Conic Group
Conic Group is a Chicago-based boutique innovation agency founded in 2011 that delivers human-centered design, civic engagement, and adaptive learning consulting to governments, educational institutions, and enterprises across more than 20 countries, with Auri as its AI-powered theory of change product.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2011
- HeadquartersChicago, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Conic Group does
Conic Group is a Chicago-based boutique innovation agency founded in 2011 by Ruben Ocampo that delivers human-centered design, strategic facilitation, and stakeholder engagement consulting to government, educational, and enterprise clients. The firm organizes its work around three practice areas — Civic Engagement, Adaptive Learning, and Responsible Innovation — and runs projects such as resident-centric civic design programs (City of Savannah, City of Helsinki, Chicago Public Schools), service design and blueprinting engagements (Google Accessibility, ISACA), and learning-institution strategy (University of West London, Chicago Public Schools). The team of 1-10 people includes certified LUMA Institute instructors, Service Design Network Master Trainers, and Bloomberg Philanthropies Innovation Coaches, and has delivered projects across more than 20 countries and 6 continents.
The firm's primary technology product is Auri, an AI-powered theory of change assistant launched in beta around 2023. Auri uses generative AI guided inputs and knowledge retrieval to help local governments, non-profits, and other organizations define mission statements, surface challenges, and identify stakeholders, then outputs custom logic models, theory-of-change diagrams, evaluation metrics, and implementation milestones. Beyond Auri, Conic has developed reusable assets including the 'Reimagining with Community' toolkit embedded at Chicago Public Schools and an iterated Service Blueprinting approach that integrates Desirability, Feasibility, and Viability lenses; the latter has been published through the Service Design Network Touchpoint.
The business model is professional services: custom quote-based consulting engagements, billed as multi-year contracts via project fees, retainers, and training delivery. Pricing is not publicly disclosed. Go-to-market is enterprise field sales through direct outreach, a website 'Get In Touch' form, content/earned media (TEDx talks, blog, conference speaking), and a partnership network anchored by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Harvard, and former Second Road (now Accenture Strategy) connections. Secondary revenue optionality exists through Auri's beta signup flow, which functions as a top-of-funnel lead-generation channel into paid engagements.
Conic Group firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Conic Group
- Legal name
- Conic Group
- Website
- https://conicgroup.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2011
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Conic Group is a Chicago-based boutique innovation agency founded in 2011 that delivers human-centered design, civic engagement, and adaptive learning consulting to governments, educational institutions, and enterprises across more than 20 countries, with Auri as its AI-powered theory of change product.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Conic Group industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Innovation Consulting
- NAICS
- Management Consulting Services (54161)
- SIC
- Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Compliance Technology, GRC Platforms & Controls Automation Advisory (BPAHAFAO)
Keywords
Where Conic Group is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Chicago
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Conic Group business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D
Revenue model
- Innovation Consulting Services: Professional consulting engagements including strategic facilitation, human-centered design workshops, stakeholder engagement programs, and innovation training. Projects range from multi-month engagements with government agencies to workshop-based interventions with corporations. Revenue generated through project fees, retainer arrangements, and training delivery.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Multi-year contract | Custom consulting engagements |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels5 records
Conic Group product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Conic Group is a boutique innovation agency that partners with governments, corporations, and educational institutions to deliver human-centered design consulting across three practice areas: Civic Engagement, Adaptive Learning, and Responsible Innovation. Services include strategic facilitation, stakeholder engagement, service blueprinting, community engagement toolkit development, and innovation training delivered through consulting engagements and workshops. The firm also offers Auri, an AI-powered theory-of-change assistant for developing logic models.
Product overview
Conic Group is a boutique innovation agency offering professional consulting services across three practice areas: Civic Engagement, Adaptive Learning, and Responsible Innovation. The company's primary technology product is Auri, an AI-powered theory of change assistant designed to help organizations develop logic models. Auri operates as a standalone tool available via web signup for beta testing, and is positioned as the company's flagship technology offering that embodies their human-centered innovation approach.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Auri: An AI-powered tool that helps local governments, non-profits, and other organizations develop logic models and create theory of change documentation faster, smarter, and with greater confidence.
Products and services
- Auri AI-powered theory of change assistant that helps local governments, non-profits, and organizations develop logic models through guided inputs, custom-generated visual models, and actionable outputs for strategic planning and evaluation.
- Civic Engagement Consulting Consulting service that empowers impacted individuals to be effective participants in public decision-making processes. Includes community engagement strategies, public decision-making facilitation, engagement toolkits, and multi-stakeholder engagement programs for city governments, public schools, and civic institutions.
- Adaptive Learning Consulting Co-design service that helps universities, professional associations, and educational organizations develop pioneering strategies and offerings to become more resilient amidst unpredictable futures. Includes stakeholder engagement, needs analysis, trend analysis, and strategic roadmapping.
- Responsible Innovation Consulting Facilitation service for corporations seeking to make innovation efforts strategically sound and sustainably balanced. Includes human-centered design, service blueprinting, product/service design team coaching, journey mapping, and strategic workshops.
Quantifiable outcome
- Westmont Enterprise Hub incubated 20+ startups, serviced 200+ members, forged alliances with 1,400+ regional businesses by 2022
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Conic Group
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Conic Group technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability4 records
Feature3 records
Conic Group partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.
