Over the last few weeks, we deliberately stepped away from day-to-day delivery.
Not to create another strategy deck, of for a brainstorming session.
But to run a practical internal workshop focused on the Made network itself, how it works, how people experience it, and where it can quietly become harder to engage with than it needs to be.
The workshop brought together our team members from across the Midlands, Yorkshire and the South West, and we held it at Birmingham Library, the largest public library in the UK, and one of Lord Whitby’s most recognisable projects.
Built as part of Birmingham’s Big City Plan, it was designed to put the city firmly on the map: ambitious, civic, and forward-looking.
It turned out to be a fitting setting. The question we were there to answer was straightforward:
How do we make membership easier to engage with, easier to explain, and easier to get real value from?
So we pressure-tested three things.
- First, how members actually move through the network. Not the intended journey, but what really happens once someone joins.
- Second, where friction shows up.
- Moments where value exists, but isn’t always obvious, visible, or easy to act on.
- And third, how we support engagement without asking for more time than people realistically have.
For most manufacturing leaders, time, not willingness, is the real constraint.
The outcome wasn’t a shiny new strategy, it was clarity.
- Clearer journeys.
- Clearer signals.
- Clearer expectations, for us and for members.
One insight stood out more than any other:
Membership works best when people can engage at the level that suits them, without feeling they have to “use everything”.
That thinking is now shaping the next update to how events and engagement work across the network, which I’ll share separately.
For now, the important point is this:
We’re continuing to invest behind the scenes so the network stays practical, human, and genuinely useful as it grows.
- Fewer assumptions.
- More clarity.
- And systems that support people, rather than overwhelm them.
Exactly the kind of work that’s easiest to overlook, but hardest to do without. Following this workshop we will have a lot of ideas to engage and grow the memerbship and would just conclude with a thank you to all of the members who have supported us over the yearts and made this movement possible.