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GE Healthcare · Healthcare & Medical
Millions saved, 1 patent, 3 solution paths
Optimizing an Anesthesia Device for Global Surgical Teams
GE Healthcare expected to fund a costly device revision. Sylver embedded researchers with anesthesiologists in live procedures—using video, eye-tracking, and post-case walkthroughs to see what was actually breaking down.
The Insight
Don't fix the device. Fix the workflow around it.
The Activation Outcomes
Sylver workshopped the findings with GE's product team—mapping the sequential attention shifts that drive anesthesiologists' decisions. By focusing on behavior rather than mechanics, we unlocked new software and workflow innovations that bypassed the need for costly hardware retooling.
Millions saved in hardware revisions
1 new patent secured, strengthening GE's IP
3 viable solution paths defined for GE Healthcare to act on
Anesthesiologist workflow architecture mapped end-to-end
Frito-Lay · Food & Beverage
4 new product launches
Designing the Growth Formula for Frito-Lay's Hot & Spicy Portfolio
Frito-Lay wanted to scale the explosive success of Flamin' Hot Cheetos across its snack portfolio. To build this repeatable growth engine, Sylver deployed its proprietary Symbolics™ methodology to decode the subconscious emotional triggers of the hot and spicy consumer. This hybrid qual-quant study, with over 1,800 consumers, went far beyond surface-level product attributes to map the category's "emotional architecture"—equipping Frito-Lay with the definitive sensory and psychological playbook needed to dominate the spicy snacking landscape.
The Insight
The ultimate hot and spicy experience is defined by a sequential four-stage emotional journey: Spark, Burst, Sizzle, and Fuel. Rather than relying on generic heat, true success comes from engineering these precise sensory and emotional guardrails into product innovation, communication, and packaging.
The Activation Outcomes
As Sylver worked to activate these findings with Frito-Lay's teams, success followed:
Most-talked-about Super Bowl ad in PepsiCo history (Blaze + Mountain Dew Ice)
4 new products launched using this growth formula: Blaze, Flamin' Hot Nacho, Flamin' Hot Limon, and Flamin' Hot Cool Ranch
Every launch performed above market expectation
Marriott International · Retail & Consumer
Created the framework behind Marriott's award-winning mobile innovation pipeline
Charting the Innovation Roadmap for the "Always On" Traveler
To capture the loyalty of the "always-on" traveler, Marriott needed to rewrite the digital guest experience. They sought to decode exactly how mobile behavior intersects with the modern travel journey, uncovering the invisible friction points and unmet needs that could spark next-generation mobile features for brands in the Marriott portfolio. Sylver engineered an immersive, two-phase qualitative deep dive across the US—fusing real-time Travel Diaries with Asynchronous, Online Qualitative Interviews to track the unfiltered habits of travelers.
The Insight
A comprehensive "Travel and Mobile Needs Framework" was created for Marriott using Sylver's Innovation Mapping approach. This went far beyond mapping basic utility to uncover the hidden psychological drivers of the guest journey—from planning to travel to home. Multiple innovation territories emerged from this work—each informed by real consumer needs.
The Activation Outcomes
Sylver helped the team design, build, and introduce a suite of personalized mobile app experiences based on this framework.
Three new app experiences were introduced: Mobile Check-In, Mobile Requests, and Mobile Key
Two innovation awards were won: World's Most Innovative Company by Fast Company and World's Most Innovative Company by Forbes
NASA · Public Sector
Aligning workflow & technology to create efficiency
Optimizing the Collaborative Workflows of the International Space Station Planning Team
When a NASA engineering team faced low adoption rates on an internal collaboration platform, they initially sought a standard usability fix. Recognizing that the team was trapped by assumptions of how the tool should work, Sylver Consulting stepped in as a strategic partner. Rather than be a passive order-taker and approach the work as a usability initiative, we paused and pressure-tested the base assumptions of the platform. The collaborative workflow of the team was mapped and friction points highlighted.
The Insight
Low adoption wasn't a UX failure; it was a workflow failure. The platform's architectural design was fundamentally misaligned with how NASA teams actually collaborated to do their work.
The Activation Outcomes
By shifting the focus from superficial feature updates to root-cause workflow integration, NASA was able to make intentional investments in collaboration that had real workflow payoff.
Prevented wasted capital and engineering hours on unnecessary UX redesigns
Delivered a data-backed, three-year roadmap to modernize critical workflow systems and platforms
Cultivated deeper cross-organizational partnership and operational synergy across international ISS stakeholders (NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA)
City of Paterson, NJ · Public Sector
$1M Bloomberg Philanthropies winner
De-risking Crisis Intervention: Fast-Tracking Paterson's "RealFix"
When the City of Paterson became a Champion City in the 2021 Bloomberg Philanthropies' Mayors Challenge, they had a brilliant concept on paper called "RealFix." The goal was incredibly audacious: stop opioid overdoses by making it easier and faster for people to access help than they could find their next fix. But they needed to know if it would actually work in the real world. Brianna Sylver joined the team as a design coach to help them bridge that gap. Instead of just launching and hoping for the best, we put the idea through a rigorous "test-and-learn" process. We brought together everyone involved—from 911 dispatchers and EMS to doctors and pharmacists—and ran live role-plays and a mini-pilot with real residents to smooth out every single hand-off in the chain.
The Insight
Ideas don't fail because the concept is bad—they fail when the hand-offs get messy. Rehearsing the service end-to-end let the team catch and fix hidden flaws before launch.
The Activation Outcomes
This hands-on groundwork proved to the world that Paterson could actually deliver on its promise, transforming a bold concept into a massive success story.
Paterson won one of 15 $1M prizes to support implementation of "RealFix" (from 631 global applications)
RealFix was successfully launched, and gets life-saving treatment to users in crisis within 90 minutes
Team blew past their first-year goals, reaching and helping 85 unsheltered individuals when their original target was 25—a 340% success rate
Awards
Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayor's Challenge Winner
Lowe's / Shur-line · Retail & Consumer
New paint aisle design implemented across Lowe's stores nationwide
Redesigning the Paint Aisle for DIY Shoppers
Shur-Line and Lowe's wanted to grow national paint aisle revenue by making it easier and more enjoyable for DIYers to shop. To find where consumers were getting stuck, Sylver used an in-store shop-along methodology, conducting 12 real-time interviews and observing shoppers at the exact moments they faced friction in the aisle.
