SIERRA AGUA
Our product development lab will transform your product idea into a commercial reality
At SierraAgua, we help businesses and entrepreneurs shape their ideas into products able to tap into new markets and take advantage of best available expertise, and technologies to generate new growth oppoortunities.
Drawing on our deep experience in new product development, technology commercialisation, and market strategy, we've developed an easy to understand Product Refinement Pathway, which will fast track taking for idea from intial concept, through to a marketable product, fine tuned to meet customers needs.
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No matter what stage you are currently at in the refinement process for your idea, our team will work with you to confirm the best product positioning, design, build and commercial strategy to accelerate development, enabling you to tap into the right market opportunities sooner.
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Talk to us today about how we can help you take your new ideas to the world.
PRODUCT REFINEMENT PATHWAY
Drawing on our expertise and experience in taking products from early concept to market, we've developed a simple, 4 stage Product Refinement Pathway, designed to provide a streamlined process to transform your idea into a market-ready product.
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Our experienced team can work with you at any of the Pathway stages, or can design a customised plan which will take you through each of the 4 stages in sequence.​​
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Learn more about each Pathway stage below, or reach out to our team to explore how we can help you get your ideas off the ground.
STAGE 1: FOUNDATION
First we take it back to the basics.
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For any idea to make it to scale, it needs to offer something people will be prepared to pay for, or even better, something they love to use.
We’ll work with you to unearth and confirm the best place for your idea in the market and customer journey and identify the key capabilities or outputs it will need, in order to be successful. From that foundation, we’ll build a robust concept plan, ready for you to test with key stakeholders, customers and experts.
STAGE 2: VALIDATION
Now we need to confirm if the new product idea has legs.
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We’ll help you to build a set of initial concepts which you can validate with potential customers, investors and stakeholders to gain their feedback and insight. We’ll then work with you to shape that feedback into a refined product concept, and initial customer use cases, to help target a first wave of customers.
STAGE 3: CREATION
Then it’s time to get busy building the first product.
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We’ll guide your in-house development team on pathways to design, engineer and produce a first version of your new product, or connect you to outside expertise with the skills you need.
We’ll work with you on a product plan which will guide on exactly how to get a first product out there – from initial release, to scaled deployment and marketing.
STAGE 4: GROWTH
Then it’s time to get busy building.
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We’ll guide your in-house development team on pathways to design, engineer and produce a first version of your new product, or connect you to outside expertise with the skills you need.
We’ll work with you on a product plan which will guide on exactly how to get a first product out there – from initial release, to scaled deployment and marketing.
RUMINATI
Co-Founder and CEO
Ruminati has developed an easy to use software platform to support pastoral farmers in rapidly estimating their farm's GHG emissions and identifying actionable steps they can take to reduce them.
Sierra Agua's co-founder Peter is also the co-founder and first CEO of Ruminati and is driving the delivery of the company's product development and market engagement strategies.
SierraAgua is proud to work with a number of Australia's leading innovators
OUR CUSTOMERS
COMMONWEALTH SCIENCE AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH ORGANISATION (CSIRO)
Technology market assessment and commercialisation
SierraAgua works directly with research teams within the CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, to provide specialised technology commercialisation support to help teams identify emerging market or commercial partnerships opportunities to accelerate spinout or adoption of CSIRO's research innovations.
MINDEROO FOUNDATION
Strategic Advisory and Initiative Development
SierraAgua provided Minderoo Foundation - one of Asia’s largest philanthropies - with strategy advice and direction on development of its Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative in Australia.
This included identifying large scale partners and projects able to enhance communities' and industries' preparedness and resilience, and assert Australia as the global leader in fire and flood resilience by 2025.
AUSTRALIAN PORK LIMITED (APL)
Digital Strategy Advisory
Australian Pork Limited is an industry-owned peak body supporting the development and sustainability of Australia’s pork industry.
SierraAgua led the development of an organisation-wide digital and data strategy for APL, providing guidance to APL's executive team on ways the organisation could optimise the collection and use of data to generate industry insights and provide new, valued services to its members and stakeholders. SierraAgua also recently led a major review of APL's PigPass national vendor declaration digital platform, providing strategic guidance on user needs, functionality and design considerations, to support the platform's future development and enhancement.
TRANSPORT FOR NSW
Strategic Advisory - SCATS Technology
SCATS is an intelligent, adaptive traffic control system installed in over 55,000 intersections across 187 cities and 28 countries worldwide. Developed and marketed by Transport for NSW, it is a globally successful traffic control system designed to optimise traffic flow.
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SierraAgua's CEO Peter Leihn was formally appointed as a member of the SCATS Venture Advisory Council from 2021 - 2023, which guided development and commercialisation advice back to government on next generation development of the SCATS technology.
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MEAT AND LIVESTOCK AUSTRALIA, INTEGRITY SYSTEMS
User Experience and Product Design Consultation
Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) is the peak body representing the interests of Australia's red meat industry. Integrity Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of MLA, invests to support innovative projects and practices to generate new value and opportunity for the industry.
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SierraAgua supported an MLA/ISC-funded project exploring the use of digital solutions to support livestock transport data capture. Our team led delivery of a stakeholder engagement and user needs analysis consultation process, to help inform the future development and design of the platform, to ensure it met user needs and expectations.
UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY
Industry Professor
University of Technology Sydney, Data Science Institute (DSI) is a global leader in fundamental and applied data science.
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SierraAgua's Co-Founder Peter is Professor and Deputy Director at DSI, advising a distinguished team of data scientists and engineers on commercial opportunities for their research.
NEARMAP
Strategic Advisory and Product Positioning
NearMap provides a rich source of regularly updated aerial imagery covering 100 urban areas across Australia, including 89% of the population. Massive-scale capture with up-to-date orthographic, oblique, or immersive 3D datasets available in the cloud for governments, insurers, infrastructure/providers and emergency services.
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SierraAgua supported development of Nearmap's Government engagement and partnering strategy.
EXOFLARE
Strategic Advisory and Commercialisation
ExoFlare is an Australian biosecurity software startup using data analytics and machine learning to rethink how to identify and respond to biosecurity risks, create behavioural change and increase supply chain resilience.
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SierraAgua provided advisory services to ExoFlare from 2020-2023 to support business opportunity and partnership development, and drive ExoFlare's forward product development and commercialisation strategy.
MALTEM
Business Development and Executive Coaching
Maltem is a leading French consultancy practice specialising in management consulting for digital transformation, data and analytics. The Maltem Group employs 1100 talented people across 12 countries.
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SierraAgua is providing executive coaching and strategy development support to Maltem's Executive and Business Development teams to guide the company's Australian market sales strategy.
AMBIATA
Strategic Advisory and Product Positioning
A subsidiary of Australia's largest insurer IAG, Ambiata designs and deploys ethical artificial intelligence solutions in governments and highly regulated industries. Ambiata specialises in continuous intelligence and automated bias detection in machine learning operations.
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SierraAgua led development of Ambiata's business development strategy and refinement of its core value proposition and sales narrative.
CORPORATE VALUE ASSOCIATES
Technology Opportunity Assessment
CVA is a boutique strategy consulting firm with global reach, operating out of 18 offices in Europe, the US and the Asia-Pacific region.
SierraAgua was engaged by CVA's Australian arm to provide expert support and advisory to evaluate and review the potential value a range of emerging technologies might offer to support animal and livestock traceability in Australia. The guidance provided was incorporated into a major report provided to decision makers in the livestock industry on future technology opportunties.
TWO BLACK SHEEP
Market Engagement and Product Strategy
Two Black Sheep is commercialising an innovative plant based range of products to provide consumers with a more nutritious, tasty and sustainable alternative to dairy.
SierraAgua is helping the company to develop its product development and investor engagement strategy, to get its innovative products to market and available to consumers everywhere.
OUR TEAM
CHERYL GEORGE
CEO and Co-Founder
Cheryl has over 25 years experience supporting organisations in Australia and around the world in bringing new products and services to life, and helping validate how digital and data driven technologies can help transform businesses and markets.
Cheryl’s career has included executive level roles spanning industry, government and research, including previously leading commercialisation and business development for CSIRO's Digital Innovaton arm, Data61. She has established networks into the Australian and global innovation and venture ecosystems and a deep understanding of emerging technologies, in particular artificial intelligence, having led the establishment of Australia's National Artificial Intelligence Centre housed within CSIRO and development of the Australian Government’s first Artificial Intelligence Roadmap, released in 2019.
As CEO and Co-Founder at SierraAgua, Cheryl works closely with organisations to develop clear, actionable product and technology commercialisation strategies, to help to take their businesses forward.
PETER LEIHN
Co-Founder
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Peter is a technology commercialisation veteran with over 30 years experience leading product development programs and new market engagement strategies, including holding executive level innovation-focused roles within global companies such as HP and Autodesk. Peter was also the founding Commercial Director at CSIRO's Data61, Australia's largest digital innovation and research group.
As Co-Founder at SierraAgua, Peter draws upon his broad experience in nurturing products from concept to life, to assist entrepreneurs and companies in realising new value from their platforms, products and services, and tapping into new, rich market opportunties in Australia and around the world.
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Co-Founder and Principal Consultant