Iida Palosuo
freelance researcher, strategist and service designer.
Book a callCore competencies
Understand
Hearing people at depth and scale
- 02The Unexpected Customer
2022 - 03Research Practice from Zero
2025–26 - 04From Interview to Code
2025–26 - 06AI‑Powered Analysis
2025–26 - 07A Community House
2020–21 - 08A Discourse Turns Hostile
2025 - 11Founding a Hackathon
2017
Align
Facilitating collaboration to find shared direction
- 01Gamified Strategy
2023 - 02The Unexpected Customer
2022 - 03Research Practice from Zero
2025–26 - 05Mapping the Competition
2025–26 - 06AI‑Powered Analysis
2025–26 - 07A Community House
2020–21 - 11Founding a Hackathon
2017
(Re)design
Creating better services, systems and products
- 01Gamified Strategy
2023 - 03Research Practice from Zero
2025–26 - 04From Interview to Code
2025–26 - 07A Community House
2020–21 - 09A Crossword App in 3 Days
2026 - 10Design Entrepreneur
2024– - 11Founding a Hackathon
2017
What's on your mind?
No need to read my whole portfolio. I've grouped my cases under some of the common questions clients bring me.
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The pace of change with AI keeps us all on our toes. I start by looking at where your team stands with AI today, then help you understand how the technology works and which parts of your work it could genuinely help with. I use it daily myself, from automating workflows to analysing 2.8 million messages and taking interview findings straight into shipped code.
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Customers change, and so does the world around them, so what was true last year may not be today. As a social psychologist and anthropologist, I work across qualitative, quantitative and ethnographic methods, so I can choose the approach that fits your question. Your team gets actionable insights, in your customers' own words.
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Changing a service people already rely on is delicate, and the risks are hard to see from the inside. I start from how people actually use it today, shape the change together with your team, and can build it myself so nothing gets lost between findings and code. You get a change your customers notice for the right reasons.
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A promising idea is exciting, and it's tempting to go straight to building. I make it tangible early, as sketches, prototypes and live tests with real people, so you learn what works while changes are still cheap. Your team gets evidence for the decision, not just a hunch.
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A strategy comes alive when people can see what it means for their own work. I work across your organisation to find where things already flow and where they get stuck, then make the strategy tangible enough that people can test it against their everyday work. Shaped together, it gets better, and everyone knows their part in it.
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Surveys, reviews, support tickets, internal messages: data piles up faster than anyone can read it, and the important signals get buried. I combine statistics, AI-assisted coding and my own close reading, each checking the others, down to where in the organisation each issue sits. Your team knows what to act on first.
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Not everything has to start from a problem. Some of my favourite projects started with a good crew and an idea: a design hackathon, a small business making mobiles, a crossword app for friends. If you have something fun in mind, I'd love to hear it.