Consumerization and Renewing PaPR

This paper documents the beginnings of Intel’s recently launched Consumerization project, and uses these early experiences as a way into exploring new paths to business relevance and impact. These paths weave in and out of the now institutionalized position of corporate ethnography as research that takes place before products are designed. To the extent these paths are one response to wider transformations in the business environment, they are not a general prescription, “ethnography should do X.” However, this project does embody a significant move away from traditional modalities of conducting and applying research, and in doing so reveals broader possibilities for ethnography that may prove viable for others in different contexts. We begin by providing some institutional history and exploring the wider industry transformations that compelled us to design a research project in the way that we did. The paper goes on to describe our approach in meeting the challenges of this new environment, both conceptually and methodologically. Finally we reflect on some of the very early partnerships we are now able to cultivate and grow as a result.