Culture & Spirit

A fractional UX and product consultancy for large companies

Culture & Spirit is a one-person consultancy that advises big corporate clients on product strategy and user experience research. It markets itself as a fractional service, meaning a company brings in senior help for a project or a stretch of time instead of making a full-time hire, and its current focus is on the large firms now working out how to bring AI into their products. The principal has spent more than twenty years in UX, and the site says that a short attempt at retirement did not last because the work was missed.

Research before building

The consultancy's core is qualitative UX research: finding out how real customers and employees would use a product before anyone commits to building it. One case study on its site describes a platform that a distributor's customers had asked for; the research showed the customers' own staff would not have used it, and the finding saved the company from a costly build. Another project produced more than twelve thousand research artifacts that the site invites visitors to browse.

Strategy, design systems and products

Beyond research, the work includes product and UX strategy and design. Examples on the site include:

• a design system for a utility company;
• a single app that combined a social network, a vendor directory and a produce encyclopedia while staying easy to use;
• a custom knife configurator with fourteen knife types and over a million combinations that a customer can complete in about five minutes;
• tools for a company with a very large, globally scattered workforce that needs contact information and file sharing close at hand.

Writing and speaking

The founder has also published articles on UX topics, covering the difference between customers and users, why personas can mislead, and a short playbook for improving performance. Conference talks include one on form design, one on big data and one on why UX projects fail. A book on the subject of UX failure was announced for early 2023.

History

The business used to take on brand and interactive design as well. The site now carries a note of thanks to the clients who trusted it with their culture, and the current presentation stresses long-lasting working relationships.