article excerpt: —————– In the fall I presented an ethnography seminar in Barcelona in partnership with a company called Brain Ventures.  During the session, I relayed stories of media-producing eleven year olds, rap industry insiders who vehemently denied the validity of a client’s research, and stuffed animal nostalgia that offered insight into grown up identity. [...]

Thought I’d show you the palm of my hand from the RethinkHer conference last month. Some interesting stuff to help you along which echoed a lot of what I’ve been proselytizing in innovation for years. But here it is. Just the facts ma’am. Systematizing Cultures: measures, controls market, controls organization, works in hierarchy. Cornerstone of [...]

Lets look at what agencies have tried to do the last few years... pretend they are movie producers, product designers, art curators, publicists, gurus of the future, yet still maintaining a media buying and planning department, an account planning department, a 'creative' department focusing on those awards, and the account people tap tap tapping away at their cubicles. I think it's pretty bombastic to claim to do it all and yet still be an AD agency.

Image by Swedish Illustrator, Linn Olofsdotter Some of you are curious about the foundation of what I do aside from my passion for innovation and writing about women who create. I’m an ethnographer. I was an ethnographer long before I even knew the term. I would get frustrated with highly regimented approaches to understanding consumers [...]