our services
We work with all business types-for profit nonprofit and social enterprises.
And every one of them are unique. From operating models to expected output and outcomes, every organization has its own unique expectations. And then there are often ignored factors like geographic location (of the organization/s), age, gender and ethnic makeup of the employees, attrition rates, mode of work (in-person / remote / hybrid ) that bear direct impact on outcomes.
We factor all of these and customize services for every one of my clients.
innovation capacity building
Every organization, big, small or a one-person show has the ability within to innovate. We are focused on the how of things- We help clients design their own solutions through a series of traditional and nontraditional methods and within a definitive time frame.
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We customize immersive brainstorming sessions and workshops. From problem definition to prototyping, I offer a full range of topics. Clients can choose one or more topics depending on their needs. These could be a one time, half day or full day session or they could be a training session set over several weeks.
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We also offer sessions to unlock creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. These include design thinking and gamification tools and techniques. These are fun and informative (as I am often told!).
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For those who prefer to do this on their own time, we offer ‘takeaway’ kits, customized toolkits depending on their needs.
toolkits
Creating a set of ready resources, building a knowledge bank, building curriculum for internal training are also services we offer.
Having a set of ready resources for internal teams and clients is a sign of an innovative organization. Having ready references and checklists, logic diagrams and brainstorming tools on-hand allows team members to proceed with their work with less guidance and allow for free thinking. Each organization is unique and has its own unique set of requirements. I adapt and design from scratch a range of toolkits and design kits to help with this.
ONE ON ONe consulting
We work with specific teams, leadership or individuals (especially at the ideation level) who are wrestling a specific problem and looking for ways to solve it.
For this we use standard methods like discussions to more informal methods (focused on unleashing solutions) to help the client think differently and arrive at solutions.
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We also use more traditional methods like ethnography and focused observations as part of the process.
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Some things you get to do...
(and its fun!!)
We recognize not everyone is a millennial or Gen Z ! And not everyone is comfortable to draw or dance! Power asymmetries and hierarchies are very much part of every company, even if there are only two! We are very real in our approach that way. But we try to get clients to have fun and try different things.
Human centric
Everything is human scale here. We think in terms of people, living beings. The team, leadership, entrepreneur, innovator, their end users- they are all people for us. We spend some time getting to know our clients, understand their daily life, their preferences, habits, work styles...this in my experience has helped me better understand the problem.
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I get participants to create personas of their end user (where applicable), quick observational studies, timed think sessions to generate rapid ideas. This is also a way to get to know the people I will be working with over the course of client engagement.
Mapping Systems
We work with you to create a whole-systems map, to help you understand all the players in that system, and how they are all related. This is even more critical for nonprofits and social innovators/entrepreneurs as the problems they face are a result of no one person, organization or even sector!
Creative Thinking
There are infinite ways to do this! We use Design Thinking and related tools. We encourage our clients to develop empathy toward their team members and clients/customers, (not the same as being sympathetic to their plight or exhibiting a thorough understanding).
You may be a for-profit engineering concern, but your product is ultimately used by people, and while sometimes this is hard to achieve given that not all services and products are direct customer facing, having an empathy driven approach is extremely beneficial in getting results, as has been demonstrated across sectors over the last two decades.
Visual thinking
We want our clients to get visual! It is not at all unusual for us to ask our clients to draw things for us- from maps, to stick figures to entire story boards, we are big on drawing. This in itself is a freeing activity, but also gets quick results every time!
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Not everyone is comfortable doing it and I am realistic about it. I encourage them to find some way to present their idea. And over the course of the session/s, after seeing that others (and the trainers!) are not exceptionally fantastic at drawing, almost everyone joins in!
Seeing before deploying
We build rapid prototypes, be it a physical model or an interaction before deploying a pilot test or rolling out the final version.
This sometimes feels weird, especially for those who do not have a physical product, but that is no constraint for us. This is a very critical part and oftentimes we can catch errors and mistakes even on very rough prototypes...