What Bridgeable does

Bridgeable is a Toronto-based service design consultancy founded in 2004 by Chris Ferguson, operating with a team of 51–100 employees and serving enterprise clients across Canada and the United States. The firm delivers human-centred design engagements through three core offerings: Strategic Foresight and Innovation, Customer Experience Strategy, and Organizational Capability Building, supplemented by design thinking training programs, an annual internship (Designership, currently paused for 2026), and a portfolio of proprietary frameworks and toolkits including the Universal Patient Language (UPL) co-developed with Bristol-Myers Squibb, the Adherence Continuity Framework, and the Experience Mapping Toolkit. Its core technology is methodological rather than software-based, relying on co-creation approaches, behavioural economics, design research, strategic foresight, change management, and biomedical communications applied through consultative project engagements.

The company generates revenue exclusively through professional services — project-based consulting fees determined per engagement — with a sales-led GTM motion targeting healthcare providers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, financial institutions, government agencies, and transit/mobility organizations. Notable clients include Bristol-Myers Squibb (flagship, multi-year), AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Gilead, Amgen, Astellas, TD Bank, TELUS, Swiss Re, SE Health, Sick Kids, and Horizon Health Network. The firm also develops digital platforms such as the NORC Talks Community Forum (2025), suggesting incremental productization beyond pure advisory work. Distribution is relationship-driven, leveraging thought leadership content, case studies, white papers, and referral networks rather than channel partners or volume sales.

Bridgeable is a privately held, founder-led firm with no disclosed external funding, parent company, or acquisition activity, operating as a profitable professional services business under partner-level leadership (Chris Ferguson as Founder; Katie McCormack and Mark Rose as Partners; Olivia Tischler as VP, Operations). The company has earned industry recognition including the 2017 eyeforpharma Most Valuable Patient Initiative (North American) award for UPL, and maintains ESG credentials through participation in the Science Based Targets initiative and EcoVadis sustainability ratings.

Name

Bridgeable

Legal name

Bridgeable

Website

https://bridgeable.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2004

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Bridgeable is a Toronto-based service design consultancy founded in 2004 that delivers human-centred design, strategic foresight, and capability-building engagements to enterprise clients in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and the public sector across Canada and the United States.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Toronto

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Strategic Foresight and Innovation Consulting: Project-based consulting engagements helping organizations anticipate future scenarios and develop innovation strategies through workshops, environmental scanning, and stakeholder alignment.
2. Customer Experience Strategy Services: Human-centred design engagements involving customer research, experience prototyping, and end-to-end service design for enterprise clients.
3. Organizational Capability Building: Training programs and capability embedding services to build design thinking and service design skills within client organizations.
4. Design Training Programs: Team training formats including design thinking workshops and hands-on skill development sessions for client organizations.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Bridgeable is a service design consultancy that helps enterprises—primarily in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and the public sector—design more human-centred strategies, experiences, and services. Engagements span strategic foresight and innovation, customer experience research and prototyping, organizational capability building through design thinking, and tailored team training programs. The firm also maintains proprietary frameworks and toolkits (notably Universal Patient Language, Experience Mapping Toolkit, Adherence Continuity Framework) and runs an annual Designership internship program.

Product overview

Bridgeable is a service design consultancy offering a portfolio of professional services organized around three core offerings: Strategic Foresight and Innovation, Customer Experience Strategy, and Organizational Capability Building. These are complemented by specialized training programs (Design Thinking Training with four tailored formats), the annual Designership internship program, and proprietary frameworks and toolkits including the Universal Patient Language (UPL), Experience Mapping Toolkit, Designing for Behaviour Change Toolkit, Inclusive Co-design Toolkit, Adherence Continuity Framework, and Community Health Access Toolkit. The company also developed the NORC Talks Community Forum as a virtual community platform. These offerings work together as a cohesive service ecosystem: the core offerings provide strategic and executional consultancy services, while the toolkits and frameworks serve as reusable intellectual property that can be applied across client engagements or shared publicly to advance industry practices.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Universal Patient Language (UPL): An organizational capability and set of resources developed with Bristol-Myers Squibb to help communicate complex topics to patients. Includes seven foundational principles, tools, graphic assets library, style guide, and thought starters for patient-centred communications.
• Rhythm
• Adherence Continuity Framework
• Designership

