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COMMONBOND

Consultant—Summer 2013

CommonBond is a startup based in Brooklyn, NY that refinances graduate student debt by connecting alumni lenders with students. The company also donates a portion of its profits to students in under served areas. I was brought in to help them define what ‘community’ means to them and to solidify their brand promise.  

Brand Strategy

Through a series of small group workshops and a full day summit, the team solidified the values that are at the core of their community. These tenets were defined as were the elements of their brand personality. A comprehensive brand book was created and published. 

Idea Generation / Prototyping

Out of the workshops also came new ideas to execute that would communicate the story of CommonBond and bring to life their values. In groups, rough prototypes were created and acted out. Eventually, a creative brief was written for a series of instructional videos to educate and attract new borrowers. 

Primary Research

Through interviews with current borrowers and friends of the company, I gained valuable feedback about the customer experience of the platform and community events that the company was sponsoring. These were synthesized into valuable insights that would be used to better communicate their vision. 

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We hired Chris as an innovation consultant to help develop the vision for our stakeholder community at a crucial time. Through a series of highly engaging workshops facilitated by Chris, we were able to better shape our overall brand promise and generated valuable prototypes that we are putting into action. Chris is a creative thinker who uses both sides of his brain - he's a great collaborator, thoughtful strategist, and one heck of a nice guy!

- David Klein, CEO