GAIN LINE

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of talent and skills for Manchester Digital, a nonprofit tech trade body representing digital and technology employers across Greater Manchester. One of our services is a bespoke digital apprenticeship provision for businesses within our membership through the Manchester Digital Academy arm of our organisation. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with GAIN LINE?

We needed to revisit our apprenticeship provision. We were at a growth point with the Academy, looking at introducing two new apprenticeship pathways as well as growing take up of our existing provision. Overall, we were looking for ways to strengthen our position in the market, improve our learning and put that learning into practice as we grew our products and services.

SOLUTION

What is the scope of their involvement?

First, GAIN LINE spent time with us to understand who we are and what we do rather than going cold to the discovery phase. We had people across the business directly or indirectly involved in the apprenticeship that could give us another point of view. 

GAIN LINE has enabled us to revisit our ‘why’ and with this, look at our communication strategy to make it smarter and more impactful  They’ve helped us unpick our internal processes to make them more efficient and purposeful, ensuring we talk to the right people to make quicker, more effective business decisions about using our products and services. They’ve also helped us identify benefits of ensuring knowledge and understanding across the wider business so more people can help support the growth and promotion of the products and services that aren’t directly within the apprenticeship team.

The strategies focus on what quick wins to address, our challenges and issues, and the longer-term approaches. For the marketing strategy, GAIN LINE has recommended we look at our USP to get a stronger shared vision, which is already making an impact.

What is the team composition?

As part of our GAIN LINE experience, we have contact with three people: a project manager, a managing director, and Kevin (Technical Director). Kevin is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with GAIN LINE?

GAIN LINE approached us and told us they had a product that could be valuable for our members. They asked us to consider whether we had any challenges in our business to try the service out to better understand it; it was excellent timing because we needed something like this.

How much have you invested with them?

We haven’t spent any money on the project; the service was pro bono.

What is the status of the engagement?

We began our partnership in March 2022, and wrapped up by October 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have actual metrics as this is now in the implementation stage, but we’ve seen increased business interest from our marketing material and downloads converting to prospecting calls. We’ve also seen internal efficiency in identifying leads, passing them over, and following up with them. Additionally, we’ve identified more specific senior decision-makers and are now having in-depth discussions about providing business services to them.

Overall, GAIN LINE has been incredibly helpful, and they’ve been one of the catalysts for how we now talk and think about our apprenticeship.

How did GAIN LINE perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is excellent. Before starting any sessions with us, they took a lot of time to discuss who we are. It was relevant and personalised to our business, so we then felt more buy-in as a result. We were more engaged and committed to the process, rather than it being generic and detached from us.

Moreover, GAIN LINE has delivered everything on time. They provide additional tips and suggestions that might be worth reading outside of a specific delivery.
We use Miro and an Excel spreadsheet to track and manage the project. Also, we communicate via Zoom and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve taken the time to understand our business beforehand, which was reflected in the value of the process for us. Often, external consultancies potentially have a standard model approach, and sometimes the delivery doesn’t feel personalised. However, GAIN LINE isn’t about coming up with the solution for you, they help you come up with the solutions for yourselves in a guided and challenged way, that brings out your team’s expertise, knowledge, and creativity to develop potential approaches to achieve our goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Perhaps a reminder on recap/focus/prep for the sessions to everyone involved would be beneficial.

Any advice for potential customers?

The time commitment and frequency of the process is essential. Make sure you keep the suggested commitment and go through the whole process. Also, have people across the organisation that might not be directly involved in the project to get a different perspective.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Indiespring create mobile applications and technical solutions. Our main goal is to solve our client’s problems through simple, impactful tech. My position within the company is Head of Quality Engineering; me snd my team are responsible for the quality of your product, ensuring that the product you receive is to spec and works as expected.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire GAIN LINE?

Gain Line offered their services to us to look at our Delivery Sprints, as it was determined that they weren't as efficient as they could be and they needed optimising.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Gain Line approached us as an early adopter and case study for their company, to prove their skills and efficiency. We were impressed with the offerings that Gain Line were proposing.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The Gain Line sprint is in multiple stages; Drains, Gains, Experiments and Sprint Handover. Each workshop lasted between 1-2 hours and was an interactive worksop with Gain Line using Google Meet, whiteboard technology and polls. The workshops are all collaborative, meaning that all members of the team completing the workshop put down their own thoughts and ideas and then a poll is run for the team to vote on what they believe to be their most pressing issues/best resolutions.

The workshops are guided by Gain Line and any ambiguities are identified at the time and expanded upon before going any further to ensure full transparency and understanding. The Drains workshop is to identify issues within the process/business where there are potential drains and things aren't as polished as they could be or aren't getting the best results, e.g., "Ticket quality".

Gains is working out how much the process/business wil gain if these issues are addressed - how much of a priority are they, how much impact will they have, is there a root cause etc. From there, they shape it into a, 'how might we' question. For example, "How might we improve ticket quality so all requirements are captured?". The Experiments workshop is putting all the findings together and putting together a step-by-step action plan to follow to turn your drain into a gain.

There's then a handover session where Gain Line present you with the findings and everything discussed in all of your sessions in a handy document so you can mark your progress off as you go and refer back to previous drains and what was proposed etc. Gain Line also complete follow up sessions after the Sprint is complete to confirm that you are completing your step-by-step actions and they give you a sense of accountability which is invaluable to ensure that the changes get made.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had two members from Gain Line in our Sprint; we had Kevin who mainly ran the sprint and Mike who would do the admin side of it, ensuring the whiteboard tech was updated, we could all see and interact with the right things etc.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since going through the Gain Line Sprint we have successfully lowered our ticket rejections and increased our ticket quality standards. With better tickets, this is resulting in better development, better QA and things going out of the door on time, on budget, and working as expected to client specifications.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

All of our workshops were completely remotely on Google Nest. Gain Line were always available via email if we needed him and would always reply in a timely manner. Before each workshop, Kevin would send us all an email to confirm that we were still able to make it, however if a member of the team wasn't able to make it, this was not an issue as Gain Line would catch up with them separately.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Gain Line were very open with their previous struggles that they had overcome as a business and how it related to the struggles that we were encountering at the time. The thoroughness and professionalism of GAIN LINE were second to none; they left no stone unturned, but never made us feel bad about the issues we were having. It was always a positive environment with the focus on helping and progressing, not dwelling on past mistakes or issues.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

At the end of the Sprint we were originally provided with a Google Sheets document with all of our findings on it. Whilst this is not a bad thing and is great for sharing, we discussed with Gain Line that a Google Sheets document doesn't have the right urgency to it and could easily be forgotten about.

We discussed possibly finding an alternative to a Google Sheet which could be worked on collaboratively but also gives the users a bit of a nudge to view it and keep completing their actions. A Google Sheet has worked for us, but it might not be a one-size-fits-all type deal.