Considered by real
Working with REAL Impact to bring a deeper connection with how we consume products and who creates them
REAL is a pioneer in the ‘profit for purpose’ impact investment sector. They incubate, accelerate and help social enterprises get to capacity, exiting once the enterprise or project is sustainable.
REAL have been working in the recently with local communities and the artisans within them to showcase and celebrate their work with a global market. With ethical and sustainable value chains being a priority in everything they do.
Who was involved
REAL consists of a small, dedicated team with a wealth of experience in global brands and building sustainable, successful businesses. I worked closely with Virginia Bruce, CEO and Founder, and Marc Evans, CIO. Understanding the complexities of their business model and the challenges they face in their supply chain models.
My ROLE
I was responsible for delivering a range of digital assets in a short range of time. Working closely with the core team as they prepared for trips to the Pacific to grow the business.
As design a development lead we worked closely to come up with a backlog of design and development tasks. Establish the value proposition for the digital work and ensure that this work builds a solid foundation for more complex solutions as the business grows.
My tasks included:
Running small workshops to establish the value proposition (why users will want to use your services over others), design direction and roadmap for REAL’s digital assets
Rapid prototyping of websites and ecommerce solutions to set REAL up for success and allow them to maintain the sites moving forward
Delivery of two websites in a short period of time, rapidly testing and iterating to deliver in time for critical Pacific summits
What we did
This rapid development and deployment of the REAL websites and more was only possible with a range of small workshops to get to the core value propositions for the websites and beyond.
This gave us a solid foundation to start developing solutions that could deliver professional, scalable sites that would be easily maintainable by REAL staff once delivered.
We developed two rapid prototypes and tested them with users, helping us to make an informed choice on the correct platform to move ahead with.
From here I rapidly developed the sites, working with the REAL team every day to test and iterate the solutions. Ensuring responsive design, streamlined purchase flows and a simple workflow to add content and update products.
WHAT WE LEARNED AND DELIVERED
The key learning for this project was around taking time to establish your core value proposition first. This is especially important when working in a short time period as it brings focus to what should be prioritised when you start to design and build.
Along with this and a clear understanding of the goals and success metrics you have to achieve in a limited time you can set the team up with a shared understanding of priorities and alignment on direction.
This helped deliver a great outcome for REAL and to quickly bring their sites to life. Setting up a foundation for the digital side of their business that continues to grow as they work with more communities and artisans in the Pacific and grow the opportunities there for all involved.
Discover more at: https://www.realsocialimpact.com and shop for artisanal products at: https://www.consideredbyreal.com