Delve

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

American Student Assistance (ASA) is a national nonprofit who is helping kids to make informed and confident decisions about what to do with their lives after high school. I'm the VP of Marketing and oversee all marketing efforts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire altr, and what were your goals?

We hired altr to help us conceptualize, design and build a new and modern corporate website that would engage our various B2B audiences and motivate them to take action with ASA. Our primary goal was to tell the unique ASA story in a way that would resonate with each B2B audience and motivate them to take action, all within 2 minutes of time since that is the reality of website activity in 2022.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We selected altr for a few reasons 1 - They came highly recommended by trusted industry peers 2 - We wanted a partner that would push our strategic thinking and not simply be a "yes" agency 3 - We wanted senior level engagement on an ongoing basis to help push the thinking and boundaries of the project 4 - The altr team was smart but down to early and easy to communicate with. They aren't an agency that speaks using buzzwords and dresses in all black attire. They're smart and experts in their respective areas but open to other ideas

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We worked against an accelerated project timeline of 6 months that followed all of the key steps in a web design project.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The altr team consisted of 6-10 people of varying levels across different disciplines - strategy, design, copy, project management and programming

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The overall reaction to the new website has been extremely positive, from our CEO and senior partners to junior staff. The best compliment I heard was from a senior copywriter who said, "I'm so excited to now have something to share with my Mom that does a great job explaining who we are and what our important mission is."

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Project management was very buttoned up with details provided a few times each week on what was due, what was coming, etc.. We always knew where things stood and where we needed to focus our time and efforts. The communication style of both teams was open and collaborative, even in the times where there was a disagreement over direction or concepts, we knew that both parties could be 100% clear and transparent with each other and we always found a way to resolve it in a manner that worked for everyone.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their willingness to listen and embrace another POV, despite being experts in their respective areas. They understand the value of collaboration and thrive in environments where this is the focus of both parties.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Given our accelerated project timeline, we should have spent more time upfront talking about the realities of the timeline and what would be expected from everyone involved, especially the review cycle with senior management. We worked our way through it, but it's an area we should have addressed in more detail up front to ensure we understood what we were signing up for.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief growth officer at Erewhon, an organic grocery store and café based in Los Angeles.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We were looking to build and design a new mobile app for our membership program. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We went back and forth with altr to define the scope of the project, which included the app's design and the UX/UI. We provided them with a detailed brief and features we wanted to include. Then, altr conducted a week of research. A lot of the user personas had already been defined by our team, but altr helped define a few more. Their team designed the entire aesthetic of the app in Figma, which is dark and more unique than similar apps. Their team also proposed several ways to promote products and make announcements. 

They delivered the final mobile app design that our in-house team implemented during development. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with four teammates, including two designers and the co-founders, who served as the head of design and head of strategy. 

How did you come to work with altr?

A colleague and I used several websites, including Clutch, and contacted colleagues in our space to identify design agencies that had done mobile app design work. We identified 20–30 agencies and then had calls with 5–10 of them. We narrowed the results to a few agencies in the US and a few internationally. We got proposals from those agencies and selected altr. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with altr was from January–April 2022. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We launched the app last week, and the reception has been wonderful. Users love the app because it works really well. 

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

We had several calls a week with them over the 8–9 weeks we worked with them. Everything was delivered on time, and they provided email updates before and after our regularly scheduled calls. Outside of that, we communicated through emails and Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their creative design is their biggest strength. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have no constructive feedback. Everything went as well as it could've. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I'd suggest having a detailed brief ready before the engaging altr. We were clear about what features we wanted, which made the entire process productive.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Centerpiece Software, a technology company dedicated to the food service equipment industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We were looking for a UI/UX design agency to help us build out our initial project management platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired altr to help design the U/UX of our initial project management platform using Figma. We started the engagement with a lot of conversations about our industry, the problems that we were looking to solve, our users, and the pain points for different types of users. altr did a great job of narrowing down the scope intelligently and making sure that we were on the same page. They led this whole discovery process and produced a three-page summary of our findings.

