Our Methods

We like to think of strategy as the ability to take a step back and view an entire forest, locate the path through the woods and be able to catalog the trees along the path prior to setting out for a hike. Executing business plans require an understanding of the ecosystem in which you operate. Our experience allows us to bring together lessons from myriad fields that we use as lenses to view problem spaces. We know that the small details matter and that successfully executing a strategy requires anticipation of each step.

We are perfectionists and you will thank us for it.

A view of the Masai Mara in Kenya

We usually like to develop a strong sense of the big-picture strategic landscape that we’re working in prior to tackling projects, regardless of the nature. It helps us to properly design solutions when we are aware of the context of the problem space. We therefore begin most of our projects, even non-research-based ones, with a short research phase.

We return to you every step of the way, to check that we are on course and that our ideas about the relevant issues are in sync with yours. For research projects, we will present you with a detailed out line of how we intent do proceed with the project prior to committing time. Once we begin our analysis, we keep you posted about our anticipated findings and discuss our analytic bottom lines with you. It helps for us to give away “the punchline” prior to the completion of a project because it keeps you informed about the direction of our analysis and what the relevant data and research indicate are likely outcomes.

This iterative feedback process is helpful to many of our clients because they shift their thinking about their approach prior to the end of their work with us. We accept redirection during a project and our clients appreciate the opportunity to refocus our work if their underlying beliefs about their strategy shift.

For example, we recently worked with a client who believed that a particular public health indicator would reveal appropriate markets for a new medical device. We discovered during our preliminary research and analysis that the indicator in question was projected down from an aggregate number and distributed solely based on population distributions at the local level. In other words, the data we had been asked to analyze said little about the condition of the population of interest. Working with the client, we took a step back, reevaluated the data landscape, reviewed some pertinent literature, and proceeded in a direction orthogonal to our original approach. The client was pleased with the results at the end of the project and we were happy that we delivered a useful tool.

We believe strongly in a flexible approach. We try always to put the most appropriate team members on each project and we consistently look to our clients for ongoing feedback. In the end, we want to make sure that every pixel is in place and that every number is attributable and meaningful. That is why we work with a graphic designer and focus on relevant data visualization techniques to develop the most clear project documentation that we can.

Most of all, we are really excited about what we do! We love data analysis and the thrill of designing systems that accommodate user needs.

We hope to someday share that excitement with you.