Building it in a way that fits

My family life is an important priority, so I have decided to build this gradually. I am not planning a large launch followed by campaigns, advertisements and a machine that immediately needs to be fed.

I would rather start by doing the work and talking about the things I genuinely find interesting.

That means writing on LinkedIn and here about consumer insights, attention and how people make choices. It means sharing the details that catch my attention, the questions I keep returning to and the findings that make me look at a category differently.

Consumer insights is not a subject I selected because it fits a market opportunity. It is something I can keep exploring without running out of questions. That is usually a good indication that you are working on the right thing.

The kind of role that suits me

People who know me will probably recognize that I am at my best as a quick starter and a fact finder. I like stepping into a situation, understanding what is happening and finding the place where a change can have a real effect.

I do not want to bind myself contractually to one company or take on a role where I gradually become a permanent presence at the meeting table. I have seen too often how that can start costing more energy than it creates.

I would rather come in with a clear purpose, get close to the question, find what matters and help turn that into something useful.

That may be a research project, a sales team that needs a fresh perspective or a website that is not helping visitors make sense of the offer. The form can change. The role remains fairly consistent.

An open conversation

The invitation on this website to book a call is deliberately simple. You can have a conversation with me without committing to anything.

I want to understand what you are working on and see whether I can help. Sometimes the answer will be yes. Sometimes I may see that someone else is better suited to the question. Both are useful outcomes.

I may eventually reach the limits of what I can do alone. If that happens, I will decide what comes next when I get there. I am open to partnerships, open to growth and open to finding better ways to deliver good work. I just do not need to design the entire company around a future problem before it exists.

What I will be writing about

This blog will be where I share what I find along the way.

I will write about how people compare products, where attention goes, what creates hesitation and what companies can learn from it. Sometimes that will come from consumer research. Sometimes it will come from a sales conversation, a website or something I notice while looking at a category.

• Ask someone what matters in a product and you may hear words such as sturdy, easy or reliable. I am interested in what happened before they chose that word.
• Perhaps a dog reached the third step of a ramp and stopped because it moved slightly beneath its paws. Nothing broke and nobody fell, but the owner no longer trusted it.
• An algorithm may register that one ramp was chosen over another. But an algorithm never stands beside a dog that refuses the third step. Its owner does. Ask them what happened, and the word sturdy begins to mean something.

That is the kind of detail I want to explore. What people actually do before they choose, and what that means for the product, the offer and the way it is presented.

I know the direction, I know the work I want to do and I know how I want to begin.

I’m excited to get started, and I hope you’ll follow along. If something I write makes you see your product or customer differently, I’d like to hear about it.