“I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that.
Then I realized, I was somebody.”
Most research focuses on that which is dominant, looking for the largest trends and strongest probabilities. A lot of time, this can be enough. Or at least that’s what consumers of research are often told.
But as research methods get better and the use of research and analytics becomes more accessible, many folks have come to realize they want more - beyond just their most pressing issue. Sure, they need to know the “bottom line”. But when organizations are wrestling with anything complex, are concerned with unintended consequences or have a strategic mandate to improve things, knowing “what” to do often isn’t enough. They need to know “why.”
Center the People
When done right, research doesn’t simply measure or compare, it illuminates. When constructed, executed and analyzed mindfully and with the appropriate lens, it can help us hear more than just the “loudest” dominant voices, but instead give us access to the voices of those who are too often drowned out. And more often than not, those are the voices we most need to hear.
Center the People
With Clients
Diagnose, Assess, Design. It all starts with our clients, so our first step is to center you and hear your voice. What is the problem you’re struggling with? First, we learn what you, your team and your clients or audience need in order to determine how our research or consulting services can help. Then, we design around what we’ve learned, often creating new methods and techniques to suit your particular needs.
Assemble a Team, Begin. We convene stakeholder groups and conduct an initial walkthrough/brainstorm to open things up to the group of stakeholders and project-involved people you deem appropriate, centering each group to understand how to best meet their needs. And we build our reports using the groups’ language and nesting findings in the issues they themselves raised to make sure things make sense and are as useful as possible.
Collaborate. When given the choice, all of our work is collaborative. We design all of our materials with you and your team, and iterate until it feels right to everyone. We also maintain regular contact with you and your team to make sure everyone is up to speed.
Communicate. We don’t disappear when a project is over. If you have any questions; if something changes in your organization or something shifts externally that affects the research or touches on the research findings, we’ll help you figure it out. It’s all part of an ongoing engagement and service model that keeps the research findings meaningful and relevant even if the “what” question it was designed to address no longer truly obtains.
Center the People
In Research Design Priorities
Safety. Whether in-person or on-line, respondents have to feel safe in order to share, and each audience or group of respondents has different safety concerns and confidentiality needs. We give them what they need to create safety and hear what they have to say.
Accessibility. We build qualitative and quantitative research using language, concepts and outcomes that resonate with your audience, staff, customers, segment or target, and field it in a way that makes it accessible for all of your constituencies.
Generalizability. We build metrics and measures around the specific needs of your organization, and create a sampling plan that is truly sensitive to the composition of your audience and allows you to center each voice.
Sensitivity + Nuance. We respectfully elicit, focus on and represent the lived experiences of dominant and non-dominant groups, cultures, systems and peoples.
Center the People
In Analysis
Understand the stories, context and narratives that shape perception, belief, motives and behaviors in each group - and what it means for you and your organization.
Use analytics that center each group, looking at group-based trends and nesting that into the broader context. We don’t simply focus on the largest effect or biggest groups. We believe it critical to understand the role of the systems, organization, and the culture it creates in the lived experience of each group, and we remember that a group’s size does not determine its importance to you and your organization.
Develop group structures, algorithms, metrics and KPIs that have clear meaning and impact for you, your clients and your audience.
Create reflective, insightful findings with clear bearing on your research questions, and strategic needs and goals that are a roadmap for current issue improvement and future decision-making.
