When GCHQ opened its new site in Manchester bringing with them hundreds of jobs in technology and data to the region, MediaCityUK was chosen to host a series of initiatives to bring GCHQ closer to the wider tech and business community in the region. CurveFinder® founder Steven Thomas was subsequently appointed as Interim Programme Director on behalf of UP Ventures to design and deliver two important innovation programmes. Each would bring GCHQ's world-class engineering team and selected tech businesses together to solve problems relating to Citizen Safety, Open Data and Smart Technology.

Programme 1: Safe Citizen Innovation Lab

The Safe Citizen Digital Innovation was aimed at improving citizen safety in a digitally connected world. The 16-week Accelerator Programme was designed for companies with technology solutions and customer-facing products and services.

This first of two cohorts focused on living safely in a connected digital world with a clear focus on what matters to citizens. We were specifically looking for solutions that would make a real impact on day-to-day experiences across a range of digital scenarios. These included:

• location-based physical technology solutions
• methods for using technology to support the informed citizen
• new ways for understanding and trusting information
• connected devices to improve quality of life
• creative data engineering for social purpose and to provide new insights

Programme 2: Data Science Innovation Co-Lab.

Across the globe, citizens and businesses were pivoting to living with COVID-19. As we adapted to this new normal, GCHQ felt it was more important than ever to protect, support and empower our communities by harnessing the best of technology. 

Our Data Science Innovation Co-Lab harnessed data science, machine learning and AI techniques helping scaleups with tangible products or services that addressed challenges with

• Biased, partial or anomalous information
• The use of open-source data to fill gaps in our perspectives
• Autonomous data collection across multiple sources, overcoming format differences and contradictions

A unique learning experience

CurveFinder® Founder and UP Managing Partner, Steven Thomas designed a unique learning experience that took GCHQ and each programme cohort through both a practical and creative process. Each interaction was designed to enable knowledge sharing and specific problem-solving.

• GCHQ and UP Ventures provided unique, tailored technical and business support
• Structured online and in-person mentoring sessions from a range of experts
• Access to networks of local government providers, coaches, GCHQ experts
• The opportunity to pilot solutions and use a unique group to solve problems and test ideas

World-class Cohorts and results

We were able to recruit two high-quality cohorts that were amongst the best that GCHQ had worked with in any previous programme in any location across the UK. Throughout each programme, GCHQ mentors were able to learn from the talented group scouted by Steven and the team and were able to take these learnings into their own work. Each business that made up our cohorts benefitted massively from the practical problem-solving frameworks and challenging format designed by Steven. Many have gone on to win commercial contracts and/or considerable investment to aid their growth.

Successful participants included Bellrock Technology, which was included in the G-Cloud 12 framework as a data analytics supplier for the UK government. As well as Journey Protector, a developer of technology that helps prevent cargo theft and human trafficking in the logistics industry, led by CEO Anne Lawlor, which has secured significant funding since completing the programme.

Read more about our Safer Citizen Cohort

Read more about our Data Science Co-Lab Cohort

These businesses have real potential to improve people’s lives in an increasingly digitally connected world, from helping the elderly to reducing emissions.

We’re excited to be supporting the thriving technology ecosystem in Greater Manchester, connecting ingenious entrepreneurs and creative technologists with the mission of GCHQ to help tackle some of our hardest challenges.

Gav Smith, GCHQ’s Director General for Technology

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Situated in the City of Salford and home to the likes of the BBC, ITV, Ericsson, dock10 and Kellogg’s as well as more than 250 smaller media and digital businesses.  MediaCityUK is a vibrant, sustainable destination to work, live and play, on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal.

The brief

The team at MediaCityUK wanted to enhance their credentials as an Innovation District helping to tackle real-world problems. UP Ventures is the lead Innovation Partner of MCUK and I was therefore retained as the consulting Innovation Director for the project. I subsequently designed and delivered MediaCityUK's first Smart City Innovation Testbed.

The Smart City Innovation Testbed's overarching theme was centered around supporting human-to-human services. Its mission was to bring together a cohort of technology businesses that could help citizens do more with their lives safely and sustainably through technology.

