gravitytank
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Creating value in the entry-level employment market.
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Entry level jobs are the start of productive careers for many youth.
However, with an emphasis on higher education and the professions, youth who leave high school to work have few resources and no support for building a career. Entry level employers like CVS and UPS struggle to identify and retain talent. Productivity is lost and viable talent and productive citizens remain on the sidelines.
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In collaboration with Living Classrooms and Icosystems, and through the generous support of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, gravitytank is creating a new ecosystem for entry-level employment. A web-based portal serves young adults preparing for entry level employment, businesses seeking to identify and retain talent, and the agencies serving youth with job readiness programs.
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Replacing paper resumes with video profiles and behind-the-scenes tours, the portal has become a system of honest, easy interactions for both users. Expanding the job search beyond good matches based on skills alone, the portal also links youth looking for jobs with local community organizations who can help them get there.
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NewOptions@Work highlights a truth of innovation: sometimes systems need to be upended—for Kellogg, building an all-new job market from scratch made more sense than retrofitting the establishment. The result meant for the first time in their lives, Baltimore youth weren't just exposed to the idea of working, they were excited about it. And now there was justification for employers to reconsider traditional, unforgiving “knock-out” rules, allowing young people to get past their past and employers to identify qualified and intriguing new hires.
What Our Clients Say About Us.
I think the cross-functional teams and their ability to synthesize and make things actionable is on a whole different level. With other firms you get a report, but then you're left to interpret and move forward. I appreciated GT's actionable frameworks and insights and combination of business knowledge and research with a strategy point of view
From the very beginning everyone who met GT'ers felt like they paid attention and understood what was going on in a way that very few can. It was really exciting for us that some good actually came of this because of GT's ability to pick up on less tangible things that are hard for us.
GT takes time to learn about us as an organization, who were are as individuals and what our day jobs are like. And that goes a long way because your understand us. That is huge to me.
GT is much more flexible and much more responsive to client needs and wants.
It was a unique process that we hadn’t really done before in terms of prototyping product along with concepting. It was a thorough process. The folks at gravitytank were very engaged and brought new thinking to the table.
We worked together instead of you guys going off and working on a project. The team struck to the timeline and they were flexible with all our requests or changes. The team was able to articulate visually and verbally what we were talking about.
We had a great experience. The customer support and relations was great and very responsive. The team was great to work with and we got good results that have been well received through the organization.
Every time I meet someone new I am impressed with their skills and capabilities. GT can assemble a team with a wide range of skills and capabilities that mesh well.
It's the thinking. It's not just about the idea, it's about how the idea fits into the business plan. You guys do a very good job of that.
The other thing that stood out is the political sensitivity that the team has and understands. They were very competent at the psychology that is necessary in large organization like ours.
The best part was the quality of the thinking which is always true of the projects I've done at GT. The business strategy sets you apart. Identifying consumer insights is critical, but the strategic analysis and synthesis is what pulls it all together.
I love how GT works in the bay and puts things up on boards. Being part of that was really enlightening and I learned so much about the project and how to work.
The staff seemed really competent and smart. A lot of the technical and administrative stuff was well managed and didn't create extra work for us. The thinking was inventive and seasoned. There was a good balance of experience and innovation.
It was refreshing to work with people who want to understand the work you do and pay attention to the quality as if it was their own.
I think gravitytank has a great level of diverse talent, and they all seem to have a positive attitude. That makes working with the teams great.
Generally we use a vendor for research and then a creative firm for design. I think using GT for all worked out well. The incorporation of design and having a dedicated team was different. I felt like the GT team was thinking about this project 24/7 versus other agencies who often seemed fragmented.
We were attracted to the process and after going through it, I buy in. The depth and breadth of the snippets was great, the workshop, etc. was all great. The prototypes and positions at the end demonstrate that the process worked well.
Great listeners. They had strong opinions, but they were skilled at voicing them at the right time. That's a big part of business.
I've been studying the design thinking process since business school. GT brought in quant, business analysis and design thinking. You simplified the insights and carried them all the way into the business model. Often when I've been a part of innovation projects we do a lot of work on brand strategies and we just draw. We never get to prototyping and thinking about what customers need and how to get ideas through a distribution system. That's what I appreciated most about your work - speaking the business and design languages.
GT is a little more connected to the business side and not just designing cool things. They tell the total story. A lot of firms have great designers but the linkage to the business side lacks.
The workshop was really powerful. Everyone that came was blown away. We do a lot of work with other firms and I don’t think I've ever experienced such a smart and well run workshop.
It was interesting to see the different components and tools that were brought in to help us. From the labs to guapo and dScout, quant and qual and how that fed into conclusions.
GT has a great understanding and respect for the business. A lot of firms forget about the business side.