Ash Donaldson & Simon Tobias

Transcript

1. 1 www.captionslive.com.au | captionslive@outlook.com | 0425 904 255 UX AUSTRALIA Design Research 2020 Day 2 Friday, 20 March 2020 Captioned by: Gail Kearney & Rebekah Goulevitch
2. 2 SIMON TOBIAS: Thank you so much, everyone. We are delighted to be given the stage to tell you what we hope is going to be an extremely good news story for you all, that should hearten those who are committed to holding the line when it comes to delivering high-quality research. It is also a story that should convince you, there are clients who still value quality, in-depth research. It has been an interesting 12 months, 18 months for us. Over the years we had our fair share of pretty exciting projects but over the last year or so, we've seen some changes in the design, consulting landscape. Whilst we still picked up some exciting briefs, both ends of the spectrum have been constricting. So, from the requirement for specialist augment in-house teams to the large end to end strategic engagements have been few and far between. Ash and I have put it down in part to the commoditisation of research, popularising research methods that Leisa spoke about on day one without building a repertoire of techniques. We have seen the core principles of our profession eroded due to commercial restrictions and producers are skipping analysis or synthesis to meet budget or time constraints. So, it was amazing when one Saturday morning, last August, I received a phone call from America completely out of the blue. I resisted my instinctive urge to decline strange numbers from overseas and answered the call. And I'm so glad I did. The voice at the other end of the line was vaguely familiar and she said, "It's me, I need your help for a market proposition for $6.4 billion industry and can you start next week? And what do you know about tattoos?" It was very little. Last time I had spoken with Joe was when she was working at Bupa Health, they just bought Dental Corp and their 200 dental clinics. Bupa wanted us to work out what was an essential dental experience, what did it look like to scale it across Australia and New Zealand. So, we conducted, designed and conducted consumer research as well as in-clinic research, observing and interviews, patients, dentists, assistance, product managers and reception staff. We were able to codify best practice so that we could share knowledge and best practice across the group quickly. Now, surely after this, Joe was head hunted, unknown to us by a venture capital firm, Normandy Capital, the company that sold it to Bupa. They have an interesting business model. Their opportunities are identified through desk research predominantly and then build new ventures crew acquisition and take an boots on the ground approach and optimise the businesses and scale them. The VC's latest venture, tattoo removal partners or TRP as we fondly refer to them these days, was a play to dominate a fast growing yet immature sector, laser tattoo removal. They identified a market opportunity of $6.4 billion US across North America alone. We didn't know then but 30% of Americans have at least one tattoo. They bought three of the largest companies with a combined footprint of 24 clinics across the States. Their plan was to merge the clinics, define and align best practice and then scale rapidly to 200 clinics within a year. Joe quickly recognised they could create much more value and reduce the risk considerably associated with such rapid scale and growth by starting with the type of research and design we had done together at Bupa. TRP knew they needed to understand the domain better than everybody else. It was serious stuff. They sought out a partner they knew and could trust and thankfully they chose us. Joe also knew it was more than an operational transformation and she knew they needed a partner to connect with a purpose-driven culture that underpins the tattoo removal industry and they needed a partner to tap into the latent and unmet
3. 3 needs of customers and build empathy between stakeholders, investors and customers. The customers are unaware of emerging techniques or feel too ashamed to ask for help. A sensitive area. The only catch, as usual, was to convince the CEO, based in the States, and the investors, of the value of our approach. So, as many of you will know, selling the value of research is, at times, tough, but to hard-nosed fast moving VCs we thought would be next to impossible. We had a big thing going for us, Mark and Chris, the VC founders had experienced some of our work firsthand and had a sense of what strategic design engagement looked like. We reminded them of the comprehensive nature of the out puts, driving it across people, artefacts, processes and many years. To make it more salient, we presented it as likely tactical initiatives, thinking we would be stepping away and mapping these to the issues raised in the briefing from Mike, the CEO. What should our built environment look like? A clinic or a retail context? What should be the role of the mobile units? What should be the client service experience? They were worried about sales and conversion particularly, how people become aware, consider and make a decision to what is a nasty and painful experience. They wanted - they needed to develop an operational handbook and a culture, so focus on people, process and practice. Digital tools were a massive component of the brief, apps and a website. And then they needed a strategy, a customer-centred strategy and a product and service evolution and frameworks to measure progress from the current state. So, they weighed us up against the alternatives which were at the time focus group and survey orientated proposals on the table and thankfully they took the plunge. For us it was the most exciting challenge of our career. The ticked all the boxes, ambition, the 24 sites and a mobile plan and to design and define the best possible service for investors, staff and customers and then scale it over 100 clinics, as I said, in a year. It was at the intersection of health and innovation, two big ticks, and fit with our purposes and values. And it involved an almighty road trip across to the States. I was a pig in mud. All we had to do was understand the category better than anybody and then design a proposition to own