Orangefiery

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was leading the medical affairs preparation for the US launch of a new and novel therapy for a small pharmaceutical company doing its first product launch.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We sought to develop a high level strategy for medical engagement, but also have the team take ownership of the actual tactics and KPIs. We also had the challenge of a fractured team where lack of clarity on language and objectives led to further inconsistencies and decreased team effectiveness.

My goal in hiring Orangefiery was to support a developing leader in running the workshops and exercises (developed by OF), to get clarity and agreement on terminology and messaging (refined by OF), and build team alignment and engagement around setting their KPIs and agreeing to how they would be evaluated and their performance assessed.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I had worked with Orangefiery on a corporate rebranding project previously (focusing on company evolution and both the implementation of internal and external rollout) at one company, and then a full initial branding and website buildout for a second startup company which also included an initial investor pitch deck and coaching of C-suite for optimal delivery based on investor feedback and company goals.

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

Team interviewed both myself and my medical field team lead to understand the scope of the project, some of the challenging team dynamics, internal barriers, and some market/peer norms. They then crafted a series of 6 workshops. I attended the first and the last, and the team lead was a co-facilitator with Orangefiery for each (be design).

This process addressed both the project needs, as well as the added goal of some leadership and skills building for the team lead. Workshops were summarized with key take aways, and draft plans were developed to be presented and refined in later workshops, assuring that the whole team was engaged in the process and had buy in around the agreed upon tactics, language, the underlying strategy, and the need for alignment.

Final deliverables included a detailed slide deck of what had been covered and agreed upon, including specific KPIs with plans on how to measure and track (to be integrated into our customer mgmt systems), a debrief with the team lead on potential next steps and ways to continue team alignment, and a final debrief with just me to provide a transparent summary on what went well, any rough spots, and further recommendations on messaging to the whole team as well as specifics to further support the team lead.

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

Mike and Diana were the strategy leads, with Diana doing quite a bit of the materials build and several of the co-facilitation (others by Mike to set initial tone). Diana also provided some peer coaching for the team lead, with Mike supporting with some additional ideas for her continued success.

Unclear if there were others providing some of the industry standards or other materials. Mike and Diana were the consistent face of the project. I always felt they were very upfront on challenges, progress, next steps, and project completion.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The primary deliverable was to be a strategy for targeting thought leaders, messaging content and delivery, and development of KPIs - both the collection of and use in performance evaluation. And this goal was met. But other critical pieces of the project were leadership development, conflict resolution, messaging alignment, team engagement, and the way that this could be communicated internally to management and collaborating functional teams.

This is where working with Orangefiery has often yielded the greatest value, since it isn't only deliverables (which are of the highest quality), it is how you get there, the communication, dynamics, interplay or strategy and competing needs/desires. Hard to describe, but it is knowing how to optimize the underlying dynamics, which make or break team performance, and leverage this to create and embrace real fundamental progress on strategy and execution.

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

As the project champion I would be copied on emails from Orangefiery, with the team lead as the week-to-week contact, and see the slide decks designed to facilitate the workshops. We had a monthly call with both myself and my team lead with Mike and Diana. Would share in emails where we were in terms of progress against the goals stated in the SOW.

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

I guess this shouldn't be a surprise for an agency which focuses on strategic communication AND communicating strategically, but I appreciate the open honest dialogue and willingness to have tough conversations, share opinions, ponder solutions. Here is one example: for the above mentioned project...

After the first workshop, which was challenging and struggled to keep on track (due to a disruptive team member on our side), Mike reached out to have a call to share the event, debrief and talk about how it didn't go as planned, and how they would specifically prepare a little differently and manage the next session for greater success. I appreciated his sharing this and the commitment to tackling it more head on next time.

He had specific recommendations for what our team lead and I could do to help set/support the right tone. All subsequent workshops went more smoothly, and was back on track with all goals achieved/exceeded.

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

I really don't have much here. I have asked Mike and team to take on a number of projects, some of which are their first time tackling a particular area, specifically because I so appreciate the dynamics of their thought and strategy partnership. Helps me and my teams think more proactively and expansively, and it seems whatever projects I propose, they rise to the challenge.