• How can places evolve and adapt to encourage meaningful interaction and creativity?
• How can technology enhance sustainability and safety in existing and new building design?
• Can technology positively enhance future business models for small and large-scale developments and the organisations they support?
• How can places support Homes for Healthy Ageing?

The results

The Smart City Testbed brought together a cohort of 6 outstanding technology businesses with the potential for high growth.

The testbed allowed both MediaCityUK and the cohort to learn from each other.

Together, using my Innovation Framework, they were able to pilot solutions and use a unique group learning experience to solve problems and test ideas. Ultimately for both the corporate partner and the scaleup businesses they were able to demonstrate how they could create value in a real-world environment together.

MediaCityUK has been able to find new investment opportunities and to take the learnings from the testbed into other projects around the North West of England. These insights will potentially drive efficiencies at scale, providing better services, saving time and money.

The cohort have all been able to develop their businesses in a truly valuable way. Aside from piloting their solutions across MediaCityUK the carefully chosen group has gone on to collaborate in new ways. Several of the businesses have managed to win new contracts together across the UK.

The Smart City Testbed has been fantastic for us. It really is the gold standard in innovation programmes and has led a whole host of opportunites for our business thanks to Steve and the team. - John Griffiths, Founder, Safe House

UP Ventures has been retained as the lead innovation partner for MediaCityUK. Together we are now exploring ways to extend the testbed in new ways that fit with MCUKs innovation and business aspirations building capabilities for the future.

The final cohort

Atmo Technology is an air quality data company that uses IoT devices and advanced algorithms to help employers monitor the pollution levels that their staff are exposed to.

Cyber Defence Services is an IoT security platform OvertAI which monitors devices connected to the network and detects threats.

Hello Lamp Post has created a novel way for people to tell town planners how they think their built environment can be improved with the company now allowing people to converse with street furniture in over 25 countries around the world.

Secure Sensor Innovative Design has built an IoT system that allows organisations such as care homes and housing associations to monitor homes to enable people to live in their own homes for longer.

R-Com has developed a  comprehensive Smart City solution with a suite of sensors that can count passengers on public transport, measure air quality and monitor vehicles on roads with the firm also providing real-time analysis and IT support.

Pulse Systems have built an IoT platform on top of UK made and designed sensors that help businesses make a building ‘smart’ allowing for a better understanding of workspaces and how they affect people and the environment.

Main Photo by Orry Verducci on Unsplash

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Black Ox is an exciting new media and events startup based in the South East of England. Backed by the Branscombe Group they have a very clear purpose: to inform, promote and connect business communities in the South East of England.

The Brief

As a startup, Black Ox was looking to move fast to establish itself in the market as a progressive media and events business. First up was the acquisition and modernisation of a 30-year old B2B publishing and events brand, The Business Magazine.

Enlisting the right talent from my CurveFinder Collective, the project covered digital growth strategy, new tech integration, site design and build, content planning, brand development, data design, commercial strategy, and people development.

Thank you for all your help. We couldn't have done this without your professional experience and guidance. Invaluable.

Peter Tracey, Owner - Black Ox Media

The results

Working shoulder-to-shoulder with the in-house team I set out a rolling 90-day change programme of agile problem solving and implementation.

• Overall pageviews are up almost 40%
• Users who do visit the site consume 86% more pages per session
• Average sessions per user are up 23%
• When consuming content they are spending 160% more time doing so
• Those who do come to the site are finding interesting content and good UX as the bounce rate is down 30

A significant shift from the legacy setup

• Fresh new brand identity for The Business magazine. Fit for the a progressive B2B market. Synchronizing with the identity of parent company Black Ox Media.
• A faster, simpler, lighter website design and build. Great on mobile providing a sharp and sleek UX.
• A re-mix of supporting technology to allow for scale including the introduction of AMP technology, a flexible site build and new ad integrations.
• Modernisation of legacy content, taxonomy and database comprising 10k+ articles.

Long-term strategy

Black Ox also wanted a longer-term strategy and has retained CurveFinder to help design and implement this.

