Farrah Bostic is the founder and Chief Strategist of The Difference Engine, a strategic insights consultancy whose mission is to help business leaders make big decisions. She turns audience, customer, and stakeholder insight into brand, communications, and product strategies for B2B and B2C companies across various industries: logistics, software, sports, news, television, fashion, retail, spirits, healthcare, finance, education, & more.

She founded The Difference Engine in 2011 to fight back against the usual objections to doing research: it costs too much, takes too much time, doesn’t add value, isn’t as good as “data”. But she quickly discovered the real battle – that most people don’t understand what research is, how to do it well, and most importantly, how it can (and should!) be used to help businesses and brands make big decisions.

Before founding The Difference Engine, Farrah had served in various research and strategy roles, including VP, Group Planning Director at Digitas, SVP of Consumer Immersion at Ipsos/OTX, and Partner/Head of Innovation at Hall & Partners. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and communications from the University of Oregon and a juris doctor from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. She serves on the board of the Science Museum of Long Island, is an advisor to games media agency twofivesix, and was a faculty member at Parsons in the Strategic Design Management masters program, where she taught design research and led an immersive studio for first-year students.

She’s a current MRS, ESOMAR, EPIC, and QRCA member. You can read more about her professional background here.