What Easie did in 2020
At the start of 2020, Easie was preparing to launch a national advertising and PR tour consisting of in-person business labs and networking mixers hosted in some of the fastest growing metropolitan cities in the US. We were entering our third year of business after seeing promising growth in 2019 and were stoked about Easie’s rapid expansion since launching in 2018.
The first phase of the tour kicked off with fifteen popups in Boston before returning to San Diego for the month of February. The next phase was scheduled for March and involved over 25 locations in Southern California; we were preparing for our first event in Los Angeles when COVID-19 became mainstream news in the United States.
As much as I did not want to face reality, it became immediately apparent that life was about to change dramatically and the tour was over. I indefinitely paused the Easie popup tour on 10 March 2020.
Figure 1.1 - 10 March 2020 post pausing the US popup tour
The following months consisted of major adaptations in our strategy, technology profile, marketing and business objectives. We pursued new PR and digital marketing campaigns to help identify new clients and spread awareness about our business while cost-benefit analysis was performed on our entire technology stack to determine which systems and programs were absolutely necessary.
As we pivoted, we were lucky to have the support of our existing clients who continued to send us interesting, complex projects throughout this strange time. Over the past three years, Easie has established itself as a go-to resource for many different types and sizes of businesses.
Reflecting on the extreme changes to the US economy and society during the pandemic, our fast adaptations to the new business environment helped us continue to grow uninterrupted in 2020.
We are incredibly grateful for the Easie community and wanted to thank everyone who has supported us during our first three years of business; without you this article would not have been published with such positive news. The market has clearly validated our experimental business model of centrally managing our exclusive, US-based team of experts and project specialists as a single, diverse business group.
This article summarizes five big trends we observed in 2020, notable developments during the year and our high-level plans going into 2021.
Trend 1:
More advanced & complex projects
Easie has always been a firm encouraging clients to send us any project, any time. However, we were thrilled to see a major shift towards advanced and complex projects that required larger teams, expert judgement or complex project management over longer periods of time. Less complex projects and micro-PA projects were still requested in 2020, but at a lower rate and volume compared to 2019.
Trend 2:
More creative & business projects
In addition to seeing more complicated projects, we also saw notable growth in creative projects and business development work. This appears to have some correlation with advanced or complex projects as we found most client relationships saw multidisciplinary project scopes over time. Most notably, the majority of clients that started in a singular program area (e.g. research) eventually evolved to complex projects across multiple program areas as the relationship matured.
The overwhelming majority of projects sent to Easie are business-to-business, a trend which only became more apparent in 2020; although we do occasionally see business-to-consumer projects still.
Trend 3:
Automation & streamlined internal processes
EasieCloud
Launched in 2020, we’ve automated over 250,000 tasks:
- Business automation
- Marketing automation
- E-commerce automation
- Data entry automation
EasieCloud is used as a SaaS product in several business technology stacks.
Operational excellence
Our execution of deliberate business strategy produced measurable results based on workflow-based models and key performance indicators identified by our team as well as our clients.
Internal operational excellence initiatives saw lower costs, less risk and higher profitability per project.
Easie blog
We launched our internal blog with Rock W. Vitale as the sole author in 2018 to share helpful business philosophy, current events and research.
The editorial team has since grown to seven authors and four editors in the Easie network and continuously puts out high-quality editorial content based on in-depth research, experience and investigation.
New Easie website
In December 2020, we launched the new Easie website with an overhauled information architecture. The homepage has a responsive word cloud that visually shows project types demanded by clients over a three-year period.
Clicking on a given tag in the word cloud leads to a filtered collection of micro-case studies for that specific project type (e.g. engineering).
Figure 1.4: Easie website responsive word cloud
This interface allows prospective clients to intuitively filter and explore over 300 micro-case studies in a matrix architecture using clickable labels representing each project type.
Trend 4:
Rapid development of new program areas
Network growth
The Easie network offers flexibility that very few companies would even consider and have helped people reignite their passion in working for a company again.
