We explore context. Going wider, deeper, and looking out of the corner of our eye. We follow the rhythms of everyday life, looking for connections and relationships that help us understand what’s going on. Applying different ways of seeing and thinking to find new angles and evolve existing patterns.
These are the sort of questions we answer. They are taken from projects we have worked on over the last few years, within hidden strategy and other organisations:
# FMCG
How can we create the food brands of tomorrow from scratch?
Connecting customer needs with a wide angled view of cultural opportunities. Focusing on emerging ideas related to taste, sustainability, and gender, that are challenging established norms. Leading to new brands, on the shelves of supermarkets, selling out.
How can we help people find the best influencer articles and videos, not just the ones the algorithms recommend?
Connecting the questions that people want answered, with the way they use social platforms and the content they prefer. Leading to a new authoritative destination that commissions original content and curates the best of what’s already out there.
# retail
What role should our physical stores play now that our customers buy so much online?
Connecting the unique characteristics of physical retail with customers’ emotional, cultural, and functional needs. Leading to a cohesive experience in which physical and digital work together and complement each other.
In the future, do you think we could curate and recommend products sold by our competitors?
Connecting the changing role of retail with the dynamics of the influencer economy and the potential applications of emerging technologies. Leading to a speculative vision of retailers as editors and influencers.
# property
How can we create urban communities that are safe and at the same time progressive and open to the world?
Connecting the benefits of advanced security technologies with people's emotional feeling of safety. Leading to future implementations being more sensitive to people’ emotions, and the cultural values and familiar physical environments linked to them. For example, a CCTV dummy can often convey more sense of safety than the complex digital security system behind it, but sometimes also more than a prison wall.
How can we increase the likelihood that services in newly developed neighbourhoods are used by residents?
Connecting the digital design of desired services with the physical design of the urban environment. Leading to services that are built within favourable physical conditions and closely linked to culturally established spaces.
# banking
Could banks help their current account customers manage day-to-day spending?
Connecting peoples’ financial goals with their experiences of managing money and the rhythms of their lives. Leading to realistic behavioural interventions, encouraging changes that people can stick to.
Could we generate revenue by offering new non-banking services to our business banking customers?
Connecting a wider view of business needs with innovative services that could meet them in new ways. Leading to a new proposition enabling customers to access services from a range of providers on one secure platform.
# insurance
What could make people want to buy multiple products from one insurer?
Connecting customers' understanding and expectations of insurance with the way products are organised by insurers. Leading to significant innovation across propositions, products, and customer experience.
Why do people really buy smart home security systems?
Connecting the functional capabilities of the devices with the way customers feel about them and use them in practice. Developing a new strategy and approach to partnerships.
How might insurance change in the future?
Connecting the fundamental needs met by insurers with changes in society and culture, focusing on issues related to trust, data, perception of risk.
# ways of seeing and thinking
cultural
Connecting the dots between what’s changing in culture and what’s changing in your industry.
We pay close attention to emerging ideas and practices that indicate cultural norms are changing. We go below the surface to trace the fundamental patterns that connect status, power, identity, relationships, and the tradeoffs people make in how they spend their time, effort and money.
organisational
Digging deep into the culture of your organisation to understand how it really works.
We know that meaningful innovation cannot happen without organisational support. We spend time with your team, understanding the way they work and what’s important to them.
spatial
Mapping the communities, stores, working spaces, in which cultural changes play out.
Digital innovation has always had a relationship with physical spaces, even though it sometimes ignored them. Increasingly, digital spaces overlay and complement physical spaces. We map these relationships and make them tangible and valuable.
# methods
contextualising
We start by framing the problem, gathering evidence, and developing insights.
making
Designing and prototyping makes our thinking concrete and real. It forces us to make decisions and brings us together as a team.
experimenting
We prefer the real world to laboratories. Sometimes our experiments are small, sometimes they are the whole project.
reflecting
As we work we reflect, deliberately embedding new practices and culture. We create visually distinctive outputs that symbolise the work and carry it to new audiences.