The Insight
Novice DIYers were making decisions through visual proxies, not labels—which meant the aisle's information architecture, not its product mix, was the lever for driving future sales.
The Activation Outcomes
Sylver coached the internal design teams of Shur-line and Lowe's on how to rapidly apply the findings to maximize revenue-per-square-foot.
Insight-to-mockup turnaround in 2 days
New paint aisle design implemented across all Lowe's stores nationwide
Shur-line category growth exceeding competitors
NWEA · Education
225% annual revenue growth
Education Leader Personas
NWEA wanted to scale its education assessment offerings but didn't understand the people buying them. Assessment Directors, Principals, Curriculum Directors, and Superintendents all had different needs, and NWEA was marketing to all of them the same way. Sylver conducted 25 in-depth interviews across four leadership roles—mapping their responsibilities, seasonal workflows, trusted information sources, and support needs.
The Insight
NWEA was doing outreach outside the window when leaders actually consider new purchases—and treating four distinct roles as one audience.
The Activation Outcomes
NWEA restructured the timing of their marketing and sales to match actual buying cycles and shifted from one-size-fits-all to role-specific outreach.
225% annual revenue growth
Marketing and sales re-timed to actual buying cycles
Acquired by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in January 2023
Paslode (ITW) · Industrial & Manufacturing
Zero return spike at launch
Cordless Framing Nailer Launch
Paslode redesigned its flagship cordless framing nailer with a completely new fuel system. The change was invisible from the outside but meant old accessories wouldn't work. If contractors grabbed the wrong fuel cells at the store, the backlash would tank the launch. Sylver simulated the real shopping experience—19 contractors walked a mock retail aisle, trying to find the right nails and fuel for the new tool.
The Insight
Signs wouldn't stop contractors from buying the wrong fuel out of habit. The solution was to remove the retail friction by gifting the new orange fuel cell with the initial purchase.
The Activation Outcomes
Paslode safely pivoted its retail strategy before launch day and:
Achieved a frictionless rollout: By bypassing the aisle and gifting the new orange fuel cell directly with the first tool purchase, Paslode completely neutralized its launch risk and turned a potential retail disaster into a seamless launch.
Protected the bottom line: The strategy worked perfectly, resulting in zero spikes in product returns and no increase in customer service calls.
Medline · Healthcare & Medical
Hero features identified for DTC line
Direct-to-Consumer DME Product Line
Medline wanted to create a new line of Durable Medical Equipment (DME) sold direct to consumers rather than through insurance reimbursement. The company needed to understand which features and concepts would incent customers to buy direct.
The Insight
Using the Kano methodology, Sylver tested 29 features and 10 concepts with participants experiencing mobility issues. Nine features were identified to anchor the product platform.
The Activation Outcomes
Sylver provided Medline with a framework to streamline engineering, maximize retail appeal, and eliminate development waste. We parsed the 29 features and 10 concepts into clear strategic buckets:
The Core Platform: Advanced seven of the 10 original concepts, anchoring the product line around nine "hero" features proven to drive direct-to-consumer purchase intent.
The Upsell Ecosystem: Isolated seven high-value accessory features to be positioned as premium add-ons rather than bloated base requirements.
The Cut List: Confidently retired 13 low-impact features, protecting profit margins by eliminating ideas that added cost without adding customer value.
eBay · Retail & Consumer
Trust-building features prioritized
Earning More From eBay Buyers
Active buyer growth was declining across eBay's key geographic markets. The company wanted to understand why people don't buy—or don't buy more—from eBay, and what it would take for shoppers to choose them over the competition. Sylver surveyed 22,349 current and prospective customers across four global markets using a hybrid qual/quant approach with Kano modeling. Study was designed to assess which marketplace features—across 8 shopping categories—would drive future purchases on the platform.
The Insight
Of the 15 marketplace features tested, the research clearly separated the needle-movers from the noise. Seven features emerged as critical performance drivers that actively build trust in the marketplace, while three were identified as experience "delighters" that bring more ease and less friction to the shopping journey. Conversely, five features were flagged by consumers as completely irrelevant to their buying decisions.
The Activation Outcomes
By pointing out exactly where eBay should focus its development resources, the project gave the team a:
Clear roadmap for retention and growth, pressure tested in four global markets.
Streamlined feature roadmap: Insight on where to direct resources to drive active buyer growth vs. what features to pause or discontinue.
Vocollect · Technology & SaaS
Product delivery re-engineered, then acquired
Rescuing the AccuNurse Next Gen
Vocollect had recently updated AccuNurse, but the update was not well received and customers were inquiring left and right about how to get out of their contracts. Sylver ran a series of seven iterative co-creation workshops to define customer success and AccuNurse's role in supporting it within long-term care facilities.
The Insight
The sessions uncovered that product implementation and training, not the product itself, were the real culprits behind customers wanting to step away from Vocollect.
The Activation Outcomes
Sylver re-engineered the product delivery process to better support customer success and scalability.
Product delivery process was redesigned: Implementation and training processes were adjusted which neutralized the contract attrition risk and transformed the delivery pipeline from a bottleneck into a scalable model.
AccuNurse positioned for acquisition: Stabilizing the customer base and securing the rollout blueprint paved the way for a high-profile exit—the product was later acquired by Honeywell and successfully relaunched as Honeywell AccuNurse.
Alcon · Healthcare & Medical
Global GTM positioning strategy defined
Launching a Reformulated Pillar Product
Alcon was planning to launch a new, reformulated version of a pillar product and needed to hone its global positioning, messaging, naming, and design. Sylver conducted focus groups with eye care professionals and consumers in the U.S., Germany, and Japan.
The Insight
Positioning, messaging, naming, and package design criteria emerged, some aligning to a global-unified stance and others requiring regional adaptation.
