Founder and CEO, Karen Faith is an ethnographer, strategist, and creator of the Others curriculum. With two decades of experience in ethnographic discovery to inform marketing, branding, and product design, her work utilizes tools from multiple disciplines to empower teams to define, understand, and solve problems from the granular to the grandiose.

Karen’s findings, talks and workshops have guided brands as diverse as Google, Amazon, Applebee’s, The NBA, The ACLU, Blue Cross Blue Shield, The Federal Reserve Bank, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Karen is an alumnus of the Hyper Island Business Transformation course in Stockholm, Sweden, and a recipient of the Dwight Conquergood award for ethnographic research at Performance Studies International in London.

As a speaker, she has shared her approach with executives, leaders, innovators, creatives, and community members all over the world:

Infinite Mind Healing Together Conference
Keynote: Identity, Plurality, and Pure Love (Orlando, FL) 2024
Grisha Stewart Academy
Human Animals; The Five Laws of Empathy (Live online from NY) 2024
4As Stratfest Jay Chiat Awards
Emcee, Strategic Bravery (NYC, NY) 2023
Irrational Labs - WATCH VIDEO HERE
How To Create Better Products Using Ethnography (Live online from NY) 2023
Creative Mornings Virtual Field Trips
Empathy for A**holes; a How-To-Workshop (Live online from NY) 2022
TEDxKC - WATCH VIDEO HERE
Unconditional Welcome (Kansas City, MO) 2022
Kansas City Design Week
Empathetic Design (Kansas City, MO) 2022
SXSW
Empathy for A**holes; A How-To Workshop (Austin, TX) 2022
Design Museum of Chicago
Empathy, Strategy, and Connection (Live online from NY) 2022
Penn State Executive Program for Social Innovation
Grasping Ethnographies (Live online from NY) 2021
University of Kansas
Designing For Good (Live online from NY) 2020, 2021
4As Stratfest
Empathy in a Disconnected World (Live online from NY) 2021
DesignUp - WATCH VIDEO HERE
From Science to Self-Knowledge: the evolution of Design Thinking (Bangalore, India) 2019
4As Stratfest
Insights that Elevate: empathy, strategy and ethics (New York, NY) 2019
HOW Design Live
Design Thinking Meets Radical Vulnerability (Chicago, IL) 2019
The Juilliard School
Self-Care Saturdays, Empathetic Listening (New York, NY) 2019
Framestore Effect
Empathy and Efficacy (Chicago, IL) 2019
Chapman University
Designing for Emotion (Orange, CA) 2018
SXSW Interactive
Counterintuitive creativity workshop (Austin, TX) 2018
The Happiness Group
High Performance Interaction (Munich, Germany) 2018
AAF SPARK KC
Unusual jobs and how to get them (Kansas City, MO) 2017
Gas Can AAF-KC Creative Conference
Emotional experience design (Kansas City, MO) 2017
AAF-KC Bulletproof: Everyone Has A Story
Consciousness-shifting (Kansas City, MO) 2017
Barkley Creative Breakfast
Story scouting (Kansas City, MO) 2015
Glass Ceiling
Women working in STEM (Chicago, IL) 2015
Googleplex
Working with Creative Teams (MountainView, CA) 2014
Google Small Business Community Hangout on Air
Branding (MountainView, CA) 2014
National University of Singapore School of Design
Design Research Methods (Singapore, Singapore) 2013
The New Now
Presence in the Digital Era (Chicago, IL) 2013
Performance Studies international
Ethnographic Artist Research (London, UK) 2006
Contemporary Artist Center
Audience Specificity and Experiential Communication (North Adams, MA) 2005

Book Karen

“I gained a lot of insight in myself."

-Others trainee
“I've applied it heavily to how I talk with my partner and my work colleagues. It is the skill set I needed to address more difficult topics.”

-Others trainee
“Wonderful session—it was validating to experience how much power just feeling really can have in the way we communicate."

-Others trainee
“It's helped me express myself honestly and effectively, while also being incredibly mindful of the person I'm talking to.”

-Others trainee
“Since doing the training, I’m definitely very mindful of climate/weather, listening skills, and better question asking.”

-Others trainee
“I've felt a lot more comfortable being honest. I feel like I have the tools now, and the trust of my other team members.”

-Others trainee
“The training has given me better language to communicate inside and outside of my team.”

-Others trainee
“This is an incredible training program that dramatically improves team morale, empathy, closeness and connection. A program that is designed to improve communication from every direction.”

