Danish Entrepreneurs - eloomi

Thanks guys. My name is Claus and I'm the head of design in the Danish software company called Illumi. Now to be honest I don't think that many of you know who we are or what we do. But we are a SaaS software that in a quite unique way combines learning with performance management. And by doing so we help companies but also individual employees to achieve greater results and go through a personal growth. Now we were established last year and after one year in business we have achieved 46 companies or clients, 55 partners and are represented in 20 countries around the world. At the moment we have 40,000 users, we support 10 languages and we are 15 full-time employees. We also have this sort of trusted network of freelancers that we can collaborate with. Now today I would like to invite you guys and share to you the short journey we have had so far from a creative perspective. And it all started one year ago where Claus, the CEO and founder of Illumi came to me and Kenneth, my good friend and colleague. And he asked us, guys do you want to help me build the most awesome learning and performance management system? And you know both me and Kenneth came from the agency business. And we said, sounds a bit boring. But then he told us his idea and we were like, okay cool, let's do it. And that's actually my first advice if you are planning on starting a startup digital company. Is to go out and hire a designer. Because we can really get things going from basically the first day. Now what we did was together with Claus and the rest of the founder group was just to list all of the existing competitors up on the map. Which were focused on learning and which were focused on performance. And then just basically try to benchmark with them. We wanted to do what they were doing just in a better way. Both from a user perspective and design perspective. And it should be more intuitive and so forth. So the next thing we did was to list up the full project basically. Which pages do we need to have done in order to have a complete system. And then we just started to design the whole thing really. And then just pinpointed out all of these different pages. Okay, which should we do next. And we of course did it in close collaboration with the developers who were going to build it. But also the sales team. Now this was kind of new to me. That they were like looking over my shoulder while I was designing stuff. But like we started to design from day one. They started to go out and try to sell the idea. And we tried to do it. And we tried to help them by providing those kind of different design assets. To kind of visualize the idea to potential clients. And it actually turned out quite good. Because they came back to us. Okay, I've just been at this client. And he's saying really cool system. But maybe put more attention to this part. And we could sort of adjust the whole thing on the go. And most amazingly we also managed to close down the first couple of clients. And you know sign some. In my mind fairly big companies. Basically after one week. And also we managed to get some kind of funding money. Because of the whole idea and our design. It was really good to see. And then we just kept going. And after a couple of months we were actually ready to you know launch. Sort of the beta version of the system. And perhaps when I see it from now. We should of course have been aware of. Okay, this kind of you know rock and roll strategy. It can be kind of dangerous. And we hit the fucking wall. Just after a couple of. Or as soon as we launched the actual product. Because you know we had all these companies. And they were just waiting. Hey, when can our users enter it? And then afterwards we just saw all these sort of different struggles. I mean we got negative user feedback. Performance issues. So it was wasn't reliable and so forth. We had no onboarding process. So that meant we had to use a lot of managing hours. Just trying to get the companies to understand the actual system. And you know try to get them going. And because of the above. We also experienced low traction from the users. And all these kind of different support cases. From the users who were actually using it. And because we had to take all of our attention to these challenges here. We also experienced what it was like to actually lose out on deals. Because we couldn't put the same kind of you know love really to them. And these are not just struggles. These are actually company killers. Because if you don't do something about this as a startup. Eventually you can't afford it. And the company would you know go down. But one thing here was also really. Annoying me from a designer perspective. And that was of course the user feedback. The negative user feedback. And you know at one point I took the creative team. And we just you know tried to put everything. That people were saying about our product up on the wall. And we could see it wasn't really a particular part in the system. That wasn't working. It was really all over. But on the same hand. We could see that one user was saying. Hey this is not working as intended. And on the other. Another user would say. This is working really good. About the same feature. And that's of course when you're a global brand. And you're represented in all cross industries. And you know have all these sort of different companies. And inside of each company also working on different employee levels. There's all sort of different focus areas. And also thinking from a culture perspective. You know we have one country. That perhaps don't want us to put too much attention on performance figures. Because it's kind of sensitive data or info. And then another country where it's really important that we have this sort of stuff. So we just realized. Okay the system that we have now. Is simply not capable of handling these sort of requests. So we basically have to redo the whole thing. And this is of course not easy to go out. And present to the founders. And for investors and so forth. So this time they said to us. Guys you really need to make the canvas perfect this time. Make sure the foundation is there. And from a creative perspective. That's kind of the boring stuff. But it was just so important that we learn from the previous version. And really put attention to this. So first thing we did was to look at all of the UI elements and components. And then just we could just see there are so many things. Not looking alike. But kind of doing the same thing. So we cut around 50 or 60% out of the existing UI. And then the one that was left. We tried to refine them. And make them even more smooth. Same we did with the typography. Keep it to a minimum. And by keeping it to a minimum. Users can way easier onboard the system. And know what each element is doing. And also from our company perspective. When we were onboarding new designers. And some developers. We could just say to them. This is what you have to work with. And please stick to that sort of guideline. And then we looked at the actual layout. And tried to see what users were thinking about them. And we could see that managers and administrators. They really wanted us to go full scale. Use the