it. What could be easier? ASH DONALDSON: As design researchers, we used to constantly face the challenge of numbers, the quantitative fallacy. Clients we used to market research, they are trained to think larger numbers meant better quality and loved using terms like statistical significance. When we propose in-depth research, they wanted focus groups to beef up the numbers. We got used to those challenges before they arose and educated our clients on the importance of qualitative research, the what and the why, not just the quantitative for the how much. We always had to go in to explain the difference between exploratory and explanatory approaches. Yes, assuring we'll conduct the quantitative once we understand what we need to size. Well, these days there is a another hurdle we have to deal with. The new phrase everyone uses is research and design have been democratised. It is a nice spin that it has been commodified. People are using sideways in companies and there is a glut of graduates from two or three-month part-time courses entering the market as designers and researchers. Many have invested heavily to make a career shift. Many will make good researchers later. They graduate equipped only with a limited set of tools and no theoretical understand of research. They spend less time on research and no time on analysis and synthesis and
4. 4 come at a much lower hourly rate. This sets a significant lower price for clients wanting to understand their customers and it drives that perceived cost of research down. Now, both market research and new wave of career switching grads achieved suboptimal outcomes for design and research, especially something of this size. But the danger is what they will do sounds and looks to clients like design research but delivers, at best, surface, and at worst, wrong directions. Now, this job was a case in point. This was a big one. In order for our clients to actually own the category of tattoo removal, we had to help them understand the industry better than anyone else. The best protection you can have as an early mover. Like Simon, I was a pig in mud also. This type of work harks back to my days of human factors. Situated design, you must understand the eco system, speaking to silos, you need to understand the needs, constraints and capability of everyone in the system, not just the customers. And the context isn't just at this point in time. For a big strategic job you need to understand where it came from and where it is likely to go. We mapped a pretty comprehensive approach. First, we needed to discover and agree on the ambition of the stakeholder including the venture capital firm who were our clients and the leaders of the free companies they bought into, because these people would be bringing it together on this. Then we would have to go into the field. For consumers, we wanted to conduct in-depth interviews in three very different cities, looking for cultural differences and they were located within position suites and commercial suites and mobile clinics. We wanted to observe things like accessibility, their use of space and the types of interactions, the client interactions they had, the consultation, the treatments, the payments and all the operational things in the back end. We also interviewed staff and clients, in interviews, to understand their culture, the motivations, the circumstances that brought them there and the barriers they faced. An area that was very little visibility about was the awareness of tattoo artists had and how they felt about tattoo removal. We also proposed visits to a sample of studios. Before we went the to the field we needed to understand the landscape and temporal context. It was critical to understand why they wanted it removed but we had to understand the reason people got tattooed in the first place and this we needed to look at throughout history, the significance, the rituals, the reasons, the branches and evolution of the art, the development of inks and ways in which it is applied. The trends over time. We needed to understand the more recent context too, what the trends now are in tattooing. And the spectrum for people to get a tattoo. So, for us to forecast where things are likely to go, we first had to look at that history and analyse it. Because, funnily enough, history tends to repeat itself in cycles. Then we matched to the existing emerging technologies so we could do the future casting. Now, if you want your research to be put to use, there are two essential things that need to happen: First, all the stakeholders have to agree on what they want to know. That's a really critical thing at the beginning of a project. And secondly, they then have to be kept engaged and excited throughout the research. Now, at the start of any project we find a kick-off work show to elicit goals, to discuss the target audience and the projection mission, scope the dates, key ways of working and dive into possible risks and constraints. This just gets everyone honed on exactly what we're doing and we know we have got a North Star we are heading towards. Since it was a range of different countries and different cultures being pulled together, we also delved
5. 5 deep, not just with the companies but with investors and VCs. We ran workshops with the leaders of each organisation that was required. To learn a bit more about their operation. Also to discuss how we would conduct research with their clinics and address any concerns they had. Of course, their concerns were many. We had huge lists of questions to address. And that's because the leaders had a lot of skin in the game, they needed to feel confident in our approach. So, at the outset, we also proposed dual design walls. We were going to be working in two locations, doing the whole remote thing we're doing these days. So, we wanted to set up all our clients' offices in Austin and back here in Manly in our offices. SIMON TOBIAS: Sounded so easy at the time ASH DONALDSON: It did, but artefacts created in both sides and proposed daily summaries in the field. The purpose of this was two-fold, first, we needed to create that operational rhythm to reflect on each day's research, summarise our findings and just kind of bed it all down as the interviews then got transcripted back in Manly to look at. Secondly, we wanted to keep the