S1E21 - Open Discussion: "What Other Industries are Good for Podio Product Disruption?"

Gil Roberts: 0:10

Welcome to the Podio Solutions Podcast. I'm Gil Roberts and with me today is our lead developer here at Brick Bridge Consulting, Jarrett Duker, and also our digital marketer Brittany Lowe. This is your first podcast Brittany. Alright excellent. Well, this podcast is about the design and development on the CITRIX podio platform. You can find it atPodio, p o d I o.com. We use this podcast to discuss her own experiences with podio as well as other interesting topics from the podio developers community. If you're a podio designer or developer working at an agency, small business or enterprise, you should immediately hit that subscribe button. If you have already, thank you so much for your support. Lastly, before we dive into today's topic, if you have a topic issue, solution, problem, or anything else you'd like us to discuss, we want to know about it. Hit us up on our Facebook, linkedin, Twitter, or send an email or podio message to podcast@brickbridgeconsulting.com. Today's topic is a continuation about industries that are possibly ripe or relevant for podio development. Last week we talked about the rei industry. Jared and I did and we wanted to look into other industries. So Brittany has been working diligently since our last podcast to discover what's out there. So, um, I, I, something that I found interesting during our rei segment was kind of the, the linear business model concept that there was a, there was a little more transactional in nature. Looking at some of the things that I have here in front of me, I can already see some of the similar traits going with this. So tell us, tell us what you found Brittany.

Brittany Lowe: 1:49

Yeah. So, um, there are a lot of different industries that I think that would really benefit from using podio and a lot of it is things that involve CRM and project management especially, which is what podio is the most useful for.

Gil Roberts: 2:04

And I see a first on a list and we'll have this list down in description, uh, for the show notes for those following along, it looks like professional services seems to be kind of top of mind. Can you explain a little bit about what you found here?

Brittany Lowe: 2:20

Yeah. So especially the most that I could find was really for the finance industry where they have to like work with clients. Um, so they'll have a lot of CRM along with that. Um, and I also discovered even people who had used in the healthcare industry who had use podio is basically a little kind of clinic. Okay. And like, moved them through the system that way. Um, and then even one example, um, of a law firm who had like assigned different cases, different lawyers and things like that.

Gil Roberts: 2:50

Okay. And that's all, that's all based on the podio platform. And I could see that because you have a profiles, right? He would have legal clients or your financial clients, um, and, and those would be serviced, uh, via relationship. And that sounds like that's a more than just kind of a sales side. But did you, did you see where they were actually like the servicing piece of the client as well? So they're capturing a whole workflow, right? In essence. Yeah. That kind of leads also to, uh, what trades people as well and go professionals. We go trades people. What did you find over there?

Brittany Lowe: 3:25

Right. Um, so I found some people who, um, were plumbers and they worked a lot on the go. They didn't, you know, trades especially, they're always at a different house working on it. And so podio was really great for them because it's, um, you know, cloud based in real time so they could say, I'm at this house right now, this is what I'm doing next. And it was really good for their communication as well as like checking off and making sure they go through all of their different clients.

Gil Roberts: 3:51

It focuses a lot on the Ios android APP.

Jarrett Duker: 3:54

To be able to do field service. Now are these builds that they're offering to other people or just mentions that you found that they are utilizing the software in this way, like forum posts and that sort of thing? Like what did you actually find?

Brittany Lowe: 4:08

So, um, they're a little bit of both. Most of it was like a lot of just cases and the specific ways that they had done that case. Some things I found where they were like scalable and applicable to other companies as well. Um, I think one of those little off, I have it in the one off finds. Um, so something that was kind of random that I found was somebody had like a rehab management like solution that they offered for different people. Um, and it was like a basic package of a program that they would have given to multiple different agencies and things like that.

Jarrett Duker: 4:45

Interesting. So that was a podio based product. Yeah, over on the Rehab. And that was something I just thought it was kind of interesting because I'd never thought about it before. So if I had a plumbing business, do you think it would be very hard for me to just find an off the shelf collection of workspaces to help me run things?

