In-home Contextual Inquiry (CI) - a type of ethnographic field study - can be a challenging method for qualitative researchers to employ. How do you know when you need to conduct CI to interact with participants in their own context? Once you decide on that method, how do you ensure you’ll get the learnings you need while being respectful of participants in their personal space? How do you design your study so that sessions are as seamless as possible in the sometimes unpredictable, uncontrolled environments of participants’ own homes? Using an in-home case study exploring users’ interactions wit iRobot’s robotic lawnmower, you’ll be briefed on the necessity of going into users’ homes for certain types of research. You’ll understand the unique findings you can expect to uncover by using this method. You’ll also learn what you might miss - to the detriment of the product or service you’re seeking to improve - if you don’t meet users in the context that they use it. This case study will illustrate best practices to prepare your participant, your team, and yourself for in-home contextual inquiries so that you can ”level-up” your CI skills.