stakeholders engaged and excited through rich story telling. We were able to take them on a journey and understand the value of capturing the stories and not just a summary at the end. Since this was an ambitious project and there can be cultural variations across different states in the US, we took an extreme sampling approach. We conducted depth interviews in Austin, where tattoos are a cultural norm. You had worst job prospects without a tattoo in Austin. And in New York had a spectrum of acceptable but Houston, no jobs. We had to speak to a number of those who had tattoos, who were considering removal, the current customers, and those who weren't considering removal. They wanted to get rid of a tattoo but for some reason didn't go down the path, so they were unknown consumers. Through discussions and as the project progressed we quickly grew to add LAs a location. Because nobody was servicing the West Coast, which we found out early in our research and we didn't know why. Our approach to clinics was similar, seeking both high and low performing clinics, we wanted each company to give us their best and worst performing clinics from across the country, and investigating that variety of context from colocation of physical locations to unit. SIMON TOBIAS: It didn't sit well. ASH DONALDSON: No, it didn't. I should reiterate here as Simon referred to, in the kick-off, we discovered the companies they acquired were different in their origins, strengths and cultures. One was based on a corporate model, MIT, and in clinical offices with dermatologists and plastic surgeons. You can imagine someone heavily tattooed walking in to where people have Botox and lips. And one bought a laser, learned the ropes and learned what worked and didn't and codified it and did a McDonald's of it. They codified and learned with the standardised setup and approach across all clinics. The clinics were located in what is known as class B commercial suites. The third was a lovely business that evolved with deep ties in the artist communities. SIMON TOBIAS: We loved them.
6. 6 ASH DONALDSON: We loved them all. But these guys were special. Mostly retail, the high-rise office to service the heart of Manhattan and the mobile. Throughout the research, each of the companies, of course, wanted us to visit more and more of their clinics. Unfortunately, the scope didn't allow us to do that but we added interesting places like Salt Lake City and Denver, Colorado, places in flux. During the project, of course, a 4th company was acquired, a small operation in Toronto, Canada, so we had to go and visit there. These guys were ambitious where they wanted us to cover mobile operations and saw it could be an interesting new area to develop. And we were really interested in this too because it would give us more access to artists and also a novel approach to clinical treatment. But unfortunately, we had to constrain the scope to fit our timeline. Instead, we did a little bit of that but to get broader access to artists and complete our research picture we instead opted to visit a tattoo convention in Wallwood, in New Jersey. And then the fun part, how would we do it from here? We needed solid recruitment and reliable staff and Internet and decent catering to run what was going to be back-to-back sessions. International session, you know it is good to have someone on the ground to navigate the local culture, processes and customs, even in America. They are there to iron out any problems that may arise, and they always do, because they're on the ground. We knew where we were planning consumer research so we had to find reliable people. First place I went to was LinkedIn, I was amazed. My advisor from uni had moved to Kansas city the year before. A well known colleague was now based in Austin. And I had an amazing list of people to call on in New York and LA. The surprising thing, even though I had great connections over time with them, having kids settles all that down for you and you lose a lot of the friendships or they don't get maintained as much. All of these people bent over back wards for me, eagerly handed over their favourite rooms, hints on catering and we got lots of invites out to beer. Which was great! In the end, however, we only needed one great recruiter. My friend in Austin had amazing contacts. She acted as our fixer, catering, trouble shooting across the country. It is the best experience we have had ever. SIMON TOBIAS: A recruitment service. ASH DONALDSON: So, as I said, I was amazed I had a choice of friends. On further reflection, I saw that I have this network in almost any city in the States. And the interesting thing is many of these people I had met at a meet up or conference like UX SIMON TOBIAS: Kind of like this. It's a little hard ASH DONALDSON: Our first tip is this: Your connections are important. Take the opportunity at every event to make friends. Now, this is a warm and inclusive community. Not just in Australia, but right across the world. As researchers, we tend to be curious, purpose-driven and empathetic, we leap at the opportunities to help friends. We with working towards a common goal, not just researchers but extends to clients. These are people to champion an evidence-based approach. I mean, over the years all our most interesting briefs have been co created with people on the inside, including this one from Jo. So, another thing is attend conferences
