WARNING! Today’s interview is not like the regular interviews you would normally find here. This episode of the Punk CX podcast is a bit of an experiment and features Gary David, an ethnographer and a professor of Sociology at Bentley University, and Adam Gamwell, a Design Anthropologist, or as he likes to describe himself a Design-Centered Human, and myself having a bit of a rummage around some of the ideas in my Punk CX book as well as a number of other issues related to service and experience including sociology, design, anthropology, systems thinking, organisational dynamics and psychology. We had fun. It was a conversational rummage. I learned a lot. Hope you enjoy the experiment.

This interview follows on from my recent interview – We need to talk about customer service’s “messy middle” – Interview with Michael Ramsey of ServiceNow – and is number 378 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

It was quite some conversation so I haven’t produced highlights this time around. I’ll leave it up to you to jump in and find your own highlights.

Normal service should resume next time 😉

About Gary

Gary David earned a PhD in Sociology from Wayne State University in 1999. Since that time, he has worked as a professor of Sociology at Bentley University, a private business university outside of Boston. There he teaches courses in applying sociology and sociological insights across a variety of topics. He has taught on Social Environments in the school’s flagship MBA program. He currently teaches in the nationally recognized Masters program in Human Factors and User Experience, where he teaches a course on ethnography and experience design. In 2017, he was awarded the status of Certified Clinical Sociologist for his work using sociological insights to develop and design interventions to promote positive change. He has worked with clients in a variety of domains, including software development teams, clinical documentation production and use, interrogation and interview analysis, and cultural training.

As an ethnographer, his observational skills lead him to be constantly puzzled and bemused by the events he sees around him every day.

Gary’s links: His faculty profile at Bentley University, his private consulting firm (ethno-analytics), he is @ethnoanalytics on Twitter and here on LinkedIn.

About Adam

Dr. Adam Gamwell is a Design Anthropologist, or what he likes to call a Design-Centered Human, with international experience in ethnographic and contextual research, media production, cultural analysis, social strategy, and education. His Design Anthropology practice mixes holistic, systems-level perspectives, participatory design, and grounded, ethnographic analyses to collaboratively diagnose problems and craft solutions across culture, behavior, and environment. He is Host, Creative Lead and Executive Producer of the This Anthro Life Podcast, based in Boston, MA, and has over 15 years of audio production and sound engineering experience.

Adam is also playing with the idea of being a Research Artist, a practitioner who infuses and transforms our experiences of academically-grounded, deep research with delight, spectacle, and provocation. His work at This Anthro Life Podcast and upcoming projects (soon to be announced) blend science communication, public education, curiosity and wonder with rigorous research to help expand public consciousness, empathy and collective problem solving. He believes deeply that education is a fundamental human right, and that it should be enjoyable and engaging.

Adam’s links: His personal site, his faculty directory profile at Lesley University, he is @gamwell on Twitter and here on LinkedIn.

They both host the Experience By Design podcast too where this conversation features. Check it out.

Thank you to Cor van der Waal for the image.