About Me
Andy Tope
I`m originally from Harrogate, a small town in Yorkshire, UK. I`ve spent most of my life moving from one country to another – with most time spent living in Japan, Switzerland and the UK. I`ve always had a keen interest in History – especially modern History – which led me to study at Durham University. After finishing at Durham, I went to Japan and spent several years teaching, studying and working in publishing. I then discovered an interest in consumer psychology and consumer behavior, working for several large insights consultancies on global projects for Coca Cola and Unilever. I then returned to Japan with Philip Morris International and branched out into innovation and strategy across the APAC region, and eventually behavioral science led projects helping people switch from cigarettes to reduced harm alternatives. I was fortunate to set up a Behavioral Science & UX Design lab in 2017 in San Francisco, and was lead inventor on some interesting IP. I completed master`s degrees in Psychology and Organizational Behavior and used this to help the Philip Morris global organization in its transformation, applying behavioral science to people and culture change. I continued my behavioral science journey by setting up a behavioral insights team at a FTSE 30 company, working on interesting things from consumer journey understanding, to online purchase journeys and loyalty program development. Oh, and I also found time to build a small, digital behavior change start up using machine learning, behavioral psychology and systems thinking to help develop better teams and managers.
Currently, I am studying again! Another postgrad degree in Data Science and Decision Analytics at the University of Edinburgh.
In Isaiah Berlin`s world of hedgehogs and foxes, I consider myself a classic fox: interested by many ideas, curious, (fairly) open-minded and trying to connect different things. This is also why multi-disciplinary areas like Behavioral Data Science are appealing to me.
Don’t worry, there is more to me than just work and study. I do actually have some time left for a family and hobbies: reading, cooking, travel, Japanese TV dramas and (watching) sports. I`m a fan of Plymouth Argyle, who continue to disappoint…..
Seen Things
This site is actually an updated version of a site started in Japan in 2011. For different reasons (moving, new career opportunities, family) the site stagnated and dropped down the list of priorities.
But now it`s back!
My vision is when it comes to insights in behavioural science, data science and systems thinking, what gets found in the academic journals should be released into the “wild”, where it can benefit everyone.
With Seen Things I take findings and insights from academia and try to explain them in simple(r) terms and connect them to other things. I will explore and explain the newest findings in applied behavioural science, systems thinking, applied data science and artificial intelligence. I will explain what a lot of heavy duty terms mean and how they are relevant. On a more practical note, I would like to show how you can use such findings in your day to day life to understand behavior and make better decisions.