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Challenge
Take an expert’s idea for the future of leadership development from the ether into prospective clients’ hands with agility and deliberation.
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Solution
Make the idea tangible through a prototype — then make the prototype sing through a thoughtfully-articulated brand strategy.
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Results
A well-defined product equipped with a name and brand strategy that allowed the founder to share her vision in a clear and compelling way.
In the beginning, there was an idea. Pam Krulitz had a vision for improving leadership development through a digital platform that connected clients with the coaches and materials they need to realize their potential. When next steps were unclear, Pam approached Viget about forming a strategic partnership that would help bring her brainchild to life. We worked closely with Pam from the beginning to produce a clickable prototype that made her idea tangible to prospective clients, and a brand strategy that articulated her vision and gave her product the name “Optify.” We continued our partnership with Pam by creating a product strategy that informed the design and build of the coaching platform. Optify was created the same way that strong leaders are developed -- together in a partnership at the intersection of passion and perspective.
Areas of Expertise
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The Proof is in the Prototype
Pam needed something tangible that she could present to potential clients — something that would show how her concept would look in real life. We started with a two-week sprint, during which we translated Pam’s vision into a clickable prototype. We focused on core features, each defined through close collaboration. By the end of the process, Pam was able to demo her idea to prospective customers, validating that the concept was worth developing into a real product.
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Demystifying Leadership Development
Creating a brand strategy for Pam allowed us to dig down to the core of her mission — to articulate the truth about what her product is, what it does, and why. We held a workshop with Pam and her stakeholders, during which we identified brand attributes and defined problems and goals. This served as the foundation for our strategy concept: demystifying leadership development. The strategy communicated Pam’s vision to make personalized coaching and practical training resources accessible to those outside the C-Suite. It also inspired her name, Optify, and accompanying visual identity.
Call Me By Your Name (But Maybe Check GoDaddy First)Elyse Kamibayashi, Former Senior Brand Strategist
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Ask Not What Your Product Can Do for You
By the time we were ready to design and develop a minimum viable product (MVP), we had a deep understanding of Pam’s vision and how to articulate it. Now, the question was: out of the dozens of features that we could build, which ones should we create? What did potential users need, and what could we create that would set Optify apart? And how could we set Optify on a course to realize their long-term business goals, while remaining agile and adaptable? Achieving this meant developing a robust product strategy. During this phase, we conducted stakeholder interviews and product opportunity assessments, competitive analysis, and user research.
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Building the Most Valuable MVP
When we started developing the MVP for Optify, our goal was simple: we wanted to equip them with software that would allow for sophisticated functionality, and would provide a strong foundation for growth. With this in mind, we decided to use Elixir, paired with Phoenix as the framework. This allowed us to make use of websockets for real-time collaboration in the platform’s messaging feature. Now, after a successful product launch with a growing user base, the combination of Elixir and Phoenix ensures Optify can grow quickly without worrying about a lengthy, expensive code re-write.
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“I’ve been so pleased with the team and the work they’ve done with us. You all have literally enabled me to launch this new company, and I’ve felt the energetic investment all along the way.”
Summary
We worked with a startup to create a prototype and brand strategy before building their product from the ground up. Today, Optify is used by managers and coaches to enable progressive, intentional leadership coaching around the country.
