I collect specialisms like I collect headphones (don’t ask). I’m one of those weird breed of people who are multi-hyphenated specialists. My areas of expertise are taxonomy, systems thinking, choice making, navigation and information design.
I’m the person you bring in to help you understand the problem you need to solve, and the best way to solve it.
I’m on a one woman mission to help end over consumption, I do that by helping businesses do more, with less (seems paradoxical, but it’s something I excel at).
I like to get in, help you work out which way to go and how to get there, then get out, leaving you with something that you can continue to run with.
Transformation
I’ve worked on digital transformation projects for most of my career, but I still don’t really get why we put “digital” on the front of it. When it really comes down to it, you want to transform your business to be more efficient and more profitable.
The digital stuff is just an enabler.
The reason why you hire someone with some badass taxonomy and systems thinking skills like mine, is because we see everything. We’re the experts in the total cost of ownership.
The types of transformation work I help you with are
- Transformation positioning
- Transformation strategy
- Maturity modelling
- Process reengineering
Cartography
Yes, yes, I know, cartography is the technical term for map making. But I happen to like the sound of the word, so I’m sticking with it. I’ve mapped all kinds of things for clients, that include existing ecosystems and systems, through to redesigning them to make them more efficient for the end user.
You might be wondering why you would want to invest in creating a map of an ecosystem or a system. Ask yourself this, would you travel from where you are right now in the world to another city, in another country without using a map? So why do you think you can do piece of transformation without having one?
The types of mapping I can help you with are
- Ecosystem maps - illustrating how systems, tools, devices or people unite around a common point
- System maps - illustrating how a digital or human system functions
Navigation strategy and design
You might think this has absolutely nothing to do with transformation, and I don’t blame you. But it has everything to do with transformation. As an expert in navigation design, I can tell you how people navigate their way through your products and services is essential if you want to reduce overheads, make more money and build trust with your people.
Want to know what a taxonomist does? This is what we do. We’re experts in how people navigate their way through digital or informational spaces.
The types of problems I can help you with are
- Time to convert
- Keeping people on site
- Search strategy and design (please note this is onsite search engine, not SEO, I don’t do SEO)
Catalogue management
This is genuinely where my inner Marie Kondo comes out. I love organising information so it’s grouped and categorised in a way that makes it usable. There’s something zen like when you take a catalogue that’s in a bit of a pickle and turn it into something people can use easily. Because a tidy catalogue is cheaper to maintain and makes you more money, and who doesn’t love that?
The kinds of catalogues I work with include
- Product catalogues that need restructuring and tidying
- Information catalogues that need metadata design
A note about platforms or technology
I’ve worked in tech for 27 years. I’ve lost count of the different bits of software I’ve got my head around for one reason or another. I don’t wed myself to a single product and say that’s all I work with. In fact, you might not be familiar with all the technical terms for the different parts of systems I work with, so rather than bamboozle you, I’m just gonna say, I work with problems, information and products. If you don’t have it, I can create it (I’m writing this 6 weeks after manually compiling an entire product catalogue of over 1500 items). If you have questions about what I can or can’t support technology wise, drop me a message and we can clear it up in a jiffy.
Why choose small consulting
You might be wondering why you would choose my mad skills over Big Consulting™... so I wrote a little something that might help you out.