What is Sensesmaking?

  • How do we really know what is going on for people in our communities?

  • What kinds of experiences do people typically have with housing?

  • Is that the right question?

  • What are different people thinking and feeling?

These are questions we can ask directly in a survey, but often the answer to a question like, ‘How satisfied are you with … ?” depends on the situation. An average answer doesn’t tell us the details of where, why or how people had a positive or negative experience. Sensemaking is a people-centered approach that is different from other forms of traditional research.

 The SenseMaking approach to data collection and analysis involves collecting large numbers of short stories or ‘micro-experiences’. When we put the stories together, we can create a clear and detailed picture of a given topic, in the same way that many individual pixels come together to produce a clear digital image. We don’t rely on traditional research methods like interviews, surveys, opinions, or focus groups. The Sensemaking method is not looking for an individual’s opinion on what needs to be done; instead it collects experiences. Then we can put these collective experiences together to create a clear picture of what needs to be done.

This method is based on the fields of anthropology, complexity theory and neuroscience.

 The Sensemaking research method keeps people at the centre – people with lived experience, families and allies, service providers, policy makers, and other stakeholders. It recognizes that people are the experts in their own lives and work.

In the Sensemaking approach, storytellers analyze their own stories. This reduces the possibility of the story being misinterpreted by the research team. Individuals answer questions about their stories that help to create patterns and context.

Sensemaking captures diverse experiences from large populations, as well as recording the individual’s feelings and the context of each experience. Once those experiences, feelings and context have been captured, we’re able to see patterns.

To learn more about Sensemaking:

Here are some other resources on SenseMaking:

Another video:  https://qedinsight.wistia.com/medias/wdsv7l1uff

About SPRYING.IO:

To capture experiences, we are using a tool called Sprying.io.

Spryng.io is an online platform that helps us collect experiences in a database, and combine that data with information about the context of each experience. Spryng.io is a secure database. You can learn more about Sprying.io here https://spryng.io/.