AI-powered,
human-centered innovation.
We are a team of leading consultants and AI builders who helps companies find their unique approach to building value with AI.
Helping you find your unique approach to leveraging AI in innovation
Redesign your innovation model for the Humagentic* age
Most innovation models were designed before AI existed: too slow, too siloed, too dependent on the loudest voice in the room. We rebuild the model for the Humagentic age, where your people and AI agents work together.
Make people and AI work together
Deploying AI tools is the easy part. Getting people to trust them and stay in control of the decisions is the hard part. Adoption programmes, coaching and ways of working that actually stick.
Find and prove what to build next
We surface the opportunities worth pursuing and pressure-test them before you invest, so you walk in with a business case you can defend, not just an idea you believe in.
Humagentic /ˌhjuːməˈdʒɛntɪk/ — the transition state we are living through now: AI is capable enough to change everything, but organisations still run on human judgment, trust, and politics. Not fully automated. Not business as usual. The messy, valuable in-between.
The in-between we are living in now, where AI can do almost anything and your organization still has to understand it, trust it, and answer for it.
The agentic horizon promises autonomy, and it is coming. But you cannot hand the keys to something you cannot see. Right now the job is visibility and auditability, not letting go.
And whichever horizon you are in, the question is the same. Do you build with people in mind, or just throw technology at the problem? We have spent our careers on the first one. It is harder. It is also the only version that works.
So that is where we start.
How AI-mature is your innovation process? Find out in three minutes.
Level up, whatever your starting point.
From a quick capability scan to a full innovation operating system. Pick your role and the challenge you're sitting with, and we'll show you where we'd start.
You run the function. You own the mandate.
Your job is to make innovation real inside an organisation that still runs on quarterly cycles. You have budget, you have a team, and you are under pressure to show results that stick.
The BOX · modular by design
Not an ideation tool.
The backbone of your innovation process.
Configurable SaaS. Select the modules you need, live in days.
Never miss an opportunity
Catch the trend, the competitor move, the white space, while there's still time to act.
Radar flags category shifts and competitor moves daily, scored against your constraints, so your team acts on signal, not noise.
Build a pipeline you can defend
Turn a vague challenge into concepts with a business case attached, not just ideas you believe in.
Every idea arrives enriched: feasibility against your constraints, a business case and a score you can defend in a gate meeting.
Launch with confidence
Test on digital twins of your customers and know it works before you spend.
Digital twins of your customers react to concepts overnight: pricing, positioning and appeal read before you spend on a pilot.
Execute faster, together
Your team and AI agents move every concept through your own stages and gates, concept to shelf.
Your stages, your gates: agents prepare the evidence, your team makes the call, and the portfolio stays ranked at every step.
Your DNA is your advantage
Your constraints, data and strategy are the one thing competitors can't copy, and every project sharpens it.
Captured once, compounding forever. Every project sharpens the context layer that makes every module and every agent smarter.
What we're poking at.
Real-world social listening
Moving past scraping forums. We're testing ways to capture what people actually do and say in physical spaces, not just what they post online.
Digital twins of emerging markets
Building queryable models of consumers in markets where reliable data barely exists yet, so you can pressure-test a launch before you've set foot there.
Design & AI
Where generative design meets human taste. We're exploring how AI can carry the iteration without flattening the craft, or the brand.
CoffeeFrom Climate Crisis to Coffee Innovation: How Constraints Drive the Industry's Most Valuable Breakthroughs
Climate loss, record prices, a $452M R&D gap and 18M tonnes of waste are fueling coffee's most valuable innovations — how constraints drive the breakthroughs.
InnovationWhy the Tighter the Box, the Better the Ideas
Constraints don't kill creativity — they channel it. The research behind constraint-driven innovation, the four walls of The BOX framework, and where generative AI fits in.
Digital TwinsDigital Twins vs Synthetic Users vs Synthetic Data: The Complete Guide to AI-Powered Customer Research (2025)
Digital twins, synthetic users, synthetic data and AI personas — what each method actually does, where the research shows it works, and how to choose the right AI-powered customer research approach.
Veterans of hundreds of projects.
We have spent years leading strategy, innovation and product work across industries and continents. We started Quartz Labs to build the AI-augmented innovation practice we always wished we had.
Jonathan Kahan
Leads strategy, vision and product. The engine behind The Box and The Mirror.
Danielle Jaffit
Leads client experience, commercial strategy and workshop facilitation. The judgment in the room.
Michelle Martino
Brings Quartz Labs to the organisations who need it most. The bridge between our work and your team.
Asad Panhwar
Builds the systems behind The Box and The Mirror.
Alon Goldstein, PhD
Grounds The Box in how people actually think, decide and behave.
JJ
Turns raw signals into the models and insights that power our platforms.
Victor Massiah
Former CEO of UBI Banca. Three decades of leadership in banking, strategy and transformation.
Marco Bressa
Partner at Next Growth. Former MD of Accenture HR & Insurance Services across a 34-year Accenture career.
We don't hand you a tool
and walk away.
Pick the engagement model that fits where you are. They all run on the same system.
In the room with you
Senior partners embedded in your strategic process. We frame the problem, stress-test the options, and keep the call honest.
Scoped and shipped
A defined scope, a fast timeline, and a deliverable you can act on. From a 2-week opportunity scan to a 3-month programme.
Your team runs it
We deploy, configure, and stay available. The system learns from your constraints, your data, your customers.
Built into your offer
For partners who want to embed our platform inside their own. We build it together and stand behind the methodology.
Curious what this looks like
on your problem?
Start with a free read of where your team stands, or just talk to us.