Momentum Design Lab

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Sencha is a UI [user experience] framework company that delivers solutions in software development for Fortune-1000 companies around the world. I was the Director of Worldwide Professional Services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Momentum?

Momentum has a unique skill set in UI/UX. Even though we were a front-end UI company, we built a lot of applications. However, building an application is only one piece of the process. The success of an application rests on how well the user feels in it: Does it flow well? Do I have to click too many times? Is it visually pleasing to the eyes? Is it too cluttered? All these things matter.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

There were times when I would recommend that clients just visit Momentum directly, but for larger projects we would often bring in Momentum as a department of our own team. We brought them in as a first step to walk the client through what they needed, and to ask all the right questions. Finally, when the client felt like they had enough information, Momentum would step back and do some iterations on flow, colors, etc. They would not just present one proposal; they would present several options, and then ask the client which direction they wanted to go. Eventually this process would yield a specific solution of how everything would look.

Again, all this happened before we would actually engage with the client ourselves. Once the visual design and the flows were created, then we would step in and start developing. Along the way, we might keep Momentum involved as the solution was coming to fruition. Once the app was finally being developed, such that there was something you could touch and feel, it might happen that some tweaks were needed or some additional pieces added that hadn’t been part of the initial concept.

How did you come to work with Momentum?

This is probably the sixth year I’ve been working with Momentum. When I started with Sencha, Momentum was just a small organization—perhaps 10 or 15 people. They were actually involved in the early days of our framework, so they had some expertise with our product. Although they have, more or less, stepped out of that arena, their intimate knowledge of our product made them uniquely qualified to deliver solutions for our clients. What was different about Momentum from other design agencies was the fact that they don’t just come up with visuals; they actually understand application development.

How much have you invested with Momentum?

We probably did 20 projects with them over the course of the last 5 years, and each project can span anywhere from $30,000 or $40,000 to $200,000. They weren’t all huge, they weren’t all tiny; they were a mix. In total, our investment would probably be between $1 million and $10 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around 2010–2011 and continued through the last five years. They’re still listed as a partner, but the company is not as actively engaged in utilizing any partners at the moment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There weren’t any specific metrics, but I never had a problem with their quality of work or with a customer not being happy with what they were able to deliver. In fact, that’s why I used them: If I wanted to present myself as a professional organization, I needed to have people working with me who also have that level of professionalism in what they do. With Momentum, that was there.

How did Momentum perform from a project management standpoint?

They have their own ways of doing things. Our models didn’t always align, but they were flexible enough, and we met in the middle. We tried to put our own management style around what they did; sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. This hindered them sometimes. For the most part, they have their methodologies and they met their deadlines. They were in the meetings we expected them to be in. I have no complaint from that aspect; just two organizations trying to work together, and you have your way, I have mine. As long as you’re delivering on your commitments, you’re present in the meetings, and the client is happy, I’m okay with a little bit of flexibility.

What did you find most impressive about Momentum?

They were a good company to work for. I don’t have any problem with their quality of work, and I never had to worry about the job getting done. If they committed to something, I didn’t have to worry about them flaking out on me. They were professional in that way, and we treated them that way.

The people in the company are great. They’re easy to work with, they’re professional, and they’re reliable. That goes a long way, because you can find people who are really good, but sometimes they’re so good they think they don’t have to meet deadlines. Or sometimes you find people who are good at what they do, but they don’t know how to deal with the clients. I never had to worry about any of that with Momentum. Really, it was a no-brainer for me to go to them.

Are there any areas Momentum could improve?

I actually think they did what they needed to do. They were doing a lot more development in the beginning when I met them, and it turned out that their real expertise was in UI/UX. They got their team more streamlined, and it became more apparent what I should use them for. We took advantage of their clarity and vision as needed because, as much as we were a UI company, we really were not that strong in the visuals; we were stronger in creating the applications. In this regard, Momentum was a good fit for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is a provider of homeowner and transactional data. Among many other things, this includes hazard data for the property insurance market and the mortgage market. I’m a product manager overseeing several plug-ins to a main platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Momentum?