Brittany Lowe: 5:02

I don't think so.

Gil Roberts: 5:03

I know that there's a lot of, it's a fractured nature right? Right now, and I have a lot of, what we've talked about on this podcast is bringing up the productizing solutions for agencies like ours or people that work in the profession that have built their own podio systems. How they might be able to make an opportunity to have with a CO development partner like ourselves or the many other ones that are out there. When we talk about, uh, what's, what's change gears cause those are service based businesses where I very service heavy. What did you find over maybe in, in something that's not so much service, maybe retail or or something ecommerce?

Brittany Lowe: 5:46

So ecommerce was one of the ones that I found where people offer like the same solution to multiple different businesses. Um, and it was all based around, well first of all there was an add on for podio where you could have your inventory and it would transform it into like a, almost like a website kind of like where people could see what was in stock and that way they could order it. So that was like an ecommerce business that was an add on for podio. So I think a lot of ecommerce would benefit from using that. Um, and a lot of other places kind of had similar ideas, um, where they would track the inventory, track, the sales, things like that through podio.

Gil Roberts: 6:28

Inside the podio system like that would display available inventory to the website where people could buy those and put those in the shopping cart. Did you find that from the extention? Was that how you trace those down?

Brittany Lowe: 6:44

Um, the add on I found through the podio partners.

Gil Roberts: 6:48

Okay. Okay. In the party, your partner's work space, um, this is an interesting concept because I've noticed this as well where it's like an extension comes out, which is not a podio product per se. It's an extension of the platform and then products kind of blossom around that. Was there any other markets that you saw something similar, where it was an extension and then they were products past that?

Brittany Lowe: 7:14

I know a lot of the marketing, like the automated marketing is probably similar because there would be multiple different like automated emails, automated messages once they signed up for something. So about a lot of different add ons to like integrate that into podio.

Gil Roberts: 7:32

Okay. I see that in the, that those add ons became parts of the products. I've seen a lot of automated marketing, Jared just out in, uh, as solutions in general. Uh, with the podio platform through, what do you think kind of facilitates that?

Jarrett Duker: 7:50

When you say automated marketing, do you mean ready to go off the shelf plugin? So that will help you do your marketing through podio or um, there's talk a little bit more about what you meant by that.

Gil Roberts: 8:00

I think this is a concept for a good concept for listeners. I know a lot of, a lot of us may already know what it is, but what, let's dive into it anyway. For those that don't, uh, automated marketing is the set up to where there's emails or text messages or maybe you go over in the, rei is a great example of this lob for postcards and letters that don't need a human being to do this. Maybe they're set up on conditions or timers or, or stages, however the business calls for that, right? So I just marketing that helps velocity of sales move through or lead creation into sales.

Jarrett Duker: 8:40

I think overcoming apathy is also an important factor there; you know, actually getting up at 8:00 AM and sending out the emails, you can schedule the night before. That right there means a lot to a lot of people.

Gil Roberts: 8:50

That's fair. I think it's the, that golden record kind system that allows automated marketing to build, to be built on top of podio. Right. A lot of the marketing software there we've looked into and the stuff that we've seen, uh, they don't really have like a CRM with it. Some good. Yeah. Oh. Or, um, I'll take lob for example, you know, that that sends postcards and letters, but it doesn't really have like a full blooded CRM system.

Jarrett Duker: 9:19

You can upload a spreadsheet and create a contact book inside of it. Right. But you're not going to be managing dynamic practices. Okay.

Gil Roberts: 9:28

I liked before. Yes. No, definitely not. All the things that are outside of just sending postcards. Right.

Jarrett Duker: 9:35

I have a client right now who's trying to manage their entire CRM through MailChimp because it has mailing lists and they're trying to move away from that to a more sophisticated practice.

Gil Roberts: 9:48

Actually have statistics, enough things that are the more modern CRMs can offer, which obviously podio can present, uh, through build outs. Did you see anything over on the industrial areas like manufacturing, construction, those kinds of maybe industrial services? What did you find over there?

Brittany Lowe: 10:07

Yeah, so I think that when I looked at, um, an example I had seen about the construction industry, I thought that was definitely one of the most beneficial opportunities that people could capitalize on, um, to make new like add ons or products from because, and especially in manufacturing as well. But it's just so, um, project management based. Um, and it would be really easy to be able to, you know, control everything through podio from the project management to like, um, it talked about how it had like an HR system with it. And like if your workers were contracted for just that house or if they were with your company on salary, things like that. And so everything had been for this construction company, it was managed through this one product?

Gil Roberts: 10:59

Yeah. And was that a product as well?

Brittany Lowe: 11:01

It was a custom one that they had talked about. You could, they had originally bought like a general kind of product. Um, and then they customized it further. And so maybe the possibility of that being a product in the future.

Jarrett Duker: 11:16

I think that is a really good place to focus. Um, I'm very surprised that the, um, small custom contracting, maintenance, a yard care, all of these sort of multi team management companies, uh, in the construction industry are not making better use of podio. There's a lot of proprietary, uh, contract management software out there, but I've never heard anyone say any good things about it. That's true. And I actually built a product for a contract company a couple of years ago back when I was just learning about using the platform and it, it fit together with his needs very, very well. And I'm wondering why there's not more traction in that particular industry.

Gil Roberts: 12:04

Yeah, you raised a good question because it does come with the APP, right? You, you can build in Podio, you get it on the phone APP and that's field service work. Um, as Brittany pointed out, a lot of times that the execution is, is offsite.

Jarrett Duker: 12:17

And just management of offsite teams. Right. Or even just a single person is difficult. Right. Constantly texting and is is John at the site yet? Where is he? No. Is he sleeping? You know...

Gil Roberts: 12:30

Where's he at? The uh, you know, is the job done because you're as, as maybe management team, you might have five or 10 crews out roaming the city doing their work--

Jarrett Duker: 12:40

--or even just managing multiple projects at the same time because it's rare. Most contractors have four or five jobs going on at the same time because you have to wait for things. The glue to dry paint to dry, uh, you know, it's, you don't, you don't show up at a site and finish the job the same day. You've got lots of things ongoing.

Gil Roberts: 12:59

That does lend itself to Podio is project management style on set up. I know I'm way way back when I first encountered podio in 2012, they were really keen to market about the project management side and the CRM side of it, which a lot of things are just executions off those kinds of threads. You know, servicing customers could be seen as a project in and of itself where, you know, CRMs are very generalized both from a sales standpoint and a, a continuing service standpoint. Yeah.

Jarrett Duker: 13:31

One theory I do have is all older, more established industries like construction, which has been around basically forever, are slower to adopt technology than other industries. Yeah. Just kind of across the board. But when they do adopt it, uh, they tend to do so, um, wholeheartedly. So I would expect that to change at some point, especially as, um, my generation that grew up with computers get into leadership positions in contracting firms, they have a tendency to want to find newer ways to do things. Whereas, you know, my father who was a carpenter and a contractor would never consider using a computer. It's just not his generation.

Gil Roberts: 14:13

So, he didn't needed to begin with. Why would he do it now.

Jarrett Duker: 14:15

Exactly. He knows he can do all sorts of fractional math in his head and he just does. It just goes on with life.

Gil Roberts: 14:22

Right. Very interesting. Do you, do you think that maybe the size of business, maybe larger corporations would be more resistant using these heavier pieces of software that exists now or you know, what's the market size? Yeah.

