Isadora Agency

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the VP of Marketing of a real estate company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Home building

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Isadora Agency to accomplish?

• New website
• Digital ad strategy

SOLUTION

How did you find Isadora Agency?

• Online Search
• Other

Why did you select Isadora Agency over others?

Other

How many teammates from Isadora Agency were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Digital ad strategy, set # of quality lead goals, achieved # of quality lead goals, created UX for new website

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Met our goals 100% or exceeded goals

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

Communicated frequently, effectively and in a digestible format

What was your primary form of communication with Isadora Agency?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I’ve worked with many talented marketing professionals and agencies throughout my career, but this team truly stands out. They were some of the most knowledgeable, strategic, and creative thinkers I had worked with in digital marketing. What impresses me most is their ability to look beyond the immediate project and think strategically about the bigger picture—how technology, user experience, creative, and marketing strategy all work together to drive results. They are also, hands down, one of the best website development teams I’ve worked with. Their knowledge of the newest technology and their ability to translate it into a modern, high-performing, intuitive website is exceptional. If you’re looking for a digital marketing partner who combines deep expertise, strategic thinking, creativity, and cutting-edge technology, I highly recommend this team. They don’t just build websites or execute marketing—they genuinely think like strategic partners.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Marketing Manager of NCCER

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

NCCER develops standardized construction and maintenance curriculum, assessments, and certifications to enhance workforce development and ensure a highly skilled, safe, and productive construction industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Isadora Agency to accomplish?

• Rebrand NCCER's visual identity, including logo
• Position NCCER to promote the brand and digital presence
• Create a website that is discoverable, responsive, and user-focused
• Provide consistent and clear content that inspires, educates, and engages users
• Guide users to applicable content through a curated experience on our website
• Have seamless management of the website’s backend for updates/edits (internal)
• Safely and securely maintain data, payment processes and personal information
• Develop a website that scales with NCCER's growth and expansion

SOLUTION

How did you find Isadora Agency?

• Online Search
• Clutch Site

Why did you select Isadora Agency over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Isadora Agency were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

NCCER's website needed a complete overhaul, with reimagined information architecture, backend and design. The website is an important source of information for our network of people and serves as a conduit to multiple platforms and systems within the NCCER tech stack. Our primary goal for the redesign project is to provide our users with an intuitive and seamless experience. 

Additionally, the new site must be easy to maintain and update, and be flexible enough to adapt to changing needs as NCCER continues to evolve. This endeavor required content migration support, but it is not entirely exclusive to all the content housed on the existing website. Although the scope did not include content creation or production, it was required that the design and WCMS must work to showcase and elevate our content, creating a sense of unity across content of varying types, styles, and production sources. 

Ultimately, we wanted to eliminate unnecessary scrolling and feature essential elements to ensure a fast site speed sans bulky coding and weighted design elements. Lastly, we expected our new website to effectively illustrate the “how” and “why” of our story and how each visitor fits into our narrative. It was required that each page be designed in a customer-centric manner with a strong emphasis on the solutions we provide for any issues or problems our customers might have. 

Primary Technical Requirements include: 

• An open source CMS 
• Capability to apply different authentication methods, OAuth, NCCER uses AWS Cognito 
• Webservices and RESTFul API’s to retrieve user data, geo-location data, and integrate with Salesforce and 3rd party databased for training center locations and reciprocity mapping 

Primary Website Requirements include: 

• Design standard and style guide 
• Flexible page templates 
• Widget/component options 
• Map tools 
• Alert banner(s) & pop-ups 
• Email sign up 
• SEO and social share 
• Google Analytics and Tag Manager integration 
• Post-launch support and development

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Every deliverable required to meet our goals, stay within our budget and achieve the aggressive schedule was accounted for in the SOW and tracked via a project management tool. Consistent communication from the Isadora team assigned to this project kept each phase on-track.

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

The team at Isadora Agency is phenomenal to work with. They listened to our needs, addressed any questions quickly yet thoroughly, and made great recommendations throughout each phase of the project. They are incredibly transparent, responsive and organized, which kept all deliverables of the project on-time and within budget. We felt the success of our project was a top priority for the team at Isadora Agency, which was woven throughout every deliverable.

What was your primary form of communication with Isadora Agency?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We were immediately impressed that the owner/founder of Isadora Agency was actively involved in the project. She joined several weekly touchpoint meetings, walked through our new brand identity with our Board of Trustees as well as our entire staff, and had checkpoint meetings with our CEO throughout the project. Everyone assigned to our project gave 110% effort the entire way through and we could tell that each person was committed to delivering a final product that exceeded all of our goals.

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

We had small takeaways throughout the project that we shared directly with our designated project manager. In terms of improvement or doing something differently, we do not have any comments.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a department director for a health informatics company offering clinical decision support tools for major hospitals and health facilities in the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Isadora Agency?

We initially hired Isadora Agency to redesign our website and optimize its UX and SEO.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Isadora Agency has helped us redesign our WordPress website, optimizing its UX and implementing SEO tactics to improve its positioning. As for the SEO portion of the project, their team helped us select certain keywords for the site’s content and installed tools within WordPress to optimize those keywords. Now, they help us maintain our website on an ongoing basis.

After that initial project, our relationship expanded. Thus, Isadora Agency has also helped us redesign our logo. To do this, we first provided them with our old logo and told them what we wanted out of the new one; we wanted a stronger, more modern, and easier-to-recognize logo. Then, they came up with a few different options, we had a few rounds of revisions, and they ultimately delivered a final logo that we approved and rolled out.

In addition to that, Isadora Agency has also produced some explainer and anniversary animated videos for us. To create them, they took care of the entire process, including developing the story concept and the storyboarding. Moreover, they were in charge of the entire graphic design and hired the voiceover talent needed. Ultimately, they delivered the videos in MP4 format.

What is the team composition?

We regularly interact with three people from Isadora Agency, including Isadora (President), Carina (Digital Production Manager), and Samantha (Associate Digital Producer). We’ve also worked with Alex (COO/Client Service) for business matters, such as renewals and project estimates. Moreover, throughout the projects, we’ve also worked with a lead designer, a content writer, and some graphic designers.

How did you come to work with Isadora Agency?

One of my former colleagues worked for Disney, and Isadora Agency had done some work for Disney too. He recommended them to me when I was looking for a good web development company.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $100,000. Currently, we pay them around $40,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2022, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thanks to Isadora Agency, our branding is now more visually appealing. When we launched our new logo, we interviewed our clients and employees to find out how they felt about it, and we got positive comments.

As for the website, we’ve been measuring time on site, traffic, and the number of pages users visit, among other things, to see its performance. Moreover, we’ve been measuring our videos’ click-through rates. Although I don’t have any numbers to share, the results are meeting our expectations.

How did Isadora Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Isadora Agency has met our deadlines and stayed on budget. Carina is amazing to work with; she has stuck to our milestones and guided us through the process to ensure we don’t fall behind and stay on track.

Moreover, Isadora Agency is very communicative regarding issues. For example, during one of the videos’ production, the designer had a COVID-19 infection. Carina let us choose between them finding someone else or waiting until the designer was back. We had great communication throughout that process, so we were very happy in that regard. As for communication, we use Google Meet for video calls, exchange emails regularly, and use Asana for project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Initially, Isadora Agency really took the time to understand our business and what we wanted to achieve. Additionally, their level of creativity is great. Still, their main strengths are their project management and communication skills — they’ve made a huge difference.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Share all the information you have. Isadora Agency will assess it all and develop a great plan.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of communications for a group of nonprofits in Florida.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Isadora Agency?

We’re contracted with them to provide ongoing services, including hit or miss pieces of content that we need assistance with, but also a large-scale redesign of the site. We’re currently doing an entire overhaul of the website in the background.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided them with our brand standards to start the design work, including our colors, logo, and look and feel. Then, they put together a refreshed proposal demonstrating what the final look would be.

They assessed our site’s coding and design and then engaged in strategy sessions with us to figure out how best to display certain pieces of information to get clicks to them. Isadora influences what we choose to present and where, rather than necessarily providing copywriting for every piece.

They also do SEO and graphic design. If I needed a one-pager or social card on something, then they’ll design it. We talk to them about what we’re trying to service with SEO keywords, as we do a lot of data and analytics on applied medical research.

What is the team composition?

We have one main resource who acts as the project coordinator, but that has recently expanded to two people because we’ve brought up additional needs we have. Those two pass our information along to their coding and design teams.

