About Us
We are senior partners all dedicated to insight work with deep experience in a wide range of Consumer and B2B markets. We are both specialists and generalists with backgrounds in technology, marketing, medical anthropology, sociolinguistics, visual anthropology, popular culture, cultural geography and industry. We also regularly partner with our global network of filmmakers, editors, designers, web developers, and other area specialists. Since 2002, we have worked virtually “together” in New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia.
“Practica bring the highest caliber skill set and broad academic knowledge, but they pair that depth with an ability to seamlessly bridge insights into opportunities for application. With Practica, we got more than just brilliant insights and storytelling; we got information we could use.”
— Future of Fish
Our Team
Ed Bovich, Ph.D.
ebovich@practicagroup.com
Rita Denny, Ph.D.
rdenny@practicagroup.com
Michael Powell, PH.D.
mpowell@practicagroup.com
Our Network
Judith Wright
Maria Rosenblum
Summer Graham
Ed Bovich, Ph.D.
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.
Rita Denny, Ph.D.
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.
Michael Powell, PH.D.
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.
Erica Herman
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.