How do you sum up twenty years of fieldwork? Endless interviews, countless cups of tea, and enough unpredictable moments to keep us on our toes the whole way through.
We’ve seen the industry shift, tech transform, and project briefs grow from two pages to twenty slides. But what hasn’t changed? The people, the stories, and the research that drives it all.
In true Acumen style, we’re celebrating the moments that made us laugh, sweat, swell with pride and sometimes all three.
Getting Lost in Translation: A Poster and a Confused Welsh Village
Rewinding to the early days before the age of AI, we were running a community project in rural Wales. Everything was going smoothly… until we realised the recruitment poster needed to be bilingual. Google Translate to the rescue! Or so we thought.
A call from a perplexed leisure centre receptionist soon revealed our Welsh version was… gibberish. Thankfully, she kindly offered to translate it herself. Lesson learned: always check translations with a native speaker and never underestimate the patience of rural communities.
Even the Best-Laid Plans Can Go Bananas
Fast forward to our ‘Wonderful World of Field’ conference at London Zoo. Mid-break, the animal escape alarm went off. Delegates were marooned while security scrambled to track down a rogue gorilla who, in the meantime, had discovered a bottle of Vimto. The gorilla had drunk the lot before being safely escorted back.
A legendary story, and a reminder that the best fieldwork moments often come from the unexpected.
Understanding the Barriers
While our fieldwork adventures have given us plenty of laughs, they’ve also been punctuated by moments of real impact.
In 2022, we partnered with Guide Dogs UK to explore how the built environment affects the lives and independence of people with visual impairments. Through an online survey with nearly 400 participants, we identified which features of public spaces posed the greatest challenges, and how Covid measures may have amplified them.
Accessibility and empathy guided every step. We prioritised inclusive design, offered clear communication about incentive payments, and ensured participants had access to Guide Dogs’ support services if any topics felt difficult.
The response was heartfelt. Participants praised the survey’s accessibility, and the findings have since drawn national attention, now being developed into a White Paper for Parliament.
For us, it was a humbling reminder that inclusive design isn’t just about spaces. It’s about equality, independence, and ensuring every voice can be heard.
Capturing Truth in Unprecedented Times
Another poignant project took place in 2024, when we helped Verian Group recruit 600 young people aged 9–22 for face-to-face interviews as part of Module 8 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. We explored how children and young people experienced the pandemic, adapted to sudden change, and coped with its real-world impacts.
Reaching vulnerable and seldom-heard audiences required care, patience, and creativity. Phone calls, Zooms, and in-person visits built trust, while safeguarding and age-appropriate communication ensured participants felt comfortable and heard.
It was intense, meaningful work. Every insight contributed to a national understanding of the pandemic’s effects, proving that research isn’t just numbers and charts; it’s people, stories, and decisions that shape lives.
Thank You for the Memories
Looking back, it’s not the spreadsheets or surveys we remember. It’s the people, the laughter, and the “we’ll figure it out” moments that define us.
Here’s to the projects that pushed us, the partners who trusted us, and the fieldwork stories that still make us smile twenty years on.
And here’s to the next chapter, because we’re just getting started.
Ah, the noughties. A simpler time when you’d find us in our bootcut jeans, flicking through printed recruitment lists while twirling the curly cord of the office landline and waiting for the dial tone.
If you’ve been in fieldwork research since then, you’ll know one thing for sure: a lot has changed.
Twenty years ago, the hottest debate in the office was probably whose turn it was on the fax machine. Fast forward to today, and the whole industry is talking about automation, APIs, and AI tools that can screen, segment, and schedule faster than you can say “quota full.”
So, to celebrate twenty years of Acumen, let’s take a quick (and slightly nostalgic) stroll down memory lane.
The Early 2000s: Clipboards, Coffee and (a little) Chaos
The golden age of paper diaries and printouts. When “going into field” literally meant going into field. Recruitment lists and interview guides were scribbled by hand, and the words “last-minute replacement” could send an entire team into meltdown.
Spreadsheets were revolutionary. Email chains ran into the hundreds. And if someone told you they’d found respondents on social media, you’d have probably asked, “What’s MySpace?”
It was a hands-on, highlighter-heavy era, and the foundations of modern market research fieldwork were laid right there.
The 2010s: Enter Digital
It’s hard to believe how much changed in ten years. Goodbye fax machine, hello digital everything, from online panels to mobile surveys. Seemingly overnight, we could suddenly reach respondents, faster, cheaper and across continents. Follow-ups no longer meant chasing with a phone call (though we all secretly missed the curly cord).
It was also a decade of experimentation. Webcam interviews? Sure. Online focus groups? Why not. A survey that works on BlackBerry? Yeah…maybe not.
And yet, while technology made life easier, it also made expectations higher. Clients wanted more, faster. And respondents expected smoother research experiences – maybe to make up for the lack of biscuits in the digital world.
Today: Tech-Savvy and Human Centred
Now, we live in a world of data, dashboards and delightfully complicated workflows. CRM systems talk to recruitment tools. Fieldwork lives in ‘the cloud’ not just the field. And if you mention doing something ‘manually’, some youthful whizz will probably have automated it for you by lunchtime.
