Guest Lecturer: Yukiko Matsumoto (Researcher in the Strategic Design Department Research and Development Group Hitachi, Ltd.)

On 2 December, during Professor Kenichiro Kuroiwa's “International Management Seminar I” class, we invited Ms. Yukiko Matsumoto, a researcher in the Strategic Design Department Research and Development Group Hitachi, Ltd., to lead a workshop on “Observation Survey Methods”.

At the start of the class, she explained why observational research is important and gave some examples. Immediately afterwards, we observed shoppers at a supermarket near the university. In the second half of the workshop, we used the information gathered during the observation to explore shopper insights through abduction, focusing specifically on “who” and “what”. This process yielded several discoveries of ‘discomfort’ and ‘surprise’. Finally, groups shared their findings and, through the presentations of the other groups, we experienced the multifaceted nature of perspectives.

Participants gained an understanding of the advantages of observational research over quantitative surveys and other qualitative methods. They also gained key points into observational research and developed their observational skills.