Delve

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Best Doctors is a virtual second-opinion company for large employers and insurance providers. We have a global reach and offer a variety of services for clients. Depending on where they’re located, we can provide services for finding the best doctors in the US; on a global level, we’re more insurance-based. I am a business and product analyst. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We needed a professional organization that had experience working on UI/UX design for digital platforms, specifically for healthcare companies. We didn’t have the resources to build these wireframes ourselves, so we looked for an experienced group of individuals who would be able to help us complete our goals. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have been working with altr for 10 months on a variety of projects, including a larger member experience web portal and mobile app. Before this, we worked on a clinician portal, which was designed to help large employers and health plans that already had clinicians on staff to create and initiate cases on behalf of their members.

The other one is a physician portal; altr built a new design and helped streamline those physician cases. They are currently working on a 2.0 global initiative of the portal. It will touch all regions of Best Doctors, from the US to our offices in the UK, Portugal, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand. They’re also helping us launch our first Canadian portal.

We first provided a basic overview of what we were looking for, gave altr access to our stage sites, and sat down with them after reviewing all the information needed. They proposed that we try to find internal and external people to guide the project to the best of its ability. Then, altr sat down with 8–10 internal people from different global departments, including operations, marketing, sales, account management, operations, products, and so on. They did head-to-toe research, put together scripts, and learned the process of what it would take for our company to provide help to its members. Based on the feedback gathered over a 3-month process, altr pitched a completely new member experience.

How did you come to work with altr?

I did not have any insight into finding altr. The vice president of products and our CTO were in charge of this.

How much have you invested with altr?

I only have a rough estimate in my head and know that one of our projects cost about $18,000. It was for one of the biggest clients we could have had. Altr was given 2 weeks to build something, and they did it in a week and a half. We’re still using that work today as a baseline for prototypes.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with altr in late-Q3 of 2016. We’re still working together and plan to continue the collaboration well into June of 2017. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

We have yet to go live with our member portal, and we don’t track metrics for the physician one.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

The work was always delivered either on time or before deadlines. They are always willing to go the extra mile and work overtime to get the best prototype wireframes for us. altr has been on calls with us at 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM, when we needed to change a deliverable. They’re always there, and I feel like their phone is attached to their hip.

We didn’t have too much insight into the project management perspective, but altr always kept holds on our calendar in order to show how they worked and when each of our sprints would end. We didn’t know how sprints were organized or how the whiteboard sessions were being run. altr sent us weekly updates every Monday and Friday on their progress. Anytime we emailed them, they gave us a detailed response within the next 20–25 minutes. We were able to download all the work materials associated with altr.

Their team visited us over our 8-month collaboration. Whenever we needed them to come to Boston, they were there. We had around 10 in-person meetings in total. Even though we weren’t in the mud with them, working on the whiteboard sessions, I would say that altr’s project management skills are impeccable.

What did you find most impressive about altr?

I have worked with other vendors in the past and found that they only wanted to finish the product and get their money. With altr, it was an astonishing process. They wanted to know the people at Best Doctors and what we represented. I’ve been here for 4 years and feel that altr may know more about the company than I do. They take the time to find out how to deliver the best possible product for the client. I would love to see what altr has done for clients outside of the healthcare space and how they can change their ideas and approach for other industries. It really is impressive that they were able to come in and figure out our workflow and branding.

Are there any areas altr could improve?

I can’t think of anything. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Athenahealth is a cloud-based, health IT company. We produce electronic health-record software and other services for use by medical groups, hospitals, and health systems. I am in a campaign planning management role, working within the broader marketing department. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We were going to participate in a big tradeshow for the Medical Groups Management Association (MGMA). The conference was held in late October and early November of 2016. Over the summer of 2016, our senior management decided that we needed to rethink the whole on-site experience for attendees at the booth. One thing they wanted was to develop a web-based tool to help these organizations assess their financial performance. We had a tight timeline to do that—about eight to nine weeks to train our sales team appropriately prior to the tradeshow. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We needed to build a web-based tool to assess financial performance. Once the attendee’s badge was scanned for the event, it would match to their email address so they wouldn’t have to enter separate demographics. The tool then presents the user with a series of questions to get details about their organization. We gave them multiple-choice options or sliders to choose the appropriate answers. Based on their input, the tool made calculations behind the scenes based on data provided by our internal research team. The results were served up in a graph that showed users how they compared to top performers on the athenahealth network. It offered tips and advice for how they could improve.

