B is for belief: Optimal Workshop’s B Corp journey

In the fast-paced world of tech startups and scale-ups, having a strong set of core values is crucial for sustainable growth and success. As the CEO of Optimal Workshop, a best-in-class research and insights platform, I've learned firsthand the importance of establishing and nurturing the right company culture. Today, I'd like to share our journey of revisiting and refining our values, and how these principles are shaping our path forward.

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The power of values in leadership 🫶

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This is my third run as a CEO, following leadership roles at the digital consultancy Tigerspike and the EdTech company Education Perfect. Each time, I've faced the challenge of taking the business to a whole new level. From experience, I've learned that this transformation begins with getting all the right pieces in play for future growth.

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At Optimal Workshop, we've been busy laying the groundwork for our next phase of expansion:

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1. Forming a new leadership team

2. Launching a fresh brand identity

3. Developing a new strategy and product direction

4. Introducing our refined team values

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These elements, particularly our values, are not just words on a wall. They underpin our future way of working and set the standard for the behaviors we expect from every team member. By doing so, we're creating a culture of high performance with solid foundations to build upon and scale globally.

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Our core values: The heart of Optimal Workshop 💖

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In April 2024, we embarked on a journey to revisit and refine our company values. This process was collaborative and thoughtful, involving input from team members across all levels of the organization. The result is a set of four core values that truly represent who we are and who we aspire to be:

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1. Live in our customers' shoes

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At Optimal Workshop, we believe that our success is intrinsically tied to the success of our customers. This value emphasizes empathy, understanding, and a customer-centric approach to everything we do. Team members who embody this value:

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• Deeply understand our products and champion user research and data-driven methodologies
• Go above and beyond to support our customers, ensuring they derive maximum value from our products and services
• Show a profound understanding of customer pain points and challenges, always seeking ways to enhance the customer experience
• Prioritize customer satisfaction and strive to provide the highest level of service in all their endeavors

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2. Own it

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We take pride in our expertise and resilience. This value is about taking initiative, holding ourselves to high standards, and fostering an environment of trust and commitment. An "Own It" mindset means:

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• Demonstrating reliability and accountability, stepping up to challenges and delivering on promises
• Being solution-focused, supporting others, and finding the best outcomes for all stakeholders
• Bringing a high level of quality to daily work, advancing projects while maintaining excellent standards
• Communicating openly and transparently, and professionally challenging the status quo when necessary

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3. Game On!

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In the dynamic world of tech and user research, adaptability and continuous learning are key. Our "Game On!" value encapsulates our readiness to pivot, our curiosity, and our commitment to constant improvement. Team members who exemplify this value:

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• Demonstrate the ability to change direction quickly and adapt to new circumstances
• Actively contribute to discussions, ask insightful questions, and share information effectively
• Continuously learn and challenge the status quo, always seeking innovative ways to improve our processes and offerings

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4. In It Together

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Last but certainly not least, we believe in the power of collaboration, mutual support, and compassion. This value underscores our commitment to fostering a positive, respectful work environment where everyone can thrive. "In It Together" means:

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• Creating a collaborative work environment and showing respect to all team members and individuals
• Bringing colleagues and customers together to achieve better results and reach common goals
• Demonstrating honesty, transparency, and integrity in team settings
• Speaking openly but respectfully, always listening actively, and being present and ready to participate

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Celebrating our values in action 🥳

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To bring these values to life, we recently celebrated our inaugural Value Awards. It was inspiring to see team members being recognized for exemplifying these principles in their daily work:

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• GabeYoung, Head of Engineering for "Game On"
• Sarah Flutey, Head of Product Marketing for "Live in Our Customer's Shoes"
• Christine Chow, Senior Product Marketer for "Own It"
• Loren Whithair Senior Business Intelligence Advisor (Data) for "In It Together"

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These winners have set a great benchmark for all of us to follow, showing how our values translate into tangible actions and outcomes.

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Looking ahead 🔭

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One of the most crucial lessons I've learned as a CEO is the immense value of establishing clear core values and guidelines early in a company's journey. When these fundamental pieces are in place, scaling becomes not just easier, but significantly faster – especially when it comes to global growth. 

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By setting these core values and guidelines early, we've created a strong foundation that will enable Optimal Workshop to scale more efficiently and effectively on a global level, maintaining our identity, culture, and high standards of performance, no matter how large we become or how far we expand geographically.

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Here's to the journey ahead – onwards and upwards, across borders and beyond!

Alex Burke

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There are over 5000 certified B Corporations around the world, including new recruit, New Zealand based SaaS company, Optimal Workshop.  The ‘B’ in B Corp actually stands for ‘beneficial’, to reflect the founding vision behind the movement: ‘make business a force for good’.   B Corp seeks to help companies balance purpose and profit, while also serving stakeholders by building a global community of like-minded organizations. We asked Andrew Mayfield, CEO and Julie Reddish, Head of People and Culture at Optimal Workshop about becoming a B Corp, the journey so far and why it’s so important.