But behind it all, it’s still people.
Behind the dashboards and smart tech are the teams who keep projects moving, who calm nerves when respondents ghost, and who somehow manage to get 20 hard-to-reach professionals on a Teams call before 9am.
The tools may have changed, but the essence of great qualitative and quantitative research hasn’t. It’s still about building trust, solving problems, and making sure even the quietest voice is heard.
Here’s to the Next 20 Years
If the last two decades have taught us anything, it’s that change happens and often at pace. The fieldwork of the future might involve predictive analytics, voice recruitment or AI screeners, but it still needs real humans who get it, manage it, and make it happen.
Because fieldwork will always be people work, no matter how advanced the tools become.
So, here’s to another twenty years of learning, levelling up and laughter along the way.
Budget, budget, budget.
It’s the bane of every project and the backbone of them all.
You want to run great research, get the insights, and deliver the results. But that number you’re working with? It seems to shrink every time you check it.
We all know, fieldwork isn’t predictable. One minute everything’s on track. The next, recruitment gets tricky, timelines shift, incentives change, and suddenly that neatly planned budget looks a little less neat.
Even with a comfortable budget, small leaks can turn into big costs fast. A good contingency helps but knowing where those leaks start is what really keeps projects (and finance teams) happy.
So, if you’re a researcher, insight lead, or agency partner who’s ever found yourself explaining where the money went, this one’s for you.
Download our free guide: 6 Hidden Culprits That Will Drain Your Fieldwork Budget
Practical, real-world advice from people who’ve been there, managed that, and kept the numbers in check.
Picture this: It’s 10am on a rainy Tuesday. Sharon, a district nurse, is halfway through her fourth home visit. One hand wrestles a broken umbrella, the other clutches a buzzing phone. Her kit bag is overflowing. The pill packet looks identical to the last one. The kitchen is cramped, the lights are dim, and the family dog won’t stop barking. All the while, she reassures an anxious relative that, yes, the right medication has been prescribed.
Stressed? Absolutely. Mistakes waiting to happen? Possibly.
Looking at this from a human factors’ perspective, it’s not about blaming Sharon if human errors are made. It’s about understanding how the situation could lead to errors, recognising the pressure she’s under, and designing safeguards to catch problems before the storm even starts.
So, what are human factors anyway?
Human factors are the science of how people interact with their tools, tasks, and surroundings. Put simply: sometimes things go brilliantly, and sometimes they go spectacularly wrong.
Ergonomics and human factors
Human factors are broader than ergonomics (and we aren’t just talking about fancy desk chairs, trust us). Ergonomic principles consider the physical interaction between people, products, and environments. Think posture, reach, grip, or screen readability. Human factors principles involve everything to do with human interaction, how people think, feel and how this influences behaviour, not just how they interact physically.
Human factors in healthcare
In healthcare, human factors are the hidden forces shaping how care is delivered. They influence things like:
Fatigue and workload – because yes, night shifts and never-ending patient lists do take a toll
Communication and teamwork – a rushed handover or quick ‘brain download’ can mean a missed diagnosis
Equipment and environment – confusing pill packaging, chaotic wards, or poorly designed tools
Decision-making under pressure – ever tried solving a complex puzzle while ten people shout?
Human factors don’t just explain why errors happen; they also show us how to prevent them in the first place.
Why human factors in healthcare matter
Because healthcare is messy. Unlike a brick factory, where identical blocks roll off the line, every patient is different. They bring their own health histories, anxieties, and quirks.
Now add over-stretched staff, high stakes, and the emotional intensity of lives literally in their hands, and you’ve got one of the most challenging workplaces imaginable.
Human factors research helps us to make sense of the messiness. Without it, we wouldn’t have the innovations and improvements that make equipment and devices safer, easier to use, and more effective for everyone – from patients to caregivers and clinicians.
Human factors research in healthcare can focus on:
Reducing medical errors
Spotting potential hazards – think of Sharon and her near-identical pill packets
Designing medical devices and systems to be intuitive
And this is just the start.
Sound obvious? Maybe. But the devil is in the detail. Studying human factors means digging deep into how people really interact with their environment, so we can design solutions that actually work.
Human factors research in healthcare: A real-world example
Take one of our clients, for example. We worked together on a study with people who currently have, or have previously had, a neurostimulator implant.
A patient programmer is a small, hand-held device that lets patients adjust their implanted deep brain stimulation (DBS) or spinal cord stimulation (SCS) system. Within safe limits set by their clinician, patients can use it to fine-tune their own therapy.
In this study, participants were asked to try out a patient programmer designed for people with DBS implants. They were given a series of hands-on tasks to complete using the device and then asked to share their feedback.
The programmer wasn’t connected to an implant during the sessions, so it didn’t affect anyone’s therapy. The goal? Usability: Could patients operate it easily? Adjust stimulation smoothly? Read the screen clearly?
Thanks to these sessions, our client gained rich insights to make the device more intuitive, user-friendly, and effective, helping patients manage their therapy more safely and smoothly.
