Design Center, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a product marketing analyst. I act as the project lead for the tool Design Center, Inc. helps us develop.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Center, Inc.?

We had an existing cooling tool that had a lot of issues. We worked with previous vendors, but we wanted a better design and UX. We also hoped to add new functionality to make it even more useful to users.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They're in charge of all the design and improvements, and they work to make everything easier to use. We use AWS, and I know we'll use Google Analytics once the tool goes live.

What is the team composition?

We work with a team of six or seven, and we have close interactions with about four of those individuals.

How did you come to work with Design Center, Inc.?

A member of our marketing and communications team heard about them. We interviewed a few groups, but we were most interested in finding a team that was local. We liked that Design Center, Inc. was a growing company, and they had a vision for huge improvements. They seemed able to handle what we wanted them to work with, and we appreciated that we could meet with them face-to-face as needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent in the range of $50,000-$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around May 2019. The current project is set to launch near the beginning of 2020, so the total time spent will be close to a year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product hasn't launched yet, so the results are still in the future. This is a very collaborative effort, and they always come back with proposals and design ideas that will work well for our customers. We needed a lot of help with that, and they brought their know-how to the UX. They understood our business, and they took the time to help us meet our goals. They're very thorough.

How did Design Center, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

They managed the project on their end, and they sent us updated timelines when one deadline changed. They budgeted in a lot of extra time at the end, so changes to the timeline don't affect our bottom line. They have backlog meetings to go over the details of each sprint, and they invite us to those meetings to answer their questions or give input. They have a clear grasp of our business, and I really appreciate their process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They deliver design improvements quickly, and they're always willing to help us with any of our questions. They provide some support outside of the scope of the project, and we really appreciate all they do for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We're very pleased with their performance and their speed. At this point, I don't have any points they should improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a company called the BASF, and we are one of the world’s largest chemical companies. I work in the animal nutrition unit, so we produce vitamins and other additives that go into animal feed for poultry, pigs, cows, and things like that. I’m in the marketing department.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Center, Inc.?

We’re looking to increase our interaction with our customers and end-users. Those people, for the most part, are farmers, and we wanted to offer them direct access to us and our expertise.

At the moment, there’s no way of doing that, so we wanted to develop an app where the farmers can download information about the products or contact us to ask questions.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a website and web-based application, as well as a mobile app for iOS and Android that we can send out to our customers. They provided everything along the way, including design, all of the development work, and worked together with us to determine our main goals and requirements for the final product.

What is the team composition?

Across the two apps, I believe we’ve worked with about six people from their team. We coordinate with their business development manager directly, but they have developers and designers working with us as well.

How did you come to work with Design Center, Inc.?

BASF is a global company, and I’m in the German center. In the past, I’ve done work with other parts of the company, and a friend of mine in the American center recommended Design Center, Inc. to me.

How much have you invested with them?

By the end of the project, we’ll have spent about $200,000 between the two apps.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2015 and are continuing to do so.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been very impressed with the quality of their work at every stage of the process. They have satisfied all of our requests and have been very helpful in planning as well as implementing the app designs.

How did Design Center, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate regularly via Skype or WhatsApp calls, and they do a good job of keeping us up to date on all of the progress we’ve made between communications.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think their strength is in the combination of their artistic design side and their experience in UX/UI and usability. As a B2B company, we have very little experience in the space of B2C interactions, and the experience they brought to the table around designing for that has been extremely helpful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. We’re very happy.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To be honest, my interactions with them have been very straightforward and simple, so I don’t think there’s a lot that anyone working with them needs to keep in mind in order to make the project successful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the senior vice president of a marketing and advertising company. We provide auto dealer marketing services for more than 11,000 dealerships across the U.S. and internationally

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Center?

We have an ever-increasing set of products that we rely on our sales team to be equipped to sell into dealerships. We learned, however, that our salespeople were only selling the products they were comfortable explaining and demonstrating to clients. Secondly, we had no streamlined method to send updated contracts, sales events, promotions, or product prices to a distributed sales staff around the country. We relied on Design Center to build a mobile application to help rectify both of these problems.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Design Center created a mobile application for iPads that centralizes communication with our sales team and provides in-depth experiences with the products we sell. We integrated the platform with Salesforce so that we knew which salespeople were associated with which clients. Further, we could better determine which products individual clients are buying from us and which they weren’t. We can now track sales and alert to changes in real time.

