Taking a page from Freaky Friday, the only way one can completely understand a teenager if you’re a mom, and vice versa, is to become the other.  Business guru Seth Godin refers to this as *zooming.

For those who wish to understand the CoolTown market:  Unless you’re willing to try living in the city and/or giving up your car for a month, emptying out your bank account and hanging out and conversing with an entirely different creative crowd from time to time, it’ll be tough to get more than a superficial understanding of what the creative market is all about.  It’ll be like a mom fruitlessly trying to understand her teenager, and vice versa, except this isn’t a Disney movie.

If you’ve seen Lost In Translation, you’ll have a good idea on what zooming is, and how healthy it can be.

*“Zooming” is about stretching your limits without threatening your foundation. It’s about handling new ideas, new opportunities, and new challenges without triggering the change-avoidance reflex. You already zoom every day: Whenever you buy a new CD, eat at a different Thai restaurant, try a different airline or read a new issue of the New York Times, you don’t have to contend with all of the emotions that we associate with “change.“ You’re zooming - doing the same thing as usual, only different. Seth Godin

Next: How to truly understand what the market really wants: Etnography