-Others trainee
“This was an amazing workshop! I enjoyed getting the chance to know my colleague on a deeper level as well as learning different tactics to be an empathetic person!"

-Others trainee
“Insightful and grounding”

-Others trainee
“Strong skills that allow me to communicate better both in and out of work. It's a feel-good hour where I get to enjoy a break from work, and dedicate time that's teaching me how to be a better person overall.”

-Others trainee
“I loved the 1-on-1 connection in the breakout rooms, and how the level of vulnerability and intimacy gradually grew with each one."

-Others trainee
“All of these trainings have been incredible. I feel so much closer to my team on a personal level. I feel we trust each other more.”

-Others trainee
“I think we have learned SO much incredibly good practical information, and the practice sessions bring it all to life and make it real.”

-Others trainee
“It’s a set of tools for communicating with colleagues. The exercises and conversations we have in this training can be translated to bigger situations outside of it.”

-Others trainee
“I’m trying to live by The Agreement every day. I used the Four Twists to work through a disagreement in my personal life and got to a resolution much faster than I would have without it.”

-Others trainee
"I appreciated the message of listening for Feelings, Facts, Context. It was a great reminder of how many of us jump-to-conclusion about an exchange without having all the information."

-Others trainee
“The empathy training makes us better collaborators, and, because empathy is at the core of marketing, it makes us stronger marketers as well.”

-Others trainee
“A practice in learning how to better understand yourself and those around you.”

-Others trainee
“It's a dedicated time for our team to grow in getting to know each other, grow together, hold space for one another, and connect.”

-Others trainee
“We're able to know each other on a deeper level, and grow together in learning new skills.”

-Others trainee
“I have used the question asking techniques to find the root of a certain viewpoint. It's made me more empathetic with my team, and helped me see various sides.”

-Others trainee
“Take distance and time to share. Unfortunately some a**holes are not avoidable, but your response is yours to deal with!"

-Others trainee
"I loved how interactive it was."

-Others trainee

Let’s chat

“I gained a lot of insight in myself."

“I've applied it heavily to how I talk with my partner and my work colleagues. It is the skill set I needed to address more difficult topics.”

“Wonderful session—it was validating to experience how much power just feeling really can have in the way we communicate."

“It's helped me express myself honestly and effectively, while also being incredibly mindful of the person I'm talking to.”

“Since doing the training, I’m definitely very mindful of climate/weather, listening skills, and better question asking.”

“I've felt a lot more comfortable being honest. I feel like I have the tools now, and the trust of my other team members.”

“The training has given me better language to communicate inside and outside of my team.”

“This is an incredible training program that dramatically improves team morale, empathy, closeness and connection. A program that is designed to improve communication from every direction.”

“This was an amazing workshop! I enjoyed getting the chance to know my colleague on a deeper level as well as learning different tactics to be an empathetic person!"

“Insightful and grounding”

“Strong skills that allow me to communicate better both in and out of work. It's a feel-good hour where I get to enjoy a break from work, and dedicate time that's teaching me how to be a better person overall.”

“I loved the 1-on-1 connection in the breakout rooms, and how the level of vulnerability and intimacy gradually grew with each one."

“All of these trainings have been incredible. I feel so much closer to my team on a personal level. I feel we trust each other more.”

“I think we have learned SO much incredibly good practical information, and the practice sessions bring it all to life and make it real.”

“It’s a set of tools for communicating with colleagues. The exercises and conversations we have in this training can be translated to bigger situations outside of it.”

“I’m trying to live by The Agreement every day. I used the Four Twists to work through a disagreement in my personal life and got to a resolution much faster than I would have without it.”

"I appreciated the message of listening for Feelings, Facts, Context. It was a great reminder of how many of us jump-to-conclusion about an exchange without having all the information."

“The empathy training makes us better collaborators, and, because empathy is at the core of marketing, it makes us stronger marketers as well.”

“A practice in learning how to better understand yourself and those around you.”

“It's a dedicated time for our team to grow in getting to know each other, grow together, hold space for one another, and connect.”

“We're able to know each other on a deeper level, and grow together in learning new skills.”

“I have used the question asking techniques to find the root of a certain viewpoint. It's made me more empathetic with my team, and helped me see various sides.”

“Take distance and time to share. Unfortunately some a**holes are not avoidable, but your response is yours to deal with!"

"I loved how interactive it was."