Pretty cool, right?
Enabling excellence
Human factors research isn’t just preventing human errors. It’s about enabling excellence. A device that makes a patient’s daily therapy easier? Human factors. A district nurse who administers the right medicine despite chaos? Human factors again.
So, next time you hear “human factors”, don’t shrug it off as jargon. Think of:
Sharon, juggling a buzzing phone, broken umbrella, cramped kitchen, dim lights, and a barking dog – and still getting the meds right
Our client, improving a medical device through human factors research, changing patients’ quality of life
Yourself, trying to do your best work when the system feels stacked against you
Healthcare human factors research is about understanding the messy reality and designing for humans as they actually are, not as we wish they were.
Let’s be honest. Screeners don’t get much love.
They’re not as glamorous as campaign presentations. They don’t have the magical allure of insights. But ask any seasoned fieldworker and they’ll tell you: a screener can make or break a project.
At Acumen, our screeners aren’t just another tick box, they’re carefully written, frequently refined, and full of the type of questions that are going to separate the wheat from the “you clearly googled that just now.”
A screener is the gateway of your research. It’s the series of questions that help us identify who qualifies for a study, and just as importantly, who doesn’t!
It’s more than just ticking boxes. It’s about knowing what to ask, how to ask it, and when to raise a sceptical eyebrow.
Screeners are used to sniff out:
So, now we know what a screener is and why we’re using it, let’s talk about the difference between a good screener, and a great one.
Good: “Do you have asthma?”
Great: “Can you name the inhaler you currently use, how often you use it, and what colour it is?”
Good: “Are you a GP?”
Great: “Roughly how many patients do you see per week with chronic pain? And which treatments are you prescribing most frequently?”
Good: “Are you available on Tuesday at 2pm?”
Great: “If selected, would you be willing to speak for 60 minutes via Zoom and complete a short pre-task the day before?”
Every question should give us something: clarity, confidence, or cause for concern. That’s how we find the right participants and keep projects bulletproof.
But screeners aren’t just for filtering, they also help set expectations for the participants, support fairness and save time. It’s a multi tasking hero, a researcher, recruiter and quality control officer all in one!
But.. Why should you, as a client, care?
Simply put, insights are only as good as the people giving them.
All too often screeners are treated like admin; an eye roll and pass it straight to the junior member of the team. But the reality is, a strong screener can protect a study and a bad screener can ruin it before it even begins.
At Acumen, we obsess over our screeners. We write them with input from strategists, moderators, recruiters, and even the client themselves. We test, refine, and tweak until it’s watertight.
Because to us, a screener isn’t just a first step. It’s the foundation of everything that follows.
So next time a screener lands in your inbox, don’t glaze over. That humble Word doc is doing the heavy lifting. And when it’s done right, it’s magic.
At Acumen, we’re not interested in performative pride, or pride-washing during June. We believe inclusivity should be part of the everyday, not just the calendar moments.
That’s why we’re proud to support the launch of our very own LGBTQ+ Collective, a grassroots, team-led initiative designed to make our workplace safer, braver, and better for everyone.
We caught up with Rachel Pound, the brains behind the idea to dig into what sparked it, what it hopes to achieve, and why it matters to the work we do, not just in our offices, but in the wider world of fieldwork too.
What inspired the creation of the LGBTQ+ Collective?
Generally, I wanted there to be something structured and visible that supported LGBTQ+ people in work and something that people knew existed right from the beginning of starting to work at this company. This idea was shaped by a couple of moments, over the last few months that led to the LGBTQ+ Collective.
Inside work, I felt encouraged by the words said by SLT at the last All Company meeting, about really showing up for the staff this year, and by the ideas behind the new Culture Book and beyond. Outside of work, I was motivated to get the LGBTQ+ Collective started at this specific time period because of the recent UK Supreme Court ruling around the legal definition of ‘women’ contributing to increased transphobia in the UK. The timing of this felt even more important to give people a chance to speak up about how we can make sure work is more inclusive and is a safe working environment.
What are the main goals of the Collective, both short-term and long-term?
A mix of some easy fixes, and some bigger long term challenges to face! Here are some things I had in mind:
How do you hope it will help improve inclusivity in the day-to-day work life?
The LGBTQ+ Collective will hopefully encourage people to speak up on topics they otherwise may have felt they weren’t able to. This works for LGBTQ+ people who, for example, weren’t clear on LBGTQ+ friendly company policies but also allies who, for example, weren’t confident on inclusive language.
It’s also a chance for us to be consistently forward thinking in our workplace but also with our recruitment practices. Our aim is to hear the opinions of as many different people as possible, so the more inclusive our practices are, the more chance we have to hear from everyone. This makes recruitment more successful, of higher quality, and more interesting!
The LGBTQ+ Collective is still in its early days, but like all good ideas at Acumen, it’s built on action, not just intention. By creating space for open conversations, challenging the status quo, and championing diverse voices from the inside out, we’re shaping a workplace (and an industry) where everyone has a seat at the table.
Because better fieldwork starts with better people work. And we’re just getting started. 🌈
