We’ve got that end of term summer feeling…and now felt like a good time to reflect back over what we’ve been up to in the last 6 months.

When we started listing everything, we even surprised ourselves! It’s been a busy few months for us here at SMPL and with a couple of projects now coming to a close, we hope to have some time to enjoy a slower pace and make the most of the sunshine.

So, we thought we’d share a roundup of what we’ve been working on and a few things we’ve learnt along the way.

 In the last 6 months we have…

• Started a project to review sex and relationships education for young people in Southend (which is almost complete!)
• Completed an evaluation of Essex VVU’s Community Grants programme.
• Completed an evaluation of the Woodland Trust’s Igniting Innovation programme, a nature conservation challenge that empowers young people aged 16 to 25 to pitch for funding and mentorship to deliver creative environmental projects.
• Designed a user-friendly version of Halton Borough Council’s Best Start in Life Strategy.
• Started and completed research with families who have been impacted by serious safeguarding incidents.
• Delivered our second full-day online training session for the MRS on ethics and empathy in sensitive research.
• Made a submission for the MRS Awards 2026 for our evaluation of Halton Family Hubs (after being shortlisted as finalists for 2025…we’re feeling lucky!)

What have we learnt…?

It’s good to get out!

Fieldwork for youth projects in Essex had us trekking to Clacton, Brentwood, Chelmsford, Southend, and Thurrock to name a few. Whilst driving the A130 on a wet Thursday evening wasn’t always fun, every youth club we visited had a totally different vibe, and showed us once again that you can’t beat visiting somewhere and meeting people in real life.

Maura and I are also now connoisseurs on the best spots for a coffee or lunch in various places around Essex, and know where does a decent cup and where feels more like we’ve just lost a task on the Apprentice (sorry, Thurrock).

There’s no need to panic…

Adjusting to life ‘agency-side’ has been a journey and we don’t want to jinx it…but so far, just at the point we’ve started thinking about needing to line up a new project, something has usually tended to come along at the right time. Some of this is luck as well as being open to spotting the right opportunity, but it also brings me on to my next point…

Making a personal connection goes a long way

Whilst we’ve still had to go through competitive procurement processes to win work, in several cases our reputation from previous employment or a personal recommendation from an old colleague has no doubt been a big help. And even where we’ve had no previous connections and stumbled across opportunities on Linked In, we’ve found that having the chance for a quick meeting with the client makes such a massive difference.

It’s one thing to try and get across who we are and how we’d deliver the project in a tightly confined proposal document (don’t get me started on word counts…) but being able to have a conversation with an actual human and make that connection can be a gamechanger in terms of the likelihood of us winning the work.

It’s ok to be proud of ourselves

At times in the last 6 months we’ve had moments where we’ve doubted our credentials or had that initial panic when having the opportunity to work on some really important stuff…with those creeping thoughts of ‘can we really pull this off?’

But we’ve had some brilliant feedback from clients as well as a ‘pinch me’ moment when we were shortlisted as finalists for an MRS Award and got glammed up to attend the awards bash amongst all the big names in research, and had to remind ourselves that yes, we do belong here!

In true research fashion we’ve crunched the data to review our client feedback and testimonials, and it was really interesting to see the themes that consistently shine through.

Clients often say that…

• They enjoy working with us. This might feel an easy one, but clients seem to really appreciate the way we collaborate and keep them involved through the process, and feel like they are working with us rather than just commissioning us.
• We are reliable and deliver what we set out to. Clients regularly mention our communication and responsiveness, and that we always deliver on time.
• We engage with people well. Clients often described our ability to engage with participants as ‘thoughtful’ and ‘sensitive’, and valued our creative approaches to engaging with different groups on sometimes tricky topics.
• We produce genuinely useful insights. Our work regularly influences real decisions for clients, with insights informing change rather than just being ‘good to know’.
• Our reports bring findings to life. We’ve produced a fair few reports now which incorporate visual and audio media, which clients have consistently praised for their creativity and ability to centre participant voices whilst telling a clear and engaging story.

Although it feels a bit cringe to blow our own trumpet, we think it’s important to reflect back occasionally and acknowledge that actually, we are doing well and should be proud of what we’ve achieved in a short space of time since starting SMPL.

So this is your own nudge to stop, reflect and see what you are proud of over the last year before we’re all ‘back to school’ in September.