ANNETTE ESQUIBEL
Anthropologist. Researcher. People Person.
PORTFOLIO
Aiming to do good through diverse international projects founded on people-centered research.
Increasing Social Impact through Optimized E-Commerce Site
The Brightly Co.
Challenge: Increase purchase conversions on newly re-launched e-commerce site.
Team and Duration: I am the sole researcher on a 6 person start-up team. Working closely with designers, marketing, developers and CEO, this is an ongoing research project to continually improved the Brightly Co.'s online presence.
Objective: To optimize the PDP (product detail page) before launch of new site was the first priority.
Process: Secondary research of established best practices was done to establish baseline designs. Using these designs, remote iterations of user and usability testing was undertaken to finalize PDP page design.
Insights: A simple layout that focuses on visuals of product and key details is ideal. Ratings must be clearly seen above the fold and customer reviews must be easily accessible.
Objective: To most effectively communicate with potential customers the social and environmental impact purchases would have.
Process: This is a novel research focus and quite exciting! The first step was a short survey distributed remotely to a wide distribution of our target audience. Following survey responses, semi-structured interviews were done with a small sample of respondents.
Objective: To design the most welcoming and effective social shopping platform possible.
Process: This research is still ongoing. Check back soon for updates!
Outcome: The Brightly Co.'s new site was successfully launched with high levels of organic traffic and social media reaches above industry standard.
Preserving Indigenous Rainforests through Ecotourism in Peru
Rainforest Expeditions, Madre de Dios, Peru
Initial Challenge: In the Peruvian Amazon, grants for Indigenous lands are often given to loggers. This makes logging encroachment on Indigenous owned lands legal. Groups can prevent this by proving their land is currently providing a competitive economic value. So, I worked with an Indigenous council to identify the best non-destructive, productive use of their land to prevent future logging on it.
Team and Duration: I was the lead researcher for this project and worked closely with the Indigenous community's Council of Leaders. This project spanned over 6 months of on-site and remote research, analysis and synthesis.
Objective: To identify the best option for the community's land use between Agroforestry and Ecotourism.
Process: Background research on Agroforestry and Ecotourism was done and case samples that were relevant were identified. I conducted an industry viability study resulting in a clear land use preference.
Insights: Based on the factors of this land, including location, rich ecosystem, lack of pollution and indigenous ownership, ecotourism would be the ideal land use option.
Secondary Challenge: These insights were presented to the Council of Leaders and a key insight that changed the direction of the research was identified. While the council was assured that Ecotourism was the ideal use of their land, they were unconvinced it was feasible for them.
Objective: Understand what is holding back the Council of Leaders from fully supporting Ecotourism on their land.
Process: A focus group session was conducted with the Council to identify mental models, prioritize concerns, and identify motivations.
Insights: Through this session, the overarching concern of the Council was derived: they were not convinced they had anything to offer tourists. They were worried about satisfying customers and having long-term customers necessary to have the venture be feasible.
*This was a key insight that changed the entire direction of the project, resulting in completely revamped research protocols and fascinating, on-the-ground research opportunities.*
Tertiary Challenge: In the fairly new world of ecotourism, little research on tourists' motivations has been done. In order to have a successful ecotourism lodge, we needed to understand what ecotourists want, whether they are satisfied with their tours and how to replicate positive experiences.
Objective: Understand ecotourists' motivations and expectations and establish best practices to ensure satisfaction.
Process: Background research on existing tourist satisfaction levels was done to establish baseline understandings. A hypothesis was established that tourist's satisfaction was based on their expectations of the experiences, especially the presence of rare fauna in the rainforest. To test this, a mixed methods approach at a nearby ecotourism lodge was taken.
The goal was threefold: to understand a) the expectations of ecotourists, b) the satisfaction of ecotourists and c) the conditions that led to a & b.
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Surveys were given to tourists immediately following their arrival at the lodge to understand their motivations for attending as well as their expectations.
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Participant observation was done with tour groups during their 3 day visits to a nearby ecotourism lodge. All sightings of rare fauna were recorded, as well as other data including times of trail use and GPS data tracking. Observations were valuable to track unfiltered reactions to faunal sightings and time spent in the rainforest as compared to in the lodge.
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After each individual tour (usually three for each tourist), a ranking activity was provided for tourists to compare their satisfaction between each tour and a card sort activity was provided to understand their ranking of fauna seen.
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Surveys were given to tourists at the end of their 3 day tours to gauge their overall satisfaction with trip.
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Tourists who were particularly satisfied and unsatisfied were interviewed to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences.
Insights: This mix of qualitative and quantitative methods was valuable to gain a clear understanding of 1) why people did ecotours, 2) what they expected, 3) what they enjoyed most on the tours, and 4) why they left tours satisfied/unsatisfied. I was then able to communicate this as best practices for the creation of trails, itineraries, and advertising for existing and future ecotourism lodges.