7. 7 and meet ups. Take the time to use your research skills, engage with others, listening actively. Get to know your peers and form long-lasting bonds. I know it might be a bit harder to do that virtually, but this will pass. You're likely to bump into any of these people at other industry events. As your career progresses you'll see them more and more. Whoever is virtually sitting next to you right now, no matter how young or inexperienced, they will be in a senior or executive position in years to come. They have their own network and spheres of influence and it will grow. And because they're researchers they are likely to be nice people too. Another thing I encourage is for people to speak at conferences and meet ups. For me, it has given me greater access to the other speakers who are often from around the world. No matter what stage you are in your career, seek out mentors. They help you learn and grow as well as having their own connections, resources and insights that you can draw upon for those ambitious projects like this. SIMON TOBIAS: Yes. I think you are probably familiar with this, but research risks being rejected out right or simply sitting on the shelf gathering dust if you don't bring the client on the journey. They need to trust us and not only see the results but the workings and the margin. It doesn't stop there. When the project is likely to involve massive change. We need to bring everybody along for this journey from the ground up. Our second tip is design your research to drive the change. It's both in the way we engage, so that's both formally and informally. And we'll talk a bit about that later and the form that this takes. If I can touch on form, first. You probably noted the edgy, graphic style in some of our slides and the use of tattoo culture references and motifs, no accident. Visual communication we feel is vital to reducing barriers and quickly establishing rapport. Right from the start with this project we established a project visual vocabulary or style. One which drew heavily on tattoo traditions. So, Al, Daz and Braden even went as far as creating a project logo which became the company logo. We applied to everything, from facilitation materials and of course the project wall. The engagement style is important. In addition to the form factor we took every opportunity to break down leadership. This project was going to affect everybody. As researchers we had to understand the motivations and concerns of all involved. It helped us to get people to speak openly and honestly to us and without fear. These things are often imbued with a lot of fear, anything that involves change. When Al, Daz and Braden landed in Los Angeles, a long flight, exhausted but they insisted on going into the office straight away and put up the design wall. That evening they were invited, after a whole day of flying across the world, with the venture partner team to get to know them in a more comfortable setting. As leaders of our company, Al, Ash and I spent a considerable amount of time having one-on-one conversations over dinners and often with late-night drinks with the leadership of all the companies and investors. So you would be surprised what we learned in those context and it helped us with the research. The tattoo industry, is, of course, as you imagine, very closed. Outsiders are often labelled as narks and treated not specifically, me, people with hats, and treated suspiciously until they prove themselves. Relationships are closely guarded. We invited Jo, and Carmine, and the leader of a company and owner of most of the relationships with the tattoo community, who did the research we did in New York with the artists. Specifically to give us a warm introduction
8. 8 from a trusted source so they could talk freely, prove we were trust worthy to them so we wouldn't say anything stupid or ruin relationships and they would open up their directories. And to demonstrate to the stakeholders what we do in the field. The authenticity of that. Diversity was important for us. We set up our team to ensure we reduced barriers where we could. Between Al, Ash, Daz and Liv and I we covered a lot of bases. The age ranges is between 21 and 56, we were all active on the research project. We had gender diversity and cultural diversity, both in terms of ethnicity and... studying, Daz has beautiful tattoos, Liz does too. ASH DONALDSON: There is no such thing as a perfect research project. There is always going to be something that happens that, you know, something that doesn't happen as planned or even though it is a juicy opportunity but for more insight that pops up and no scope to account for it. So, our third tip is just to have the confidence to adapt to the situation, more prepared you are the easier you can adapt. No matter how well you plan, though, there is always going to be a spanner thrown in the works, something you can't account for. When we heard about the tattoo convention in Wallwood, New Jersey, we cut short of clinics in Boston and headed down. We had a contact we thought would be able to introduce us to the artists but we were a bit wrong. Because we didn't have the planning or prep time, we also didn't have any idea how busy the artists would be when we got there. Now, before we got there, Daz was keen to get a tattoo. While we were there, Olivia decided to get a tattoo and they slipped into action research mode. They grabbed a spot. It was great because it gave them access to their tattoo artist but walking around the convention with fresh ink gave them licence to speak with artists even why they worked. Not wanting a tattoo, I opted to buy printed art from the artists. It gave me a good 15 minutes to chat with more about their coverups and attitudes and it revealed interesting insight for us. Staging, when they arrived it was obvious they had cleared their books for the day, coached them on what to say and coached them on merch. SIMON TOBIAS: Americans are good at it. ASH DONALDSON: The pressure from above but from customer insight it wasn't what we needed. The team had just flown right across the country and had a whole day scheduled on the ground. We took note of the culture insights but didn't bother transcribing the research because we knew it would pollute the data. It was painful but we cut it. And we had a great opportunity to go with the mobile unit out to tattoo shops in more rural and remote regions which of course we jumped at. The van, unfortunately, carried two technicians and a Q switch laser. As we made arrangements, they said the third person in the van usually went on the lounge for treatment and it had no seatbelt. When we said that Daz was probably going with the joke he could use a pool noodle if worried, if it is good enough for their quarter million dollar laser it would be good for Daz but I had to politely decline. In the end we arranged for Liv and Daz to get there to meet the van and then had to take the time to get to know the mobile team because these guys would have to trust them. Because as Simon said they are closely guarded. They followed the van from location to location, watching the research in the van with the clients and then in the tattoo studios with that opportunity to chat to more artists.