The final deliverables were a full set of software designs, screens, and drawings for this initial platform. altr then showcased these deliverables to a group of prospective users and interviewed them to get their feedback and ensure that we’re on the right track to building something valuable for them and their organizations.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Geordie (Founder & Chief of Strategy), Christine (Founder & Chief of Design), and Kate (Senior UI/UX Designer). Kate was primarily responsible for putting together the wireframes, and Geordie was the one who conducted all of the one-on-one interviews. They were all collectively responsible for putting together the user personas, thinking about the strategy, and doing the initial whiteboarding sessions. 

How did you come to work with altr?

My CTO has worked with altr in the past at his prior organization and had a really good experience with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $65,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April 2022–June 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

altr's work allowed us to acquire more interest from large enterprise customers. So far, we have added three large enterprises that reviewed these designs to our pipeline. The users that went through this design process included seven executives at three of the largest enterprises in our target markets, and all of them were incredibly excited about how the process went and about the final software design. One of them has even committed to onboard themselves once we filled the application, which we're working on right now. 
  
 Overall, we were very happy with altr’s work, so we're planning on continuing to use them as our primary design team. We're hoping that we can reengage with them on some new features and new platforms in the next month or so.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

altr performed well in terms of project management. They were responsive to all of our questions. They also took the time to schedule a recap meeting at the end of the project, where we walked through all the work that had been done and answered any kind of outstanding questions we had.

We primarily communicated through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

My sample size is fairly small, but altr has been the best group that we've worked with. The quality of their process and wireframes stood out, and they did an excellent job of getting up to speed on our very nuanced, off-the-radar industry.

Another great thing about altr is that they still continue to provide support and insights even though our project has already ended. As we actually develop their designs into a web app, they still continue to answer any questions that we have and provide insights.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no complaints. I wish I had them working for me every single day.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you let them go through their process. They're experts at identifying user pain points — even though they're not experts in this industry that I've been in for years, they've seen and developed so many types of technology solutions across a whole wide range of industries that there's probably not a technology pain point that they haven't seen before.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of the company. We are a new innovative 911 healthcare technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire altr, and what were your goals?

Our original website and company branding was created by me and I am not a web developer, so it certainly was not a professionally done site and did not represent our brand or offering well. We are in a very innovative space, creating something that doesn't currently exist so it is very important for us to have a custom site that appropriately communicates our solution, team, etc.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We were introduced through a former colleague of mine.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We had a kickoff meeting, storyboard meeting, and then several UX review meetings to get aligned on the goals and direction of the site. Then we went into development, QA, and launch.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with a project manager, designer, and several developers over the course of the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The general feedback has been incredibly positive. Our team is thrilled, investors are excited, and the reception by our prospect base has been incredible. They immediately understand what it is that we do and how we do it.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had weekly or bi-weekly check-ins and a shared Slack channel to maintain ongoing communications. We also had a spreadsheet for tracking the status of all action items for the project.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They were able to create a website that represented a very abstract concept and make it real for our audience. This is not as easy to do as creating a website for something that everyone already knows about and understands.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Product Management at a vessel autonomy and perception startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire altr?

We were developing the next-generation of our key product and wanted to re-envision the UI/UX to be more modern, focused and intuitive.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We searched online for the best UI/UX developers both in and outside our area. We down-selected to a list of 3 and requested written proposals from each for comparison. After interviewing all 3, we selected Altr based on their vision, local proximity, past reviews, cost and their enthusiasm to help orchestrate our shared vision.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The original scope of the project was larger and more expensive than we had time/budget for. The Altr team was quick to adapt their proposal to help us optimize our engagement with our available resources. Once under contract, they immediately started a rapid discovery process of research and planning to align with stakeholders and capture functional requirements. They then performed UX concepting consisting of concept sketching and refinement, user testing and team review.

Finally, they performed concept design and delivery over the course of several sprints with collaborative work with our development team through Figma. We are now in a maintenance relationship with them while we rollout the development of the design.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with 4 people from the Altr team. All of whom were knowledgeable and brought unique value to the team. Chief of Strategy Chief of Design Design Director UI Designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We're very pleased with the deliverables from their team. The Figma files are proving to be easy to implement and the design is elegant and versatile. We've been able to extend the value of their original design to other products by leveraging a common design language and resources they've provided. We had originally considered doing the UI/UX design in-house, but using a skilled third party like Altr resulted in a much better product due to their expertise and unique perspective on design.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was excellent. They were communicative, organized and timeline driven. We really viewed them as an extension of our team as opposed to a contractor.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Their passion and ability to "dive deep" in a high-tech application where they were not previously familiar was admirable. They were patient and flexible, both of which are important when dealing with a startup.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Honestly, no. They were transparent about their process, billing and we aligned well on expectations. I was happy to work with them and would recommend them without hesitation to anyone.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder and chief experience officer of a company that provides guided cannabis care for people who are suffering from anxiety and depression, chronic pain, and sleeplessness.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We wanted to create an elegant, engaging, and premium-looking skin for our app as well as implement enhancements to its UX.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired altr to handle a visual design refresh of our patient companion application. They began the project by doing some design research, which involved looking across the landscape for relevant visual design inspiration. They also did mood boarding for us based on some briefing language and a few examples that we had provided. 