The Activation Outcomes
This initiative gave Alcon the strategic clarity needed to confidently finalize their Go-to-Market strategy for their new product:
Optimized global branding: Clear criteria emerged for positioning, messaging, naming, and package design that effectively aligned for a globally unified brand image.
Targeted regional customization: The research successfully identified the specific design and messaging nuances that required regional adaptation to maximize local market impact.
Pitney Bowes · Industrial & Manufacturing
Developed three next-generation offerings
Designing Next-Gen SMB Shipping
Pitney Bowes knew it was a market laggard in SMB shipping solutions, but the org was full of competing hypotheses about why, and no one could define what it would take to leapfrog the market. Sylver conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews with small- and medium-sized business owners, then hosted workshops to define new interventions and what it would take for Pitney Bowes to step into them.
The Insight
The interviews revealed key pain points across the nuanced SMB shipping journey and crisply defined the customer problems to solve around shipping.
The Activation Outcomes
By translating customer pain points into actionable strategy, the collaborative workshops helped the team leapfrog the market with a prioritized innovation pipeline:
Next-generation product offerings: The team designed three distinct product concepts, each engineered to disrupt the industry in a different way.
Strategic roadmap defined: To ensure immediate traction, these new concepts were roadmapped against existing development priorities, giving leadership a clear, unified view of which efforts to fund and focus on first.
Mozilla · Technology & SaaS
Launched in 30 countries
Building the Firefox OS Phone
Mozilla sought a development partner that could help it uncover rich insights to support the strategic vision of the Firefox OS device and the tactical requirements for its product versions. Mozilla looked to Sylver as its primary Latin American partner across three projects in the Firefox OS development cycle: The Middle-Class Consumer in Brazil, a Usability Study, and a Post-Market Launch test in Brazil and Colombia.
The Insight
Sylver's insights became foundational to the Gen 1 release specifications of the Firefox OS device worldwide.
The Activation Outcomes
Spending time with users in Latin America—across three stages of the phone’s development—gave the team insight on what was needed to succeed on a global scale:
Global product specs were defined: The research cut through regional assumptions, uncovering core consumer needs that directly shaped the Gen 1 device specifications used for the worldwide launch.
Crucial partnerships were secured: On-the-ground insights guided Mozilla’s regional strategy, helping them forge their strongest and most successful carrier partnerships across Latin America.
30-country release was fueled: Backed by these validated market strategies, the Firefox OS device successfully expanded its footprint, ultimately launching in 30 countries.
DentaQuest · Healthcare & Medical
Sparked the launch of Preventistry
Ideal Care Model for Medicaid CHIP
DentaQuest wanted to explore what the ideal model of care might look like for populations insured via Medicaid CHIP. Sylver executed immersive journey mapping research and persona development to identify the key pain points and barriers to routine dental care among caretakers of Medicaid CHIP youth and the providers who support them.
The Insight
The ideal care model requires a shift from traditional, reactive clinical treatments to continuous patient engagement beyond the dental office. To fix the system, the organization must move past treating oral disease after the fact and focus entirely on preventing it from happening in the first place.
The Activation Outcomes
By mapping out these behavioral realities, Sylver’s persona and journey mapping work successfully helped spin up a whole new side of DentaQuest’s business:
The launch of Preventistry: The insights directly contributed to the creation of Preventistry, a major new organizational effort centered entirely around preventing oral health disease rather than just treating it.
Seven platforms of opportunity: The team defined seven clear innovation platforms to serve as a continual reference point for DentaQuest's future innovation agendas and intervention strategies.
Actionable user frameworks: The initiative delivered two comprehensive journey maps and user personas—one for caregivers and one for providers—giving teams an empathetic playbook to guide their innovation and outreach efforts.
Best Buy · Retail & Consumer
Store prototypes prioritized for funding
Designing the Store of the Future
Best Buy wanted to create its "store of the future." In the project's first phase, Sylver leveraged ethnographic research to understand how products, people, and daily retail processes come together in the store environment. Building on those initial field insights, the team designed and tested new multi-channel, interactive, customer-facing workstations with front-line employees.
The Insight
Co-creation sessions with employees revealed which experience concepts were genuinely worth building and funding, and which ones looked good only in theory.
The Activation Outcomes
The project helped Best Buy confidently design and invest in its next-generation retail experience, as each new in-store experience was pressure test for its day-to-day operability and ROI.
Ethnographic research across the store environment
Multi-channel interactive prototypes built and evaluated with associates
Helped Best Buy prioritize which workstations to fund
ETS · Education
5 commercial applications ideated
New Applications for a Proprietary Technology
ETS partnered with Sylver to identify viable marketplace applications for a proprietary text-adaptation technology. Sylver brought members of the client team and industry experts together for a multi-day co-creation workshop to map out new commercial pathways for the tool's capabilities.
The Insight
The workshop surfaced that the text adaptation technology had genuine commercial relevance well beyond its original context, across multiple industries.
The Activation Outcomes
Over the course of just three days, the strategic collaboration accelerated ETS's go-to-market pipeline:
Rapid venture ideation: The workshop successfully generated five distinct, feasible commercial applications for the proprietary tool.
Multi-industry diversification: The newly defined application frameworks strategically positioned the technology to scale across five entirely different industries.
Kinetico · Industrial & Manufacturing
Concept advancing to market launch
IoT Connectivity for Food Service Water
Kinetico, a water management company serving food service establishments worldwide, wanted to integrate IoT connectivity into its product but did not know where to invest for maximum impact. Sylver engaged a three-phase process: qualitative interviews across the food service ecosystem, a Translating Insights into Opportunity workshop, and quantitative concept testing for market acceptance.
The Insight
Five connectivity platform opportunities emerged from the qualitative interviews, which the workshop then narrowed to four prioritized concepts.
The Activation Outcomes
Sylver tested the four concepts quantitatively. The results:
Validated market demand: Each concept was evaluated by food service buyers to guarantee market acceptance.
