Solutions

We do important work for awesome clients.


Expertise Management

We implement knowledge capture and transfer programs for some of the world’s most innovative organizations, in fields as diverse as pet food manufacturing and nuclear engineering. For some, we have provided extensive knowledge elicitation services, capturing expert mental models and experience with decision making in high stakes contexts. For others, we have transformed expertise into learning artifacts, systems and experiences, such as knowledge portals and models and decision games that exercise thinking skills like sensemaking. And we have helped organizations develop their own Expertise Management capabilities by training and coaching personnel in the skills of knowledge elicitation, production and organization of artifacts, and lessons learned from our vast experience.

Customers have included ReliabilityFirst, Westinghouse, the New York Power Authority, and numerous Fortune 500s.

Cognitive Systems Engineering

We use our deep understanding of proficient performers to design and evaluate systems that ensure a tight fit with the cognitive work that needs to be done. Our work has resulted in systems that have been deployed into complex operational settings. Among our successes are interfaces for interacting with autonomous helicopters, decision support tools for intelligence analysts, and even the redesign of the White House Situation Room. We’ve even put our experience and skills to work in designing an award-winning learning assessment platform — Sero! — which we spun off as Sero! Learning Assessments.

Customers have included the Aurora Flight Sciences, Kutta Technologies, the Intelligence Community, and General Dynamics Mission Systems.

Knowledge Elicitation Training

We have learned a lot about how to get inside the heads of experts. Our understanding stems from both our research and implementing our solutions, and from the models of macrocognition we have helped to develop. In our KE Workshops, we share our knowledge and experience, and coach others to develop their own skills in knowledge elicitation, enabling organizations to make smarter use of their own expertise. The workshops are tailored to fit the needs of the organization and hit at just the right level of professional learning. We also teach Applied Concept Mapping to organizations needing better ways to capture, analyze and organize their knowledge. For more information, see our Workshops page.

Customers have included NAV CANADA, Veterans Health Administration, the Intelligence Community, TNO – The Netherlands, and Procter & Gamble.

Research

Our research focuses on methods and models for understanding expertise and accelerating its achievement. We’ve studied how Concept Mapping activities can speed up knowledge transfer, help assess learning progress, and contribute to crisis planning. In healthcare, we have provided leadership encouraging the pivot toward User-Centered Design of Clinical Decision Support technologies — to enable rather than impede proficient performance. And we’ve studied how digital learning experiences might help keep warfighters out of harm’s way.

Customers have included the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative, IARPA, Cognitive Performance Group, the Army Research Laboratory, DARPA, Cognitive Medical Systems, Sandia National Laboratories, andtheSecurity Analysis & Risk Management Association.

User Experience Recruiting

Our focus on humans at work has driven us to develop an efficient and scalable approach to recruiting participants for user experience studies. Our process can be targeted on any population, and is currently implemented for two major UE programs under the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs — where we are recruiting hundreds of participants each year. If you are or know a Veteran of the U.S. Armed Services, you can learn about and register for our current program at Veteran Usability.

Customers are Human Factors Engineering within the Veterans Health Administration and Digital Service at Veterans Affairs.