After we agreed on a concept, they rethought and recast the app’s visual design layer, which includes typefaces, palettes, imagery, and illustration, using the existing product design.

Additionally, altr proposed specific Adobe XD (UX) updates that came to mind as they were doing the visual design work. They ended up providing and implementing a few select user experience platform (UXP) enhancements and critical interaction points within its application flow. 

This included recommendations in terms of how we measure how people want to feel during different times of the day and how we check in with them every morning.

We also did a separate project with them that involved creating a future-focused, blue-sky feature definition and interaction design. Together with the senior members of the altr team, we did a brief vision and design sprint and performed research to get new perspectives on getting feedback on how people feel while they’re under the influence of or experiencing the effects of certain cannabis products.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Christine (Co-Founder & Chief of Design), Geordie (Co-Founder & Chief of Strategy, a senior designer, a mid-level designer, and a junior designer.

How did you come to work with altr?

Christine actually used to work for me at a previous agency, and given what we were looking for, their company seemed like a strong candidate for this project.

What convinced us that they were the right partner for this project was that they took the initiative to create mood board references and some visual designs that really aligned with what we were looking for.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $75,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this project from October 2021–November 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Unfortunately, we don’t have any quantitative metrics because we haven’t implemented their work yet. We’re planning on launching the designs towards the end of April next year.

However, after rounds of testing, the app’s users responded positively to the new future-facing designs and enhancements that altr recommended.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

altr demonstrated strong project management skills. They did a great job keeping things on track and keeping things moving. One of their strengths was driving velocity in a way that was welcome and sensitive to how the members of the team live and work.

The altr team was also professional, empathetic, and smart — they were able to integrate and collaborate well with our development partner and their own design team.

We used Slack, Confluence, and Jira to communicate and manage the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What impressed me the most was altr’s strong desire to go above and beyond and achieve real excellence in visual design. I’ve found that there can often be an inclination for designers to default to the easiest solution or to the one that’s easiest to implement within the Apple dev kit, which ultimately leads to a very basic, undifferentiated experience. This wasn’t the case at all with altr — they were really passionate about making something that looked beautiful and behaved in beautiful ways.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think the only complaint that we had was that at times, they moved faster than our team could move with them. There were times when they could’ve been gentler or a little bit more flexible with the members of our team, but ultimately, I think they did the right thing to move the project forward.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think it’s important to make sure that you have enough partner-level involvement to intellectually power the project and keep aspirations high.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder and CPO of an early stage startup, trender.ai. Trender.ai is a social engagement marketing platform that allows brands to be in the right conversation, at the right time, with the right action across social media platforms and outlets.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire altr?

Building a social media engagement app, we knew at the outset that a very slick and professional UX/UI would be essential to the success of the app. We wanted to engage with a company that could provide us with the highly intuitive user experience we were looking for while providing an aesthetic that would make users feel empowered and cool. We hired altr to work with us on designing a brand feel, website, and product UX/UI that would appeal to a demanding audience of younger marketers and influencers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We looked at Altr, another agency, and an independent contractor to do the work. Both Altr and the other agency were ones that I've worked with personally in the past and had excellent experiences with both. It was quickly apparent that the independent contractor did not have the experience or time to run a project of this scale. We picked Altr over the other agency chiefly because of their experience with direct to consumer companies, their overall aesthetic best matched what we were going for brand wise, and they were willing to work with us on price.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We had already created "enough to be dangerous" UX workflows and product UI comps prior to the engagement. Since the brand feel was critical for our app, Altr first led us through a few sessions to talk about the brand, our audience, what we were trying to achieve. They led us through some exercises to help get inspiration for the overall brand feel which really helped quickly define the aesthetic and tone we were looking for.

