Furthermore

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Digital Channels Manager of Financial Ombudsman Service

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Financial Ombudsman

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Furthermore to accomplish?

• User testing of our website and wireframes

SOLUTION

How did you find Furthermore?

Online Search

Why did you select Furthermore over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Furthermore were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We required annual user testing of our website to identify and fix problems with the user experience that we may have not considered. The findings informed development work on our website throughout the financial year. Furthermore interviewed 20 participants (consumers and busineses) asking questions about their experience of our current webpages, as well as our newly designed wireframes. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Detailed report with page-specific insights and reccommendations
• Participant interviews and transcripts for context and further detail
• Informed roadmap of development and content changes

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Shane provided a detailed plan, with timelines and key deliverables at each stage, prior to the work kicking off, which helped set expectations. He also shared clear instructions of what we needed to provide and by when. He kept me informed and up-to-date weekly via email and in our check-in meetings, and any ad hoc questions I had in between were responded to within 1 day.  

What was your primary form of communication with Furthermore?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

• The level of communication and updates (without ever hasing to send reminders or chasers)
• The detailed approach to the plan at the beginning
• The extra detail they provided in the report/presentation to help us have more context and prioritisation of insights and recommendations
• The proactivity and ease in booking in business participant inrtviews (participants found by us quite last minute) even with technical and availability difficulties 

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

I don't have any specific areas for improvement. Overall it was easy and enjoyable to work with them, and we had everything we needed delivered on time. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Digital Marketing at Grant Thornton UK LLP a professional services firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Furthermore?

Our website had last been updated 5+ years ago and was one of many member sites across the globe. The UK Firm in particular wanted to refresh the site as well as drive engagement and revenue through the channel. Furthermore, were engaged to help us through this transformative project.

SOLUTION

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

As a heavily regulated organisation, we have robust vendor selection and procurement processes. Furthermore were selected on the criteria of affordability, return on investment, case study examples, skillset, credentials and ease of working engagement.

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

The roadmap for the project which we co-created with Furthermore was segmented into 9 distinct sprints: 

1. Research
2. Discovery
3. Prototyping including site structure and navigation
4. Prototyping including site search
5. Prototyping (lead generation and evergreen guides)
6. UX and visual exploration. 
7. Detailed design 
8. Portal concept development.

As we were all working remotely, our communications conduit was MS Teams, we also use platforms such as Miro, and Invision for further collaborative working.

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

In total we worked with 5 resources. The roles were as follows: Product and Service Design Leader, Project Lead, UX Designer, Project Manager and Graphic designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The wireframes and the project documentation were second to none. They were also audience interviews which were recorded and transcribed to help us drive the decision-making. When it came to the development of the wires, functionality and new user journeys, Furthermore were there all along the way to help with tweaks and feedback loops, to ensure we had the best outcomes.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between the two teams was very seamless. Project was started during the pandemic, so initial engagement and relationship was fully remote. We had a very good meeting cadence and the project plan that was put in place provided a great roadmap for us to follow, no timelines were missed on the Vendor side. They worked as an extensive of our team.

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

For me the way Furthermore immediately became an extension of our team was really impressive. Their skills and knowledge really shone through, not only in their approach and ways of working but also in their ability to tactically "roll with punches" when it came to any changes, we as the client would make, occasionally on the fly. and they were also good at limiting scope creep.

The outputs from the research they conducted for us was thorough and reasoned and made it easy to pick out the common themes. Finally, the sprints approach and timeline, really kept us honest and focused on the end goal.

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

It would have been nice to have some collaborative in-person sessions, but this was limited to pandemic conditions and to no fault of their own. I would recommend they employ an in-house technical/solutions architect to assist with the transition from UX/UI deliverables into solution building and delivery although I would say we really benefitted from their expertise in the UX/UI space.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a coaching platform. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Furthermore?

