Owtcome

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO Spectrum Analytics. We offer consultancy services and build bespoke solution to help organisations simplify, secure, and manage their data estate to fuel their analytics and automation use cases. Our digital innovation studio designs and implements digital solutions for enterprises and grassroots roots communities to adapt and thrive in the digital economy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Owtcome, and what were your goals?

Our startup has placed learning at the core of culture. With our team now at 13 employees, we started work on branding and team alignment. We identified a need for design oriented approach and engaged the Owtcome. Through virtual design sessions Owtcome has helped us with session facilitation and invaluable insights for us to build a culture that will continuous fuel our short and long term strategies. Insights from the project have also helped align as team and create a share team and growth roadmap.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I connected with Krasi on LinkedIn in 2021 when her posts and articles caught my attention. I loved Owtcome's design-oriented approach and their non conventional tools. We had a chat and she made us and offer after I shared our challenges and what we aimed to achieve. The opportunity to experiment together through a design approach was a win-win for both Owtcome and Spectrum Analytics.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

What was the scope of their involvement? We worked on multiple sessions with Krasi and Daiana from Owtcome across the span of few months. They run a custom fit series of workshops around our brand identity, team alignment, and concept discovery. The journey was designed and mediated through the use of their proprietary strategic design methodology with tools to address the challenges that initiated this engagement:

• To identify how our core values align to Learning culture underneath the surface story Culture and strategy should embed a unique design process relevant to you to successfully evolve and transform in the future Sustainable growth requires a strong foundation of shared values and experiences in the team so when the company scales, it does not lose its footing
• To discover voices in the company that can contribute to building the brand identity.

Everyone in the company should embody the core values to be a real brand ambassador (“what starts from within spreads throughout”) During the strategic planning discussions we uncovered multiple parts our story and the vision of the future that we want to bring forth in our upcoming work as we begin to scale. In-between as well as the end of the project, we received and discussed the insights reports to discuss future possibilities, immediate and long-term opportunities.

The reports captured ideas and key aspects that Spectrum Analytics could integrate in the business practice to support each individual’s way of learning. By bringing these to the surface, we can now move to our next phase and consolidate our Learning Culture more confidently.

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

We worked with the core team from Owtcome - Krasi and Daiana. From our side, our whole team was involved for the team alignment workshop. However only four members of our leadership team were involved in the strategic mapping workshops.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have had engaging reflection and dialogue sessions around our brand and organisation strategy. Previously it was a challenge to translate shared insights into action, but we have significantly on this based on insights from the project. With our strategy openly shared and visible, it has become to align on projects as a team.

The time we spent with Owtcome helped us channel all our thoughts, worries and ambitions and translate them into an executable roadmap. We learnt a lot from each other and as the sessions progressed, we felt more connected and excited to see our ideas turn into concrete action plans. Their approach is highly creative which made us think and discuss outside the sessions to further distil the most valuable ideas that we could bring in our immediate business context.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had open communication that allowed us to have a shared creative virtual space during our sessions. The smoothness of our interactions allowed us to complete the project within the scheduled timeframe. The team greatly helped us connected our disjointed thoughts and ideas through their innovative and original tools. I am confident that the tools greatly contributed towards the high quality service they provided for us. They also provided insightful summary reports after each session. Time-wise, they were always the first to connect for our sessions.

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

They helped us bring to the surface a dense bundle of insights that we could translate into actionable plans. The Owtcome team provoked us to dig deeper into how we communicate and frame our challenges. In time, we got to create a more robust image of who we are and what we want to do it, and why that matters to us and the world. We are more confident that we have what it takes to meet our goals and help enterprises and communities thrive from digital disruption.

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

Their approach allows them to learn from their customers, so I am confident that they will continuous improve. Though the virtual sessions achieved the project aims, I wonder how the sessions could be in person - but this was beyond all of us.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founders of The Board Whisperers, a consulting company that empower clients to cultivate the right mindset and active culture where everyone participates and adopts the power of creativity for better business outcomes. We stretch the boundaries of what’s possible to create new opportunities, as companies embrace diversity and inclusion as business imperative for success.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Owtcome?

We were working with a rebranding for the next phase of our company. We wanted to introduce a new value proposition on the market around intelligent intuition and humane leadership. We were also thinking about how to better position our services to be more aligned to our core values while differentiating us. Being forward-looking and innovative, we engaged with Owtcome to help us reframe and give words to our new strategic brand identity.

SOLUTION

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

We worked intensely with Krasi and Daiana from Owtcome over a period of few months. They designed a tailored program for us that consisted of a series of workshops around our strategic identity. We worked using their proprietary strategic design methodology and tools to address three key aspects in the project: To identify our unique brand elements for a clear and consistent communication and storytelling To transfer the brand identity into the service offering to enable the best product positioning To redesign the customer interaction model to align our services and client experience with the new strategic direction

Describe the project in detail and walk through their service package.

Each series of workshops had a detailed feedback session before the next step of the journey, where the team presented the insights based on the sessions. The reports were quite detailed and effective in helping us address critical issues that otherwise, we may have missed. The final insights report helped us understand better the scope of our value proposition, how to identify a strong language around our unique DNA, and how to proceed with the execution phase of the branding project.

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

We worked with the core team of Owtcome (Krasi Bozhinkova and Daiana Zavate). From our side, the two founding partners were involved in the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were impressed how well the team could frame important aspects of our values and our vision. They created a new and unique vocabulary for our business and made it easier for us to communicate externally our mission and services. Their work and creative approach to strategy, using a new design framework resonated a lot with us. We felt that we were able to go much deeper into the assessment and development of our strategic identity to find the most valuable elements that would have an impact and contribution to our success.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Owtcome had two roles in the project – they designed and facilitated the workshops, and they did a critical analysis on the inputs to present to us the final insights report. The communication and transparency in the process was good and done in timely manner.

