Some problems need a researcher. Some need someone who can build the system. Some need both.
That’s the territory Dianoetic works in.
WHAT WE DO
Dianoetic offers research and data consultancy across two related areas:
Research and Analysis
Macroeconomic and policy research, quantitative modelling, rapid analytical response to policy and strategy questions, literature synthesis, bibliometric analysis, and program evaluation. For organisations that need rigorous analytical work done to a real deadline — a board briefing, a policy brief, a research report, or a question that just landed on the desk.
Data Systems
Data infrastructure design, CRM implementation and integration, reporting and dashboard development, process automation, and data capacity building. For organisations whose data isn’t working as well as it should — whether that’s a systems problem, a governance problem, or a capacity problem.
HOW IT WORKS
Engagements are short-term and scoped around a specific problem. The goal is to solve it and leave the organisation better equipped to manage without ongoing external support. Most work runs between a few weeks and a few months.
Dianoetic works remotely and internationally.
ABOUT
I'm Pooya Karambakhsh — economist, researcher, and data analyst.
My background takes some explaining, but the logic is straightforward: I follow interesting problems.
That has led me from geotechnical engineering on dam, road, and tunnel construction sites in Iran — and on school buildings and metro stations — through numerical simulation research in geotechnical engineering at an Australian university, to a PhD in Political Economy at the University of Sydney, to building data systems for nonprofits and advocacy organisations, to macroeconomic research at a Pacific central bank.
I have published peer-reviewed research in economics and engineering. I have migrated CRMs, automated workflows, and built reporting infrastructure for executive teams. I have answered urgent policy questions under short notice and presented findings to governors and senior leadership.
The range is the point. Someone who can work across the analytical question and the data infrastructure that supports it — and who has done both in resource-constrained environments where solutions need to be practical, not just technically sound — tends to be useful in ways a narrower specialist is not.
I am at my best when there is a hard problem, a real deadline, and actual stakes.
ON CONSULTING
Good consulting is about understanding the problem, not selling a solution.
After years working across data systems in nonprofits and public organisations, I have seen the same pattern repeatedly: organisations attribute difficulties to the technology when the real issue is governance, process, or capacity. Most do not need a new system. They need clarity about what they are actually trying to solve.
Why CRM migrations fail — and what works instead →
The same applies to research. The most useful analytical work is not always the most elaborate — it is the work that answers the right question clearly enough to act on.
AREAS OF WORK
Research and policy analysis | Macroeconomic modelling | Quantitative and statistical analysis | Data systems design | CRM implementation and integration | Reporting and dashboards | Process automation | Capacity building | Program evaluation | Bibliometric analysis