Over the past 12 months, we had pivoted and evolved our service. Our messaging, website, and how we positioned ourselves in the market had become outdated. We needed support designing and developing our new website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Before we even started working together, Furthermore gave us an initial brief, which deepened into a discovery call about website development and branding. We refined our discussions and set up a project timeline. After finalizing everything, they began execution.

Furthermore assigned Shane (Project Manager) to work with us, and he coordinated everything together. He would introduce relevant teammates to take us through a workshop and contribute to various deliverables such as copy, UX design, and branding. 

What is the team composition?

Aside from Shane, we also worked with Steve (Managing Partner), a UX specialist, a graphic designer, and a copywriter. Steve participated in all our workshops, which we appreciated.

How did you come to work with Furthermore?

We looked for agencies through Google, and we talked with some providers — we encountered both big and small agencies. We talked about our position as a business and how they understood where we were in our journey. 

Furthermore did well in encapsulating and documenting what we wanted to achieve and mirroring our vision back to us, so we hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around £30,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from March–May 2021. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was only recently that we had the site, so it’s difficult to come up with metrics about their work. That said, our marketing and tech development teams spoke highly about their experience working with Furthermore. 

They had the breadth of expertise in UX design, copywriting, and SEO, the key areas that we needed. They helped us refine and achieve clarity on our market positioning. Because of Furthermore’s work, there was a sense of confidence and direction in our team regarding how we’re showing up in the world.

How did Furthermore perform from a project management standpoint?

We worked on a very tight timeline of about eight weeks. We set up a Slack channel for us to communicate. Our project manager was just brilliant — everything was delivered on time, and we built a nice relationship with their team. They promptly responded to our messages, and that helped us move at the same pace. 

Our workshop sessions facilitated a knowledge transfer and gave us the space to reflect, give feedback, and move forward. Their cycle worked well for us.

Shane was always on top of things, making sure everything was ticking along on time, people were showing up, and deliverables were happening. Having him around was integral to the project’s success.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Furthermore made a complicated process very simple. We worked with such ease and a real sense of partnership. The end product was great, but beyond that, our collaboration has been pleasurable. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have real clarity upfront on what you’re looking to achieve. Being specific about your goals will help them work their best and engage in their strengths. 

We are fortunate enough to have a real understanding of what we want to do, so we’ve benefited from their strengths. Allow them to use their expertise to bring your vision into reality. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Executive Director for a non-profit technology standards and open source foundation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Furthermore?

Our website was horribly outdated in terms of UX/UI and functionality. Furthermore was brought in to help our primary contractor with the redesign and rebranding of our website.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals for the project were a refreshed brand presence, with a new logo, new UX/UI for our website and a set of style guides to help us in applying consistent brand features to our website, but also all of our online collateral.

SOLUTION

How did you select Furthermore?

Furthermore was brought in as a design partner to our primary web development vendor (Human Made) and they were the second design team brought into this project after the first design team wasn't a fit for our organization. After interviewing the team from Furthermore, we felt much more comfortable with their ability to understand our needs and the direction we were looking to go with our rebranding and website redesign.

Describe the project in detail.

The project involved interviewing our staff and external stakeholders to determine what the strengths of our brand were, and where we could gain improvement. Furthermore produced wireframes for our development vendor as well as a refreshed logo/stylesheets and color palette for our organization. We worked collaboratively with Furthermore through multiple iterations to arrive at our new brand, iconography and logo assets.

What was the team composition?