We don’t get a random person every time we call them. We have a dedicated project manager on our account.

How did you come to work with Isadora Agency?

We received recommendations from other partners in the space.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $500,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t launched the full site yet, but I can say that on the individual pages, we’ve seen a significant increase in traffic.

How did Isadora Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They communicate if something takes more hours than they expect, and they usually never exceed their estimates.

We communicate over Outlook and Google Suites for organization. Microsoft teams so we can respond in real time. They use Asana, and we can transparently see where all our requests stand. Whether it’s the strategy or the design team, we can see where we are at any given moment.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One aspect of their work is that they’re innovative in how they approach the work. They’re always thinking about user experience and providing us with a design that will keep our users engaged. For example, we do a lot of public opinion research and polling and publish those findings on a static page. Isadora developed a website that will allow people to manipulate the data themselves, including creating visualizations that highlight differences in demographics, topics, etc. For me, as someone thinking about how to make this work translatable for our audience, it was great.

Their collaboration skills also set them apart. Isadora even brought in the head of the company to talk about where we want to take the site. We view them very much as part of our team because they play such an integral role in our work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s every been a delay in a project that’s initiated from their end. They’re on budget in terms of what they deliver and they invest time in understanding our organization.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know what you want to achieve, as well as your key messages. Keep those things in mind as you make the rest of the important decisions in the process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of marketing at Smith.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Isadora Agency?

We partnered with Isadora Agency to redesign an outdated website. Our former website’s structure didn’t adequately showcase all the services that we provided to our customers. Additionally, we needed help with rebranding our marketing materials once the new site was ready.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Although I wasn’t part of the initial steps of the project, I know that it included iterations on design concepts and mood boards. During this process, Isadora Agency helped us define our colors and other branding elements.

Then, we went into wireframe design, discussing UX designs, page layouts, and content. We iterated on those ideas until we went into flexible module design to build the WordPress website. At that point, we also ensured that all the content was ready from our side to populate those templates, as in any other website development project. Finally, Isadora Agency helped us with QA and QC to ensure that everything was working properly before launch.

Now, we’re using Isadora Agency’s services for some post-launch tasks. These include taking the elements they designed for our new site and using them to create marketing collateral such as presentations, business cards, and email signatures.

What is the team composition?

When we started our engagement, we first worked with the design producer. This person then stepped out of the project, and Isadora (President) herself stepped in to take over that role. I don’t know how many people have worked on our project behind the scenes, but they include developers, designers, and writers.

How did you come to work with Isadora Agency?

Although our marketing team is small for our company’s size, we have 6–8 team members at any given time. When we were looking for a partner, each of them did their independent research on design agencies, looking for impressive portfolios and capabilities that met our needs.

After their research, the team made a list with their findings, and those companies who overlapped got a higher score. The most impressive companies for us were the ones that showed modern designs and creativity, and Isadora Agency’s own site stood out from the rest. We also saw that they had won several awards from sites like Clutch; that was why we chose them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our new site looks great; it is much more modern and sophisticated. We did an employee survey and got overwhelmingly positive feedback on the new site. We also ran a contest where our employees had to share the new website with our customers, from which we got a very positive response as well.

Regarding metrics, the most positive result was that we didn’t see a significant drop in our statistics when we launched the new site. When launching a new site, we need to resubmit it to Google so that they can reindex it. When doing that, there’s usually a decline in traffic because the new site becomes harder to find. Fortunately, we didn’t experience that.

How did Isadora Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Isadora Agency has been very flexible from the start; from a project management standpoint, that’s one of the aspects we like the most about them. We had unprecedented growth in 2021, and we had started this project before that. Without Isadora Agency’s flexibility, this project wouldn’t have been completed.

They’re also very lenient in meeting deadlines and keeping us on track as much as possible. On occasions, we’ve had to put this project aside to focus on day-to-day business work, but they’ve always kept the project moving; Isadora is very hands-on, and she helps on a weekly basis to ensure that this happens. We use Zoom and Teams for our meetings, and we have access to their Asana.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Besides Isadora Agency’s impressive flexibility around our challenges and ways to work, they’re also very easy to work with. They’re always available, and they answer our questions very quickly. Overall, they’ve been very good at hand-holding, helping us turn an outdated website into a modern and responsive new site.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is nothing Isadora Agency could improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set up a clear process for design requests and changes from the start and have a point person to manage the communication. Throughout the project, we’ve found out that the people involved can change, so having a defined process from the beginning would have helped us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior executive director for communications and creative services at Texas State Technical College. We have 10 campus locations throughout the state.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Isadora Agency?