9. 9 SIMON TOBIAS: As Ash mentioned before, the VCs, I or mentioned, the VCs knew for the venture to succeed they needed to merge three distinct cultures. Whilst the team was on the road, Val and I worked in the background with Jo to merge the cultures. This culminated in an invitation to Manhattan. Our aim was to create a context that gave the staff the opportunities of moving from a small company to join forces and learn from other companies to become an industry leader. Again, we use the tattoo-inspired illustrations and voyage of discovery metaphor to explore the notion of change. The trade winds exercise explored the value that each partner organisation could bring to the quest. The treasurer exercise explored the unique value that each company could offer the group. The ship exercise explored the value that each company hoped to unlock through the new partnership. We had a couple of other exercises looking at thorns and roses, classic motifs to explore problems and solutions. ASH DONALDSON: The workshop was face to face in New York, you got all the people from one company with another. The worked so well the client wanted us to run with the other companies. But the timing wasn't great. There only day we could get it was when we were in San Antonio doing research. The companies were spread across the US. Again, remote. We had to device stuff. We used Mural. To run two boards on two companies. This is what it looked like. I facilitated from a tiny staff room in the clinic, just enough for my laptop to run the two companies while Daz and Livy were in the waiting room. Meanwhile, the two staff that were actually in the clinic had made a bit of space. They were in the treatment room and they were participating in one of the workshops. These workshops ended up being a roaring success. Thank god! They helped the staff across all companies to consider their own company strengths, what they were looking as a company. So, they were coming to these thoughts themselves. And how joining forces with others might help them be better together. Prior to this, they had thought of the other companies as "the other" and now they are looking at the benefits of getting them all on board. SIMON TOBIAS: They had something to offer ASH DONALDSON: I don't think there is a project that the client hasn't pushed back and time frames are not optimal but as researchers and designers we can work within our constraints and get the best outcomes with what is available. Our fourth tip is to develop a good research rhythm. Rapid research can be really high quality as long as you have what Michelle Barinhag calls is the right cadence. Doing research field is exhausting. Having to respond to findings, drive long distances, fly and find new accommodation every other night can be crippling. This is where we had a few... earlier on. SIMON TOBIAS: It is true on long term projects, 14 weeks. At the start, know each other's nonnegotiables. The things you can't compromise on to stay sane. We always have two people in the field, for safety, efficacy and sanity. If your research partner knows what you can't compromise to stay sane, they can support you.
