Knowledge Production Services

Knowledge Production Portfolio

Our Approach to Knowledge Production Assignments

We understand African markets, audiences and communities through the various assignments we have undertaken across countries, demographics and unique population groups. Our data, knowledge and evidence-production capabilities provide a systematic, theory-informed and field-tested approach that generates insights and competitive intelligence to clients seeking to de-risk their strategic decisions.

Drawing on anthropology, ethnography, political economy and applied statistics, we design and deliver research assignments that inform strategic communications, organisational strategy, market sizing opportunities, and social impact inquiries. Our teams move fluently from advanced quantitative analysis to long-form qualitative inquiries enabling us to translate complex realities into clear recommendations, scenarios and pathways for change.

Key Offerings;

1. Integrated Primary & Secondary Insight Assignments: We offer end-to-end primary and secondary research programmes that blend ethnography, survey science and advanced desk research into a single coherent insight engine.

Primary research:

• National and multi-country surveys (baselines, midlines, endlines).
• Deep ethnographic immersions, participant observation, diaries and longitudinal storytelling with communities in informal settlements, ASALs, borderlands, refugee settings and other fragile contexts.
• Key Informant Interviews, Focus Group Discussions and long-term research panels with communities, customers, regulators, activists, investors and frontline staff.
• Semiotic analysis of symbols, slogans, memes and hybrid sound and text messaging to understand how messages are encoded and decoded in different sub-cultures.

Secondary / desk research:

• Structured literature and evidence reviews that synthesise academic, policy and grey literature.
• Competitive and comparator landscape reviews, including cross-country benchmarking and meta-analysis of existing evaluations, monitoring data and regulatory records.

2. Market Feasibility & Opportunity Sizing Studies: We offer market feasibility and opportunity assessments that combine behavioural insight, anthropology and financial realism, with a strong foresight and scenario-planning component. These include;

Feasibility Diagnostics:

• Detailed market sizing and segmentation grounded in both formal and informal economies.
• Ethnographic mapping of usage patterns, informal networks and shadow markets that often determine real uptake in African contexts.
• Price sensitivity, value perception and switching-cost analysis rooted in lived realities rather than notional willingness-to-pay.

Market Evolution Projections:

• Horizon scanning of technological, regulatory, political and cultural shifts likely to reshape markets over a 5–10 year horizon.
• Scenario and “war-gaming” workshops that help teams stress-test strategies under different regulatory, political and information-disorder futures.

4. Customer, Citizen & Stakeholder Experience Measurement: We offer agile Customer and Citizen Experience (CX) measurement frameworks that treat interactions as lived narratives rather than isolated transactions. This allows our design of customer satisfaction, mystery shopping, Net Promoter Score surveys to be different, insightful and functional to client needs. Our proprietary Fluid Design™ CX model;

• Integrates internal performance metrics (service standards, resolution times, escalation logs) with external experience measures (surveys, digital sentiment, ethnographic diaries, mystery shopping) to provide a clear picture of customer experience performance in the organisation.
• Captures “first contact” experiences across physical and digital channels, and reveals missed moments that would have built customer trust, complaint behaviour, advocacy and reduced churn.
• Combines open-text analysis, emotion and sentiment tracking to enrich voice of Customer surveys and map complex customer journeys—e.g. justice users, patients, students, beneficiaries, investors based on anthropological observation and depth interviews.

5. Political Economy, Conflict & Power Analysis Practice: We combine a deep understanding of macro and micro trends to unpack how power, incentives, institutions and narratives shape reform, markets and social outcomes—especially in fragile and contested environments. Our approach to PEA assignments connect policies, economic processes and social outcomes, tailored to various sectors and ecosystems. At the same time, we map formal and informal institutions, identifying gatekeepers, veto players, brokers and potential champions of change.

Key Offerings

Dynamic Power and Incentives Mapping:

• Tracking how relationships, incentives, alliances and risks evolve over time, including feedback loops between state actors, communities, private sector and external partners.
• Updated “realities maps” that show interests, alliances and behaviours of host communities and other actors, and what these shifts imply for beneficiary agency and autonomy.
• Analysis of how other agencies are intervening in the same space and where crowding, duplication or synergy is emerging.

Change Dynamics and Stakeholder Sense-making:

• Monthly or quarterly field-grounded briefings that surface shocks, adaptations, resistance and unintended effects across key stakeholder groups.
• Structured sense-making with staff, partners and community representatives to validate what is changing, what remains stable and why.
• Clear implications and response options, enabling programme, legal and communication teams to adapt strategy, messaging and partnerships in real time.

Past Assignments include: