Client Case Studies

Explore how we partner with clients to overcome complex challenges through innovative strategies and design solutions.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Focused, Phased, and Forward-Looking: A Practical Approach to Strategic Planning in Complex Times

  • As a well-established regional transportation management organization, the Chittenden Area Transportation Management Association (CATMA) faced a critical juncture in its evolution. Despite a strong 30-year track record of facilitating sustainable mobility services in Vermont’s only metropolitan area, the organization was contending with limited staff capacity, uncertain funding streams, and a rapidly shifting transportation landscape. Stakeholders called for expanded leadership, stronger coordination, and more visible impact from CATMA’s programs, all while regional development pressures and climate imperatives demanded adaptive, inclusive transportation strategies.

  • Reframe Lab partnered with CATMA to lead a right-sized, high-impact strategic planning process tailored to the organization’s capacity, mission, and evolving role in the region. Over five months, we engaged staff, Board members, partners, and community stakeholders to co-create a clear and actionable Strategic Business Plan grounded in organizational diagnostics and strategic foresight. The plan is anchored in five strategic pillars, each translated into practical goals and phased actions aligned with CATMA’s resources and readiness. We emphasized a structured yet flexible implementation approach that builds accountability, supports decision-making, and positions CATMA as a leader in regional sustainable mobility.

  • The resulting Strategic Business Plan equips CATMA with a practical, forward-looking roadmap to guide its evolution and amplify its regional impact. With clearly phased actions and built-in accountability measures, the plan enables CATMA to strengthen internal capacity, deepen external partnerships, and align its operations with a rapidly changing transportation landscape. It offers a shared vision and structure that supports informed decision-making, more effective communication of value, and stronger stakeholder engagement. Most importantly, the plan positions CATMA to lead with clarity and confidence as a catalyst for sustainable mobility in Vermont’s largest urban area.

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT / SESSION DESIGN / FACILITATION

Building Business Resilience: Helping Small Firms Adapt to Climate Change Impacts 

  • In the summer of 2023, catastrophic floods devastated over 800 small Vermont businesses, underscoring the urgent need for resilience planning. As vital contributors to the state's economy, employing over 60% of Vermont’s workforce, these businesses faced recovery challenges, limited resources, and the harsh reality that many do not reopen after major disasters. With climate impacts intensifying, Vermont’s small businesses require strategic support to secure their future.

  • To meet this critical need, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) partnered with Reframe Lab to develop and facilitate the ClimateReadyVTprogram. Using structured change management and design thinking principles, we created a comprehensive, human-centered resilience program tailored to small businesses. Through interactive virtual sessions, participants gain insight into practical, accessible resilience data, tools, and approaches. Expert insights from local and national specialists, along with ongoing technical assistance and coaching from Reframe Lab, further enrich the program.

    Over the course of six sessions, participants create individualized Climate Resilience Action Plans covering location-specific risks, mitigation strategies, budgeting, resources, legal and insurance guidance, and effective communication methods to confidently manage climate-related disruptions.

  • ClimateReadyVT has empowered numerous businesses and organizations to create actionable resilience plans tailored to their specific climate adaptation needs.

    Landmark Trust USA, for instance, leveraged their resilience plan to secure a major climate adaptation grant for their historic properties. In addition, Norwich Technologies identified stronger approaches to risk management and resilience building. Further, Downstreet Housing and Community Development now feels more equipped to face climate challenges, stating they’ve gained a “simple yet meaningful” method and resources for assessing resilience. And Hannon Home Center says this “is a fantastic resources for businesses.”

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RETREAT FACILITATION

Bridging the Knowledge Gap: Facilitating an In-Person Retreat that Strengthens Culture and Connectivity for a Remote Team

  • Remote teams allow organizations to tap into global talent, enhancing creativity and innovation. However, the lack of in-person interaction can create knowledge gaps, as leaders may assume everyone has the necessary information, leading to misalignment and isolation among remote employees. A founder-led software company engaged Reframe Lab to facilitate its first-ever in-person retreat, bringing together a mostly remote workforce in one location. The leadership’s goal was clear: to create a dynamic space that fostered cross-team engagement and strengthened company culture.

  • Reframe Lab's approach encouraged leadership to delve into team strengths and weaknesses while aligning on clear goals, unlocking the team’s creative potential to solve key challenges in just hours. Through interactive networking, staff strengths identification, and visualized analysis of company strengths and growth opportunities, participants gained new insights and practical solutions.

    The sessions alternated between 1-on-1 discussions and collaborative group dialogues, fostering an environment rich in knowledge-sharing and ideation. Most importantly, Reframe Lab emphasized inclusivity, using methods that created a safe, balanced space for all voices to contribute, ensuring a more holistic and unified perspective on the path forward.

  • Alongside tangible smiles and camaraderie, leadership observed stronger alignment within the company around shared goals, a clearer understanding of the company’s strengths and areas for growth, and actionable solutions to pressing challenges. They also observed increased team cohesion, improved communication, and heightened cross-disciplined engagement as employees feel valued and heard, setting the stage for future success.

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CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAPPING

Driving Product Innovation and Customer Success with Journey Mapping

  • In the changing transportation sector, software solutions risk becoming obsolete if they fail to evolve with users‘ needs. This was the challenge facing a leading cloud-based transportation software provider. The firm sought to drive product innovation while aligning its features with the dynamic requirements of both current and potential users. Without a deep, structured understanding of the user experience, the product risked losing relevance, impacting customer satisfaction, engagement, and retention.

  • To address this challenge, the software firm engaged Reframe Lab to identify improvement opportunities and ensure their offerings met the nuanced needs of transportation industry professionals. Our team conducted in-depth structured interviews with a diverse mix of current and prospective users, capturing a full spectrum of perspectives unique to the transportation sector. This approach allowed us to develop multiple customer personas representing key user segments, each with distinct interactions, objectives, and pain points with the product.

    Using these personas, Reframe Lab built detailed customer journey maps that pinpointed crucial touchpoints and pivotal “moments of truth” throughout the customer lifecycle. These maps revealed critical areas where targeted product enhancements could provide substantial benefits for transportation professionals, strengthening user engagement, driving retention, and facilitating the firm’s long-term competitiveness.

  • Reframe Lab’s journey mapping process equipped the client with actionable insights into user behaviors and needs specific to software for the transportation industry. With these insights, the firm can strategically refine software features, addressing current challenges and proactively innovating to meet emerging market demands. This enhanced understanding of the customer journey also enables the firm to prioritize features with the highest potential to drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. By partnering with Reframe Lab, the firm is now positioned to not only refine its existing products but also to foresee and address future needs in the transportation sector.

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT / FACILITATION

Transforming Crisis Management: A Shift from Reactive to Proactive for Lasting Organizational Success

  • The Covid pandemic undeniably disrupted organizations, with social service agencies especially facing intense pressures to respond swiftly to numerous and varied community challenges. This constant demand led to significant staff stress and burnout as well as a diminished organizational capacity to maintain strategic focus. In New England, a large regional social services agency sought to understand and address the internal challenges hindering its ability to implement sustainable organizational changes that would allow it to transform from a reactive to a proactive stance.

  • To address these challenges, Reframe Lab conducted a comprehensive evaluation involving staff surveys, structured interviews of leadership team members, and workshops designed to facilitate team consensus on key change management priorities. This process included a Root Cause Analysis and a Leadership Alignment Workshop to collaboratively identify solutions. Reframe Lab synthesized its findings into a Change Readiness Maturity Model, which provided the agency with a clear roadmap, highlighting areas for improvement in communication, governance, and cultural commitment.

  • Reframe Lab’s structured approach allowed the agency to pinpoint areas for immediate action and long-term growth. By implementing conflict mediation, enhancing leadership communication, and pursuing strategic alignment across units and people, the agency is now better positioned to embrace continuous improvement and adapt to future challenges. The assessment laid the foundation for increased engagement and transparency across the organization, ultimately strengthening the agency’s ability to position their leadership team to work on long-term sustainable change.

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LEADERSHIP COACHING / FACILITATION

Navigating Leadership Change: Balancing Vision, Team Engagement, and Momentum to Overcome Change Inertia

  • Leadership transitions can spark fresh perspectives and challenge outdated systems, but they also bring the delicate balancing act of team engagement. When change comes from the top without meaningful input, it risks sparking resentment among team members who feel left out of the vision. Yet, a fully democratic approach can bog down the pace, creating endless debate that can lead to apathy or frustration.

    Such was the dilemma of a social work training leadership team eager to drive impactful change but stalled by decision-making inertia, struggling to maintain clarity and purpose in guiding operational and supervisory transformations.

  • Reframe Lab partnered with the Leadership Team through targeted coaching sessions and design and facilitation of all-staff Design Sprints, uncovering the roots of the partnership’s legacy systems and fostering a shared understanding of their strengths and limitations. Building on this foundation, the team began identifying opportunities to address these challenges, engaging the entire partnership in a collaborative design process that sparked creative, actionable solutions. Together, they shaped a new, unified vision aimed at achieving more integrated service delivery and a balanced, equitable workload across the organization.

    Reframe Lab was also able to assist the Team in creating asynchronous methods of team engagement and collaboration using online whiteboards.

  • Having co-lead all-staff creative problem solving workshops, the Leadership Team is starting to see an increased amount of trust, along with growth in social capital. They’ve been able to coach their teams around the design and integration of new methods of service delivery with increased confidence and consistency of messaging.

    Reframe Lab continues this work with the leadership team to help them envision a new operating system that will build a centralized source of knowledge, more streamlined channels of communication, all designed with intention and attention to the shared and diverse needs of their full team.

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