Insights: Thinking for decisions that are expensive to get wrong
Articles by Abdo López and Norah Walsh for the moment a team has to decide something costly with too little information. Each one starts from something that happened in a real project.
Articles
What the fieldwork taught us
Filter by series. Every article names the decision it helps with and the service behind it.
How to brief, buy and use research so it ends up in a decision. Also written for the people who sign the purchase order.
One idea from the social sciences, from Mauss to Goffman, applied to a business problem you’ll recognise.
How the method works, shown through anonymised projects we’ve already run: where the lenses met, where they disagreed, and how it was delivered.
Plain explanations of the terms people search for: business anthropology, netnography, mixed methods, triangulation.
Growth & MarketHow much research does a go-to-market strategy need?
A go-to-market strategy is five decisions in one, covering who you serve first, where you go, what you charge, how people buy and what you say. Each needs a different kind of evidence.
Abdo López7 min read- Growth & Market| Buying Research
How to write a market research brief (and what to ask for back)
A good market research brief starts from the decision and what depends on it. It says what you already know, who will use the results and when, and leaves the method open.
Norah Walsh7 min read 
Customer Insight| H3 in the OpenHow many interviews are enough? Sample size in qualitative research
A survey sample measures how many people think something, while an interview sample maps which reasons exist. That’s why they follow different rules.Norah Walsh7 min read- Customer Insight| Buying Research
Qual, quant or social listening: which one answers your question?
Qualitative research explains how and why, quantitative research measures how many and how much, and social listening shows what people say when nobody is asking.Norah Walsh7 min read - Customer Insight
Why so many customer segmentations die in a slide deck
Customer segmentations often stall soon after the presentation. One common reason is that the people who have to apply them can’t tell which segment a real customer belongs to.Abdo López7 min read 
Brand & Culture| The Anthropological LensGift theory and the loyalty programme nobody loves
Marcel Mauss argued in 1925 that gifts create bonds through three obligations, to give, to receive and to give back. Most points programmes work more like a payment.Abdo López7 min read- Customer Insight| Buying Research
The Research Blindspot Checklist
Bad research rarely looks bad. It arrives with a clean sample, tidy charts and a confident recommendation, and the flaw sits in a step nobody checked.Norah Walsh10 min read
Nothing in this series yet. The first pieces are on the desk below.
On the desk
Being written now. Each one also goes out in Field Notes.
- Innovation & ProductSynthetic respondents: what AI can and can’t tell you about your customersFor the team being told that AI personas could replace the fieldwork.In writing
- H3 in the OpenWhen the survey says yes and the interviews say noFor anyone holding two studies that disagree, with the decision meeting on Monday.In writing
- Growth & MarketEntering Spain: the cultural codes that trip up Northern European brandsFor the team about to launch in Spain with a German or Nordic playbook.In writing
- Buying ResearchWhat a six-figure research project should leave you withFor anyone about to sign a large study and unsure what to demand at the end of it.In writing
By topic
Eight topics, one per service area
Each topic matches one of our service areas, so you can go from an article to the people who run that work.
- Growth & MarketEntry, go-to-market, pricing, white space2 articles
Innovation & ProductConcepts, prototypes, pipelines, packaging, AI adoptionFirst pieces in writing- Brand & CulturePositioning, tracking, portfolio, semiotics1 article
Advertising & CommsAd testing, effectiveness, channels, toneFirst pieces in writing- Customer InsightSegmentation, ethnography, B2B buyers, JTBD4 articles
Experience & ServiceJourneys, UX, service design, voice of customerFirst pieces in writing
Foresight & TrendsScenarios, cultural trends, weak signalsFirst pieces in writing
Reputation & ImpactReputation, ESG, culture, M&A intelFirst pieces in writing
Who writes
Written by the people who run the projects
No ghostwriters and no content team. If an article carries a name, that person was in the room.
Co-founder & CEO
Abdo López
Social and cultural anthropologist, also known as The Market Anthropologist.
Writes about where technology, the social sciences, business and strategic market research meet.
Co-founder & Head of Research
Norah Walsh
Social and cultural anthropologist, and the person who decides what each finding is allowed to claim.
Writes about where technology, social impact, human centred design and futures studies meet.
Field Notes
One email a month, from the field
A scene from a recent project, the month’s articles in a few lines, one thing worth reading and what we’re working on. Two minutes, first Tuesday.
First Tuesday- 01A thing from the fieldOne scene from a recent project, and what it changed in how we read the data.
- 02Two pieces this monthThe month’s articles, three lines each, with the link to read them in full.
- 03Worth readingOne study or book we keep quoting, and why it matters for a decision.
- 04What we’re working onOne line on the work in hand, as far as we can say.