Looking back, we are so proud of the work we do and of our brilliant clients who are all creative, strategic and thoughtful. As we put the finishing touches on our refreshed brand and website, we want to make sure our brand reflects who we are today, not just who we planned to be when F’inn was first imagined. Over the past 9 years, our team and our perspective have evolved meaningfully.
But only in some ways. At our core, we are still F’inn.
The DNA that drove us (Lisa Phelan, Greg Robison, Stephen Bohnet and me, Tammi Taylor) to create F’inn is still strong. Humans are still at the center of our worldview - even our new AI tools are grounded in human data. Transparency is still a guiding light for us, no secret black boxes that might magically predict sales. We are still allergic to corporate politics and refuse to work with assholes.
Many of us have innovation work in our backgrounds that constantly influences how we approach problem solving. We are future focused and enthusiastically embrace uncertainty. Clients typically come to us because they are grappling with something unknown - they want to move forward with an idea or make a change and need an independent perspective. So, they call us.
Our favorite calls are when someone wants to bounce ideas off us - no project, no agenda, just a spontaneous brainstorm. Often, these conversations explore complex ideas like the relationship between a brand’s image and its pricing strategy, evolving industry trends, or unique topics like privacy, trust, and ethics. These are fulfilling areas to explore. Solutions are somehow absolute and ambiguous. Take privacy, for instance, which is both a divine right and something many of us willingly trade for the sake of convenience. F’inn seems to thrive in the ambiguity of these complex ideas, finding clarity and creativity in the midst of uncertainty.
While our foundational values have stayed consistent, growth has allowed F’inn to indulge our curiosity. We are able to self-fund research that helps us understand how different people experience the world around us. We’ve dove into big topics like climate change and mental health. We’re investing in research to determine the best applications of ethical AI to our insights’ work. The results are fascinating.
Over the past nine years, the most important change to F’inn has been our employees.
Now at 18 people, our team is impressive. They came to us as stars and once here, they continue to be passionate learners, remarkably resourceful and dedicated to our clients. We support each other without ego, doing whatever needs to be done so we can keep every promise we make to our clients. The truth is, after 30 years in insights and innovation, I still love it. Few things are as exciting as that first qualitative interview or fresh set of data tables. It’s when we start to see the answers to the questions we’ve been wondering about since the moment we got the call.