Responsible Tech Collective Pioneer Spotlight: Phil Hesketh at Consent Kit
More and more organisations now want to talk to their customers, community and users on a more regular basis. Having a dedicated research capability is becoming a competitive advantage, but as research teams expand, so does the data they are entrusted with. As our reliance on data grows, so grows our need to manage that data, find the right people to talk, schedule research, manage consent forms and signed NDAs — there are a lot of logistics and operational process to manage.
What does Consent Kit do?
This is where Consent Kit comes in. Consent Kit is a cloud based research CRM that helps companies to manage many different processes around good data management. It makes research more efficient and reduces the operational risk of mishandling that data at scale. Learn more about Consent Kit in this quick video.
Having worked in large organisations, small and medium sized marketing agencies, I still feel the pain of all of those model release forms crammed in a filing cabinet. The disparate nature of where NDAs were kept and all those consent forms signed for user research, kept on a server. It’s uncomfortable to think about, and it’s getting much better, but wouldn’t it be much easier on the mind, more efficient and better for the people who are trusting us to handle their data correctly, if we knew that all these crucial documents were stored safely and in one place?
The joy that having a single cloud based CRM system makes me want to introduce Consent Kit’s founder to the people who are at those organisations I just referred to (and in fact some introductions have already been made). Which is why it’s a real joy to write about Phil Hesketh. He’s a Founder Member of the Responsible Tech Collective. When I asked him why he joined. He answered:
“For the community really. There are so many really smart people working on really important things — big challenges that we’re facing as a society.”
Phil Hesketh @ Consent Kit
The Responsible Tech Collective has 40 founder members in Manchester
Grounding the conversation in the place that knits us all together, Phil is proud to be part of the 40 organisation strong collective with it’s birth place being Manchester and its’ rich cultural and social heritage. Everyone in the RTC is from different backgrounds, working on different things in different ways, what brings the collective together is our desire to co-create and collaborate to develop opportunities, change systems to make things better and fairer for everyone, with our aim of bringing humanity home to tech.
Which Responsible Tech Collective members is Consent Kit collaborating with?
For the members who are doing research, Consent Kit has collaborated with them through members using their service. Members such as Open Data Manchester, Noisy Cricket and the BBC all use Consent Kit to help them handle their customer data responsibly and make their research more efficient.
Consent Kit is working with Diverse and Equal to better understand some of the barriers around diversity and inclusion in research, and which ones we’re able to help address or remove entirely through technology.
“It’s quite an interesting space to work in, because a lot of these challenges are cultural and you won’t solve them with technology alone. But just in reducing the time it takes to do a thing, suddenly gives you more time or space to do something else. I think that can be quite a powerful multiplier for change!”
Phil Hesketh @ Consent Kit
How does being part of the RTC facilitate collaboration and co-creation?
The RTC regularly holds online and in-person events, shared insights, learnings and process towards the collective’s goal of bringing the humanity home to tech.
“It’s being in the community and knowing that you’ve got these amazing people around you. Sometimes it might just be a coffee or a chat, other times it might be more involved. Also the community is constantly evolving in terms of workshops and projects which are all working towards a larger strategy.
So you’re regularly interacting with people and sharing ideas and experiences. It feels quite intangible, and you can’t really measure it, but the energy and ideas you get from that starts to seep into other areas of your work. Its quite powerful.”
Phil Hesketh @ Consent Kit
Research has shown that community engagement can produce new insights to address complex and nuanced societal challenges, what’s your thoughts on this?
At this point Phil and I had been talking for perhaps half an hour, then he said something so profound it really stopped me in my tracks.
“Change done to a person is felt as an act of violence
Change done with a person is felt as an act of liberation”
Phil Hesketh @ Consent Kit
Phil has been a researcher for around 5 years, and has been a designer for even longer before that. He spoke a great detail about the importance of multiple perspectives.
“Its incredible how when you’re making something, let’s say it’s an app seeing as we’re talking about tech. You spend years learning about how to design apps, you learn the psychology and best practices and you think what you’ve done makes sense. Then you give it to someone else to use and they use it in a totally different way than you expected. And it’s because you missed something, or you needed to slightly adjust something, then all of a sudden it works. It’s wild what user testing reveals.”
Phil Hesketh @ Consent Kit
We all know that our perspective adjusts how we see the world, our thoughts and theories, our unconscious biases are all informed by our lives. Whether thats first-hand experiences or things we’ve been told or learned.
“When you’re talking about designing systems or addressing these complex and nuanced societal challenges — you just can’t do it on your own. If you’re working on something like the cost of living crisis say, but there is no lived experience of poverty in the room, you just have no idea how to approach that problem. You have to involve people and listen to them and work with them. Its really a mindset shift. It’s like we need to move from doing things for or to people and start doing things with people.”
Phil Hesketh @ Consent Kit
What advice would you give to a small organisation, who is looking to address the systemic barriers to engaging people in organisations and in communities?
The RTC membership is motivated by the untapped potential to enable equity, equality and sustainability within the tech industry, to enhance innovation and the improvement of products and service performance.
Ending on simple note Phil gives two pieces of advice:
“1. Make friends, build relationships and go far, not fast
2. Circles, not lines”
Phil Hesketh @ Consent Kit
The first point is something we’ve already talked about at length in this article. Phil’s final point refers to the circular feedback loop essential to a good experience for participants in research. With a circular feedback loop, you keep in touch with how people’s time, knowledge, feedback has influenced a product or service. With a line (or linear model), there is no feedback, people are never told how they might have informed the tech you’re creating.
Thank you Phil Hesketh from Consent Kit for your many, many gems of wisdom. Join us over on LinkedIn and Twitter to share your comments and builds for this conversation around consent.
