Turning distinctive practice into assets that stay.
Turning distinctive practice into assets that stay.
Your most experienced people carry judgment, instincts, and ways of working that no manual contains. Sophya surfaces that expertise and translates a designed framework others can learn from and build on.
Your most experienced people carry judgment, instincts, and ways of working that no manual contains. Sophya surfaces that expertise and translates a designed framework others can learn from and build on.
Distinctive practice rarely outlasts the role.
Distinctive practice rarely outlasts the role.
Some capability lives entirely in how a person works. Decades of judgment, situational reading, and quiet expertise that shape outcomes others rely on, without ever being written down. When that person's role changes, or when the practice needs to travel beyond them, the organization discovers how much was held in one place.
Some capability lives entirely in how a person works. Decades of judgment, situational reading, and quiet expertise that shape outcomes others rely on, without ever being written down. When that person's role changes, or when the practice needs to travel beyond them, the organization discovers how much was held in one place.
92%
92%
Of organizations do not consistently capture that knowledge before key people leave.
Of organizations do not consistently capture that knowledge before key people leave.
APQC & eGain · 2025
71%
71%
Of small and mid-sized businesses depend on one or two key individuals for their success.
Of small and mid-sized businesses depend on one or two key individuals for their success.
WorkFlawless · 2026
58%
58%
Of C-suite executives are seriously concerned about knowledge loss when senior people leave.
Of C-suite executives are seriously concerned about knowledge loss when senior people leave.
APQC & eGain · 2025
We offer a process that makes expertise transferable
We offer a process that makes expertise transferable
We work with your most experienced people as partners. A design-led process turns their practice into a framework the organization can use.
We work with your most experienced people as partners. A design-led process turns their practice into a framework the organization can use.
01
Discovery
Structured interviews and working sessions where the practitioner articulates what they have never had to put into words. Deep listening, reflection, and the co-creation of language for what has always been intuitive.
02
Design
Finding the organizing structure that holds everything together. Original concepts and frameworks emerge from raw practice, translated by information designers into a visual language your organization can use.
03
Delivery
The output is produced in a form that lands inside your organization: a designed framework shaped around your context. The structure supports both human reading and machine querying.
04
Activation
We support the passing of the knowledge in the way your organization needs. Facilitation, internal train-the-trainer, or coaching with whoever is taking the work forward. So the framework moves from the page into practice.
01
Discovery
Structured interviews and working sessions where the practitioner articulates what they have never had to put into words. Deep listening, reflection, and the co-creation of language for what has always been intuitive.
02
Design
Finding the organizing structure that holds everything together. Original concepts and frameworks emerge from raw practice, translated by information designers into a visual language your organization can use.
03
Delivery
The output is produced in a form that lands inside your organization: a designed framework shaped around your context. The structure supports both human reading and machine querying.
04
Activation
We support the passing of the knowledge in the way your organization needs. Facilitation, internal train-the-trainer, or coaching with whoever is taking the work forward. So the framework moves from the page into practice.
What your organization receives.
What your organization receives.
Every engagement produces a bespoke visual framework shaped around your context. The form depends on the role, the practice, and what will be most useful for whoever comes next. Below are some of the forms the output can take, on their own or in combination.
Every engagement produces a bespoke visual framework shaped around your context. The form depends on the role, the practice, and what will be most useful for whoever comes next. Below are some of the forms the output can take, on their own or in combination.
Optional activation: facilitation guides and coaching sessions, so the framework moves into practice.
Optional activation: facilitation guides and coaching sessions, so the framework moves into practice.
Signature Decisions
Signature Decisions
A set of moments where this practitioner's judgment diverges from what anyone else would do. Each one is articulated and codified: the situation, the standard reading, the expert's reading, and what they do differently.
A set of moments where this practitioner's judgment diverges from what anyone else would do. Each one is articulated and codified: the situation, the standard reading, the expert's reading, and what they do differently.
Trained Eye
Trained Eye
What this practitioner has learned to see that others miss. The signals of trouble. The moment a situation shifts. Presented as annotated observations, so the noticing is visible on the page.
What this practitioner has learned to see that others miss. The signals of trouble. The moment a situation shifts. Presented as annotated observations, so the noticing is visible on the page.
Uncertainty Log
Uncertainty Log
A record of what this practitioner does not know, cannot predict, or deliberately leaves open. The questions they return to, the signals they still read carefully, the situations where they resist a fixed answer. It shows where expertise holds space for not knowing, as a form of discipline rather than a gap.
A record of what this practitioner does not know, cannot predict, or deliberately leaves open. The questions they return to, the signals they still read carefully, the situations where they resist a fixed answer. It shows where expertise holds space for not knowing, as a form of discipline rather than a gap.
Relational Field
Relational Field
The roles, key figures, and dynamics that carry the weight of the work. Where trust sits, where tension lives, and how to approach the first conversations as someone new to the field. A map of the relational ground the work stands on.
The roles, key figures, and dynamics that carry the weight of the work. Where trust sits, where tension lives, and how to approach the first conversations as someone new to the field. A map of the relational ground the work stands on.
Lead Sheet
Lead Sheet
The essential principles and key moves, written compactly. Like a jazz lead sheet: the melody and chord changes, with the expectation that whoever comes next brings their own competence and improvises within the structure.
The essential principles and key moves, written compactly. Like a jazz lead sheet: the melody and chord changes, with the expectation that whoever comes next brings their own competence and improvises within the structure.
Featured cases.
Featured cases.
Ruimte voor Ritmes (Dutch: Space for Rhythms)
Ruimte voor Ritmes (Dutch: Space for Rhythms)
Trudie Timmerman spent ten years as project manager for Berlijnplein at Utrecht Municipality, navigating complex collaborations between government, cultural organizations, developers, and residents. Her way of working was widely respected but had never been made explicit. Sophya surfaced her practice and designed it into a methodology: eight working principles, a set of techniques for project management of cultural area developments drawn from a musical metaphor, five named capacities, and a conversation tool for stakeholder management. What existed as stories and instinct became a framework that the organization can teach and pass on. Trudie has since been sharing the method through keynotes and sessions.
Commissioned by RAUM and Utrecht Municipality, Utrecht · 2025
Visual design by Karin Fischnaller (The Anderen)
Commissioned by RAUM and Utrecht Municipality, Utrecht · 2025
Visual design by Karin Fischnaller (The Anderen)
"You know something works, but you don't know why. This process made my way of working explicit so it could be shared."
"You know something works, but you don't know why. This process made my way of working explicit so it could be shared."
Trudie Timmerman
Gemeente Utrecht
Trudie Timmerman
Gemeente Utrecht
What experts in the field recognize.
"The real differentiator is not the data or even the models. It is the tacit knowledge embedded in the judgment of an organization's people."
Tung & Roussiere · California Management Review · 2026
"Literally any organization on this planet goes through that problem. Especially those very large organizations where knowledge is incredibly sticky."
Marzia Aricò · Strategic & Organizational Change Consultant
"I meet CEOs who feel their company has been hijacked by employees who worked there for 30 or 40 years and are about to leave."
Oriol Pastor Utzet · Operational & Logistics Consultant
Behind the practice.
Behind the practice.
Sophya was founded by Shay Raviv, a design researcher and consultant with a decade of independent practice at the intersection of design, organizations, and knowledge. Her work focuses on how complex practices can be surfaced and made transferable. Every engagement is led by Shay personally. The conceptual architecture, the original language, the designed frameworks: these come from a craft combining design research, business strategy, and organizational change. Her published works include the visual design essay Beyond Projects and the book A Place to Stay.
