North East consultant launches academy to aid startups and SMEs

A North East consultant has announced that it is launching a new academy to help startups and SMEs improve their services.

The Experience Academy, which is due to launch in October this year, is designed as an experience where professionals learn with others, often in a live online environment.

The sessions will be hosted by industry experts, promoting conversations of UX and related disciplines as strategic growth tools, whilst also enabling organisations to compete in increasingly competitive marketplaces.

The academy has been created by Helena Hill as her second venue.

Helena said: “Time and time again I see businesses, in all sectors and of all sizes, who fail to do their homework when starting up, launching a new product or service and changing internal processes.

“My mission is to ensure we get to those businesses before they make those costly mistakes.

“I had been exploring a virtual model of delivery for a while and the move to online meetings as a result of COVID-19 gave me the ideal opportunity to put my plans into action.

“The lockdown saw a huge increase in demand for remote learning and as a result, I set up relationships with business support partners who saw the value in experience design.

“We’ve moved into a challenging period for businesses and we want to introduce the importance of getting your UX right.

“Our courses are intended to equip business owners, product managers, department leads and marketers with the tools and knowledge to beat competition.

“Look out for sector and role-specific courses aimed at ensuring they get the education they need to fulfil their goals.

“There is also an emphasis on creating meaningful connections and interactions with customers, ensuring that organisations fully understand the customer journey that happens for their product or service.”