Human to Human: Perspectives from Our People Part 2


In our Human to Human blog series, we dive into the human side of Sparks Grove to learn more about our people behind the business. In part two of our series, we are speaking with Dave Trettin, who is our Director of Insights and a Client Lead.

Q. What are the biggest challenge(s) of delivering a successful project in today’s world?

In our daily lives, we often have to reshape our project scope to pivot to a direction that our client would benefit the most. This happens because often times they don’t know they might be needing to focus on areas that they previously didn’t think they needed. With that, it’s very important to balance what the client asks for and doing so in a way that is respectful to their culture and the structure that is already in place for us to work their sweet spots.

Q. What are some additional barriers you face in your professional life?

From my experience, clients can sometimes struggle to keep an open mind. They are used to their own business pace, with what they know and what was done years ago. To breakthrough this behavior is challenging, to insert the culture of design thinking and make clients feel comfortable with the divergent process takes time. It’s good for us because we are creative problem solvers by nature and we can calm that unease by working with them through the change.

Q. As you go through a client project, how would you see human experience being delivered to customers?

I would say we bring the human element to our clients, as humans not as transactions, when we fully engage with them. We do it in a personal, co-creating way. We literally build up relationships and it is not based on transactions, but on mutually beneficial interactions that are built overtime.

Q. Designing for human experiences is about making an impact and changing lives, if you could change anything in the world what would you do?

There are lot of things I would like to do such as eliminate poverty, but I guess when we think about the things we can directly impact I would say focus on people that are dealing with life struggles (financially, mentally, physically). When people are struggling we need to give them opportunities to get back on track, give people a chance to get back on their feet. I see myself being a catalyst for that.

Q. What do you hope to see in the future for the consultancy practice?

With all that has been going on recently with technology advancements and our current political climate, we need to understand humans more than ever and by using an insights capability we can and should infuse this practice into the decision process. This human perception should exist in every societal level, it should be everywhere!