A Go-To-Market playbook: The survey was structured to deliver the positioning and launch strategy insights the team needed to build out the winning concept for market launch.
ACT · Education
Aligning the enterprise around a single customer truth
Building Multi-Segment Personas and Journey Maps for ACT
Product and marketing teams at ACT struggled to develop experiences and position products for a diverse clientele due to an overreliance on untested hypotheses. Sylver conducted qualitative research to build comprehensive personas and journey maps for core enterprise client segments, including teachers, education administrators, students, parents, and admissions officers.
The Insight
The research successfully replaced internal guesswork with a single, validated source of truth, aligning the organization around the actual needs of ACT's core client segments.
The Activation Outcomes
The resulting deliverables immediately shifted how ACT approaches long-term strategy and cross-functional planning:
Strategic anchoring: Teams across the enterprise adopted the newly created personas and journey maps as foundational strategic and action-planning documents.
Fueled internal innovation: Upon the publication of each segment persona and journey map, the ACT team spearheaded and ran targeted design sprints to surface new Horizon 2 and 3 growth opportunities.
Enterprise-wide alignment: The framework established a unified language and clear direction for product development and marketing across all five core customer segments for the business.
LiftMaster · Industrial & Manufacturing
Expanded into warehouse and cold storage
Motorize More Doors
LiftMaster, a maker of commercial-grade automatic garage doors, wanted to explore whether it could expand its commercial door offering into the warehouse channel. To test the waters, commercial doors were installed inside a working refrigerated warehouse for a full month. Sylver then conducted on-the-ground ethnographic research with employees at every level to understand how the equipment impacted daily operations, then sized the market potential for motorized commercial warehouse doors.
The Insight
The unlock potential of the category wasn't about the speed or durability of the doors; it was access control. The in-warehouse testing revealed that giving facility managers the ability to manage and track who was entering and exiting their spaces was the hook for motorizing more commercial doors in the warehouse domain.
The Activation Outcomes
As a result of Sylver's work, LiftMaster expanded into the commercial warehouse and cold storage domain and now sells motorized doors with myQ Business, a cloud-based access management platform. This work and approach helped to:
Greenlight LiftMaster’s expansion into refrigerated warehouses: Combining live prototyping with market sizing gave the executive team the validation needed to fund the investment.
Deepening LiftMaster’s market defensibility: Extended advanced myQ features to commercial clients, building a strong competitive barrier against new market entrants.
Aires · Technology & SaaS
3 workflows prioritized for redesign
Defining the Next Gen IRIS
IRIS is the enterprise backbone that runs Aires. The company wanted to make the system easier to use, faster to learn, and better at connecting with other internal tools—but leadership needed to know exactly where to invest their time and budget for the biggest impact. Sylver designed a three-part project that engaged 387 IRIS users through qualitative interviews, quantitative Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) research, and a series of collaborative workshops to turn data into action.
The Insight
The research cut through the noise to pinpoint three specific workflows that were causing the most friction. By mapping out exactly how these tasks interacted behind the scenes, the team was able to see how fixing them together would completely transform the day-to-day experience for users.
The Activation Outcomes
By taking the guesswork out of the software roadmap, the research gave the development team a clear, validated starting point for the redesign:
Three high-impact workflows prioritized for redesign: This showed the team exactly where to focus development, creating a clear blueprint for a much smoother, end-to-end user experience.
Alignment to move into production: The clear user data united the team, allowing developers to skip the guesswork and start building the new workflows directly in the live system.
City of Chillicothe · Public Sector
Redefining the role and value of public transit
Revamping Chillicothe's Public Transit System
Chillicothe, Ohio partnered with Brianna Sylver—serving as the city's design coach via the 2021 Bloomberg Harvard Leadership Initiative—to redesign its transit system. Brianna guided the city through ethnographic research to map current ridership perceptions and isolate five key barriers holding back system growth.
The Insight
Brianna focused the city’s ideation efforts around these five barriers, helping the team generate hundreds of concepts and select eight new solutions for their core portfolio—prioritizing on-demand transit and a community trolley for immediate prototyping and testing.
The Activation Outcomes
Under Brianna’s coaching and strategic direction, the city transformed its transit network and surpassed its project goals within two years:
Full portfolio execution: Chillicothe successfully brought all eight identified portfolio solutions to life within 24 months of completing the program.
Massive ridership boost: System utilization surged under the new model, increasing total transit usage by 38,000 trips in a single year.
Expanded community reach: The redesigned system successfully welcomed approximately 1,400 brand-new, unique passengers to Chillicothe's transit network.
Arity · Technology & SaaS
Blue Ocean strategy co-created
Finding Blue Ocean Growth in Telematics
Arity, a telematics service provider, had built a technically robust product that lacked widescale insurance industry adoption. The company wanted to escape its "Red Ocean" competitive space by understanding the current market mental model of telematics and defining new offerings that would create value for insurance agencies. Sylver used a four-phase approach: exploratory interviews with insurance executives, a "What If?" ideation workshop, concept evaluation interviews, and a Lego Serious Play workshop.
The Insight
Concept evaluation interviews surfaced three product platforms to evaluate, and the work identified which parts of the business needed to be eliminated, reduced, raised, or created to reach a "Blue Ocean" strategy.
The Activation Outcomes
Arity co-created the strawman of its "Blue Ocean" strategy, and internal workstreams are now being established for four key attributes to add to its strategy canvas, each addressing unmet customer needs competitors have not.
Four-phase approach from interviews to Lego Serious Play
Three product platforms surfaced for evaluation
Four "Blue Ocean" attributes moving into internal workstreams
Fritos · Food & Beverage
Top box scores up 13% points in 6 months
Making Fritos the Stand-Up Chip
The Fritos brand, of Frito-Lay, was struggling to build a bridge from where it was—"a brand bought out of respect for my grandmother"—to where it wanted to be: "a brand loved for its role in my life". Partnering with Sylver, the company sought to identify the core tenets needed to transform its market perception. Sylver utilized its proprietary Symbolics™ methodology—a hybrid qual/quant behavioral economics technique—to decode the emotional meaning of Fritos to consumers and define what it would take to claim a new positioning as the "stand-up chip that is down for everything" with the family-value-oriented "Heartsteader" consumer.
