Adventures with what3words in 2020

2020 started for me with a speaking event at CES about mobility - on a panel in real life, with other people. I had no idea that quite shortly after this I’d be relegated to sitting in front of the bookshelves in the hallway of my London apartment - and that the way we think about mobility/movement/logistics globally would have shifted hugely, too. 

Expectations vs Reality

It’s been a year nothing like the one we expected. In 2019, we’d seen a huge uptake of what3words in travel and events (people using what3words to help people find hidden gems in a city, or reach their rural Airbnb, or to navigate at a huge music venue); we’d seen people all over the world use what3words in adventuring and exploring, and in ridehailing and navigation - and then we saw people everywhere told to stop moving, to stay inside. 

I was definitely worried in April 2020. But then something happened that set the tone for the rest of the year: our colleagues, now working from bedrooms and kitchens, shifted basically overnight to a new way of working, with as much - if not more - energy and team spirit as ever.

Over the course of two weeks, our colleagues who had been working on travel, events, mobility and navigation shifted their focus entirely, and with determination and relentless energy, to logistics and ecommerce. We knew that people were ordering online more than ever before - we also knew that people needed to be confident the driver would find them, especially for contact-free deliveries in gardens and on doorsteps. 

This year ended up being a huge year for us in deliveries and logistics. We launched partnerships with Hermes, AO.com, BJS and many more. We saw DPD Germany discover that what3words is 15% faster in the last mile than traditional street addresses. We heard from drivers who were delighted not to have to drive around in circles trying to locate the front door or delivery entrance:

We also saw a surge in small, family-run and local businesses using what3words for deliveries in rural areas - from farm shops and grocery stores to garden supplies and local gin distilleries. I loved seeing this here in the UK, with businesses up and down the country asking their customers to use what3words. 

what3words and Covid response

Not only did we see demand for what3words grow in logistics and ecommerce through the pandemic, we also saw amazing public sector workers and volunteer groups use what3words to help in their Covid response.

From what3words being used to address hospital campuses, deliver medical equipment and supplies all over the place (from Arizona to Cape Town) and signpost Covid testing sites, to helping get PPE to the health workers who needed it, it’s been incredible to see. 

We also saw surges in outdoor exploration between lockdowns - and, as always, paramedics, mountain rescue workers and firefighters were able to use what3words to help them reach people faster in emergencies.

Seeing what3words be used by emergency responders from Canada and the US to Australia, South Africa and India has been incredibly touching in a year that’s been so hard for everyone. 

(You can see a collection of real-life rescues with what3words reported on social media here)

We’re even hearing these days about rescues in countries where we didn’t even know what3words was being used - one morning in November, we woke up to this story that it had been used to rescue two schoolboys lost in a forest in Singapore.

People on the move again

Our work with car companies in previous years saw us announce partnerships with car companies like Mercedes and Ford, and be joined by investors such as Subaru and SAIC. This year, we saw many more drivers get access to what3words: Tata Motors launched their brand-new infotainment system with what3words baked in; Triumph riders globally found what3words can work with their motorbikes; Mitsubishi announced its first what3words launch in the Eclipse. And we partnered with the mapping giant HERE, to bring what3words to millions of vehicles around the world. 

We’ve continued to see what3words help ridehailing customers feel confident they’ll end up in the right place - Careem launching what3words was brilliant to see (and I personally am so glad to see Addison Lee is also now set up with what3words in the UK to help get me to all those post-Covid weddings I can’t wait for...). 

Time to innovate

We get to work with large and small companies all around the world. Seeing the innovation in spite of - and sometimes because of - Covid has been inspiring to us, too. We’ve seen a serious increase in major venues (from concert halls and stadiums to university campuses) adding what3words information to their sites this year to help improve accessibility (and sometimes: social distancing!).

We also saw Royal Mail deliver the UK’s first package-by-drone - to a what3words address in Scotland. 

The what3words product

As ever, our tech and product teams have launched a host of new features and improvements. I’ve become obsessed during Covid with using the Apple Watch app to meet friends for walks. 

We’ve seen people build amazing lists of places to visit with our app's new shared list feature - and launched automated billing for our API (so we can help thousands more businesses get set up), while our apps continue to top charts throughout the world. 

Our incredible team

This year has reinforced for me every day how amazing our what3words team is. This group of people were determined to create success for the business during a global pandemic; they were also determined to help each other, support their colleagues who were struggling, collaborate across time zones and from bedrooms and kitchens and keep that wonderful spirit and energy that has always made what3words such a brilliant place to work.

I’ve had some really hard days this year, as we all have, and the incredible group of people I get to work with have absolutely inspired me and kept me going. We’ve missed being together - I haven’t even met some of my new colleagues in person yet - but we’ve definitely found ways to celebrate, commiserate and achieve remarkable results regardless. 

So it’s been a pretty unusual year, but I’m so proud of what our team has achieved together. This wrap-up video from our epic marketing team gives a little snapshot into our what3words world - as we hope for a different 2021, I’m feeling very glad and grateful for the people I’ve worked with in 2020. 

Postscript 

I spend a lot of time reading/listening to podcasts to try and steal ideas from others on things that have worked for them, and working with our incredible People and Ops teams to make sure our team feels supported, motivated and engaged with our big mission. I’ve collected together in a Twitter thread some things that helped me this year as our team steered itself through such unusual times - workday changes that have helped this year. Other ideas and hacks for things you've found work well during remote and pandemic-work (so I can steal those too) are always very welcome...!