A rapid research and concept design project to come up with software and service ideas for American parents with kids age 6-12 who want smartphones.
Samsung, having virtually exhausted the market for adult smartphones, is eyeing opportunities to expand their customer base by offering age-appropriate smartphones for kids. It's a very interesting problem space because there is very little market research about how American kids are using phones, and it is a fast-moving target, with the average age of ownership dropping from 11 to 10 in 2017, a trend which is expected to continue. Parenting norms are also in flux, and there is a dearth of research to explain what barriers or concerns parents face while making this decision. Meanwhile, in the backdrop, technology leaders including board members from Apple have demanded that their companies begin to address the appalling lack of tools for parents to manage their kids technology and a growing body of research highlight the negative psychological effects of mobile phone addiction among children and teens.
Samsung asked us to help research the landscape of American kids age 6-12 with millennial parents (under age 38), and to help refine concepts for new software and services aimed mostly at addressing the needs and concerns of parents. They requested that we conduct qualitative and quantitative research across the US, so we designed and launched a survey with 1000 respondents and help four focus groups in Dallas, Texas with 31 millennial parents.
At the time of writing the project is still in mid-flight, but we expect to spend the remaining month of the project summarizing research findings and coming up with refined concepts for software and services that Samsung can present to a US mobile phone carrier.
We designed and deployed a survey using the Qualtrics platform. The survey comprised of 78 questions. These questions aimed to gather quantitative information about parents of children with smartphones, parents of children without smartphones, parents' attitudes towards smartphones, and demographics of the responding parents. The survey also aimed to gather parents' attitudes towards kids' phone design concepts:
* Family Connection
* Digital Allowance
* Focus Modes
* Flexible Plans
These concepts did not include the Smart Cases concepts. The survey was designed to take approximately 10 minutes to complete. We recruited 1032 respondents. These respondents only included parents:
* between the ages of 20 and 38
* who are living in urban or suburban residences
* who were not deeply opposed to allowing their children to have smartphones
We were able to collect, synthesize, and report survey data to deliver to Samsung.
We planned and executed 4 focus groups in the Dallas Fort Worth Metropolitan Area. The focus groups aimed to gather qualitative information about parents' attitudes towards kids' phone design concepts:
* Smart Cases
* Family Connection
* Digital Allowance
* Focus Modes
* Flexible Plans
In contrast to the survey, the focus groups included the Smart Cases concepts. Each focus group comprised of 7-8 parents, with 31 participants in total. Each participant was given homework to complete and bring to the focus groups. This homework requested that the parents ask their children questions regarding the "Smart Cases" concept. Upon arriving to the focus group venue, parents were provided worksheets to use as guides and to complete. The focus groups were conducted in a group interview and discussion format where we aimed to gather deeper qualitative information about parents attitudes towards kids' smartphones (using the kids' phone design concepts as prompts). Each of these interviews were recorded, transcribed, and used during our data synthesis that we later delivered to Samsung.
We generated insights and opportunities derived from testing the kids' phone design concepts, inquiring deeper into parent attitudes towards smartphones, and digging deeper into data
Samsung, having virtually exhausted the market for adult smartphones, is eyeing opportunities to expand their customer base by offering age-appropriate smartphones for kids. It's a very interesting problem space because there is very little market research about how American kids are using phones, and it is a fast-moving target, with the average age of ownership dropping from 11 to 10 in 2017, a trend which is expected to continue. Parenting norms are also in flux, and there is a dearth of research to explain what barriers or concerns parents face while making this decision. Meanwhile, in the backdrop, technology leaders including board members from Apple have demanded that their companies begin to address the appalling lack of tools for parents to manage their kids technology and a growing body of research highlight the negative psychological effects of mobile phone addiction among children and teens.
Samsung asked us to help research the landscape of American kids age 6-12 with millennial parents (under age 38), and to help refine concepts for new software and services aimed mostly at addressing the needs and concerns of parents. They requested that we conduct qualitative and quantitative research across the US, so we designed and launched a survey with 1000 respondents and help four focus groups in Dallas, Texas with 31 millennial parents.
At the time of writing the project is still in mid-flight, but we expect to spend the remaining month of the project summarizing research findings and coming up with refined concepts for software and services that Samsung can present to a US mobile phone carrier.
We designed and deployed a survey using the Qualtrics platform. The survey comprised of 78 questions. These questions aimed to gather quantitative information about parents of children with smartphones, parents of children without smartphones, parents' attitudes towards smartphones, and demographics of the responding parents. The survey also aimed to gather parents' attitudes towards kids' phone design concepts:
* Family Connection
* Digital Allowance
* Focus Modes
* Flexible Plans
These concepts did not include the Smart Cases concepts. The survey was designed to take approximately 10 minutes to complete. We recruited 1032 respondents. These respondents only included parents:
* between the ages of 20 and 38
* who are living in urban or suburban residences
* who were not deeply opposed to allowing their children to have smartphones
We were able to collect, synthesize, and report survey data to deliver to Samsung.
We planned and executed 4 focus groups in the Dallas Fort Worth Metropolitan Area. The focus groups aimed to gather qualitative information about parents' attitudes towards kids' phone design concepts:
* Smart Cases
* Family Connection
* Digital Allowance
* Focus Modes
* Flexible Plans
In contrast to the survey, the focus groups included the Smart Cases concepts. Each focus group comprised of 7-8 parents, with 31 participants in total. Each participant was given homework to complete and bring to the focus groups. This homework requested that the parents ask their children questions regarding the "Smart Cases" concept. Upon arriving to the focus group venue, parents were provided worksheets to use as guides and to complete. The focus groups were conducted in a group interview and discussion format where we aimed to gather deeper qualitative information about parents attitudes towards kids' smartphones (using the kids' phone design concepts as prompts). Each of these interviews were recorded, transcribed, and used during our data synthesis that we later delivered to Samsung.
We generated insights and opportunities derived from testing the kids' phone design concepts, inquiring deeper into parent attitudes towards smartphones, and digging deeper into data