No question exists in isolation. Practica Group looks closely at the people, cultures, technologies, and systems surrounding a problem to understand how they influence one another and why they matter. We bring that fuller understanding to our clients so they can make sense of the world around them and shape what comes next.
What We Do
Practica’s work spans research and strategy, capability-building and training, and ongoing thought partnership and advisory.
The team works alongside clients to make sense of what they learn and carry it forward into shared understanding, informed perspective, and direction for what comes next.
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We tackle the questions at the heart of critical decisions by bringing a cultural lens to the problem at hand. We have our favorites, but ultimately we are method-agnostic and curious and we are always open to finding the right tool and the right approach for the question at hand.
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We help research and insight teams build a shared language and common methods, so the whole organization is aligned on how to talk and think through complex problems in productive ways.
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A senior thinking partner for the stickier, less-defined problems, from futures and innovation to questions that don't fit a brief yet. The big, important questions that are hard to prioritize in the day-to day, but when tended to, can be game-changing.
Who we are
Practica Group is an intentionally small research and strategy consultancy grounded in cultural anthropology and ethnographic practice.
Its senior team of anthropologists and strategists works with organizations facing complex, ambiguous, or difficult-to-define questions, bringing close listening, cultural analysis, and an expansive way of thinking to problems that don’t always have straightforward answers.
The structure of the practice is central to how it works. Since 2002, Practica has remained deliberately small and senior, with the people leading conversations also doing the research, analysis, and strategic work. This creates close, often long-running client relationships and allows each engagement to be built around the particular problem at hand rather than an established formula or off-the-shelf methodology.
Our Team
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Rita Denny applies an anthropological framework to consumer behavior across the globe, calling on linguistic, semiotic and symbolic traditions for interpreting attitudes, perceptions and practices. Rita’s work supports strategic development of products, services and brands as well as communications strategies for Fortune Global 500 companies, government agencies and public institutions. Rita holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from University of Chicago. With Patricia Sunderland she is the author of Doing Anthropology in Consumer Research and editor of Handbook of Anthropology in Business. She is a dedicated Lake Michigan swimmer.
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Michael Powell is a professional cultural anthropologist and careful listener working at the intersection of research, business, and design. As a connector-of-dots and strategic thinker, he enjoys diving deep into unwieldy problems using ethnographic insights, cultural analysis, and creative thinking. A common thread across his projects are institutions of everyday life—from mobility patterns and grocery stores, to health care products and voting habits. After earning a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Rice University in 2006, Michael has been working as an ethnographic consultant, with a project scope that includes UX research, design research, strategy consulting, branding, and startup cultures.
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Erica Herman specializes in depth research and strategic counseling for senior level business and public sector clients. She leverages her 30+ years of experience in diverse projects, such as living with chronic health conditions in the US, personal finance across four countries, regenerative travel, and the role of culture change in policy-building. Recognizing that focused, passionate fieldwork results in the discovery of new, often unexpected territory, Erica is committed to using those discoveries to illuminate resonant connections across innovation, systems, strategy, branding, and organizational culture. Her clients range from startups to multinationals, including Grassroots Solutions, Procter & Gamble, Got Milk?, Klarna, Oscar Health, Johnson & Johnson, and WNYC On the Media. She has lived in Brooklyn forever, deeply ensconced in a life of food, family, community, music and occasional guerrilla gardening.
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Ed’s 25+ years in market research includes qualitative, as well as positions in product design / management in tech firms, agency planning, consulting, and even as a business school professor at the University of Michigan. His uniquely deep experience enables him to understand and unearth actionable insights driven by business objectives. He’s a specialist in B2B and thrives on complex, technical project challenges, but also has decades of consumer experience. He’s curious, above all, and driven to untangle the workings of business decision-makers’ hearts and minds. In spare time, he practices stonecutting, cycling, and his headstand. Ed has a Ph.D. in Marketing, a Psychology M.A., a B.B.A., and two years in the School of Fine Arts – all from U of M.
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Charley has worked as a lead qualitative, design and UX researcher, and key strategy partner in consumer insight spaces, across industries, for more than 20 years. Along the way, he has applied his background in cultural anthropology and visual storytelling to help clients better understand how and why their products and services move through the lived experiences of their customers in the ways that they do. In addition to working as a consultant and as an embedded team member with a number of innovation pods and labs, Charley spent more than five years working as a lead UX and pathfinder researcher at Meta Reality Labs, co-leading the internationalization team for consumer electronics. He holds a PhD in anthropology and an MA in Visual anthropology from the University of Southern California.
Our Values
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Listening is active work for us. We pay attention to what people say, what they do, what surrounds them, and what might otherwise go unnoticed. It’s how we build trust, uncover meaning, and begin to understand the larger system.
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We’re comfortable staying with complexity long enough to understand it. We connect perspectives, behaviors, cultural context, and systems to find patterns and create clarity without flattening the nuance.
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We approach familiar and unfamiliar territory with genuine interest, open-mindedness, and a willingness to question assumptions. There is always more to notice, ask, and understand.
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We think with our clients, not simply for them. Close collaboration, intellectual generosity, and long-term relationships make our clients part of the thinking and leave them with knowledge they can continue to use.
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Our work is thoughtful, thorough, and intellectually honest. We take ideas seriously, follow questions deeply, and ground our perspective in real research rather than easy answers or predetermined frameworks.
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Understanding something is only the beginning. We carry what we learn forward into strategy, decisions, capabilities, and action, creating work that continues to be useful to our clients long after an engagement ends.
Our Clients
Our clients bring us complex, sometimes hard-to-define questions, and many stay for the long run. Here are some of the organizations we’ve partnered with.
Waymo
Nissan
PNC
Nespresso
Future of Fish
Meta
Milk Pep
Klarna
Gatorade
Intel
SC Johnson
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
C-Smart
Whirlpool Corporation
Enersib
FCB New Zealand
Unilever
Oscar
Samsung
GSK, GlaxoSmithKline
Testimonials
Contact Us
Practica is a distributed team spanning North American time zones. Reach out to us at info@practicagroup.com, and we’ll direct your inquiry to the person who’s a good fit for your project.