The US Chamber of Commerce represents the needs of over 3 million businesses around the world. They came to Code and Theory to help determine how to best serve the business community in the 21st century. The brief was simple: create a new product that can support the businesses that fall outside the fortune 1000 list.
The engagement started as an ecosystem define phase — performing data analytics and user research to identify the needs of “small and medium” sized businesses. Our target was clear: this community needs targeted and vetted resources to help start and then grow these businesses. Our team wove together deep audience research, brand strategy, and product design to create a brand new digital product called CO—, which launched in February 2019.
CO— is a publishing platform that is built over a user-generated content (UGC) contributor framework. This framework is what makes The Jerry Springer Show or The Moth Radio Hour (for example) so relevant to its respective audiences; the shows cover what the audience offers. And only the best stories get told. The idea is that this publicity incentivizes the audience to submit the next round of story submissions in perpetuity. Another key feature that defines this product: the “Midnight Oil” newsletter, a newsletter that gets released at midnight every weeknight. This was developed based on key research insights around small and medium sized business owners’ schedules. The timing of the newsletter signals an awareness of and a solidarity to their situation / lifestyle.
Since its launch, CO— has won multiple awards, including FastCo’s Innovation by Design – The Best of UX Design of 2019 and two EPPY awards for Best Overall Design and Best Business Blog.
My role: research & user testing, ideation & concept development, product strategy & roadmap.
Engagement lead: M. Mingasson, M. Kettler, M. Chmiel, 2017-2018.
If you’re interested in seeing intermediary deliverables and process / approach documentation, feel free to get in touch :)