- Bloomberg PhilanthropiescoreOngoing collaboration on civic innovation programs including Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership initiative. Conic coaches cities participating in Bloomberg Philanthropies' Innovation Training program. Projects include food apartheid solutions in Savannah, GA and civic mobility initiatives.
- Harvard UniversitycorePartnership through Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership initiative. Collaborative work on civic innovation with City of Helsinki addressing root causes of elderly mobility issues through resident-centric methodology.
- LUMA InstitutemajorTeam members are certified instructors with LUMA Institute. Alexis Baum was first Australia-based regional director for LUMA Institute. Founder Ruben Ocampo is certified LUMA instructor. LUMA methodology integrated into client engagements.
- Service Design NetworkmajorRuben Ocampo is a Master Trainer with Service Design Network. Conic contributes to industry knowledge through Service Design Network Touchpoint publications on service blueprinting.
- Second Road (now Accenture Strategy)minorSeveral team members previously worked at Second Road in Sydney, Australia. Tim Fife spent 13 years as Senior Director at Second Road before joining Conic. Second Road is now part of Accenture Strategy.
- City Colleges of ChicagominorPartnership through ISACA Lifelong Learning Journey project. ISACA, working with Conic's strategic roadmap, piloted new ventures in 2022 including collaboration with City Colleges of Chicago.
- University of West LondonmajorConic led comprehensive research and benchmarking study resulting in Westmont Enterprise Hub development. Continued relationship evidenced by hub's success metrics and regional business partnerships.
- FintexminorCollaboration on Fintech conference in London where Conic facilitated closing event, networking activities, and learning consolidation for participants.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Conic Group competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Livework: Service design consultancy with a particularly strong public-sector practice (government, civic, and healthcare design). Comparable in service design methodology and segment focus (civic institutions, educational bodies) to Conic Group.
- frog (Capgemini Engineering): Innovation and design consultancy specializing in human-centered product, service, and brand design. Now part of Capgemini, it serves a similar enterprise, government, and civic client base with deeply overlapping human-centered design methodology.
- IDEO: Premier global design and innovation consultancy offering human-centered design, civic innovation, and strategy services to enterprises, governments, and foundations. Directly comparable to Conic in client mix, methodology (design thinking, service design), and engagement model.
- Fjord (Accenture): Service design and customer experience consultancy (part of Accenture Interactive) focused on human-centered design and service blueprinting. Overlaps directly with Conic's service blueprinting and stakeholder engagement practice for enterprise and public sector clients.
Others
- Service Design Network: Global not-for-profit network advancing the practice of service design. Conic's founder is a Master Trainer; the network brings together comparable consultancies and practitioners and supports shared thought leadership in the service design space.
- LUMA Institute: Innovation training and human-centered design methodology provider behind the LUMA System of Innovation. Conic's founder is a certified LUMA instructor and LUMA methodology is integrated directly into Conic's client engagements.
Broad incumbents
- Publicis Sapient: Global digital transformation consultancy with strategy, design, and engineering practices. Competes for similar enterprise innovation engagements but as part of a much larger global business services portfolio.
- BCG Platinion: BCG's technology and design consulting arm offering strategy, innovation, and digital design services. Overlaps with Conic's innovation consulting work and increasingly with civic engagement at global scale, but as part of a broader strategy portfolio.
- McKinsey Design: Strategy consulting firm with a dedicated design practice offering innovation, design, and human-centered strategy at global scale. Competes with Conic at the civic and enterprise level but as part of a vastly larger portfolio with thousands of consultants.
- Deloitte Digital: Large-scale digital transformation and design consultancy with human-centered design practices and global delivery capacity. Provides overlapping innovation services to enterprises and public sector but at materially larger scale than Conic.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Conic Group social profiles
Digital presenceConic Group financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Conic Group leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
Conic Group funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Conic Group M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Conic Group
What does Conic Group do?
Conic Group is a boutique innovation agency that partners with governments, corporations, and educational institutions to deliver human-centered design consulting across three practice areas: Civic Engagement, Adaptive Learning, and Responsible Innovation. Services include strategic facilitation, stakeholder engagement, service blueprinting, community engagement toolkit development, and innovation training delivered through consulting engagements and workshops. The firm also offers Auri, an AI-powered theory-of-change assistant for developing logic models.
Is Conic Group a public or private company?
Conic Group is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Conic Group founded?
Conic Group was founded in 2011. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Conic Group based?
Conic Group is headquartered in Chicago, United States, in the North America region.
How does Conic Group make money?
One revenue line is on record: innovation Consulting Services.
Who are Conic Group's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Livework, frog (Capgemini Engineering), IDEO and Fjord (Accenture). Others are Service Design Network and LUMA Institute. Broad incumbents are Publicis Sapient, BCG Platinion, McKinsey Design and Deloitte Digital.
Does Conic Group have an API?
No public API is recorded for Conic Group.
What industry is Conic Group in?
Conic Group's product category is Innovation Consulting. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAHAFAO, Compliance Technology, GRC Platforms & Controls Automation Advisory. Its NAICS code is 54161 and its SIC code is 8742.