The Insight
The research produced the blueprint for how Fritos could take root in the identity, hearts, and homes of Heartsteader consumers—what would transform the brand from a nostalgic afterthought into an intentional, everyday staple.
The Activation Outcomes
This initiative successfully aligned the brand's messaging strategy and delivered immediate, measurable market impact:
GTM communication strategy brief: A comprehensive marketing blueprint detailing exactly how the Fritos portfolio could take root and resonate with the Heartsteader segment.
Rapid brand growth: The strategic deployment of that GTM brief successfully moved the brand's top two box metrics by 13 percentage points in less than six months.
Internal best-in-class benchmark: This methodology, approach, and blueprint framework are now utilized as the internal corporate gold standard for how to do tribe-based messaging platform work across PepsiCo Frito-Lay.
BAKED · Food & Beverage
Brand relaunched in 2026
Understanding the BAKED Tribe Consumer
The BAKED brand originally launched in 1996 with a unique "less fat" value proposition. However, over time, that core messaging lost its market distinctiveness. To stand out in the existing market landscape, BAKED partnered with Sylver to get reacquainted with their consumer tribe and hone their market positioning. Sylver deployed a three-phase qualitative approach: a 90-minute "Setting the Stage for Success" kickoff, consumer qualitative research, and a collaborative brand pulse workshop.
The Insight
The research revealed who the current BAKED consumer is and isn't, the human truth and core tension that drives them, and the unique role BAKED plays in resolving that tension.
The Activation Outcomes
This initiative successfully aligned the brand, insights and R&D team on:
Who their consumer was: A profile that differed from initial assumptions.
A strategy for how to reposition the brand that was going to be resonate with this new consumer.
Successful market relaunch: Armed with these strategic guideposts, the BAKED brand successfully relaunched in January 2026 to better capture and support its modern consumer tribe.
Mailchimp · Technology & SaaS
Marketplace launched in 2021
GTM Strategy for Mailchimp Marketplace
Mailchimp needed to define the content, structure, and ideal target audience for its new Marketplace, as well as the optimal moment in the customer journey to introduce it. Sylver designed a three-phase approach: qualitative interviews to build initial hypotheses, a global survey across five markets yielding over 1,000 completes to validate demand, and a collaborative workshop to turn these insights into a concrete action plan.
The Insight
The research pinpointed the problems the Marketplace needed to solve for users and identified the specific proof points required to build customer trust—establishing the core messaging platform for the launch.
The Activation Outcomes
By grounding the launch strategy in validated global user data, the team cleared a path to market:
GTM playbook delivered: The strategy brief defined the ideal target audience and mapped out the best entry points for sharing the Marketplace in the user journey.
Internal teams united for launch: The collaborative workshops aligned leadership, product, and marketing teams around a shared activation roadmap, turning a unified strategy into the successful rollout of the Mailchimp Marketplace.
Grove Collaborative · Retail & Consumer
Refining Grove's GTM strategy
Developing Personas to Sharpen Grove's GTM Strategy
Grove Collaborative, an e-commerce retailer of natural home and personal care products, partnered with Sylver to run a 3-day online discussion board with over 40 consumers. The study explored purchasing drivers, brand trust, product terminology, and potential category expansions.
The Insight
Four customer personas were defined, each meant to fuel targeted retention, acquisition, and expansion strategies for Grove Collaborative.
The Activation Outcomes
Grove’s corporate strategy and day-to-day operations are now guided by these customer personas, achieved through two key socialization and integration initiatives:
Cross-functional leadership alignment: Sales, marketing, and product leaders engaged in a 4-hour workshop to immediately map persona activation to revenue and engagement goals within their respective workstreams.
Company-wide persona training: The entire organization completed training—over a 6-month period—on how to use the personas as a decision-making asset within their departments.
Inside Rx · Healthcare & Medical
Multi-year strategic roadmap to greater market share
Positioning Inside Rx as an Industry Leader
Inside Rx was trying to find its footing in the competitive discount prescription market, which was dominated by players like GoodRx. They were dealing with a confusing user experience and low brand awareness, so they teamed up with Sylver to find better ways to connect with patients, doctors, and pharmacists. Sylver designed a 5-step approach: a "Setting the Stage for Success" workshop; in-depth interviews with 22 pharmacists, PCPs, and NPs; online research with 36 consumers; journey mapping and persona development; and an activation workshop.
The Insight
Inside Rx learned they couldn't rely on a uniform message; instead, they needed tailored engagement journeys across three distinct consumer personas. By mapping the qualitative data down to core "Moments that Matter" for each archetype, Sylver identified exactly where and how healthcare professionals—like pharmacists, PCPs, and NPs—could step in to help patients easily navigate medication costs.
The Activation Outcomes
By looking closely at how people procure their prescriptions, the project gave the Inside Rx team a clear plan for where to focus next:
Clarity on the customer journey: A comprehensive journey map and five distinct marketing personas unpacked the end-to-end user experience of discount Rx programs.
Three new engagement strategies: Targeted interventions designed to drive deeper activation and engagement with Inside Rx among patients, providers, and pharmacists.
Multi-year strategic roadmap: Designed to shape and anchor the core 2023 and 2024 strategy goals for the Inside Rx organization.
Incisive Technologies · Healthcare & Medical
Created USA GTM strategy for BlueCheck
GTM Strategy for a New Dental Product
Incisive Technologies, an Australian start-up, invented a novel dental product called BlueCheck and wanted to introduce it to the highly competitive US market. Partnering with Sylver, they launched an initiative to establish the product's core value proposition for US clinics, identify exactly who to target at launch, and figure out how to integrate the tool into existing practice workflows. The project kicked off with a stakeholder alignment workshop, followed by 20 in-depth interviews and feature-ranking sessions with dentists and hygienists across various practice types.
