INTRO

I’m Liane Dowling, a creative strategist who has spent 16 years inside global agencies watching good work miss the mark for reasons that never showed up in the brief. I lead Parallax Lab, which uses the Legacy Lag diagnostic to help organisations realign their customer models and narratives with current market reality. My work sits at the intersection of culture, behaviour and commercial strategy, with a focus on how inherited assumptions about women and other undervalued groups shape decisions long after markets have shifted.

THE PATH

I’ve worked across the UK and Australia with agencies including Leo Burnett, M&C Saatchi, Special Group, FCB, TBWA and 72andSunny, for brands spanning sport, tech, transport, beauty, insurance and food. Across that time I kept seeing the same pattern: organisations had “modern” campaigns but were still operating on old assumptions about who held value and agency.

Legacy Lag is the diagnostic methodology I’ve developed to translate cultural theory into an operational audit that organisations can use to update their assumptions and strategy.

Legacy Lag came out of frustration with surface‑level fixes: diversity campaigns, sponsorships and “female empowerment” work that looked right but left the underlying assumptions intact. I wanted a way to trace those inherited assumptions structurally, through products, processes and narratives, and link them directly to commercial risk and opportunity.

Why Legacy Lag exists

  • Clear, direct language grounded in evidence.

  • Willingness to name the structural problems shaping briefs, not just “optimise” the work.​

  • Collaboration with internal teams and partners rather than parachuting in with a deck.

  • Rigorous but plain‑language translation of cultural theory into practical decisions.

What working together feels like

If you’re trying to make sense of work that feels “off” despite solid metrics, or you suspect inherited assumptions are limiting what’s possible, I’d be happy to talk about whether a Legacy Lag diagnostic could help. Use the contact form to share a few lines about your organisation and what you’re seeing.

LET’S ChAT

What Legacy Lag offers: Legacy Lag is a diagnostic methodology that traces where inherited assumptions are embedded in products, processes and narratives, and links that misalignment directly to commercial and reputational risk.