whole screen for different data sheets and info. And on the other hand. The users were more keen on specific parts. And wanted us to show less. So we developed these two kind of layouts. Where one for the administrators. Had this wonderful expandable and collapsible filter sidebar. So you could easily filter through all of the different data. You were seeing. And users could now have this box view. With all of their key info. And performance figures. And what was really smart about these boxes here. Or widgets as we call them. Is that you could add or remove stuff. So what was relevant for your specific workflow. You could just modify. And you could rearrange them. And even each widget you could go in. And just you know. Put more attention to a specific figure. Or so forth. So already by then. The system was way more flexible. And then of course. We also installed all sort of different analytics. And that's from a design point of view. There's just so many key insights laying there. And see how are the users actually using your system. Because you think they will do it like this. And quite often you'll be amazed how they actually do it. And then also from a technical perspective. We made sure that what happens when we implement new features. How are they deployed. And so forth. What about adding new languages. How is that going to go. And thought all of this through. And finally also made what we call the Illumi Academy. Now the Illumi Academy was both from a. Works both from a user perspective. But also from an administrator perspective. And we have Sarah here. Who is you know kind of taking the user's hand. And saying hey this is your learning index. And you could use it like this. And you can compare it here. And so forth. So. But I would love to show the actual product to you. And. So we have made this short show. I think the sound check should be good this time. But it also gives you an idea of the actual office. And how we're working. So. And. And this is the . And. And. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Way better now. And by doing this kind of remake, we now have the time to invest in other things. For instance, the more exciting part about a project like this. Because in Illumi, even though we are quite a small team, we really strive to always think big. And always try to see at the current trends and how can we adapt them to fit in our product. And what can we do to make the product better. And one thing here I would like to show you today is what we call the boost engine. And by having a system like this, we have all sorts of wonderful data provided to us. And you know data is really lovely. When companies enter Illumi, they are asked to import their user or employee details. So we have all these sort of basic things. We also have it from a system perspective. We know how... Sorry. How users are performing. What are the activity level like. And what about their work habits. And so forth. We know that stuff just by using our system. And then we see this trend that more and more companies, they want us to add this sort of additional stuff. It could, for instance, be the wage level or contract details. Now I know this kind of info, it's kind of a thing that you don't want to be too transparent. Some companies... Some companies... Are actually trying to go there. But still... But from a company perspective, you can choose completely which kind of info that should be shared from a colleague to a colleague. And so forth. But by adding this sort of data to the system, we can make the system smart. And we can help people to do better. And if the people are doing better, then of course the company will do better. So here's a user case. We have this user here. And he's really... We can see he's already... Always looking into the leaderboard. And he's always comparing his figures with others. When he enters the system, the system should of course say to him, Hey, four of your colleagues have just taken this course here. Maybe you should get going. It could also be a user that has put an objective saying, I want to become a better leader. Then he should of course be... And he's mostly active during the evening hours. Then he should be pushed during the evening hours. Hey, there's this awesome course available. For you to take. And finally, managers. They're really keen on numbers. And they want to know who's performing and who's not. And so forth. The system can actually tell you that. And they can do it automatically. So if it's the last week of the month and you have to put in a good result, then you will be aware of, okay, I need to take care of my department here. There's something wrong. So that all sounds good. And easy to do. And it might be. Here's my everyday. At least if you are asking my friends. Or how I sometimes hope they will be. But the reality is just another thing. There's all these sort of... Of course you have to take care of clients. There's the CEO. You have to listen to his crazy ideas. There's the developers. Don't get me started on the developers. And then there's sales related stuff. They're always coming over to your station. I mean, I think I'm the most popular guy at the office. But... Um... And in the beginning I was quite annoyed. Annoyed about this. Because I was sitting there just making everything look pixel perfect. And it was just disturbances. But after the year in the movie, I just realized there's so many possibilities by actually listening to your colleagues. Because it may sound a bit irrelevant that you have to do this, cut the logo for a sales guy or something like that. But basically, by helping this guy, he perhaps is in a better position to win a big client the next day. And so forth. So it's really a team effort. And you have to pay attention to that. And finally, here's my three major statements for you as a startup designer. Of course, go work your ass off. Now, I know most of you are already doing that. Because we designers, you know, we are passionate people. And we are really loving our product or the things we're sitting. So I know most of you are already working during evening and night and so forth. But it's just so important, especially in a startup, to do that. And then don't be afraid of broadcasting the things you're sitting with. I was quite often sitting down in the basement and just making everything perfect. And once that was perfect, I saw this cool trend or technology. I said, okay, let's remake it. And then just do it even more perfect. But while you're designing it, go out and broadcast it, both internally. But also externally. Because you will only see that you will get quite valuable insights or feedback to the things you're sitting with. And then finally, be adaptive. I mean, if the product is not working as intended, you should maybe take two steps back to go forward again. And also, you know, you need to adapt to the market and the trends out there. So always be aware of what's happening and how can we think that in. You know? Our project. And also from the last perspective here, from the internal, you know, the actual everyday. Be adapted to what's coming in your way. Because it's really, it could be really great stuff. So thank you very much. Thank you.