Jarrett Duker: 14:37

If anything, I think it's more likely for larger corporations to adopt these products. Mostly because the person making the decision is not the one who has to do all the implementation. When it's your business and you're the one who to sit there and tinker with something all night long instead of hanging out with your kids or whatever it is, I think you're less likely to adopt, uh, potentially time saving solutions, right. Because the opportunity cost is so high when it's a court, that kind of corporate inertia that fights change can also implement change because there's, they're getting forces for good and evil. Absolutely. Interesting. Yeah.

Gil Roberts: 15:17

What are, um, I know, I see in our notes here, uh, education and nonprofits. So let's talk about what you found over there, Brittany.

Brittany Lowe: 15:25

Yeah, so especially on the nonprofit side, I didn't find as many like concrete solutions. It was more a lot of like nonprofit web forms where they were like, we use this great tool and this is how we use it. And Cause the nonprofit community is one where they like to share with each other and Kinda sure help each other out. Um, but in the future, I think there's a lot of expansion into the nonprofit because it can keep track of so many things from like donors to volunteers to grants and like, you know, grants you've applied for the ones you've gotten, things like that. Um, so I think that's a good one. Um, and I saw a lot of cases of, um, education and like coaching kind of places so they could keep track of, um, their projects and things like that. But also if they had, one was a really large, um, independent education company and they had different places everywhere that needed the same, you know, different curriculums and things like that. Uh, so they all kept it all in one place. So everyone from everywhere kind of pull from it.

Gil Roberts: 16:28

Interesting. Anything in governments that you run into? Any, any use cases on the hat?

Brittany Lowe: 16:33

I didn't, particularly while I was researching, I feel like it's a little bit harder to navigate a lot of government things. Um, but

Gil Roberts: 16:41

then then boil to the surface. So we asked a little selfishly because we tend to specialize over in the public sector and that's how we started out here in Brick Bridge, was the nonprofit and government work with podio. We found that that that's a good um, application and podio do, it's a lower maintenance costs, a little bit lower development. Um, so very interesting that, that that still remains, you know, pretty fertile for more innovation of, for, for our listeners out there, I definitely start knocking on the doors of nonprofits and some of the other public sectors. U m, I know there's a little harder to sell them a, they don't have big p ocket b ooks like some of these for profits do. U h, but I think this is a, u m, a very good solution a nd I targeted to them. Now I wanted to move into t he, t he, u h, another note you had h ere, w hich i s coaching and consulting, which is like personal services. So it's maybe a little bit more than the professional services. What did you find under there?

Brittany Lowe: 17:37

Yeah, so, um, I found some examples where they kind of talked about, um, it's a very CRM kind of based podio system because it's, you know, almost a direct service. So they would have like all their different for coaching they talked about like why style coaches and having their different things lined up in and also having that automated send out once they released a new episode or a Webinar or like to talk directly to their clients. Yeah.

Gil Roberts: 18:09

Client communication. Right. So heavy in the CRM, the relationship side of the capabilities. Which makes sense. Right. Cause it's, it's a lot of very direct and personal service. One to one, uh, consulting maybe a little bit, one to many, but definitely the personal coaching and those types of things. Under coaching, did you find any sports system? No. Sports systems. Cool though. Okay. All right. Hopefully our listeners are getting some, some ideas and helping them understand, you know, some of these spaces are free and ripe for innovation of podio based products. Um, you know, these are things that we explore. Uh, but you know, there's so much out there that there's no way that any one person could, it could take all of them over. So I think expansion of podio in the future personally and when we're a little biased here, but, uh, is going to be a lot under that product banner. I think you just get it, get to generate a lot more user seats quickly. The solutions get to sell more. Developers don't have to go through the painful process of one off customization dealing with a new client every time. Jared understands that greatly, you know, you've got to educate everybody as if it's their first time every time. Uh, so you know that that's a harder battle to face then then going through and doing the industry research for product and then selling it to scale. Well as a, this is a shorter episode a day. So yeah, we'll, we'll kind of come around.

