Page 54 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

42 Design Meets Business
Waag is an appropriate research setting for multiple reasons. First, their projects are often oriented toward guiding their clients toward important transformations. Thus, the phenomenon of interest is highly present and transparently observable (Pettigrew 1990). Second, with over 20 years in existence, Waag is the largest independent creative center in Europe. It houses a FabLab, a FashionLab, and a BioLab, and hosts a Makers Guild. Its facilities are equipped with state-of-the-art digital technologies and creative tools. Further, Waag has clients in public and private sector industries: they work with research, private, and public organizations. Most of its projects are broadly defined, target far-ranging questions (e.g. How to digitalize the cultural heritage sector?), and explore innovative solutions to broad societal questions. All Waag projects include either experimentation with or develo- pment of digital technologies. As the creative director said in an interview, ‘[Our clients] come to us when they need a change, a disruption’.
1.7.6. Data collection at Waag
During my study at Waag, I collected data between May 2014 to February 2016. The first round of data collection, May 2014 until June 2014, was conducted by a research assistant. The second round of data collec- tion, between March 2015 and February 2016, was collected by myself. I gathered diverse types of qualitative data, including interviews, observa- tions and documents.
Doing interviews. The primary source of collecting data at Waag was doing interviews. In total I did 58 semi-structured interviews, lasting between 50 and 120 minutes. The interviews were held with members of Waag, in various functions from designer to creative technologist, and at various levels, from intern to director. On average, the interviews lasted between 50 and 120 minutes. All interviews were voice-recorded with permission of the interviewees. Interviewees were selected on the basis of snowball sampling and included members of Waag in different roles and with different experience, ranging from a creative director with 10 years’ work experience at Waag to an intern who only started a few months before the interview took place. In the first round of data collection between May 2014 and August 2014, 31 interviews were collected by diverse research assistants. The central aim of the first round of interviews was to get a general sense of the work of Waag, and the challenges they encounter in their daily work. Hence, the interview guide included broad questions ranging from actors’ perceptions of their work, the design of the organi- zation, main work responsibilities and other topics that helped understan- ding what creative workers at Waag actually ‘do’.