Analytical Engine

Innovation. Design.

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Who We Are

aanalytical Engine is an Innovation and Service Design Consultancy. We have over 14 years experience engaging organizations in a design thinking process that includes business model innovation and evaluation, digital product design, and organizational culture change. The folks we work with are grappling with the complexity and speed of technological change and its impact on strategy, operations, and the necessity to innovate their impact models.  We work with social enterprise, public sector and charitable organizations motivated by impact, social innovation and positive changemaking.

Design Thinking
Strategic Foresight
Technological Change & Innovation
Coaching & Training

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"The world is increasingly confronted with complex societal challenges including poverty, crime, health issues, and an aging population. Better service design is one of the keys to improving how we address societal issues." Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer, Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

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Services

Innovation Design

We take a human-centred approach to innovating program and service delivery for impact and change.  Human-centred design starts with a deep understanding of the challenges your customers, employees, and communities share, in a discovery process that uncovers where your organizational goals and end-user needs intersect in the most desirable, feasible, and functional solution.

Strategy Development

We work with boards and leadership teams to position organizational strategy within the broader ecosystem of change and complexity.  We approach feasibility studies, business modelling, and strategy from a systemic perspective, understanding that we are all operating in a situation of great social and technological complexity.  We help diverse stakeholders come to a shared vision of their preferred future, and codesign implementation plans that will get them there.

Coaching & Training

Training, workshops, or facilitated organizational learning: We build consensus and generate engagement and buy in, so that you can tap into your most valuable resource to drive innovation efforts: your employees, stakeholders, and communities.  Sustainable innovation comes from deep, internal cultural change inside “learning organizations”.

Areas of Expertise

Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a way of approaching business problems from the outside-in.  Design Thinking is the foundation of all of the work we do, whether it be strategic business planning, innovation design, or shifting company culture.

Foresight

We approach research from a foresight and scenario planning perspective: we are always scanning for signals and trends relevant to the future of innovation. We help organizations find their “Blue Ocean” through the use of foresight.

Facilitation

From Open Space-style facilitations of large groups, to user testing, to focus groups, we have experience in guiding groups towards consensus and solution.  We draw heavily on methodologies such as Liberating Structures, Gamestorming, and Sharpe’s Three Horizons.

Systems Thinking

Wicked problems need more than a design thinking process to solve; they require system literacy or “Systems Thinking”.  We take a systemic view on organizational issues whether we are looking at impact, innovation, or ecosystem-level design.

“Choosing to include everybody early in small and big decisions that will affect them is by far more productive than choosing to include everybody later when it is time for them to implement decisions from which they were excluded.” — Henri Lipmanowicz

The Team

Analytical Engine is an Innovation Design Consultancy.  We keep overhead low by working with a small core team and bringing additional subject matter experts on board as projects demand.  We are strong proponents of the powerful, additive nature of diversity and strive for meaningful inclusion on our team and in the work we do.

Core Consulting Partners

Christine McGlade
Christine McGlade
Senior Partner

Christine (she/her) has been working in design, strategy, and digital business development since 2006 and in communications & media technologies since 1991.  Christine is a seasoned speaker and facilitator who has delivered talks and workshops on Strategic Planning, Design Thinking, and Data Visualization.  She lectures at Centennial College, OCADU, and Brainstation in Toronto on topics like Data, Hacktavism, Web Technologies, and User Experience Design.  Christine has particular expertise in digital media storytelling across multiple platforms.  Her current passion project is a Toronto Enterprise Fund/Innoweave funded startup transaction.works, a platform for trans and non binary youth to connect around programs, services, and stories.

Jon Aston
Jon Aston
Strategic Marketing Consultant

Jon (he/him) is an accomplished entrepreneur, consultant and senior executive – with extensive expertise in startups, corporate and agency marketing. Jon is a digital innovator and enthusiastic early adopter with 20 years of strategic and tactical digital marketing expertise.  As a marketer, Jon offers a rare blend of knowledge, experience and wisdom for devising winning strategies combined with the tactical/tech savvy, leadership and passion to drive success in a digital world.

