Make your next move knowing how people will actually respond to it. We find that out first, in their own words, so what you build lands the way you planned it. For companies whose growth depends on people saying yes.
If you are weighing a new platform, an AI rollout, a repositioning or an expansion, you are working with less certainty than the last generation of leaders had. These are the numbers our clients are navigating. Each one becomes manageable once you know how people will actually respond.
of CEOs expect their company will need a different model within ten years. Drawn from 4,400 chief executives across 95 countries.
Source / PwC 29th Annual Global CEO Survey, 2026of consumers will move to another brand after one poor experience. A service failure makes a customer four times more likely to leave.
Source / Zendesk CX research; Bain & Company on service failureOnly 8% of customers rate brand service as excellent, while 80% of brands believe theirs is. Closing that distance is very winnable.
Source / Bain & Company, the delivery gapof consumers say they trust a brand less when it uses AI-generated content. Only 13% fully trust AI on its own, so the human hand still has to show.
Source / Klaviyo 2026 AI Consumer Trends Reportof organisations are still waiting on returns from AI investment. The tools work. Value arrives when the people using them are designed for.
Source / Writer, Enterprise AI Adoption 2026of employees quietly work around a new system rather than with it. Their reasons are usually the most useful data in the building.
Source / Writer, Enterprise AI Adoption 2026Companies that adapt well see a 71% performance premium. What sets them apart is usually that somebody checked how people would respond before committing.
Source / PwC 29th Annual Global CEO Survey, 2026Most market prediction runs on data alone. Numbers tell you what already happened, not why it happened or what people will do next. We build every forecast on qualitative ground: real conversations, real observation, and a genuine understanding of what moves people.
A clear read on where your market is heading, and which parts of your plan depend on things going well.
What people genuinely need, what gets in their way, and what would make them choose you again. In their own words.
Where customers are dropping off, what your positioning actually communicates, and how to close the distance.
You already know the problem and roughly what you want to run. We come in and make it happen.
Companies bring us the decision they can't afford to get wrong
Usually it arrives as a question nobody internally can answer with confidence. You get the answer, and a prioritised plan with the tradeoffs made plain, so the room can finally agree and move.
Each engagement began with a question leadership was weighing and ended with an evidenced answer plus a plan they could act on. Client names are withheld by agreement. The findings are not.
Assess the viability of a guided jewellery-making studio within Toronto's experiential retail landscape, and define the strongest strategic direction using foresight-informed market signals and user-centred insights.
We conducted desk research and a horizon scan of experiential shopping, creative workshops and adjacent leisure experiences. This analysis identified emerging shifts in participation-based retail and the growing role of learning as leisure, clarifying how the market is evolving.
We complemented this with in-person experience sampling of comparable services. That allowed direct observation of how participants engaged with guided creative experiences, where friction occurred, and what shaped perceived value during the experience.
We combined these findings with a review of the proposed business model and financial assumptions. The synthesis connected emerging market direction with observed user behaviour to determine where the concept could compete and differentiate.
Identify the behavioural, practical and learning-related barriers to advanced Excel adoption, and design an approach enabling continuous upskilling through low-friction, judgement-free learning embedded in work.
We conducted in-depth interviews with employees to understand how they used Excel, how they approached learning new features, and what influenced their ability to prioritise upskilling.
The research identified that advanced adoption was shaped by role relevance, workload pressure and limited protected time for learning. Employees often relied on familiar basic functions because they were efficient within time-constrained workflows.
It also highlighted discomfort in traditional training environments, where employees were hesitant to ask questions or expose gaps in knowledge. That reduced engagement with formal upskilling formats.
We ran a systems analysis of workload and additional task management, which surfaced reinforcing negative feedback loops: inefficient manual processes consumed the time that learning would have required, so capability never developed, so the manual processes persisted. Additional tasks were absorbed into the same constrained hours, tightening the loop further.
We then journey-mapped the learning experience end to end, from first encountering a need through to applying a new skill, locating exactly where pain points sat along that path rather than treating them as a general lack of engagement.
We developed an implementation approach embedding learning into everyday workflows through microlearning tied to real tasks, so employees built capability in context rather than through isolated sessions. We also designed judgement-free learning environments that normalised experimentation and removed assumptions about prior knowledge.
