How I work
The tools bring the speed. I bring experience and thinking, staying with it from start to finish.
Most of strategy used to be labour intensive. Transcribing interviews. Pulling research together. Checking a brief line by line. AI now does a lot of the repetitive tasks, and does it fast. What it can't do is sit in the room, read the body language, or know when an answer is technically right and strategically wrong. That part is still owned by me.
The loop behind everything
Every process below runs on the same loop. Anything wrong, thin or generic goes back round.
Set the question
MEI frame the problem and choose the framework.
Gather and draft
AIResearch, transcripts, first drafts and pattern-finding.
Sense-check
MEI check what comes back against what I know. Wrong, thin or generic goes back.
Refine
AIAI reworks it with my steer.
Decide and sign off
MEFinal judgement. Nothing goes out without it.
In practice
Pick one to see what changed, what AI does, and what I still do.
Get up to speed on a brand fast: company, category, consumer and culture.
Days of desk research
A sourced first view in a few hours
Runs structured prompts through Perplexity and ChatGPT, one set per C, each asking for answers with sources.
Checks the sources, throws out the generic, and spots the tension worth chasing.
The 4Cs give me the facts. The insight still comes from me.
Framework adapted from Julian Cole, Planning Dirty.
Test the project approach against marketing theory before anyone sees it, and make sure it holds together.
Gaps found when the work came back
Fixed before any work starts
Stress-tests my long-form brief against foundational marketing theory. Names the theory the brief is really relying on, flags contradictions between objectives, KPIs and creative, and checks for a real insight.
Writes the brief, judges whether the diagnosis fits this client, budget and moment, and owns the final version.
A sidekick I think out loud with. Problems solved before they become problems.
Built on foundational marketing theory, from the classic funnel to Ehrenberg and mental availability.
Run interviews and find out what people really think.
Hours of typing per interview
Key themes turned around rapidly
Records and transcribes each interview, writes a synopsis, then pulls out the recurring themes across all of them.
Is in the room. Body language, tone, the pause before an answer. Adds it to the themes, challenges what doesn't ring true, and decides the insight.
The same depth of research, without the days of transcription.
Map how people discover, choose and experience something, and where it breaks.
Present it, then wait for the holes
Holes fixed before the client sees it
Builds the map stage by stage with me, from the client's documents and my research.
Carries out the research, runs the workshop, shapes the guiding principles, and decides where the real opportunities are.
A journey map that holds up first time, and becomes the backbone of the comms plan.
Example: a national outdoor tourism body.
Decide what to say, to whom, where and when.
One message for everyone, channels on gut
One message per audience and stage, channels verified
Builds tailored messages for each audience by stage of the purchase cycle, and tests my channel choices against validated research.
Sets the segments, judges the messages, and forms the first view on channels from experience.
Every message does one job, for one person, at one moment, in the right place.
Examples: a national outdoor tourism body, and a B2B launch for a specialist logistics service.
Run whole pieces of work through a team of AI agents, with me in charge.
One person doing every task
A small production line I manage
Agents on Buzz can handle research, copy and design, handing work to each other like a small team.
Sets the direction, checks the work at every stage, and keeps the brand, its metrics and its identity at the centre. No agent drifts off brand.
It's like being the conductor of an orchestra.
Get ideas, prompts and first drafts out of my head quickly.
Typing at 30 words a minute
Talking at 200 words a minute
Wispr Flow turns what I say into text, straight into prompts and drafts.
Does the thinking, out loud. Talking a problem through is how I find the angle.
I rarely type now. The ideas come out at the speed I think them.
Orchestrating agents, in motion
My agent system, simplified. The brand sits at the centre. Agents make the work. Nothing reaches a channel without passing a red gate, where I approve it or send it back. Results flow home and the plan adjusts.
Illustrative. Channels, agents and log entries are examples of how the system works.
In practice. Behind this is a working team of twelve agents in Buzz: a project manager, a strategist, a research lead, writers, designers, a developer and a compliance reviewer. Each one has a role and written instructions, like a job description. I set the brief and approve everything they make.
Go deeper
More time thinking. Less time typing.