Airloom Design

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Cutting Ball Theater is a non-profit experimental theater based in San Francisco's Tenderloin District, presenting plays in our intimate space, to connect Bay Area audiences and artists through shared moments of live storytelling. I am CBT's Marketing Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire airloom.space?

We were looking to get some guidance on two main topics - overall brand awareness and tailored marketing plans for our upcoming play. We knew Shokai has a history marketing in Bay Area theater and would be the perfect for understanding our specific needs as a small non-profit theater.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have worked with Shokai in the past when they were doing marketing for Shotgun Players. We knew they were talented and knowledgeable and exactly what we needed.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

They helped us with SEO, competitor analysis, ways to engage with our audience, media outreach options, marketing plans, provided recourses/links, and more. There was a lot of great brainstorming and their strategies were clear and easy to follow

What was the team composition?

We met weekly over Zoom and had goals for each meeting. We worked through a Figma board which made it very easy to follow and pick up where we left off. Shokai had already came up with so many great starting points and ideas that it made the whole process much more efficient. We both provided information in our needed areas and collaborated great.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We are able to create much more marketing tactics that we had never thought of before - like getting a partnership with Bartable or hosting a poetry night.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We worked great together. It went at a wonderful pace and Shokai was incredibly accommodating which was amazing.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The amount of information they provide for you right off the back. It's clear they're done their homework about your company and have the marketing plan to prove it.

Is there any area for improvement or anything that could have been done differently?

Honestly it was an amazing experience and more than I hoped for. I got great insight and got to collaborate with a very smart and experienced team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of CrowdSolve, a marketplace for climate tech ideas that tries to match up tech innovators with mentors. On one side, it has innovators with tech ideas to help impact climate change, and on the other, mentors are available to help them move their ideas forward faster.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with airloom.space?

We needed someone to take over the product design and build out the prototype to take our platform to market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

airloom.space has been helping us design our platform and doing UX research. We started with a design sprint session around the user journey, and then they prototyped what that would look like using Figma.

As the airloom.space team was building out the designs matched to the journey map elements, I brought on a group of external developers to build those pieces. airloom.space validates the process to see if the developers are matching the design. 

Additionally, airloom.space has done some UX research on the backend of the process. Once we had an initial prototype, they conducted research interviews with the various user personas and gave us feedback on what was working and what wasn’t. After that, they iterated in the design based on that research.

What is the team composition?

I have direct contact with the designer from airloom.space. 

How did you come to work with airloom.space?

We met via a shared group and had some matching goals. airloom.space became interested in what we were doing, and we ended up hiring them.

How much have you invested with them?

The hourly rate is $100 per hour, and we’ve paid for 40 hours each month throughout our engagement. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Though our product isn’t quite ready for market, we’re on schedule and moving towards our MVP. We’re planning to launch in March and have a pilot scheduled for April. I’m happy with where we’re at and with the timing of airloom.space’s deliverables. 

How did airloom.space perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good at communicating and sticking to schedule and budget. We use Miro as our communication environment for the various business people involved and the airloom.space team. We track progress on Trello and use Zoom and Slack for further communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by airloom.space’s intuitive sense of what needs to be done. They’ve come up with out-of-the-box design suggestions to help move our product along in a very positive way.

Additionally, airloom.space does what they say they’ll do — they’ve reliably delivered on their promises. Our relationship has been very good and has helped us move our company forward. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There isn’t anything they need to improve; they’ve done everything I’ve asked them to do. Maybe there are even some things I could do better to organize the project!

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise having a good sense of where you want to go and including airloom.space in the roadmap early on. That way, they can play a role in the initial design, which creates a good sense of ownership. Plus, airloom.space’s ability to think outside the box and aid with creative decisions is super helpful in those early stages.