A key component of this strategy is the launch and scale of Black Ox Labs.

BOX:Labs is a creative studio at the heart of Black Ox Media conceptualised by CurveFinder founder Steven Thomas. It provides experience-driven B2B content solutions enabling brands to connect in creative ways with their customers through immersive multimedia content, unique events, and bespoke digital products. CurveFinder will continue to help develop BOX:Labs with creative direction and product development in a long-term partnership.

We're also delighted that CurveFinder will continue to help guide the future digital and commercial growth of Black Ox Media.

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Lifescan is a global health-tech leader that helps people with diabetes and related conditions manage their condition and live life to the full.

Programme Objectives

The leadership teams wanted to reignite the creative spark in Lifescan Inverness. After working through my initial Innovation Diagnostic, it was clear that there was an appetite to jump-start the collective genius within the existing team. Rather than a top-down process, we would look to gather a multi-skilled team of volunteers who wanted to be part of a creative change programme.

Together we decided to explore and accelerate the best ideas around the theme of being more 'Scrappy and Creative' focusing on three key areas:

1. Concepts to make existing products more competitive. This could include enhancing features on current products, offering new services, diversification of current products as well as potential cost improvements.
2. Concepts to help us achieve long-term sustainability goals, including waste reduction, alternative sustainable materials, and reducing carbon footprint.
3. Concepts that leverage our BGM assets & capability (technology/ process/expertise) to create new revenue streams.

A dynamic and collaborative process

I designed the programme to be a unique learning journey that would push the collective to move quickly through a series of phases that would challenge them creatively. As we were all based across the UK the programme was fully virtual.

Phase 1

Discovery: First we created alignment around the themes and collected ‘problem statements’ generated from the team. We reflected on the perceived constraints and how these might be used to opportunities by reframing and taking a 'can if' PoV. Then we generate lots of rough ideas without constraint, taking influence from a range of sectors.

Phase 2

Laser Focus: All had an opportunity to storyboard their ideas. Then we voted for the best and developed them into rough prototypes and basic pitch decks.

Phase 3

Test and Improve: Internal and external informal demos to gain feedback and key insight. Taking care to sense-check with company commercial goals, technical capabilities, and possible partnerships. Then prototype refinement and forming initial business cases including P&L.

Phase 4

Demonstrate potential impact: Socialise prototypes with key decision-makers across the business. Gather more feedback. Produce a refined business case and potential roadmap to scale.

Thought provoking Masterclasses

Weaved into the 12-week journey I curated a series of Masterclassed delivered by experts from my network. These included:

Advanced Storytelling: Defining your narrative - Dr Ella Fitzsimmons

Designing valuable customer experiences - Dr Aga Szostek

Sales for non-sales folk - Stuart Hillston

Why diversity is good for the bottom line - Annette Joseph

Exploring Behavioural Design through Tiny Habits - Mike Coulter

Jess Gildener was my talented co-pilot on key workshops that involved Design Thinking, Storyboarding and Prototyping, Critical Analysis and Team Collaboration.

The Results

Due to commercial confidences, I am unable to disclose the full impact of the programme. However, I can share that the team was able to find clear opportunities to leverage existing products and IP in new ways. Initial business cases showed that they had the potential to provide significant cost saving, generate less waste and provide a significant new market growth opportunity.

"The 'Scrappy and Creative' attitude advocated by Steven and UP was exactly what we needed. The programme was about more than just coming up with good ideas. It empowered people by giving them the time, a framework and tools to develop ideas into more fully formed concepts that could be assessed by the business.” - Anna Salgado, Technical Director at LifeScan

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Phase 1 - From Zero to Hero

Johnston Press Plc bought the i newspaper in late 2015. It was a large scale acquisition of a widely successful newspaper product. As the brand only really existed in print there was an opportunity to digitise and scale the brand and audience reach.

Working closely with Editor in Chief, Oly Duff and his team, the challenge was to create a digital news site that leveraged the strengths of the print brand at the same time differentiating itself from other quality news titles online. We had to find a way to connect with consumers who felt underserved by decades-old incumbents who had bigger budgets and a considerable head start. 

