Practice
A specialist retail practice built around senior judgement.
Figura is a founder-led practice working with apparel and home retailers where new technology, workflow and operating reality need to come together.
Annamie Hansen is Figura's principal expert. She remains directly involved in senior diagnosis, major recommendations, quality judgement and the key client relationship.
Figura adds specialist collaborators where a piece of work requires them.
Retail first. Technology second.
The tool follows the operating requirement.
Figura's approach is vendor-neutral.
The starting question is what the retail work needs to achieve, what constraints matter and what operating capability is required.
Technology is then assessed in that context.
That can lead to a recommendation to use something, test it further, combine different capabilities or simply not add another tool yet.
The point is not neutrality for its own sake. It is avoiding a technology decision that makes sense in isolation but works poorly in the business around it.
Current AI capability has a longer history behind it
Figura did not begin learning about technology adoption with generative AI.
Figura’s experience with emerging retail technology has developed over many years, well before the current generative-AI cycle.
Earlier 3D and digital-product-development work involved many of the same deeper adoption questions:
- Who needs to participate?
- How does the workflow change?
- Where does quality get checked?
- How do suppliers or specialist partners fit?
- What needs to become standard?
- And how does useful capability begin to reside inside the organisation rather than with an external expert?
The technologies have changed. The underlying implementation questions have remained remarkably consistent.
About Annamie
Annamie Hansen
Founder and principal expert, Figura
Annamie’s judgement is grounded in the realities of retail product work. Her background spans fashion, product, buying and sourcing, including senior roles as Buying Director at Ackermans and Business Development Executive at Pepkor Sourcing and Services.
She founded Figura 10 years ago, bringing that retail experience into a specialist practice working across product, sourcing, digital development and changing technology. Over the decade since, the work has evolved as the technologies have changed, while remaining closely connected to the realities of how retail teams, suppliers and product processes operate.
Long before generative AI became a current focus, Annamie was working with 3D and digital workflows across retailers, suppliers and technical teams. She helps to translate new capability into roles, standards, processes and ways of working that could function in practice.
That combination shapes her role at Figura today. She brings senior retail judgement together with product knowledge and practical technology implementation experience, leading the diagnosis, major recommendations and quality standard behind the work.
Working with a founder-led practice
Direct senior access, within a defined engagement.
Clients work with Figura because the situation benefits from experienced judgement being close to the decisions.
Scope, responsibilities and access are defined around the engagement, and additional specialist capacity is brought in where the work needs it.