I help organisations understand people. What drives them, what holds them back, and what truly matters, so they can design change that works in the real world.

My work spans public and private sectors, from government and health to hospitality and sustainability, helping teams see problems differently, test with purpose, and move forward with confidence.

Three principles underpin my approach:
	•	Insight: understanding before deciding.
	•	Collaboration: building ideas together, around evidence.
	•	Impact: making sure research leads to action and measurable outcomes.

For me, innovation isn’t about chasing what’s new. It’s about creating what’s needed, for people and the planet. That’s what drives our work at Thunk.
--
Specialties: User Research | Digital Innovation | User Experience | Strategy | Growth | Mentor | Consultant

Paul Hill

Apparently, research slows innovation projects down. It’s a fairly common take that I’ve heard a lot recently.

It usually comes up when teams are under pressure to move.
“We need to go quickly.”
“We’ve already got this good idea.”

It’s the practical reality. Things feel urgent. Decisions have to be made. So,
“We don’t have time to do research.”

What I’ve seen is that when teams don’t take a moment to understand the problem space, to get that insight, the work rarely moves faster. It just becomes harder to steer and more uncertain. 

It’s something we’ve been talking about a lot, so I jotted down some thoughts on how insight affects pace, decisions, and the space for innovation.

Human Insight & Innovation (Co-Founder) @ Thunk • 25+ yrs in Design Research • Understanding humans to guide ethical, discovery-led innovation • People ​> Tech

This happened a few months ago. A small group of people sat in a room talking about where to take a product next. What could move things forward in a 

Open article: Making room for innovation - How insight helps teams move faster and make better decisions by Paul Hill • 4 min read

Making room for innovation - How insight helps teams move faster and make better decisions

You can get actionable insight in less than a week, if you really want to.

I stopped myself from writing a detailed how-to guide on this. But we’ve done it before. And what it led to was a shift from heading down a very specific path, to opening up new possibilities for innovation.

Like many teams we work with, this one had a long list of feature requests and bugs pulled together from customer support and other sources. They felt they had a good handle on what needed to happen. In their mind they had the user insights. Add in the hot-take that “Gen AI is needed”, and everything felt fairly clear to them. They had enough to just plough ahead.

But more often than not, these things don’t really get challenged. So we did, in a fairly nice way. What problems are customers actually facing? What’s underneath these feature requests? Where are the opportunities to really innovate in this space?

In less than five days, we ran a very focused piece of discovery to understand the real problems. Just enough to find out what was actually driving these requests. The workarounds users had adopted. Basically, things that weren’t going to be resolved by just following that original list at face value.

Quick signals gave a much clearer direction. The insight stopped time and money being spent in the wrong place, ruled out an AI feature that wouldn't have solved the real problem, and opened up a few opportunities that hadn’t really been considered before.

That’s really the point I’m trying to make. Insight doesn’t need to be long to be useful or actionable. But without it, innovation turns into guesswork. And 99% of the time that’ll show up later as extra time, cost, and rework.

You can have good insight and still make bad decisions.

I’ve seen teams get a decent understanding of the problem, then keep moving in the same direction they were going anyway. The insight gets nodded at. Then everything carries on as it was.

Sometimes that’s cultural. Once momentum builds, people don’t feel comfortable challenging what’s forming.

Other times it’s down to the capability. The research hasn’t gone deep enough, or it’s too loose to hold up when opinions start flying.

Most of the time, it’s both.

The only things I’ve seen help aren’t particularly groundbreaking. Being clear that insight is allowed to change the direction is a start. Getting it in early, before views solidify, matters too. And being honest about whether the work is actually strong enough to make a call, or whether it needs to go further. It also helps how insight is brought into the room. When it’s shared in a way that is hard to ignore, it’s more likely to get used. 

This doesn’t fix everything, only a full on culture shift will likely do that, but it does stop insight becoming something people agree with and then quietly ignore.

Collaboration Junkie

Humans have always been tribal, based on shared values, and business is no different. 

Referrers are the tribe who appreciate your value but may not fully understand it. They need to be educated.

Partners are the tribe who know your value and can leverage it.
They need to be motivated.

At Collaboration Junkie we work with Agencies, and other businesses where high degrees of trust are needed in their sales process, to develop the skills, systems and processes that allow for the consistent delivery of ideal clients, at the ideal time to buy, from trusted third parties. 

We work with you to turn your Nearbound strategy from something organic (and lets be honest, 'chance' isn't a strategy) to something scaleable. 

It could be building cultures of referrals in your team - so that everyone customer facing feels empowered to gain ideal introductions from your clients.

Or working through our DANCE framework for building successful strategic partnerships so you have all you need to know who the right partners are for you, how to attract them, and then, most importantly, how to effortlessly activate them so they deliver game changing results. 

Delivery can be workshops, online consultancy, 121 coaching, or coming in to be more hands on as a fractional role in your business - all either in person, remotely, or hybrid.

Infinity Nation

Infinity Nation are growth partners for retail brands looking to scale online.