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

Their concept is quite innovative and new. The team invited us to really share our thinking and provoked our creativity really well. They helped us see things from multiple perspectives so that we could identify the most impactful way to position our services and create real value to our customers. We certainly enjoyed the collaborative engagement which was very creative but yet focused and productive.

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

Nothing major

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the technical director and one of the co-founders of Beemup. We connect brands to 3D experiences.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Owtcome?

We were pivoting our direction, exploring the space of our industry. We wanted to see where on a more conceptual level we could reach certain places that we hadn’t looked at from a specific perspective. We needed strategic conceptual workshops from Owtcome.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Owtcome provides strategic design thinking. Before they helped us with our business, we were more into the virtual events space, and we pivoted into the brand stories space, which connects brands to stories that they can tell within the metaphors.

They provided a lot of strategic advice and facilitated workshops where we could explore the space conceptually without being bound by certain limitations such as the capacities we had onboard or our preconceptions about what the markets look like.

Krasi (Strategic Director) is one of our advisors. She allowed us to open up our minds to explore the industry from a very conceptual angle. At some point, she asked us if we would be interested in a strategic design workshop that she was developing at the time.

We went for it because we were actually when we wanted to turn our business in a new direction. She helped us with that.

We had three day-long workshops, which were spread out with several weeks in between, during which Krasi analyzed the results of the workshops and created reports for the next sessions. It was basically a conceptual analysis of the strategic problems we encounter, exploring the space, conceptually brainstorming, and facilitating the whole process within the strategic design direction.

What is the team composition?

Their founder and co-founder helped us with this process. Our board of directors was also involved.

How did you come to work with Owtcome?

One of my co-founders had Krasi in their network. I’m not sure how they connected, but I believe it was at a business startup accelerator program. They clicked, and Krasi helped my co-founder set up the fundamentals of the business. We built up the company from there. In the last few months, she’s steered the business in a better direction.

How much have you invested with them?

Krasi has equity within our startup, so we didn’t spend any money on this project. An equivalent would be about €18,000 (approximately $21,200 USD)

What is the status of this engagement?

Owtcome was involved from the beginning, but this project began in December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was a creative design process that KPIs didn’t define. The added value was more in the conceptual and brainstorming process, and it can’t be really reduced to numbers. Overall, we’re very happy with their work in terms of the process and extensive reporting after each session.

They deeply explored the space in further detail, which served as input for us for the next session, so we were pleased with that. In the beginning, it was confusing to determine which direction to go, but they told us to trust them, and we did. It was definitely an exciting journey in those three days of workshops.

How did Owtcome perform from a project management standpoint?

They had two roles within this project. The first was as facilitator, and the second was conceptually contributing as a consultant within the whole process.

From a facilitation point of view, they did very well. In the beginning, we did have some confusion because we had to draw things out and present them to each other. We didn’t know why we had to do it. However, the solutions came afterward.

We used Miro, which is a great brainstorming application where you can draw and sketch on in a collaborative way and share visualizations with other people contributing to the same design process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their conceptual approach impressed us. Both founders are very conceptually strong. They know how to perceive a subject from multiple angles, break it down, put it in a different format, and compare it with opposites. It was like a very in-depth mind game that was shared collaboratively with all the participants involved.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Looking back into the process, the first session for us was of a very exploratory nature, and the first report of that session felt finite, as if it was pointing us in a certain direction, which was something unexpected.

Getting that report was exciting on one hand because we didn’t expect such elaborate reporting after one session, but it also raised some additional questions about all the details they went into. We had to deal with what it said, which was quite abstract in a way. We had some difficulties in making that report concrete and practical for us on a daily operational level. That’s just because everything that we do has to be pragmatic and deliver business.

This first report made us uncertain still about where this was heading. However, after the second and third sessions, including the reporting, the end was in sight. With this in mind, I believe that they could improve on making the reporting more concrete or limiting the reporting, so you don’t set certain expectations with the stakeholder you’re communicating with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open for the session and just let it play with your mind. It’s not a traditional strategic session where there’s a roadmap in front of you, and you’re drawing out the goals and KPIs. It was a very creative design process with strategic implications. It’s a new way of thinking that they’re developing, which is very applicable in business.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Titan Virtual. We develop autonomous cognitive agents with natural language abilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Owtcome, and what were your goals?

Branding. Titan Virtual is a technology startup that needed help with the proper framing of brand identity.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I have worked with Owtcome founder (Krasi) before. She was recommended by a mutual connection to help us with brand positioning.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

To start we had a call to discuss the objectives. The team then went through a detailed explanation of their method -a multi-step approach to uncovering the main pillars of our identity as they relate to our ambition as a company. We had several workshops that lasted 2hrs to 4hrs where the Owtcome team guided us through some exercises. The final deliverable was an insight and approach deck that highlighted the main elements of the brand and how to get achieve them.

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

We worked we two members of Owtcome. Krasimira Bozhinkova and Daiana Zavate.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Because of the project, we were able to shift the focus of our product. This helped us get more understanding of our positioning.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had several calls with the team before engagement. Once we set up the schedule, we used several online tools to guide the interactions. The project was on time.

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

Their ability to extract insight from chaos was impressive.

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

In 2019, many of their tools were just migrating to online platforms.