Category: Article

This year, PinPoint decided to change things up. Instead of sending PinPoint swag out into the world, where it might likely end up in a drawer or landfill, we knew we could do better. We started PinPoint to make a positive impact in the world and it’s because of our friends, our family and the change makers who choose to work with us that we are able to do that day in and day out.

So this year, we chose to donate $2,022 towards non-profit communities that matter to the communities who make PinPoint… well PinPoint! On Monday, December 19th, we asked our community to tag a non-profit that mattered to them on our Instagram. The response was overwhelming! By the end of the day, we had 29 organizations tagged and we were able to divide the $2,022 pool amongst – donating on behalf of the person who tagged + PinPoint.

Some of the organizations are also near and dear to PinPoint, but there were many others we are learning about for the first time and beyond grateful for! Below is the list of all the non-profits PinPoint contributed to for our 2022 holiday gift. We hope you take a minute to parse through each organization – we hope you, too, are amazed by the contributions these non-profits are making in the world.

Art for All Homes – We bring original art to everyone regardless of resources.
Betsy’s Blankets – We collect new blankets and bedding to provide warmth to those who need it most.
Birth Center Equity – Growing and sustaining community birth infrastructures to improve maternal health outcomes in our communities.
Birth Detroit – Midwifing safe, quality, loving care through pregnancy, birth, and beyond.
Camp Young Judaea Midwest – Our beautiful lakefront facility in central Wisconsin provides the opportunity to explore, take on new challenges and make friendships that last a lifetime.
Chicago Abortion Fund – We fund abortion & build power in Illinois and the Midwest.
Chicago Fair Trade – Fair trade is an alternative business model that focuses on the triple bottom line: people, the planet, and profits.
City of Refuge Chicago – We exist to bring light, hope, and transformation to individuals and families on the west side of Chicago.
CO/LAB Theater Group – We are a nonprofit that provides individuals with developmental disabilities a creative & social outlet through theater arts.
Culinary Care – We’re using the power of food and compassion to help people survive cancer.
DAIS (Domestic Abuse Intervention Services) – We empower those affected by domestic violence and advocate for social change through support, education, and outreach.
Digs With Dignity – We elevate the lives of those transitioning from homelessness in Chicago by providing them with a comfortable, dignified home.
Equality Illinois – Equality Illinois is the state’s largest LGBTQ civil rights advocacy organization.
Feeding America – We are a network of 200+ food banks, on a mission to #EndHunger in communities nationwide.
Feeding People Through Plants – Feeding people with hope, human connection, and empowerment, one orange ⛺️ at a time.
Girls on the Run – We support the next generation of women using the power of play! Our programs nurture the physical and social-emotional health of girls in 3rd-8th.
Kheprw Institute – We are a community organization focused on youth empowerment and building community wealth.
Mercy Home for Boys & Girls – Help us end the cycle of abuse and poverty.
Midwest Young Artists Conservatory – Building a home with the power of music since 1993! 🎶❤️🎻 Orchestra, chamber, jazz, choral & early childhood education.
National Birth Equity Collab – Optimizing Black maternal, infant, sexual, & reproductive wellbeing.
National Network of Abortion Funds – Grassroots network building power to remove financial, logistical, cultural & political barriers to abortion.
Natural Resources Defense Council – We work to safeguard the earth – its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.
NIVA – NIVA’s mission is to preserve and nurture the ecosystem of independent venues and promoters throughout the US.
Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance – We are the largest global organization advancing ovarian cancer research while supporting women and their families.
Rogers Park Business Alliance – We cultivate and sustain a thriving economic environment in Rogers Park, serving businesses and residents.
SAGE – We are the world’s largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of LGBTQ+ elders.
True Trauma Center – We increase access to affordable trauma-focused, evidence-based therapy, and prevention.
World Central Kitchen – WCK is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises.
Young New Yorkers – Transforming the criminal legal system through the creative voices of young New Yorkers.

Thank you to all the people in our network for joining in on this year’s gift to the world. We appreciate you & cannot wait to see what this year brings, together. Cheers to a successful 2022 and an even more impactful 2023!

