TechPoint Case Study

Founded in 2003, TechPoint is the growth accelerator for Indiana’s tech ecosystem. The nonprofit brings together Indiana's tech companies, philanthropies, government, universities, and talent to create opportunity in the state.

Tech ecosystems need resources like talent, innovation, companies, capital, community, promotion, research, and policy. Attracting, harnessing, and coordinating these resources is critical for success and is what TechPoint does best.

To build a strong local tech ecosystem, TechPoint partners with many organizations through their member community. Unsurprisingly, communication and collaboration is vital to the community’s success. In order to ensure their team was serving these members in a way that prioritized desired outcomes and sequentially fulfilled the TechPoint vision, the TechPoint team turned to MetaCX.

Before MetaCX

Over the years, TechPoint has tested a number of methods and software platforms to manage their member community. No matter the solution, they always ran into similar issues; communication channels were disjointed, workflows were internal facing only, member resources were scattered in multiple locations, and there was no way to track what each member was trying to accomplish through the partnership.

In their last attempt before MetaCX stepped in, the TechPoint team was using a google document that outlined a standard success plan but it wasn’t working as intended. A static document didn’t give the team the ability to create and execute action plans, communicate with members, or most importantly, track the progression of outcomes.

“Members come to TechPoint looking for help achieving specific goals, something we now refer to as outcomes,” explains Jennifer Merrell, Director of Relationship Management at TechPoint, “It was important for us to keep those outcomes front and center in each member partnership to ensure we were delivering value.”

After MetaCX

MetaCX provides a co-owned, digital space called a bridge where any two companies can come together to define and collaborate on desired business outcomes. Through MetaCX, TechPoint took the language used in their membership agreements and translated it to living, breathing outcome-based success plans.

By creating a bridge with each TechPoint member, the team was able to keep all parties accountable and focused on the goals, milestones, and metrics necessary to unlock the full potential of each partnership.

“We were finally able to house everything relevant to each member in one location,” explains Roger Shuman, Relationship Manager at TechPoint, “Each bridge became a collaborative space for us and our members, ensuring continuous alignment and success.”

The TechPoint team found the ability to construct step-by-step action plans aligned to the short and long term goals of members particularly useful.

“Before MetaCX, tasks weren’t tied to outcomes,” explains Jennifer, “Now, everything we do has intention. It’s all about the creation of value over time.”

To close the loop, MetaCX gave TechPoint the ability to track and prove delivery against the desired outcomes documented in each member bridge. With the help of MetaCX’s real-time data integration layer, TechPoint instrumented a number of digital endpoints to create metrics that showed how they were making an impact. One such metric allowed them to track how the TechPoint job board (the most visited job board in the state of Indiana) increased traffic to member job postings. This was a huge win since building out a team was a common desired outcome among the TechPoint community.

By being able to prove that they’d delivered on the outcomes promised in their membership agreements, Techpoint was able to retain members that aligned to their vision and ensure healthy, long lasting partnerships that benefited the tech community as a whole.

What’s Next?

Although the impact that MetaCX has had on TechPoint is already significant, the nonprofit is just getting started.

“MetaCX has created a unique universe. The way the platform works is entirely new and not something that has been done before,” explains Roger, “When we first started, there was a bit of a learning curve because we were reframing the way we worked with members. Now that we’ve seen the value of this approach, the options of where we take it are endless.”

As an immediate next step, the TechPoint team plans on taking learnings from MetaCX to create better shared spaces within bridges. Through the platform, they are able to see what outcomes members care about most, where they are delivering the most value, and when they should be proactive with detailed action plans.

“In many ways, MetaCX has helped us gain a better understanding of our identity and the value we’re offering the tech community,” explains Jennifer, “We are now intimately aware of our strengths, weaknesses, and overall impact on Indiana’s tech ecosystem.”

Download the PDF version of the case study here.