It was basically used as a conversation tool between our sales team and the prospect at the booth. The pieces altr did for us included the upfront discovery—stakeholder interviews to determine the final business requirements. They came up with a scope of work out of that, with all the requirements clearly defined. They handled all the UX and designs aspects. They worked with a close partner that handles all the actual web development.

We were not specific about the technology it needed to be built on, due to the short timeline. We allowed the developers to make that decision, but I don’t recall what technologies were used. We then worked with altr on a separate engagement to create version 2.0 of the tool.

How did you come to work with altr?

Two of our directors had worked with altr previously. We did RFP [request for proposal] other agencies. One reason we went with altr was because they were a smaller shop, and we knew they’d be scrappy. We thought we may have gotten lost if we went with a larger agency. Also, altr had worked with athenahealth before, so they understood the health IT industry and our business specifically.

How much have you invested with altr?

Our total investment to date is in the range of $75,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from September 1 to November 1, 2016, and is complete. We started working with them again in late November of 2016, based on the success of the first project. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

The tool was made for use exclusively at tradeshows. Due to external problems at the initial tradeshow, the numbers would look artificially low. It had nothing to do with the implementation in which altr was involved. I have nothing but positive things to say about altr, but I don’t think the results of that show would reflect that.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

They were extremely detailed in preparing project timelines. They clearly defined what was in and out of scope. They asked all the smart questions upfront. We had regular scrum meetings, and they were very clear in outlining what was needed from us. The scopes they prepared were thoughtful. I think they had a structured approach that made sense.

What did you find most impressive about altr?

They’re a small agency led by deeply experienced people, and we knew we were getting the best of the best. We knew their top people were involved in the process throughout, and we could go to them no matter what we needed. They were always concerned about meeting our needs, and they delivered everything they promised. Their responsiveness, overall availability, and senior experience on the account were factors that we truly appreciated.

Are there any areas altr could improve?

I can’t think of anything. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work at a Boston-based healthcare startup. We have a website to help connect patients and their family members to nonclinical resources that they need outside of the hospital. We partner with local hospitals to help customize a tool for their patients' needs.

What is your position? 

I am head of product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We had built a website and gone through a couple different rounds of feedback and user testing with our hospital clients. We knew that we were solving an important problem, but our website experience wasn't quite right. We wanted to work with someone who could redesign our web experience and navigation.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We already knew that we were confident in our brand and our logo, but we needed help creating additional messaging to represent us. Altr was focused on the design and user experience of the overall web application. They did wire framing, two rounds of testing, and delivered final designs for our engineering team to implement that were very high quality.

How did you come to work with altr?

We connected with altr through a third-party service that made the introduction. We had a pretty extensive RFP [request for proposal] process, and altr stood out from the other firms that applied. They asked questions before turning in the RFP and took care to present it to us. I was impressed with their dedication to want to meet us in person and make sure they addressed our needs properly. It was clear from the start that that was very important to them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We spent between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them at the very end of March 2016 and just recently wrapped up with them at the end of May [2016].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We haven't launched this new product yet, but we have shown it in a few sales meetings and to some of our current clients. Everyone is very excited about the progress and, internally, we are all more confident about these designs than we have been with any other designs in the past. I also did a round of testing with a few users that have been with us throughout the process, and they agree that it's a huge step forward. That is very exciting for us.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great at accommodating the changing needs of our business as a startup. Things can really change between the start and end of the project as our needs and our clients' needs evolve. Even with those changes, altr moved very rapidly and were diligent to adhere to all our deadlines. We started the engagement with a hard date that we needed it delivered to our engineers and altr went above and beyond to make sure that happened.

What distinguishes altr from other providers?

They jumped into our culture. The speed at which altr delivered work and their diligence in terms of keeping everyone on schedule was very impressive.

Is there anything altr could have improved or done differently?

As a startup, we knew we were working with a very limited budget, so trying to work that out with altr's price point was the trickiest part of our engagement. I think it would have been more fun for everyone if we could have gotten the logistics out of the way earlier, but we had limited resources on our end that made that difficult.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Bamboo Rose is a solution for retailers involved in designing, developing, and delivering products to their markets.