For Giving Us The Best Year of our Lives

Is it just us, or did 2022 fly by at hyper speed!? It’s hard to believe we’re entering the last month of the year, and of course that means time for reflection. About this time every year, we start to look back on the people, the projects, and the changemakers we are so fortunate to learn from and evolve with. This year is no different… well, we take that back. It was different in that this year, we worked on more projects and more clients that align with PinPoint’s values than ever before. And for that, we are so proud.

So we thought we would take a brief pause in our normal programming to share who some of those changemaker clients have been and why their work has made such an impact. To all of our clients – thank you for caring enough about your audience or your internal teams to listen to their needs and make changes for the better.

Brilliantly

The Ah-Ha: Brilliantly Warm was originally designed for women post-mastectomy as a way to help regulate body temperature discreetly. Our original research in 2021 not only validated its benefit with these women, but shed light on its ability to impact women in other life stages, especially new mothers.

The Impact: 92% of new moms struggle with breastfeeding just three days after giving birth. And one of the most common pieces of advice is to stand under a hot shower for several minutes. Sure sure, you know what’s nearly impossible as a new mom – taking a several minute long hot shower in the middle of the day while you’re out running errands with your newborn (or so we learned!). So what’s next? Co-creating an evolution of Brilliantly’s product to best support new mom’s differently than post-mastectomy women. Grateful to Founder Kristen and her team for paying attention to the evolving needs of women and evolving the FemTech landscape.

Trust20

The Ah-Ha: Trust20 came on the market to give restaurant owners and their workers a more inclusive and intuitive training process on the topics they need most (and by law!). But Trust20 also saw an opportunity to deliver content that would make an impact in the restaurant go-ers lives, too – especially those suffering from food allergies.

The Impact: 32 million Americans, or 1 in 10 adults, have food allergies. And it turns out, the majority of them find eating out especially challenging – that’s a lot of people! We did what we do best and started listening. We walked in their shoes as a restaurant guest, understanding what it really takes to select a restaurant, communicate with staff, and manage their allergies on site. Fun fact – it’s not fun. But our learnings directly helped Trust20 develop a new training process using real life examples and tools for restaurants to build confidence with guests before they even arrive at the hostess stand.

Airbnb

The Ah-Ha: As many companies found a need to evolve their organization in a post-Covid reality, Airbnb’s Environments Team did as well. Their team’s unique skill set as architects, strategists and hospitality leaders meant they had the ability to show up for the company in a way it never had prior and support internal departments with needs that, three years ago, didn’t exist.

The Impact: In a company of 6,000+ employees, The Environments Team did what many leaders and organizations ought to – they decided to listen to those employees. And trust us, it’s not easy to approach your co-workers and ask them what you could be/should be doing better without some level of politeness or politics getting in the way – so we were fortunate to do it for them. Through those internal interviews, we identified a new sweet spot for the team that 1. aligns with Airbnb’s future vision, 2. supports several tangential teams and 3. enables their own team to do the work they love. Which, as employees continue to seek personal value and purpose in their work – this type of changemaking is needed more than ever.

Ramova Theater

The Ah-Ha: This one hits close to home, literally. An abandoned movie theater sat vacant for decades, disintegrating before the eyes of its Chicago neighbors until Our Revival Chicago and Baum Revision decided to do something about it. What they didn’t want to do was come in and gentrify one of Chicago’s most diverse neighborhoods, but they did want to offer something special to music goers and their neighbors alike.

The Impact: In a metro area with nearly 9 million people, of which 26% are GenZ who make purchases based on how a brand addresses environmental sustainability, inclusion and other social issues, amid a neighborhood with the highest diversity rate – The Ramova had a major opportunity to stand for something different and they knew it. We went out and talked to that 26% to uncover what ‘sustainability’, ‘inclusion’ and ‘society’ meant to them. What came of that research was a brand identity unlike any other music venue in the city of Chicago – one that not just respects, but enables diversity, equity and inclusion internally and out.

