Overview
Won a competitive tender to build "GetSet," an educational injury and illness prevention tool commissioned by the International Olympic Committee for the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games, then worked on the go-to-market strategy to scale it beyond the Games.
The Challenge
The IOC needed an educational tool to raise athletes' and coaches' awareness of injury and illness prevention for the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games' Culture & Education Programme, commissioned through Prof. Roald Bahr's Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NIH), under a signed agreement with the IOC's Medical and Scientific Department.
What We Propose
Making Waves won the build through NIH's open tender process, submitting a methodology built on its "WaveMaker" human-centred service design approach, delivered in close co-creation with NIH and the Sports Injury Research Centre. In Making Waves' own account of the project: "Client created website... Problem was nobody used it... So Client asked Making Waves for help... We created GET SET APP." The project delivered a formally accepted final product, evidenced by a signed "Final confirmation of acceptance of project delivery" document, ahead of the Games, built by a cross-office Oslo and Poland team. The work then continued into a Norwegian consumer follow-on, "Skadefri," a website plus iOS and Android app built on the Get Set content, which shipped to the App Store. Russell personally authored the go-to-market strategy for scaling the tool beyond the Youth Olympic Games, structuring B2C (athletes and trainers) and B2B (national and international sports federations) campaigns, sport- and geography-specific search advertising, and amplification through IOC partner channels.
Why It Matters
The project turned an educational resource nobody was using into a formally accepted tool for the IOC's Youth Olympic Games, built under a signed agreement with named IOC and NIH leadership including globally recognised sports-medicine researcher Prof. Roald Bahr, and went on to ship as a genuine consumer app, Skadefri, with a scale-up strategy designed to extend its reach to sports federations worldwide.
This work was delivered while Russell was employed at Making Waves (later NoA Ignite). The core 'GetSet' tool was built by the Making Waves (later NoA Ignite) team under a signed agreement between the IOC and the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NIH); Russell's confirmed personal contribution was the go-to-market and scale-up strategy. Any public information referenced here is used for identification and does not imply endorsement.
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