We had direct access to not only the project manager at Furthermore, but also the primary designer as well as the head of the organization. The team at Furthermore became an extension of our own marketing organization in the sense that collaboration was always on display, through multiple iterations of the design.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our refreshed website just launched last week, so we haven't had any concrete metrics to really study yet. However, all of the anecdotal feedback we've received from our external stakeholders and members has been uniformly positive about our new logo, and the new design/UX of our website.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Despite being several timezones away (US ET and UK/CET), our collaboration with Furthermore was top-notch. From them being available in our Slack instance, to regular Zoom meetings, I never at any time felt that we weren't getting the best collaboration and design possible. They were incredibly responsive to our needs.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Furthermore not only knows design, they understand its intimate relationship to how people feel about a brand. They spent the right amount of time on researching our organization, talking with stakeholders and consistently refining their designs to meet our needs and deliver an incredible set of assets and designs that have given our brand new life, while staying true to the best parts of our history. They were a true partner in our rebranding and redesign and I would hire them again in a heartbeat for any other design projects we might need.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of anything we would have done differently, except maybe hire Furthermore earlier in the process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the strategic engagement manager at LOTI, a public sector startup. We help London borrowers to collaborate on digital tech data and innovation to realize real world outcomes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Furthermore?

We had been thinking about developing a website for quite some time. We wanted a front door to everything LOTI, and we wanted it to be as accessible and convenient to find information as possible.

Over the course of the year, we were committing ourselves to be transparent about our work, unlike other government departments by drafting blogs. We wanted to bring our projects to life outside of those blog pages.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team at Furthermore designed and developed our website. They followed our branding guidelines by way of colors, the fonts, the style of writing, and the look and feel of the site.

We’re a collective of 19 organizations altogether. It was important for us to reflect on the identity of that collective but also try as much as possible to create our own. They created a new look and the content a little bit more from what we had.

We secured the domain name for some time, even before the organization was created. We were keen to remain on WordPress just because that’s what the team was familiar with.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 3–4 people. They had the head, the main liaison, the graphic designer, and the person who did the backend development of the site.

How did you come to work with Furthermore?

When working in public sectors, it’s important that people go through the tender process with a fine-toothed comb. I searched online for SMEs and for those that have worked with public sector organizations or similar in the past and could understand where we were coming from by way of look, feel, and budget.

I contacted a few and shortlisted. We went through a process internally to decide on who would be best to work with. I then met with three organizations before deciding on choosing Furthermore.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May–July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team worked on a very tight schedule and was able to deliver right on time. We have nothing but great things to say about them. Prior, the main way of us publicizing our work was through Twitter or blog posts.

We never really had dedicated project pages to live out our transparency goals as an organization. That’s one of the main things that we’re pleased about the website that Furthermore developed. The team brought our vision to life.

Everyone can follow and track the progress of what we’re doing. It makes it easy for us to share our work nationally and internationally if we can just share a direct link to a particular project, and you can see it right from the Genesis to what we’re currently doing on a piece.

It’s been able to gather a lot of interest. We get more emails. When people contact us directly, it’s a lot more targeted rather than before when they just wanted general information about the organization.

Now they’re able to focus their questions and ask us about the specific thing and offer help for the specific thing. That’s essentially what we wanted to achieve as a result of the website.

How did Furthermore perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was excellent. They set up weekly meetings, which were mainly review meetings. We used Basecamp. We set up a project space for website development.

We’d speak on there. Documents were also shared there. Links that needed to be reviewed were shared as well as timelines for the completion of specific tasks. We knew what was coming up each week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We really liked the way they broke down what we were trying to achieve into tangible chunks. They fed that back to us so clearly and concisely that we just knew from the outset that we chose the right organization. A lot of what we do can be quite nebulous, and you can get caught up in the conceptual level.

They were able to make it very tangible and bring that to life on the website through timelines, visuals, and the use of color. That really helped us feel confident that they were the right organization to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We really liked that they got the concept but I think they could improve on the design aspect of the site. It looks quite basic, and I wish it looked a bit slicker.

I wish they built on the collateral that we gave them a little bit more and thought outside of the box. The second thing they could improve is by letting us know the issues prior to the meeting.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set out timelines from the get-go of what needs to be done and when. Ensure that the timeline correlates with your own organization’s priorities.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the global head of tech products for a market research agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Furthermore?

