610. Vanessa Liu, Co-founder & CEO of Sugarwork

Show Notes:

Vanessa Liu, co-founder and CEO of Sugarwork, talks about how this tool helps enterprises capture tacit knowledge by acting as a guide.  Sugarwork helps companies capture specific information at scale and enables sharing, and guides companies to ask specific questions to elicit the required insights. 

 

How the Sugarwork Platform Works

Vanessa explains how the dashboard works and how it helps companies understand, leverage, and easily access their tacit knowledge for better decision-making and growth. 

She introduces the scheduling section.

Vanessa shows how the Knowledge Share section acts as a guide that helps advance the discussion and gathering of key insights. 

She talks through the shares a few query examples that guide questions that gather insights, including roles and responsibilities, problem-solving, and core technical questions.

 

Sharing Resources and Data from Meetings 

Vanessa explains how scheduling meetings works and the integrations with several different meeting apps. Vanessa talks about the AI avatar or an employee interview an interviewee, and how the information gathered and stored in the Knowledge Share section. The platform allows companies to schedule video meetings where an AI note taker transcribes the conversation and provides a summary. The raw data from the meeting is also available, allowing participants to share their insights. Shared Resources are uploaded into a repository, allowing the company to access the information on a permissions-based basis. She demonstrates how AI takes notes and issues a summary and overview. 

Asking Questions and Accessing Knowledge Share

Vanessa explains that the platform is typically used for short, compressed periods, such as a transformation or launch of something new. This allows HR teams to access knowledge shares and ask questions as if they were talking to the interviewees. The platform also allows for queries based on ChatGPT, or other tools to understand why a client or customer works with a particular vendor. The platform is designed to be accessible to the entire company.

 

Interview Use Cases and Documenting Processes 

The conversation turns to the use of interviewers in companies, with two common models: one involves a trained interviewer interviewing everyone in the company, and another involves multiple interviewers for onboarding junior employees. Vanessa suggests two use cases for this approach: documenting processes and understanding succession planning work. A project manager can document the process and create a process map to optimize it. Another use case involves understanding people's knowledge shares for succession planning or transformations.

 

Saving Time and Improving Efficiency

Vanessa also mentions the activity value added analysis (AVA) project, where companies can identify activities that are taking up significant time and eliminate them. This tool can be used for cost-cutting projects, such as the AVA project, where companies can identify bottlenecks and improve efficiency. The second use case is business optimization, where companies can map processes to identify areas for optimization and understand where people are spending time. For example, a new product development process can be analyzed to identify pain points and identify solutions for bottlenecks. This can include changing the configuration of people involved or adjusting handoffs.

 

Budget Processes and Interviews

Sugarwork is designed to help companies understand their processes and identify key themes in customer segments. The platform is not intended for detailed process mapping, but rather for understanding the different customer segments and their roles in the process. Sugarwork provides a consolidated view of everyone involved in the budgeting process. The platform also helps identify key themes across various customer segments. Its focus on detail, data analysis, and automation makes it an attractive option for companies looking to streamline their processes and improve their efficiency.

 

Insights and Pricing

The platform has been used by mid-sized companies going through digital transformation, large companies hiring consulting firms, and small consultancies seeking to understand best practices, talent, and processes.  Vanessa explains that customized templates are created for companies based on desired outputs and participants' roles and functions.  She goes on to talk about the pricing structure of Sugarwork and use cases on customers looking for insights into best practices, talent, and automation. Sugarwork has also been used by small consulting firms to run analysis with their clients, as they can scale their work and use the tool faster. Vanessa shares an example of a consulting firm using Sugarwork when working with a government agency.  They had to conduct numerous interviews and needed to scale their team. By using Sugarwork, they were able to easily store, access, and analyze the data and make informed decisions about their strategies and resources. 

Timestamps:

01:59: Overview of Sugarwork Dashboard 

02:38: Detailed Walkthrough of Sugarwork Features 

06:16: Interview Process and AI Integration

10:40: Use Cases and Recommendations 

14:27: Data Analysis and Customer Targeting 

20:12: Pricing and Availability

 

Links:

Website: https://www.sugarwork.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessawliu/