Beyo Global 2020 Round-Up

Reading back my round-up for 2019, I was glad I took the time to reflect and to summarise the year. It was a good self-reminder of what I’ve done and achieved especially as years go by. Knowing that you will be reading this is also one of my motivations to take the time to write these down. So, here’s the summary for my 2020.

Unlike last year, there were only 3 country stamps on the passport this year (before global lockdown happened at the end of March and yes, like everyone else, I have been missing my travels). Despite that, I was pleased that I was still able to provide advice and support clients on defining their strategies for 23 countries throughout the year.

Starting the year of 2020

My year started in Beijing, China for a UK-based startup which offers an AI-powered talent-matching platform. They closed a multi-million seed funding at the end of the year 2019 and had a big opportunity to expand into China.

Before spending a whole lot of money and effort into launching into China, I was brought in to work with them to assess and determine whether or not it is a right point in time and strategic decision to go into China; and if so, how they should position the product and brand in this huge potential, yet competitive market to make it a success.

Continuous support and collaboration with my long-term clients

Following that, after taking a short break to spend Chinese New Year with my family and friends in Malaysia, I headed out to the Philippines for one of the tribes within the Spotify Premium team, to support their prepaid partnership design and proposition effort.

This year I had been working with clients who I had the pleasure to work with last year. That is what I like - curating long-term relationships with my clients. It is gratifying as that showed that they like working with me and they see the value of what I offered and can offer them.

Following the work with the Spotify MENA team in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Dubai at the end of 2019, we continued working together with the same team for Morocco and Algeria. We looked into what subscription models would work best in these markets within their context, what payment methods are most appealing and commonly used for an audio streaming service, how best to communicate and promote the uniqueness of Spotify in each market and what partnerships would be commercially beneficial.

I was also pleased to be able to work with Spotify Premium Proposition Strategy team again this year after our collaboration last summer to define the gift card proposition for their Brazil and Mexico markets.

We had a piece of exciting news in July when Spotify announced the launch of Russia and 12 other Eastern Europe countries. The launch was carefully and thoroughly prepared and planned for a few years. I had the pleasure to be part of their long launch planning back in 2018 and early 2019. I was excited, happy and proud about the launch especially when Sven Ahrens (Head of Spotify Premium, DACH, Russia and Eastern Europe) told me that the work we did together has helped with the launch strategy:

“Thanks for the amazing work, Chui Chui - super valuable insights and a great experience!”

The launch was a success. In less than a month after the launch, I got a message from Sven saying: ”Russia is a massive success. We’ve been generating hundreds of thousands of subscriptions already”. That puts a big smile on my face knowing that in some ways, I have contributed to the success of the launch.

Not just on the end-users, I also had the opportunity to, once again, work with the Spotify Marketplace teams. I have been working closely with three Spotify Content Platform teams in the last 6 months of 2020: Marketplace Design, Product Insights (PIs) and Operations (Ops). We looked into ways to improve and measure the experience and satisfaction of providers (e.g. music labels, distributors, label aggregators) globally. The collaboration will be continuing into 2021 which I’m looking forward to. Receiving the surprise gift from Lena (Senior Design Manager for Marketplace) as a way to say: “You are part of our team and our success and proud that you are working with us!” was one of the highlights.

Surprise gifts arriving in the mail from Lena, Senior Design Manager of Spotify Marketplace Design.

In 2019, we wrapped up the year with a big project with Babylon Health, a globally-leading technology health company. With the funding from the Gates Foundation, we headed out to Kenya and Rwanda for 3 weeks to visit medical staff and patients at their homes, hospitals and health centre (Note: In Dec 2020, Babylon received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to continue supporting the digitisation of Rwanda's health system by introducing new technology, including digitally enabled triage, to public health centres.).

I was pleased to be working with Babylon Health again this year. As part of the effort to deliver their core value-based care products to their customers via close partnerships with partners in different countries, I worked very closely with the teams in supporting them to lock down their product proposition in Malaysia by establishing the core health needs and experience, as well as the medical ecosystem in Malaysia.

Establishing a new long-term partnership with Fiverr

After their IPO in June 2020, Fiverr was looking into expanding its international footprint. In the summer, we established a long-term partnership with them in supporting their international growth. We started with two of their key non-English speaking markets (France and Spain) and followed by the other two countries (Germany and the Netherlands) which have a slightly higher English language proficiency. Working closely with their growth and product teams, we looked into their growth strategy and defined the short, mid and long-term action plans.

