Create engaging products, services and brands

Lee is an experienced researcher who helps clients bring new products, services and brands to market by deeply understanding people, culture, and change. Lee has traveled the world conducting hundreds of qualitative and ethnographic research projects for Fortune 500 clients. He understands global markets and cultural nuances. He can easily synthesize qualitative, quantitative, and data science findings to uncover insights that many others miss. Lee collaborates effectively with innovation, product and marketing teams, and is comfortable in the trenches with engineers, designers, and UX teams.

When you work with Lee, you get:

Lee is an experienced hand who works well under pressure. His high energy, commitment to excellence, and obsession with impact make him a collaborative partner who will deliver outstanding results.

THOUGHT PARTNER

An experienced consulting partner who loves doing research, and will bring the best tools to bear to solve any business challenge. Lee understands business and knows how to be flexible and creative when projects evolve and change

Experienced Strategist

An experienced marketer who has worked across a wide range of products and services. Lee thinks big picture and will always connect research insights to marketing strategy to transform customer knowledge to competitive advantage.

HANDS-ON EXPERtise

A hands-on design and market researcher who has his finger on the pulse of the market. Lee has conducted thousands of interviews with business leaders, experts, technical audiences, and leading-edge consumers. Lee is comfortable with highly technical subject matter and senior technology decision makers.

CUTTING-EDGE KNOWLEDGE

A deep understanding of emerging and future technology. Based in Silicon Valley, Lee has led hundreds of projects for large technology companies, bringing cutting-edge technology to market. Lee is comfortable with highly technical subject matter and senior technology decision makers.

Professional futurist

An academically trained futurist who will always bring a futures perspective to research projects, bringing a wider perspective and an understanding of how markets are changing. Lee is highly networked within the futures community and can build teams of subject matter experts quickly.

Flexible Teams

A wide and deep network of highly skilled professionals who can bring additional expertise as needed, including futurists, subject matter experts, researchers, designers and marketers. Lee builds teams fit to purpose that bring shared values and effective collaboration to projects, enabling teams to scale up as needed.

DESIGN AND MARKET Research

Research Offerings

We work at every stage of the innovation process, and apply both market research and design research approaches to get the best results possible. Research activities that align with the typical product development process include:

Futures/Trends Research

Market Opportunity Assessment
Habits & Practices Research
Persona Development
User Journey Mapping
Concept Testing
Value Proposition
Positioning
Messaging
Naming
UX (User Experience)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

These are the most common research approaches that we use. We select the best tool for the job; each has strengths and weaknesses. We often triangulate methods, and we love to invent new tools when the need arises.

Futures Scanning
Secondary Research
Executive/Management Interviews
Expert Interviews (including futurists)
Online Community Research
Co-creation Sessions

Ethnography (in person or online)
Digital ethnography
Focus Groups (in person or online)
In Depth Interviews (in person or online)
Dyads/Friendship pairs

Clients

Lee has partnered with Fortune 500 companies and Silicon Valley startups. Much of his work has been with leading technology companies, in collaboration with innovation, product, design, and marketing teams. He has experience across many other categories, including finance, medical devices, automotive, food & beverage, and CPG companies.

Testimonials

Lee is a smart, passionate, focused business professional and strategist. Working with Lee was a learning experience as I observed his ability to solve strategic problems and identify opportunities through unconventional, creative and innovative thinking. He was a true partner, collaborative and personable, and terrific at bringing client and project teams together to achieve a common goal. I’d value the opportunity to work Lee again.
- Natalie Young, CEC

It's rare to encounter people equally strong strategically and creatively. Rarer still to encounter this while conducting customer research, which too often suffers from a lack of rigor, a lack of deep usable insights, or both. This is what surprised me most in working with Lee. Lee enthusiastically applied such creative and strategic energy to our engagements, and grounded them in the data so well, that he immediately rose above the status of research vendor to that of trusted strategic consultant, who just happened to be gifted at defining and conducting informative research. I hired Lee for a wide range of initiatives and can easily imagine him thriving in any number of roles beyond strategic research.
- Michael Dix, Microsoft

I worked with Lee over the course of several years, and he is top notch - consistently proving himself as a stellar leader with sharp strategic insights and a knack for building and leading successful teams. He brings an impressive level of rigor and depth to the research he's involved with, and he is able to balance that out with innovative creative approaches and a strong grasp of business needs. When Lee was involved, I could trust that projects were well defined, the methodology well thought through, and the results would be make a real difference.
- Mary Anne Masterson, Microsoft

I had the distinct pleasure to work with Lee during his tenure at Speck Design. He is the one you always want on your team! At Speck he led a team of researchers and experience designers, working for key clients throughout the world. Lee has an ability to understand what is needed, and put together a successful project is the best I have ever seen. All of our clients loved working with him. As did everyone at Speck!
- Denise Pliskin, Senior Director, Product Development Strategy