Michael Catsi is the President & CEO of the Economic Development Board of Tacoma-Pierce County. The county is home to nearly a million people with key industries including aerospace, healthcare, logistics and technology. Its major employers include Boeing, Amazon, the Port of Tacoma, and Joint Base Lewis–McChord, one of the nation’s largest military bases. Michael and I sat down to discuss the results of a pilot program using The Groundbreakers Ecosystem Navigator.
I think for any economic development organization, if you can do a survey, get the results back, have the analytics all done for you and recommended course of action without essentially lifting a finger and at a price that’s affordable, I mean, that’s a no-brainer.
Ecosystem Navigator Pilot
Together with Michael, we designed a diagnostic asking experts in cities across the county to assess regional economic development from their own local vantage point, providing an excellent means of identifying commonly agreed gaps and opportunities, and equally vitally, points of intra-regional divergence.
Each respondent received the same 15-question, 10-minute structured diagnostic. The diagnostic included strategic questions about economic development, growth, and innovation, carefully examining how knowledge, talent and capital flow within the county. While each respondent saw the same diagnostic, each question they answered was localized to their city, enabling us to uncover county-wide themes of agreement and points of difference.
The product of the regional diagnostic is a clear, easy to read, actionable regional intelligence report with two main sections:
Overall regional report. Built in real time from the respondents’ answers to the structured diagnostic. The report surfaces regional economic development themes and recommendations, supported by in-depth analysis. The supporting analysis is presented in the form of a virtuous innovation cycle (where to improve the regional flow of knowledge, talent, and capital), a heat map highlighting variance in perspective, supported by evidence, examples, and supporting academic research.
Individual city reports. For each of the 6 participating cities, a complete report with its own virtuous innovation cycle, recommendations, and analysis.
As we also found in our Lethbridge County pilot, the results were excellent. Expert respondents from six cities across Pierce County participated, yielding real time insight Michael is now able to feed directly into his business retention and expansion, investment attraction, innovation support and strategic planning workflows. Each of those processes is now supported with expert evidence gained with minimal effort from respondents (10 mins to complete a structured diagnostic), significant time saved, and with minimal investment in uncovering the results.
What I like about it is that there wasn’t a lot of effort on my end of it, which is always great. Then the results came back quickly and the beauty of this is the fact that as those reports, as those responses come back, the report gets updated automatically with the new responses.
With unlimited diagnostics at his disposal, Michael can now assess other aspects of Pierce County’s ecosystem: different places, different roles (eg, academic institutions and their contribution to workforce development and knowledge production). He can also assess changes in the original respondents’ perspectives by re-running the same diagnostic with them months to a year, offering insight into things like program efficacy and how durable opinions are about key economic development issues.
Clear, Actionable Executive Reporting
I really like the format and it’s easy to read. It’s easy to understand. Lays out clearly the opportunities available and I think now what we’re going to be doing is looking at those opportunities and deciding how to prioritize them.
Meaningful, Multi-Perspective Regional Intelligence
The results are meaningful because you’re talking to the people you want to be talking to, the experts in your area, and you’re asking them all the same questions. So you’re getting different perspectives on the same topic. And that comes together in a way that gives you that broader overview of your region. There’s value there and it’s quick.
Universal Economic Development Affordability
This is something that most organizations can afford. Very surprising if you couldn’t afford it in one form or another.
About The Groundbreakers Ecosystem Navigator
The Ecosystem Navigator streamlines regional intelligence by surveying local subject matter experts with standardized strategic questions. As responses roll in, the platform automatically updates its analytics and synthesizes findings into an accessible, easy-to-read report that reliably mirrors each participant’s true intent.
Instead of relying on anecdotal assumptions, the platform surfaces areas of data-backed consensus while exposing regional blind spots and operational gaps. This external validation sharpens executive decision-making, giving leadership the mandate to fast-track high-priority initiatives and deprioritize lower-yield tasks.
For stretched economic development teams, the platform handles the analytical heavy lifting—from automated intake to recommended courses of action—with virtually no administrative burden on internal staff. Offered at an accessible price point that almost any organization can afford, it delivers turn-key strategic clarity and an actionable roadmap ready for immediate implementation.