What is your position? 

I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We had two different companies that were owned by the same management team, but had different cultures, different products and totally different looks and feels. We had to merge those two companies into one company and come up with a brand as well as a go-to-market strategy.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

altr started by helping us think of a new company name. They surveyed our customers, prospects, analysts, and other industry people to see what the perception of each of our companies was in the market. Based on their research, we decided to make Bamboo Rose the umbrella company and retire our other name.

After that, altr started working with us on a logo, brand, and persona of the company. They got an idea of the information that we wanted on the website and the message that we wanted to convey and built out our website from there. They helped us through the entire process and found a flagship theme that we could rally the organization around. Finally, they introduced us to the market and helped create marketing campaigns for customers and prospects.

How did you come to work with altr?

I had been interviewing many marketing and branding companies, but got a message from Christine [Pillsbury, founder and chief of design] at altr and liked her thought process.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We have spent more than $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with altr in May or June of 2015 and finished up this February [2016]. We took a step back to address other parts of our organization, but are starting to re-engage with them now for another project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We have received an overwhelming response from employees, customers, and prospects on the brand and website. The brand is perceived as gorgeous, modern, and hip, with the edge that we were looking for. We're very excited about the messaging and it's been a real morale booster inside the company. The sales team is also excited because of our positioning in the new retail economy.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

altr was excellent. There were many moving parts and a lot going on, but they kept us on track the whole time, which is not an easy task. They did a great job.

What distinguishes altr from other providers?

The altr team is incredibly bright, creative, and collaborative. One of the videos that they wrote the script for has gone viral within our customer base. One of my customers told me that they've circulated it to their senior executives and use it to start their meetings.

Is there anything altr could have improved or done differently?

They need to make sure that they have the bandwidth to handle projects, particularly as they grow.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company is Elyxor. We are a software development company.

What is your position? 

I am the managing partner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with altr?

One of our clients' project required a rethinking of the user experience for a very complicated medical data systems application.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They provided end-to-end work of the user experience design. That included the full creative design, information architecture, and a rethinking of our client's product for the application that simplified the way to present very complicated medical data.

How did you come to work with altr?

They were recommended to us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It cost between $100,000 and $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project is completed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

It's not in production yet, but it will be soon. The whole user experience branding was presented at a large conference this year. The reaction from the conference was more than overwhelmingly positive. People were stunned at the radically different way of presenting this kind of feedback. It was received very well.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

The quality of the work is very good. Christine and Geordie complemented themselves well, with one being more on the creative and the other one more on the information architecture. The work that they did drove the development of the applications that we were building. Four main applications had to be built on this.

altr was very responsive.  It was a very integrative process to get to both the requirement and the design approvals: the creative, the look and feel, and the applications themselves.

What distinguishes altr from other providers?

altr has a good mix of both creative and what's technically possible on different platforms, so they have good technical skills that match well with the developers. You get some creative teams that do the creative, but they don't consider what developers will have to do to try to implement that. They're very cognizant of the fact that, based on what we were trying to do, we'll start mobile first and work our way back to the web.

Is there anything altr could have improved or done differently?

The scope of the project grew a lot from the initial planning, and we should have had more control of it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization. 

We are a computer vision and machine learning company. We've developed methods to analyze the torrent of photos shared on social media platforms and deliver that data through our own SaaS [software-as-a-service] platform.

What is your position? 

I am the VP of engineering and product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with altr?

In time, we have developed many online properties that have followed different design strategies and aesthetics. We wanted to pull them together to get a single cohesive brand presence across our properties. We also wanted to tackle renovating an interface that we have for our clients to increase the usability and utility of it.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We focused on one of our properties, our main tool, which is an interface for users to analyze and browse through high volumes of data. There are many ways of slicing our data, so we enlisted altr in designing an interface that was going to make that easier for our clients and to make it a pleasant experience. It needed to be visually pleasing, intuitive and, above all, useful. They worked with us to identify the areas we should work on the most, and where we needed to shift what we had built and what our strategies were. They did a deep dive into our specific user needs and the intricacies of the use cases that we're addressing here. We had design sessions with them that went from sketching and lead to wireframes, to more detailed wireframes, to actual full-scale high-fidelity design work. They provided design talent, and a design guide, as well as delivering excellently designed pages for our interface.

