2011 was a big year for technological advances

Curiosity (AKA, the Mars rover) and Juno, the first solar powered spacecraft, both launched successfully from Cape Canaveral. At the same time, off the radar of NASA, great things were afoot in the world of smartphone research, as the very first iteration of Field Notes was clicking into life. Whilst NASA was focused on understanding other worlds, our crack team in Hackney was staying local and looking to better understand this one by giving people a powerful tool to provide insights on a very personal level.

The first iteration of Field Notes was commissioned by Dave, one of our co-founders, when he was working at a large global qualitative specialist agency (a bit like NASA but for market researchers). It was then built by a team of smartphone app developers (also a bit like NASA) and led by Tim, our other co-founder. The aim of the endeavour was to create the best smartphone research tool on the market that could easily open a window into peoples’ lives and behaviours. And in much the same way as Curiosity and Juno provided incredible insights into the everyday happenings on Mars and Jupiter, we achieved our goal of exploring the everyday here on Earth.

For the next six years, Dave and Tim worked closely together growing Field Notes as an internal insight gathering tool. It seemed a shame to limit it to just one insight agency, so when an opportunity transpired to set up Field Notes as a wholly independent business, they took it with enthusiasm, and have since worked with countless agencies and client research teams, building an amazing team around them.

From 2017, the mission at Field Notes HQ has been to not only be the best in class smartphone research tool, but also to create an inclusive and fun business environment which continues to embrace the spirit of exploration, constantly developing new features and bringing in new, curious, team members who love working in an independent tech business.

Today, we’re as excited now as ever to be able to continue to develop Field Notes and embrace all the new opportunities that are on the horizon, courtesy of new advances in artificial intelligence. It’s an exciting journey to be on.