Augmenting empathy to tackle workforce disconnection

Product development plan
Sep 2024 - Feb 2025

Summary

noc is a cutting-edge remote communication tool developed by PhD-level experts in user experience design, human-computer interaction and behavioural psychology. It is specifically designed to facilitate interpersonal connections between in hybrid and remote teams, which is proven to increase employee productivity and emotional wellbeing, as well increasing loyalty and staff retention.

By streamlining communication barriers and network architecture, noc not only conserves time and energy, but also reduces ambiguity and supports mental health. The application significantly enhances accessibility and inclusivity for neurodiverse people, who make up about 20% of the workforce both in the UK and globally.

Leveraging a unique peer-to-peer network, noc offers greater data privacy and lower energy consumption. It also minimises psychological "friction" during calls, reducing anxiety and distraction triggers. This helps remote teams remain focused, fostering innovation and strengthening social bonds. The app's interface mimics the dynamics of face-to-face conversations, reducing human cognitive load that leads to virtual meeting fatigue, evidenced by positive outcomes in user testing.

Currently, noc is operating its MVP on MacOSx, with over 1,000 beta users. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with more than 20 organisations, including the BBC and Close Brothers showing early interest in deploying the fully functional version across all major operating systems, representing over £1.3m in annual recurring revenue (ARR).

Securing this grant would enable the company to improve stability, extend compatibility to Windows PCs, Android, iOS, and Windows smartphones, plus all tablets and intermediate devices. This will allow the company to quickly secure additional domestic market share, enter export markets and meet the demand from our prospective clients.

Why is noc™ game-changing?

noc™ is a suite of SaaS tools that improves productivity, innovation, employee retention and emotional wellbeing for hybrid / remote teams. Its uniquely simple design reduces barriers to communication and its bespoke AI augments empathetic behaviour between colleagues. By making it easier for people to communicate clearly, we solve root causes of diseconomies of scale including; miscommunication, employee disconnect, departmental silos, duplication of tasks, reduced innovation, staff retention and team mental health.

Currently, noc's MVP is available on MacOSx with three paying clients and 1,000+ users. Feedback has been positive with 20+ interested organisations, including BBC and Close Brothers representing a potential £1.3m ARR. This grant will enable the company to deliver a fully functional product to Windows PCs, Android, iOS, and Windows smartphones, plus tablets and other devices, enabling us to grow domestic market share, enter export markets and meet demand from our prospective clients.

noc's experimental development strategy is to enter the established virtual communication market and grow a unique sub-sector for casual communication by initially targeting the technology, creative and financial industries (most remote jobs) then expanding to all sectors. Thanks to low operational costs, the company will gain market share with competitive pricing, as well as by leveraging its multi- faceted differentiation in the following ways:

  1. Time: noc's UX saves time with simpler calling. In testing, noc™ users started a conversation in seven seconds - four times faster than Zoom.

  2. Focus: The distraction-free interface models real life interaction and is proven to be less distracting than the current notifications, to reduce cognitive load and to support deep focus. Following sociological models of ideal team size (Dunbar, 1992), it allows users to pick up to six main contacts, then ensures only those six are able to 'knock' on their contact's screen.

  3. Accessibility: Existing communication platforms impose excessive cognitive load on the brain with complicated interfaces, selfie-views and frequent notifications (Stich, 2020). These interfaces hinder accessibility for all users, but especially for neurodiverse people with attention disorders such as ADD, ADHD and Dyslexia. Using inaccessible tools puts companies at risk of legal challenges related to workplace inequality. noc's design is more accessible for all user groups.

  4. Collaboration: noc is great for collaborative design sessions. We recognise the burden of arranging and attending virtual meetings (Lippe & Lippenyi, 2019), and the desire for immediate, live, visual communication to work collaboratively and creatively on a design/document.

  5. Security: noc's unique peer-to-peer network architecture improves data privacy by bypassing data centres. This reduces data breaches and mitigates the need to export. This added layer of security is beneficial in Health or Government, where personal data, controlled or other sensitive information is discussed.

  6. Energy: noc's network architecture reduces energy consumption. Initial calculations indicate reduced energy demand of around 65% compared to incumbent video conferencing services like Zoom & Google Meets. Should the NHS adopt the noc platform, with its 1.2 million staff using video calling for 1hr/day, there would be a potential annual reduction in energy demand of 5.7 million KWh, saving £199,500/yr (assuming £35 per MWh).

  7. Empathy: noc addresses wider organisational challenges related to poor communication. Social / workplace disconnect is a common symptom of remote organisations that fail to understand and support their workforce. Using AI facial expression and tone of voice recognition, two complementary services capture emotionally intelligent data on workforce interactions, attitudes and well-being to help leaders manage their team in a more empathetic way.

