Learn about our background in Human-Centered Design, innovation consulting, and market research in Thailand.
Early 2000s
Our founder, Adisorn Supawatanakul, was invited to lecture in the Industrial Design programs at Chulalongkorn and KMUTT by Phd graduates from IIT Institute of Design.
2012
The Design Research Society invited Adisorn Supawatanakul to present at its first conference in Thailand, DRS2012: Re:Search - Uncertainty, Contradiction and Value
2012
Thailand Design Center (TCDC), now the Creative Economy Agency (CEA) invited Adisorn Supawatanakul to present at the TCDC's annual Creativity Unfold Symposium.
2013
Teak is officially incorporated in Thailand with its headquarters in Bangkok becomes the first market research firm design research firm in Thailand.
2015
Sawyer Jordan Lahr becomes a new shareholder and joins as General Manager
2015 & onwards
Design Thinking becomes mainstream in Thailand as large corporations and international consultancies began to seek human-centered approaches to business challenges in Thailand.
2016
Thailand 2.0 policy drove demand for UX research, making Teak a UX research supplier for local banks, design firms, and international design consultancies.
2023
Teak celebrates 10 years of practicing Design Research in Thailand.
Our team
Adisorn “Glar” Supawatanakul, Co-Founder
Adisorn is an art and design enthusiast with decades of experience in design research and consumer insights, overseeing our consulting projects from planning to deliverables while ensuring all recommendations are actionable. He is our resident authority on design thinking and the application of market research in Thailand. If you want to understand how to leverage social research and design for product development, he’s the person to consult. He loves teaching design research as much as he enjoys practicing it himself, dedicating his time to educating others as a guest lecturer or adjunct professor.
Sawyer Jordan Lahr, Company Director
Sawyer is a filmmaker turned entrepreneur turned applied researcher with a passion for storytelling who oversees consulting projects, operations, marketing, communications, and strategy for the company. He is dedicated to enhancing the quality of our work and expanding the capabilities of our team, always exploring innovative approaches. By focusing on consumer insights, he guides his team to elicit compelling stories from the field and bring those narratives to life in our presentations using emotionally powerful insights, rich media, and visualizations. This approach not only elevates our design research but also informs our market research in Thailand.
Kanatip "Tip" Marks, Design Research Director
Kanatip is a researcher and designer with a passion for plants and pets who facilitates both design research and market research in Thailand. She creates engaging and effective stimulus materials and research tools for fieldwork and ideation workshops, focusing on consumer insights. Her ability to understand how designers think and how organizations operate enables her to collaborate closely with clients across business units to implement research findings. Additionally, she is an incredibly skilled moderator of customer co-creation sessions and UX interviews, as well as a master facilitator of ideation workshops, whether in-person or through remote interviews.
Supattra "Gift" Bunnuan, Design Researcher
Supattra is a curious and fearless applied anthropologist who helps her team dive deep into the lives of our research participants to uncover valuable consumer insights that others may overlook as mundane. As a people person, she quickly establishes rapport with research participants in any context and is a keen observer during on-the-ground fieldwork. Always willing and eager to volunteer, she is also a highly skilled moderator and facilitator for various design research methods, whether it be immersions, participatory research, in-depth interviews, intercept interviews, co-creation, or ideation sessions, both in-person or remote. Her expertise significantly contributes to effective market research in Thailand.
Piyathep "Drink" Tanmahasmut, Design Researcher
Piyathep is a down-to-earth, sports-loving applied anthropologist who easily builds rapport with research participants while immersing himself in cultural contexts and conducting market research in Thailand. His easy-going and straightforward personality makes him easy to get along with, which is essential when gathering consumer insights and interviewing key informants in the field. There isn’t much that makes him uncomfortable, making him a versatile researcher. He’s actively continuing his education and developing a strong interest in applied anthropology, the anthropology of the future, and design research.
Phutiset "Mu" Cherchuponglam, Design Researcher
Phutiset is a football and manga fan who leverages his expertise in industrial design, user-centered design, and user research to guide the design direction of client projects, informed by valuable consumer insights gathered during and after the design research phase. He has participated in a variety of design projects, including packaging design using agricultural waste, the design of home appliances, board game design, and luggage design. Additionally, he is well-equipped to tackle issues related to innovation and the value of products or services, with an understanding of market research in Thailand.
Our co-founders
Conifer Research
Conifer Research is a Chicago-based consultancy that specializes in design research and ethnographic studies to help companies align their business activities with the real lives of their customers. They employ custom, creative research methods to uncover deep consumer insights into behavior, focusing on solving complex business problems through immersive, human-centered approaches. Their team combines expertise from diverse fields such as anthropology, psychology, and design to provide actionable insights that drive innovation and foster meaningful change for their clients, including those looking for market research in Thailand.
