How to Manage Teams Remotely
Based on our own experience, published research and our own conversations with managers and employees, the problem isn’t work from home – it’s managing from home.
2024: Adapting to Change with Integrity
It’s too late, according to the Curb Your Enthusiasm meme, to wish you a happy new year, and in any event, that feels just a little presumptuous, doesn’t it? But it’s not too late to speculate about what 2024 is going to be like, right? It’s an election year. Something like 40 countries will hold…
Politics & College Selection – an Update
It turns out, we were right. Sorry, Scott. Last August, in response to a discussion on the Vox Media podcast, Pivot, between co-hosts Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway about the salience about state level abortion bans, we conducted a small survey of young people either evaluating which colleges to apply to; in the process of…
The Reality of Remote Work
And the problem with vibes-based data analysis We’re back with the newsletter & blog – expect to see us on a more regular schedule (bi-weekly!) with a mix of announcements, “that survey doesn’t say what you think it says” analysis, and strategic thinking about a variety of topics, from electric vehicles to politics to media…
Inclusive & Accessible Research
How to Set Up Focus Group Facilities, In Person Ethnography, and In Person Interviews Thanks for following along as we dive into inclusive and accessible research! If you missed our earlier posts about how to conduct inclusive and accessible research, you can find them here and here. It’s been a minute, so a little refresher…
How EVs could disrupt the car category hierarchy
Hi, happy 2023! A funny thing happened over the holidays: I discovered that electric cars remind me of vodka. Several years ago I did some work testing campaigns for the vodka brand Smirnoff. In talking to vodka drinkers, we discovered the category was essentially a vertical stack, with well brands on the bottom, premium brands…
Why work with us?
We’re researchers and strategists who help leaders make big decisions. That’s it. That’s the pitch. Our partners come to us because they have to choose a direction for their brand or business. They want to address new markets around the world, appeal to new audiences, develop new products and services, or reposition themselves for a…
Politics & College Selection
Do politics play a role in how students evaluate their college choices? The other day I was listening to the latest Pivot podcast — Scott Galloway said he thought it was pretty unlikely that a state’s abortion regulations would have any impact on students’ decisions about where to go to college. Here’s the quote: “I…
Civic Trust is a (Legal) Design Problem
Reflections on a Primary Election in a Small Town June 28 was a primary election day to select governor and lieutenant governor candidates in the state of New York. I am what’s called an election inspector in Suffolk County, New York, which means when you come in to your local polling place you talk to…
The “New Normal” of Qualitative Research
What we found in our competitive review of the market research industry Especially over the last couple of years, when everything was about, well, coping — just getting on with it — we had sort of lost track of what was happening for the broader market research industry. We saw companies and products come and…