To say we are grateful, joyous, and honored to be part of the impacts above would truly be an understatement. There are no words that quite express our team’s appreciation for what these leaders stand for, the impact they are making, and their willingness to include our team in the process. All of our claps go to these clients and the many others in our PinPoint family for being the changemakers you are. Thank you for empowering and encouraging our team to do the same. If you or someone you know is a changemaker like the ones above and are in need of a crew that aligns with your values to make change in the world, please reach out! We can’t wait to see what 2023 has in store.

So… leaders do something about it

We don’t know about you all, but if we had a dollar for everytime someone mentioned needing to ‘figure out GenZ’ lately, we’d be ready to retire. Obviously, so much to learn about GenZ, but in the process of focusing on the shiny new generation, we seem to have forgotten about others that matter just as much, if not more. Want to know what we haven’t heard someone mention lately – needing to figure out ‘women going through menopause’. And we’re raising the flag that this is something ALL businesses need to be paying more attention to.

Let’s start with some hard facts for all the business leaders out there: “between productivity loss and healthcare costs, menopause’s global economic impact is estimated at over $150 billion annually.” – Quartz

Spark your interest yet? If not, maybe these will:

• 1 in 5 women have considered leaving their job or retiring early due to lack of support in their menopausal years
• 79% of women describe working during menopause as ‘challenging’
• 40% of women report taking time off work due to perimenopause or menopause symptoms
• 59% of those that took time off felt they needed to hide the reason why 

When we look back on the last decade, companies have made a lot of progress in normalizing pregnancy (although we still remember back to an early employer of ours who pointed nursing moms in the direction of glass enclosed phone booths… they resorted instead to public bathrooms). Today, many companies offer flexible working arrangements for moms-to-be, make the benefits process simple and straightforward, set up designated mother’s rooms, normalize breastfeeding, and even educate employees on the “are you pregnant” question.

All that being said, if we were to run research on whether or not business leaders are currently helping normalize menopause in the workplace, our hypothesis is that the findings would lean heavily ‘not’. And what sucks the most, of these women (55 million in the US to be specific… aka. 20.5% of the entire US workforce), who are forced to experience the data points above, they are quite often the ones taking on the most challenging projects or advancing into top leadership positions at this stage in their careers.

Companies, you have a moment, right now, to do something about this.

Don’t lose these women – perhaps your most valuable women – because facts are facts and there is a decent chance they are feeling unsupported, considering leaving, or even retiring early. So what do you do? Well, the first step is to listen. Every workplace has a culture, defined in great part because of its employees, so give them a seat at the table. Listen to their experience. Give them space to co-create ideas with you. And then put those concepts into action. We’ll help you get started in the brainstorm:

• How might you ensure women in midlife are included and supported directly through benefit offerings?
• How might you normalize menopause like we continue to do with pregnancy?
• How might you treat the whole human during menopause, not just the employee?
• How might your inclusivity efforts address women in their menopausal years?
• How might you leverage digital health services to support?

Now we’re curious – have any of you out there looked into supporting midlife women in your workplace or on your teams? Have you implemented strategies to support their menopausal needs? Or maybe you’ve just had the first discussion on the topic (to which, we applaud you!). Please reach out, let us know what you’ve been thinking about, or perhaps haven’t thought about. We at PinPoint are here to support this growing population and normalize their health and their lives in a way that matters. We sure hope you are, too.

What we can learn, and do, from staggering facts

This past September 8th marked Mother’s Equal Pay Day… say what? Well get ready to be even more perplexed. September 8th marks how far into the year mothers must work to earn what fathers did last year alone. Yes, jaw-dropping.

At this point, we all know facts around the gender pay gap (women on average make 83 cents on every dollar a man makes), but that gap widens when a woman is also a mother. On average, mothers make 74 cents to every dollar a man earns. Even more staggering… Black mothers make an average of 52 cents to every dollar compared to white fathers, Native American mothers 50 cents and Latina mothers 46 cents. (Forbes) 

At PinPoint, we’re all about the data points and unfortunately they keep getting more intense. Those cent per dollar ratios only account for mothers working full time, year round, outside the home. But the reality is, women are still down 427,000 jobs in the labor force compared to pre-pandemic. And those facts above don’t include mothers who lost their jobs or switched to part-time work when schools shut down.