The Insight
The research disproved several core go-to-market assumptions. Clinicians overwhelmingly identified an entirely different value proposition for the device. This critical pivot allowed Incisive to bypass an ineffective market entry and match their positioning to how providers naturally wanted to use the technology.
The Activation Outcomes
By aligning the product's positioning with how clinicians actually wanted to use it, the project gave Incisive a clear, validated commercial strategy for its US rollout:
Two targeted Go-to-Market plays: Detailed strategic playbooks tailored to specific audience segments, outlining the service structure, technology support, and exact steps needed to engage practice decision-makers for the product’s US clinic launch.
Early adopter profiles: Clear criteria identifying the specific professional traits and office environments that distinguish early adopters from clinicians who are likely to resist the new technology.
Savvas · Education
Fueled an award-winning relaunch
Designing an Award-Winning Digital Experience for High School Math
Savvas' Math Product Team sought to integrate inquiry-based approaches into high school teaching, sparking an internal concept for a new software solution. Savvas engaged Sylver to shape this early-stage idea into a desirable, feasible, and commercially viable market concept.
The Insight
A three-step collaborative process—moving from a remote kickoff through an Uncovering Assumptions Workshop to a Co-Visioning Workshop with high school math educators, curriculum authors, and Savvas staff—successfully defined the UX specifications required for the new software.
The Activation Outcomes
The research delivered an actionable blueprint that accelerated the product from an early concept to an award-winning market release:
Defined UX product specifications that clearly identified the value proposition, mapped the ideal user and use cases, visualized key features via paper prototypes, and flagged critical technical watchouts.
Fueled a major market relaunch: These insights directly supported the successful 2023 relaunch of Savvas' flagship enVision Mathematics line.
Industry-recognized excellence: The optimized product went on to achieve elite industry recognition, winning both the 2024 EdTech Breakthrough Award and the 2024 SIIA CODiE Award.
Roycemore School · Education
Unlocked access to new funding
Growing High School Enrollment and Retention
Roycemore School's Admissions and Marketing Team needed to uncover the distinct push and pull factors driving high school enrollment. The research aimed to pinpoint the primary motivators for families seeking a small, private school experience and define how Roycemore's Upper School could uniquely fulfill those expectations.
The Insight
Through five targeted focus groups involving 12 parents and 24 students, Sylver tested four core hypotheses regarding student retention and attrition. The sessions successfully mapped what current and prospective families want and need most from the Upper School experience.
The Activation Outcomes
The resulting insights were translated into an actionable roadmap to drive future school growth:
A roadmap for growth: Sylver put together a practical enrollment plan that clearly mapped out the school's core value proposition and where it stands in the market.
Ready for Day One: We turned the findings into a straightforward to-do list that the admissions team could start using for the upcoming school year.
Boardroom ready: The final recommendations gave leadership exactly what they needed to present to the School Board and build into Roycemore’s annual development goals.
COMPASS · Public Sector
Evaluation partner since 2020
Evaluating a First Responder Wellness Program
The COMPASS program aims to reduce voluntary discharge, improve morale, and lower healthcare costs for the Huntington Police and Fire Departments. Sylver was commissioned to help COMPASS staff build a robust evaluation framework to systematically measure and track the program's impact.
The Insight
Sylver built a comprehensive evaluation framework—incorporating a Theory of Change, an Impact Measurement Plan, and a bi-annual survey—to track first responder health, resilience, empathy, and organizational culture.
The Activation Outcomes
Serving as the program's dedicated evaluation partner from 2020 - 2024, Sylver’s framework has turned data into ongoing institutional change:
Targeted health interventions: The twice-a-year evaluation has equipped the city and COMPASS leadership to deploy precise mental and physical health support to combat first responder burnout.
Infrastructure evolution: Insight from the ongoing assessments has sparked the creation of a new, physically integrated wellness center for the forces.
Strategic program pivots: Data-driven feedback successfully expanded COMPASS’ scope to address broader forms of occupational stress and trauma.
Building Green St. Paul · Public Sector
Program reshaped for equity
Optimizing workforce development for equity and inclusion
Saint Paul, Minnesota was developing Building Green St. Paul, a cross-sector collaboration focused on climate resilience, equity, and workforce development. Sylver was hired to identify programmatic gaps to ensure the initiative effectively met its core equity goals.
The Insight
A two-phase research process—anchored by interviews with BIPOC and women demographic groups (N=19) and feedback from pilot completers (N=4)—revealed how existing programs fell short, proving that integrating more hands-on trade learning would significantly strengthen the model.
The Activation Outcomes
The research delivered structural and regional shifts to advance equitable workforce development:
Inclusive program design: The structural gaps identified were used to redesign Building Green St. Paul, making the initiative significantly more supportive of the specific life and work needs of BIPOC and women participants.
Shifted participant mindsets: The hands-on pilot successfully transformed participants' attitudes toward trade careers, sparking a measurable increase in long-term interest.
Regional impact: The project’s findings expanded beyond the city, sparking new, equity-focused employment conversations across the broader St. Paul/Minneapolis metro region.
Check M.A.T.E.S. · Education
Unlocked new funding access
An Impact Measurement Plan for STEAM Learning
Sylver was brought in to build an impact and evaluation plan for the Check M.A.T.E.S. Program. The initiative is dedicated to boosting student self-efficacy and closing achievement gaps in STEAM subjects for children in the Fairfield neighborhood of Huntington, WV—a predominantly African American community.
The Insight
To ground the framework in proven social science, Sylver anchored the entire plan around the four core pillars that drive student self-efficacy: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological feedback.
The Activation Outcomes
By collaborating closely with program coordinators, staff, and funders, Sylver turned these behavioral insights into an actionable long-term strategy:
A 3-year roadmap laid out exactly what to look for, what data to track, and when to measure it so the team could prove the impact of the program.
Systemic data tracking opened doors to new funding: Beyond just getting everyone on the same page, this plan gave the program the credible data structure they needed to successfully pitch for and win new funding.
