Complete research capabilities,
without the idea-killing side effects.
Too many great ideas get shot down in research. Originality rarely tests well. A better approach is to conduct research that helps you understand how customers think, and when they're not doing much thinking at all. That understanding will give your ideas the fighting chance they deserve.
Remember the first time you heard a recording of your own voice? Oddly unsettling, right? There is almost always a similar disconnect between a company's brand intent and a target audience's brand perception, no matter how subtle.
Good research will not only alert you to those perceptual gaps, but help you understand why they are there, and how to act on it. I can help you choose and conduct the right kind of research to build that understanding, across a wide range of methodologies.
Quantitative Research
Complete design, fielding, and analysis of usage and attitude studies, customer and employee surveys, brand and category perception studies, awareness and attitude tracking, both domestic and internationally. Understandably, many designers and other creative talent tend to avoid quantitative research, but it doesn't have to be that way. Some patterns of human perception and behavior are only visible on a quantitative scale. I can show you how to use quantitative data in a very qualitative way, creating insights unavailable via qualitative methods.
Qualitative Research
Ethnographies, 1-on-1's, focus group moderation, online and smartphone usage panels, executive interviewing, design research and informal usability testing. I can involve and train your creative team to both participate in the fieldwork, and handle it themselves in the future.
Experience and Competitive Audits
Seeing the world through your target audience's eyes is crucial to understanding how your product or service is perceived in context. Through detailed customer journey mapping and message analysis, opportunities for improving service design and creating competitive advantage emerge.