Employee Spotlight: Katherine Oliver, Senior Service Designer

Tell us a bit about your background and experience

I grew up in the English West Country, in a village where there wasn’t much to do but spend time in fields. I longed for city life. I’ve always been a generalist; enjoying doing lots of different things but with no one particular passion. That’s how I found myself doing a degree in Classics without having been to a school that taught it. I liked the variety of studying literature, history, language, philosophy and society of other cultures.

When I came across the field of commercial research and insight during a summer job, I loved the idea of a job where I got to hear people’s thoughts and experiences across lots of different topics and examine what influences and shapes cultures today. It felt like a good entry point into working life as it kept my options open. I applied for some schemes in big market research agencies in London (at last, a big city!) and managed to get a place. I found I had very luckily fallen into an endlessly fascinating and stimulating field.

Twelve years later, I’d worked my way ‘up’ to a Director role in a strategic insight consultancy. I led teams to design and conduct qualitative and quantitative research projects that helped organisations better understand their current and potential customers. This insight was then used to improve customer experiences, products and services to better meet customer needs.

But increasingly, I was feeling unsatisfied. I was working long hours but didn’t feel the outcomes were worth it. I was finding it frustrating ‘just’ doing the research and not being involved in implementing the recommendations to develop or improve a product or service. Furthermore, I felt that a lot of what I was doing was reinforcing existing powerful organisations, rather than helping shift power. I was also becoming increasingly worried about the imperative to cut global emissions to reduce humanity’s impact on the climate. More often than not, my work seemed to be contributing to the problem rather than helping find solutions.

After experiencing a really significant burnout, I decided I needed a change. I wanted to find work that had a more consistently meaningful positive impact, and I didn’t feel I could do that whilst meeting the demands of my current job. I decided to quit my job without a plan. (Fortunately I had some savings so it wasn’t quite as drastic as it sounds). I spent a few months doing lots of yoga, walking and exploring job options by volunteering and talking to lots of people working in different industries. I explored everything from organisational culture to oral history to teaching adult education! But it’s difficult to get a sense of what a job was like without trying it out.

Luckily I came across the On Purpose associate programme – a year-long programme where you gain hands-on experience working with two purpose-driven organisations while also doing an intensive learning and development programme around environmental and societal impact. It was the ideal way to transition into more purposeful work, whilst being paid (minimally). I feel so lucky to have had the luxury of a whole year to learn about the impact sector, consider what I value and how I want to live my life and to have met so many people who do really inspiring work. Here’s just a little snippet of what I learnt.

What projects really excite you at the moment?

Beyond a specific project, I’m currently most excited by cxpartners’ long-term (and very big and audacious) goal to help our clients solve the biggest problems facing society today: lack of sustainability, uncertainty and inequality.  As you might have realised by now, it’s really important to me to work in an organisation that actively cares about the same things I do, such as inclusion, equity and justice – for people and the planet. Whilst we have a fair way to go to say we’ve achieved this goal, it’s great to be working in an organisation striving for this, with the desire to go beyond just talk and to make change happen. I’m excited to be able to contribute in any way I can, both via my work and as a member of the cxpartners inclusion working group.