How did you come to work with altr? 

I was looking for an agency to work on this project, and had heard of altr. They identify problems and can articulate them back to you clearly and quickly. They have a diverse range of experience and knowledge. That's what I wanted. I wanted somebody who's going to jump in, get what our problems were, get who our users were, and be able to jump right into figuring out the right tools to build for us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms? 

It cost between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 

It's completed, but we might have further iterations of it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Since we haven't deployed the work yet, I don't have any metrics I can give you. We've been using the deliverables of the project to inform our ongoing work internally and to keep the team in line with the same thinking.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint? 

Their project management was awesome. altr met all their deadlines and were clear about when and what their deliverables were going to be. Most projects are going to have some scope creep, but they were good about working with us when we needed to shift direction or priorities. They found ways to adjust their schedule and to work with us on our schedule so that we could adapt elegantly and gracefully without disruption.

What distinguishes altr from other providers? 

The aesthetic of altr's designs is great. They have a strong understanding of UX [user experience] so they don't overcomplicate things, and they don't oversimplify things. They found a good sweet spot there.

Beyond visual design, their knowledge about strategy and business needs was invaluable throughout the project and a real distinguishing factor for us. altr clearly has deep experience in a variety of industries and business models, which enabled them to understand our area of development quickly and create some great solutions.

Their skill, talent, and flexibility set them apart. They're small, but they can expand through the teams that they work with and their network. It allowed them to adapt as our project shifted and changed during the lifecycle of it. That made it easy to work with them.

Is there anything altr could have improved or done differently? 

No. I can't think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Rental Beast is building the equivalent of Multiple Listing Service [MLS] for the rental market. In this sector, we manage the largest and most accurate rental database in any market, and we currently have access to more than 3 million individual units, in eight major metros around the country.

What is your position?

I am the founder and president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with altr?

We initially reached out to them to redesign our consumer-facing website so it could better reflect our current business model. We also wanted to make sure that our new site was optimized for mobile devices.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

It was a complete redesign of the site. This included redesigning the logo, modifying the brand identity, changing the screen layout and the copy that will go on the consumer-facing site.

That part of the project is finished but we've since recruited them to help us redesign some of our back end applications, and make sure that they match the new front end design. We're still in the midst of the second project.

How did you come to work with altr?

They were referred to us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The initial project cost between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s ongoing work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The new design is not live yet, so I do not have any results to share at the moment.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

The altr team is fantastic. Both Christine and Geordie are superstars in their own right. We've outsourced a lot of IT and design work over the years, so I've had a chance to engage with a lot of third-party providers, and altr doesn’t waste any time. They move fast. They really are tremendous at absorbing all the notes and feedback they get, both initially when the scope of the project hasn't been set yet, and afterward if we want to change something. They have the flexibility to adjust.

One of the things a customer in this industry hates is being told that something is out of scope. That never happens with altr. They really do understand how to work super-efficiently, super-fast, and deliver it in the best way possible. Their quality of the work is great.

What distinguishes altr from other providers?

They're very lean. They only pull top resources and only for whatever is necessary, on an as-needed basis. They're not a huge agency that has a ton people on payroll no matter what, and you have to cover that overhead. They have their resources because they both come from bigger firms, and they pull resources on an as-needed basis. It's a lot more efficient, cost-effective and quick.

Is there anything altr could have improved or done differently?

No, I can't think of anything specific.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is Constant Contact, an email marketing platform for small businesses.

What is your position? 

I run the website strategy group, which is part of the acquisition team that is responsible for converting all of our traffic into trailers and, ultimately, customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with altr?

They originally helped us design and build our product. They helped us go from concept to launch and from launch to where we are now. We have been pleased with them and have internally adopted the best practices we've learned from them.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We were looking for new designs and new approaches to engage those prospects that visited the site to drive deeper engagement and ultimately a higher volume of trailers out of site visitors. We asked altr to give us a redesign of our top-level site pages. We see most of the engagement with our top five or six pages on the site as the first step to somebody going into trial. We were looking for a new content approach strategy and new design strategy to allow us to convert those visitors into trailers more effectively.

