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Cultural Expansion

Globalization Challenges and Recommendations for Rover.com

Rover seemed to be poised to expand internationally. I saw they had added services to Canadian cities and was curious to explore global expansion in the context of cultural strategies.   This this paper describes a globalization strategy that puts culture first.

 

Read my recommendation

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This is a paper written for a class at the University of Washington. This was not commissioned by Rover.com and they have since improved their website with many of the needed changes I describe.

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Parents in the Wild

Family and Community: An Ethnographic Exploration of the Sport-Parent Experience

Go to any soccer or baseball field on a Saturday morning and you will probably find children playing organized sports.  You will also find parents standing, sitting, cheering,

looking bored or perhaps some picking a fight with the referee?  Research tells us that sports are great for children but what about their parents? Our team of UW Researchers from the Human Centered Design and Engineering, Masters program wanted to know more and took a deep dive in understanding the sport-parent experience. 

Team: Tewelde Abraha, Jessica Carr, Steven Pennington, Joel Sytsma,

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Research Question

  • What is the experience of parents whose children are involved in extracurricular sports?

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Research Methods + Design

Using an ethnographic methodology, our research team attended a weekend softball tournament of high-school aged players in a league that hosted teams from all over Washington state. We engaged with family members and gathered data on the parent experience through observation, semi-structured interviews, and a 'parent scorecard' activity where parents recorded emotions felt while watching their child’s team play. 

 

Impact + What I Learned

This research was a personal exploration for the team, and we were able to reflect on our own experiences and aspirations as parents.  Parents are not idly standing by. Our paper details the observed relationships of parent to child, parent to parent and parent to team.  Through parent stories we learned about how families became involved in the sport. I especially enjoyed creating our parent scorecard. It was really effective in documenting a parent's emotional journey.  Comments such as: "joyful" "zippity-do-dah" and "anxious", helped narrate the parent's stories. 

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