We hired Isadora Agency to create and designed a brand new website because our existing one was already outdated.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team implemented a different look on our new WordPress website, which was unique from the existing websites of other colleges. We’re going through an update now.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with 3–4 people, including Isadora (President( and Alex (VP). Sheria (Digital Producer) is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Isadora Agency?

Our procurement office was in charge of the bidding, but we were responsible for getting the information out. We received bids from several companies, and we interviewed them. In the end, Isadora Agency was awarded the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $435,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership began in April 2020. Our current contract will end in August 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We use platforms or other technology such as SiteImprove to crawl our site and let us know about any broken loose accessibility or SEO issues. Furthermore, the numbers we have been monitoring that are related to our website have climbed since the project launched.

How did Isadora Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great in terms of project management; Isadora Agency meets deadlines, and it’s usually our fault when there are delays. They also have strong communication skills, and they share their ideas about our project. We communicate through email, Zoom, and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to listen and respond to our needs has been impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. Isadora Agency has been wonderful to work with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should envision what they would like to have and listen to feedback from Isadora Agency. In our case, we’ve done some tests and discovered something we would have never known.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of marketing at Sunbit, a FinTech company. The benefit we add is helping to alleviate the stress of buying everyday things that we need in our lives like getting our cars fixed or getting the glasses that we need or going to the dentist. We provide those merchants with the opportunity to offer access to flexible payment plans to their customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Isadora Agency?

Our website hadn’t been updated in years and didn’t really reflect our value. It looked a little out of date and wasn’t a good reflection of the business that we had built up to this point. It was critical that we had a website that was content-rich and reflective of a modern technology company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided a lot of guidance. They helped us in building out the look of our brand. They built a lot of the aesthetics as well as some of the actual language we use. 

The engagement started with interviews with stakeholders across our business and compiling feedback and understanding of who we are, where we’re going, who our customers are, what they’re going through, and the benefit we provide.

After those interviews, they were able to come up with some visual methods of communicating our value and benefits.

Once we decided on a way forward, we started into the development phase. Part of the development phase that was critical for us was ensuring that the business owners were able to go in an update the site and we could change content frequently, add resources, etc.

Everything is brand new. Our previous site was all hardcoded and we were hosting through AWS. With this engagement, we leveraged WordPress as the CMS and we’re using WP Engine as our hosting provider.  We will be working with them for some other deliverables as well like video.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact was the project manager. Throughout the entire engagement, I worked directly with Isadora (President). There was a user experience designer I worked with as well.

How did you come to work with Isadora Agency?

I’m very familiar with the agency world. When vetting agencies that we could work with, we had a bunch that came to us and some that we also looked at.

Part of the evaluation criteria was we wanted a team located in Los Angeles because we believe in helping local businesses and the proximity is always beneficial. The first impression of Isadora Agency, when looking at their site and the frameworks that they leverage and their past work, what they express through their aesthetics as well as the language, it just really resonated with me.

They worked with finance companies before — B2B and B2C. I felt they had a very modern approach to what they do. After our initial conversation at their office, they really understood what we were trying to achieve and they understood our vision and business model right away. I felt we connected on that.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2019 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We just launched the new website. From a qualitative perspective, it’s done a lot as far as bringing energy to the business. Everyone is very excited about it. Last week, I did a training for our call center and walking them through each page. There’s a high level of excitement among our employees. 

With the merchants we work with, we’ve also gotten a lot of good feedback. Previously on our site, it was pretty light as far as content especially content for the end customer. Now we have more content which our merchants like because at the end of the day, it’s all about trust and credibility. They can then direct customer to our website and there’s language that actually speaks to them. That’s been beneficial.