Before the pandemic, Mother’s Equal Pay Day fell on May 5th. In 2022, Mother’s Equal Pay Day fell on September 8th. This. Is. A. ****ing. Problem.

As a company whose entire mission is to bring a voice to underrepresented communities, these facts are what get us up on our worst days. Why? Because it proves working mothers are not being heard and they deserve a seat at the table.

You most often hear us talk about design thinking and equity-centered innovation used to impact customers, but perhaps more important than ever, this type of research and innovation needs to be applied internally, to employees. We feel honored to work with a handful of companies who have already cared enough to take the time and listen to their underrepresented employees (shout out to the American Dental Association, National Restaurant Association, and Byline Bank). And if you’ve read this far, we hope you care enough to do the same.

If so, please take a moment before heading off to enjoy your weekend and read up on some of the few resources we compiled below. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

• Marshall Plan for Moms – a national movement to center mothers in our economic recovery from the pandemic
• Moms Deserve More Flower Store – selling bouquets that close the pay gap… genius!
• National Women’s Law Center – fighting for gender justice in the courts, in public policy, and in our society
• Hey Mirza – a childcare subsidy for employers
• Research Voices – PinPoint is always looking to grow our database of underrepresented voices to solve challenges through dialogue, please join

If you, or anyone you know, is ready to listen to the underrepresented voices on your teams, please share these facts, these resources, and reach out if there is any way we can help you get started down the right path. PinPoint is, and always has been, committed to empowering the voices of those who deserve to be heard. If there’s a chance to support others out there committed to doing the same, sign us up. Let us please change these facts, for the better, together.

A long awaited intro to… Shared Voices!

Since day one of PinPoint, a core tenant of our process has been walking in the shoes of others (hence the feet photos all over our website) because every unique perspective starts with a unique stance. Because of that, our Become Your Audience Pin has turned out to be one of our core pins when we need to learn from a firsthand perspective. We use this pin to uncover pain points and with that information, determine how our client’s offerings need to evolve so that their business transforms those pain points into high points.

Over the last few months, we’ve been working to determine how we might offer a mini-version of this Pin to the masses. So we did what we do best, applied design thinking to design thinking, and voila!, out of that process came Shared Voices! To put it simply, imagine if multiple ‘Become Your Audience Pins’ married a Kickstarter campaign and had the most magical little baby!! Or in more tactical words, we cracked the code on crowdsourcing customized research – and for a fraction of a Pin cost!

How exactly does this work?

Great question! Well, we heard you loud and clear that trend reports have given you nothing more than useless data points, so our goal is to let you (and at least 15 other like-minded business leaders) craft what the inputs and outputs become. You’ll sit down with one of our Research Strategists to share what you’ve always wanted to know about your customers (scroll a little further to see just who we’ll be talking to first!). This Listening Session will be focused on identifying the types of research insights that would be most impactful for you.

Then comes the customization! We will develop a research protocol that incorporates the goals of you and your like-minded ‘research backers’ so that the questions, conversations and learnings we get out of our qualitative research gives you the answers you need… not just what you hope you’ll find in a typical cookie-cutter trend report. Bonus… you also get one of our favorite things – the power of mindshare! The questions you don’t think of, another anonymous ‘research backer’ likely has, and you all get the answers together!

We’ll do all the research, the robust synthesis, the strategy behind identifying potential opportunities – and you just sit back and wait for all that goodness to roll in. At the start of the next quarter, our findings will be delivered not only in a PDF, but also a personalized video made just for you and your team highlighting how the research is specifically actionable for your organization. 

So who are you talking to?

