Sensemaking

The gap between how your customers perceive the world and how your organisation thinks they experience it. 

When people are uncertain what to do, before making any kind of decision they make sense of the situation they are in.  Sensemaking research shows us how they do that. 

Sensemaking research is innovative qualitative research from Susan Bell Research.  It is a powerful new way of thinking about why people do what they do, especially in times of change.  It gives you a holistic understanding of customers beyond pain points and beyond data points

Talk to us about sensemaking if you or your clients are puzzled by how the people in your marketplace behave.  When the way forward is clear, people decide or choose what to do and then do it. When the way forward is difficult to see because the world is complex, people have a natural drive to 'make sense of it'.  They make sense of it in a way that is personal to them. This may result in behaviour which is very different from the behaviour that you as a marketer or policy maker expects. 

Our sensemaking expertise came out of our social science training and the the hundreds of interviews we have conducted with people who needed to make sense of sense of the complex and evolving situations they were in.  We combine in-depth qualitative research with cultural insight (semiotic and discourse analysis) that shows our clients the gap between how they perceive the world and how their customers actually experience it. 

As sensemaking is a very new idea, why not ask Sue for a no-obligation webcam chat so she explain it to you in person? 

Email her here: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

More about sensemaking conversations

Sensemaking is the process that people instinctively use when in complex and difficult situations to make sense of what is happening and drive what they do. Our sensemaking conversations give the people we speak to the opportunity to think by talking

Sensemaking conversations

Sensemaking conversations is a very new innovative research technique that we have designed to help our clients understand how research participants 'make sense of' complex situations or difficult dilemmas. Examples include life-stage transitions like becoming a parent or starting retirement; social beliefs like vegetarianism; and products and services that are difficult to use - financial services for example.  Complex situations trigger us to automatically try to make sense of them. When make sense of them by doing something, by reflecting on who we are, and by talking. 

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