:Sense is the trade name for Richard Gush - a qualitative research and UX consultant based in London.
With over a decade's experience in domestic and international research, Richard brings a wealth of experience, tools, and techniques to get to the heart of the challenge at hand.
A dynamic researcher, Richard has always worked agency side - his latest role as head of OpenMind London, the Hall & Partners brand strategy team.
Richard is an empathetic individual who quickly builds rapport with respondents, colleagues, and clients alike. His passion for brands, culture, people, and business means the interaction between these dynamics are always top of mind. A firm believer that the client question, not methodology, should drive the approach; Richard is expert at integrated methodology projects.
Richard has a wealth of experience across key strategic challenges, from behaviour change, brand migration, user centred design and communication development through to audience understanding, journey mapping, segmentation, usability and product design / innovation. These challenges have spanned various categories, most notably financial services, FMCG, digital, and consumer electronics.
A confident speaker, Richard has presented at two MRS conferences and engaged C-Suite audiences; and is equally adept at delivering sensitive stories to stakeholders - engaging teams to help drive organisational change.
Richard has an Advanced Certificate from the MRS, and has completed the MRS Advanced Qualitative Practitioner, AQR Advanced Moderation and AQR Foundation Courses. Richard graduated from the University of Stellenbosch with a BA (Hons) in Psychology, Sociology and History.
"I first met Richard at TNS, where I was his Line Manager for 2 years. During that time, I found him to be reliable, creative, professional and easy to work with. We worked together on a range of international and domestic projects across a number of sectors including Technology, Finance and Media. At all times Richard produced work of a very high standard and built excellent relationships with clients.
Since TNS I have employed Richard several times on a freelance basis. He has always been extremely professional and handled very difficult situations both patiently, and with high levels of competence. We use a variety of freelance researchers and Richard is one of the favourites of both the qualitative team and also the client teams"
Ian Horritt
Managing Director (US)
MMR Research Worldwide
“We have given Richard some difficult branding challenges this year; the work was completed in a very imaginative way, with walk through galleries, creative workshops etc. But the real strength comes in the clarity of the analysis, synthesising a complex story with many strands into a hard hitting, well thought through presentation that went right to the nub of the issues. Richard’s presented in front of our CEO, our brand teams, transformation teams with the right balance of authority and humility. I have no problem putting him in front of anyone in the organisation. More importantly, people know what actions to take following one of these presentations.”
Monique Hellel
Head of Personal Customer Insights