If we’ve learned anything these past four years, it’s that there’s quite the variance in people’s needs – be it their generation, age, gender, regionality. So for this inaugural issue, we are slicing the pie to look squarely at GenZ women with purchasing power in the top four metro areas – New York City, LA, Chicago, and Houston. Why? Because 1. we’ve gotten more requests for GenZ research than ever. Move over Millennials there’s a new sheriff in town. 2. Women are a core focus to PinPoint’s mission and deserve a voice at the table – especially now. 3. GenZ is the largest generation in American history – ranging from 9-24 year olds, and we want to focus on just those who have the $$$$ to spend.

This will be the first of many Shared Voices – so if you have another slice of customers you’re curious about, let us know here!

Who exactly is this research intended for?

Y’all are so smart with these questions! This inaugural issue is ideal for B2C companies who are selling a product and looking to gain traction with 18-24 year old women. If that’s you, and you love the power of mindshare, get on it! We know there are way more than 16 of you out there, so strike while the iron is hot!We are selling 16 slots between now and August 1st. If you or someone you know is interested, take a look at the new addition to our website OR reach out for a chat. We cannot wait to build a better future – together!

Choosing our favorite kind of client is like choosing a favorite kid.

We just recently stopped by Loyola University’s Quinlan School of Business (shout out to Stacy Neier Beran for inviting us – thank you, thank you, thank you!) where we left beyond inspired by Stacy’s Design Thinking students. Sure sure, the original goal might have been that we were there to inspire them, but we walked out the doors that day with a slightly different perspective on our work.

You’ve probably heard us talk about the ‘oh no’ and ‘a ha’ moments our clients come to us with (if not… well then!), but that day in class, an inquisitive student asked us which one of those states we desire to work in more. At first, the question took us by surprise, almost like asking which kid is your favorite, but it got us thinking. Do we have a preference? 

What We Love About an ‘A Ha’

Who doesn’t love when someone knocks on their door with a brilliant idea and asks if they want to be a part of it!? We for one have all hands raised on this one. We get introduced to so many incredibly smart and talented humans who are in the ‘a ha’ moment of their business – whether they have the next big product idea, received capital for the next phase or, like in the case of our work with Brilliantly, a desire to evolve with the biggest impact first.

What we love about an ‘a ha’ moment is that our clients come to us already at a ‘woohoo’ mindset on the scale of doom & gloom to excitement – and we feed off that energy! We love validating or refining someone’s genius to make it ‘ingenious’, but with an ‘a ha’, we also have to recognize it feels to them like it’s their baby. And sometimes what we learn when we bring that idea out into the world is that it isn’t needed, or won’t be successful in the way it was originally envisioned.

We did a quick exercise looking at all of our ‘a ha’ clients from PinPoint’s past, and of those, almost 47% of the ‘a ha’ ideas we’ve worked on would have failed if executed before listening to their audience. It’s never easy to tell someone their baby won’t thrive, but we’d be worse partners if we pretended it would and watch it flounder later. That being said, of the almost 47% we had to confront with not-so-great information, all of them did something about it and refined their offering so that 100% of them have come out the other side with revenue, impact and sales growth. Oh the ups and downs of an ‘a ha’…

What We Love About an ‘Oh No’

We’ve seen a lot of ‘oh no’s, especially since March of 2020. Everything from companies coming to us because of a drastic loss in sales to others fearing the end is near, or, like in the case of our latest work with Carbon Arc, knowing they were missing opportunities to better serve and connect with the community, but not knowing how.

We get it, no one wants to label themselves in an ‘oh no’ moment, especially when it comes to business, but sometimes this is the most exciting and pivotal moment for a company. Truth be told, if we could wave a magic wand and grant every business owner/manager a life without ‘oh no’s, we wouldn’t! 

What we love about an ‘oh no’, for better or worse, is that when in that dark business cloud appears, there’s not only a desire for change, but a need for change. We did another quick exercise looking at all of our ‘oh no’ clients over the years and 95% of them landed in that dark spot because they became too insular – looking inside the business for answers instead of out. When we show up and flip the whole process on its head by going outside the business to find solutions, more often than not our ‘oh no’ clients are the most eager to jump with us. And truth be told, who doesn’t love it when you get a new friend to dive into your favorite process in the world with!? 