In the app, we include a script and a description to accompany a visually pleasing experience of each product. These features give our salespeople an improved understanding of what they are selling. Having the app means not being forced into a linear conversation. Our staff can instead navigate to different screens effortlessly to answer client questions as they come up.

What is the team composition?

During the product development, we communicated with Colleen (Senior Project Manager, Design Center) and the heads of design and technology. Now that we’re in a maintenance phase, we only work with Colleen.

How did you come to work with Design Center?

I ran into Ken (President, Design Center), and he told me about what they had done for a window manufacturing company. They had transformed their sales experience from a large book of options to a more digital experience. I recognized that as something we could benefit from as well.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $850,000 on the main product build, and we’ve spent about $10,000 a month since then on maintenance and enhancement.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement started in September 2015 and remains ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As an example, before we had this application, we launched a new digital product that our salespeople were not particularly familiar with. We sold about 100 units even though we carried it in 4,000 dealerships. We revamped our training, got more equipment, and we sold about 400 more.

All the while, we were building this application. Once we introduced the app and showed our staff the experience and allowed them to get more comfortable with the product, we sold about 1,500. We quickly learned that the application would foster increased familiarity with what we’re selling.

How did Design Center perform from a project management standpoint?

During periods with a lot of heavy design work, we’ll have weekly meetings. Otherwise, we’ll touch base monthly to go over statistics and see how much usage we get for the system. The Design Center team has also had remarkably little churn, so we’ve been able to work with the same team all these years.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are fairly unique. Anybody can build an app, but they focus on the transformation of how you communicate in the digital age. And their designs are stunning. They are a design-minded development team, and you can tell when looking at competitive offerings.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We incorporate some metrics into our discussions, but I think we could have a stronger emphasis on usage statistics. Design Center could do more to design solutions around usage as opposed to a graphical experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The most important thing is having a dedicated and influential liaison at their office. You'll have much better results if you have somebody on the inside who is committed to the success of your project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a marketing specialist within the automotive refinish division at BASF, a German chemical company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Center?

Our websites were outdated and not user-friendly, so I was looking for a vendor to rebuild them from scratch. Users were having difficulty accessing the information they needed, including legal information, painting procedures, and other technical topics—it was a big problem for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Design Center designed and developed both our public-facing website and administrative site used for customers and staff. They met with us to go over our business, goals, and requirements initially and then built the sites on WordPress, incorporating custom features as needed. Currently, they've transitioned into a support role and maintain the sites.

What is the team composition?

We work with a couple of designers and developers as well as a project manager. Throughout various stages of the project, we've worked with around 10 people on their team in total.

How did you come to work with Design Center?

They had previously done some work for another division within BASF, and we were very happy with their deliverables. We also liked that they didn't outsource any of their team members.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2016, and they continue to maintain and add features to the site as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've received tremendously positive feedback from both our internal team as well as our customers. They've made it much easier for users to access critical information within our highly competitive industry, which has significantly increased customer satisfaction.

The simplicity of the sites has also helped our internal teams perform their jobs better. Despite the complex nature of our requirements, they've managed to create clean and modern user-friendly websites.

How did Design Center perform from a project management standpoint?

They're easy to communicate with and are prompt and accessible. While they provide helpful feedback as needed, they don't try to force any services or their own agenda on us. Our project manager is very organized and proactive, responding to emails and setting up calls as needed quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very good at taking the time to understand our business in order to develop tailored solutions. They don't apply a cookie-cutter approach to each client.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything. They've been a godsend for our division.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a sales strategy manager of a food and facilities services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Center, Inc.?

We needed help with mobile application development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The app is a tool for our sales team so that they can quickly access all the materials that we have available to them. It creates a more streamlined, customer-friendly way to present the different things that we have available. For example, within the app, there are videos and brochures that showcase all of our equipment. It is essentially like having an interactive brochure at your fingertips. The app was developed for iPads only; our sales team cannot access it via a laptop or iPhone.

What is the team composition?

I work with two people, including a project manager.

How did you come to work with Design Center, Inc.?

I'm not sure what the process was to determine which company we would go with.

How much have you invested in them?

We spend around $30,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in October 2016 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app functions well and we have a really solid template in place. If I send them an update, there’s not a lot of back and forth, which keeps things moving quickly.

Up until a few months ago, we weren’t able to do much when it comes to analytics. However, they recently told me that they have worked with Google Analytics to obtain our data, which is great.

How did Design Center, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s a pretty streamlined process. I submit my request, which might be four different ad hoc projects. They will break down the cost and are very transparent about how many hours they will take, as well as the scope of the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really understand our business, which was a huge help. They’re great people to work with and that counts for a lot.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing that comes to mind except for the data aspect. They’re pretty straightforward.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a senior product manager of a window and door manufacturer. We provide full-service window replacement. We target and cater to the do-it-for-me segment that is looking to replace their windows and patio doors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Center, Inc.?

Originally, we needed help creating a more professional look for in-home presentations by our sales reps. They were using a variety of sales content via laptop, old three-ring binders, or traditional print material.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to create something that aggregated all of our content and allowed us to push updates out to the sales representatives. Also, we wanted to create professional differentiation with a polished, nice-looking sales tool. I believe they used Objective-C for iOS.

What is the team composition?

We interacted with a project manager and had conference calls with some of the programmers every once in a while. Lead programmers and the head of programming participated occasionally to oversee things.

How did you come to work with Design Center, Inc.?

We were referred to them by our parent company who had worked with them.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent over $1 million over the years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2012 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We started on one project with them which spawned subsequent projects that continually got bigger because we were happy with the service and product they were delivering to us.

We have seen in an increase of professionalism in the home presentations and a decrease in sales rep training. We have also seen reductions in cost and the need for print material.

Communication and awareness of new product offerings are quicker and more effective. We now have a more direct pipeline to the sales reps, whereas, in the past, we had to rely on various intermediaries to take the information we provided to them and then cascade it down to the sales reps.

How did Design Center, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

The delivery was good based on what we were asking them to do. They really excel at understanding our business and challenges and then coming to a swift, novel solution. That creative iteration and discovery sometimes resulted in a timeline being pushed out but also strengthened the product that we deliver.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was always impressed with the quality of the product. Their ability to empathize and come up with effective solutions that we hadn’t thought of is their strength and something that has been very impressive to us. They are dedicated to our partnership, which has also been very helpful to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have any suggestions in that area.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I highly recommend Design Center for companies that are trying to move away from traditional modes of business and innovate as well as differentiate themselves from their industry.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the manager of training and operations of Häagen-Dazs shops in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which is a subsidiary of Nestlé USA.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Center?

We’d identified an engagement problem many years ago with our franchisees and frontline staff. Our training platform that provides everything a person needs to know to work in and run a Häagen-Dazs shop was also outdated.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Design Center developed the tool we use to reach our 210 shops and over 2,000 employees on a daily basis. Parts of the platform were developed for PC, but most of it is app-based. Users are able to access the app via iPad or Android devices.

They integrated a lot of interactive learning functionalities for us, including hands-on graphics, video, and assessments. They also developed a news functionality that operates similarly to Facebook. It’s completely within our control and directed at our internal customers.

The technology is simple from the user’s perspective. We've kept in mind that the technology we're developing is for people between 16–75 years of age. Design Center has had a very good understanding of this as well.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with around 10 resources from their side, including project managers, designers, and developers. Depending on our project, I sometimes meet with their designers and tech people.

How did you come to work with Design Center?

I made a crowdsourcing Facebook post and received a number of replies. Working with a local partner was important for me. I interviewed a number of developers knowing that technology was a big opportunity for us.