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Why did Optimal decide to become a B Corp?

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Andrew: I’ve been interested in aligning our reporting with our purpose and values for years, so becoming a B Corp felt like a huge and natural step in this direction. Our ethos of placing people at the heart of decisions extends to the way we treat our own people, not just our customers.  So I saw B Corp as a way of enshrining this thinking into the company and making sure these aspects were considered in future decision making.  

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Sounds as if being a B Corp was already in line with your thinking.  What’s it mean in terms of action?  

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Julie: One of the things we’ve always cared about is ‘how do we show our real commitment to people, to the environment, to sustainability, to doing ethical good work?’ Finding out B Corp existed as this global initiative, this reputable, recognized way of measuring yourself against other companies was compelling.  It was a way for us to metrify or codify ‘the optimal way’ of doing things in a way that does good as a company and does good in the world.  

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Andrew: Practically it means writing up more policies to ensure the things we do for the good of our people and the planet, which we consider normal are actually written down and therefore, in effect, protected. Our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, Whistleblower policy, Breast feeding and support policy and Environmental sustainability policy are some that spring to mind.

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Tell me about the actual journey to becoming a B Corp - what’s it been like?

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Julie: Oh my gosh - it’s been a big project.  Little did we know how much work it would take to get accredited!  It requires six different categories of certification which have, like 50 or 60 questions or areas you can gain points in and you need a minimum of 80 points to get certification.  A lot of the questions weren’t really applicable to us so we really had to look closely and think, ‘what is there already that we do inside Optimal that actually equates to saying yes to that question?’ We had an awful lot of thinking to do about which questions to put our time and our money into.  

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Andrew:  There were a lot of things we did that weren’t fully documented, that was the hard part. We didn’t have to change much of our actual behavior to be honest.  We have been for years looking at a people-centered approach - our three values are Approachable, Bold and Curious. We had to write things down, make sure they were where people could find them.  There wasn’t a lot we had to change to get our entrance score as such. If we want to continually improve each year then we will need to make continual changes for sure, like anyone trying to self improve.

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Julie:  We thought we were quite close, then there was this massive surge of interest and eight months to even see a consultant, then another six months before the verification process even started.  

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That’s when the rubber really hit the road.  We were working away on different bits of the B Corp certification like there’s one for having an office set up for breastfeeding.  Do you have a lockable door? Do you have a place that is private? Does everyone know? Is it communicated? Do you have a policy on breastfeeding? You had to look at each of those things and make sure that you could back it up with evidence.  And that might be worth 0.2 points.  

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Sounds like a detailed and rigorous journey - but also quite meaningful and actionable?

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Julie: We already had thoughts on what we could do to make our organization great like sourcing local produce and local suppliers but the process of becoming a B Corp really flushed it out for us.  Some of the suggestions and categories were things we were already looking at within the bigger picture of being a good employer and being a good contributor to our communities. Going through the assessment helped us identify a whole other layer of things that we could and should be doing.

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Beyond measuring female representation, what else could we be doing for diversity?  What about our indigenous representation? What could we be doing for people with disabilities?  It got us into deeper thinking about what diversity actually means. It’s pretty amazing.

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What does being a B Corp mean for your employees?

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Julie:  As an employer it’s reaffirming a commitment to treating people well and human-centered work practices.  So the real nuts and bolts come down to individuals thinking how might I get involved with this:  If I see something I don’t feel is right I call it out.  I can also advocate for what is right.

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Andrew:  More and more I think people are interested in working for companies that care for more than simply enriching their shareholders, that care about taking care of their team and of their environment and of their impact more broadly, of the change they seek to make on society, knowledge-sharing and all this sort of thing.  People are more aware of considering this on choice of where to work, where to stay and just generally where to spend their time.  We all have scarce time these days and strong choices to make and it does play into where people choose to work.

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Does this extend to customers?  What impact, if any, does being a B Corp mean for them?

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Andrew:  B Corp certainly takes into consideration who you choose to use as suppliers so it becomes a bit recursive in that way. If our customers value the fact we’re a B Corp then they need to be thinking about choosing suppliers who are also B Corps - so it would gradually happen over time I’d imagine. 

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Julie: It’s about thoughtful practices.  Not just following trends. It’s about what works, not what’s popular. 

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What’s it feel like to be part of this global community called B Corp?

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Julie:  I think it's a really cool company to be in.  To share our thinking, to share policies and resources with somebody who’s traveled that road before us, with its dragons and potholes, to actually follow in someone’s footsteps, but also make it our own ‘Optimal’ way.  

