365 Days at Snap Out: A look back at 2019
The start of a new year is creeping up on us! As hard as it is to believe, it will soon be 2020 and we will have a fresh year ahead of us waiting to be filled.
We can’t wait to see what it’s going to hold because, trust us, there are some exciting plans brewing at Snap Out HQ. From events we want to hold, to projects on the horizon and resources that we want to create for you, we’ve got a good feeling about it!
However, before we dive head first into 2020, it seems only right to take some time to reflect on 2019 and all of the huge things that have happened throughout the year. There’s no such thing as “smooth sailing” within business, but we certainly feel as though 2019 has been a huge success for us for the most part.
Here’s how it looked for us…
UXMK
Back in January (we can’t believe it’s nearly a whole year ago now!), Snap Out held the first ever UXMK event! These evenings are dedicated to discussing and learning about all things UX and related areas, such as design-thinking and user research, and are held in central Milton Keynes.
Our first event was hosted with IoT MK and was our “UX in IoT Special”. Since then, we’ve had an evening focused on Design Sprints and on Artificial Intelligence hosted with MKAI and Richard Foster Fletcher!
We truly have had a blast putting these events on and meeting so many like minded people.
Of course, we don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. In January 2020 we have another UXMK event in the diary: UX for Transport + Mobility. We have a great lineup, so if you’re free on the 16th at 5:30pm, we’d love to see you there. Find out more here.
A bigger team
2020 also saw us take on two new team members who played a hugely important part in our successes this year.
Firstly, we bought on Emily as our Digital Marketing Intern. Her incredible work and brilliant attitude meant that we just knew we had to keep her on as a our Digital Marketing Assistant once she had completed the internship. She has played an invaluable part in helping us with all things digital over the past 6 months.
Emily will be moving onto a full time role in marketing in the New Year. As sad as we are to see her go, we’re thrilled to see her reaching her goals!
In the second-half of the year we also had the pleasure of being joined by Amie, our User Researcher. Bringing her wide range of skills, academic experience and enthusiasm into our projects, we couldn’t have asked for a better team member!
Awards and recognition
We’ve also been lucky enough to get some really exciting recognition throughout the past year.
Our Managing Director, Chloe Sharp, was nominated for the Forward Ladies National Awards in the “Female Entrepreneur” category. Whilst she didn’t win this time, getting nominated is a huge achievement in itself!
Excitingly, we have recently also been shortlisted in the Milton Keynes Business Achievement Awards. We’ve all got our fingers crossed that we’ll be the winner — we’ll know on Thursday 12 March!
Brilliant Projects
We have worked with some incredible companies this year on projects. These included…
- Assessing customer and business needs to inform the work of several brand consultancies
- Helping with over 10 Innovate UK applications with local and London-based business in a wide range of areas: VR/AR, product design, IoT, dentistry, ecommerce and AI.
- Working on 20 C-Voucher evaluations for FundingBox
- Project Balega: Researching how shared mobility solutions would be received in South Africa
- Mobility Policy Lab: Looking into the power of using design thinking within policy making
- Two projects with Islington Council, researching public opinion on the use of predictive analytics and of linking NHS and council datasets.
Phew! It’s been a busy one!
Events galore
As well as hosting UXMK, we have hosted and attended our fair share of other events, too!
From User Research London and Tech Expo in Kent, to Digital Security by Design and Breakthrough Innovation, we’ve watched lots of inspiring talks and heard plenty of riveting panel discussions along the way.
Snap Out was part of the Milton Keynes’ Natwest Accelerator Programme for six-months, where we attended lots of interesting events which discussed everything from mindset to risk!
Chloe has also spoken at a number of events as a guest and co-host, including most recently with Gem Media at a workshop all about finding out who your customer is and how to engage with them.
Plus, we started working with businesses and academics to deliver consultancy work and workshops including: BEAR London (testing and measuring brand communication concepts), Silicon Roundabout (Product-Market Fit and Grant Funding) and Loughborough University (Behaviour Change and Design Thinking).
Here’s to many more in 2020!
A fresh perspective
One of our most exciting milestones of the year: In November we launched our updated packages: Our “Grant Accelerator” for businesses that want help writing a grant funding application, our “User-Centric Product Development” package for product managers, our “Test and Measure” package for digital marketing and brand consultancies and our “12-Step Customer Growth Programme” for SMEs!
These all work as a part of our new “Three Peak Approach”, created to help businesses now matter what stage of their journey they are at.
Find out more about our user research, market research and grant funding assistance services on our website.
The Takeaways
2019 has been our biggest and best year yet and we couldn’t be more grateful for your support, whether you’re a client, business partner or simply a social media follower! We massively appreciate every single one of you.
We have no plans to slow down and we have lots of exciting projects and events planned to make 2020 even more incredible. So, make sure you’re following us on Twitter and LinkedIn to join us on the journey.
Let us know in the comments what your biggest achievement of the year is, we would absolutely love to celebrate with you!
The Snap Out Team ⛰️
