We cannot explain emotions, they just happen – they are the shortcuts to decisions which make us impulsive, irrational and hard to predict. Yet for decades market researchers have tried to measure rationalised versions of the way we think using rating scales, scores and rankings…thankfully things have started to change.

We now know more about the dominance of fast thinking; behavioural bias and priming and the inherent irrationality of decisions sparked by an emotion.

This is the world we live in.

We work hard to understand the emotional sparks and connections that make life interesting, which encourage people to try something different or behave in an unexpected way. It is a far less predictable world than we would like, but when you start to understand it – possibilities and opportunities follow.

We try to start every project by understanding the emotions at play, which dominate and which need stimulation …. First and second stage NPD projects truly benefit from an approach which starts with the way people feel about a category or market and understanding how they behave and choose ideas if they feel differently.

We try to start every project by understanding the emotions at play, which dominate and which need stimulation …. First and second stage NPD projects truly benefit from an approach which starts with the way people feel about a category or market and understanding how they behave and choose ideas if they feel differently.

We explore emotions through observing behaviour, through storytelling and through experiments.

We also apply our emotional understanding to the design of services or customer journey planning and have developed some solid principles for such work

• Before you even think about the delivery, understand the expectations your users have
• Assess the emotional context of each interaction or touchpoint and overlay this on expectations
• Involve your users and staff together in design
• Build experience carefully, monitor the delivery impact closely by using your staff for feedback
• Benchmark and measure the gaps between expectations and experience in a disciplined way
• Don’t be afraid to change or adjust where needed

We have applied this sort of approach to many service design and re-designs.