The SHiFT Lab

You bring me in when the board asks where growth comes from and the room goes quiet.

Sixteen weeks. One new offer, taken from opportunity to market test. You leave with the evidence, the business case and the equipment to take it forward.

And if the evidence says don't build it, I'll tell you.

Four organisations in 2026. The last one starts late September.

16 weeksPrivate 1:1Ends with real buyers

I'm on maternity leave from mid-January, so the last engagement of 2026 has to start by late September. The next round opens mid-2027.

The opportunity

You already have more value than you're capturing.

The training you built for your own staff, that three other organisations have already asked to borrow. The assessment tool you've refined over eight years. The methodology you explain for free on every panel you sit on.

The relationships, expertise and ways of working you've built because you've spent years solving problems other organisations don't know how to solve.

None of that is a new business. It may be the business you already have, sold to someone who is not the person you currently serve.

An organisation whose entire direction can be redrawn by one unsuccessful funding round isn't running a strategy, it's renting one. What you have is a landlord disguised as a funder.

Funders matter and they should be part of your strategy. They shouldn't be able to switch the whole thing off.

What this is

Find what's hiding in plain sight. Build what's next.

We find the value already inside your organisation, turn the strongest opportunity into an offer people will pay for, and put it in front of real buyers before we finish.

An offer is something your organisation can repeatedly provide to a defined customer in exchange for money. A service, a program, a product, a training offer, a membership, a licensed methodology, a corporate partnership, an advisory offer, or something we haven't thought of yet.

This isn't about finding another funding source. It's about creating something people genuinely want to buy, using capabilities and knowledge your organisation already has.

Why this works differently

Three reasons

01

Evidence, not a plan

We don't spend sixteen weeks building a beautiful strategy for you to implement later. Your idea meets the real world before we finish, so you'll know what buyers think and what they'll commit to.

02

Less work for your team

Your team's time is capped and written into the scope. You bring the decisions, the expertise and the access. We do the strategic production. No homework, no disappearing for six weeks and returning with a deck.

03

Equipment, not recommendations

You don't leave with a strategy deck telling you what to do. You leave with the things you need to sell it, deliver it and get it approved.

How it works

Six phases. One offer. Real buyers at the end.

Weeks 1–3

See

We understand the organisation as it actually is today. Your current model, customers, capabilities, assets, unmet needs, constraints and readiness. We find what's already working, what's getting in the way, and where there might be something worth building.

You leave with: a sharp diagnosis of what's holding you back from your next chapter. Not sixty pages that end up in a drawer.
Weeks 4–6

Hunt

We look for the value hiding in plain sight. What do you know? What do you have? What do people need? Where could value be created? And, crucially, who would pay for it? We develop three possible futures for the organisation, not three variations of the same safe idea.

You leave with: your Opportunity Map and the Three Futures.
Weeks 7–8

Back it

Now we make the decision. Each opportunity is tested against impact, demand, income, capability and feasibility. One gets backed; not because it's the most exciting idea in the room, but because it has the strongest case for investment.

You leave with: one prioritised opportunity and the reasoning a board can follow. This is often the moment you see something you couldn't see before.
Weeks 9–12

Build

Now we make it real. The offer, the customer, the value proposition, the delivery model, the pricing, the capability required, and the assets that make it sellable and deliverable.

You leave with: the offer, built, plus the business case for taking it forward.
Weeks 13–14

Test

We put the smallest useful version of the offer in front of real buyers. A paid pilot, a pre-sale, a prototype, a customer commitment, or another test designed to generate the strongest possible evidence.

You leave with: real market evidence, not opinions about whether the idea is good.
Weeks 15–16

Take it forward

The final two weeks turn evidence into a decision and a practical next move. Go, refine or kill. And a 90-day roadmap built around the reality of your team, your systems and your constraints.

You leave with: a clear path to putting your new offer into your customers' hands. No wishful thinking, and no "now someone needs to implement the strategy".
The Three Futures

Three real options, chosen deliberately, instead of falling in love with the first idea in the room.

Extend
What could we sell differently?

Take something you already do and offer it to a new audience, or in a new way.

Productise
What could we package and repeat?

Turn existing expertise, methodology or IP into something repeatable and scalable.

Reinvent
What could we create that doesn't exist today?

Build something genuinely new from an emerging or unmet need.

Every opportunity is assessed against five criteria.

Impact

Will it strengthen the mission?

Demand

Does someone want it badly enough?

Income

Can it generate meaningful return?

Capability

Can we credibly deliver it?

Feasibility

Can we do it without breaking the organisation?

The result isn't a room full of exciting ideas. It's a decision you can defend.

The Evidence Ladder

Don't confuse interest with demand.

People saying they like an idea isn't evidence that they'll buy it. The Evidence Ladder gives us progressively stronger signals of real demand.

01
Interest

Someone says they'd use it.

02
Intent

Someone commits time, provides data or joins a waitlist.

03
Commitment

Someone signs up or agrees to a pilot.

04
Payment

Someone actually pays.

The goal isn't Level 4 every time. It's to reach the strongest evidence we can realistically get before you invest further, and to be completely honest about which rung you've reached.

Because the point isn't to build offers that sound good. It's to invest in the ones with real potential to create income and more impact.

What you leave with

Equipment, not recommendations.

Three opportunities

Three viable pathways identified through the Opportunity Map, scored and ranked.

One tested offer

A new offer, designed, costed and tested with real buyers.

One business case

A board-ready case for the investment required to take it forward.

Four pieces of equipment

The specific assets required to sell and deliver the offer. Pricing and cost model, sales kit, offer prototype, delivery playbook, board case or customer onboarding experience. We decide which four matter most once we know what we're building.