Cheetos · Food & Beverage
Shaped new packaging and creative
Refining the Rejuvenile Tribe of Cheetos
Cheetos was working to transition from the family fun brand it once was to a brand that enables the mischievous fun of adults seeking a break from the pressures of adulting. It needed insight to define the distinctive resonating tensions of its Core tribe (Rejuveniles) and its Flamin' Hot tribe (Firebreathers), and the role of Cheetos in resolving that tension.
The Insight
Using its Symbolics methodology, Sylver uncovered the core beliefs and truths of the Rejuvenile and Firebreather tribes and the role the Cheetos Core and Flamin' Hot product experiences play in supporting those truths.
The Activation Outcomes
This project gave Cheetos a clear plan for how to unlock new growth for the brand:
Global alignment on who the Cheetos consumer is: Rejuvenile and Firebreather truths and tensions were mapped using Sylver’s Symbolics™ methodology. N=2,757 consumers across 5 international markets participated: the US, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and Turkey.
A new brand strategy: The insights inspired new packaging designs and creative messaging tailored to adult-oriented “mischievous fun”.
New internal standard: This approach to mapping consumer tribes is now considered the gold standard for understanding audiences across Frito-Lay’s brands.
Pinemelon · Retail & Consumer
Unlocked growth into a new market
Optimizing Go-to-Market Strategy & Customer Positioning
To secure investor buy-in and scale into new markets, e-grocery startup Pinemelon partnered with Sylver to develop a data-backed go-to-market strategy and a refined value proposition. Sylver executed a four-phase research approach: a 90-minute “Setting the Stage for Success” kickoff, a light quantitative survey (N=300), a three-day online qualitative board (N=24), and a 4-hour Sensemaking Workshop.
The Insight
Pinemelon defined the demographic and psychographic profile of its ideal customer, uncovering the value proposition and messaging strategy needed to attract, acquire, and retain them.
The Activation Outcomes
By executing the strategic next steps defined in the Sensemaking Workshop, Pinemelon successfully accelerated its market presence:
Rapid market expansion: Insights fueled Pinemelon's expansion into the Boulder market just six months post-study.
Proven ROI: The strategy accelerated acquisition so effectively that CEO Alexey Lee noted, "We have finally unlocked growth in which your research undoubtedly played a significant role."
Doritos · Food & Beverage
Reframed the core consumer tribe
Redefining the Doritos Tribe Post-Pandemic
Doritos needed a firm regrounding on who their core consumer is today, what they care about, and how the brand fits into their daily lives. Partnering with Sylver, they set out to unpack the emotional, unconscious connections people have with the brand across four core product categories: Core, Intense, Flamin' Hot, and Dinamita. Sylver used its Symbolics™ methodology and engaged 1,933 consumers nationwide to provide this understanding.
The Insight
The research revealed that the attitudes, traits, and mindsets of the core Doritos consumer had shifted dramatically following the pandemic—especially among teenagers and young adults. Doritos serves as a bold release valve.
The Activation Outcomes
Getting everyone on the same page gave the brand a clear, cohesive way to scale and build long-term momentum in the market.
Off the Eaten Path · Food & Beverage
Aligned the brand across countries
Understanding the Curiosity-Seeking Consumer
Off the Eaten Path (OTEP) was a brand new brand positioned as "snacks for the curious," but the team did not understand who their Curiosity Seeking Tribe Consumer was or what would make OTEP stand out among better-for-you products. Sylver ran a 14-day asynchronous online qualitative study with N=47 women to define that consumer and to learn how OTEP could embody its positioning, examining how curiosity shows up in people's lives and shapes food and beverage choices.
The Insight
The research defined who the Curiosity Seeking Tribe Consumer is and how OTEP could purposefully own its "Snacks for the Curious" positioning for that consumer.
The Activation Outcomes
The work brought cross-country alignment to a brand that previously had divergent positioning and marketing between the USA and UK, aligning its positioning and innovation roadmap.
N=47 women in a 14-day online qual study
Curiosity Seeking Tribe Consumer defined
Aligned USA and UK positioning and roadmap
Novantas · Financial Services
Launched a new service capability
What Drives Distinction in Consumer Banking
This project set out to understand the full range of drivers behind consumer demand and choice of a retail bank, including baseline expectations for any banking relationship and which bank actions would actually drive selection. 306 bank consumers took part in 60-minute one-on-one interviews using the AI-powered qual-quant Remesh platform.
The Insight
The research mapped 34 distinct value drivers into five core themes: Show Me You Care, Teach & Empower Me, Meet My Needs, Reward Me, and Bring the Bank to Me. Crucially, these drivers were separated into baseline expectations (the stakes to play) versus true switching triggers (the reasons to win).
The Activation Outcomes
By transforming raw consumer feedback into a structured strategic framework, this project delivered an enduring asset for the consultancy’s advisory business:
Novantas’ distinctiveness framework was updated, giving the team a sharper tool to diagnose exactly where and how financial brands can stand out in crowded, regional markets.
New framework became a foundational pillar of Novantas’ (now Curinos) value proposition service offering, giving consultants a data-backed blueprint to guide bank executives.
Thrivent · Financial Services
Shaping a new digital banking experience
Building “Financial Clarity” into Thrivent’s Digital Banking Experience
The project set out to understand what it would take for Thrivent to deliver on its value proposition of "financial clarity through empowerment" in an online, digital banking experience, built on pillars of simplifying financial goals, building resilience, and propelling progress. Sylver ran a two-phase plan: a 3-hour ideation workshop that generated seven concepts, then IDIs with 20 participants testing each concept for fit with the value proposition and likelihood of use.
The Insight
Each of the seven concepts laddered to Thrivent's value proposition, and the research showed where to prioritize the build—what worked, watchouts, lingering consumer questions, and suggested updates.
The Activation Outcomes
Pressure-testing each new digital concept directly with users supported the team to:
De-risk the launch of its “financial clarity through empowerment” value prop: Every concept was optimized to deliver on that promise.
Create the playbook to amplify that promise in every digital touchpoint of the brand.
