How We Work

Our work is a product of the design process we use, which we’ve refined over a decade. A core insight when ENSO began was that initiatives of real ambition and impact often fail because they live within one silo of an organization: brand, product, social impact, public policy, etc. We developed a process that is more holistic in inputs, and outputs.

We have used this process to answer big questions — on company vision, brand strategy, campaign development, movement building and ambitious impact agendas.

We work on three levels, we together form our complete process.

Triple Diamond

( 1 )

Clarity

In a noisy world, in complex organizations, clarity on the path forward is critical. The first phase of our work listens to key stakeholders, before distilling insights and arriving at a shared mission. This shared mission, for us, is the core strategy that aligns interests between the organization and the world; it is authentic to the company, it motivates employees, it inspires customers.

( 2 )

Courage

To transcend logical steps (which today lead to generic answers), we need to to explore and develop confidence in ambitious leaps. To do that, we bring to life future scenarios, some closer to logical paths forward, some stretching possibility. Each future richly depicts what the company is saying and doing, who we are partnering with, and how the world is reacting. Then we explore them together with our clients to design the best way forward. That final roadmap — a strategic and creative guide to meeting the challenge at hand — is what we call a future design.

( 3 )

Creativity

Achieving success at scale means bringing the world along. That requires beauty, emotion, elegance, authenticity. ENSO builds brands, campaigns, coalitions, storytelling systems, products, new initiatives and experiences. We are solution agnostic — we frequently work collaboratively with in-house teams and existing partners, all in service of the highest impact, for the business and for the world.

The Process

This process is fundamentally optimistic: it creates space for people to stretch their ambition.

This process is collaborative: we work to unlock collective brilliance rather than work at arms-length.

This process is adaptable: designed to answer big questions, we have used this process to solve diverse challenges, from company vision, to brand creation, narrative development, product ideation and movement building.