How Fikir generates intelligence.

Not a report-writing company. Fikir designs and runs primary research in Somalia, then does the analytical work that turns findings into a decision. The method is the same whether the input is a national survey or a thread of 2,000 comments.

We approach the work as cultural anthropologists: people's attitudes and choices sit at the convergence of competing influences on their responsibilities, thoughts and decisions. The method has to respect that.

Six steps, from question to decision.

The sequence is fixed. The tools change with the question.

Ask

Define the objective first, then the research questions.

Collect

Surveys, interviews, groups, public conversation.

Analyze

Clean, weight, segment, code. Validate by hand.

Interpret

Fact from estimate. Finding from inference. Read in the Somali context.

Advise

Quick wins, operational fixes, strategic moves.

Decide

A choice you can defend to a board, a donor or a minister.

The toolkit, and what each tool is for.

Quantitative and qualitative methods with digital capture. Field teams work face-to-face and by telephone; analysts code in Somali, English and Arabic; every instrument is reviewed before deployment.

SurveysHousehold and consumer surveys on tablets, face-to-face and by telephone. Brand health and customer satisfaction. Baseline, midline and endline studies; KAP surveys. Internal employee surveys for brand alignment.

PollingNational and regional opinion polls with published methodology notes. Randomized Response Technique for sensitive topics, being integrated.

ConversationsFocus group discussions across cities and segments. In-depth and key informant interviews with executives, elders and community leaders. Thematic analysis with a deductive-then-inductive coding frame.

ObservationMystery customer programmes across physical and digital touchpoints. Brand asset and internal documentation audits.

Social listeningCapture, clean, code, validate, in three languages. Treated as a signal from an engaged public, never as a census.

Desk researchCompetitor and landscape profiling from primary and public sources, before any fieldwork, so the fieldwork is targeted.

AnalysisWeighting, significance testing, segmentation and regression. Transparent indices and scores, each with its method beside it.

DeliveryExecutive summaries that answer five questions: what happened, why it matters, what the evidence shows, what is changing, what to do. Client dashboards for real-time monitoring, in design.

Brand Leadership Diagnostic

Fikir's framework for brand health in Somalia. Five connected dimensions, each with a core question and measurable indicators.

SalienceIs the brand top of mind? Unaided recall, aided awareness, share of voice.

ResonanceDoes it connect emotionally? Brand meaning, cultural relevance, pride of affiliation.

DifferentiationWhat makes it unique? Perceived uniqueness, preference drivers, white space.

ExperienceDoes reality match the promise? Satisfaction, NPS, touchpoint performance, promise-delivery gaps.

AlignmentDoes the inside match the outside? Employee understanding, leadership clarity, departmental consistency.

Quality, ethics and reach.

Processes aligned to ISO 20252, the international standard for market, opinion and social research. A formal data privacy, protection and ethics policy; informed-consent scripts; encrypted storage; security protocols for sensitive regions. Published polls always carry sample, mode, dates and margin of error.

Three service lines organise the specialist packages: social impact monitoring and evaluation, market research, and policy research.

Recent designs sampled Mogadishu, Hargeisa, Kismayo, Baidoa and Galkayo for qualitative work and seven regions for quantitative fieldwork, with national surveys covering Banadir, Puntland, South West, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and Jubaland. Field teams draw on more than twenty trained enumerators experienced in face-to-face and telephone interviewing.

Commission a study.

Start with your objective. We will come back with the simplest design that meets it, a sample that supports the claims you need to make, and a timeline.

Commission a study Discuss a research need