IWCI works with six methods: document and data analysis, expert interviews, survey design, benchmarking, assessment against fixed criteria and prioritisation with a roadmap. The question decides which of them a project needs. We have used every method in real mandates, and every project ends in charts a board can decide with.
The question decides the method. Not the other way round.
Many providers sell their favourite tool. The panel company sells surveys, the consultancy sells workshops, the agency sells creative work. The client's question is bent to fit.
We turn that around. We start with the decision in front of you. Buy or walk away. Market A or market B. Continue, adjust or stop. Only then do we pick the methods that make exactly this decision robust. Usually three or four of the six, rarely all of them.
The six methods at a glance
Document and data analysis
Assess documents and figures against targets, using one consistent grid.
Proven in Commercial due diligence 2025
Expert interviews and qualitative research
Interview guide, confidential conversations, content analysis by category.
Proven in Health economics study · CDD · Customer service 2030 study
Survey design
Shared question core, modules per target group, field management and analysis.
Proven in Study design healthcare market 2026
Benchmarking and context
Place findings against strategy, comparable cases and trends.
Proven in Health economics study · Customer service 2030 study
Assessment against criteria
Fixed grid before the analysis, evidence for every statement, scenarios where needed.
Proven in Health economics study · CDD
Prioritisation and roadmap
Fields of action by importance, impact and prerequisites, with a time horizon.
Proven in Customer service 2030 study · Health economics study
01 Document and data analysis
The underrated start. Business plans, concepts, reports, figures. We do not skim them, we assess them against the original targets with one consistent grid. That shows what was planned and what actually happened. Cost to the client: almost nothing, the data usually exists already.
02 Expert interviews and qualitative research
The core. An interview guide, confidential conversations, analysis by category. This is where causes surface that no questionnaire captures. What matters is who asks: a neutral person gets answers nobody inside ever hears.
03 Survey design
When breadth is needed, the architecture has to be clean. Our standard: a shared question core so target groups become comparable, plus modules only the respective group can answer. Sampling logic, field management and analysis from one source.
04 Benchmarking and context
A result without a yardstick is an opinion. We set findings against strategy, comparable cases from other countries or industries and foreseeable trends. Only then is it clear whether a value is good, normal or alarming.
05 Assessment against criteria
The grid is fixed before the analysis. Not after. Every statement gets evidence, every rating a source. Where the future is open, we calculate scenarios instead of a single number.
06 Prioritisation and roadmap
The step where many studies stop. We do not. Fields of action are ranked by importance, impact and prerequisites and placed on a timeline, with owners. That turns a finding into a work plan.
Robust only from several angles
A single source can be wrong. Documents describe intentions, decision makers have a perspective, customers see only their slice. So we lay the sources on top of each other. Researchers call it triangulation.
Where all sources agree, it is proven. Where they diverge, that is where action is needed.
What ends up on the table
Nobody reads a 120 page report in full. So we build results that work in the next meeting. Depending on the project, up to five charts:
Balance matrix
Targets against delivery, each field rated: achieved, partly, open.
Perspective profile
How customers, partners and employees see the same topic, side by side.
Prioritisation matrix
Fields of action by importance and impact.
Roadmap
Recommendations on a timeline, with owners.
Management summary
Five to seven pages for decision makers.
The charts are schematic. The content is created in the project.
How a project runs
- Kick off. Which decision is due, what is already known, who has to be convinced at the end.
- Fix the grid. Criteria and questions are agreed upfront. We do not change them later, so the result does not follow a wish.
- Collect. Documents, interviews, survey, depending on the method mix.
- Assess and contextualise. Evidence for every statement, benchmark, scenarios where needed.
- Prioritise. Fields of action by importance and impact, with a time horizon.
- Present. In the board meeting, with a clear recommendation. Not as an email attachment.
What this means for you
- Ask every provider in which project they have already used their method.
- Insist that the assessment criteria are fixed before the analysis.
- Demand more than one source for every important statement.
- Judge the result by whether your board can decide with it.
FAQ
Which methods does IWCI use?
Six methods: document and data analysis, expert interviews and qualitative research, survey design, benchmarking and context, assessment against fixed criteria, and prioritisation with a roadmap. Which of them a project needs depends on the decision it has to prepare.
What does triangulation mean?
A result is derived from several independent sources, such as documents, interviews with decision makers, customers and employees. Where all of them agree, a statement is proven. Where they diverge, that is usually where the real need for action lies.
Are IWCI surveys representative?
That depends on the brief. Qualitative interviews deliver causes and connections, not representativeness. If a question needs representativeness, we design sample and field accordingly and say upfront what the survey can and cannot do.
What do you get at the end of an IWCI project?
Depending on the project a balance matrix, a perspective profile, a prioritisation matrix, a roadmap and a management summary of five to seven pages. Everything is built so a board, advisory board or shareholder group can work with it directly.