especially in a negative light, not only impacts the quality of the work that you do, but it also blocks your ability to take in new information and perspectives. Whenever I go somewhere new when on research trips, I always try to be hyper aware of my emotions and physical conditions and how they’re playing into how I read situations. Travelling and being in another part of the world is exhausting, but combined with adrenaline, it’s sometimes easy to forget to take care of your body or to realize the signs your body is giving you. For example, in Japan and Thailand, summers are extremely hot and humid, so it’s important to keep constantly hydrated if you don’t it’s easy to get migraines or heat stroke. This is something that I wasn’t really aware of when I started doing research in these areas, but now I always make sure to keep track of how I’m feeling physically and take breaks when I need to.
I also always try to catch myself when I find myself reacting negatively to something someone says or does. It’s easy for us to judge a situation from our own biases, negatively or positively, but it’s difficult to think from that culture or individuals’ perspective. However, it’s something that’s necessary to do when working overseas especially when doing research that has the goal of understanding another person’s experience. So, if you ever have to do research overseas always try to be aware of your emotions and reactions.
It’s ok to take a break
Culture shock, and exhaustion from jet-lag, are difficult to track. It’s easy to get caught up in the adrenaline of being somewhere new, and to ignore the signals your body is giving you of it being time to take a break. Whenever I feel a little overwhelmed while on the field, I try to take a couple of minutes to talk to someone back home, or to watch something familiar on tv to ground myself. Taking a break doesn’t retract from the experience, it’s a way to clear your head, rest, and prepare for the next research.
Be safe
As I mentioned above, for my field research, I always let participants decide where we meet themselves. As a result I’ve done interviews over dinner, in coffee shops, at fashion shows, in retail stores and in offices. However, I always make sure that I’m safe, and if a participant wants to meet somewhere I’m uncomfortable with, I’ll turn down the interview. It’s also important to communicate your schedule and whereabouts with other people that you trust, such as your teammates, just in case.
Be resourceful
Being in a new environment, and meeting with new people, means you don’t know what to expect or what will happen. Trains can get delayed, data can get lost, and sometimes you can’t find the place you’re supposed to meet a participant. The places that I meet participants are more often than not decided by them, so this means that I’m never entirely sure what the buildings I’m looking for are. For this reason, I always try to arrive at interview locations twenty minutes or so before in order to confirm office locations.
One time I had to meet a merchant in an office building in Japan, but his business wasn’t listed on the companies list, so I had to ask some of the people entering and leaving the building if they knew about his company. It turned out that he had a desk in a shared office space. When on the field you need to be resourceful, and be able to think quickly. I always like to be extra prepared in the case of something going wrong, for example through keeping participants phone numbers on hand, recording interviews on multiple devices, and keeping extra batteries just in case.
Doing research in a new country is overwhelming, exciting, and daunting at the same time. But making connections, and learning from people around the world, have been some of the most rewarding parts of my career so far.
Are you a cultural researcher interested in what we’re doing in Shopify? Check out our careers page or reach out to me— leia.atkinson@shopify.com
