And no, AI didn’t write this blog (although I confess it enhanced it a little).
Let’s start by looking back. Prior to the last two months, like many small business owners, I could best be described as an AI novice. From a business perspective, my AI experience had been jumping between free versions of ChatGPT and Perplexity for tasks like editing and finessing my writing, and surface research to support strategic development.
Working with technology B2B companies, AI was increasingly becoming a key part of client conversations and offerings. It was also hard not to ignore the AI tools that popped up as silent participants in my workshops and presentations—the bigger the meeting, the more of these unexpected guests would appear. FOMO was kicking in.
The barrier for Rocket Science up to this point had really been understanding just how AI could enhance what we do and whether it was worth the effort and the investment. As a business built on high-touch client relationships, where strategies and creative work are tailored to deliver high-quality outcomes, coupled with response times that move faster than the clients we serve—we definitely didn’t want to dilute anything that was working.
The unexpected light bulb went off during a workshop with NZ scale-up Arcanum AI. They shared how their AI solution Numa was purpose-built for SMBs, with enterprise-grade smarts and security, while being extremely simple to use—so much so that if you can CTRL+C and CTRL+V, you can use Numa. They shared that following a quick installation, the adoption steps included adding company information, training Numa on the business by uploading and indexing key examples into the knowledge base and then getting to work by asking questions and instructing Numa to complete tasks. Of high appeal was the fact that data isn’t taken outside the business into a third-party tool, but rather the tool becomes embedded in the business and wraps around existing data, content and search behaviour. I always felt uncomfortable with ChatGPT and Perplexity for this very reason.
With almost a decade of running workshops and creating strategies specifically in the tech B2B space—for the first time ever, I ended the workshop not with next steps and timings, but with a question, ‘So how do I buy?’
To justify the costs, the goal for me personally was to save two hours a month. The icing on top was getting five licences within the same investment, which added the potential to compound the benefits across the team and the business.
60 days in, and here’s a selection of the use cases and benefits that we have discovered.
Use Case 1 – Case Study Interviews
At Rocket Science we have a case-study-as-a-service package that we offer our clients. This involves an interview with a number of subjects, writing an original, compelling and human-centric story and social posts for all parties, through to the design of all the content assets.
To train Numa we loaded our in-market approved examples into the Knowledge Base, along with the creative briefs that were instrumental to the process. This means that now, once we have the interview transcript, we upload it and request the notes to be organised as per the case study creative brief template and final outputs.
A creative brief that once took 3-4 hours to craft by organising all the rich yet unstructured interview notes to prepare for our copywriter, now takes 20 seconds tops. We still need an hour or two to finesse the brief and add the human touch, but the organising of the script is super thorough and sets everyone up for success.
Use Case 2 – Workshop to Strategy Process
At Rocket Science, there are generally three types of strategies we deliver:
• Full GTM strategy – output includes value proposition and strategic narrative combined with a full go-to-market plan across all customer touchpoints from acquisition through to nurture.
• Value proposition and strategic narrative only – particularly helpful for MSPs and ISVs who are looking to differentiate in market with a view to updating their current website, marketing and sales collateral.
• Lead generation strategy – for companies who have their value proposition and narrative but need a plan to go to market. This is supported with a financial forecast model to set success benchmarks.
We typically run 1.5-to-2-hour workshops to get all the valuable inputs we need to craft these strategies. We have trained Numa on the different types of strategies we do by uploading and indexing supporting examples. Then after the workshop, we upload any content the client has shared, our workshop deck with initial findings, plus the full workshop transcript, and instruct Numa to provide a detailed download that takes into account all the information according to the distinct strategy type.
For all these strategies, we have a research-backed focus on teaching rather than selling, often in ways that are slightly provocative to maximise audience interest and engagement. Once the inputs are ingested in Numa, we receive a comprehensive set of organised notes that brings everything together with some interesting teaching angles that we can utilise. This means that more time is freed up for higher-value strategic thinking rather than trawling through the unstructured conversational transcript and cross-referencing against all the other content provided.
Use Case 3 – Finessing Strategies
Rocket Science strategies go deep and broad into the audience context, roles and needs, including shared needs across the buying group and client’s solution and offering. Whilst we gather and showcase the rich information needed, we also have a process of continuously distilling every section of the strategy down into a succinct insight until we land on a tight customer value proposition and tagline.
Numa has sped up this distilling process, providing a set of key points that we can cross-reference against. Together with human input, this ensures that all information is considered and crafted to provide robust strategic foundations that are reflective of the deeper and broader insights gathered as part of the more detailed strategic process. Numa even challenges us on value propositions, providing a cheeky but thought-provoking rating that is often taken into account and value props are further finessed until we get an 8/10 or higher.
Use Case 4 – Third-Party Evidence
To further enhance our strategies, we look for compelling third-party evidence in the form of quotes and references from known and trusted sources. Anyone who does desk research knows that the potential of being lost down a rabbit hole in this phase is high, with precious hours gone before you have found the golden nugget you are seeking.
With Numa, we can share the context together with exactly what we are looking for, and within seconds we have options that we can draw from to build our case.
Use Case 5 – Go-to-Market Channels
As part of our lead generation strategies, we do extensive research across all the industry partner and media channels to gather their media kits along with relevant information including communication channels, audience, reach, typical open and click-through rates and costs. This research can be very time-consuming, particularly if it’s in a non-familiar market.
We were recently tasked with launching a new vendor program in New Zealand, so we called on Numa to help. It completed a full scan of the go-to-market channels that matched our brief and collated all the findings into a table complete with websites and contact details. A task that may have taken a few weeks or more was condensed down to just a few days. From there, we could input the relevant information into our financial forecast model, easily identify gaps for follow-up conversations, and provide recommendations to the client of the channels that would likely be most effective and cost-efficient.
Use Case 6 – New Business
As customer-experience-driven marketers specialising in the B2B technology space, it’s not unusual for the team to be tasked with building strategies, go-to-market plans and content for highly technical solutions. New business meetings are often with product specialists and technical leads who understand their solution extremely well but need help to translate the technical story into narrative that engages their target audience around outcomes that matter to them.
To prepare for these conversations, it’s critical that the team understands key aspects of the company, solution and customer benefits. Again, Numa has proven to be instrumental in preparing for these meetings, demystifying complex technical speak into accessible language that prepares us to have more valuable conversations with prospective clients from the very first engagement—enabling us to provide more value faster.
So, 60 days into our journey, I am loving having a new supercharged virtual workmate and continuously learning and uncovering new ways to put AI to work for our business, to help us mere humans take what we do to the next level.
The results speak for themselves: administrative tasks that once took weeks or days are now the quickest part of the process, giving our team critical time back for strategic thinking, highly bespoke creative development and client service. For me personally, I far surpassed my goal of saving two hours per month. This time saving has unexpectedly translated into real revenue opportunities—we now have the confidence and capacity to take on more clients and run more active projects simultaneously, all without draining our resources or compromising quality.
