IGNITE in Action: How CCR Turned Insight Into Impact
- Erin Wright
- Jul 15
- 4 min read
We knew that the Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR) didn't need a 100-page strategy deck collecting dust in Sharepoint.
They needed a strategy, but more importantly they needed proof. Something real to show what would work, get their team bought-in, and build the case to secure funding.
This was a perfect fit for IGNITE, our fast-start strategy sprint that uncovered key opportunities for CCR, aligned their priorities, and brought ideas to life with a working prototype, so nothing would be left to guesswork.
→ Want to learn more about IGNITE? Read more here!
The Case for Change
The Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR) provides free and high-quality conflict resolution and mediation services to the Chicago land community helping to transform conflict into dialogue and resolution.
As demand for CCR grew, so did the gaps in support from their internal systems. With most of their technology focus going toward supporting core mediation programs, areas like marketing and outreach, conflict resolution training, and volunteer management were being managed independently, creating siloes that made growth harder.
With the chance to put a clear digital roadmap in place, the team knew it was time to rethink how technology could better serve both their people and their mission.
Four Steps to Actionable Strategy
Our strategy work isn't just workshops and whiteboards. These engagements follow a foundational and well established four-stage framework:
Ask → Understand → Ideate → Define
Ask
The first step was to facilitate a collaborative strategy workshop to align CCRs teams and co-create clear challenge statements that defined our focus.
What's a challenge statement?
Challenge statements give structure for problem-solving. They define a focused area we want to address by framing the issue, why it matters, and what success looks like.
A strong challenge statement should:
state the problem or goal
explain why it matters
describe the ideal outcome
set boundaries (so we don't try and solve everything)
With CCR, we landed on two core challenge statements:
We have to maximize the use of our technology to better serve the community
We have to utilize technology to expand our reach through digital channels.
Understand
Approaching this from both functional and technical angles, we interviewed staff across roles to understand how the work really gets done, and reviewing current systems and workflows to ground our insights within the context of the technology available.
This gave us a clear view of where CCR's systems were could improve:
Avoid information silos across systems
Reduce time lost to manual admin work
Create outreach infrastructure to support and measure growth
Ideate
We began reframing what we found into focused opportunities using How Might We (HMW) questions.
How Might We questions help us focus on possibilities instead of constraints. They are open-ended prompts that help us explore human-centered and actionable solutions.
Some of the HMW questions we posed with CCR:
How might we build a 360 degree view of organizational data and relationships?
How might we reduce repetitive admin work?
How might we capture key outreach data?
These questions became the launchpad for brainstorming solutions grounded in real user needs and platform capabilities.
Which then led us to concepts like extending their Salesforce usage to:
Centralize relationship management and engagement tracking
Become the source of truth for mediation training management
Streamline volunteer communications
Capture referrals across mediation, trainings, and volunteers
Enable audience segmentation for outreach
The focus was to form concepts that weren’t just theoretical ideas. They were real possibilities we could validate in the next phase.
Define
As a validation of what could actually be done, we built a working Salesforce prototype within CCR's tech stack without pulling in new tools or expanding the footprint.
It showed what aligned technology and thoughtful design could really do:
Simplify day-to-day work
Connect the dots between people, programs, and outreach
Meet staff where they are, without asking them to reinvent how they work
The IGNITE Impact
The CCR team walked away with more than just a plan on paper. They came away with a deeper understanding of how their business and technology could work together more effectively, a phased roadmap to guide their next steps, and—most importantly—alignment across teams, confidence in the solution, and the momentum to move forward with clarity and purpose.
ALIGNMENT: Cross-team understanding of how Salesforce could support growth beyond core programs.
CONFIDENCE: Validation of what's possible and where to focus next, both technically and operationally.
MOMENTUM: Buy-in from leadership and end users, sparked by seeing ideas tested in platform.
DIRECTION: A phased roadmap anchored in real user needs and platform realities guiding smarter decisions and future investments.
“You took the time to really digest the work my team does and reflected our challenges and opportunities meaningfully.” - Jenna Silver, Training Director
What We Delivered
A working Salesforce proof-of-concept using CCR's real data
A segmentation-ready outreach model and outreach tracking tools
Best-practice guides to unify tool usage
A phased implementation roadmap, with and without external support
Because strategy doesn’t matter if it doesn’t move you forward, and it doesn’t stick if it doesn’t work for the people doing the work.
Want this for your team?
IGNITE is our fast-start strategy sprint that uncovers opportunities, aligns priorities, and gives you a real path forward, fast.
