Lugh
Sensemaking for tangled problems
ABOUT LUGH
The questions that don't sit neatly inside one discipline.
Lugh is the integrative-strategy and sensemaking practice of Matt Barry — public-policy economist, polymath analyst, and systems thinker.Matt's career spans twenty years across Australian and UK government. Senior roles include data analytics and central budget systems, whole-of-Victorian government fees and charges policy, whole-of-Victorian government construction procurement policy, national transport reform, and legislative reform.
Lugh's work crosses economics, regulation, legislation, pricing, procurement, data analytics, and commercial policy — the kind of question where the answer depends on holding multiple frames at once and applying the right set of tools for the question at hand.Lugh uses AI across the workflow as an accelerant on the analytical craft, not as the craft itself. Lugh draws on an expansive network of trusted specialists where elements of the project require deeper technical or domain expertise. The result is integrated, defensible analysis and advice at a fraction of the cost and lead time those problems usually demand.
HOW WE WORK
A pluralistic and integrative approach —
multiple frames, multiple tools, synthesised for the question.
Lugh takes a pluralistic and integrative approach to its work — all relevant theoretical and value perspectives are considered in understanding a problem; the appropriate set of tools is selected and configured for the question at hand.Lugh is committed to:
transparency - making the implicit things explicit and comparable
accuracy and truth - the highest professional standards and veracity
empowerment - enabling clients to make better decisions
accessibility - providing cost-effective services and insightful products in plain language
WHAT WE DO
Analysis, Strategy and Design
The work falls into two strands:
–analytical services that make a problem legible and decision-making informed; and
–strategy and design pieces that turn understanding into action.
The pluralistic and integrative approach runs through both.
ANALYSIS
Making a complex problem legible — the evidence, the data, the actors, the institutions, the system
Problem definition — distilling and defining the question from multiple lenses.
Research and literature reviews — structured synthesis across the evidence base for a defined question, with ideological provenance of sources surfaced.
Stakeholder analysis and mapping — who is involved, what they want, where the alignments and frictions sit.
Institutional analysis and mapping — mapping the institutional terrain — legislation and regulation, markets and sectors, agencies and regulators, governance arrangements and jurisdictional responsibilities — relevant to the question.
Data analysis — building, interrogating, and visualising the data that bears on the question. Insight packs to assist decision-makers and support narratives.
Cost and pricing analysis — interrogating cost structures and prices. How fees and charges are set, what they recover, where they fall against market and policy tests.
Systems analysis — understanding the problem systemically — feedback loops, dependencies, unintended consequences — rather than as a flat list of factors.
Enabling informed and empowered decision making
Financial and quantitative modelling — bespoke models, financial and otherwise, that make uncertain decisions tractable and test how robust a choice is to its assumptions.
Risk and scenario analysis — how the choice holds in an uncertain world: surfacing the risks, performance in different scenarios, stress-testing the assumptions.
Cost-benefit analysis — structured CBA and multi-criteria analysis over defined options.
Economic appraisal and evaluation — forward appraisal of options; backward evaluation of programs. What's worth doing, and afterwards, what actually worked.
Impact analysis — forward-looking assessment of how an intervention plays out across affected groups and second-order effects.
STRATEGY AND DESIGN
Turning analysis into decisions and action — designing solutions, sequencing their implementation.
Policy options design — designing the options on the table: what each one is, what it would do, where the trade-offs sit, and how feasible they are.
Data and knowledge systems design — the architecture by which an organisation captures, structures, and uses what it knows. Refining knowledge and data systems so that they are more efficient and empower better decision-making.
Strategic implementation — taking a preferred option and setting out how it actually gets done. Sequencing, prerequisites, risks, who owns which lever.
Real engagements rarely fit one box — most weave analysis and strategy together. Worked examples are added as they land; the early conversation usually clarifies the right shape.
GET IN TOUCH
Start a conversation and explore how we can help you
Lugh works on engagements that genuinely benefit from integrative thinking. Drop us a line describing the problem and what kind of help you're looking for. If we are the right fit, we can line up a chat and clarify the way forward.