From Insight to Impact: Internal Competition Spots Opportunities in How We Work
“How can HH Angus use data already available within our firm to better understand where time and effort are being spent—and help focus on more meaningful work?”
That was the core question behind our recent Innovation Challenge, HH Angus’ annual in-house contest where teams suggested new ways of working to our panel of judges. This year’s first-place team, ‘The Outliers’, responded with a practical, people-focused approach: use real company data to spot patterns, identify opportunities for improvement, and suggest ways to support better project delivery, smoother workflows, and stronger knowledge sharing.
Rather than trying to force every dataset into one story, the team looked at several sources separately and focused on what each could reveal.
Smarter resourcing: matching experience to project needs
Using anonymized project data, the team explored patterns in how work is typically shared between senior and junior staff across different types of projects.
Their key takeaway was that having a clearer view of these patterns can help teams plan resourcing more intentionally, balancing budget, risk, and staff development. Over time, this could support more consistent delivery approaches and help ensure expertise is applied where it has the greatest impact.
Knowledge sharing: what internal questions reveal
Another area of focus was HH Angus’ internal Stack Overflow (a knowledge sharing software tool) activity—how employees ask and answer technical questions.
The team discovered that a large share of questions were related to Revit and other design tools, reinforcing how central digital workflows are to daily delivery. They also observed strong participation by in-house experts who share answers and solutions that others can reference later.
This highlights Stack Overflow’s value as a vital living knowledge base—a place where staff can learn from each other, solve problems faster, and reduce repeated effort.
Engagement over time: encouraging consistent participation
Finally, the team looked at participation trends on the Stack Overflow platform. Like many internal tools, usage increased during early promotion and then normalized over time.
They also observed that response times improved—questions were answered faster as the platform matured—showing that even with fluctuating participation, active contributors are helping to keep knowledge moving.
A clear outcome: data as a tool to support people
Across all findings, the first-place team demonstrated how thoughtful analysis can reveal opportunities to improve how work gets done—without losing sight of what matters most: enabling people to do their best work on our clients.
Their solution points toward practical next steps to continue exploring, including:
- planning project resourcing with more visibility and intention
- identifying technical bottlenecks that affect productivity
- strengthening internal knowledge-sharing practices
Congratulations to all The Outliers on their winning submission - Eason Hou, Jackie Wu, Shaun Lee, Vanessa Tan and Victor Cheng Ji; and to all the participating teams for the time and effort dedicated to developing your presentations.
The annual Challenge contest continues to show that innovation at HH Angus is not just about new technology—it’s about using insight to support smarter decisions, stronger collaboration, and long-term success.