I worked with UK based CIC Common Seas, over 2 months in the Spring of 2023, defining a route forward for their digital product ambition. Common Seas mission is to contribute to clearing up the planets oceans plastic pollution through activities such as lobbying on policy, providing educational programmes and supporting scientific research. In 2022 they diversified and launched a programme intended to design, build, and launch pollution management digital products. I was hired to push forward this programme starting with a product concept that had already benefitted from significant technical development. This product was, in the first instance, intended to be used by the hospitality industry around the Greek Mediterranean coastline. The aim was to enable hotels and restaurants to adopt more sustainable practices and reduce their reliance on single-use plastics.

 

Common Seas are lean, smart, passionate and punch above their weight in their core activity areas. Unsurprisingly they were also ambitious for their digital product to be successful. They assumed their sector and subject matter expertise would ensure this, but developing, launching and managing a commercial digital product/service was entirely new to them and the path forward was not self-evident When I started working with the team, a stand-alone digital product prototype had been developed – this was in essence a proof of concept with a slick front-end, however the organisation considered it to be mature. This was not the case, apart from lacking product or service-design expertise, there was also little evidence-based understanding of the commercial opportunity (but a lot of guesswork), a shortage of robust research into the anticipated market or the needs and capabilities of the presumed user base. Product development and direction had to date largely been driven by assumption and passion. Perhaps unsurprisingly there was little client appetite for the product.

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Over 8 weeks I worked closely with the organisation, it’s leaders and staff to undertake a 360-degree assessment of the maturity of the product concept, it’s marketing and product-usage assumptions, the sector, the commercial and regulatory landscape, the work undertaken to date and the capability of the organisation to successfully develop, deliver and take the product to market.

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I produced and presented a comprehensive report for the senior management team describing the uneven readiness and capability of the product and organisation and the challenges and opportunities that faced them. It was important for the team to understand that the initiative could only succeed as a service, and not a standalone product and that this would require continuing non-trivial levels of investment and commitment. There was a considerable gap between the presumed health and maturity of the programme and the reality. However, all was not lost: it was possible to be constructively positive yet not under-state the challenges to the programme’s success. To that end I identified areas in which more thinking, research and expertise was required, explaining why the presumed route to market was risky and unlikely to succeed, but detailing other routes which were much more promising and why, including diversyfying into new sectors, expanding into new regions, diversifying to encompass new pollutrant thypes and identifying new user/client groups.​

 

I outlined the change needed concerning target audience and usage, and the real opportunity in the short and longer term. Finally, I proposed a more realistic business model and probable revenue stream. In so doing, I presented the senior team with a traceable, rational description of programme status, options for change & actionable next steps – enabling them to make informed, intelligent decisions for the future direction of the programme.

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