By Johana Pokorney
Thursday, January 29th, 2026, 5:00 – 6:00pm
Room 330 – Ethnography Lab Boardroom
19 Ursula Franklin Street
This session examines how skills and sensibilities honed through ethnographic research can be translated into qualitative research consulting projects and settings–and sometimes where they fail. Given that today many other professionals draw on similar methods, such as interviewing, observation, and meaning analysis, we will seek to explore what makes the ethnographic experience uniquely suited and useful when it moves out of academia. We’ll draw on several examples of how this happens in healthcare service and experience design consulting at Bridgeable, a service design agency focused on improving healthcare services and experiences. The aim will be to articulate the value students and practitioners of ethnography can leverage as they translate their toolkit into applied settings and on cross-functional teams.
Johanna Pokorny is a Director of Design Strategy at Bridgeable, a human-centered service design consultancy focused on healthcare. She received her PhD at the Anthropology Department, University of Toronto in 2020, focusing on science and technology studies and the anthropology of science and medicine. She combines her interest in improving healthcare with a curiosity about people to help design and build solutions for clients.
Ethnography Lab 