How I Won Circles.Life’s First Ideathon
By: Jalyn Soo, UI/UX Designer
A little about myself
I’ve had my share of work experience over the past few years — I’ve interned at small to medium-sized integrated marketing and creative agencies, taken on part-time jobs in the F&B industry, and even attempted to start my own online business!
I’ve been able to get a glimpse of the different types of work environments, but I’ve never worked at a rapidly scaling tech start-up before. When I decided to accept an internship offer from Circles.Life, I really didn’t know what to expect.
I joined Circles.Life in November 2018 as a Branding & UI/UX Intern. To provide a little context on what I do on a day-to-day basis, I design collaterals for employee recruitment and branding, aid in user experience research to guide the product development process, design wireframes and interface elements of products, and more.
What is Ideathon?
At the end of 2018, Circles.Life announced that it would be holding its first company-wide idea contest named ‘Ideathon’. After knowing that the winner’s idea stands a chance of being developed into an actual product, I knew I had to take a shot!
Why I joined Ideathon
While I enjoy designing and coming up with collaterals to effectively communicate the brand to an audience, I have also always had a keen interest in ideation and innovation. This could be coming up with new products and features that users will love, or — even better — improve people’s lives!
For those unfamiliar with Circles.Life, we started off in 2016 as a telco company leading no-contract, data-focused mobile plans. Over time, we have evolved into doing so much more — we now deliver a digital services experience that ranges from telco to ecosystem products.
The venture into a business ecosystem provides many proprietary advantages for a scaling-up company like Circles.Life to compete against other larger companies.
An example of an ecosystem product we have developed is Discover, a smart events feature nestled within the Circles.Life app where users can find the hottest deals and events to go to and redeem rewards.
As my interest lies in ecosystem products, I racked my brain for an idea that I felt would:
(1) Create new value propositions for Discover
(2) Act as an expression for what users desire
(3) Facilitate reaching out to and acquiring more customers
While I am unable to reveal the details of my idea here, my idea got shortlisted as the top five among many other submissions.
After sitting through four amazing presentations by my colleagues, and delivering a nerve-wracking pitch in front of not just the entire company, but a panel consisting of a co-founder, the marketing and product owners, my idea eventually got chosen as the winner for Circles.Life’s first ever Ideathon!
It was an incredible experience from start to end.
I started off clueless and lacking in knowledge about product management and implementation. I had to ensure that the feature I wanted to implement could increase acquisition and active users while driving product innovation.
How did I do that? I had to identify market needs and understand the metrics used to measure and perform win/loss analysis for feature validation.
After which, I began my conceptualisation process where I started brainstorming for ideas.
When my idea got shortlisted, I started preparing my pitch deck by designing mock-ups and thinking of a presentation flow that would help communicate my ideas effectively.
Presently, I am working on a minimum viable product for my idea with the product and engineering team and I cannot wait to see how it will be actualised!
What I have learnt
1. Don’t be afraid to venture into something you’re unfamiliar with
Being part of the branding and design team, I decided to delve into the product side of the business because there’s something really rewarding about trying something new. It doesn’t matter if you fail or make mistakes because this process will instill in you a sense of ownership and you’ll come out more seasoned, with a whole new experience under your belt.
2. Be a trailblazer
Want to be the first at something? Make an impact by breaking ground with new ideas and spearheading your own projects. Don’t be daunted by making your own tracks. Take ownership over the work you do and work towards being someone who can always offer a creative solution. This will allow you to demonstrate your competence and open up doors to more opportunities.
3. Ideas can come from anyone and anywhere
A pervasive myth found in companies is that great ideas only come top-down. However, things are changing, and great ideas are coming from interns, from people all over different departments, and even from customers sharing their best ideas out of brand loyalty! Innovation is about inspiration coming from consistently listening to what others have to say. Circles.Life has fostered a culture of innovation by believing that the best ideas can come from anyone and anywhere, and that these ideas can go on to become big businesses.
I hope this gives you a better idea of what it’s like to be in a company that is constantly pushing for innovation and ideation.
While I am only sharing my experience participating in Circles.Life’s Ideathon, I believe that regardless of the company, there will always be avenues to express your ideas and gain new experiences. These personal experiences will then mould you into a better person, as they have for me.
Do not be afraid to take the plunge! Grab any opportunity you have to try something new because all it takes is a passion for learning. I made use of the avenues available at Circles.Life to express my ideas and gain new experiences, which in turn moulded me into a better person.
P.S. Ideas are rewarded handsomely at Circles.Life — all the more you should get cracking. Find out more about how you can be part of our rocketship!