The i had built a value proposition based on concise quality news coverage in print. There was an opportunity to leverage this positioning for an online audience craving the same quality news in a concise format - particularly on mobile.

Given the sensitivities of the corporate acquisition, we only had eight weeks to conceive and deliver the product. This meant we needed to be at our most agile.

The UX of other long-standing national news sites had become bloated and heavy. So, we concentrated on a streamlined content plan helping user find the ‘facts not the spin’ and explaining the news rather than purely focusing on breaking news in a light and accessible way. With an editorial budget that was a fraction of our competitors, we put the most insightful content front and centre. This was reflected in the site design through features such as ‘Essential Five’ and a ‘Matrix of Editors Picks’.

The digital product had a clean and simple UX and was built with a mobile-first approach.

Given the sensitivities of the corporate acquisition, we only had eight weeks to conceive and deliver the product. This meant my team needed to be at their most agile working with our initial development partner Endava.

After 18-months of continuous improvement both from a content and product perspective, we managed to reach a critical mass of 4m monthly users. Product and Editorial working shoulder to shoulder to test and learn. Each step of the way we optimised the content plan and feature-set. 

Part 2 - Scale and sale to DMGT

After successfully establishing a foothold in arguably the most competitive news market in the world, there was a need to scale the audience to meet the demands of a commercially focused owner. The goal was to grow from a monthly audience of c4m to 12m+.

By focusing on key topics such as politics we continued to serve an audience of ‘freethinkers’ who craved quality content and trustworthy insight. Analysis showed there was also an audience interested in first-person stories about people and their experiences across the UK. Of course, there was room for a more frivolous strand of content plan with jokes and location-based humour playing an important part in driving scale. Well, this is the internet after all.

There was also and opportunity to leverage the wider JP network of 140+ local news sites in a way that would fit a national quality news brand. With care we harnessed Search and Social Media traffic - By early 2019 inews.co.uk ranked for 1.2m keywords on Google (almost double that of the next biggest site in the JP portfolio, scotsman.com).

In 2019 we re-platformed inews to take advantage of emerging AMP technology working with specialists Bright Sites.

Search traffic was rising but we could see an opportunity in making the entire product a Progressive Web App that not only gave the user a reliable, fast, and light mobile experience but also synchronised with Google's growing promotion of AMP based sites.

Our final product change was to introduce a Live Blog tool in time for the General Election in December 2019. This tool supercharged the political coverage of inews.co.uk driving several million page views in a matter of hours on the day of the election.

The results

• By December 2019 inews.co.uk reached 14.5m monthly users (GA360 - Dec ‘19)
• Organic traffic in 2019 rose from 180k in Feb to 9m in Dec
• Sistrix top 100 Search performers 2019 with 130% growth
• A differentiated digital product built around the quality content principles of ‘The Essential Daily Briefing’ that resonated with a new audience searching for quality news
• Simple and smooth, mobile focused UX that echoed the key elements of the print brand utilising emerging Progressive Web App (PWAMP) technology
• PAMco most trusted digital news site 
• DRUM Digital news site of the year
• Fastest growing, youngest news site in the UK
• Sold to DMGT in Jan 2020 as part of a £50m deal

Congratulations, Steve...for consistently innovating and caring about inews through both its iterations, unquestionably helping put the foundations in place for its next and very exciting chapter - Richard Thompson, MD i Newspaper and inews.co.uk

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UP Ventures, together with our delivery partners The Leadership Factory, has a long-standing partnership with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Northern Innovation Hub. As Managing Partner of UP, I designed and directed a range of bespoke accelerators and innovation sprints across the region.

Over three years I helped 50+ businesses ranging from online learning, sustainable fashion and ergonomic bike handles to aquaculture, hydro energy and smart censor technology.

Delivery

A creative and engaging cohort-based programme delivered both in-person and online allowing HIE to serve the entire region.