After we had narrowed down on that, we took the existing work I had done, spent a number of sessions reviewing the product vision, customer goals & outcomes, and the high level capabilities of the v1 of the product. We then went through the existing workflows, iterated on suggestions, designs, and options presented by the Altr team. Once that was completed, the team put together some high resolution comps which we used to build the product in-house with our developers.

As we were building out the app and engaging with very early "alpha" users, Altr worked with us on changes & additions as needed. Towards the later stages of the UX/UI work, we then turned attention to the website. Again, we went through exercises to determine the overall goal of the site, what we wanted to convey for brand feel, etc. We had a number of discussions about that which the Altr team translated in 3-4 options. Once we iterated on a final design, Altr worked with me collaboratively on copy & content for the site. Altr's developers also built the site for us.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with a Creative Director who led the project on Altr's side which also included a designer, project manager, and two developers (for the website). We also had regular interaction and collaboration with the Chief of Design throughout all 3 phases of the project (Branding, Product UX/UI, Website).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We were very pleased with the work Altr provided across the board and I think we achieved the goals we set out - the alpha version of the product was released in the time frame we expected (May 2021) and we were able to get users on immediately for iteration and testing. We subscribe to "building in public" and some of our highest engaged social media posts were the designs and branding that Altr had put together for us. Anecdotally, all of our users in our target audience gave us very high marks for ease of use and "cool" factor which was exactly what we were shooting for.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Everyone was easy to communicate with and available. We used Slack which was very effective for day to day tactical communications & questions which made the process very efficient. The combination of a longer working session on Monday with a "demo/feedback" day on Friday worked very well for us. Altr was very good about using Slack and/or scheduling meetings with the appropriate people when needed in between the Monday & Friday meetings.

Expectations and timelines were clearly communicated and reviewed weekly; despite the many moving and interlocking parts, we did not have confusion or delays. Overall the Altr team was happy to talk to anyone on my team, answer questions, and everyone was friendly and helpful.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The team really dug deep to understand what we're trying to do and learn as much as they can about our domain space. The speed in which they do that is impressive. I also appreciated that despite their deep expertise and experience in UX/UI, branding, etc that they were willing to listen and incorporate our POV. We never felt talked down to or pushed into a direction that made us uncomfortable because Altr were "the experts". Despite some considerable fears and anxiety from my co-founder at times, the Altr team was always patient and took the time to let him talk and ask questions.

We also were very impressed at how quickly the Altr team "got" the tone, emotional style, and aesthetic we were looking for. We were really trying to balance edgy/cool/modern that would appeal to young, creative user that was professional enough for work (e.g. the CMO wouldn't be embarrassed using it). The exercises Altr did with us were extremely effective in getting to the heart of that quickly and we didn't get bogged down with endless debates about shades of color, fonts, and design. Lastly, the project management, communication, and processes are extremely well done.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None at this time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of Marketing Operations for a technology company. We provide small businesses with everything they would need to establish their web presence as they get their business up and running. We do everything from hosting a website to choosing a domain name and setting up an email.

We also do anything that would be related to their specific products such as security. In addition, I previously worked in the marketing technology team leading up our website production for our website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We were working with altr on one of our brands which is a web hosting business — we actually have a couple of other big brands that are web hosting businesses as well. Over the years, the business grew through acquisition so we found ourselves in the spot of having multiple businesses that would be competing within the same vertical.

The challenge before us was to figure out a way we can position this particular brand within that hosting vertical, to be able to give it some uniqueness and drive organic traffic.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked on multiple projects together, but they were done pre-acquisition. We still worked with them actively on a project at the time of the acquisition.

We worked with altr to create landing pages that were aimed at increasing traffic for one of the brands specifically. It was really important to our overall strategy because there are bigger brands that we have in our hosting portfolio, that receive a lot more in the way of acquisition dollars, so we needed to try to find a way to really work with them to establish these landing pages so that the organic traffic would help meet the business goals we had for the brand.

The most recent project we worked with them on was a brand consolidation project, where they redesigned and optimized a specific brand. That particular brand would be the biggest within the brands we were working with altr on. The challenge was we needed to find a more efficient means of managing our website experiences, so that it minimized the level of effort required on the team to be able to keep our 30 brand sites up to date.