Understand how the internal system functioned across roles, identify service-level pain points, and develop a practical implementation plan aligned with evolving care needs.
We conducted stakeholder research across frontline staff, coordinators and leadership to understand how the system operated in practice, so the analysis reflected real operational conditions across the organisation.
We mapped how roles, responsibilities and processes interacted under changing care demands. A foresight lens examined how increasing complexity in client needs would continue to affect system performance over time.
The synthesis identified where the system supported adaptability and where it created friction during periods of change. Those findings informed a phased implementation plan designed to improve coordination within operational constraints.
Assess the potential viability of the film, clarify how investment supports production and impact activities, and define a long-term strategic direction grounded in cultural and social trends.
We conducted a horizon scan of film, social-impact media, animal welfare and cultural storytelling. This identified emerging narratives, funding patterns and shifts in audience expectations for purpose-driven content.
We reviewed the proposed investment allocation to clarify how funding would support production, distribution and impact activities. That also informed how the initiative could be communicated to potential supporters.
We analysed how audiences engage with social-impact storytelling, with attention to authenticity, advocacy and sustained engagement beyond a single release.
Map the current client experience, identify service gaps, and define actionable improvements aligned with evolving entrepreneurial needs and the organisation's long-term strategy.
We conducted interviews with entrepreneurs and internal stakeholders to understand how services were accessed and experienced, capturing real behaviours, motivations and breakdown points across the client journey.
We developed a journey map connecting individual experiences into a system-wide view of service delivery. A foresight lens examined how entrepreneurial expectations would shift over the next five years, particularly around speed, accessibility and integrated support.
We applied root-cause analysis to distinguish surface-level experience issues from underlying operational constraints. The findings informed strategy-aligned service improvements and implementation priorities for the next phase of the five-year plan.
Hire us for one piece of the work, or for the whole question. Both tiers get the same rigour. The difference is how much you want to keep in house.
You already have a team and a direction. Bring us in for the one part you need and keep everything else in house. Smaller scopes, faster starts, and a natural way to work together before committing to a full commission.
You hand us the question and we take it from framing through to a plan you can act on. Best when the answer has to hold up in front of a board, or when nobody internally has the bandwidth to run it properly.
Not sure which one fits? Tell us what you are weighing up and we will point you at the right one, or tell you honestly if it is not a job for us.
Start a conversation →Every commission is shaped around its own question, so the length of each stage moves. The sequence does not. A Select Engagement slots into whichever checkpoint you need covered.
Setting the focal question, its boundaries, and the decision it has to serve.
Choosing the methods, participants and evidence base that will actually answer it.
Fieldwork, scanning and interviews, run against a sharpened version of the question.
Clustering, driver mapping and root cause, until the findings hold up under pressure.
Prioritised recommendations, tradeoffs named, and a plan whoever owns it can run.
Studio Klee is a foresight and research practice based in Toronto, working with companies across Canada. Every engagement is led by Neecha Klee, who brings nearly a decade in design and research spent getting to the core of problems, and a Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation from OCAD University. Specialists join the studio when a project calls for them.
Companies come to us when a decision matters and the honest answer depends on how people will behave. A new platform, an AI rollout, a repositioning, an expansion. We go and find out, then bring back something you can act on.
A lot of market prediction is done at arm's length, reading dashboards and extrapolating from what has already happened. That work has its place, but it cannot tell you why a number moved or what people will do next. Foresight is only as good as the human understanding underneath it.
So we build ours on qualitative ground. Getting someone to tell you the real reason they avoid a system, or buy the thing they said they would not, takes time and care that most research timelines do not allow for. The findings live there, and we build the timeline to make room for them.
Clients tend to describe the same thing afterwards: a clearer picture, a shorter argument, and a plan the whole room could agree on.
I have been told I have an inquisitive mind, which I take as the compliment it is. I think the best of us never let go of the curiosity we had as children, and keep finding the beauty in exploration and discovery as the world unfolds around us. That is most of what this job actually is.
I am moved by deeply human experiences, and starting there is what lets me build strategy with intention and meaning inside a business landscape. It is why the studio runs the way it does, and why I still sit in the room for every interview.
Neecha Klee, Founder
