Austin Center for Design: an Ethnographic Study
In a team of three at the AC4D’s Remote Studio, we worked to identify potential causes behind the disparity between BIPOC small business owners in Austin, compared to the other major cities in Texas.
My Process:
1) Research
2) Define
3) Ideate
Project type: ethnography research study
My role: Researcher
Tools: Miro, Mural, Zoom, Calendly, & Google Forums,
Team size: 3 researchers
Timeline: Four months
Location: Austin, Texas
Summary
Challenge:
Prior to the execution of our study, we found that of the top four most populated cities in Texas, Austin not only has the lowest percentage of minority population but also the lowest relative percentage of minority-owned businesses to minority population.
Curious as to why this might be, we sought to understand BIPOC small business owners and their supporting entities within the Central Texas area, in order to learn about what emotional, financial, and logistical factors influence the development of BIPOC small businesses.
Research:
As part of our research, we used formal interviews, a virtual collection of emotional artifacts, and journey maps in order to experience the fullness of the business owner’s journey, as a contextual inquiry was prevented by the pandemic COVID-19.
From their own stories and these journey maps, we uncovered rich, qualitative data about what they consider as their support systems, what support has been most critical throughout their journey, where the breakdowns in these systems might be, and three words regarding what support means and doesn’t mean to them.
Result:
After 12 weeks of recruitment, research, synthesis, and ideation, we found that the emotional trauma of racial discrimination negatively affects the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Color) small business owner’s ability to receive logistical, financial, and emotional support from their family, their community, and society. This results in a distrust for, and avoidance of, major financial institutions and they are forced to go it alone.
We believe that by creating a space for invested parties to collaborate and exchange logistical support (rather than financial arrangements), the BIPOC small business owner can spend less of their energy meeting all of their needs alone and break the cycle of isolation between the BIPOC themselves and the rest of their support systems.
My Role
Aside from student researcher, I took on the role of research operations coordinator: managing meeting agendas, prioritizing and focusing research efforts, and leveraging the team's strengths and weaknesses to delegate work as needed.
As a white researcher, I wanted to take extra care in the handling of our language, expressions, and synthesis. We worked with non-white researchers to determine what best described our focus group and found the term “BIPOC” to be most inclusive. However, we wish to note that BIPOC can also refer to religious preference, but we only used it in context of race and ethnicity.
Our goals were to:
1) Understand what support currently is for BIPOC small business owners, and what it could be.
2) Gain empathy in learning about unique challenges faced by BIPOC entrepreneurs.
3) Understand the resources that BIPOC entrepreneurs currently have to develop their businesses and what they might need in the future.
4) Understand the relationship of BIPOC businesses to their families, their communities and society at large.
5) Identify ways to improve support for BIPOC small business ownership in Austin, Texas.
Bea’s mobile bar set up at a local Black-focused food festival
Insights
George’s practice run for the farmer’s markets in his backyard
1. Racial discrimination from financial institutions creates emotional trauma over generations which drives BIPOC small business owners to seek out alternative methods of funding.
2. Distrust of financial education due to a lack of sharing of resources is common among BIPOC small business owners but permeates the BIPOC community as well.
3. BIPOC small business owners build an alternative economy with like-minded entrepreneurs, but these partnerships are weakened when emotional trauma encroaches through disapproval or lack of appreciation.
4. Family and friends struggle to provide the kind of emotional support wanted and needed by the BIPOC small business owners, due to compounding emotional trauma from their own experiences with society, community, and personal network.
5. The BIPOC small business owners’ identity as a resilient, persistent optimist is both a strength and a weakness; the owner is conditioned to withstand the loss of emotional support but by doing so, self-isolates and cannot accept negative feedback.
Design Criteria
George’s taco stand at a local San Antonio farmer’s market
1. BIPOC small business owners and their communities need connection to transparent and equitable financial opportunities.
2. BIPOC small business owners need easy access to financial education that is culturally sensitive and empathetic to the money management of the given BIPOC community.