Each 12-week course was designed to enable participants to develop their sustainable business model or launch a new product saving both time and money. The programme allows participants to test business ideas in a focused environment, identify new routes to market and develop their sales pitch. A further 12 weeks of coaching and mentoring is offered to help the start-ups and budding entrepreneurs develop contacts, source funding, and plan for future growth.

Participants benefit from dedicated experienced business coaches, tailored workshops and seminars, the opportunity to engage with life sciences and technology experts.  

The Pathfinder Accelerator programme was made possible by HIE’s Northern Innovation Hub (NIH), as part of the Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal to help SMEs in the Highland Council area to improve their businesses through innovation.

The NIH project received £11m from the UK Government and £1.7m ERDF support as part of the Inverness and Highland City Region Deal. The Deal is a joint £315 million initiative supported by both the UK and Scottish governments.

Case Study: Proterra Energy

To discuss how I can help you deliver impactful innovation programmes in the public and private sector, please get in touch.

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• Gathering and managing a world-class group of partners from industry and government including Health Innovation Manchester, Apadmi, Salford Royal, MediaCityUK and The Landing
• Recruiting a cohort of outstanding Health-tech startups and scale-ups
• 12-week accelerator programme that helped each member of the cohort develop their business and make front-line impact
• Helping Novartis to be an enabler in the wider GM Health Ecosystem

The challenge

Assemble and accelerate the business and front-line impact of health-tech solutions that fit the following criteria:

1. Solutions that improve the experience of those with Dementia and/or Frailty.

For vulnerable residents at risk of presenting at hospitals through social isolation, frailty and dementia.

2. Solutions allowing primary care and outpatient services to be delivered in or near the home for patients.

For patients with a long-term condition that requires regular attendance at outpatient clinics or in a primary care setting.

3. Innovations to allow Digital Nudges to improve Prevention and Public Health

Helping people at risk of developing conditions whose outcomes can be improved through lifestyle change.

Solutions were evaluated against the potential Life Impact for each resident or patient type listed above, and the ability to see evidential improvement in:

i) the patient holistic care experience

ii) the capacity and management of primary, community and secondary care.

At Novartis, we are committed to reimagining medicine through digital and data. As our population grows and ages, we need more innovative solutions to society’s complex and chronic health needs. Through our involvement with The Greater Manchester Future of Health, Novartis aimed to empower and accelerate emerging health-tech start-ups to develop and implement their innovative solutions. We were excited to assemble such an interesting and innovative group of start-ups and entrepreneurs and enjoyed collaborating with them during the programme.

Karen Fox, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Novartis

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In a time when we celebrate unprofitable digital start-ups, it is important to tell the stories of mature businesses that embrace digital transformation and profitable change. This is also a story of how an existing team can adapt their working practices in order to deliver a more rapid form of innovation than they had previously been used to. All in a time when the business around them was up for sale and uncertainty was high.

Acting as Director of Digital Product for JPIMedia, I was entrusted with leading a talented multi-disciplined team on an 18-month digital transformation programme. It was a chance to unshackle an important regional media business from years of tech-debt. With demanding new VC owners looking to realise their investment, the pressure was on to deliver quickly. With limited investment and an ambitious (slightly crazy) deadline, an agile programme of rapid digital transformation was designed and delivered.

Problem statements

1. Our current product-set and supporting tech infrastructure makes it difficult for us to adapt quickly enough to user needs.
2. Our websites need to provide a better mobile experience for our users at scale.
3. We need to diversify and improve how we currently monetise our content.
4. Smaller projects have shown we can be agile, adaptive and produce modern digital products but we haven’t done this at scale.

In a time when we celebrate unprofitable start-ups, it is important to recognise the mature businesses who deliver digital change and profit.

Tech-debt

The digital publishing stack had become laden with technical debt built up over many years.  It was clear that the product team was hampered by legacy systems and was unable to adapt such a large portfolio quickly enough to meet internal or external customer needs.   Data analysis showed that c80% of customers' demand was on mobile and yet the existing UX had become outdated. The data also showed that there were gains to be had in Google search performance by utilising Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) technology better. Improving both of these areas would also allow for further diversification of the commercial model.

