Is your organization curiosity challenged? If you'd like your team to approach the work you do with fresh eyes and a sense of possibility, we can help. We offer one and two-day Curiosity Coaching workshops that are designed to reawaken wonder and cultivate curiosity. The outcome? A team that is better equipped to ask great questions, connect with consumers/end-users, learn from the world around them and, as a result, identify opportunities for growth and innovation.
Curiosity without inquiry and investigation is like, well, a duck without water. It just wouldn't make sense. This is the exploration and discovery phase of the work we do and we love getting out into the world to ask questions, observe, participate and ultimately figure out the who, what, where, when, how and why.
Isolated facts and numbers are not enough to explain the world and how people work, live and play within it. We are passionate about human-centred, contextual qualitative research – the kind of research that requires immersion and exploration and spending time with people in their spaces, with the people they care about, doing the things that people do.
We employ a range of methodologies and tools to our investigative work:
- ethnographic observation;
- video and audio ethnography;
- activity, ritual and context analysis and mapping;
- usability testing and observation;
- real and virtual discussion groups;
- in-depth interviews;
- digital camera studies; and
- participant journals/blogs.
But we always start with the question – and making sure we're asking the right question – to determine the methodology or tools we use. We always return from the field with stories and artifacts and resist trying to squeeze the richness of those stories into powerpoint documents alone. We like our clients to be able to see, hear and sometimes even touch, taste and smell the realities of their customers. We'll bring all the good things to life!
The Inquiry & Investigation phase delivers a deep understanding of and empathy with the people our clients are trying to connect with and provide products, services and experiences for. Applied Curiosity is the stage at which we take the insights and opportunities uncovered through Inquiry & Investigation and bring them to life in ways that are actionable and meaningful for both the consumer and the client organization.
Applied Curiosity work can result in an articulated value proposition, a brand strategy, a marketing plan or a new product, service or experience concept, prototype or delivery strategy.
Stories connect what we know to what we're trying to understand. They make things personal, give things meaning. They are an extremely powerful form of communication. As such, storytelling is always an outcome of our Inquiry & Investigation work. But sometimes, clients come to us for storytelling as an end in itself. Usually it's because they are sitting on mountains of information that is interesting but not that inspiring. We help them extract the insights and then communicate those insights in a way that's fresh, audience friendly and inspiring.
The storytelling can take many forms, depending on the audience and the message. It could be a podcast (or series of them) distributed through a client's intranet, it might be a short documentary that brings a customer segment to life or a 30 minute sitcom staged live at a national sales meeting.