We did not have an internal designer or design team to address a major redesign that we wanted to do, so we looked for a third-party vendor to do the heavy lifting for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We went through what I would call a discovery phase to determine what we were trying to accomplish. We gave Momentum access to the current application for which we were seeking a redesign. Next, we walked through the industry and the ultimate goal of our users, including some user personas. Momentum then mocked up several iterations of design avenues we could pursue; we ultimately chose one of them, as directed. Momentum then carried out the design in multiple iterations, handling it just beautifully. They fine-honed all the details, and then they delivered to us the native files in Adobe format so we could go ahead and develop.

How did you come to work with Momentum?

Truly, we found Momentum by Googling. I went online to try to find some top-tier providers of enterprise software solution design, and Momentum popped up at the top of the list. It seemed like a good company based upon their advertising materials. We ultimately wanted to go with them even though their pricing was a little bit higher than the other vendors. In the end, we’re glad that we did.

How much have you invested with Momentum?

We have invested between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project is now ended. Our work with Momentum started roughly in February of 2014 and then ended in July of the same year, give or take a month on both ends. They delivered the files, and then we took the development from there. That was as intended.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The problem there—and this is going to be a bit unique to us—is that we have not deployed the designs as of yet. There are some internal budget constraints and prioritization we need to take care of. It’s a project that we really want to do. If there’s any stat, it’s that we have 100% internal satisfaction with Momentum.

We had probably 15 key stakeholders involved throughout the process. I was leading the effort to do the redesign with Momentum, and then I ultimately sought approval from all 15–16 of those people, which we obtained. Everyone is very happy with what Momentum did. We have not exposed it to clients just yet, but everyone to whom we do show it understands the intents of the design and they approve of it.

How did Momentum perform from a project management standpoint?

It was pretty slick because they had separated out the project manager, the lead designer, and a contract contact. The project manager facilitated all of the logistics; this person would go to meetings and recordings, and take notes. Then the contract person would facilitate at what point we paid for certain phases of the contract. It was pretty smooth, from a project perspective. We’ve spent most of the time talking to the lead designer, which is what you should be doing in this type of engagement. From a project management perspective, it was pretty clean.

What did you find most impressive about Momentum?

My company takes itself pretty seriously—aside from myself, I should say. Then we went to Momentum and their whole demeanor was a bit casual. To be honest, that was a bit off-putting at first. I did get a little bit of concern from my supervisors about how nonchalant Momentum was. But once we got into a design piece, we totally disregarded that impression and we realized that it was very easy to work with them precisely because they were so casual. I thought this is worth mentioning: They are very easy to work with, but their casualness can be somewhat off-putting.

Beyond that, the designer that they had working on our project at the time was fantastic. She intercepted all of our mumblings with concerns about the current design, and then did something about them in the next iteration. I’m struck by how she really consumed all the feedback that we gave her and got back to us very quickly. I was very impressed with the design itself; it was exactly what we were looking for, and exactly what they showcased on our site—that level of quality.

Are there any areas Momentum could improve?

This has probably changed since then, but the initial contracting piece of it could have been improved. We had to go through several different amendments, and it wasn’t the cleanest thing I’ve ever seen, as far as contracts go. Maybe they would be able to improve in that area. Other than that, I enjoyed the fact that either the managing partner or the CEO stepped in a couple times just to say hi and ask how things were going. They truly wanted to be involved after they handed over the files, so we felt like they were our partner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My organization is called Evolute. We build enterprise Cloud computing software to scale the private Cloud. I’m Kristopher Francisco, the founder and CEO of Evolute.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Momentum?

We were looking to create a new product that would be appealing to the enterprise market for Cloud computing as well as a large audience. We needed experts to work with us in order to get there.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Momentum designed our user interface. We were looking for people who were passionate about user experience, who were feeling the design, and who were able to create that user space. With Momentum’s help, we completely revamped our entire design. They helped us with everything from honing in on our user personas to diving into the number of interface approaches that we could take for our target market. Momentum worked with us as a true partner.

They really helped us walk through the actual user workloads. Momentum was able to propose several different designs based on the information they gathered about our consumers. Based on that proposal, we were able to iterate the design to create a final release.

How did you come to work with Momentum?

I looked long and hard for the right partner. It was crazy. There are very few people who understand Cloud computing, even if they understand enterprise design. I have talked to probably over 50 agencies, mostly domestic (in fact, mostly in San Francisco), but also abroad. Momentum was the only one that actually had the breadth of experience I was seeking. When I started to dive into details, Momentum was able to prove to me that they were the company I was looking for. I was told to go in a lot of different directions: hire someone, do it myself, and all these other things. In speaking with Denis and the leadership over at Momentum, I knew that they could do what we were looking for. It was an amazing experience.

