Together with A&G
This is our process for inventing the future and designing MVP products that are useful, usable, and press-worthy.
Before we start
Every great product starts with great people. Our process relies on bringing some of the smartest talent to the table on day one to help shape your next big venture.
Successful relationships are built on our ability to listen and communicate – and how we work is no different. On day one, we'll roll up our sleeves, immerse ourselves in your business, unlearn our biases, and listen intently so we can clearly understand what's unique to your business and the world around it.
The most important thing we need to do is get a solid understanding of what your customers need and their "jobs to be done".
It's critical to understand the systems and technical roadmap, but we'll also want to understand your point of view on tech and how you like to work.
We always do our due diligence and spend time understanding what we can learn from what others and external market influences.
One of the most important we can understand is what makes your brand unique so we can dial it up to eleven later on.
The relationship between brand, technology, and operations is tight, so we dig deep on operational workflows and challenges to understand the broader ecosystem.
Often overlooked, having a clear picture for the tracks of work that intersect with this effort helps us design programs that work.
We're unique in that we start prototyping earlier than anyone else. We believe it's a better way to learn, bring stakeholders together, and explore new ideas ahead of defining the solution.
We're constantly inviting cross-functional teams to help us co-create prototypes and explore everyone's ideas. The end result is momentum and a solution that everyone had a hand in from the start.
We don't believe 100-page strategy decks are effective at communication. Rather, when we partner strategy with tangible prototypes, it provides a clearer vision to a diverse set of stakeholders.
From user testing to technical proof-of-concepts, all of the work we're doing ensures a much smoother delivery phase by testing customer demand, uncovering the risky bits early on, and clearly communicating the work to be done.
Prior to defining the problem we’re solving for, we recommend ethnographic research – a qualitative testing method where we observe and interview participants in the communities/environments they’re using our products in. It’s the best way to understand the problems they’re facing the jobs to be done.
We’re often walking into Resonance Testing with sketched ideas and/or prototypes to test our early ideas and see if people actually want them. It’s an effective way to de-risk investment long before we get too far into detailed design and build activities.
This is the most tactical and straight-forward testing we do. This typically happens towards the end of a design project to make sure we’re putting buttons in the right place and users can accomplish the tasks we’re designing for.
Now that we have teams aligned on a customer-centered prototype, we can define the foundation for a press-worthy customer experience, simpler business systems, and an integrated roadmap.
The CeCo Digital Service Blueprint is a key deliverable that connects the customer journey to operations and supporting systems, all in one view.
Our senior technologists will work closely with your IT teams to define a future-state technical architecture that best supports our vision.
We run a rigorous process to identify and categorize the work we're proposing into a detailed set of requirements which, in turn, serve as inputs into the next phase.
We can do that too. Our agency roots gave us the unique ability to be integrated with Boston’s leading independent agency (A&G) at the operational level. We can bring them in to round out the Northstar plan with marketing plan that’s integrated with the future of your business.
This phase is one of the most important parts to get right. With a vision and future-state architecture in place, we take a rigorous approach to prioritizing requirements so we can create a roadmap that lays the foundation for quick wins, our MVP, fast-follows, and multi-year initiatives.
Defining the "value" of the work to be done can be a tedious process, but we have a framework to better measure what most matters to your business.
Our lens on business value speaks to the overall worth for key stakeholders and the business at large. We typically measure business value by increased revenue, improved, operational efficiency, market share gain, and long-term sustainability.
Customer value can include both quantitative and qualitative lenses as it can include both emotional benefits (affinity, loyalty, surprise & delight) and functional benefits (convenience, price, service, and estimated impact on NPS).
We believe this lens on value is the secret to success. Identifying Brand value helps us prioritize a differentiated product or service that sets you apart in the marketplace and informs strategic trade-offs.
Now it's time to take all of the great work we've done and transition to your team so you can be successful long after we're gone (although we hope you invite us back).
TrueNorth involves cross-functional teams in a highly collaborative process to ensure that key stakeholders participated in shaping the solution which, we know, leads to alignment in the work that needs to get done.
Our process was designed to create tangible outputs (like prototypes and customer journeys) that all teams can agree on with a rigorous process to create a roadmap that lays out timing, sequence, and dependencies.
Getting people in a room to co-create together is the best way for everyone to feel like substantial progress is being made, and this feeling of progress creates forward momentum that gets you out of "the swirl".
We're putting our ideas in the hands of customers to make sure we're building something they want long before we've invested significant amounts of time, effort, and budget into the solution.
From testing customer demand to prototyping the risky bits, all of the work we're doing with TrueNorth is helpuing us shine a light into the room before walking into it.
The customer journey is central to understanding what our customers are going through, their pains points, our opportunities, and the key moments that we need to get right.
Our prototypes are most than just prototypes, they're also laying the foundation for our visual design system and early-round design reviews.
The future-state technical architecture will lay down a singular view of key systems in place, current tracks of work to introduce new technology, and gaps where we need to start getting into place.
TrueNorth will help us uncover actions we can start doing immediately to set us up for success and a define MVP within a broader strategic context.
The multi-year roadmap is our best opportunity to prepare for a successful future. We'll look across marketing, technology, and operations to define what needs to happen and when.
Introducing new tech-led solutions will likely require people to work differently and the Readiness Plan will lay the groundwork for the change management efforts that lie ahead.
We brought together brand, digital, and the team member experience to shape a new loyalty program that helped shape the future of loyalty for Panera and delivered more than points.
We worked with America's largest independent broker-dealer to create a digital self-service experience that
We replace months-long research and strategy efforts with early prototyping because we believe we can learn faster and better when we make things together.
We replace months-long research and strategy efforts with early prototyping because we believe we can learn faster and better when we make things together.
We replace months-long research and strategy efforts with early prototyping because we believe we can learn faster and better when we make things together.
We replace months-long research and strategy efforts with early prototyping because we believe we can learn faster and better when we make things together.
We replace months-long research and strategy efforts with early prototyping because we believe we can learn faster and better when we make things together.
We replace months-long research and strategy efforts with early prototyping because we believe we can learn faster and better when we make things together.
We replace months-long research and strategy efforts with early prototyping because we believe we can learn faster and better when we make things together.
We're always here to answer questions and dole out some free advice – just send a message to hello@cecodigital.com.