10. 10 ASH DONALDSON: If possible, do research early in the day. We committed to doing a research summary every day. That's hard after a long day of research. The research had to be finished early enough to have discussions, admin, files and/or travel to the next location. SIMON TOBIAS: Assigning roles and knowing your roles. For the annoying stuff in field research, from gathering, naming and up loading photographs to organising transport and accommodation and rooms for play back. Clear roles allows the team to know what tasks are covered and by whom ASH DONALDSON: The fourth point, keep an interest and know your research partner well. If you do, things are going to work out. The person who is best suited to facilitate the sessions, was often determined after introductions were made to work with the participants. This was then communicated with a raised eyebrow or nod. Sometimes the decision would just go on who would lead the session based on gender. Other times it was another point of common ground that allowed the researchers to achieve a rapport for different topics. This would switch with a quick introduction and people started to gel. SIMON TOBIAS: Fifth point, building in a buffer if you can at the planning stage. It will always be squeezed as it grows and opportunities arise. Building in buffers and learning the negotiating skills to get the right result. ASH DONALDSON: And you can hide that buffer as well. 6, be prepared to say no doesn't add enough value. Related to the prior principle, clients can get excited and want you to squeeze in more than is possible. Our clients wanted us to do so more on the mobile leg but it wasn't humanly possible to be in all the locations they wanted. We took a step back and looked at that component as part of the overall research and decided we had to de-scope much of what they had in ambition. SIMON TOBIAS: The last one is very principle I hold quite close to my heart, that all serious things should be done with a sense of play. It is one of our values at Tobias and we took every opportunity to enjoy our down time, to explore the new cities and self-case. Liv is a great dancer so we saw the Texan dance halls and went out to see the music, awesome jazz and blues, and the Madhatter, a cocktail bar 60 stories above the Manhattan skyline. ASH DONALDSON: You can see it on the slide at the moment SIMON TOBIAS: You need to take time to decompress on the road if you want to maintain a high-level quality across the project ASH DONALDSON: The pace was still hectic, but we all had a fantastic experience. We learned a tremendous amount and unearthed massive value for clients a along the way. Being a team split across Australia and the US, researchers in the US are sleeping and back home they are doing analysis. We were doing two to one on the analysis, closer to three to one, which is great. This 24-hour cycle was great for research and also the workshops we had to run to play back the research and turn those
11. 11 insights into action SIMON TOBIAS: Perfect segue! After 13 or so weeks on the road, we felt we were in a really strong position to facilitate codesign of a value proposition and then to map this to a roadmap, to drive the insight into action. So we conducted firsthand research with clients and clinics and learned from artists and learned from 300 - exactly 337 people, formally, across the range of cohorts. But we knew we had to connect the stakeholders to the insights. Thanks to the brilliant Jo and her amazing leadership and skills, we were able to achieve something and brought together stakeholders in Austin, Texas, for five full days. We gave them the reports to fly in on the plane ASH DONALDSON: Everyone had to fly in SIMON TOBIAS: To build a deep connection between the investors, VCs and four investor companies, they had acquired a Canadian flagship on the way. We needed to create the connection between the research and align them on a common purpose. We ramped up story telling, took it to the next level and visual communication to forge these deep connections and it worked a treat. Together, we managed to prioritise, the opportunity areas, I should say, on the basis of urgency, value and effort and it informed a vision. We had a four-year programme of work together to ensure we could capture the lion's share of this rapidly growing market. Now, quality research is the foundation for value that is realised and released over the many, many years. That has a long shelf life, particularly for complex programmes. So often it serves I think Ash used the term "North Star" a vision of where we want to be. We heard at the beginning of this year, the key recommendations we made for Bupa three or four years ago were finally implemented and the greenfields at dental sites are forming the practice we had back in the day. We had an e-mail... ASH DONALDSON: It was from someone we didn't know before. Out of the blue, we were told the war room we created years ago had been sealed off and maintained as a briefing room for a variety of programmes ranging from branding and marketing initiatives to technical platform improvements. And recently an exciting call, someone from Microsoft had seen some of our work and moved heaven and earth to get the opportunity to work with us. He said he didn't know people were able to do such in-depth work in a commercial setting and he wanted to create a project to get to work with us, which was fantastic. SIMON TOBIAS: Don't lose heart if it doesn't see the light of day initially. ASH DONALDSON: No, it takes time, sometimes SIMON TOBIAS: Within the span of our project, our clients have gone from four different propositions to a single company with shared values and purpose. We are executing on their brand, fit out, protocols for treatment and a website. They are moving fast. We have been lucky. Raise your virtual hand, it was going to be your hand, if you heard of the helio tropic principal? It is used in gardening and its roots are in the ancient Greek word for sun, Helios, plants grow towards their source of
12. 12 light. Sunflowers turn in real time their heads to face the sun. They turn to the light and the warmth for growth. In the same way, people and organisations move towards what gives them light. They are drawn towards positive images of the future and positive actions based on affirmative moments. What has this got to do with design research? Ash and I feel if you dig a bit into what it means to be heliotropic, it is authentic, compassionate, grateful. It means following through on commitments and doing your very best and being honest with yourself. These adjectives that we see the power and value of quality design and research. We wish you well, and many great projects. Thanks very much.