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Individual Explanation

  • 1 First, Jiro Kawakita, a cultural anthropologist, had so much data collected during his fieldwork that he was wondering how to organize it.
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  • 2 The KJ method was created to solve that problem.
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    • An important element is “bundling with a faceplate.”
      • This reduced the apparent number of sheets, which solved the problem of “too much data and not knowing how to put it all together.
  • 3 In brainstorming, when trying to keep a thorough record, the conversation is interrupted, and even if a one-dimensional record is kept, the whole picture cannot be grasped and only the most recent comments are affected.
  • 4 So we took only the spatial arrangement part of the KJ method and applied it (pulse discussion).
  • 5 In the process of teaching the KJ method, Jiro Kawakita realized that many people do not do the interview part well in the first place, and this is where improvement is needed.
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  • 6 “Expedition Net” was created by applying the “spatial arrangement without bundling” that was born in the pulse discussion.
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    • So we thought that by space-allocating the interview notes frequently, it would be better than accumulating them over a long period of time and then doing the KJ method at the end.
  • 7 More value than expected was discovered in the exploratory net. Jiro Kawakita came to believe that the value was more important in the effect it had on later coverage than in the effect of summarizing earlier coverage
  • 8 If there is value in doing this before the interview, you should also do it at the beginning of the interview where there is no interview data yet. So, we can have a variant of the exploratory net that says, “I do Interior Exploration in my mind with the theme in the middle, and then sequentially put down what I find.
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  • 9 Birth of the word “fireworks
    • Seeing this characteristic of “spreading out in all directions from the central theme,” Jiro Kawakita begins to say, “This is ‘fireworks.
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  • 10 Exploration nets become known as fireworks
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    • Nishio’s opinion: in retrospect, here’s the seed of confusion
    • It would be clearer in structure to call the “theme-centered variants of expedition nets” “fireworks,” but the historical fact is that expedition nets as a whole have come to be called “fireworks.
    • The “theme-centered variants of Exploratory Fireworks” were later called “Exploratory Fireworks,” and the original exploratory nets that were intended to “bring things together” were called “Integrated Fireworks.
    • In 1986, in “KJ-Hou Omodan o Shiteiru Kangaeru”, he wrote that “exploratory fireworks are the prototype of Exploratory Net” (p.300), but when Exploratory Net was introduced in “Exploratory Studies of Knowledge” in 1977, he did not introduce the method of writing themes in the middle of the page. He did not.
      • I think it was done as needed without clear language and was not separated as a method in the early days.
        • I’m a little fuzzy on the back and forth in this area because I don’t have enough data.
      • The difference between the two methods is whether or not you think the data has been gathered sufficiently for the theme. Integrated fireworks are used when data is available, while exploratory fireworks are used when materials have not been gathered (p.300-302).
      • In the diagram, the exploratory fireworks are drawn as if they were only at the beginning, but in a situation where “I’ve done some interviews and collected some data, but I feel it’s not enough for the theme,” I would probably do exploratory fireworks again even in the middle of the interview.
  • 11 Birth of Thinking Fireworks
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    • Exploratory fireworks can be executed without interview data, which means they should be usable even when separated from the purpose of “doing interviews” in the first place.
    • So “Fireworks to think about” was born as an application to the everyday purpose of “I have something to think about.

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