The market

noc™ operates in Unified communications as a service (UCaas), currently a $30bn global market with a CAGR of 20.1%, projected to be worth $150bn by 2030 (F&F Research, 2023). This aligns with data showing a rise in hybrid / remote roles between 2015-23 (Statista, 2023) and a 17% increase in 1-2-1 meetings between 2020-22 (Harvard, 2022). The market is mostly large incumbents including Google, Zoom, MS Teams and Slack. Despite their size, noc plans to make use of its agility and chip away at market share by offering a better ROI. Starting in the UK with free trials and competing on price (our service is ~50% cheaper than Zoom etc), noc's simple design and time-saving features offer significant savings at scale. For example, Close Brothers could save their 3,200 staff up to 1.3m hours of admin each year by switching from Zoom to noc. This efficiency saving will be communicated in marketing material, but more importantly, will be witnessed first hand by users during their free trial period. US and EU exports are planned to start after 15 months. Marketing campaigns will focus on industry- specific trade shows, webinars, and direct outreach to key decision-makers in targeted industries. Integration with larger ecosystems to ensure that noc becomes an essential tool for businesses.

noc's initial customer segmentation will be senior management and influential people in the industries employing the highest percentage of hybrid / remote workers. These are tech (68%), creative (51%) and finance (49%). Within these industries, the use of Mac computers is more prevalent, hence releasing to this platform first. These customers are experiencing social disconnection and virtual meeting fatigue due to the increased mental exertion created by incumbent comms tools. noc's value proposition of improved social connection, time saving

and reduced fatigue has helped gather letters of intent and warm leads from 20+ organisations in these sectors including Close Brothers, BBC and several tech startups. They collectively employ 30k+ users, worth £1.4m of potential annual revenue. noc™ has already partnered with three organisations and is engaged in discussions for the provision of a white label service. These partners represent 15k+ users, worth an additional £0.5m of potential annual revenue.

Social impact

Based on noc™ for MacOSx, this project plans to deliver and release iterative versions of noc™ that are compatible with Windows, Android or Apple devices and are capable of communicating with cross-platform versions of noc on other device types. Starting with the existing product's core concept, subtle design and code adaptations will be made to suit the nuanced requirements of each platform.

Internal benefits for our company:

  • Deeper knowledge = higher asset value = stronger USP. The outcomes from user testing phases of this project will present new and exclusive research insights for the company, adding value to our intangible assets and inspiring further design improvements.

  • Wider compatibility = better user experience / accessibility = more users = increased sales. By releasing noc to new platforms, the software will become more readily available to a wider audience, improving accessibility and leading to more sales opportunities.

  • More sales = higher revenue / profitability = more investment / growing market share. Increasing revenue increases our chances of eligibility for larger scale private investment.

  • Self-serve registration & billing = reduced admin = increased capacity = productivity. Automating certain processes reduces team workload and provides a faster and more consistent customer service, meaning more customer satisfaction and a more productive and focused team.

  • New hires = shared workload = reduced pressure = diversity of thought = wiser team. Recruiting junior staff to a team introduces fresh points of view and eases the load on the existing workforce, resulting in higher productivity and less bias in decision making.

External benefits:

  • Knowledge dissemination to the general public = wiser, more compassionate culture/society. Publishing research findings in a digestible and understandable format empowers people from different backgrounds with a wider knowledge set and understanding of the world, presenting new opportunities and perspectives to our readers.

  • Encouraging care for one's own and understanding of others' mental health = better society = reduced burden on the NHS. Having experienced intolerance and misunderstanding of mental health from colleagues, our neurodiverse founders are highly aware of the toll this takes on our wellbeing. Reducing incidences like this will protect others from having to go through similar experiences.

  • Reduced anxiety for sufferers and greater compassion from others. It minimises anxiety triggers and distractions during video calls, helping remote workforces stay focused, increase innovation and strengthen team bonds.

  • A step towards a more welcoming, accessible world for those with neurodiversity. Better interpersonal connections = more productivity / innovation = higher value workers = more jobs

  • Intuitive design system = hyper simplification based on personal experiences of the challenges associated with neurodiversity and work = setting higher accessibility standards.

  • Boosting the economy: Exclusive to the UK to start, giving national organisations a global competitive advantage of remote team productivity, innovation and wellbeing.

  • Significant time and cost saving for firms switching from incumbent communication tools to noc. Close Brothers could save up to £280,000 and 2.3m hours of effort per year by switching from Zoom to noc.

  • Reduced energy usage. By eliminating the need for data centres, noc's reduced energy demand is around 65% of incumbent video conferencing services like Zoom & Google Meets. Should the NHS switch to noc, its 1.2 million staff would consume 5.7 million KWh less energy per year, saving £199,500/year (based on £35/MWh).

  • Better privacy: noc's uniquely simple P2P network architecture sends call data directly to the recipient, eliminating the risk of security breaches at data centres.

Return on Investment

By relentlessly pursuing efficiency, noc has thrived in today's challenging economic environment. The team bonded over a shared vision/passion rather than remuneration. We always explore saving opportunities that don't compromise quality, e.g. using refurbished "as new" IT hardware, saving 40% over new devices. We check multiple sources when estimating figures, such as salaries, then err on the lower side of average. Our 50+ years of collective experience means we don't need recruitment services. We use our network to find exceptional, trusted talent, keeping hiring costs low. We have an enjoyable culture and an attractive work-life balance, which increases loyalty and saves on salaries.