Sky Island Consulting
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I’m a narrative researcher working at the intersection of social science and design. My background is in ethnographic fieldwork, observing how people move through systems, spaces, and stories. I use tools developed in the tech world, like UX research and behavioral mapping, but I apply them more like a fieldworker than a product tester.
Most of my work lives outside the lab. I run short, immersive studies that help organizations understand how things actually feel on the ground, what’s working, what’s not, and what’s being missed. I don’t lead workshops or make media. I surface insight that informs strategy, design, and storytelling—but begins with lived experience.
Sky Island is where that work takes shape: tailored, human-centered research for people trying to do things that matter.
Hi, I’m Ryan Badertscher.
I’m from Santa Cruz County, Arizona—south of Tucson, along the border. I studied history at Northern Arizona University on a state scholarship, spending summers fighting wildfires to pay for school and chase some adrenaline.
After college, I worked as Collections Manager at the Mesa Historical Museum, where I led research and storytelling around local history. That role sparked a deeper love for people-centered research, which I carried into grad school in Berlin, where I began a master’s in Global History. I eventually stepped away from academia to focus on applied research instead—work that lives in real environments, not just in theory.
Since then, I’ve worked with Thomson Reuters and completed a master’s in Information Technology, continuing to build a practice grounded in narrative, systems, and human experience.
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What is a Sky Island? The South Western US is famous for being dry, and mostly desert. What many may not know is that punctuated by mountain range thousands of feet high, which are generally much cooler than the surrounding desert and are heavily forested.
Ready to see your program through your audience’s eyes?
Let’s talk about a study tailored to your goals.
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