{"id":1804,"date":"2018-03-26T08:36:36","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T08:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/clockworkapp.co.za\/?p=1804"},"modified":"2018-03-26T08:36:36","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T08:36:36","slug":"22-sloane-startup-huddles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clockworkapp.co.za\/22-sloane-startup-huddles\/","title":{"rendered":"22 on Sloane Speech by ClockWork CEO – Using Data to Build a Consumer Centric Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 15th March 2018, Co-Founder and CEO of ClockWork Jamie Rood spoke at 22 on Sloane’s<\/a> StartUp Huddles to present on the topic ‘Using Data to Build a Consumer Centric Business Strategy’. The speech was transcribed and can be read below:<\/p>\n

When I was asked by Alesimo to deliver a speech on data, I immediately thought of a number of ways I could go about it. In total, it has probably taken about 390 minutes, 280mg of caffeine, 408 pieces of popcorn, 450mg of data, and 86, 400 seconds of sleep to prepare.<\/p>\n

I have always been data centric, collecting and analysing sports stats from a young age, and eventually applying this to my business strategy. In true millennial fashion, I typed today\u2019s topic into google and it yielded 1 million, 200, 000 results. With regards to using data to create a consumer centric business strategy, a lot of the results revolved around big players in the corporate world throwing around buzz phrases like \u2018empower the front line\u2019 and discussing how to allocate millions of dollars to their research teams. But, as much as some of us would like to, start ups don\u2019t have the resources to find our way into the \u2018stalker\u2019 category when it comes to analysing our consumers. Therefore, I have decided to celebrate the low resource start up in this speech and discuss a few \u2018cheat\u2019 ways of how we can use data to shape our strategy and make informed product decisions.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll start by telling you a little bit about my journey, and how in August 2016, data became a huge part of my life. It\u2019s normally in the car, in the shower, or in the bar that an idea for a start up comes to you. In my case it was the former, where I was driving past builders warehouse and saw dozens of unemployed, desperate tradesmen queuing up to be swooped up by the next bakkie, offering their services so they could feed their families that evening. I wondered whether technology could connect the employers with the jobseekers, and whether we could build a trusted, online community of workers who were local, vetted and reliable. ClockWork may have been born that day, but in it\u2019s infancy, it still had, and has, a lot to learn.<\/p>\n

Maybe in our mind a platform that connects the two parties would be innovative and disruptive. However, it wasn\u2019t a big enough problem for an employer. They had to go to builders\u2019 warehouse to buy their resources for the day anyhow, so why not simply connect personally with those people looking for work? It wasn\u2019t before we attended a month-long incubator run by MIT in partnership with global start up labs, before we first realised the power of customer data in making informed decisions.<\/p>\n

The programme encouraged us to \u2018get out of the building\u2019 and speak to real life customers about the problems they faced. We realised connecting with jobseekers wasn\u2019t the problem but connecting with the right jobseeker was. Employers wanted a measurable way of differentiating between individuals, something which was a valid, quantifiable indicator of how capable someone was. If you look at a ClockWorker\u2019s profile today, you\u2019ll see a numerical dashboard of key on the job statistics such as jobs completed, hours tracked, previous ratings, and experience points, which is built from a weighted equation of all the variables together. This allows us to match an employer\u2019s job requirements to a jobseeker that suits their exact needs, improving the chances of customer satisfaction. All clich\u00e9s aside, think of our platform as a dating site for blue collar workers: now think of your worst match in the whole world \u2013 you probably wouldn\u2019t want to date them \u2026 just like employers don\u2019t want to be badly matched with a jobseeker.<\/p>\n

This leads me to two important lessons regarding the use of data to build a customer centric business strategy. Firstly, we can\u2019t collect data from our desk. As comfortable as those bean bags are at 2pm in the afternoon, we have to get out of the building and speak to customers. Secondly, we don\u2019t need a colossal amount of data to make informed decisions, but we just need quality data from the right customers. We can identify trends from data which allow us to make decisions, but we mustn\u2019t treat our customer like a cog in a wheel. Rather, identify your customer persona; someone who epitomises your target audience, and find a small pool of them, making sure you question them in detail. This way, you\u2019ll get real world insights into their problems, instead of biased, rushed decisions from unqualified customers.<\/p>\n

Our data centric journey at ClockWork was only at the beginning. The next way we used data to develop a strategy centred around our customer was during the building of our jobseeker app. A lot of the inspiration behind this came from UCT\u2019s Venture incubation programme, a three month accelerator which we were fortunate enough to be a part of towards the end of 2017. We ran a google venture design sprint \u2013 a five day process for answering critical business questions by collecting customer data. This involved developing of set of problems we felt our customers faced, solving them with prototypes and testing them with real life customers. Over 130 responses later, we were able to make informed decisions about the product we wanted to build.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t before, I would highly recommend running a design sprint for your business. It is a short, lean way of validating your assumptions, and avoiding building something that you figure out won\u2019t work a few months later. When building a product, it\u2019s paramount that you validate, validate and validate some more. The only way we can do this effectively is through real life, consumer centric data.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned earlier, a lot of us as start-ups fear we don\u2019t have the time, resources or money to collect extensive data and conduct lengthy research about what to build. I would say two things to that. Firstly, sometimes more is less. A lengthy qualitative interview with a customer who fully represents your audience is far better than 10 survey responses from unqualified customers. Secondly, your customer is everything. Never build something you think<\/strong> your customer will use, build something you know<\/strong> they will use, validated from hard data. At ClockWork, our slogan is \u2018the job that works for you\u2019. But in house, I always tell my team, think of it as \u2018the job that works for them\u2019.<\/p>\n

Lastly, I want emphasise the power of some of the free software that have helped us collect data easily. You can do so much with tools like<\/p>\n

google forms \u2013 great for collecting feedback from customers, and you can now do so much like automated emails and sms\u2019 upon receipt.<\/p>\n

Protyping tools like lucidchart and invision \u2013 these days you don\u2019t have to be a designer to create a great prototype \u2013 because there is so much out there on the internet. Remember, if you don\u2019t know how to do something \u2013 youtube it.<\/p>\n

Mailchimp \u00a0\u2013 automated email software that you can send out to customers to gain feedback, ask insights and view all the stats on a dashboard.<\/p>\n

Zapier \u2013 allows you to build robots and automates workflows together \u2013 for example, if you get a new twitter follower \u2013 you could automatically send a welcome mail with a link to form to fill out.<\/p>\n

Unsplash \u2013 fantastic free stock photos for building material and prototypes \u2013 they still need to improve their African portfolio but its worth a look.<\/p>\n

Microsoft excel \u2013 use excel to analyse feedback an build models which will help you make key product decisions<\/p>\n

and you don\u2019t have to pay a cent. Once again, our data is clean when we keep it lean.<\/p>\n

To finish off, not many people would say stats is sexy. However, any decision without data means that your guess is as good as mine. So, even if you\u2019re the CEO, I encourage you, from time to time, to play the role of CCEO, thats\u2019 Chief Customer Experience Officer\u2019. It might just help you build something incredible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 15th March 2018, Co-Founder and CEO of ClockWork Jamie Rood spoke at 22 on Sloane’s StartUp Huddles to present on the topic ‘Using Data to Build a Consumer Centric Business Strategy’. 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