I’m an insight, innovation and inspiration specialist with lots of experience.
I’m a former UK Managing Director of The Sound and Founding Partner at Essential Research.
I spent my client-side life at the BBC, becoming Head of Future Media Insight and then Head of Pan-BBC Research.
I’ve led high-profile insight and innovation projects for two distinct types of client:
On the one hand, established businesses who are adapting to a changing world e.g Sainsbury’s, ITV, IKEA, Coca-Cola, Unilever, William Grant and Twinings.
On the other hand, the new wave of disruptors, from Google and Facebook through to Audible, Booking Suite and Deliveroo.
I’ve picked up several MRS awards including Best Conference Paper, New Consumer Insights, Best B2B Research and Best New Agency.
I love that a-ha moment when you uncover something new about human beings and their needs and aspirations and tensions and foibles, and it inspires a business to do something new or different.
There’s no substitute for the ability of great researchers and strategists to find new truths by talking to people, watching what they do, thinking about the wider context and looking for meaning.
Some insights are amazing. They’re that perfect balance of surprising and yet oddly reassuring. But a lot of insights are really quite underwhelming.
What separates the great from the pretty average is empathy.
You can’t have great insights into people who are not like you unless you approach the whole process with empathy.
I’ve written some How to Do Insight tutorials here and here.
Ever since my early client-side days I’ve been involved in innovation. I’ve worked at every stage of the process, from finding big early-stage territories through to developing and finessing concepts.
Generally the best ideas succeed because they solve real human problems – better than what’s already available.
In early-stage innovation I help teams uncover new opportunities where people meet possibilities, building territories that inspire original ideas.
And once those ideas emerge I work with teams to grow and nurture and develop them, keeping human needs at their heart.
Sometimes that means co-creation, sometimes it means iterative concept development groups. I’m often hands-on with writing concepts and developing stimulus that connects with ordinary people.
Great insights are not much use unless the business sits up and takes notice of them, is persuaded by them, is moved by them to do something. Because that’s our real success measure.
So it’s important that we shift businesses from simply knowing something… to feeling it.
Sometimes that means a complex idea expressed with beautiful simplicity.
Sometimes it means telling great stories.
Sometimes it’s a film.
Sometimes it’s a picture.
Sometimes it’s a chance for your stakeholders to meet real people.
Whatever it is, I’ve unashamedly spent as much time in my career focusing on how to communicate the message as I have in developing the message itself.
I’ve written about this here