thinkshop

A method that provokes thinking.
A team that holds the room.

A thinkshop is what happens when a workshop gets drunk, tears up the agenda, and decides that polite brainstorming is for the weak. The process does the provoking. We just keep the room honest.

What a thinkshop is

A full day. Twenty to fifty senior practitioners. One named tension with data on both sides. Chatham House rules. No slides from participants. No observers. Cocktails at the end.

The day starts with a single sentence: this thing is ready, and this other thing isn't, and the gap is measurable and ours to close. Then we work the room until the gap is diagnosed, the leverage is named, and the people in the chairs have signed up to do something about it within ninety days.

How a thinkshop works

I

Tension before agenda

Every day opens with one named asymmetric tension, quantified on both sides. If we can't put numbers on the gap, the tension isn't sharp enough to fill a room.

II

Stakes, not job titles

We segment the room by what each person stands to gain or lose if the tension resolves. Every persona contributes. Every persona has protected airtime. No persona dominates.

III

Diagnosis, not discussion

The day succeeds when the root cause is named, the leverage actors are identified, and a small set of high-conviction interventions have leads attached to them. Not when everyone feels heard.

How we run one

  1. Ingest

    Capability specs, API definitions, market data, organisational context. The substrate the room will work over.

  2. Audit

    A brownfield surface audit. Every touchpoint, portal, internal tool. The actual architecture — not the org chart's fantasy of it.

  3. Map

    Where new capabilities can land. Where an API endpoint becomes a user-facing feature. Where a data source becomes a decision support tool. The seams.

  4. Envision

    Working prototypes. Data-driven visualisations. Interactive walkthroughs. Show what's possible before anyone has to commit.

  5. Deliver

    Enterprise documents generated from structured knowledge. White papers backed by real data. Opportunity maps grounded in actual architecture. No slide decks.

What we deliver

Surface audit reports. Opportunity maps. White papers generated from structured evidence. Workshop briefs. Surveys with results synthesised back into interactive mini-apps. Working prototypes that survive contact with reality.

What we don't deliver: hundred-page slide decks, polite executive summaries, or post-event marketing recaps. The methodology is the constant. The vertical is the variable. The output is always built to be used, not filed.

Who we are

Alec Emmons

Technical product

Architecture, prototyping, capability mapping. Reads the spec, builds the working surface, runs the technical track of the day.

Misia Tramp

Data

Research, evidence, quantitative analysis. Brings the data both sides of the tension need to stand on, and stress-tests the numbers before they leave the room.

Courtney Latta

Product marketing & communications

Enterprise messaging, deliverable quality, client perception. Turns a room's worth of decisions into documents that survive contact with a procurement office.

How we work with others

A micro agency by design. We fold into larger consulting engagements as a specialised capability — reading the spec, envisioning the user experience, backing it with data. We co-facilitate with respected partners and prefer working alongside, not in front of.

Think. Chatham House. Cocktails.

hello@thinkshop.co