Ethnographic by Design

METHOD

Start with immersion, not assumptions.

Every project begins with careful, often uncomfortable inquiry: participant observation, long-form interviews, artifact analysis. I listen not just to what’s said, but to what’s repeated, avoided, or contested. I map the culture before I advise on strategy.

This is anthropology in practice — tuned to the rhythms of identity, language, belief, and behavior. I turn insight into strategy not by overlaying templates, but by understanding what makes a community tick.

If you're looking for tidy personas or fast facts, I’m not your person. But if you're trying to truly understand your community, I’ll help you hear them more clearly than ever.

ETHOS

Own your niche.

There’s a popular story in business: grow bigger, appeal wider, reach everyone.

I encourage clients to tell a different story.

I believe in the power of niches — small, specific, deeply resonant communities where the work is not just visible, but vital. My method is built on one premise: own your niche. Don’t stretch to fit markets that don’t know you. Dig in where you already matter.

  • Reject mass appeal.

    If your work doesn’t land with everyone, that’s not a flaw — it’s a feature. The more precisely you speak to your people, the more powerfully they respond.

  • Go deep, not broad.

    Don’t water down your message to reach the mainstream. Nerd out. Get specific. Find the edges of your niche and push deeper. Clarity attracts loyalty.

  • Adapt like Darwin’s finches.

    Your business evolved in a particular environment. It works because it fits — like a beak shaped for a specific seed. Trying to serve every market makes you less adapted to any. Specialization isn’t limitation. It’s strength.

  • Grow with community. Not beyond.

    Sustainable growth doesn’t come from chasing other audiences. It comes from serving the hell out of the one that already believes in you. Flourish in place.

Define success differently.

I’m not here to make you palatable. I’m here to help you become indispensable — to the people who truly get it.

If this makes your stomach drop (in a good way), you’re in the right place.

If you’re chasing mass market relevance or building for algorithms, I won’t be a fit.

If you want to build something small, strange, and ferociously loved — welcome.

"It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds... and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us."

— Charles Darwin