We had an established platform that we built several years ago, but we needed to improve the UX, along with the overall look and feel. We decided to take a step back to figure out our three-year vision and make sure our goals were defined. This led us to hire Furthermore to help improve the UX on our existing platform and help us strategize to improve client retention and overall usage.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We do two continuous types of work with Furthermore. We use them for suggestions, comments, and strategy for UX, but they also provide frontend development services for our site. 

First and foremost, they helped us define our vision for the products. They worked to understand our users and think about how, from a design perspective, we could reach our goals. From there, they’ve been working on our UX/UI design, and we collaborate on wireframes and graphic design for new features. 

Throughout this process, we decided to do a completely new look and feel for the site, so they built a new style guide with our lead designer. The site is built using Angular.js and their team works on the frontend to enhance the platform’s look and functionality. They also do user workshops and user testing, running the sessions with me. 

What is the team composition?

Steve (Managing Partner, Furthermore) serves as the lead on the UX projects. There are about 3–4 people total supporting our project, including a frontend developer.

How did you come to work with Furthermore?

We found several agencies on Google. Once we narrowed down to a few, we looked on Furthermore’s website and liked what we saw. We wrote a brief, had three agencies pitch for the work, and Furthermore won. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent in between £200,000–£250,000 (approximately $257,500–$321,800 USD) up until this point. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve had an ongoing relationship since 2015. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a range of product KPIs that we track, looking at monthly active users and usage rates for certain features. By doing this, we can tell if people are likely to be satisfied with our product, so it has been helpful. The quality of Furthermore’s work has been fantastic and they’ve been instrumental in working toward our goals and KPIs.

How did Furthermore perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very strong at managing the project. They’re flexible, organized, and we have no complaints. Their team is great at coming back to us with suggestions for improvement and tracking feedback and results.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Furthermore has taken everything to the next level—they’re a partner, not just a vendor. I rely on them very heavily, and they always come with great ideas. Listening carefully to what we want is one of their skills. They bring a strong, client-centric approach to the work. 

The team is brilliant at what they do. We like them as people, too. They’re great to work with. They are dedicated to achieving our goals rather than just building and design features. We work really well collaboratively, and they’re invested in making the project a success. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they could improve on. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Look at them as both designers and strategic partners. They have a great understanding of how business works, so make sure you give them the chance to be a real partner. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of a government-owned company that helps people manage mapping data that is acquired by the government. More specifically, we help startups use this government data to start new companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Furthermore?

We hired Furthermore to help us develop our branding a launch a new digital presence.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a workshop around our current brands and focused on how we wanted to further develop the brand essence of our organization. We had sessions to get everyone’s views on what the brand meant to them and how customers view it because we wanted it to be more inclusive for our whole team. We developed user personas, which led to a brand profile and brand essence document.

Using all the information we produced from those exercises, we began building a new website that would be geared at our target audience. Furthermore was the primary contractor for the project, but hired a subcontractor to handle the actual coding efforts. They also handled all the design, UX work, and initial content creation with our team. 

What is the team composition?

There were 4–5 people working with us. The founders were involved, but Shane (Project Manager, Furthermore) was our project lead. 

How did you come to work with Furthermore?

We’d worked with Furthermore previously, and we liked the work they did. Because we’re a government agency, we had to go through a formal procurement process. We sent out a tender and had 12 agencies pitch for our project. We were really pleased when Furthermore came out on top, since they were our original choice. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around £50,000 (approximately $64,300 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from 2017–July 2018. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t been tracking the traffic impact very heavily, but we’ve had quite a significant number of people giving us great feedback on the site. The extensive community of users claims the site is more usable and serves as a better expression of our brand. People can more easily get the information they need online now. 