We’ve also seen an increase in the number of forms we get submitted from customers. It’s positive because in the past they may have had questions but they couldn’t find the form. Now the form is much easier to find and fill out. Another thing that’s a benefit to us is the website prior to this engagement, we didn’t have any type of analytics. We had no insight into how much traffic we were getting. I’d have to go in and make assumptions. Now we have analytics set up in Google Tag Manager and conversion goals. I can’t tell you if we’ve had increased traffic because we didn’t have data beforehand but at least we have access to data now.

How did Isadora Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was great. We’d email back and forth throughout the week. We had a weekly status meeting. There’s a lot of engagement beyond the project manager. Isadora made herself incredibly available. She was on the majority of the meetings. She was very responsive via email. Their team felt like they were part of our team. It was a very fluid experience.

One of the things that was a delight is when COVID-19 happened, we went into a mode of being more diligent about our spending. The way we worked out our payment agreement with Isadora was to split the payment into three different installments. They worked with us in sending out those payments into smaller increments over time. It made us feel a little more comfortable but we were still able to progress along with the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This was the easiest engagement that I’ve ever gone through. It was very smooth. We were all being on the same page from the very beginning. We had such a good understanding between us. We didn’t have many revisions and it was very smooth. The way they built the CMS, it made it very easy for us to make any minor adjustments that came back from our legal team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everything went fairly smooth. We were using PDFs for review. Nowadays there are several different online products that allow for working prototypes that are more pixel perfect like InVision. It’d be nice to have that for better communication but the PDF did a good job as well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It all comes down to trust and communication. Trust that they’re experts in their craft. Make sure your vision is articulated clearly and that everyone understands the value of the product or service you’re providing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing project manager for the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation. We’re a non-profit organization that promotes Japanese pop culture—such as animation and music—to the American public.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Isadora Agency?

We wanted to create a separate website exclusively for attracting and managing sponsorship. Our site was not very user-friendly or appealing to potential sponsors. We wanted a more streamlined and flashier set-up that would attract businesses.
 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Isadora Agency built a customized WordPress website for us. They first provided us with a creative brief template that we filled out. We then went through a seamless trial-and-error process where we saw multiple wireframes and sent revisions until we were happy with their work. 

Their team provided us with recommendations and suggestions on how to achieve our goals. We don’t have a background in digital development, so Isadora Agency oversaw all development and design.

What is the team composition?

We work with three front-facing people: Isadora (President, Isadora Agency), Jason (Digital Producer, Isadora Agency) who serves as our project manager and web developer, and Alex (Vice President, Isadora Agency) who is our account executive. There’s a larger team on the backend, but we don’t have face-to-face interaction with them.

How did you come to work with Isadora Agency?

I searched online for the top 10 digital marketing agencies out there. Isadora Agency popped up, and we selected them to compete in an RFP process against other digital firms. They came out on top. Unfortunately, circumstances on our end prevented us from making a deal with Isadora Agency until this year. Thankfully, their team was patient with us throughout the prolonged contracting process.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2019, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website has launched, but its role in our main sales processes won’t start until October. Our sales team now shows it to prospective sponsors when it’s relevant in their discussions. We’re still very excited to have the tool even if we don’t have any metrics just yet. 

Isadora Agency has highly professional folks working on our project. Over the past 2–3 weeks, we’ve done a lot of QA on the site. We’ve finished working out all the quirks and kinks, the amount of which we expected for this type of project. Overall, we’re very happy with the speedy turnaround and the quality of the deliverables. However, Isadora Agency will still let us request changes until we’re fully satisfied. They’ve been excellent partners to us.

How did Isadora Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

I’d give Isadora Agency a perfect score. They’re highly flexible, and any deadlines we’ve missed are because we didn’t provide feedback fast enough. Isadora Agency used a custom internal tool to manage our project. We have a username and password that we use to log in to the tool through their website. Email is our other form of communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their biggest strength is their ability to be flexible with our needs. If we need to shift directions or change the code or timeline somehow, Isadora Agency will do so.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t see anything that Isadora Agency can improve at. Even from the contract phase, they’ve been on top of everything we’ve needed.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be very upfront on what you want to accomplish. Really hone in on your goals and be as detailed and descriptive as possible. The more direction and information that you give Isadora Agency, the better the proposal and the outcome of the deliverables will be. 
 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Kelley Blue Book is one of the best-known names in the automotive industry, empowering consumers with trusted values for the vehicles they own or are shopping for. I’m the manager of user experience that is responsible for our design system with the goal of presenting a best-in-class user experience through UI and visual design.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Isadora Agency?