Products and services

• Strategic Foresight and Innovation A consultancy service that helps organizations anticipate future scenarios and align stakeholders around shared innovation strategies using tools such as mapping future scenarios in co-creative events, environmental scans, and resilient strategy design across multiple horizons.
• Customer Experience Strategy A service that helps organizations provide human-centred customer experiences, differentiate their offerings, and orchestrate end-to-end customer experiences through qualitative and quantitative customer insights and prototyping.
• Organizational Capability Building A service that embeds service design and design thinking methodologies into client organizations, building bespoke tactics that enable client teams to align around and deliver customer-centric visions.
• Design Thinking Training Hands-on, interactive training sessions delivered by experienced practitioners that equip employees with design thinking tools and methods to apply to real-world business challenges; offered in four tailored team training formats.
• Designership Program An annual summer internship program partnering with community organizations to engage creative problem solvers from diverse backgrounds on meaningful initiatives.
• Universal Patient Language (UPL) An organizational capability and set of resources developed with Bristol-Myers Squibb to help communicate complex healthcare topics to patients, comprising seven foundational principles supported by a graphic asset library, style guide, thought starters, and stewardship materials for patient-centred communications.
• Adherence Continuity Framework A framework consisting of five gates (Access, Education, Routine, Support, and Monitoring) designed to facilitate holistic adherence management for patients across healthcare journeys.
• Experience Mapping Toolkit A toolkit for capturing the patient/customer experience, enabling organizations to map journeys and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Designing for Behaviour Change Toolkit A toolkit that provides principles and tools for designing interventions that encourage positive behavior change across various contexts.
• Inclusive Co-design Toolkit A toolkit designed to support inclusive practices when co-designing with diverse stakeholders and communities.
• Community Health Access Toolkit A toolkit developed to support health equity by providing resources for community health access.
• NORC Talks Community Forum A virtual community platform built for the NORC Innovation Centre at University Health Network where older adults in Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities can access resources, foster connections, and share experiences related to aging-in-place initiatives.

Quantifiable outcome

• The UPL has been applied to 50+ communication projects at BMS across 6 therapeutic areas and 15 brands since 2015
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers17 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• Bristol-Myers SquibbflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Multi-year partnership to build patient-centred capabilities including the Universal Patient Language (UPL) - an organizational capability and set of resources for patient communications. Over 600 stakeholders have participated in co-creation activities.
• NORC Innovation Centre at University Health NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with NIC at UHN to develop the NORC Talks Community Forum - a virtual community platform for older adults in Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities. Bridgeable brought human-centred design expertise to create an inclusive, accessible platform for aging-in-place initiatives.
• SE HealthcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMulti-phase engagement to reimagine home care experience for older adults in Ontario, resulting in the Rhythm service design solution. The project involved co-creation with front-line PSWs, corporate staff, and clients.
• Bristol-Myers SquibbcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerReimagining the informed consent form experience for clinical trial participants through co-creation sessions applying UPL principles.
• CatalystminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Catalyst (non-profit focused on workplace equity) to run human-centred design workshops helping employers support employees with childcare responsibilities during the pandemic.
• Service Design NetworkminorOthersProfessional association member committed to promoting the practice of service design.
• MaRS Discovery DistrictminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPast partnership on various innovation projects including shared mobility in GTHA and prototyping citizen-centric access to electronic health records (BabyBundle).
• Heart and Stroke FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to enable successful launch of an innovative hypertension prevention program.
• Prosper CanadaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to help low-income families take advantage of RESP support programs.
• Credit HumanminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to co-create financial tools empowering low-to-moderate-income credit union members.
• FoodshareminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerEarly partnership to transform food experience from great food to great experience.
• Making the Shift Youth Homelessness Demonstration LabminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership on a design-based approach to youth homelessness policy development.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Method (GlobalLogic): Practitioner-led design consultancy covering experience strategy, service design, and digital product; now part of GlobalLogic, providing similar engagements to enterprise clients including healthcare and financial services.
• Livework: Service design specialist consultancy focused on creating better services and customer experiences through human-centred design — a like-for-like comparator in discipline, methodology, and consulting motion.
• Engine Service Design: UK-based service design practice within the Engine Group, focused on designing better services across financial services, healthcare, and public sector — directly comparable in methodology, sector mix, and consulting motion.
• IDEO: Global pioneer in design thinking and human-centred design, applying design research, prototyping, and service design methodologies to enterprise and healthcare clients — the most direct comparison for Bridgeable's design-led consulting model.
• Designit (WPP): Global strategic design firm with practices in service design, customer experience, and innovation strategy; comparable offerings and enterprise target buyers across healthcare and financial services.
• Frog Design (Capgemini Invent): Design and innovation consultancy operating across product, brand, and service design with Fortune 500 clients; now part of Capgemini Invent, giving it scale advantages comparable to Bridgeable's enterprise pursuits but in a much larger corporate wrapper.

Broad incumbents

• Fjord (Accenture Song): Design and innovation arm of Accenture Song, providing service design and experience strategy to large enterprises across healthcare and FS; shares Bridgeable's discipline but operates at significantly greater scale.
• McKinsey & Company: Global strategy consultancy with a dedicated design practice and large healthcare/pharma client base; competes for the same transformation engagements as Bridgeable but at much larger scale and contract size.
• Doblin (Deloitte): Deloitte's innovation and design consultancy, applying human-centred design and innovation strategy to enterprise clients; overlaps with Bridgeable's Strategic Foresight and Innovation and Customer Experience offerings from inside a Big Four platform.
• IBM Design: Enterprise design consultancy within IBM iX/Consulting, providing service design and experience strategy to large healthcare and financial services clients; a scaled incumbent with overlapping offerings.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/bridgeable
• Xx.com/bridgeable

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Bridgeable