How much have you invested with Momentum?

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

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in November of 2015 and we were finished in January of 2016. Our final product has been completely developed as of this week. We are demonstrating our user interface to Samsung, Accenture, and OneLogin next week.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

People take us seriously now, that’s probably the best way to put it. I now have the user interface and can demonstrate that capability not only to our customers, but to investors. Based on Momentum’s work, we were able to scale our first investment run at a quarter million.

How did Momentum perform from a project management standpoint?

This was the most important piece. I’ve been in the industry for quite some time. I understand the importance of design, as I’m an expert in the technology. But what is not so clear is how you approach a new design for the Cloud computing market from scratch. Momentum does many different markets, I’m sure, but they had a fundamentally different approach to ensure that we were able to create the design that was right. That was the real value.

What did you find most impressive about Momentum?

They do amazing designs of many different things. We even explored websites with them. What distinguishes Momentum is that they understand the engineering and technical environments more so than any other company I’ve experienced. If you’re looking for a small, pretty simple application, surely they can help. They’re willing to dive to a level of understanding and into the actual product so that they can deliver on-target custom designs.

Are there any areas Momentum could improve?

Realistically, I just can’t think of anything. They were amazing. I would say that we ran a risk of going off budget, and we found ways to make sure that didn’t happen. I think their ability to respond to this size of a budget for a new company was just phenomenal.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company is an enterprise software-as-a-service platform that aggregates billions of pieces of social content like tweets, Instagram posts, and Facebook statuses. Then, we answer questions for brands and large agencies about their consumers: which people are most excited, what do they wish the company did, how the company compares to its competitors, and so on.

What is your position?

I'm the chief strategy officer. I own the product roadmap, go-to-market strategy, and our partnerships.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Momentum?

We wanted to build a very attractive digital display for our social data, and we were working on a very tight timeline.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Momentum did the initial designs, mockups, layout, and user experience. Two of their developers wrote the code for the front end and connected it to our APIs [application programming interfaces], so it was our data and analytics.

How did you come to work with Momentum?

About a year ago, Momentum contacted us with an overview of their services and their portfolio. At the time, we didn’t have a need because about 95 percent of our development is in-house. When this project came up, we contacted them immediately based on their experience. We liked some of their other designs, and we thought they understood what problems we were facing.

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

The cost is between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2015, and the first phase wrapped up at the end of February [2016]. We’re re-engaging with them now for a second phase where we’ll do some additional work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The project was profitable in the first quarter that it was on the market, which is an awesome turnaround time. We’re an enterprise software product, so we weren’t looking for volume. It’s a high price point and a sophisticated sales process, so the most telling metric of success is profits.

How did Momentum perform from a project management standpoint?

Momentum was great, and they were willing to jump on the project quickly. The designer they had on the project was very good and the developers who wrote the code were excellent: fast, creative, and agile. In general, particularly given the timeframes and deadlines that we gave them, I was very impressed with the quality of the result. Even when the first deliverable was turned over, there were only a small number of bugs. In the end, I think it was an extremely successful engagement.

What distinguishes Momentum from other providers?

They clearly have a lot of experience dealing with very data-driven interfaces. My perception from working with them is that they’re going to do very well with anything that’s heavily data-oriented. They clearly understand what’s involved when dealing with those kinds of interfaces, which is not something that’s generally true with agencies. Many people know how to create great designs and write great applications, but it’s not easy to do that well with data-driven interfaces.

Is there anything Momentum could have improved or done differently?

As things got down to the wire and we had to go live with a customer, it wasn’t always easy to get the developers to fix something that was broken. If I was doing this again, I would have managed the expectations with them appropriately, but I also think they could have anticipated that as well. In the end, everything worked out and nothing bad happened.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Product manager, Interactions team

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Momentum Design Lab?

We hired Momentum design lab to restyle our screens.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Online research

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

• Preparation of work-frame.
• Planning with developers.
• Daily communications and exchanges.

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

2 resources

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Momentum design lab provided new CSS files that restyled our screens all over the application.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Effective

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

We appreciated their responsiveness.

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

More development experience