We had altr create the strategy, the copy and the design of those pages. Given that I have a full development team, my team did the development work. That's something they certainly could have done as well. We have an SEO [search engine optimization] agency we work with, so we made them very aware, from a copy standpoint, what key terms we work with, and what we need to emphasize to maintain and improve positioning. They worked that information into the mix.

How did you come to work with altr?

I had known of them and was aware they had split off from another agency in the Boston area. I knew what kind of agency they worked with before. They had done all the digital work for Mini USA and Virgin Mobile, and I wanted to work with one of their key designers and strategy people.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We have spent somewhere between $50,000 and $75,000 working with altr.

What is the status of this engagement?

altr's portion of the work has been completed, although we may engage them for some additional work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from your work with altr?

We've got some testing results that were very positive regarding driving a deeper level of engagement, but nothing concrete to share at this point. We did see a good lift in time on site and page engagement in tests we've done, so we're very encouraged by what we've seen so far.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

These guys are top-notch. I appreciate altr's approach, particularly in terms of getting into the nuts and bolts of the strategy. They were able to work with us to identify what we felt was essential. They would then come back and challenge some of our institutional knowledge, pushing us in new directions. They always delivered on time.

altr is great in terms of presentation. Much of what they did had to be presented not just to my team and me, but also ultimately to my CMO [chief marketing officer]. They were very professional in their approach to the presentation and very timely in terms of their delivery. It's been a great experience working with altr from start to finish.

What distinguishes altr from other providers?

From an agency standpoint, so often what you see is not what you get. An agency can come in and woo you with their big guns, but then the team that you actually get to work with is not the team that wooed you. altr's a small shop, and you're getting all their expertise and all their brainpower – not just pieces of that.

We have a great partnership. They take the time to understand what your business is, who you are, and what makes you tick. They very quickly felt like they were part of the team.

Is there anything altr could have improved or done differently?

Nothing that's immediately coming to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company name is Twine Health. We have created the Twine Collaborative Care Platform, which dramatically improves the collaboration between patients and their healthcare teams, in and out of the office.

What is your position? 

I'm the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with altr?

Our initial project with altr was scoped to help our customers to inform their patients of the new health coaching service, facilitated by Twine, that they were making available. Our customer is typically a healthcare organization providing primary care or health coaching services. They face the challenge of reaching out to their population, their patients, and making them aware of new services they're providing. In this case, it was a health coaching service where they would have members of the team help their patients set health goals, make progress on their goals, and overcome challenges. All of that was to be facilitated by our technology. Quantitatively speaking, we wanted to maximize the number of enrolled patients in a given target population. That's a great measure of the success of any enrollment effort.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of altr's involvement in detail.

One deliverable that we defined together with altr was an email campaign with eight different email templates. They A/B tested four different sequences of two emails separated in time. We compared the performance of each email to the others in terms of open and click-through rates, which allowed us to decide on the final email campaign with which we would go forward. altr also made an automated slideshow to be shown in the waiting room of physicians' offices and a one-page patient handout describing the product.

The email campaign, slideshow, and patient handout led the patients to a landing page on our website, also designed and developed by altr. The page informed patients about Twine, showed them how to download the app, and showcased a video that demonstrated the user experience of receiving coaching through the app. altr did not create the video, but did contribute to some of the ideas in the video.

Once the first project was finished, we did a second project with altr, which was to overhaul our entire website to make it consistent with the work they had done on the first project. That project was purely web design and development.

How did you come to work with altr?

We evaluated several firms. We wanted a firm that could take both a digital and print media approach because we wanted to do placards, fliers, and mailers but also an email campaign and digital signage on waiting room televisions. We were astonished to find that many firms would not work across media. They will just do print, or they will just do digital. We were looking for a firm that could help us tackle both media. We needed a creative approach to understanding why patients might be interested in having a health coach, and we wanted to tell a story that would appeal to them across different media.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Both projects together fell in the price range between $50,000 and $200,000. This included the website, landing page, email campaign, office slideshow, and print media.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project is completed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics, or other feedback from this engagement?

Our email open rates, click-through rates, and our enrollment rates are significantly better than the standard in the healthcare industry. In fact, those rates are somewhere between two and five times the normal rate. I think altr made a significant contribution to that rate of success.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

altr is spectacular. They went beyond my expectations in quality of the work, particularly in some of the creative aspects. They brought not just to the design work, but also to the messaging behind that work. The quality of their design and implementation was exceptional.