Design Center was definitely the most well-equipped group to tackle the project, especially considering that it would be a long-term collaboration. We wanted to continue developing and enhancing the platform over many years. Their capability to do this was a big deal.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2012. We launched the platform in September 2014 and have since used them for app support and maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We survey our franchisees every two years through a third party’s company. One of the things they measure is franchise engagement, which tells us a lot about the health of our business. Our engagement score went up by 15% over the last two years, which is an enormous jump for this industry. The result is directly related to the communication we provided through the app.

Usership has increased by 12% in 2017, and we’ve had close to a 100% increase in frontline engagement (i.e., people working behind the counter).

The best thing is that Design Center helped build the analytic functionalities that are allowing us to gauge this usage and how it compares to sales, franchisee engagement, etc. We’ve seen a marked improvement in how our system runs. I attribute a lot of this to the app.

How did Design Center perform from a project management standpoint?

I don’t have a lot of visibility into the process because they handle this aspect internally. We do have deadlines and weekly calls. They have a lot of systems in place and haven’t miss any deadlines. They also have excellent communication. If we encounter a bug, they take care of it right away.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their focus on design sets them apart. This addresses what a product looks and feels like, as well as how people will use it. Design Center also works tightly with the technology part in order to make the software work well. They have a great team.

When we kicked off the project five years ago, one of the main designers and key people within their firm went out to one of our shops and talked with us for 3–4 hours about the business. He looked at our flow, talked to people behind the counter, and looked at the issue from a customer’s perspective. This preliminary work helped them get a headstart on understanding our needs and has been the basis for how we develop the app going forward.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve noticed that they’re growing, but it hasn’t impacted the work. I know that Design Center has gone through periods of being very busy, and I sometimes wonder if this affects other clients’ project management.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a chemical production company. I’m part of the sales organization that sells to automotive.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Design Center?

Our remote sales force would often find themselves without adequate Wi-Fi access when visiting a client. We needed to eliminate this problem to be able to showcase our products or applications to customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Design Center helped us develop a standalone app for the iPad. When a sales rep is at a plant, they can quickly and easily get to their book of assets and show materials to customers. It was completed and deployed in October 2015, but has since been migrated to Windows.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had a number of people come in and out over the course of four years. There’s a core team of 6–8 people that consists of developers, designers, and a project manager. Most of my interaction is with the project management team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2014, and the project ended in October 2015. We’ve continued to make enhancements to it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The result was a very high quality, professional asset that our sales people are able to utilize to really strengthen their presentations.

How did Design Center perform from a project management standpoint?

They have project management tools that they used. I didn’t have visibility into their processes. There were declines and regrowths as there are with any project. We weren’t always timely in providing data to them. If we had any gaps in our project schedule, it was due to our lack of expediency.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their design team is very gifted. They are very responsive to our needs. We feel as if they’re an extension of our company because we don’t have that internal expertise. They respond to us if we reach out to them. They didn’t just take something off the shelf and change the logo. They built a custom solution specifically for us. We like that level of customization.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clearly defined project map with timelines and checkpoints throughout. Getting things in writing helps keep projects on track.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Epoxy and polyaspartic coatings company that installs coatings systems and sells/distributes private labeled liquid coatings.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Design Center, Inc.?

To develop a calculator App to determine quantities (oz) of required liquid coatings for each step of coating systems installation.

What were your goals for this project?

To have developed a phone-friendly calculator application that can be used quickly and easily in-field by coating system installers.

SOLUTION

How did you select Design Center, Inc.?

They were referred to us by one of our vendors.

Describe the project in detail.

The project involved the development of a calculator that, once a square footage was entered, determined exact quantities (oz) for a range of liquid coating products for multiple coatings systems. The developed App also included "reference" information pertaining to solvents use, concrete patch systems, chip blends, etc.

What was the team composition?

Four Design Center team members (sales, project management, design and development), four members of the GarageFloorCoating.com team (Consultant, President, Sales, Field Manager) and four member of a "user" group (a dealer and 3 managers).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Currently well used in the field by dealers and franchisees with positive feedback.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. Daily 5 minutes meetings to track progress with several "Sprint" meetings.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have excellent communication and the delivery timeframe was superb.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None that comes to mind. Very please with the experience.