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Whether through his work at Davis Pier Consulting, helping an elderly couple pay the parking meters outside his downtown office or volunteering his time with the Kids Help Phone board of directors, Davis lives by the principle that empathy paves the best path forward.

It can be tricky to encapsulate what exactly a consulting firm like the firm he founded, Davis Pier Consulting, does. “So much of the work we do is trying to be a voice, almost a translator, between government and community,” Davis explains.

“Community” in this context can mean any number of groups of people: those trying to access government services like long-term disability or income assistance (where Davis Pier’s offshoot Pier Labs would offer service and program design); those living in neighbourhoods where new developments are being proposed (where Davis Pier might suggest ways to incorporate human-centred design and collaboration); or those who need help with the organization or structure of a business (where change management and business architecture advising might be offered).

Solutions, not advice

At 10 years old, Davis Pier is still considered a baby in the business world. But it’s grown, matured and evolved exponentially over the last decade. “The first few years of the company, we were a very traditional consulting firm,” he remembers. “And then I had a Jerry Maguire moment where I was like, ‘What are we doing?’ We had this thing — a ‘successful business’ — but how were we going to have a bigger impact?”

Davis has since gained a better appreciation for the role his organization can have helping marginalized communities get their points across with government. He’s worked hard to make Davis Pier a trusted source.

"We've evolved [to have] much more social impact,” he says. “We play an important role in helping residents understand what government is trying to do and understand the complexity of the government’s job, which is often quite nuanced and complicated.”

Advocacy in action

Flashback to 2017. The challenge: address food insecurity in Amherst, N.S.

Davis knew the typical stakeholder consultation process involved offering bitter coffee at a community centre from 6 to 8 p.m. and asking folks to drop in and share their suggestions. Drawing on his STEM background, Davis decided to try something different: failing fast.

The concept of failing fast is frequently applied to startups and involves putting out scrappy prototypes and minimum viable products to collect feedback and information, which is then used to improve the product.

“We worked through several concepts, picked one, designed it with community input, considered what local assets were in place, and then we prototyped it for three months,” he says. In the end, they designed a service all users loved, that also improved their access to healthier food options. The fact that the solution was designed with community input meant it served the needs the community decided on, not needs that were decided for them. And that has been a lodestar for Davis Pier ever since.