My year in review 2020/21
By: Chris Tingley
Tags: Personal Update, About Me, Year In Review

Anyone that’s followed me for a while, knows I like to put together a brief review once a year. They seem to get later and later through the year each year — but here’s a whistle-stop tour of my 2020–2021.

For those of your listening along, thank you. I thought I’d try out a new medium this year — do let me know if you think this is a more interesting, convenient or engaging way to consume this content. I hope that you enjoy it.

For the past year, most professional conversations I’ve had open something along the lines of…

Hey! How have you been doing?

Yeah, really good thanks — just incredibly busy!

In what has been an undoubtedly uncertain and dare I say the word… unprecedented year — where few people were aware, let alone vocal about the length of time that we’d be adapting to new ways of living, for me, this adaptability, strength and resilience I’ve seen across so many industries, friends and families have been phenomenal. And beneath that, it’s been pure hard work and the amount of “busyness” that’s allowed some companies to flourish.

Without wanting to lean on automotive cliche’s too much or toot Conjure’s horn too hard, we did the same. Instead of gently pressing the brake pedal, rubbernecking at the indecision happening around us, we sat up, buckled in and pumped the accelerator.

Without many clues about what would happen to our clients' businesses and by proxy, our sales pipeline, it was more important than ever for us to double down on our account relationships and sales efforts. Supporting our existing clients as best we could; in what was a difficult situation for everyone and taking advantage of suddenly prioritised digital projects, we worked tirelessly to protect our staff and business as best we could from whatever the pandemic would bring. Fast forward a year and Conjure has doubled revenues, retained and grown our team and helped to realise some incredible projects. Not least of which, a project close to my heart and a fulfilling personal accomplishment — a Covid related project, for those who have surely been the UK’s beacon of light throughout this crisis, our fantastic National Health Service.

Utilising our design thinking and customer-centric product methodologies coupled with our incredible tech team, we’ve delivered a brilliant and elegant solution that helps to keep staff and patients safe. It’s also been built with the future in mind — hopefully, not another pandemic, although of course, it’s ready for that if it were to happen, but to be quickly, easily and cost-effectively pivoted into other uses. This is the “digital legacy” that the NHS has been adeptly focused on. Using this time where decisive action has been important, but long-term sustainability has not been overlooked, to progress digital transformation has resulted in numerous amazing digital programmes that have improved clinical outcomes, protected the safety of our front-line workers as well as the population and created long-term efficiencies and cost savings.

The key to this project’s success has been combining agile methodologies, lean business processes, a relentless focus on deconstructing the principle components of the problem and of course, as always with Conjure, a customer-led approach. I know it sounds like it, but these are no longer the tools of trendy consultancies peddling their latest edition of buzzword bingo, but the best way to progress innovation projects, reduce cost and risk and ensure projects are set up to have the best chance of success.

I’m really looking forward to putting together a case study on this project and I’ll be sure to share it when available for those of you who are interested in finding out more.

As well as the affectionately referred to “day job”, I’ve kept up with other projects as well. Dot Matrix Group, the seed investment syndicate that I’m a member of, has continued to develop opportunities. I was very happy to be a part of a subsequent investment round for Stay One Degree, led by their first industry investor Mandarin Oriental. This is a super exciting partnership and I’m positive that this is an exciting strategic move for both sides.

Caura, the platform to manage everything connected with private car ownership has made some incredible leaps forward in the last 12 months. We launched our own insurance product bringing annual and monthly car insurance to UK drivers — a milestone that we are all very proud of achieving in a shockingly short period of time. My role as Head of Product continues to be incredibly fulfilling as does working with some very talented minds.

It’s not all rainbows and unicorns… in my last update, I wrote about Tink, a new type of engagement chatbot that I’d been developing with a couple of good friends. Unfortunately, it was a tough market and we didn’t see quite the traction that we were hoping for. Nevertheless, these exercises are never a wasted effort and I’ve taken some learnings away to apply to my next venture.

Speaking of which, Johny and I launched Profyle Card at the beginning of 2021 and, so far, it’s showing very positive signs. Profyle Card is a contactless contact sharing card that is designed with simplicity and sustainability at its core. By eliminating the mountain of printed business cards that go out of date or get thrown away, a single, digital card allows the owner to share all their contact details with just a tap against a smartphone. We’ve already seen several hundred personal card sales since January and have made a significant number of business sales where we are providing companies with a digital business card alternative. We’re just about to launch a new set of exciting colours and so if you’d like to pick one up, then head over to our site at profylecard.com (that’s profile, with a Y instead of an I).

In other news, I have done my best to complete my transition into full adulthood by purchasing my first house and hope to have moved into my new build by the time I next write one of these!

I’m absolutely buzzing for the rest of this year — I think this summer is going to be like no other as we lift out of the (hopefully) last of the lockdown rules and have the ability to enjoy the things that we all miss. Conjure is going from strength to strength and I’m so looking forward to welcoming new members to the team and us taking satisfaction from new innovative and impactful projects delivered to the quality that I hope we’re known for.

As ever, my inbox is always open — let’s chat and possibly more importantly, let’s grab a beer again when we can!