We were putting in place a strategy that would allow us to further consolidate those brands over time. Basically finding a white label solution that would work where we can present the unique brand logo, brand name, and contact information, but provide a simplified experience where you have a single page that provides a means to access information on the brands for existing customers — and most importantly, a path for those existing customers to log into their accounts, which is the number one use case for visitors to those sites currently. 

Then for any new prospective customers, those white label solutions would be used to essentially drive new business to the brand as the flagship brand of that family.

We brought a copywriter to the table who had worked with the brand previously to develop copy. It was that combination of the product owner on my team who supported the brand, Christine (Founder & Chief of Design), Glenn (Executive Creative Director), and then the freelance copywriter who would get together and work on these projects. The general workflow was that my website product owner provided a very detailed product brief that we used at the creative kickoff with altr, to walk through the description of the project and what the business requirements were in order to go to market.

Moreover, altr had set us up with a great schedule that would essentially dovetail nicely with our development team in-house. Our developers work in agile, specifically scrum, and they work in two-week sprints — so altr was utilizing a two-week sprint on their side, to make sure that they were getting us what we needed ahead of time to be able to hand off to the developers that are in-house.

We integrated our lead developer into some of these conversations with altr as well, and they went through various rounds of design through that established two-week sprint period, and they reviewed and collected feedback with us in every step of the way. Basically, they would provide us with fully designed files using InVision which was the program that we were requesting — it wasn’t necessarily what they utilized the most, but it is what our internal folks were most familiar with and what we felt comfortable with. altr was very adaptable to meet us where we needed. 

They provided those InVision mocks and then the combination of Christine and Glenn would run through those mocks with us. We would provide feedback live, but also had the opportunity offline to gather additional detailed feedback. It was the responsibility of my website product owner to gather all of that comprehensive feedback so if we needed to consult with other members of the business, we would do that, and we could represent that back in what was packaged up to send back to altr. 

They would revise accordingly and then we would reconvene live if needed, or we could just review the mocks independently offline. Typically, we were reviewing live, and I appreciated that they did it that way and gave us that additional time and chance to weigh in.

Everyone all around was super responsive, and definitely kept us on schedule and on deadline in delivering what we needed when we needed it. That was a huge help to us because it meant that we could plan our development sprints accordingly, and not have anything be at risk because we knew that we were getting deliverables at the right time.

What is the team composition?

We were working with Christine, and then under her was Glenn who was the main designer. we were collaborating with for the project.

How did you come to work with altr?

I had worked with them previously, so it was my idea to bring them in here. Prior to working here, I worked in the health technology industry, and they were in need of a web-based tool to be utilized at a national tradeshow that we were participating in. One of my colleagues at the time had actually worked previously with Christine and Geordie (Founder and Chief of Strategy) at a different agency in the Boston area. 

We knew we needed help in short order, so she introduced me to them. They worked with us all the way from discovery interviews to UX design. They brought on another third party for us that they subcontracted with for the development piece.

Honestly, they were super scrappy, and I feel like if I had been working with any other agency, we wouldn’t have been able to meet the needs of the project. In that case, the plans for the tradeshow were something we participated in every year and it was pretty standard. We made different types of software including electronic health records software, and typically, at a tradeshow, you have software demos that are occurring at the booth. 

The one big thing that we wanted to do was to try to set ourselves apart as not just another software provider, but to really distinguish the level of service we brought to the table, and the value that our customers got from being part of our cloud-based network with all of this rich data and information. We were looking for something that would be different than just the traditional software demo. 

I think we had about eight weeks from the point where I met them to when we needed to have the finalized tool, not only developed and approved, but also had additional time to train our sales team that was going to be present at the booth, on how to utilize the tool with prospective customers. It was a very quick process. We went through 30 discovery interviews with various internal stakeholders and we iterated unbelievably fast on designs — everything was seamless, as they really worked with us and put in the hours needed to get this achieved very quickly. 

That web-based tool essentially was a way that we were using all of the data from our cloud-based network to help our prospective customers assess the financial health of their organization, using real provider data from our network as benchmarking points. It was pretty awesome, and we had such an overwhelmingly positive experience with them that I definitely wanted to continue that relationship when I was given the opportunity to work with them again.