In that 92% of ‘oh no’ clients we’ve helped look outside their comfort zone, 100% of them come out the other side with more loyalty, more customers or more sales. And that’s why we love an ‘oh no’ moment, there is power in recognizing the reality of where you are at that very moment, and being brave enough to shift it.

What’s Your Favorite?

So now we’re going to be that inquisitive student and ask the question right back to you – between an ‘a ha’ and an ‘oh no’, what do you prefer? Maybe you experienced it either in business, maybe in life, maybe while crafting your own set of Bernie Sanders’s inauguration-day mittens during Covid. Wherever you were, whatever you were doing, we want to hear from you because the more we know, the more we grow (yep, we’re that cheesy) – grab a coffee and let’s chat!

Why we use quantitative research and what it even means.

For those of you who have worked with us, or talked with us, or maybe just follow us on Instagram, you probably know we’re fans of data. We love a good number, we are inspired by stats and we find facts, well, fascinating. But truth be told, we weren’t always this way.

Back in the day, we were solely ethnographic researchers meaning we listened not to numbers, but to people. Don’t worry, we absolutely still listen to people, but when that was our only means for research, we found ourselves in a guessing game wondering if we were even talking to the right people. In the pre-PinPoint days, we would sit around a table and make assumptions about who we thought our client’s audience was. 

The thing is, sometimes our guestimates were spot on, but there were many other times when they were not. One in particular stands out – a restaurant chain who was looking to better understand their guests in order to evolve their menu, their service and of course grow their ROI. Problem was, when researchers & leadership guestimated their target audience to be ‘middle-aged families’ who they claimed to see most often in their restaurant, the research resulted in less than enticing results with little-to-no actionable steps. What was completely missed were the customers not seen inside their walls – those who ordered online and even more so, those who weren’t even customers yet!

Seeing that misalignment over and over got us thinking there had to be a better way to recruit research participants for qualitative insights. We were fortunate enough to work alongside a data analytics company previous to PinPoint who taught us the power of numbers. That experience led us to define our own PinPoint process where we now start every project with quantitative data (aka. the numbers – % of demographics, $X spent) to guide our qualitative insights (aka. why are they spending $X and what were the decisions that led to it).

Now, we’re not the Neilsen’s or McKinsey’s of the world, nor will we ever claim to be. And quite honestly, we don’t intend to work with the companies who can afford those large dollar partners (we’re pretty over making the Fortunes more fortunes!). So while we’re not the specific individuals out there doing deep data scrubs of credit card purchases or internet usage or census results, we do have access to elements of those scrubs and with that access comes a heck of a lot more knowledge than we ever used to have. 

Our data spans from dollars spent by zip code to generational preferences to industry-specific purchasing behaviors. This is the type of data that allows us to paint a much more intelligent picture of current & future customers – a recipe card per say for recruiting people to tell us what the numbers don’t say (aka. what is provoking 41% of adults aged 30-59 to increase the number of days they drank heavily in 2021 – lots to unpack there!).

At the end of the day, our goal is to give companies who care enough about their community access to that community. We intend to leave this world a more equitable place than the way we found it. Our belief is: through data we become more informed – creating understanding and empathy, and with empathy comes change. That is what drives us and what led us to our Pin Process – guaranteeing a deeper, more factual, more empathic understanding of who you serve and how to serve them better… without the unattainable price tag! 

On a mission to better serve your community? Ever wondered how to find the right people to talk to before making a big investment? Just want to hear more absurd facts like ‘more than 80% of gamers eat while playing’? We got your back – grab a coffee and let’s chat.​​

Reflecting on our purpose

The end of one year and the start of the next is always a prime moment for reflection. I know you’re going to be shocked when we say this, but we were no exception to the reflection jam! During the last three weeks, we took some serious time to look back on our Founders story, why we started PinPoint in the first place, how our work to date laddered up to that vision, and began projecting on how to more thoughtfully execute our purpose in our everyday actions.

