A local Manchester businesswoman who makes it her mission to help make public sector spending deliver for residents within local communities is celebrating having won an in-depth project with a regional transport authority.

Dr Felicity Heathcote-Marcz, 34, based in Greater Manchester, who is known locally in the industry for her role as guest lecturer at Alliance Manchester Business School (University of Manchester) where she ran the Manchester Ethnography Network for over 3 years, is part of a collaborative team with Steer Consultancy, providing new insights to support West Yorkshire’s new Local Transport Plan.

A seasoned research professional and the founder of research consultancy Bare Analysis, she was brought in to work with West Yorkshire Combined Authority, to help them innovate local transport strategy to make sure it is user-centred, and based on what real people want from their local services. Felicity’s role is to help them go beyond analysing data, to help understand what’s really needed to make transport better, based on immersive human experience research.

Dr Felicity said: “Bare Analysis is delighted to be supporting WYCA and Steer with this work, and we are well on the way with focus groups and ethnographic interviews to understand the priorities of West Yorkshire residents and their responses to the policies that underpin these principles. We are working really hard to help residents, across all communities, including those who are traditionally hard to reach to have their say on the future of transport services in their area.”

Dr Felicity founded Bare Analysis in 2023 on an essentialist approach – delivering simple, essential truths which help inform decisions that lead to win-win solutions, both for the user of the services, and from the organisation too. The name ‘Bare Analysis’ was inspired by this essentialist philosophy, along with a trip to the stunning wild Beara Peninsula in Ireland, where the bare beauty of the views sparked reflection on what is essential and important in life.

She has worked with clients across a broad variety of contexts to create positive change. Her work has informed strategy and design change for local and central government, transport providers, NHS and healthcare companies, banking and ecommerce clients and asset management companies / developers.