Expertise

Ideas + Action = Innovation

Linchpin is a different type of consultancy. We welcome the opportunity to share proprietary knowledge and methods, helping clients prioritize and activate solutions to build capabilities for sustainable growth. We are driven to give our best every day as we bridge the gap between business objectives and authentic brand experiences that influence perceptions, decisions, emotions, and behaviors. We’re not interested in being  branding celebrities. Instead, we work to be trusted advisors and indispensable contributors to the success of your business and the satisfaction of your customers.

The experienced business and design veterans on the Linchpin team bring knowledge, integrity, leadership, and creativity to quickly make valuable contributions—and build open, honest, collaborative relationships.

Innovation & Growth

Finding the right ways to respond and grow

Leading organizations recognize the need to continually innovate—to uncover new sources of revenue and create sustainable competitive advantage and business growth. We help clients explore new opportunities with a fresh perspective. Understanding customers, technology, and organizational capabilities leads to innovative thinking that can illuminate new ideas and energize people with a vision for a better future. When exploring new products, services, or business methods, we can help clients identify, clarify, and prioritize new or known ideas and create a shared vision—and then quickly respond to these opportunities for change and growth.

Examples of how we help clients:

  • Creating new and inspiring ideas.
  • Developing new products, services, and business methods.
  • Evaluating new revenue-stream concepts.
  • Building organizational and departmental innovation capabilities and methods.
  • Identifying strategic partnerships to penetrate new markets.

Focus:

  • Ideation & Creative Workshops
  • Concept Assessment
  • Portfolio Pipeline Development
  • Innovation Methods & Practices
  • Product Development & Launch[/toggle]

Analytics & Strategy

Using better insight to drive stronger strategy

We help businesses and nonprofits identify, prioritize, develop, and implement successful strategies, offering support, proven methods and capability building at every stage of your journey. We develop solutions with comprehensive research built on insights, environmental assessments, market trends, organizational culture, and analytics. We apply our expertise to develop client-centric approaches with action plans and systems for tracking performance.

Examples of how we help clients:

  • Identifying the most valuable customers and how to connect with them.
  • Researching and interviewing stakeholders to understand perceptions, behaviors, and needs.
  • Developing a deeper understanding of a brand’s reputation through survey tools.
  • Facilitating strategic-planning to clarify position, constraints, issues, opportunities, and priorities.
  • Helping leadership define and align their business and brand strategies.

Focus:

  • Business Strategy
  • Brand Strategy
  • Market Assessment
  • Competitive Intelligence
  • Research & Analysis[/toggle]

Branding & Design

Putting purpose-driven strategy and creativity to work 

We can help you define what your brand should stand for over time—and determine what it’s going to take to get there. We can work with you to drive brand relevance among stakeholders, evaluate your brand impact, manage and monitor its relevance over time, and identify opportunities to extend it into new markets and segments. Effective design is a powerful force. It connects and inspires people to think and feel differently about a product, service, or experience. This type of inspiration and creativity requires designers with talent, wisdom, and curiosity. Solving business and brand problems inspires our design strategists.

Examples of how we help clients:

  • Activating a brand positioning through visual identity development.
  • Re-establishing brand relevance with key customers.
  • Creating exceptional digital brand experiences for employees and customers.
  • Translating business objectives into brand strategy.
  • Re-energizing brands with inspiring design, positioning and messaging.

Focus:

  • Brand Positioning & Messaging
  • Identity Design & Visual Systems
  • Design Thinking
  • User Experience Mapping
  • Content Management
  • Engagement Programs[/toggle]

Marketing & Sales

Optimizing methods and creating meaningful connections

Consumer insights often challenge conventional wisdom and are critical to developing effective strategies for influencing their decisions at every touch point within a process. Trust and meaningful connections are essential for bypassing customer filters and competitive noise. We search to discover the practical insights that power growth. We help clients win the consumer decision journey by identifying key decision drivers, aligning strategies, designing congruent brand experiences, creating data-driven marketing and sales plans, optimizing current tactics, and developing performance management programs to evaluate actions.

Examples of how we help clients:

  • Redefining the customer experience to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction.
  • Entering new categories, segments, or channels.
  • Applying transformative marketing to respond to business changes.
  • Identifying sources of future growth.
  • Sharpening value propositions in a competitive market.

Focus:

  • Brand Integration & Alignment
  • Digital Experiences
  • Marketing & Sales Optimization
  • Brand Communications & Sales Promotions
  • Relationship Management
  • Performance Management Programs[/toggle]

Project Management

Transforming outcomes with exceptional execution 

We work with our clients to build the right skills, teams, and paths for planning, creating, and activating solutions to resolve issues and sustain growth. With a powerful blend of system thinking, proven project management methods, and hands-on practicality, we’ll quickly identify issues and engage stakeholders to develop and implement sustainable solutions that help solve your most critical brand, marketing, and sales problems. Dedicated to excellence in execution, our certified Project Management Professionals and Lean Six Sigma specialists help clients establish problem-solving paths, toolkits, and techniques to quickly identify systems breaks, wastes, and pain points, and then energize teams to develop and implement solutions.

Examples of how we help clients:

  • Educating groups on project management best practices.
  • Coaching team leaders throughout the project lifecycle.
  • Facilitating project planning activities.
  • Establishing centers of excellence and educational resources.
  • Acting as executive sponsor to ensure effective project execution.

Focus:

  • Project Management Optimization
  • Executive Sponsorship & Project Oversight
  • Program Management Office (PMO) Design
  • Process Engineering
  • Reporting & Communications Tools
  • Project Turnarounds[/toggle]

Change Management

Successfully navigating the waters of change

We deliver proven methods and practices to promote continuous improvement: accomplishing more with less; streamlining processes; removing waste; improving productivity; and satisfaction. Our recommendations are tailored to our clients’ capabilities, cultures, and needs. We work alongside business teams to analyze current processes and practices to identify opportunities for improvement or system redesign in alignment with business and brand objectives. Our goal is not to merely “add on” capabilities to the organization, but to help clients adapt their way of working to quickly respond to future opportunities.

Examples of how we help clients:

  • Mapping and re-engineering business practices and processes.
  • Developing change management communications and education programs.
  • Implementing continuous improvement methods, tools, and techniques.
  • Facilitating executive workshops and coaching sessions.
  • Acting as a connector to resources and topic specialists.

Focus:

  • Productivity Programs
  • Process & Service Design
  • Education & Coaching
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Continuous Improvement
  • Cultural Assessment[/toggle]