If you love dolphins, you must also accept the presence of sharks

When it comes to creating a company, money IS an issue.
Especially when you have to deal with either new or existing “sharks”.

Yes, I know. We get bombarded (only) with the success stories that needed nothing more than a garage and a good idea or a local hero who made it from zero. But the truth is out there. And since the world is so enamoured with data, taking a look to those numbers does not paint a very romantic story.

So, when you are an independent, non-funded, left-to-your-own-devices company, you have to double down on what you should’ve taken an extra care for in the first place: offer real and consistent value.

Let me take a step back:
Some months ago Dollphin was founded; and let me just clarify that the name is not a misspell. It’s the combination of dolphin and doll. Because these two encompass what we are about: smart experiences, beautifully designed.
It’s also no secret that we absolutely love and admire dolphins :)

How can you not?

Photo by Fabrizio Frigeni on Unsplash

But let’s get back to another sea; that of possibilities:

Dollphin is a Strategic Design firm based on a business model/dream (more romanticism. maybe) that works in a collaborative fashion: we are the clients’ strategic consultants, bringing together professionals — either companies or individuals — who are specialists in their field and are willing to work for a client of ours while maintaining their independence and without “white label” requirements on our firm’s part.

Our focus is Service Design and, before you ask, yes, there are a hundred definitions of what that is. The one Marc Fonteijn introduced me in and has become a favourite of mine, can be found in this video by the great Fjord (it’s also fun to watch — cool experience, huh?).

What is mesmerising for us is that through Service Design we can re-think and re-DO every service around us, be it a brand, a product or an organisation and create experiences that will benefit the everyday life of so many people, while also achieving business goals in a demanding experience economy.

When it comes to transformation, we are aiming at business transformation, not digital by force. Shocking as it may seem in a market were everyone is talking about digital transformation, sometimes digital interactions even have to be removed from a journey when they don’t serve the needs of the consumers and their perception of quality within the experience.

You’d be surprised if you saw how even small changes in a customer journey make a big difference in ROI and drive innovation that matters. As long as they are the correct ones.

How will we know? More about it in a minute.

Dollphin is also envisioned as a platform, which is something we are already working on, ambitious as it may sound.

Getting back to real value regardless of any obstacles, here is what we are offering by design:

1. Human-centered approach
   Obviously we understand the importance of data and it’s a starting point when we draft the whole picture of the customer/user/employee experience. However, within the data frenzy we’ve forgotten a very important notion: we are designing businesses and experiences for people, not bots. Data will tell us what is happening but the most important thing after that is finding out “why”.
   We are employing methodologies that put humans in the heart of everything and those include Design Thinking, Customer Journey and Empathy Maps, Prototyping and Testing, etc. not because they are buzzwords, but because, through our training and our work, we know the value they bring in the process. As a client, you probably don’t care about the way we reach our results and we don’t think you’re wrong in doing that. You are obviously concerned about the outcomes. What we can guarantee is that the outcomes we’ll bring to you will be driven by real insights, involving customers and employees early on in the process, so that you don’t waste time, money and energy that can be best placed elsewhere.
2. Access to Talent without the hustle
   Before anything else, we will do our best to uncover your pain points, not by guessing or pretending that we know your business before we actually do that deep dive with you.
   Once we understand your needs and the project frame, we will form the team that best suits the deliverables and we will present it to you. We will be your strategic partners and the ones who will coordinate the team throughout our engagement with you — you will not have to talk to ten people. So, no hustle and no hidden agendas.
   We are constantly expanding our network of top professionals regardless of where they are located. We know no borders.
3. Agility
   Whether you need a team within your team or an external partner working with you on particular projects, we can accommodate both. In the first case, the goal is for us to help you augment your team’s potential for as long as you need it and “fade out” when our presence is no longer necessary.
   If training your team in certain areas that will assist you in forming stellar customer experiences is what keeps you up at night, we have the experience to set that up for you, along with our specialists.
4. Implementation of the Strategic decisions if a client needs to
   We are happy to be considered as our client’s strategic partner. Sometimes though, when the work we do requires certain assets to be developed (especially if they are to live in the digital world), we can handle the specs analysis or the implementation itself. Just say the word ;)
5. (coming up) Giving back to the community
   As you’ve probably grasped by now, we want to make a difference. In many ways. Soon we will give our teams and our clients the opportunity to donate time for designing from scratch or re-visiting experiences in organisations that may not be able to afford the service, but are important to the community. This is a teaser. We will share more on that soon.

This is how we’ve designed Dollphin; and we’ve done that by utilising the very tools we are confident that will transform any other company or organisation’s business. Yes, we used journeys and mapping, we did the customer interviews (with potential clients), we tested services as our own version of prototyping and we are going to iterate, iterate, iterate.

Apart from their smartness, another thing we love about dolphins is that, although their size may be smaller, they have the audacity or the confidence to stand up and protect their own against sharks.

So, let us swim with you along your journey, no matter how deep your waters are. Most probably, we will be able to protect you against your “sharks”.

Note I: this post started off with a weakness and we have learned that weaknesses should not be highlighted when we are talking about new ventures, right? Well, as we’ve chosen to do some things unconventionally here at Dollphin, we thought we’d skip appearances, too. “Fake it till you make it” is not our style. And it’s not what would also help other people who dream about their own gig navigate through realities. Shout out to Brené Brown!

Note II: we are currently working on two very exciting (and challenging) projects that aim to re-design current experiences in B2B and B2C environments. When we are able to share more details, your feedback will not only be welcome, but also precious. Let us say it again: we put humans at the heart of everything and we DO mean everything.

Companies and organisations, are you curious of what we can do for you in particular? Let us know here.

Professionals, are you interested in working with us for ambitious clients?
Give us a shout at hello@thedollphin.com.