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Andrew: Being part of a community of B Corps supporting each other with new ways to manage these obligations we choose to put on ourselves to be better corporate citizens as such is valuable.  While there’s no desire to make it hard, sometimes it is hard to make sure you’re doing the right thing.  It requires extra research and extra conscientiousness when making decisions so sharing ideas and experiences.  Feeling like you’re not the only one who’s been there can help.

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Becoming a B Corp is quite an achievement however the work doesn’t stop there does it?

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Andrew: My understanding is the requirements get harder and that’s a good thing.  We can all get better.  The biggest areas for us to improve are things like sharing information in decision-making, we’re already pretty transparent but haven’t formalized that so there are things we can do there.  

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The next checkpoint is in three years and we’re expected to improve plus the requirements get more onerous - so we’d better improve!

Last week Optimal Workshop was delighted to sponsor UXDX USA 2024 in New York. The User Experience event brings together Product, Design, UX, CX, and Engineering professionals and our team had an amazing time meeting with customers, industry experts, and colleagues throughout the conference. This year, we also had the privilege of sharing some of our industry expertise by running an interactive forum on “Measuring the Value of UX Research” - a topic very close to our hearts.

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Our forum, hosted by Optimal Workshop CEO Alex Burke and Product Lead Ella Fielding, was focused on exploring the value of User Experience Research (UXR) from both an industry-wide perspective and within the diverse ecosystem of individual companies and teams conducting this type of research today.

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The session brought together a global mix of UX professionals for a rich discussion on measuring and demonstrating the effectiveness of and the challenges facing organizations who are trying to tie UXR to tangible business value today.

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The main topics for the discuss were: 

• Metrics that Matter: How do you measure UXR's impact on sales, customer satisfaction, and design influence?
• Challenges & Strategies: What are the roadblocks to measuring UXR impact, and how can we overcome them?
• Beyond ROI:  UXR's value beyond just financial metrics

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Some of the key takeaways from our discussions during the session were: 

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1. The current state of UX maturity and value
   • Many UX teams don’t measure the impact of UXR on core business metrics and there were more attendees who are not measuring the impact of their work than those that are measuring it. 
   • Alex & Ella discussed with the attendees the current state of UX research maturity and the ability to prove value across different organizations represented in the room. Most organizations were still early in their UX research maturity with only 5% considering themselves advanced in having research culturally embedded.

2. Defining and proving the value of UX research
   • The industry doesn’t have clear alignment or understanding of what good measurement looks like. Many teams don’t know how to accurately measure UXR impact or don’t have the tools or platforms to measure it, which serve as core roadblocks for measuring UXRs’ impact. 
   • Alex and Ella discussed challenges in defining and proving the value of UX research, with common values being getting closer to customers, innovating faster, de-risking product decisions, and saving time and money. However, the value of research is hard to quantify compared to other product metrics like lines of code or features shipped.

3. Measuring and advocating for UX research
   • When teams are measuring UXR today there is a strong bias for customer feedback, but little ability or understanding about how to measure impact on business metrics like revenue. 
   • The most commonly used metrics for measuring UXR are quantitative and qualitative feedback from customers as opposed to internal metrics like stakeholder involvement or tieing UXR to business performance metrics (including financial performance). 
   • Attendees felt that in organizations where research is more embedded, researchers spend significant time advocating for research and proving its value to stakeholders rather than just conducting studies. This included tactics like research repositories and pointing to past study impacts as well as ongoing battles to shape decision making processes. 
   • One of our attendees highlighted that engaging stakeholders in the process of defining key research metrics prior to running research was a key for them in proving value internally. 

4. Relating user research to financial impact
   • Alex and Ella asked the audience if anyone had examples of demonstrating financial impact of research to justify investment in the team and we got some excellent examples from the audience proving that there are tangible ways to tie research outcomes to core business metrics including:
   • Calculating time savings for employees from internal tools as a financial impact metric. 
   • Measuring a reduction in calls to service desks as a way to quantify financial savings from research.

5. Most attendees recognise the value in embedding UXR more deeply in all levels of their organization - but feel like they’re not succeeding at this today. 
   • Most attendees feel that UXR is not fully embedded in their orgnaization or culture, but that if it was - they would be more successful in proving its overall value.
   • Stakeholder buy-in and engagement with UXR, particularly from senior leadership varied enormously across organizations, and wasn’t regularly measured as an indicator of UXR value 
   • In organizations where research was more successfully embedded, researchers had to spend significant time and effort building relationships with internal stakeholders before and after running studies. This took time and effort away from actual research, but ended up making the research more valuable to the business in the long run. 

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With the large range of UX maturity and the democratization of research across teams, we know there’s a lot of opportunity for our customers to improve their ability to tie their user research to tangible business outcomes and embed UX more deeply in all levels of their organizations. To help fill this gap, Optimal Workshop is currently running a large research project on Measuring the Value of UX which will be released in a few weeks.
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