Map & Fire

Map & Fire is a Los Angeles based research and brand consultancy. We help you own a unique space in your market with a mix of research, positioning, and messaging – so you can connect with more customers and grow with confidence.

View happy client testimonials at: https://mapandfire.com

Founder, Brand Strategist

HelloAdvisr LLC

Strategy Advisor

TVGla

• Led a team of 14 producers and was responsible for defining the department's vision and planning, managing overall budget, conducting individual reviews, setting goals and providing guidance on all project work.

• Provided strategic insights and oversaw production efforts for the agency's two largest Digital Agency of Record accounts, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, along with a wide array of campaigns for companies including Sony, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Hard Rock Cafe, Cinemax, A&E, History Channel, Dreamworks and Gruppo Campari.

• Unified and facilitated cross-training of a production department that had been historically split between a team of digital banner producers and web/app-focused producers. In addition, established dedicated production support for the company's quickly expanding social department.

• Worked to build strong relationships with all team members by providing personal support, empowering them to take on deeper responsibilities and challenging them to work on projects outside their immediate areas of expertise.

• Improved overall efficiency and expertise of the department through process refinement, mentorship and the introduction of improved project management and communication tools.

Executive Producer

• Played a key role in building the strategy and relationship that led to the agency's first major Digital Agency of Record account with Wheel of Fortune.

• Beyond production responsibilities, provided additional insight and value by helping to guide UX decisions, as well as input on creative and technical implementations.

• Led over 75 projects for clients such as Google, Sony, Universal Pictures, Mattel, and FOX. 

• Managed and oversaw between $1.5 - 2MM of project revenue annually, consistently delivering work under projected budgets.

Senior Producer

Better You

• Founding partner in startup, responsible for full UX, product management, and technical life cycle of project.

• Wrote business requirements, defined user experience, user flows, and created interactive wireframes for the entire site.

• Designed graphical UI elements for site and prototyped frontend experience.

• Managed developers to build out front and back end coding on a LAMP platform.

Co-Founder, Head of Product Development

Bird Branch

• Worked in a variety of roles including brand strategist, UX designer, creative lead, and developer on over 150 projects.

• Collaborated with a wide assortment of clients on projects ranging from the entertainment industry to consumer products to health care both in project lead and contractor roles.

• Extensive experience with both UI and graphic design.

• Developed front and backend code solutions utilizing existing frameworks as well as fully custom implementations. 

• Responsible for managing project budgets, tracking progress, and coordinating work both with clients and additional resources.

Founder, Strategy, UX, and Design Consultant

G4 Media

Senior Web Developer

Avacus Corporation

Web Developer

O'Neil Data

Unigraphics Solutions

Software Developer

Win with a brand built on research, not guesses | Founder Map & Fire 🔥, SmokeLadder | Contributor at Foundr Magazine

I use a mix of research, positioning, and messaging to help founders and marketing leaders connect with more customers and grow with confidence. 

My writing on strategy and research has been featured in Foundr Magazine and AdWeek. 

More about my background:

I've spent the last 20 years dreaming up and then bringing to life multiple startups as well as a wide range of digital projects. With every twist and turn of that journey there’s been a consistent thread of weaving together strategic problem solving, creative expression, and a curiosity to better understand how people think and make decisions. 

In the businesses I created or co-founded, my primary focus has always been on strategy and user experience. For others, I've worn lots of hats from Executive Producer, to Designer, to Copywriter, to Developer. I've also enjoyed an unofficial Account Services role where I carefully honed the craft of client therapy.

Over the years, I've collaborated with countless passionate small businesses along with several Fortune 500 brands including Google, Sony, Universal Pictures, Mattel, FOX, Dreamworks, CBS, A&E, Home Depot, Roland Keyboards, G4 TV, and the LA Times. 

When not doing mental gymnastics, I like spending time with my amazing wife and son, hiking, surfing, and watching things that make me laugh.

Clay Ostrom

Got some very exciting news to share for my app SmokeLadder!…but it does come with a little catch…


Yesterday I officially inked a contract with our biggest user yet. They’re a Fortune 100 company that you’ve probably heard of…though I can’t share the name *just* yet. 

This was actually a process that started back in September when they first reached out. After a couple demo meetings and a very thorough procurement process the deal is finally locked in.

They have a group of 6 brand strategists that will all be using SmokeLadder for their positioning and messaging work. 

Their team manages a ton of products, so as part of their positioning and strategy work they evaluate competitors along with their own websites and landing pages all the time. 

Here’s the catch.

I wasn’t targeting Fortune 100 companies with SmokeLadder…they found us. 

My main ICP, and basically all of our paid users, are folks in the agency space or consultants. 

The reason I went that direction is that every time an agency works on a brand they either:

1) Get paid to help their clients improve their positioning and messaging
2) At a minimum need to understand their client’s positioning (and their competitors) in order to execute all the other work they’re doing

For my own agency, every time I meet a new company the first thing I do is analyze their positioning and messaging to see how they fit in the market. (Makes those intro calls way more productive.) 

