Daria Leshchenko

Daria Leshchenko

Project Production Executive (London)

Another great addition to our team via our Culture Club internship programme, Daria was born in Russia, before coming to the UK to study at the age of 13. Later, she completed her higher education at New York University’s Tisch School Of Arts, with a degree in performance studies which combined the philosophy and history behind the arts. Since then, Daria has worked in several fields, from blockchain to the chamber of commerce. She’s lived in Russia, the US and UAE, before finally settling down in London to do a master’s in strategic advertising and marketing communications. In her free time, she considers herself a ‘shisha master’ as she reckons she’s perfected THE best mix of flavours.

  • Narrated Galleries

    We love films, but narrated galleries – fusing showreels of still images and audio of participant commentary – creates outputs that allow for high levels of reflection and audience empathy. Ideal for user experience work, in other words

  • Crowd Communities

    We’ve a wealth of experience at setting up and managing communities for clients, with learnings on how best to engage audiences and a full box of tricks for maximising what we get out of the work – including geo tagging, streaming in social media data and a mobile optimised platform

  • Pinterest

    We’ve used Pinterest to really good effect on a number of projects recently, helping us to explore differences and commonalities among different typologies in areas such as fashion and style, home, holidays and entertainment. Engagement levels with participants always rank high, and clients love the vividness and clarity of the findings.

  • Citizen Journalism

    Citizen journalism works on the principle of making reporters of our participants, briefing them to capture what’s happening in the lives of their friends and family via video dispatches and blogging. It gets us places where we can’t otherwise get. It bypasses the bias of having a researcher in attendance. People are often more accurate reporters on those around them than on themselves, so that’s another bias circumnavigated.

  • Network Audits

    If you want to really understand how people interact with those around them, it’s logical to research interconnected groups of friends, family and work colleagues. First developed as part of our award winning word of mouth research for Guardian News & Media, and since then refined and reconfigured across a range of global projects, our network audit approach helps us understand who’s influencing who as authentically as possible.