“We went about re-designing the onboarding process, thinking about how we felt as new hires. We created an onboarding process that put the new hire first - how might they feel, what might they want to know more about, what might be important to them? This allowed us to really understand our new hire early on.”

“We have set up many open innovation programs to match outside solutions to challenges identified in organizations or communities. However, we knew these programs could be refined by adding systematic data analysis to more fully characterize challenges, as well as standardize the way community implementation partners were engaged. So, this year we partnered with our friends at Seven25 to build a beta of a community focused open innovation platform that visualizes open source data, as well as builds community engagement into the process. We look forward to testing and refining the platform in 2023.”

“Working in a small company has been an extremely rewarding experience for me because I feel that my work is meaningful and directly contributes to the success of the company. For that reason, I feel personally responsible for and invested in the health of the company, and it’s rewarding to see how the work I’m doing has an impact. When a project I’m working on is successful, I can see the benefits of that success through the company and how that success trickles down to me and my team members.”

“It is important to understand what it takes to build a successful innovation program, as well as the challenges related to implementing innovation programs. One of the biggest challenges we see is helping stakeholders see a vision of success that is not immediate but moves forward incrementally. Once that understanding is set and trust has been developed, the program will take off. The trick is to show small increments of success, reflected in program milestones. These very visible milestones provide vital information that allows stakeholders to see the development and evolution of the program.”

“In 2022 we had the unique opportunity to help several of our partners shape their program maturation and growth. We advocated for thinking past current challenges, to pushing into market trends and themes across industries in order to prepare for future disruption. This proactive approach to new bodies of work is a need we have seen across industries and sectors to better prepare for the rapidly evolving technology ecosystem. By focusing on trends and market direction, we have helped several of our clients grow their budgets to over 200% year over year.
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“Startups get their foot in the door with an impressive technology, an enticing pitch, and sometimes noteworthy leadership, but it’s the more nuanced qualities that indicate who will provide a symbiotic partnership. If in search of a partner to learn from and grow with, communication & transparency, openness to constructive feedback, a long-term growth mindset, and a good attitude are four essential traits to keep an eye out for.”

“Measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) for community health pilots is just as important as it is for a technology based pilot. It makes us examine how can we measure impact and identify if outcomes are improving for families and community members. In addition to quantitative measures, this often looks like designing qualitative check-ins with stakeholders and then interpreting the information they provide. ”

“As a Tech Team for the Census TOP 2022 Sprint focused on climate resilience, we set out to distill large data sets into an easy to use interface that ANYONE can use. Key to making this technology accessible was the use of an accompanying toolkit that walked users through using the solution step by step. At OSB, we believe that accessibility is key to sustainable tech solutions.”

“It was another interesting year of keeping our finger on the pulse of the latest and greatest in technology to ease organization pain points. From products that made last mile deliveries, secured last mile deliveries with hardware and software solutions, measured last mile service delivery, to drones and VR headsets, we saw a lot of forward momentum this year in organizations piloting technologies and then successfully integrating them into their operations.”

“This year, we really honed in on the growth of some of our more mature innovation programs. We have worked to proactively identify disruptive areas and push into investigating what these disruptions will mean for the future of the business. By analyzing technology focus areas as well as understanding the internal structure of organizations, we can create small tests that create a wedge in existing processes. This year we effectively set up bodies of work for our clients including sustainable packaging, autonomous delivery, automation, and voice technology. As we move into 2023 we continue to investigate the most effective way for new technologies to be successfully absorbed by the business.
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“One of the most rewarding parts of setting up an innovation program is seeing it evolve. One of our clients felt empowered after only two cohorts to start to take ownership of their program. We continue to provide strategic insights and coaching to guide the program, but they have tailored the program to their organization’s needs and grown it!
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“Through our work with the Atlanta Regional Commission, we had the privilege of working across 10 counties in the Atlanta Metro area. We had the opportunity to test a community-based voting tool we designed, conduct modifications after field use, and ultimately see the final version used with communities.”

“We had the opportunity to travel across the entire state of Kansas this fall to capture content for an upcoming campaign. It was an incredibly humbling and rewarding experience to see firsthand so many of the people and places that we had been talking about for months. We were invited into the homes of our stakeholders and got to have insightful conversations. We’re proud of the outcomes of the project that will be rolling out soon and also have a lot of glowing recommendations if you’re ever in Kansas!
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“Communication goes beyond just language, when using our community-based voting tool, we had to think about ways to make the tool accessible to anyone. We thought about how we can integrate multiple forms of communication through not only words but visuals.”

“When we work in different countries, we don’t just rely on the ability to speak the same language, but we go one step further to understand that country’s culture as well. For us, it is important to communicate not just verbally but culturally. This approach helped us to understand more about the entrepreneurial environment in a country where we developed an innovation program, as well as make recommendations about future program directions.”

“For a variety of reasons, some startup technology has developed more quickly in other countries, leaving the US to try and catch up. By conducting market research and landscape scans to identify leading players in certain tech spaces, there’s a good chance it may lead you outside the US. A good example of this is drone delivery, due to the FAA’s more stringent (but ever-evolving) regulations. Being comfortable working with global startups is essential for our work.”