Jarrett Duker: 19:34

I just have one more question for you. If someone else wanted to get in here and do some research. Can you talk a little bit about, uh, what methodology you used? I know, I know Google is a good starting place, but like a, what were some of the challenges that you've, that you found when trying to figure out what the shape of the community, which is what this is.

Brittany Lowe: 19:53

Right. Well, the biggest challenge I think is when you're looking for people who create podio products, most of the things you find are going to be like very either a very generic like solution that kind of just is like a general business. Yeah. So very general or very customized for like you just buy a whole customization packet for your specific company and they don't really share what, you know necessarily those cases as much. Right. So, um, it's really hard to find that customized product that you can sell. So for a specific industry, um, or maybe like one kind of solution, like a sales solution. Um, so it's really hard to find even from Google, just like those specific industry products because a lot of what there is is the basic product or the full customization. So I think there's a lot of room for expansion in between those two things.

Jarrett Duker: 20:55

And it does highlight a failure of the podio community that, uh, we definitely need to come together to address, which is there is not any clear information or directories, oh, or collaboration where people can understand the power of the platform beyond their own little myopic world that they're dealing in. And there really isn't a good central clearing house where you can find podio based products outside of the APP store itself. Right. And we've all been on the APP store. It's very imperfect still. Um, and that's something that we really need to do a better job of coming together and sharing that information and creating, uh, community boards and community community websites where we can post the solutions that we've designed, um, where, you know, let's say I was starting a new gym and I needed a, uh, customer management software for it, I should be able to pick this up off the shelf. Right. And I guarantee you there's five or six really excellent builds out there that they could be making money by monetizing and they're not right now. And we're not talking about the extensions were saying these are products that are actually what we would call a solution. Yeah. Podio based multi workspace products, uh, that could be deployed to a new user. Excellent.

Gil Roberts: 22:10

Brittany, was there any other oddities or, or other things, I know you mentioned the Rehab earlier. Was there any other kind of curiosities that you ran into?

Brittany Lowe: 22:19

Um, there was one more and it was just I think some individual kind of freelance guy who had figured it out on himself and it was like a music based in music industry based solution. Um, and you just kinda was like, I could do it for you too. I did it for myself and it was about like tracking, recording and you know what stage you are in things like that as well as like, um, the way like contact with the label that you were with and things. So it was kind of interesting. I hadn't seen anything else like it,

Gil Roberts: 22:49

that's application that we've ever thought of. Yeah. It's kind of like he was the art like from an artist standpoint, right. Trying to track all that. I guess there's the, uh, I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I guess there's this whole business side to that. Yeah. Then I know I, or I assume that a lot of people just don't want to deal with and this would be a way for them to

Brittany Lowe: 23:09

right. And have a solution for that. Yeah. I think it also talked about like booking shows and things like that. And so, which is a whole thing to have to deal with, especially if you're doing it yourself. So it was pretty interesting.

Gil Roberts: 23:22

Well, thank you so much for the research. I'm sure our listeners will greatly appreciate that. I don't know how often they stick their head above water to, to look around and see what other opportunities are available for podio based products. Um, and the solutions sense Jared,

Jarrett Duker: 23:38

he also had, or no, I'm good on this one. I'm looking forward to seeing some of these links that I can go check out. Yeah, absolutely.

Gil Roberts: 23:46

We will have uh, the as usual outline in our show description, we'll put in some links to the products that have links. Um, so we'll be able to share some of the good work for anything where the listeners and let them speak into a explore on their own, a short episode today. But I think that does it for us. Um, go ahead and look at next week. Check my notes here. So basically we're going to be looking at either a product that we have done in the past as we wrap up the season, um, or we've got another podio gaps episode. We're waiting on some information from one of our clients, so be surprised. Coming up next, we are still looking for podio gaps for our last one of the season. If you do have them, hit us up on Facebook, linkedin, Twitter, or send an email, a podio message to podcasts@brickbridgeconsulting.com. Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe if you haven't already. And if you have, thank you so much, and that does it for this week. Thank you all very much.