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Never Trust an Engineer
Category: Electronic Calculators, Mathematics Training
Methods: Focus Groups, Depth Interviews, Ethnography,
Telephone Survey
Summary
A large, worldwide manufacturer of electronic components and devices developed
handheld calculators and mathematics training program for children in the first,
second, and third grades. Field visits by the engineering team confirmed that
the new calculators were terrific, and that the children were deeply engaged
and emotionally involved with the devices. Senior marketing managers wanted
to know how to market the new calculators and training program, and hired Decision
Analyst. The research revealed some surprises.
Strategic Issues
The education market in the U.S. is huge, but U.S. students still lag behind
much of the world in mathematics and science. Our client, a worldwide electronics
manufacturer, saw the education market as a profit opportunity, but also as
an opportunity to improve mathematics education in the U.S. The electronics
manufacturer assigned an engineering team and development staff to design electronic
calculators and training materials for elementary schools in the U.S.
Once working models of the calculators were ready, they were placed in a number
of classrooms to determine how students interacted with the calculators and
how they responded to the training materials. Engineering teams visited the
schools, talked to the teachers, and observed students using the calculators
in class assignments. The engineers reported that the product was a great favorite
of the students, and that students were deeply engaged and deeply involved in
the calculators, as evidenced by the fact that students held calculators with
both hands up close to their faces and worked the keyboard with their thumbs.
The manufacturer was eager to roll out this new calculator and new training
system to schools across America. Decision Analyst was called in to conduct
primary research to help guide the marketing of the new product.
Research Objectives
The primary objective of the research was to determine how to position and
how to market the new mathematics calculator and training system to schools
in the U.S.
- What were the attitudes, perceptions, and motivations of teachers, and
how would these influence positioning, messaging, and strategy?
- What were teachers’ reactions to the calculator and training materials,
and did any opportunities for improvements exist?
- What would be the best channels of distribution?
Research Design and Methods
Since so much in-classroom testing had been completed by the client’s
engineering teams, we recommended that the research begin with ethnography (observing
the classroom usage of the calculators and training materials) and focus groups
among the classroom teachers who had tested the new calculators and materials
(i.e., the “test” teachers). We also recommended that a “control”
group of elementary school teachers be conducted at the same time in the same
cities. The “control” teachers would be similar to the “test”
teachers, except that they had never been exposed to the new calculator and
training materials. We recommended the “control” groups just in
case the “test” teachers might be biased in favor of the new program
because of self-selection bias. We also conducted depth interviews among the
manufacturer’s executives, managers, and engineers who had been involved
in the program’s development and testing. At the same time as the qualitative
research, a nationwide telephone survey was conducted among elementary educators
to measure their attitudes toward the teaching of mathematics in elementary
schools.
Results
The results surprised the electronics manufacturer. Contrary to the engineers’
report that teachers favored the new calculator and training program for mathematics,
the elementary school teachers were highly skeptical of using calculators to
teach mathematics to elementary students (this was true of “test”
and “control” teachers, as well as surveyed teachers). The teachers
overwhelmingly favored teaching mathematics to children in traditional ways,
so that students learned how to do basic arithmetic operations on paper and
in their heads. Once students mastered traditional mathematics, then and only
then would teachers be open to calculators and new training methods.
The second surprise involved the calculator itself. The engineers had reported
to senior management that the elementary students loved the new calculator.
Students were absorbed by and deeply engaged in using the new calculator, the
engineers observed, as proven by the fact that students held the calculator
with both hands very near to the face, and worked the keyboard with their thumbs.
The teachers had a different interpretation.
The elementary teachers explained that the keys on the calculator were too
small and too close together for the manual dexterity of elementary school children.
That’s why students held the calculator with both hands and worked the
keyboard with their thumbs. As far as students holding the calculators close
to their faces, teachers said that elementary students could not read the small
digits in the “tunnels” display on the calculator, and that was
why they held the calculator so close to their faces. Senior management killed
the project and reassigned the engineers.
Copyright © 2011 by Decision Analyst, Inc.
This case study may not be copied, published, or used in any way without written permission of Decision Analyst.
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