From a pure Jobs to Be Done pov, this big company isn’t too different. 

They’re not taking on clients, but managing their huge portfolio of products is similar to how an agency works. Constantly jumping from one product to the next. 

So, I’m not planning to switch my friendly PLG motion to Enterprise sales jusssst yet but I am excited to learn a lot from a new kind of user. 

In the meantime, it’s definitely cool to see that validation from a big name brand. 

Happy to celebrate the win. 🙌

Founder Map & Fire 🔥 // SmokeLadder.com | Research + Positioning + Messaging | Contributor at Foundr Magazine

Hit a fun little milestone here this week – 15K followers. 🎉


I’ve been making an effort this year to have more real conversations with new connections so that it’s not just another pretty round number, but something that actually makes an impact. 

It’s part of my bigger push this year to share more of myself and my ongoing founder journey here. 

Over the past several years it’s been a sloooow evolution of sharing…

…general thoughts on topics I enjoy, to…
…my specific pov on those topics, to…
…my direct thoughts via video, to…
…now my actual path behind-the-scenes building things…
(even including some of that scary vulnerability stuff) 

Strategically I think this is the path needed to survive as a small brand these days. Those relationships and connections are something bigger brands can’t replicate.  

But also, being more personal is just more fun. 

I spent quite a while being a bit cautious about how I present my ideas and myself. I'm starting to get more comfortable stripping those layers away.

And the true final boss obstacle for me is of course…the selfie. 😂

I’m determined to get over my hangups one goofy smiling photo at a time. 

So, if you want more of my thoughts, wins, screwups, journey, and the *occasional* selfie shoot me a connection. As long as you want to have a real conversation I'm down to chat. 😀

Cortica

Lead Service Designer + Design Ops Manager for Cortica's Product Team. Responsible for designing solutions that address the needs of Enrollment, Scheduling, Revenue Cycle Management, Finance and Clinical teams. Partnered with Cortica leadership teams to help orchestrate strategic initiatives and lead workshops to guide decision-making. Lead resource for analyzing and synthesizing how business rules, data and work flows should be shared between cross-functional teams, in various systems like Salesforce and UKG plus custom-developed scheduling and people management tools. Advocated for and instituted effective design processes, leading to more efficient collaboration with executive leadership and agile development teams. Designer of the Whole Child Scorecard application.

Service Design Lead

Service Designer for Cortica's agile Product Team. Responsible for designing and orchestrating experiences for Cortica's enrollment, scheduling and payroll teams. Designing the future state of Cortica's customer engagement portal, using research, user journeys, service blueprints and custom software development techniques. Facilitating workshops to help expose areas for growth and to drive collaboration and consensus across teams. Diving into how AI can assist back-and-front stage to make experiences work better.

Service Designer

nerdwords

Founded nerdwords to offer analysis and design consulting services to agency and small business clients.

As a Service Designer, led All Four Paws, Good Life Gear and Kippah Keepers through business transformation projects to create ecommerce-based brand management, marketing and sales channels for retail D2C and wholesale B2B customers
- understood current state of their businesses and co-created future business strategy centered on unique approaches for B2B & D2C customers
- created new operational processes to manage inventory, sales, inbound shipping, competitive and MAP pricing, returns, compliance and customer reviews
- developed a phased approach for launching new 3PL selling model
- set up product catalogs on Amazon, Walmart, Faire, Alibaba and their brand websites and configured FBA/Deliverr shipping for each marketplace
- evaluated / presented ecommerce and omni-channel listing SaaS solutions to manage new online business
- established reports to monitor competition, sales, advertising and other marketplace activities

Business Analyst + Service Designer

As a Business Analyst, partnered with POSSIBLE, H&Y Planning, Rubin Postaer & Associates, Hiveworks, BLITZ Agency, TVGla, The Revere Group and Haig Barrett (agencies) during the Discovery + Design phases of their client projects. 

Led projects for Toyota, Honda, Univar, GenOn, Mandalay Bay and Zojirushi clients. 
- interviewed stakeholders, gathered requirements, facilitated Joint Application Design (JAD) sessions
- mapped, simplified and streamlined complex processes, illustrating "as-is" to future state scenarios
- understood user needs through usability research and system / tool usage data
- analyzed interrelated systems and systems data to transition from existing tools to new solutions
- conducted competitive and best-in-class audits
- evaluated packaged/SaaS/marketplace-based solutions
- authored scope & requirements documents, site maps, wireframes, feature matrices and strategy presentations
- developed content and communication strategy including blogs and social media messaging
- presented to and communicating with all levels of an organization, from admins to subject matter experts to executive sponsors

Principal Business Analyst, UX Designer + Content Strategist

University of Toyota

As the lead analyst with the Business Renovation 2010 Initiative, had dual responsibilities: to guide the team that maintained the organization's existing training systems and conceptualize the next-generation of on-demand learning systems.

