Inspired to share my passion and experience in stakeholder engagement and community animation I started Trellis Design as a container for the variety of freelance consulting projects I found myself involved with as my experience with Studio Y came to a close.
The name captures the spirit of this work: through Trellis I help partners put a strong stake in the ground that everyone can rally around for strategic development. I do this by helping clients engage with their community of stakeholders.
For instance, during a recent three month engagement, I worked with a start-up company that was in the process of becoming a Health Canada licensed producer of medicinal marijuana. The company had already raised significant capital and was then preparing its go to market strategy. Using a 'customer journey mapping' process we helped the company capture some of its core business assumptions and hypothesis' and test them through the development and delivery of a survey as well as a series of in-person engagements with patients. This resulted in increased focus and clarity for the company's business model while building relationships with prospective customers.
In another example (pictures shown below), I partnered with my colleagues at Adjacent Possibilities to prepare a morning long workshop on innovation methodologies for the HiveX Conference hosted by Hamilton's Innovation Factory and the Hamilton Hive. Aligned with the conference theme of "AmbitiousHamilton" the workshop session supported the audience of young professionals in thinking through how to scale up their ideas and passion projects to make long-term transformative change.
My four-month engagement coordinating the Make Democracy Better project followed a similar format in helping the Springtide Collective engage its allies and partners in determining key priorities for the future of the organization.
Through Trellis I continue work on an occasional and ad-hoc basis to support partners in designing programs and initiatives intended to harness the wisdom of their communities. To learn more please contact me directly.