3. BIPOC small business owners need to develop professional networks where freely exchanged referrals, labor, and advice are predicated on the mutual investment to the success of the BIPOC community at large, instead of the individual’s appreciation and value.
4. BIPOC small business owners need to be understood and believed in by their families for the risks they take so they can maintain their family connection, which provides emotional support and bolsters their motivation to face the challenges of running their business.
5. BIPOC small business owners need validation from their families, communities, and personal networks so they can spend less of their energy meeting all of their needs themselves.
What made our participants unique?
Personally invested: 70.6% of participants use this business as their only form of income
In early development: 76.5% of participants have been in business for less than 4 years
Self-sufficient: 94.1% of participants employ less than 20 people
Reflection
Our visual representation of the problem.
What worked well.
Using journey maps to get the small business owners to open up about their complete business journey. This was particularly effective if the participant gave minimal anecdotes about their experiences.
Zoom was an effective platform, although limiting. This interview format does break the “rule” of having just one researcher per participant. We found we needed an additional partner to ensure all technology was operational and manually create the emotion map while the other researcher walked the participant through it.
Empathetic listening allowed us to establish a master-apprentice relationship quickly in spite of the limiting circumstances.
Our visualization of the breakdown of support.
Challenges.
Gathering virtual artifacts with a Google forum collection document. We didn’t expect a resistance initially, so the forum was sent as part of the recruitment email. To another researcher, we recommend a more targeted strategy and consistent follow ups to engage participation.
Because of the complicated relationship between the BIPOC community and historical discrimination, we found our initial research focus was too broad of a topic to cover in a one hour interview time. Entire research studies could be focused on each form of support: emotional, logistical, and financial
Because of the limitations with COVID, finding participants solely online was particularly difficult as our communication was only possible via email, phone, or a text.
Our representation of traumas inflicted on the business owner.
Advice for researchers.
Recruit participants from banks and credit unions to understand the process of a BIPOC small business owner applying for a loan from the perspective of a traditional financial institution.
Recruit participants that are investors to better understand the relationship between a BIPOC small business owner and someone looking to make an investment.
Recruit participants from non-profits designed to help BIPOC small business owners to understand their financial, emotional, and logistical needs from another, more removed perspective
Recruit participants from the Texas Department of Historical Underutilized Businesses and other official government departments designed to support BIPOC small business owners to investigate their effectiveness.
What comes next?
While this was a primarily an academic exercise to learn the fundamentals of design thinking and design research, I would like to continue this thought experiment and present some potential ideas to resolve this wicked problem.
Physical Co Op
Across the board, we found that the business owners who had the most professional connections often had the most financial success. However, these connections are subject to disillusionment because one party often sees the other as temporary, or cannot provide enough financial support to make it worth their time. We propose a co op where services, instead of money, can be exchanged to help businesses thrive and grow.
Familial Relationship Seminars
The emotional support of the family is a critical component in the success of the small business owner. But often, the families are unable or do not know how to express their concern or support in a way that feels validating to their business owner. Seminars can teach all family members what they might expect and how to express what they need in a way that would be received by everyone.
Micro-lending
While major financial instruments work to resolve the lost trust within the BIPOC community, smaller credit unions and non-profits should consider smaller, more manageable loans that are given on the basis of the business owner’s financial history. Credit scores should be avoided because they’ve been shown historically to target the BIPOC community in a negative way.
Trusted Financial Advice
Because of historic and systemic racism, many BIPOC small business owners (and BIPOC in general) are very disillusioned with the major financial institutions. Furthermore, this racism prevents financial education from being taught in a way that is not condescending or foreign to the BIPOC small business owner. These knowledge and resources must shared, but the teachings should reflect the cultural empathies and systems already established within the community.
“Support is equal opportunity for all people.”
-Randy
Bea’s four year celebration of being in business, at the home she purchased with the money she made from her small business
The Austin Center for Design is an educational institution in Austin, Texas that offers a curriculum in interaction design and social entrepreneurship. Started by Jon Kolko, AC4D opened its doors to its first class in August 2010. The stated mission of AC4D is to "transform society through design and design education. Find out more about their remote studio on their website.