Becoming a more responsive organisation

Other smaller projects in the same business had benefited from a more agile approach to problem-solving and delivery but this had yet to scale across the company.

Previously the most basic of product updates had taken months due to poor tech but also laborious working practices in the wider team. It was clear that team culture had to shift along with the tech to one of agile problem solving and continuous improvement. With the core team distributed across four cities in the UK, this would also need to be a programme delivered virtually. To empower such a cultural shift we built our daily practice around:

• Leading with high-function/high-trust
• Changing the collective focus to problem solving and continuous improvement
• Getting comfortable with prototyping, quick decision making and rapid improvement
• Working as a small multi-disciplined agile team
• Accepting a higher level of risk
• Setting uncomfortable deadlines but not being afraid to adapt these where needed

Choose your partners wisely

Creating such scale of change in a short space of time required scouting and partnering with the right tech-businesses. These had to be businesses who themselves had the future-focused tech required but who could also integrate with the existing team and drive productivity. Without this type of partner breakthroughs don’t happen.

• BrightSites brought with them a customisable common platform built using AMP technology and a willingness to work at a scale they hadn’t before.

• Kaldor Group had a market-ready range of news apps that could be adapted to individual brands that offered a differentiated user experience. 

• Microsoft Azure powered the creation of a secure, cloud-based, content store and API allowing for fast flexible content delivery.

• Semetrical laser focused on search demand analysis and the optimisation of each new site and its content plan.

The project also encompassed the integration of a new analytics platform and data warehouse (GA), Content Delivery Network, Video on Demand Player and Ad-tag manager.

A lighter, simpler faster user experience

Focusing on consumer demands on mobile and the requirement for ease of use, the mantra ‘lighter, simpler, faster’ was used to guide each design decision. On-site UX evolved by subtracting elements of design and commercial features that previously added noise and clutter. 

From MVP to a continuously evolving platform

After successfully launching an MVP on The Sheffield Star in May 2019, we replatformed 141 local websites that were soon serving 40m+ monthly users. 

The UK’s fastest-growing national news site, inews.co.uk, was given its own evolved design and within three months reached new heights with 14.5m monthly users. Going on to be awarded Digital News-site of the Year with the judges recognising a smooth, mobile-first UX.

At the same time, we diversified the business model developing a subscription pilot on 5 of the largest websites including The Scotsman.  

This is a story of a group realising their talent and delivering meaningful change in a time when the business around them was up for sale

Results

The result is a modern digital portfolio that is future-focused. Built around a flexible, mobile-first, common platform and a cloud-based content API housing 5 million+ articles - enabling any future content delivery needs, at scale. 

The changes add up:

• New Editorial Content Store & API holding 5m+ articles
• 141 regionals and inews.co.uk migrated to an AMP-based common platform in 18 months
• New analytics platform and data warehouse
• 11 apps migrated to PugPig
• 7 Sites live with Subscriptions
• inews voted news site of the year - Drum Awards
• AOP Digital Product Team of the Year
• 36% audience growth year on year across the network
• +28% Organic search growth on the network and +25% on inews
• 13% growth in digital revenue

Credits:

Networks beat siloes and it took just that to achieve what we did. 

Dom Bradshaw (Head of Ops and Dev and my brilliant co-pilot), Sam Forrest (Head of Product), Richard Kendall (Editorial Product), Rob Butler (Subs and Newsletter Product), Mark Dallimore (Project Management), Chris Pye (Commercial Product), Ross Perth (Video Product), Santosh Dhanjal (Apps Product), Andrew Cunning (Creative Director), Andy Morris (Digital Architect), Teona Dima (Development), Bill Mullholand (Development), Steve Chisholm (Head of Audience), Mark Thompson (Head of Audience), Nick Mitchell (Head of Audience), Dan Bird (Head of Audience), Martin Little (Director of Digital Content), Brian Alford, Raul Jaramillo and the team at Brightsites.

Finally, huge thanks to Nigel Leigh (Chief Digital Officer and defender of the team) for the trust and support.

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