Since there are a few new faces in the crowd, here’s a brief review of how PinPoint came to be:

Faith – an actor who spent more than half of her life “walking in other people’s shoes”- ran into Stacy – a recovering architect wanting to design for people over ego – at one of the most prominent human-centered research & design agencies in Chicago. Together, they followed each other around for upwards of ten years until they realized they could – and should – do more than grow the fortunes of Fortune 500s. 

As Faith describes it, they locked themselves in a room only allowing themselves to apply human-centered design methods TO the human-centered design field until…. TADA! PinPoint was born. And with it came a new purpose. By (their) definition, human-centered design is the process of listening so deeply to the people you are creating for, that you have no other choice than to design with empathy vs. ego. That’s what PinPoint was made for – as a means to approach people as individuals and incorporate underrepresented voices into the design process so their context and needs could directly influence businesses that cared to listen.

Fast forward, PinPoint is nearly 3.5 years old and during this time of reflection as 2022 kicks itself off, we once again locked ourselves in a room (this time, it was a magical cabin in the woods of Wisconsin with our business coach) and took a long, hard look at ourselves in the mirror. What we learned was that since PinPoint’s initial days, we had both honed our purpose, but also steered away from it. We let ourselves get excited by some shiny objects that didn’t necessarily align with our ‘why’. And at the same time, we have found dynamic words to finally articulate what our ‘why’ is. 

Perhaps the greatest gift coming out of that blustery cold cabin was finally writing on paper PinPoint’s purpose and values. No longer are they strewing about in our heads, but rather they are the north stars our co-founders, our team, our clients and even our research participants can strive for. We promise over this next year to share all of our values with you in detail, but until then we’ll leave you with our purpose. 

We, PinPoint, are on a mission to create more inclusive communities.
And we promise to shape a better future with great research that incorporates underrepresented voices who deserve to be heard.

We hope you share that mission. We hope you signed up to receive these tidbits because of that. And we also hope you find your own purpose and values that drive you day in and day out. Whether or not you share ours, know someone who does, or need help to define your own, we’re always down for a coffee talk. We hope you join us.

Collective giving, the PinPoint way

As you can tell from our letter above, this past week we were given the rare moment to reflect on just how thankful we are for all the guidance, trust and cheerleading that our support network has generously provided to us on the daily. We hope that you and yours were also gifted a moment to pause and be present with one another. We don’t know about you, but when given the space to truly reflect, recognize and absorb all of that appreciation – we find we have so much more clarity about what really matters. It fuels this deep need to want to give back to others. 

So with that in mind, we will take a different approach to our typical newsletter. This month we will keep our PinPoint Post brief, we will refrain from speaking to our silly donut obsession, and most importantly we will change this from a one way communication channel to a powerful call to action.  

As a way to reimagine the ‘traditional’ holiday client gift, PinPoint will be supporting GirlForward, a Chicago-based non-profit dedicated to creating and enhancing opportunities for girls who have been displaced globally by conflict and persecution. PinPoint will be giving in-kind donations via this wish list we curated from recommendations shared by the organization. Our Collective will come together to wrap and drop off all gifts collected by December 20th, 2021.

PinPoint will be donating on behalf of ourselves and our Collective. However, we would be grateful for your support. Simply select an item from the list you would like to donate, check out, and all gifts will arrive at PinPoint’s studio to be hand wrapped and delivered to GirlForward in time for Christmas. Something not on the list that you would like to donate? Simply send it to our studio at 3717 N Ravenswood Ave Suite 208, Chicago IL 60613. We appreciate your support, thank you. 

Want to inspire us by talking about what community or causes align with your mission? Want to make space to just pause and reflect to find things we appreciate together? Then let’s chat and find ways to show others some well-deserved support, empathy and inspiration.

Design with diversity, for diversity

Since the conception of PinPoint, we have prided ourselves on being a company ever evolving. None of this “signed, sealed and delivered” attitude (*although we love a great Stevie Wonder jam*), but rather embrace and appreciate that everything from our process to our team to the space we work in are, and should be, ever evolving.

