About Us

We’re not a traditional consultancy. And not a creative agency. We sit exactly in between — and that’s precisely the point.

Innovations rarely fail because of the quality of the idea.

They fail because of the systems they have to move through. Internal structures. Decision-making culture. The gap between what an idea is, and what it needs to be heard, understood, and actually executed.

Facts + Stories was founded because we know this gap firsthand. Not from textbooks, but from years on the company side, in corporations and brands, where we watched strong ideas get lost at exactly this point.

What we built from that experience is grounded in an insight as old as humanity itself: stories are the one language everyone understands. Across functions, hierarchies, and cultures.

Our Narrative Innovation Process makes exactly that possible:
bringing different perspectives together productively, and using diversity of thinking for what it actually is — a raw material for better ideas.

Our focus is strategic innovation.
Not ideas for the sake of ideas, but innovations that make brands future-ready, set a clear direction, and are rooted in the brand’s own strengths.

More than 500 projects with over 180 brands and companies

What we do and why it works

Our work connects three forces that are each strong on their own, but truly powerful together.

Data creates the foundation.
We understand what consumers and customers actually want, how markets are moving, and where your brand stands today and where it can be tomorrow.

Storytelling makes insights count and is the engine of our Narrative Innovation Process.
We translate complex insights and strategies into a language that brings everyone along. Because the best idea doesn’t win because it’s right — it wins because it’s heard and understood.

AI accelerates and sharpens both.
We deploy it where it creates real value: in workshops for inspiration generation, in analyzing brand associations and consumer behavior, in fine-tuning concepts and in moving insights toward market-ready results faster.

How we work together

Understand — We build a shared knowledge foundation from insights, market analysis, and brand perspective. Before anyone starts developing solutions.

Create — We translate those findings into concrete strategic directions:
innovation fields, positioning options, product ideas. Usually in a workshop — collaborative, structured, with a clear output.

Validate — What has emerged is tested with real consumers and customers. Not as a reassurance ritual, but to create reliable decision foundations.

Activate — When needed, we also support implementation: activating ideas, products, or strategies within the organization and in the market.

The result isn’t an external solution that has to be pushed into the organization. It’s a co-created direction that your team actually stands behind.

The Art of Gathering

Good work happens when people actually come together.

Not on the next call. But in the same room, with the willingness to develop something collectively that none of them could have thought of alone.

Workshops aren’t one format among many for us. They are the place where the Narrative Innovation Process comes alive, where diverse perspectives find a common language, and where parallel opinions become a shared conviction. We design these spaces deliberately: methodically clear, humanly warm. Always with the standard that a good workshop doesn’t just produce a strong result, but leaves a memory.

Who we are

Karin Kiesl,
Founder and CEO, brings 18 years of experience in strategic marketing — including NIVEA, Microsoft, and AOL — and more than 10 years in innovation and strategy consulting.
Having spent years on the company side herself, she knows exactly how decisions are really made, where projects get stuck, and what it takes for an idea to not just be good, but to make it through corporate realities.

Kathrin Jander,
Deputy CEO and Head of Consumer Understanding & Research, brings 15 years of experience in marketing and communication, across Germany, Australia, and Nigeria. Her conviction: behind every successful product is a real, relevant consumer or customer insight. Kathrin translates data and research findings into clear strategic decisions and leads interdisciplinary teams into genuine co-creation.

Karin Kiesl
Founder and CEO
Head of Strategy & Innovation

Kathrin Jander
Deputy CEO
Head of Consumer Understanding & Research

Together, they connect what consulting so often keeps separate: a deep understanding of how innovation actually works inside organizations and the methodological clarity around what truly drives the target audience.

Who we work with

Our clients are at a strategic inflection point: a brand that needs to be repositioned without losing its identity. An innovation portfolio that needs direction, not just more ideas. A strategy that isn’t landing, even though it’s right.

We work with product managers, marketing managers, innovation managers, and strategy teams. In established brand companies, nationally and internationally. From ambitious mid-sized businesses to global corporations.