Ethnographic Methods & Design Thinking

Practitioners in the fields of agile software development, international development partnerships, or generally design, research and data can find resources here that enhance their projects hands-on. 

The toolsets the context navigator framework is based on are tested and proven to work in the field. We draw from different fields tackling the same problem: Understanding and navigating complex context for practical benefit of stakeholders. 

We are practitioners ourselves and continue on our learning journey. 

Our approach is skills-based and pragmatic. We rely on the metaphor of navigation rather than problem solving, from our understanding of complex contexts as dynamic. As a navigator would, we rely on what is at hand to make the decisions each step of the way requires. That implies working with limited, untrustworthy or ambiguous information while taking real risks. 

A navigator has the responsibility of both reaching goals but also keeping the crew safe, which might need evolving or changing the goals. This dynamic balance is reflected in our interpretation of the design thinking approach. We also address the inherent interdependence of research, design and doing in complex environments, and the tradeoffs that come with that. We try to mitigate issues that arise in multi-stakeholder, multi-goal situations creatively. Ultimately, we aim to address dynamic, yet structured, contexts with a dynamic, yet structured, approach.