With a particular specialism for helping outdoor, pet, furniture/homeware, and luxury clothing/accessory brands with all things ads, SEO, social and beyond. 

As a Head of Partnerships I ensure the value added to partners matches the amazing results we get for our clients.

I’m of course also on the look out for new partners.

So if you’re a web dev, CRO, or other agency or business supporting this sector, who would be interested in exploring what a genuine partnership could look like, drop me a line.

Head of Partnerships 

Loopli

Infinite security and compliance protection that evolves as your business grows.

Pretty cool right? Yeah, we know it’s a boring subject and there’s a lot that can go wrong, but we don’t want you to worry about that. We’ve got all that covered.

Your Business; Secure By Design

Security should, by design, be woven into the core of your business at stage one to prevent problems; not years later as a problem solving measure. 

To protect your people, you need to combine the right framework with the right technology - and that's what we do.

Head of Partnerships

The Agency Adventure

Supporting The Agency Adventure clients and community with Nearbound strategy - from simple client referral tips to how to scale partnerships and everything in between

Partner in residence

Boardy

Connector

LuMilona

Customer/Member engagement agency (previously advantage benefits) with reach of 1million SMES - adding value to our B2B clients customers through partnerships with global brands.

During the 6 years of the 2 incarnations we not only increased the retention rates and additional revenue streams of our clients but: 
Were top referrer to Regus UK
Worked with Volvo to launch their new models accross their UK dealer network
Delivered 10's of thousands of qualified leads to Yell.com
Worked with multiple global brands to help them access the SME market - Global Payments, DAS, Mercer Marsh, Eon, Experian and more. 

LuMilona works in partnership with brands who want to increase customer or member engagement, and add more value to their audience, through bespoke benefit packages that drive both value and profit back into your business.

From sourcing and managing the partners and benefits that your clients are looking for, to provding the software, systems and communications to support the programme, we use all our experience gained in membership to support your goals. And it's all wrapped around the advice and support that we love to provide. 

LuMilona can be a complete outsourced solution, or we can just provide support where you need it most so you can focus on what you really want to be doing - adding value to your customers.

Founder / Partnership Director

Advantage Benefits

Customer engagement agency helping organisations attract, retain & reward their customers through bespoke, white-labelled benefit platforms that build on our partnerships and collaborations with market leading providers.

Building on 10 years previous experience of sourcing best in the market offerings, and our member and customer engagement with business owners, 'advantage' is a unique customer benefit scheme. It not only adds value to your customers, driving greater loyalty and acquisition, but it can also become a new profit centre for your business where everyone is gaining value.

Co-Founder / Partnership Director

Champions of Small Business

Champions of Small Business was a national initiative dedicated to celebrating & supporting all that’s great about Small Business - which lets be honest is A LOT.

There's a HUGE lack of support and understanding about the needs of modern business owners, and it amazes us that in the UK you need a licence to fish, yet can start a business, be VAT registered and employ people without any idea at all of your responsibilities. 

At the core of Champions of Small Business is a free online resource - providing member engagement through tonnes of practical advice with useful downloads & articles, inspiring content from our thought leaders and ebooks & toolkits for all aspects of business. There's access to exclusive offers and everything you need to start a business, grow your business - or just save some time & stress and make run your business a little bit easier. This is all backed up with an online community with live events and webinars. All gathered from working in partnership with our best in class benefit and content providers. 

I left my position at Champions to focus on my other business interests where I was able to add more value.

Co-Founder

Business Scene

Grew small business membership organisation to 2000 members entirely through Nearbound strategies (35% client referral, 65% partnerships)

Business Scene’s mission was to create the perfect environment to start, grow and maintain a business so that small business owners, wherever they are in their journey, not only feel supported but have all the tools needed in order to achieve success.

Business Scene's membership was developed in partnership with industry leading benefit providers focussing on 4 key areas essential to any business; Growth, Savings, Protection & Support. But what really set us apart was just how much we cared about our members’ success. Member engagement was absolutely at the heart of everything we did. 

After developing the industry-leading range of benefits for business owners, and running partnerships with multiple national brands (Volvo, Regus, Mercer Marsh, Experian, Web.com, De Vere Hotels to name a few) we took the decision of alternative routes to market in order to help as may business owners as possible

Managing Director

Swindon Chamber of Commerce

Responsible for the growth of the Swindon Chamber of Commerce, primarily through developing relationships with businesses of all sizes and sectors across the region, and partnerships and collaborations with other local networks.

In the 3 years 2009-2012 Swindon Chamber of Commerce membership grew by 20% and the member engagement increased significantly.

Assisted both members and prospects alike by helping relevant businesses to connect with each other, in the hope that they can then develop worthwhile, lasting relationships.

Also organised events in the region, ensuring additional benefits portfolio meets the needs of business, assisted the Chamber Council in their representation of the local business community and advised businesses of the various ways the Chamber can help support them in the running of their business and how they could get the most from Chamber membership. Member engagement was at the forefront of everything I did.

Business Development Manager

Fed up of outbound campaigns that don’t deliver on either quantity or quality and feel a bit spammy? 

