From a service business to a product opportunity
Right Angle was already connecting companies with specialists, but much of the process relied on email, calendars, and manual coordination. ENC aimed to turn that service model into a platform that Right Angle and other expert networks could use to manage sourcing, candidates, communication, and scheduling in one place.
The challenge was turning a workflow that worked through human coordination into a product that could work beyond one company.
The team already understood expert sourcing in practice: clients submitted a need, networks proposed specialists, coordinated availability, and arranged consultations. The challenge was not only finding experts, but keeping the whole process moving without adding more coordination.
Project context was spread across emails and direct conversations.
Networks tracked requests, candidates, feedback, and next actions manually.
Clients could receive several experts, but comparing them consistently took extra effort.
Finding the right expert still left another round of availability and call coordination.
Every coordination step increased the distance between the client’s question and the expert conversation they actually needed.
Right Angle’s workflow gave us a strong starting point, but copying every internal habit would have created a tool optimized for one company.
Expert-network platforms already existed, so ENC had to fit familiar workflows while making sourcing and coordination meaningfully easier.
The platform needed enough structure to clarify the process without making every sourcing project rigid.
ENC needed to support clients working with several expert networks while keeping communication, candidates, and status understandable.
Sourcing continued through submissions, comparison, coordination, and scheduling.
Design the full sourcing lifecycle, not only search.
Project information lived across messages, calendars, and candidate lists.
Make the project the shared context for communication and decisions.
Clients needed to understand candidate differences, status, and next actions quickly.
Turn expert sourcing into a visible decision process, not a chain of messages.
Beneath the manual process, a common lifecycle emerged. This became the backbone of ENC, giving each feature a clear place in the workflow.
Define the request
Engage networks
Propose experts
Evaluate options
Reach consultation
Context was scattered across email, candidate lists, conversations, and calendars.
The product needed to work beyond one company and support several networks around the same request.
Receiving candidates was not enough; users needed to review, compare, and narrow down options.
Selecting the expert was not the end of the workflow.
Set up the request once, then coordinate participating expert networks around the same project.
One request became the shared starting point for sourcing.
Structured sourcing and comparison cut the time needed to reach relevant experts.
Connecting selection and scheduling helped more projects reach an expert conversation.
Shared project context reduced coordination between clients and expert networks.
Multiple teams could work from the same project context.