“Because so much of our work is about making change, we are consistently scanning across industries, technologies and countries to understand how people are tackling similar problems. This broad focus means we are constantly trying to understand changes globally that often provide learnings for us.
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“Innovation in new spaces can be tricky. For this reason, we knew it was important to share the successes of our Immersive Innovation Labs in a public health setting. We published an article in the HPHR journal, where we outlined results of a public health focused Immersive Innovation Lab and future recommendations for using this approach to solve public health challenges.”

“In 2022, we published several blog series. These articles allow us as an organization to push our thinking on future facing innovative concepts, while also allowing us to apply our methods and techniques to diverse fields and situations. In particular, our behavioral science blog series was a notable success. Focusing on the intersection of behavioral science and innovation, this series allowed us to unpack the behavioral science that underpins our approach to innovation. ”

“Public/Private Partnerships have been top of our mind this past year. There are a lot of exciting, new opportunities taking shape across industries. In particular, we’ve been examining how local business needs and assets can support community based resources, to create stronger and more connected communities. ”

“For several years, we have participated in the Census Opportunity Project (TOP). Our roles across various sprints have changed, from product advisors to technology teams developing a product using federal open data ourselves. Not only does this work expand our federal and civic tech innovation network, it also allows us to see the maturation of a very successful open innovation program created by the Census Open Innovation Labs (COIL). We are grateful to continue to learn from the impressive team at the Census!”

“I am forever grateful for the education I received at Olathe Northwest High School in the eCommunications program- a groundbreaking opportunity to play and learn on industry standard hardware and software. Today this program continues to provide students with this same access and accelerated path to industry. I still proudly display my 1st place ‘Pixel’ award for my ‘Animated Story’ entry to eMagine in 2010.
In 2014 I was asked to be an Industry Judge for this annual multi-media festival and to mentor current students. In 2022 I was honored to serve in that position for the last 8 consecutive years! It means the world to me to give back to students who are walking the path that led me to my fulfilling career in digital media.
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“When I first came to St. Louis University as an MPH student, I was looking to understand public health innovation. I wasn’t sure where I would find it. When I found Orange Sparkle Ball in my search for a summer internship, I immediately knew that I wanted to partner with them to complete my program requirements. What I did not anticipate though, was how fruitful that partnership could be for the program as a whole. What was just a summer internship, has now turned into a friendship between OSB and SLU and we have just started to dig into conversations about the future of public health innovation. This has been the best possible addition to my time here at SLU and I’m so excited to see what comes next! ”

“Many of us at Orange Sparkle Ball are alumni of the Georgia Tech College of Design and can trace our research heavy approaches, user-centered solutions, and ability to pivot quickly to the Georgia Tech program. We constantly work to maintain close ties with Georgia Tech, sponsoring projects, reviewing final presentations, and most recently, working to help charter a more robust Alumni Group and Board. Participating in this way helps us maintain close relationships with innovators at the school, better understand the industry direction through our peers, and have a direct line to impressive talent coming out of the ever improving program.
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“It was so rewarding to design this workshop and see the value of not only being a data champion, but co-creating. It is important that we work together, especially in public health. As public health impacts every member of a community, it is important to have varying thoughts, ideas, and ways of thinking represented.”

“After 2 years of isolation, it was amazing to be able to come together, align ourselves and refocus our vision for OSB in person. The best part was meeting colleagues face to face that had joined during the quarantine and get to know them on a personal level in a beautiful setting.”

“It was so rewarding to talk to folks at APHA who resonated with the tool and saw how valuable it could be for communities. While at a glance it felt less flashy or polished than the other setups, it had a functional appeal that was apparent and unique. ”

“I am proud to be a part of a group that wants to meet the challenge of addressing solutions to renewable energy independence and resilience in Puerto Rico. By centering the community, we hope to meet their unique needs for implementing renewable energy solutions.”

“One of my favorite aspects of design is developing and strengthening brand identity, so it was a privilege to take on the task of refreshing OSB’s own visual identity system. While the branding was already strong, I felt like it just needed that extra creative push to bring it to the finish line and I was happy to lend a helping hand.”

“It really brings me joy to hear students say, “thank you for bringing new perspectives about my career and what kinds of opportunities I can look for once I graduate.” These conversations make me feel that we truly are impacting the lives of people in positive ways.”

“Social media has become a pipeline for us in ways that it wasn’t pre-pandemic. Over the years it’s become apparent to us that each touchpoint we have with our audience on social media has its own potential to build our brand awareness, positioning, and potential for lead generation. Social Stems have become our secret to making sure each time we communicate externally, we are driving back awareness to the Action Areas and service offerings of Orange Sparkle Ball. Using ChatGPT to workshop our brand Social Stems this year was a helpful exercise in working on the consistency and clarity of our message, it’s kind of given us a new voice. ”

“For the first time, we asked new hires to describe the company culture here at OSB. Quite frankly, we were surprised by the results in the best of ways. They used words and phrases like “safe”, “quirky”, “welcoming”, and “give it your best shot” to describe our company culture. For us, here at OSB, this is the exact type of culture we’re looking to create, and one that we feel gives us and our clients the best environment for innovation.

We heard, “I can ask literally anyone if I have any question.” When we say we’re a flat organization, we mean it and this clearly has translated to our onboarding process. Whether you’ve worked with someone once, or a 100 times, anyone that can give you an answer is happy to help. As an innovation organization, it’s very validating to see that we also internally model the idea that questions can be about anything (no sacred cows!) and answers can come from anywhere.”