Collaborating with the Private Sector
While most of our work has been with bilateral organisations, projects and INGOs, Empatika also provides research services to the private sector for those projects where the aims are still in line with our values and code of ethics.
In 2016 one of the leading ride-hailing company in the country, established their Research and Insights Division. This unit identified a need for insights beyond conventional market research and wanted a deeper understand about the drivers using their app including issues such as: their daily lives; the challenges and opportunities for women drivers; driver safety; how drivers interact with the company apps; and drivers' income and well-being. In short, they wanted a holistic and contextual understanding of drivers’ experiences.
New motorbike taxi drivers awaiting training
This led to a request to pilot the use of Immersive Research for a greater understanding of these issues. For this, some of Empatika's researchers became drivers for the ride-hailing company for a period of six days, operating in five different areas of Jakarta. This provided direct experience about the process of onboarding and being accepted as a driver, use of the apps, interacting with customers and food delivery. It provided ample opportunities to ‘hang out' with other drivers (with researchers often drinking instant coffee more than five times a day!) and learn about their lives through shared experiences. The researchers were able to build trusted relationships and openness over time hanging out informally with other drivers.
Through these interactions drivers provided suggestions on improvements needed for the apps and shared concerns which they would very likely not have shared through conventional surveys or formal feedback mechanisms. This immersive approach and Empatika's presentation on the findings helped management not only gain a greater understanding but also to better empathise with the drivers, from which they were able to take some immediate actions and use to plan future improvements and further research.
Empatika has also assisted a large spices company in helping them better understand farmers' lives in the areas where they buy raw materials from, and more recently helped an online music service learn about their Indonesian customers' checkout experience.
An online interview about the checkout journey for a music service
Krisman Pandiangan
Krisman Pandiangan is a committed qualitative researcher with more than 15 years of experience providing research and evaluation services as well as supporting research-based program design. He holds a Master’s Degree in Knowledge Management from the University of Indonesia, and has extensive experience implementing participatory research and action research projects, including facilitating people-driven design processes.
Krisman Pandiangan
Krisman is a Senior Researcher with Empatika and is involved in research implementation, mentoring and coaching related to immersion-based and people-driven design approaches. He has particular experience on topics related to education, health and migration, as well as programs focused on children and has worked in more than 30 provinces across Indonesia.
Outside Empatika, Krisman is Lead Facilitator for an advisory group that advises the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health on organization development and human resources. Krisman was also involved in establishing an organization which fights discrimination toward people affected by leprosy, and he remains active in supporting its current campaigns and advocacy activities. Personally, Krisman also has great interest in supporting child literacy and is actively involved in the “Fill the Library Movement,” a movement that collects books from individuals and publishers and donates them to school libraries in underprivileged and remote areas.