How about long sales processes, haggling on price, and ghosting? 

Feeling twitchy that lots of your business comes through adhoc referrals?

😩

Enter Nearbound

😀

A trust-first, relationship-driven approach to lead generation. 

Nearbound leverages your connections to create demand and attract higher-quality leads. It’s perfect for B2B, where trust and long-term relationships drive buying decisions.

In other words, it’s word of mouth, but with a modern, scalable twist.

Referrals shouldn’t be left to chance. They’re not just happy accidents—they’re opportunities waiting to be created. When approached intentionally and humanly, referrals become your fastest, most reliable path to growth.

From your clients, to your wider network and strategic partners.

In an increasingly remote world it's your relationships - not your tech stack - that's going to drive your business forward.

📈

Here’s why working with an expert (and this particular expert) could be right for you:

Worked with hundreds of business owners over the last 5 years - typically delivering <10x ROI.

It’s not just about leads, I’ll help you work in a more efficient (and therefore profitable) way - so that you deliver higher levels of service with less time and effort. 

Nearbound leads do happen organically - but working with an expert gets you expert results

Why me?

Check out my experiences for the results I achieved growing businesses by both receiving and providing introductions. 

And check out my recommendations that highlight some of the awesome wins we’ve generated for clients at Collaboration Junkie.

💥

Intrigued? Book a call, drop me a message, or book onto one of our free online masterclasses 

🧔🏻

A Bit about Me

A music (all sorts, but I'm more of an ass shaker then a fist pumper) and football (long loving, but feels like longer suffering man utd fan) loving (and much more, but too much to list) Dad from the South West of England, married to the gorgeous Kelly, with Luna (10), Milo (8), and Remi (2).

Big believer in being excited by, and enjoying what we do. We're here for a good time, not a long time afterall.

Dave Plunkett

It's Monday, 5th of January, which means you've either spent the day: 

longing to be in your pyjamas, drinking baileys at 11am, scoffing cheese and chocolates, and bingeing on box sets (or playing with your glorious little kids) 

or…. 

You've been super excited to get at least the majority of those kids back off to school and hitting your desk with new vigour for an awesome 2026. 

Wherever you sit I've got just the thing for you if your Yorkshire based - Bradford Digital this Thursday. 

Come and spend some time with a bunch of brilliant individuals who will either give you the boost you need to get going, or fuel that energy you already have. 

On top of the crowd, there's a line up of speakers focused on how you can make the most of genuine human connection to make 2026 your best year yet (or at the very least miles better then the last)

I'm one of those, and I'll be giving two key takeaways on how you can make the most of both client referrals and partnerships without it feeling icky. 

I'm making the long trip up from Wiltshire to Bradford, so if you're in the local area, would love to see you

(and if you are coming, hit me up and maybe we can meet for a proper natter either on the afternoon or the day after as I'll be staying over) 

Link below, so please do book on and claim one of the last few tickets. 

The pizza and the welcome will be warm, The weather and beer cold. 

See you then!

https://lnkd.in/eTg5zUjh

My Fellow Speakers: Tracey Earl, Ian Earl, Gemma Edwards, Mark Endacott 

And the host with the most Phil Myerscough

Scalable leads through referrals & partnerships 🧑‍🤝‍ Nearbound Specialist 🌳 Coach, Consultant, Trainer, Fractional

Connection. 

That’s my word of the year (thought I’d jump on this particular bandwagon)

Now, you could class it as a cop-out because it's also my one core value.

Connecting to people, the planet, my work, the things that I love - if I'm not feeling something then no chance, it’s not getting my energy no matter how hard I try.  

It's also what I help people with - leveraging human connection to scale their businesses. 

But it’s not a cop out. It’s something I feel passionately is the thing that can save us all in 2026.

As the world (or at least the tech world and those it funds/influences) tries to move us away from genuine human connection it means it’s only more important. 

Building deep and meaningful relationships, prioritising quality over quantity, and at long last the return of, where possible and where practical, meeting in person, and in real life events and experiences.

But there's also the content side of connection as well.

I want to produce content that people can connect with and feel something about. And I want to absorb the same. 

In a way that I just don't with the horrendous, bland, AI content and comments that are just meaningless.

I’m sure there's going to be a bunch of people that disagree with this, and they're happy to forgo connection in the name of so-called efficiency and be happy for your bot contacting their bot and taking care of everything.

That's a joyless world I want no part of. 

There'll also be other people that agree, maybe even hit like, but then don't commit, because using automated AI, doing mass shitty outbound and chasing vanity metrics seems easier and takes less responsibility. 

But I'm all in on connection, not volume for volume's sake,  content for contents sake, and personalisation at scale,. 

Paradoxically, the world seems to have forgotten that when you focus on the right relationships in the right way, the numbers that really matter take care of themselves.

So, connection, connection, connection.

Would love to hear your thoughts and your word of the year.

taplio

The Battle

Paul Hill

Dave Plunkett

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taplio

The Battle

Paul Hill

Dave Plunkett

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Paul Hill's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScorePaul Hill's LinkedIn Performance