Outcomes:
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The Council of Leaders agreed on ecotourism development to protect their land.
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Ecotourist satisfaction best practices were established.
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Plans for trail development at a new ecolodge were provided.
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Findings were presented at "Intersections in Latin America" Symposium to over 50 interdisciplinary professionals.
Sustainable Tourism Development in the Caribbean
St. Kitts Ministry of Tourism
Challenge: St. Kitts is fairly new to tourism for a Caribbean nation and so it has a lot of opportunity to develop sustainably: in a way that is good for the environment, local communities and local economy. I was hired as a consultant for sustainable tourism development for the country. But, as a firm believer in research based projects- I conducted research that could serve as the basis for a sustainable tourism development plan.
Team & Duration: I was in St. Kitts for a year and conducted research over the course of the first two months I was on island. I was the lead researcher and worked closely with St. Kitts Ministry of Tourism officials and community leaders onsite as well as NGO representatives remotely.
Objective: To draft a short and long term sustainable development plan that invests stakeholders and could be implemented successfully without outside support.
Process: Upon arriving in St. Kitts, the first thing I did was participant observation a.k.a. being a tourist for a week. Through this, I was able to gain insights about the current tourism product offering, what knowledge it provided tourists about St. Kitts and how tourists were treated. After seeing tourism in St. Kitts first hand, I spent time reviewing and analyzing tourist satisfaction surveys that had been collected over the past few years. I then did interviews and ethnographies of the Ministry of Tourism officials and community leaders that led to rich, in-depth insights about policy, priorities, and cultural models.
These methods comprised the foundational research I used to familiarize myself with the current challenges and opportunities of the tourism sector in the country.
Insights: This foundational research led to a key insight: diverse stakeholder involvement was lacking in tourism development and this was a problem.
To address this and get local inputs, I created and led the distribution of the first ever island-wide Resident Satisfaction with Tourism Survey. The results of this survey led to key opportunity and priority insights including which parts of the island wanted to be involved more in tourism, which fields people longed for training in, which sustainability factors were a priority, etc.
The survey also served to identify key community leaders that were gathered into a novel public/private Sustainable Destination Council to help guide the development of sustainable tourism on the island.
The results of the survey also informed focus-group-like vision setting sessions with Ministry of Tourism officials and Sustainable Destination Council members that served as the basis for the development plan.
Outcomes:
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A novel public/private Sustainable Destination Council was created and has operated successfully for over a year, becoming an international exemplar for cooperation.
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A short term and long term sustainable tourism development plan focused on diverse stakeholder involvement was created, approved and adopted by the Ministry of Tourism.
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Together, the Council and Ministry have achieved sustainable development policy implementation, multiple sustainable tourism trainings, diverse community outreach, and positive international recognition via blogs, conferences and news profiles.
Developing Recreation Trails in Rural Areas
Roswell City Council and Chaves County, New Mexico
Challenge: Community stakeholders wished to develop an additional recreation trail that would connect city parks to county wildlife refuges. The plan would need to pass both city and county councils to appear on a ballot for public vote.
Team and Duration: I was the lead researcher on this project and worked closely with a local engineering firm and tem of public representatives who supported the project.
Objective: Create a document that would help convince officials to approve the creation of an extended recreation trail.
Process: To understand the key areas of concern and priorities of all stakeholders involved in the trail creation, I created a short survey to disperse to landowners along the proposed route. I also interviewed key community leaders and politicians to get a more nuanced understanding of the challenges that would be faced to get the trail approved.
Insights: The top three areas of concern were the economic, health, and community benefit of investing in the trail.
Research on previous trails was used to highlight the benefits of trail creation in all three priority areas.
Outcome: Findings were communicated through a concise infographic and presented at council meetings. Project passed initial vote to appear on a ballot.
Understanding Dangerous Drinking Habits on College Campuses
University of Notre Dame Health Services
Challenge: Understand why college students overdrink, especially "pre-gaming," & how to prevent.
Team and Duration: I was part of a four person team conducting and synthesizing this research over the course of a month.
Process: A literature review provided our foundational research on teen and college student drinking patterns. Using insights from this, we created an online survey that was administered to over 400 students to determine drinking and pre-gaming habits as well as motivation. To get a deeper picture of the why, select students were then interviewed. We also interviewed physicians, counselors and university authorities on campus.
Insights: We found that the main motivation behind dangerous pre-gaming habits was social. We also found that many students did not fully understand the negative health repurcussions of their drinking.
Outcome: Alternative social and drinking education programs were suggested to the University to address the motives behind pre-gaming. Findings were published via NeuroAnthropology blog.