Positioning a consultancy that refuses to be one
01 — The brief
Say the thing that separates you from every other consultancy
Umagine was founded in 2018 by Michael Rheinberger after years watching social programs fail at the point of delivery rather than the point of design.
The engagement started as a migration off an ageing platform. Early conversations made it clear the bigger problem was positioning: the market is full of firms that write strategy, and Umagine's whole value is that it stays to implement it.
So the work covered the customer journey and the language before it covered the build: who the buyer is, what they are afraid of, what objections come up in a government or NGO procurement, and how to make the decision easy for them.
One system, four modules The Social Change Implementation System is presented as a product: readiness assessment, transition planning, implementation and capacity building, available individually or end to end.
By the numbers
A consultancy productised
Feature
Everything on the site is built to remove a reason to hesitate. The FAQs answer the awkward questions directly, including whether Umagine is a charity and what for-purpose actually means commercially, because those are the questions that stall a procurement decision.
- FAQs written against real objections, not marketing questions
- Case studies from Commonwealth and large NGO programs
- Named client testimonials from senior government and NGO leaders
- A free consult booking as the single call to action
- Insights hub for sector commentary
- Acknowledgement of Country throughout the site
The implementation gap
A whole site built on one argument
Strategies make excellent documents. People are failed at implementation.
That argument runs from the homepage headline through the about page, the service structure and the FAQs, so a reader arrives at the same conclusion whichever way they enter the site.
It also gave the build a natural shape: the problem, the system that fixes it, the evidence that it works, and a low-friction way to start a conversation.
02 — The process
How we got there
- 01
Strategy before design
Conversations with the founder established the market position, the target buyer and the objections, which then set the structure of the site.
- 02
Productising the offer
The delivery approach was named and structured as the Social Change Implementation System, with four modules that can be bought separately or together.
- 03
Writing for a procurement audience
Copy was written for government and NGO decision makers, with the FAQs deliberately answering the questions that stall a decision.
- 04
Design and build
A calm, human interface with photography of people rather than abstractions, built on Oncord with the insights hub, case studies and testimonials as content records.
- 05
Migration and launch
The site moved off the old platform to a build the team can extend, and the relationship has continued into further projects since.
The founder's argument, in full The about page tells the story that justifies the business: a career spent watching well-funded programs fail at delivery, and a company built specifically to close that gap.
03 — The outcome
A site that sells the difference, not the category
Umagine reads as an implementation partner rather than another advisory firm, which is the whole point.
Enquiries arrive as consult bookings from readers who already understand the model, and the insights hub gives the team a place to keep making the argument.
Michael trusted the process, was happy with the outcome, and has continued working with us on further projects since.
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Design, build, content and search, handled by one Auckland team.
