The Difference Engine has relaunched with a new team, and renewed focus on helping companies improve their existing products, services, and customer experiences, and on helping companies identify opportunities for innovation and organizational change.

2. We’re an insight-driven,
product strategy company

3. We help businesses use
experiments to develop insight
About who your customers are, what they need,
and why they need it.
!
We transform customer intimacy into a tangible,
renewable business asset.
!
We work towards a strategy, not back from one.
!
And then we set you up to succeed.

5. “How do
we equip our
people to sustain
innovation?”
“Something isn’t
going right. How do
we diagnose the real
problem - and then
how do we cure
it?”
Small questions lead
to big opportunities
We work with businesses who need:
!
“How should
we optimize our
products &
services?”
OPPORTUNITIES TO IMPROVE OPPORTUNITIES TO INNOVATE
“How do we
improve the
customer’s
experience?”
“How can
we innovate -
without jeopardizing
our existing
business?”“We are
stagnating. Where
will growth come
from?”

6. How We Work

7. Case studies

8. x Silverado Senior Living
Silverado wanted to develop a new brand architecture
and marketing program. Together with our partner,
Equation Research, we determined that the real
question was what it would take to scale the brand
and the business as it grew from 5 states to 15.
We worked with Silverado, their caregivers, and their
clients, to understand the caregiver decision-making
process, develop a clear value proposition, and improve core areas of their
business and marketing.
As a result, we recommended to the Board of Directors feedback mechanisms and
incentives for at-home caregivers that would retain the best talent; street level signage
and SEO changes - critical to lead generation and content marketing; and tools, content
and methods for ‘mentoring’ family members through the decision-making process.

9. x People.com
Topics added to
the queue by
anyone on the
team
Topics evaluated by
the team for
importance & urgency
Discussion
guide created
for next week
6-7 interviews
with users, led by
the product team
Research summary of
what was learned, what
needs to be done, what
feedback is needed
The people.com product team had
the space and equipment to conduct
user research on an ongoing basis -
but needed the help to make it work.
We determined that training and
processes were needed that would
make continuous customer interaction
part of their day-to-day design process.
We trained the team to prioritize key business
decisions, translate them into questions for research,
select the right tools for discovering the answers,
engage users in dialogue and co-creation, and
share the results with the wider team.
Weekly User
Research

10. x “The Netflix of Magazines”
A media technology company, after some initial
success, was seeing slower growth. They
wanted to know what was causing customer
churn, and how to stop it.
We started by looking at two sides of this
problem - customer acquisition and customer
retention/referral.
As a product of the work we did in partnership
with Equation Research and through talking to
customers and looking at site and app analytics, we made strategic
recommendations aimed at marketing and customer acquisition, user
experience and onboarding, and customer retention and referral.

11. About us

12. Who we’ve worked with

13. Farrah Bostic,
Founder
Farrah believes that a customer-centric approach is essential to designing
innovative products and services. She created The Difference Engine to
help companies apply this approach to drive brand and business growth.
Her expertise in digital strategy and design; technology, web, and mobile
trends; mobile utility; and product and service design ensures her clients’
brands and strategies deliver a seamless experience online and off. She
has honed her expertise as an advisor to the world’s most respected
brands, including Apple, Microsoft, Disney, Samsung and UPS.
She has been a copywriter, digital creative director, group planning
director, brand strategist, and innovations lead, working for some of the
most creative and strategic agencies and consultancies in the world,
including Wieden + Kennedy, TBWAChiatDay, Mad Dogs & Englishmen,
Digitas, Hall & Partners, and OTX.
farrah@thedifferenceengine.co

14. Tendayi Viki,
Innovation Consultant
Dr Tendayi Viki is an author and consultant. He holds a PhD
in Psychology and an MBA. He has expertise in helping
large enterprises develop their strategy to innovate like
startups. He has worked as a consultant for several large
organizations including Pearson, BP, GE, Whirlpool,
Tetrapak and the Department of Trade and Industry (UK).
!
He spent over 12 years in academia during which time he
taught at the University of Kent, was a Research Fellow at
Stanford University and Research Assistant at Harvard
University. Dr Viki has previously co-founded several
companies including Tasksauce and Research Innovations.
He mentors and advises startups for Rockstart Accelerator
in Amsterdam.

15. Hilary Jones,
Strategist
Hilary believes people-driven research has the potential to create a better
tomorrow by shaping consumer and brand experiences. She employs
immersive techniques to understand customer perspectives, their
interactions with technology, and their relationships with brands and
products. She strives to represent consumers in a new light and challenge
companies and brands to innovate their communications, products and
services.
Hilary brings 5 years experience as a researcher and strategist. Starting
her career at OTX/ Ipsos, she nimbly navigated the worlds of traditional
qualitative methodologies with new digital and innovative approaches.
Before joining The Difference Engine, she managed online communities
and app-based research and strategy work for Kiosk. She has worked
across categories including media, technology, healthcare, cosmetics and
food and beverages for clients including AOL, Google, Jenny Craig,
L’Oreal, PepsiCo, Reckitt Benckiser, Sony, Twitter, and Unilever.
hilary@thedifferenceengine.co

16. &
Our preferred partner for quantitative research and analytics is
Equation Research, a full service strategic research agency working
with an extensive list of fortune 1000 clients.
We have worked together on many projects, always with the same
values at heart:
• One size does not fit all - Equation believes in a tailored approach rather
than tying clients to a specific methodology or model.
• Humans aren't lab rats - Equation employs innovative interviewing methods
that reflect how people make choices in the real world.
• Business focus, not a research focus - Equation always stays focused on
business outcomes for clients.

17. rehabstudio
We partner with rehabstudio, a digital
design and production company, in a
process called Triage, a rapid research and
prototyping process for branded
experiences
and products.
The Triage process is a series of short
creative and technology sprints, where we
ideate, hack and prototype concepts, while
developing insight into the user’s needs.
The Difference Engine is able to provide
low-cost, rapid access to users for iterative
feedback on successive prototypes.

18. &
The Difference Engine and Christian Svanes Kolding work in partnership to tell stories that cultivate a deep
sense of empathy with people. We believe good storytelling is good business. We work together to create:
Branded content and documentary
Personal ways of engaging with audiences, providing context and depth in ways that thirty-second
media cannot. These can be lifestyle stories, an essays, a transmedia projects, or simply the distillation
of a moment.
Rapid prototypes, design fictions, proofs of concept
Films start conversations about specific ideas and ask “what could be?” They are often open-ended
questions that serve as ice-breakers for deeper conversations.
Case studies and process films
These capture the lessons and insights from a project while the memories are still fresh. they
communicate a company’s DNA by creating legacies of approach that can be shared by anyone
connected to the project.
Christian’s work has been presented at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of
The City of New York. His commercial projects include collaborations with clients such as IBM, Westin
Hotels, Nokia, SYPartners, Ixda and Sandbox. His films, both documentary and fiction, have been shown in
festivals across the globe.

19. How can we help?
62 1st Pl., No. 3
Brooklyn, NY 11231
+1.718.690.9291
info@thedifferenceengine.co