What clients say
"Mariana spent three months with us before she wrote a single recommendation. By the time the report arrived, it felt like she had been inside the organisation for years. The diagnosis was uncomfortably accurate."
Director, Fundação Artes do Tejo
"We had been through two strategy processes that produced documents nobody read. This one produced a document we argued about for weeks. That is the difference."
CEO, Cooperativa Urbana de Setúbal
News & Announcements
- 012026-04-10
Organisational Strategy for Cultural Institutions in Portugal
Cultural institutions in Portugal face a particular set of pressures that most strategy frameworks…
- 022026-02-18
Stakeholder Engagement in Urban Development Projects in Portugal
Urban development projects in Portugal, particularly those involving waterfront regeneration,…
- 032025-12-03
How to Write a Strategy Document That People Actually Use
The strategy document is one of the most consistently misused tools in organisational life.…
Meet the maker
Mariana Fonseca
Mariana Fonseca founded Absolute Derive in Lisbon in 2017 after eight years working inside organisations rather than advising them from the outside. She began at Porto's municipal urban regeneration agency, where she managed community consultation for three large-scale neighbourhood projects in Campanhã. She then moved to Lisbon as head of strategy at a cultural foundation in Mouraria, where she spent five years before deciding that the most useful thing she could do was work across organisations rather than inside one. She reads a lot of urban theory, walks the city most mornings before the office opens, and is a reliable presence at the Cinemateca Portuguesa on Friday evenings.