How did Furthermore perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a great job. Everything was communicated clearly and Furthermore made sure to provide subject matter experts to work with our team. They presented information in a professional way, especially around content development, which was nice. It was good to work with the team rather than just individuals. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attention to detail and customer-oriented approach made our engagement very personalized. They’re a small agency, so we felt very important to them. It’s important for us to feel like an agency cares about our goals and values the relationship, which Furthermore did. They took a lot of pride in their work. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly can’t think of anything for them to improve. They did a great job staying in our budget and I’d happily use them again. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let them lead the process. Sometimes, clients can be too specific about their needs, which limits their ability to explore. If you’re looking to reposition your brand, the first step is understanding your market and letting them know how you want to be presented. This is something Furthermore excelled in. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior product manager of telco enablement at Vonage API Platform. We provide products that facilitate B2C communication experiences.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Furthermore?

Furthermore helped us design a guided selling experience to help our salespeople understand what products, features, and configurations they could sell in the global marketplace. That web product would allow us to build a configured price quotation (CPQ) extension on Salesforce.com.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team came in to interview our key stakeholders to understand our capability and methodology. They captured that information and played it back to us. They then set up a series of workshops with them to define our desired goals. Gathering that feedback, they organized another workshop round while beginning to develop a prototype for an eventual solution.

I engaged with them for various iterations of the sample product, before presenting a semi-final prototype to various stakeholders in different global regions. Doing that enabled us to capture salespeople’s feedback in a structured manner.

Taking that information from internal customers, they developed a user flow before launching into the real building phase. We participated in various management exercises to verify that user flow. That user flow was taken to the development team to create the application.

We’ve now built the final experience tool, and plan on rolling it out in the next few weeks.

What is the team composition?

I had three points of contact: Steve (Managing Partner, Furthermore), Shane (Project Manager, Furthermore) and one other person.

How did you come to work with Furthermore?

They were recommended to me by some colleagues.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in December 2018, and the work is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The API capabilities have enabled us to process deals more quickly with the customer. It also enables our salespeople to understand what and where we can sell. We can be much clearer with our enterprise-customer base about what we can deliver. As a result, it helps manage customer expectations, helping us deliver upon our promises.

The new design has helped us ensure the right knowledge is provided to salespeople. In a complex, configurable environment, they now have information at their fingertips while having conversations with our customers and potential customers. It speeds up the sales process across the board. We’ve gotten great internal feedback throughout all phases of the project.

They passed over a robust amount of information to our development team, minimizing the amount of QA sessions. They were very meticulous in their documentation, which we appreciated.

How did Furthermore perform from a project management standpoint?

They were able to listen very effectively to understand the exact scope of work. They also succeeded in simplifying sophisticated concepts; I witnessed their ability to reduce the complex into digestible ideas. This includes succinctly articulating the most sophisticated solutions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were meticulous in their approach in understanding the different components of design and in working towards an effective solution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they were very good all around.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Allow Furthermore full exposure to all parts of the business. By making yourself accessible to them, you enable them to be as creative as they can. They’ll come up with great solutions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are one of the top three companies of access control and security solutions and they provide products for secure access to buildings and rooms. In my role as Web Project Specialist in the Group Communications department, I was responsible for the set up of th blog.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Furthermore?

Furthermore created for us a unique UX for our blog.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to have a unique, outstanding UX for our blog, while still be in line with our classical corporate design.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our IT partner suggests Furthermore as a UX partner and after a look at their portfolio and a talk we were conviced, that they are the right agency for this project.

Describe the project in detail.

We started the project with a persona workshop at the Furthermore office and from there they went into suggestions for possible directions. After we agreed on one suggestion, they designed the different formats.

What was the team composition?

We had a project manager - Shane - and a UX designer - Sarah. Also, Steve, the owner, and founder of Furthermore took part in most of the meetings and was always available for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are very happy with the outcome of the UX of our blog. It's unique and has some very nice details, but it is still in line with our corporate design.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication and collaboration with Furthermore went very smoothly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I liked their agile working style and communication. We had a very regular exchange and I always knew about the status quo, eventhough we had some time pressure.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, I'm very satisfied with the project.