One 90-day roadmap

Exactly what needs to happen next, built for the reality of your team and systems.

No strategy deck. No sixty-page report.

And then we make an honest decision

Three possible outcomes. One of them might be no.

Go

The evidence supports launching. You have what you need to start.

Refine

There's something here. It needs adjustment before it's worth investing further.

Kill

The evidence says don't invest further. You still leave with the Opportunity Map and the other two futures.

You're not paying me to make your original idea work. You're paying me to find out whether it's worth building.

What working with me feels like

We work together. We make decisions. We build things.

  • No disappearing into a strategy cave
  • No endless stakeholder interviews that produce a 70-page report
  • No workshop where everyone has sticky notes and nobody knows what happens on Monday

Creative thinking. Feet firmly on the ground. Designed for implementation.

You'll hear me ask

  • Who would actually pay for this?
  • What are we assuming?
  • What if we sold this to someone else?
  • What could we test next week?
  • Is this actually worth building?
Fit

This isn't for everyone, and I'll tell you in the first conversation.

This is for you if

  • You lead an established purpose-led organisation with real capability, reputation and ambition
  • You know the organisation needs to evolve, but can't yet see what the next model looks like
  • You're grateful for your funders, and you know that owning something which creates income would strengthen your impact and your legacy
  • You're ready to make decisions, invest resources and try something different
  • You want someone who will tell you when the answer is no

This isn't for you if

  • You want a report and a set of recommendations
  • You want the answer without your team in the room
  • The opportunity is unlikely to be commercially meaningful enough to justify a private engagement; the group program will be a better fit
  • You're looking for help winning more grants
  • You want someone to run the resulting business for you
Why me

I don't just find the idea. I know how to make it real.

I'm an industrial designer who has spent fourteen years working exclusively with purpose-led organisations, from frontline teams to board tables. Along the way I've learned to read a P&L, design services, develop new concepts, lead change, work with boards, facilitate decisions, and turn ideas into things people can actually use.

14

Years working exclusively with purpose-led organisations

100s

Founders and leaders, from frontline teams to board tables

Masters

Teaching Customer Experience Design at the University of Melbourne, a subject I co-designed in 2022

8 hrs

To build a bathroom for low-income families, with no prior knowledge required

Most people in this market either think or make. I do both, which is why what gets designed is built for the reality of the organisation that has to deliver it.

A note on your CFO

You don't have to choose between me and your CFO. We solve different parts of the same problem.

Your CFO helps you understand the numbers, strengthen your financial strategy and identify what the organisation needs to be viable. They help you understand where the money needs to come from.

I work on the other side of the equation. What could you actually sell? I help you design what you can offer to bring more of it in.

If you already have a CFO, I want them in the room. If you need one, I can recommend trusted partners.

The questions I always get

Asked and answered.

Isn't this just commercialising our mission?

The value already exists, and you're currently giving much of it away. I'm not asking you to sell your purpose, or to charge the people you serve. I'm asking a different question: who else has a problem your organisation is uniquely equipped to solve, and would pay you to solve it?

Our people can't pay for anything.

Correct. The buyer for the new offer usually isn't the person you serve today. That's the point.

Won't this pull the team away from mission work?

It will, if you bolt another business onto the organisation. It shouldn't, if the offer is designed properly. The delivery model and pricing need to cover the real cost of delivering it before you scale. That's part of the work we do together.

We tried a social enterprise before and it didn't work.

Often the problem is that the social enterprise becomes a second business built around capabilities the organisation doesn't actually have. We start somewhere else: what are you already exceptionally good at, and who else needs it?

We've tried consultants before and nothing stuck.

The most common thing I hear. Most consulting produces reports. You leave here with equipment, and with evidence about whether anyone will pay.

What if the idea doesn't work?

Then I'll tell you, and that's why we test before you invest heavily in building it. Before we get anywhere near a kill decision, we'll adapt and iterate to find a version that does work. You may leave with a Go, a Refine or a Kill, and all three are useful decisions.

Investment

A fixed fee for a fixed outcome.

This isn't priced by the day or the hour. You're investing in the opportunity, the evidence and the equipment required to take it forward.

The offers we design are built to generate $250,000 to $500,000 a year and beyond once established. What any single offer earns depends on the market, the product and the effort behind it, and by week twelve you'll have the business case in front of you and can judge for yourself.

The SHiFT Lab16 weeks, private 1:1
$—
Founding clientFirst three organisations
$—
Paid across three milestonesAs the work moves, not on a schedule
Commit · Back · Test

Fixed fee. Fixed scope. No surprise invoices.

The first three organisations receive founding-client pricing, in exchange for permission to document the work, the outcomes and the lessons, agreed upfront.

Next

Let's find your next offer.

A first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Bring the challenges, the ideas, the things you've tried, the thing you can't quite name. We'll work out whether there's something here worth building.

If I don't think the SHiFT Lab is right for your organisation, I'll tell you, and I'll tell you what I'd do instead.

Step one

A 45-minute conversation

What's happening, what's getting in the way, and what you're seeing that others aren't.

Step two

A short written proposal

Scope, capped hours, investment, and exactly what we're building together.

Step three

We start

Sixteen weeks later you have an evidence-backed, market-tested offer and a clear decision about what happens next.

Book a conversation

Four organisations in 2026. The last one starts late September, because I'm on maternity leave from mid-January.

Not this year

The 2027 waitlist

If the timing isn't right, or the four places have gone, join the waitlist. You'll be first to hear when the next round opens in mid-2027, and first to hear about the group program for organisations earlier in the journey.

Join the 2027 waitlist

See you soon,

Cata