Humanise

What Humanise does

Humanise is a UK-based, founder-led B2B consultancy specialising in human-centred consumer insight, strategy, and storytelling. Its core offering is qualitative and ethnographic research — in-home immersion, contextual observation, qualitative interviewing — delivered alongside a proprietary research community called The Family Panel, comprising over 40,000 UK families (parents, grandparents, children aged 0-18, teachers, students, young professionals, and retirees) recruited in real-world settings rather than from databases. The company translates these insights into strategy artefacts (portraits, empathy maps, journey maps, positioning) and into narrative communications via its 'insight-powered storytelling' practice and a training workshop product.

The business is delivered through three service pillars (Insight, Strategy, Storytelling), a workshop training line, an in-house POV thought-leadership content hub, and a bi-weekly newsletter. Humanise generates revenue via bespoke, quote-based project engagements with enterprise clients across FMCG (Heinz, PepsiCo, Soreen), media (Bauer, BBC, Warner Music), retail (Morrisons, Dote, Bruntwood), toys (Hasbro), airlines (Aegean), and charity (Save the Children). Distribution is purely direct B2B, with new business sourced through founder-led outreach, referrals, content marketing, and a relationship-driven sales motion anchored on direct email to the two co-founders.

The firm is privately held with two named principals (Lynne Barcoe, Founder, ex-marketing, who launched the precursor MumPanel in 2007; Paul Coleman, Co-founder, BAFTA-winning writer of Peter Kay's Car Share) and a small core team supplemented by a wider researcher network. No external funding, parent company, or institutional backing is disclosed, and the operating model is bootstrapped and founder-billable.

Name

Humanise

Website

https://humanisehq.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Humanise is a UK-based, founder-led B2B consultancy delivering qualitative consumer insight, insight-driven strategy, and insight-powered storytelling to enterprise brands via ethnographic research and a proprietary 40,000+ Family Panel community.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Consumer Insight & Strategy Consulting

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)

SIC

Services-Advertising Agencies (7311)

akta.pro primary industry

Qualitative Research (Focus Groups, IDIs, Ethnography) (MPAAALAE)

Keywords

• Consumer insight research
• Ethnographic research
• Qualitative research consultancy
• Brand strategy consulting
• Storytelling workshops

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Research and Insight Consulting: Humanise generates revenue through bespoke qualitative research and insight engagements. Services span ethnographic research, qualitative interviewing, contextual observation, strategy development, and storytelling workshops. Projects are tailored to client needs and billed accordingly. No public pricing is listed; engagements appear to be quote-based project work.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Humanise is a UK-based B2B consultancy that delivers human-led qualitative consumer insight, insight-driven strategy, and insight-powered storytelling for global brands. The firm conducts ethnographic and contextual research using its proprietary 40,000+ Family Panel, translates findings into actionable brand and innovation strategy, and converts insights into memorable narratives for organisational communication. Services are sold as bespoke, quote-based engagements to enterprise clients across FMCG, retail, media, food & beverage, charity, and airline sectors.

Product overview

Humanise is a human insight and strategy consultancy offering a three-pillar service model: Human-Led Insight (qualitative, ethnographic, and contextual research), Insight-Driven Strategy (translating truths into actionable direction), and Insight-Powered Storytelling (narrative translation of insights). These are complemented by The Power of Human Storytelling Workshop (training), The Family Panel (a 40,000+ UK family research community), POV content hub (thought leadership articles), and a bi-weekly newsletter. The company specializes in uncovering 'below the meniscus' human truths that drive real behaviour and decision-making, positioning human perspective as the differentiator in an AI-driven world.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Human-Led Insight Qualitative research service covering expression (interviews, focus groups, community conversations), ethnographic immersion (in-situ research and real-life observation), and contextual observation (accompanied shops, in-home testing), designed to uncover human truths below surface-level responses for global consumer brands.
• Insight-Driven Strategy Translates human truths into clear, actionable direction through human portraits, empathy mapping, journey mapping, innovation workshops, and positioning development that enables client teams to align and act.
• Insight-Powered Storytelling Translates complex insights into memorable stories that travel across organisations, from leadership decks to frontline training, building empathy and fueling momentum through narrative.
• The Power of Human Storytelling Workshop Interactive workshop teaching storytelling techniques to help leaders, managers and teams communicate with real human impact, make ideas memorable, and build stronger team bonds.
• The Family Panel A proprietary community of over 40,000 UK families — including parents, grandparents, children (0–18), teachers, students, young professionals, and retirees — recruited in the real world rather than from databases, providing ongoing consumer insight and research depth across methodologies.

Quantifiable outcome

• Facts told through stories are up to 22 times more likely to be remembered than facts presented without narrative structure.

Named customers10 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Stripe Partners: London-based strategic insight consultancy specialising in qualitative research and ethnographic methods. Highly comparable in methodology, size and enterprise client base.
• Crowd DNA: Cultural insight and consumer research agency with strong qualitative and ethnographic capabilities. Comparable for its global brand client base and focus on translating insight into strategy.
• Flamingo: Qualitative-led insight and brand strategy consultancy (part of IPG Mediabrands). Comparable for its focus on human truth, cultural insight and strategic translation of qualitative research for global brands.
• Canvas8: Cultural and consumer insights platform producing qualitative-style behavioural content for enterprise clients. Comparable in its emphasis on translating human truth into strategic insight.
• The Nursery: Consumer insight and innovation consultancy producing ethnographic and qualitative insight for global brands. Comparable in service mix and target customer profile.
• Human8: Global insight consultancy (formerly InSites Consulting) combining qualitative research, communities and strategy. Comparable in human-centred insight positioning and enterprise client base, but at much larger scale.
• The Behavioural Architects: Behavioural insights consultancy combining qualitative research with behavioural science for major brands. Comparable in methodology, target customers and reliance on founder-led expertise.
• Sense Worldwide: Insight-led innovation consultancy applying ethnographic and qualitative methods to brand and innovation challenges. Directly comparable service offering and customer segment.
• ?What If!: Innovation consultancy (now part of Accenture Song) where co-founder Paul Coleman previously worked. Highly comparable as a qualitative-and-creativity-led consultancy serving global brands.
• Hall & Partners: Global brand and cultural insight consultancy offering qualitative and quantitative research for major consumer brands. Closely comparable as a mid-sized insight firm competing for the same enterprise qualitative work.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/humanisethinklikeacustomer

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 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 Humanise