WORK WITH OCG
Since 2014, the Oregon Consulting Group has worked with a variety of clients ranging from startups, local and regional businesses, and nonprofits—all utilizing human-centered design to deliver invaluable insights and solutions that make a real impact for the client and the organization.
What Our Clients Are Saying
“OCG had an amazing impact on our organization. The final reports and financial model were exactly in line with what we were looking for and our expectations. I would highly recommend engaging with OCG. It was a wonderful experience.”
— Bill Widmer, President, Kaleafa
“Trifoia hired the Oregon Consulting Group to consult on six product development projects in the past five years, and we don't plan to stop. The quality of the output rivals that of any high-powered market consulting firm for a fraction of the cost.”
— Adam Wendt, CEO, Trifoia
“The team took ownership of the project from day one, persevered through some difficult primary research, and came out with good data. The student team drove our company team for information, another indicator of their initiative. Overall a great experience and good value for us.”
— Steve Jennings, Former President, TryEco
Client Experience
Project Timeline
Every project is led by a dedicated project manager and a team of our well-trained student consultants and managed in a professional manner with a clear statement of work and weekly status update meetings. OCG operates on the University of Oregon ten-week academic term system. Available project dates include
Fall: September – December
Winter: January – March
Spring: April – June
Project Scoping
The project scoping process involves a meeting with business development members to understand needs, refine details and breadth of scope, and create a statement of work.
Scoping Meeting — Initial meeting with potential client. The consultant team learns about the problem the business is facing and how OCG can help
Analysis — Project information is developed and key steps are synthesized.
Statement of Work First Draft — The first draft of the project's statement of work is created—including background information, key steps, and deliverables.
Editing Phase — The consultant team and client enter a cycle of review and revision until the statement of work satisfies both parties.
Project Finalized — The statement of work is sent to contracting and the commitment is final.
Project Structure
Once a project scope of work is contracted, a project team is staffed with a senior manager and project manager to guide the direction, and three to four consultants to perform the research and analysis defined in the scope of work. A fully staffed project provides more than 400 hours of research and analysis throughout the 10-week engagement. Research and analyses are constantly aligned with client goals throughout the term with weekly client meetings that provide updates on progress and introduce important findings.
Deliverables and Final Presentation
The typical project deliverable consists of an executive summary final presentation format that outlines the critical research and recommendations with an extensive and comprehensive appendix detailing the approach, raw data and research, and supporting analyses that drive recommendations. Examples of more tangible deliverables include cost-benefit analyses, financial budgets and models, and written reports.
Our Services
MARKET ANALYSIS
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OCG delivers secondary and primary research on selected competitor(s). The purpose is to provide the client insights on how their product or service stacks up versus competitors and recommendations for how to alter some aspect of the product or service to compete more successfully.
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OCG delivers primary research on the client’s current customers using customer interviews, observations, and/or surveys to provide the client recommendations for how to improve customer experience and satisfaction. A key differentiator for OCG is the ability to survey and interview the population at the University of Oregon, a prime demographic for many businesses.
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OCG delivers secondary analysis of the marketplace for a client product or service and determines market sizing, profitability, and growth projections per segment.
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
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OCG delivers financial analysis and basic models to help the client make a variety of decisions such as make-versus-buy, cost/benefit, NPV for investments, etc. The purpose is to capture key assumptions to inform the client"s decision and identify those that significantly affect the outcome.
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OCG delivers a financial forecast and financial model for small businesses, product lines, or nonprofits. The purpose is to help the client capture critical assumptions, perform sensitivity analysis, and do risk assessment.
BUSINESS STRATEGY
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OCG delivers a strategic plan for small businesses, product lines, or nonprofits. The purpose is to look at alternate strategies for the organization and select the strategy that will provide the best risk-adjusted value using a proof-point-based plan to guide execution.
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OCG delivers a framework and supporting research to prepare a business model canvas and execution plan for small businesses, product lines, or nonprofits. The framework provides a concise summary of the target customers, value proposition, key activities, partners, costs, revenue streams, and sustainable business practices.
Our Methodology
Secondary Research
OCG has access to the extensive research sources available at the University of Oregon to discover and synthesize information for the client project.
Primary Research
OCG utilizes three methods for primary research: surveys, interviews, and observations. Student consultants have proven to be highly effective at getting insights through interviews that would not be possible by company employees. This information is synthesized into detailed findings and/or case studies.
Design Thinking
OCG uses the human-centered design methodology developed at the Stanford d.school which is the basis for industry leaders such as IDEO. This approach is highly effective for designing outstanding experiences for customers whether they be consumers, businesses, or partners.
Decision Analysis
OCG uses the decision analysis methodology developed at MIT and Stanford for business strategy formation. This approach creates multiple scenarios mapped with a strategy table and distills the key decisions and proof points required for success.
Financial Analysis
A variety of financial analysis and modeling approaches are used by OCG to provide clarity to the client on the attractiveness of decisions or actions they are considering.
Our Expertise
Once admitted into OCG, each consultant completes an in-depth industry report on a topic of their choosing. Working under the guidance of an executive OCG member, the consultant conducts extensive primary and secondary research and generates recommendations to the industry's most pressing problems. These industry reports prepare newly admitted consultants to enter their first client-facing project.
Example industry reports can be found via the links below.