From Vendor to Partner: Creating Authentic Connections

Creating trust is a critical step in building any successful relationship — especially in business. With trust as the foundation, you can have honest (and sometimes difficult) conversations that pave the way to achieving goals and finding success.

At Innovatemap, we see ourselves as an extension of our clients’ teams and enter any new engagement with a partnership mindset. We’re not here to check boxes. We’re here to roll up our sleeves, make recommendations and bring your vision to life. 

We believe in an environment that fosters trust, builds relationships and ultimately leads to meaningful engagements.

Here to Help

When a founder or CEO connects with us, it’s usually because they need help solving a problem. Opening up can be hard so we create a safe space that allows for vulnerability. 

Starting the relationship with an authentic conversation establishes an open line of communication, allowing us to get to the root of their problems so we can identify the most effective solutions. 

Honest conversations aren’t always easy. But when trust is established, we can give and get the feedback that we need to hear because we have each other’s best interests in mind. 

Personal and Professional Trust

At the end of the day, we’re all people connecting with other people. 

From our initial interaction to the icebreaker in our first meeting, we’re conscious of creating both personal and professional trust with clients.

Personal trust creates a connection that lowers barriers and gives individuals the license to be honest and trust us with their problems. 

How we create personal trust:

• Getting to know our stakeholders beyond their job title or role.
• Asking questions and listening to answers.
• Engaging in genuine conversations and connection.

Professional trust is established by putting our client’s outcomes at the forefront of everything we do. We lean on our tried-and-true processes to carry their business and product forward. 

How we create professional trust:

• Focusing on outcomes, not hours. 
• Providing clear and consistent communication.
• Delivering work that demonstrates value.

Once personal and professional trust is built, it must be maintained. In our experience, honesty truly is the best policy and one our team embraces on a daily basis. 

How we maintain trust:

• Creating collaborative working environments.
• Having direct conversations, even when it’s uncomfortable.
• Openly receiving feedback, never taking it personally.

Whether it’s discussing project timelines or a change in priorities, those honest conversations continue to strengthen our relationships and enhance the quality of work.

Access to Experts 

We’re proud of the fact that our people are our product. We equip each of our partners with a team that’s uniquely suited to help them achieve their goals. 

In addition to the team assembled to work on a project, our clients always have access to our full team of experts. Working with founders and product leaders, we’re often called upon to advise on issues beyond the work itself.

As an extension of your team, we can offer advice on who to connect with and how to build a team. We can discuss opportunities for your growth strategy and recommend the product changes you need to make to get there. 

When you partner with Innovatemap, your product problems become our problems. And we’re going to work with you to find the right solutions.

A Two-Way Street

Building trust is fundamental in our approach to creating successful partnerships. As a team that has worked with hundreds of founders from a variety of industries, we feel an immense responsibility to deliver on our initial promise to do what’s best for your company and your product.

We understand that working with a product partner can take a leap of faith. We also know that’s when the magic happens — when our team builds trust with yours. 

When we create a safe space for our partners to be vulnerable and share their problems, we build the best solutions. We have hard conversations to offer clear and productive feedback. We work faster and deliver value sooner. 

We take being an extension of your team very seriously and that partnership doesn’t end when the work does. Throughout the course of establishing trust, creating authentic connections and delivering high-quality work, we become your biggest fans. 

There is no greater compliment in the world than when the partners we work with reach out and say, ‘We couldn’t have done it without you.’ 

We couldn’t do it without you, either.