Legacy Systems
- managed legacy CERTPOINT Learning Management System and Maritz Certification Systems for TMS/TFS/Toyota/Scion/Lexus Dealers ($1.7M annual budget)
- improved performance of systems by implementing process enhancements, new analytics and reporting tools and creating user guides for systems administrators and business users

Next-Gen Learning System
- interviewed Executive Stakeholders to determine corporate goals along with business, SME and administrator needs
- led Corporate Training, IT, Finance and Dealers through facilitated design sessions to conceptualize the next-generation platform for organization-wide training
- gathered requirements, documented business processes, developed feature matrices and managed RACI system
- mapped current systems and underlying system data to proposed streamlined solution
- researched, evaluated and recommended SaaS products and custom-developed tool options from CERTPOINT and Maritz, identifying capabilities and gaps
- facilitated credentials presentations and tool demonstrations from short-listed candidates, leading to contract negotiations with selected vendors

Business Analyst + Program Manager

UCLA Extension/Dept. of the Arts

Collaborated with the head of the Department of the Arts, the largest unit with 4 programs / 14 cost centers / $7M revenue, to manage the business functions of the group by:  
-  standardizing department budgets and financials
-  updating multiple processes, including budgeting, purchasing, event planning and fundraising
-  implementing new marketing programs, from traditional advertising and print communications to online marketing
-  developing reports to measure program performance

Business + Marketing Manager

Avanade

At the behest of Creative Arts Agency (the project owners), joined Avanade to facilitate the transition of CAA's custom-designed Client Tracking System from Genex (the design team) to Avanade (the implementation team). 

-  began transition by documenting the full scope of the new system, including requirements, business processes, user scenarios, system and data maps, functional specifications and use cases
-  guided CAA clients and Avanade engineering team through design iterations for the system
-  served as an SME for the engineering team during development and QA

Functional Analyst

Genex

As a Client Partner, led Creative Artists Agency client team to create their new Client Tracking System.
-  facilitated application design sessions to outline objectives, critical success factors, system requirements and use cases, screen wireframes, business rules and overall functionality
-  guided project manager, architect, front-end designer and QA manager to create project plan, dependencies, staffing plan and budget
-  communicated project status to CAA and Genex executives
-  helped transition project post-design to Avanade for development

Client Partner

As a Program Manager, led team of 9 project managers focused on billable client programs.
-  led $1.5M program for Toyota, including the Toyota Corporate Global Knowledge Center, Scion Experience, Lexus In-Dealership Kiosks, Lexus Owner’s website and Product Training applications for sales managers and technicians
-  led $11.8M program for Honda, Honda Finance, Honda Product Development, Honda’s Business-Dealer Network, Online Service Scheduling and On-Board Wireless Messaging project
-  created maintenance program to manage www.ahm-ownerlink.com, www.hondafinancialservices.com, www.powerequipment.com
-  for both clients, established consistent processes across engagements, assigned project manager with appropriate skills to each engagement
-  instituted formal process to gather and document detailed requirements for all projects to manage scope, deliverables and expectations
-  instituted formal communication process to improve collaboration with client leadership 
-  managed annual contracts with Genex Client Partner assigned to both clients

Partnered with Genex leadership to improve how the Project Management and QA departments functioned, streamlining intra-department communication and processes.

Program Manager

Wunderman Interactive

Managed $2.8m Land Rover account and implemented annual program comprised of Online Inventory/Locate to Order tool, Global and North American websites, eConfigurator, Dealer Locator, Dealer Product Intranets, New Range Rover/2003 Discovery/Freelander launch sites, Email Campaigns, eNewsletters, and an Online Lead Management Tool.

Senior Producer, Account Supervisor + Digital Strategist

Open Enterprise Corporation

Managed $2.5M program for OEC's Financial Services group. Clients and projects included Thomson Financial Back Office Billing System, Wilmington Trust Online Banking website and State Street Bank Foreign Exchange Fund Tracking System.

Director of Client Services

Landor Associates

Co-leader of newly formed $1.5M-revenue Interactive Branding Practice. Managed projects for Microsoft Picture It!, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Bradesco S. A. Online Banking in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Government of South Australia in Adelaide, Australia.

Consultant, Interactive Branding

Young & Rubicam

Managed annual advertising budget of $2 million for Lincoln-Mercury Dealers Association of California and Pacific Northwest, including TV, radio, print, online and promotional sponsorships.

Assistant Account Executive

Passionate about helping organizations become more human-centric, holistic and efficient. Geeking out on orchestrating experiences. Diving into balanced, ethical, accessible AI!

taplio

The Battle

Clay Ostrom

Neha Paleja Khetan

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreClay Ostrom's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Clay Ostrom

Neha Paleja Khetan

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Clay Ostrom's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreClay Ostrom's LinkedIn Performance