Our results-oriented work environment combined with strong central project management have helped grow our network while maintaining project quality.
Accessibility program
We launched this program to help businesses set up accessible websites to comply with ADA and Unruh act requirements.
Easie’s team of lawyers, developers, designers and other professionals created technical accessibility solutions for multiple websites in 2020.
Referral program
Launched in 2020, this program was offered to the Easie network and Easie clients. The program was based on the idea of qualified leads from trusted sources.
After launch, people referred new clients to Easie and the program saw payouts to multiple referral affiliates; a win-win for everyone.
Trend 5:
Helping business during COVID-19
As the United States faces the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, businesses continue to see uncertainty and new risks. Easie helped multiple businesses complete projects and successfully adapt during COVID-19 in 2020.
Business case studies during COVID-19
Featured projects of 2020
These projects were picked to represent the broad, specialized skills and creativity of the Easie team:
Plans for 2021
Building on the progress from 2020, here are a few programs we are planning to expand in the upcoming year:
Internal shared memory rollout. We recently launched the beta of our internal shared memory program that will allow core team members to query diverse and important information in a dramatically streamlined way. This will help support continued scale and reduction of bottlenecks in knowledge and innovation.
Develop a business partnership program. Using the learnings of the Easie referral program, the partnership program is the logical next step into more advanced business and enterprise applications. The creation of master services agreements, unique cross-business activity opportunities and other partnership programs will materialize from this effort.
Grow the Easie network further. The continued growth of the Easie network with its unique perks and mutualistic benefits is a critical element of our business model. We continue to grow logically using demand-driven, single-piece flow network expansion methodologies.
Further diversification into new program areas. As the Easie network and scope of experience grows, we plan to continue expanding into new markets to offer new services to new clients. The active effort to diversify our scope of services is an ongoing element of our long-term strategy.
Continued embedding into existing markets. We plan to deepen our existing business relationships and offer our existing scope of services to new stakeholders. Our new website is largely a reflection of this strategic element.
Executive team growth
Rock W. Vitale, CEO
Easie writing by Rock
Rock founded Easie in early 2018 and brings significant experience to the business. He is responsible for overseeing new business development, creative direction, research, operational excellence, client relations and journalistic efforts.
His career has encompassed multiple industries including energy, biotechnology, analytics, research, design, engineering, field services and international supply chain management.
Rock is also the Vice Chair on the board of directors for a literary and performing arts non-profit in San Diego, California.
Rebecca Gray, Head of Operations
Easie writing by Rebecca
Rebecca joined Easie in 2020 and quickly expanded into her multidisciplinary work in project management, operational excellence execution, business strategy, network specialist management and internal growth.
She comes from a strong background in hospitality and project management with deep experience in business operations and managing dozens of complex projects simultaneously across interconnected program areas.
Through Easie, Rebecca has been able to wield all the different hats she has developed over many careers into her current role as Head of Operations.
Whitney Brittingham, Growth 👸
Easie writing by Whitney
Whitney joined Easie in 2020 to help define the brand's digital identity and develop a reliable customer acquisition strategy. Whitney contributes to and collaborates on marketing efforts with the executive team to enhance the Easie journalistic arm, new business development, design and business strategy.
Previously, she worked to administer a multi-billion dollar contract supervised by the Department of Defense and US Navy, as a customer experience consultant for a startup specializing in knowledge management and as an advisor to enterprise organizations incorporating machine learning to their digital transformation strategy.
Jack Marchese, Ops Executive
Easie writing by Jack
Jack was an original member of the Easie team from their 2018 launch. Jack brings executive-level business and marketing experience to the team and helps guide strategic and product vision.
Throughout his career, Jack has been a business consultant for high-growth brands in consumer-packaged goods, technology and other sectors. Some areas of focus for Jack include marketing, analytics, new product development and leadership.
Conclusion
Once again, thank you to the Easie community for the support these past three years. You have truly proven that there is a better way of working and this business model is the future of work. We look forward to the interesting projects people send us in 2021 and beyond.
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