In terms of project management, it was a delight to work with them. They took a fun, collegial approach, but also hit deadlines and delivered on what they promised, sometimes in the face of our unrealistic timelines. They were exceptional on that front. I've recommended them to many other people. As soon as we do another project, we'll do it with them.

What distinguishes altr from other providers?

I think they have a tremendous passion for this kind of goal-driven work. It allows them to excel well beyond expectations. I remember one time I left the office after we had a meeting with them, and they were outside still brainstorming with each other about what they were going to do. They had already come up with five different ideas.

We really benefited from the fact that they had established the firm relatively recently, so they were really hungry and passionate. I expect they're still as hungry and passionate but, for us, there was something really great about working with a small firm that's putting down roots.

Is there anything altr could have improved or done differently?

I can't think of anything at the moment.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our company is a proactive medical alert service helping people each get home safely. We target primarily older adult populations with higher functional impairment, more vulnerable, typically post-discharge. We work with healthcare plans to help optimize services around the needs of those people living at home, so when they call outbound, they can press a button, or we can detect certain changes in their wellness. We can connect them with the care network, whether it's a nurse or someone else, to help optimize services for them at home.

What is your position? 

I'm the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with altr?

At the time, we were actually really trying to define it what our goal was. We had been going to consumers because we can sell our service to consumers, but we also can go to healthcare plans that are bearing risk for ER visits. There was a big UX [user experience] challenge of how do we target both audiences, having a consumer product, but also having something that appeals to the enterprise. How do you build a B2B [business-to-business] channel and a B2C [business-to-consumer] channel? There was this question of how do we emphasize those things that now are in our user experience and on our website when people come and first learn about our service.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

The scope of the project was to define the user experience on our website. They conducted interviews. We ended up doing four interviews, two with current customer users of our service, and two with industry experts. Geordie [McClelland, founder and director of experience strategy for altr] did those interviews, and then translated that into a workflow that made sense for our B2B site as well as a potential B2C site.

altr was really key on all the messaging, making sure the messaging fit with what we were seeing in usability feedback, the UX feedback, then obviously designing the assets. They didn't do the actual development for us. Because of budget, we restricted it. We used a service called PSD2HTML to convert the PSDs [Adobe Photoshop documents] that they provided to HTML, so the scope of their work to deliverables were fully layered PSDs that could be translated.

How did you come to work with altr?

They were referred to us. I looked at their previous work, and they seemed to be the right partner for us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was around $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

All their work was completed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

When you're targeting enterprise, it works a little bit differently. We are not interested in a lot of website traffic. The thing that is really important to us is the feedback we get from users and the testimonials that we can use. We set up a blog where I took a lot of Geordie's wisdom to heart about speaking genuinely about what the opportunity is. The way we position ourselves is like OnStar for care management, where we can route and provision any service, whether it's nurse triage, palliative care, or anything on-demand into the home, so that messaging really comes across quickly.

Our sales process with B2B is that we target healthcare plans, which are not often the fastest people to work. When they come to our website, we've heard multiple people give us positive feedback.

I don't think you often get that honest feedback from the market unless you work with somebody who's very thoughtful and can go deep in extracting that information without biasing the user or the interviewee. I think they did that well. That's where much of the legwork came from. It made the rest of the project easier because they did a lot of the homework upfront.

How did altr perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very good. We did ask for a lot. We did have an aggressive timeline, so as the project went on, there were some communication issues. I think UX products are hard in general for there to be complete alignment, especially when there are budget restrictions.

Now, when I think about the project, I think about it very positively, which is that what I cared about, especially targeting B2B, was I want that positive response from the CEOs of those potential clients we're working with. I love that. That's what I live for.

What distinguishes altr from other providers?

They are some of the best people I've ever worked with. They're very humble in how they approach their work. They are very creative and organized. Their ability to listen to clients and really understand the challenge at hand is outstanding. On the UX side, altr is the best you can find.

Is there anything altr could have improved or done differently?

Sometimes, there are challenges getting enough bandwidth from them because they have a small staff. To be fair to them, it also depends on what our budget is, so they're trying to calibrate what they can do on our budget. I think those are things that they'll get better at as they grow their client base.