Jon is also an activist and community organizer, working on social justice issues such as housing, fair wages, and inclusion. Jon was the business development coach and cofounder of Analytical Engine’s passion project, transaction.works, an employment social enterprise for trans youth.

Kristen Cruz
Kristen Cruz
User Experience and Graphic Designer

Kristen (she/her) is skilled in digital design and traditional art including: printmaking, installation and mixed media.  This means she is able to contribute a more diverse thought and implementation process to interactive media projects. Kristen capitalizes on her imaginative thinking to produce work that gratifies users both aesthetically and functionally. She brings two years of artistic direction and almost three years of freelance graphic design experience as key assets to her work at Analytical Engine.  Kristen was the recent recipient of the grand prize in Centennial College’s ACCEL pitch competition in the Business Venture category for her passion project “Scouty”, an LGBTQ+ travel platform that allows users to research cultural perspectives, laws, and other factors that might positively or negatively impact the LGBTQ+ traveler.

Andy Gelfand
Andy Gelfand
User experience Designer, Content Strategist

Andy (he/him) is a conscientious, articulate writer, who possesses the ability to express himself in multiple voices and tones. That experience has led him to a unique understanding of UX and how to cater designs to a target audience while maintaining high usability standards. He’s a proficient troubleshooter who enjoys a challenge, with the ability to synthesize complex information or ideas succinctly and effectively.

Andy’s current passion project is the development of a digital platform for LGBTQ2si gamers.  Andy identifies as a queer person of indigenous heritage.

Quinn Ferentzy
Quinn Ferentzy
Research

Quinn (she/her) has obtained her Masters in Philosophy from Guelph University where her thesis centred around Trans identity, othering, and concepts of citizenship. Quinn has delivered workshops and papers on Queer identity and gender issues in Peterborough, Windsor, Guelph and Port Hope.  Quinn excels at research and writing, and has assisted on business development projects for clients like The Peer Project, The Landlord’s Self Help Centre, and CAMH as well as Transaction.works.

"Choosing to include everybody early in small and big decisions that will affect them is by far more productive than choosing to include everybody later when it is time for them to implement decisions from which they were excluded." -- Henri Lipmanowicz

Case Studies

image of a child with a trans flag and transaction works logo Transaction Works: an employment social enterprise Digital Product Design · Social Innovation · Strategy Development
Inspirations Studio: Social Enterprise Innovation Design Thinking · Social Innovation · Strategy Development
Savings by Design Enbridge Gas Distribution: Savings By Design Interactive Kiosk Digital Product Design · User Experience Design
CAMH: Strategic Content Audit Design Research · Strategy Development
Landlord’s Self Help Centre: Second Suites Digital Product Design · User Experience Design
Lucalex: Digital Business Development Digital Product Design · Strategy Development
Pull: How Technology is Changing the Conversation Digital Product Design · Multi Platform Storytelling
Shoppers Drug Mart: CSR Research Design Research
AgendaCamp Design Thinking · Social Innovation
MHHR mockup Enbridge Gas Distribution: My Home Health Record Design Research · Digital Product Design · User Experience Design
Owlkids Canada Design Research · Design Thinking · Digital Product Design · Strategy Development · User Experience Design
TVO.org Design Research · Design Thinking · Digital Product Design · Strategy Development · User Experience Design
CODE website design Council of Directors of Education: OSLP Digital Product Design · Strategy Development · User Experience Design
Kano Model of Functionalities The Association of Community Legal Clinics in Ontario Design Research · Design Thinking · Digital Product Design · User Experience Design
PWBBooklet Photographers Without Borders: Workshop Leader Design Thinking · Social Innovation
Tvoparents.com Digital Product Design · Social Innovation · Strategy Development
Loopy Logical: Learning Binary Social Innovation
Come visit us at Toronto's social innovation hub
720 Bathurst Street., Toronto ON
Telephone: +1 416 452 7511 – Email: christine@analyticalengine.ca

Contact

Contact us by email

christine@analyticalengine.ca