Dr John Curran

Insight, Strategy, Qual Research and Facilitation Consultant

Services

Qualitative Research

• Project Lead: From beginning to end of a project - designing the best methodological approaches (ethnography, mobile ethnography, groups, interviews, co-creation workshops), interacting with your clients, leading the team, field research facilitation, report writing, client debrief.
• Expert Facilitation/Interviews: Having over 15 years experience facilitating focus groups and interviews globally, I bring an ability to generate rich insights from the stories that are expressed in focus groups. I have training in Group Analysis, which means that my understanding of the psychology of group dynamics enables me to unlock the ‘whys’ behind participants’ stories and narratives within groups.

Along with group facilitation, I have extensive expertise in interviewing opinion leaders and conducting interviews and ethnographic research globally that focus on sensitive medical, social and political subjects.

Consultancy

• Developing Deep Insights: Working at the front and back end of a project to steer your team to frame questions for field research and then help your team to develop innovative insights for your clients.
• Leadership Coaching: Qualified leadership coach working with individuals and teams to develop creative and collaborative cultures in relation to using consumer insights and growth of market research and other creative agencies.
• Organisational Change: As a trained Organisational Consultant, I use a number of techniques and tools to help organisations embed innovation and cultural analysis at the core of what they do. Key to this is to understand the motives that my clients have for organisational change and what drivers and barriers need to be addressed. I use stakeholder interviews, team workshops, training and coaching to build a innovation framework that will increase productivity and quality of your work.
• Training & Team Development: I have designed a training product called the C School (Culture School) that focuses on empowering teams to understand consumer needs from a cultural analysis approach. Key to this is the ability to understand how everyday culture shapes consumer behaviour and how to create insights that expose new business opportunities.
• Executive Facilitation: I design and facilitate strategy workshops for executives that focus on understanding key drivers and barriers in their current business and brand strategies and then how to reframe strategies so that their consumers, clients and employees benefit fully.

Speciality

I specialise in creating business opportunities for my clients by understanding their complex questions relating to their markets, consumers, brands, NPD, Communication and services. I achieve this by combining expertise in the social sciences, research, trends, brand strategy, innovation and design.

I have over 15 years experience working within the qualitative and innovation research sector with a specific focus on identifying business opportunities by understand consumer and user stories and expereicnes. I am an expert in designing an using:

Ethnography, mobile ethnography, focus groups, opinion leader interviews, on-line trends and co-creation & innovation workshops

My approach is based on Cultural Analysis & People Centred Innovation - Developing insight and strategies through understanding the behaviour of people, organisations and markets. Central to this is understanding 'Why' and 'How' behaviours are shaped and formed in the way they are.

I have expertise in running global innovation and market research projects using qualitative and ethnographic research methods. I design and facilitate client and co-creation workshops that focus on developing research insights and turning them into business opportunities.

I have also developed a training programe called the C-School that delivers training in my approach to Cultural Analysis (CA) for business. It provides teams and individuals with the ability to unearth latent behaviours and unmet needs of your consumers. This is achieved by applying anthropological methods to the observation of consumer behaviour and brand communication.

I am also a trained organisational consultant and use my expertise in cultural analysis and innovation to work with my clients so they can embed innovative thinking throughout their organisations.

Finally, I regularly give key note talks on consumer insight, brand development, insights for innovation, organisational change and cultural insights.

Background

I am an insight, strategy and change consultant with a background in qualitative market research, cultural analysis, organisational change, innovation, trends, facilitation and training. I am the CEO and founder of a London based consultancy called JC Innovation & Strategy.

As one of the first business anthropologists in the UK, I pioneered the use of anthropological methods and story telling in business, marketing, advertising and design. My professional expertise lies in generating innovative consumer and user trends and insights from research to drive clients' marketing, branding, organisational, NPD and communication strategies.

I bring over 15 years of experience shaping the use of cultural analysis to create business, brand and innovation opportunities for some of the worlds biggest brands.

As a industry thought leader I offer consultancy to global brands and creative, marketing and design agencies to support their teams in seeing and thinking differently about consumer culture and how to embed innovation and cultural analysis throughout their organisation. I am a full member of the MRS, AQR and Royal Anthropological Institute.

I am a Visiting Scholar at the Royal College of Art in design anthropology and research. I give key-note talks on innovation, consumer trends, marketing and organisational culture at Cass Business School (Executive Marketing MBA) and Central St Martin's College of Art and Design.

My thinking regularly features in the Financial Times and Impact Magazine (MRS).