USAA · Financial Services
Anchored the 2024 messaging framework for the brand
Refining the USAA Membership Value Proposition
USAA wanted to sharpen and refocus its brand identity and core value proposition. To understand how customers truly connect with the brand and how it stacks up against the competition, Sylver moderated 24 in-depth interviews with both current and prospective members. The research spanned individuals across USAA’s life insurance, P&C insurance, and banking services to uncover exactly how different audiences perceive the brand’s ultimate value.
The Insight
The research defined the core problem USAA solves and what sets it apart from traditional banks. Crucially, the team mapped out how this value resonates across distinct segments—including veterans, spouses, and dependents—giving the brand a clear framework for targeted messaging.
The Activation Outcomes
By grounding their brand strategy in deep member insights, USAA successfully:
Modernized its market position: The strategic insights directly informed and defined USAA’s overarching value proposition for their 2023/2024 brand rollout.
Expanded its audience reach: The research provided a clear roadmap to successfully extend the brand’s reach into highly valued, under-tapped military dependent segments.
Mary Kay · Retail & Consumer
Shaped the relaunch of a pillar product
Unlocking the Next Chapter of Growth for Mary Kay TimeWise
Hoping to outpace past sales benchmarks for its TimeWise Miracle Set 3D line, Mary Kay teamed up with Sylver to build a global growth strategy by uncovering exactly what customers wanted improved. Sylver ran four 3-hour co-creation workshops—bringing together independent beauty consultants, Mary Kay personnel, and researchers—to dive deep into product performance, customer jobs-to-be-done, packaging aesthetics, and daily routines.
The Insight
The Co-Creation Workshops delivered a clear, dual-focused roadmap: sharp messaging guidance for advertising and packaging, paired with direct product feedback emphasizing the need for simpler ingredients and routines.
The Activation Outcomes
The resulting insights gave the team an immediate, practical blueprint for modernizing the line globally:
Guided product updates: The recommendations directly shaped the overarching strategy and recent updates made to the TimeWise Miracle Set 3D line.
Simplified the value proposition: The twin strategies aligned corporate teams and independent consultants around a clearer, higher-impact way to talk about and position the products globally.
Cracker Jack'D · Food & Beverage
Five c-store strategies delivered
Mapping the Convenience-Store Shopping Path
Cracker Jack'D's primary distribution channel was the convenience store, and the team partnered with Sylver for strategic direction on the purchase "hot zones" within c-stores, how to build awareness, and where to place the product to attract attention. 14 shoppers recorded their c-store trips using a Bluetooth head-mounted camera over multiple days, with no assigned task, so the team could observe how people naturally shopped—the paths taken, time at the shelf, and what they chose.
The Insight
A taxonomy of shopping patterns revealed how the c-store is actually shopped, how much time a brand has to intercept consumers at each stage, and the role different products play as target items, secondary purchases, and impulse buys.
The Activation Outcomes
Sylver translated the shopping-behavior insights into five impactful c-store marketing strategies aimed at increasing brand awareness and driving product conversion.
14 head-mounted-camera shopping trips
Taxonomy of c-store shopping patterns produced
Five c-store marketing strategies delivered
Cracker Jack · Food & Beverage
Picked the winning package design
Choosing the New Cracker Jack Package
Cracker Jack was undergoing a restaging effort, wanting to appeal to young families while keeping its older, loyal consumer base. Sylver conducted a package concept test among N=1,494 consumers to identify which of four new design options—compared to the current design—would most entice young families, least alienate current users, be easiest to find on shelf, and best align to the brand's humanity metrics.
The Insight
The test identified the design that resonated most with both current consumers and young families, plus which elements of the top performers resonated and which could be refined further.
The Activation Outcomes
By taking the guesswork out of the redesign, the research gave Cracker Jack a clear, data-backed path to modernize without losing its heritage. The team walked away with a:
Winning package design that successfully attracts younger families while keeping its most loyal fans happy.
Confident leadership team—belief that the new look would protect their current business and retail partnerships while opening the door to a fresh generation of consumers.
BioFilm · Healthcare & Medical
Award-winning product launch
Prototyping Spray 'n Glide Before Launch
BioFilm partnered with Sylver to test a high-fidelity prototype of its innovative Spray 'n Glide personal lubricant, aiming to understand user perceptions and identify critical pivots before launch. The four-week study engaged 34 participants in a multi-week In-Home Usage Test (IHUT) and structured online qualitative discussion board, culminating in a targeted improvement workshop with the R&D team.
The Insight
The research surfaced recommendations for optimizing both the product's formulation and packaging and its marketing positioning and messaging.
The Activation Outcomes
By acting on real-world consumer feedback prior to launch, the BioFilm team executed critical refinements that paved the way for immediate market success:
Formulation and packaging refinements: The team optimized both the physical package ergonomics and the container's aesthetic artwork based on user diary data.
Award-winning release: Following these strategic modifications, Spray 'n Glide won multiple high-profile accolades upon release, including the Pure Beauty UK Awards 2022 and a Highly Commended placement by GQ for Best New Sexual or Intimate Care Product.
Evernorth · Healthcare & Medical
Vision turned into an action map
Defining the Home-Based Care Strategy
Evernorth’s Home-Based Care (HBC) group had a clear three-year strategic vision, but the leadership team struggled to align and mobilize resources toward it. Operating as a corporate "start-up" constrained by the larger organization's legacy processes, they engaged Sylver to translate their vision into an executable strategy. Sylver designed and hosted a hands-on, two-day LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshop to establish what HBC is at its core, identify the primary market actors, and map out the vital connections between them.
The Insight
The team gained clarity on how their parent organization—Evernorth—was acting as both a powerful enabler and a structural constraint to their success. Recognizing this dual dynamic allowed them to stop fighting corporate friction and instead design a strategy that actively navigates it.
The Activation Outcomes
This initiative successfully aligned the leadership team around an actionable path forward by delivering:
A shared strategic map of HBC's commercial landscape, detailing competitors, partners, regulators, and clients and the connections between them.
A prioritized action list: A concrete set of near-term focus areas designed to help the team gain immediate commercial traction.
An executable roadmap: An aligned plan built to mobilize resources and drive steady progress towards HBC’s 3-year vision.
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