How much have you invested in them?

I would say for the series of projects we have worked on so far, we are probably in the neighborhood of around $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in October 2020 to work on a series of projects, and the relationship is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The thing that I really like best about their team is that they have a deep knowledge of the space. The team has gained incredible experience over the years by working at other reputable agencies, before Christine and Geordie decided to spin off and form their own agency.

Hiring them is basically harnessing the power of big agency experience, but still get the A players whereas if we were using a bigger agency, I feel like we might be a little fish in a big sea. We got to work directly with Geordie and Christine on our project and that to me was amazing.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

With altr, we just utilize email and live meetings. Part of that is a limitation on the setup internally at our company. For example, when I had worked with altr at my previous company, we used Slack for communication with them and it was great. This was a bit of a smaller group where we had to go through some more red tape internally, to get them set up on our chat tool, Google Chat — which isn’t as robust as Slack. 

We did have those conversations at the outset, but we decided to go with email. Between, emails, live meetings, and phone calls when needed, we really made it work. It spoke to the strength of the team overall.

I had an amazing product owner internally who was interfacing directly with the altr team on a day-to-day basis, and all of us were keeping in touch through regular meetings and emails. We didn’t feel like we were at a deficit. If there was anything urgent that I needed to connect with them in real-time, I had Christine and Glenn’s cellphone numbers — I could get in touch with them anytime. They made themselves readily available for us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The thing that really sets them apart is based on that experience that they have gathered, whether it was Geordie, Christine, or Glenn, I feel like that just understood us quickly. We could go through the project brief with them, but that is pretty much all it needed — they just got it. They understood what we needed and what we needed to accomplish on the site, and there wasn’t overhead, and I think that is what made the biggest difference to me. 

You really can get into the meat of the project and not waste time and to me, that is what sets them apart. You give them a challenge and a timeline and they’ll accomplish and meet them. Additionally, they treat you like a client every step of the way. I have worked with agencies in the past that don’t necessarily do that, so this was an overwhelmingly positive experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing that I would really say. One of the things that they had talked about with me was that they were in the process of looking to hire producers internally. If anything, I think if they were able to hire into that role, it would just lessen the responsibilities that were on the internal stakeholder — so in our case, it would be the website product owner who was doing some of the work that a producer would normally do. 

That was something that altr was definitely aware of and they were actively recruiting for that as we were working together. We didn’t feel any hiccups because again, there was excellent collaboration between our internal team and altr. I think that would be one thing that would just help them more generally if they were working with clients in the future.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing at a medical device company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We were trying to put a lot of data into a concise summary report for our clinicians.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Phase one of the project was a needs assessment, so understanding what the physicians wanted to see and what kind of data was meaningful to them.

During phase two, the altr team created mock-ups. We did a couple of different prototypes that could be reviewed. We collected physician feedback to see what type of data visualization was most compelling to them. Then, they developed a wireframe.

In sum, they created design sketches, led customer interviews, and then delivered a set of recommendations of how to design the report.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 2–3 major people from altr. Geordie (Founder & Chief of Strategy) was the lead designer and project manager, and he interviewed physicians. Margaret (Graphic Designer) supported him as a design associate. Christine (Founder & Chief of Design) also worked on the project. A project manager and lead designer that conducted interviews and a design assistant.

How did you come to work with altr?

A co-worker worked with them on a prior project, so that’s how we knew of them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2019–February 2020. We will have intermittent projects that we’ll rely on them for.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Customer adoption of the report has been good. Once we launched the product, the feedback from physicians was strong.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very good at collaborating. altr’s team worked pretty hard to meet the timeframes and deliver, but there were some slips because the project was more complex than they had anticipated. Geordie was very easy to work with. We communicated through weekly meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Geordie was great to work with, and the altr team was great at understanding the customer’s needs.  They also had strong design skills and understood how people look at and interpret information.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only issue we had was that they didn’t properly anticipate the level of technical complexity associated with the project. I think they could better understand the implementation requirements and estimate their abilities in that area so that they don't overpromise and underdeliver. Beyond the technical implementation side, they were great on everything else.

Any advice for potential customers?

Do a scoping exercise first to assess their understanding of the project, and then collaborate with them — they were great at collaboration. Just make sure that they are really proficient in the implementation that's needed.