We would be lying if we said this perspective wasn’t tiring, or many times, overwhelming. But in all honesty, most of the time it’s enlightening, inspiring and fueling. One of the core themes we have discussed at length with one another, fellow colleagues, and our Collective is around the definition and methodology of ‘human-centered design’. Besides the convoluted issues that come when a phrase such as “human-centered design” finds itself on the ol’list of buzzwords, we also believed there was a better way to express what it is we do, and more importantly believe in. 

Over time, we’ve been able to put words to our beliefs. Most importantly, we can now communicate what resonates and what doesn’t resonate with the phrase ‘human-centered design’.
 

• Typically, ‘human-centered design’ refers to humans as ‘users’. We don’t know about you, but we don’t walk around the world saying we’re ‘users’. Instead, we’re ‘people’, ‘community members’, ‘part of a larger audience’ – that needs to be refined.
• ‘Human-centered design’ has always, will always, advocate for a ‘nothing about us without us’ methodology. No policy should be decided by representatives without the full and direct participation of the members it affects – HELL YES. But…
• Oftentimes, ‘human-centered design’ allows researchers and strategists to put themselves at the center of understanding. Yes, we may in fact be ‘a human’ that is part of the community we’re researching, but it’s important to hold ourselves accountable to look beyond our own lived experiences and approach every problem objectively. Otherwise, we prioritize our own biases and that’s unfair to the community we’re serving. 
• Last but not least, one of the core tenants of ‘human-centered design’ is to empower iteration – nothing is precious. HCD encourages participants to prototype, break ideas and come up with crazy new ones. But too often, those learnings remain tribal knowledge and processes remain static. Screw that – the more we share, the more we learn, and the more iterative our processes become, the better we can serve the communities we value most.
   

For example sake, the following is a small sampling of statements that come directly from our Code Of Ethics. Every one of our employees and Collective members signs and agrees to these ethical guidelines designed to advance the quality of our organization. They are meant to provide general principles in which we will all stand for both individually and collectively:

Know our audience.
As impactful designers, in order to know whether we are solving the right problems, we need to meet the people who are having them. We strive to ensure those people are represented. The more we can reflect the audience we are designing for, the more thoroughly we can solve the actual problems they have. We will come at a problem from different points-of-view, from different backgrounds, from different sets of needs and experiences. That is the only way we will design meaningful and impactful solutions for our world.

Beyond the middle.
For years, people who weren’t in the majority were called ‘edge cases’ and marginalized. By subtracting the needs and opinions of those ‘edge cases’, we are making a decision that those people aren’t worth solving for. When we call someone an ‘edge case’, we’re defining the limits of what we care about. This can come in the form of immigrants who want to open a bank account and can’t get paperwork in their native language. This impacts the person in a wheel-chair who can not serve themselves at a buffet. This impacts gender fluid people who have no appropriate box to check on forms when applying for most anything. They are not ‘edge cases’. They are human beings and we owe them our best work.

After 3.5 years of the realizations above, it occurred to us that perhaps we needed new verbiage to accurately represent our approach beyond ‘human-centered design’. So with that in mind, we are proud to introduce our appreciation and adoption of….(*cue drumroll please*)…. Equity-Centered Innovation!

That’s nice, ladies (you might be thinking) but what exactly do you mean by that? Well, great question! Whereas equality means treating everyone the same, equity means providing everyone with what they need to have the same chance at success – and that only happens when we approach people as individuals and amplify their voices. As we learned above, it’s no longer enough for executives to sit around a boardroom making decisions based on what they ‘THINK people want.’ That’s what we’re here to change. Equity-centered innovation advances underrepresented audiences by incorporating their voices into the design process, allowing their voices, context, and needs to directly influence goals and outcomes that they ACTUALLY need.   

Motivated by the evolved movement? Ready to learn and collaborate with your audience to be confident they have seats at your table? Let’s chat over a donut of course about your audience, your understanding of their existing needs, the solutions you have already provided and, like us, where you want to continue to evolve your business!