Pre-launch strategy and proposition plans

I always enjoy working with companies on their pre-launch strategy and proposition plan (although it often means I wouldn't be able to reveal most details about them or my work with them until they launch).

One of my long-term clients is available and doing very well in most countries in all continents, apart from Africa. I was extremely excited when I was part of their New Markets team to look into their few untapped markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. We drilled in-depth into higher potential markets such as Kenya and Nigeria to enable us to explore how the business can ensure a successful launch and to have a sustainable business model in selected markets within this region. Short-term and long-term plans were defined from business, product, marketing and content perspectives. Like any big launch planning, there are many more parts to put together after this so I look forward to continuing supporting the team again prior to the final launch.

I also have had the joy of working with Australia-UK-based start-up, Magic Fox Studio, which aims to build creator tools to unlock the creative potential in children, for example, via storytelling and imagination. Even though they were still at the early stage at the product development and business definition, they were working towards a product which will be available globally. My engagement with them focused on the UK, Australia and Indonesia has multifold objectives: To help them define the product roadmap (including design and development) and advance their business model, as well as to make the company more investable. It’s always thrilling to get a lovely testimonial and gift from the client as appreciations of my work.

“Hi Chui Chui, just wanted to pass on my super thanks for such a remarkable job. It was insightful and compelling in so many different ways. It helps shape a better business for us.”

Champagne as a gift from the Magic Fox Studio team.

Games culturalisation

Following an article I wrote about ”Games culturalisation” published on Gamasutra and another article on ”Building successful games through culturalisation” for Gamesindustry.biz, I was approached by the Zynga team as they were looking for guidance into the launch strategy for the newest sequel of one of their successful games in Japan.

Coaching and mentoring

I have also taken up the coaching and mentoring roles a bit more this year, working with StatsBomb (football analytics experts who are based in the UK and Egypt) and Edenred (an international French company specialised in prepaid corporate services). This relationship will continue into 2021 which I excitedly anticipate. To start the year, the Co-Founder and COO of StatsBomb, Charlotte gave me a nice surprise by posting on her LinkedIn post about how much they value what I bring in to their team and business. Amazing.

New curated content

Apart from working with different clients on their international strategy, 2020 was also the year where I allocated more time in creating content where I can share with others via my website and social media.

A few articles were particularly well-received, including “What businesses can learn from evolution?”, “Ask one question to ensure your products and services are always relevant to your customers in different countries” and “Think global, even if a new market is not your immediate focus”.

When travel became restricted globally at the end of March, I started the #culturesnippets series. It is a collection of snippets where each snippet is within 1,300 characters and focuses on the unique insights about a specific country. My initial thought for this series was to bring the world to everyone when travels were not possible.

On top of that, I also wanted to share some of the knowledge I have about different markets and to demonstrate how companies need to have a holistic view and understanding of a country, its society and people so they can serve their global customers better. Each collection required a lot of time and effort to be put together. However, the feedback was astonishing as many of you told me how much you enjoyed them and found them insightful. I, therefore, am keen to continue curating them.

Cultural Snippets for different countries.

Podcast interviews and conference speaking

I had the pleasure to be invited to do podcast interviews with Globally Speaking (“A Comprehensive Approach to Culturalisation”) and The Human Show (“Innovation Grounded in Culture, Historical context and a Holistic Approach). I listen to podcasts a lot. I enjoy being on one too not only because I could share my thoughts, experience and knowledge with others, but also the conversations I could have with the smart hosts.

Speaking wise, it was great to be invited to speak and be on a panel discussion at three great events: Global Experience Summit, The Future of Global Marketing: 2021 & Beyond and Interact London Festival.

EXCITING NEWS: The launch of a new product

Before ending the year, I was super thrilled to announce the launch of Global Design Guide.

I had been working on these guides and the launch for many months. Each Design Guide focuses on a specific country and offers best design practices and guidelines on how to design a great experience for your customers in that country (including at least 18 design elements).

Global Design Guide available to provide design best practices for different countries

Thank you and looking forward to 2021

I would like to thank everyone I worked with and crossed paths with. I’m grateful for the opportunities as well as the relationships and friendships we curated in 2020.

I look forward to yet another great year in 2021.

************************************************************************************
If you’re interested in hearing more about any of the work mentioned, need support in defining your global strategies and proposition to grow in different markets, or would like me to run workshops or speak in conferences (or in your organisation), feel free to get in touch.