We wanted an agency to help us update the look and feel of our digital experiences. We were looking for range concepts of what a modernized and more engaging look and feel for KBB.com could look like. We needed someone familiar with branding and design systems. We currently have an established system as a foundation for our current products and services. The agency had to be able to leverage that foundation and take it to the next level. They also needed deep understanding the principles of our system, and the process it supports, so that the transition from our current design system to the new one would be as seamless as possible.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Isadora Agency participated in a multi-phased initiative. Phase one, Look & Feel Refresh Bake-off and phase two, the execution of the winning concept. In phase one, they conceptualized, presented and contributed a design that we at Kelley felt was one of the better and visually challenging concepts we received. We tested qualitatively with users in-lab where their concept stood out with its clear and bold typographic treatment and how it closely aligned to the Kelley brand.

The partnership continued in phase two, after we refined the design based on insights from surveys and usability tests where we reengaged Isadora. In phase two, they took our refined direction and evolved it further, bringing a new layer of creativity and aesthetics that our survey findings supported where participants state that it was well ‘organized’, ‘easy to use’, and ‘clear’. Where 70% indicated that the design improved their impression of Kelley Blue Book. 

Isadora Agency then designed a toolkit, created illustrations, wrote guidelines and specifications a for our UX team, utilizing Sketch, InVision Design System Manager. Our UX team uses those services to design the user experience and our engineering teams use them to develop the products and services.

What is the team composition?

During our kickoff meetings, we had a core team of five. Throughout the engagement, we’ve worked with ten different producers, copywriters, and designers at different points. There was also a UX strategist involved as well.

My primary points of contact during phase one was Jason (Digital Producer, Isadora Agency) and Isadora (President, Isadora Agency). Alex (Vice President, Isadora Agency) was our main contact on the business end. During phase two, we had a project manager that was involved with day-to-day work, while Isadora focused on creative elements.

How did you come to work with Isadora Agency?

During a Google search, I found Isadora Agency on Clutch. During my research, there was also an article online that detailed local and top digital agencies. We had discussions with and reviewed several agencies to figure out who would be the best fit to take on phase one. We chose Isadora Agency and another for the ‘bake-off’ to answer what would be the right look and feel for us. For phase two, we ended up choosing Isadora Agency because of their creativity in the outcome of the designs that were executed in phase one, and their technical understanding of design systems. Our team also considered the total costs for each phase and what we were getting out of it from our end.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Isadora Agency started in November 2018 and is set to complete in September 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re a UX organization that lives and breathes the craft of design. We operate in highly collaborative environment with product management, analytics and engineering among others, that utilizes agile principles, to design the best possible solution for the business, its consumers and clients. During the first phase with Isadora Agency, we needed to make sure that they understood that we’re not ones to not think through design and its impact. Initially, there was a challenge in the partnership because it seemed like we’re not what they’re used to when it comes to client relationships. Trust started building as work started right before phase two.

Because we work in a partnership, they’ve become more flexible, which has helped tremendously. In phase two, things began to shift. The lead producer has been extremely helpful, facilitating the relationship between us and Isadora. She’s open and empathetic to what we’re both trying to achieve. It’s been an exceptionally successful partnership thus far. Their team listens in order to achieve the best outcomes. I’ve come to appreciate Isadora Agency’s skillset from a creative standpoint. I’ve learned a lot about the discipline behind the creativity from my interactions with her and her team.

How did Isadora Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We let them know that project management had to be tight with us, especially during phase two. We established with them daily standups, where we go over what we’re planning on accomplishing that day and what we owe each other in terms of feedback and timelines. There’s constant communication, which gives all involved, clarity on deliverables and expectations. We’ve tried various software management tools, including Asana, but found the daily standups to be most useful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Isadora Agency creates warmth and personality with the overall design. Their creative touch is impressive. The heart and soul their team puts in differentiates them from other providers. They not only design to the highest of quality but bring empathy from human-computer interaction.

Are there any areas they could improve?

During the first phases, their team had to get used to the way we work at our company. We had to push to create that collaborative partnership that we preferred.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Customers need to be clear and articulate what they need and how they expect Isadora Agency to work with them.