Momentum Design Lab

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

SingleMind Consulting is a digital product design and development firm. I’m the CEO and founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Momentum Design Lab?

At the time, our core focus was software development or web application development. We needed a design partner that could do the interactive and visual design for a client of ours, Screenshots.com.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They conducted the user interview of the client to get an idea of what the client wanted the interaction model to be for the website. Their design team built out the designs, including the interactive visual design, and handled the reviews for the client for any modification that needed to be made before development got underway. We took it from there and brought the project into completion, got it launched, and then they were on-hand for changes after the fact. This was the first creation of the website. What the client site did was there was a snapshot of what a website looked like at a given point in time for all websites on the internet. MDL created an interface that was really intuitive to the visitor of the website to understand what the timeline graph looked like and to make the navigation of all of the screenshots that have been taken for a given domain intuitive and easy to understand.

We handled all the development and collaborated with MDL on the production of the designs. They did some of the slicing of the assets and, since it was our client, we cleaned that up. But once the assets were all put under production, we worked with MDL to make sure that they were pixel-perfect, that the implementation was accurate to the design.

We have worked on larger projects with them. We’ve probably worked on 10 total projects with MDL. There’s been some general design consultation provided by some of the team members on some of the projects that we ended up not building and they didn’t bill us for.

How many resources have been assigned to your project?

Our account rep was Joe [Preston, Chief Experience Officer] and there was a lead designer. I believe there was a third person that we didn’t interact much that was doing some of the visual design production.

How did you come to work with Momentum Design Lab?

We have worked together over 10 years. This was one of the first projects that we worked with them on. We selected them because we knew them and knew they did good work. It was a high-profile client, and we wanted to make sure we put the best foot forward, so we used the best. We considered two other companies; a freelance designer that was going to work directly with us, and then another design firm that was based locally.

How much have you invested with Momentum Design Lab?

We have spent between $50,000 and $75,000 with them over the course of our relationship.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2007, and we still work with them on projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The metric would be the bottom line of retaining a relationship with a client because of the quality of work that MDL put forth. That’s certainly worth $250,000 to $400,000. I’m aware of awards that MDL has won. Generally, the comments that people make are that it’s world-class interaction and visual design, that it looks like it’s designed by one of the larger design firms.

How did Momentum Design Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very consistent and they care very highly about what their clients think. They definitely want to deliver excellence throughout the organization. We use JIRA, Redmine, Basecamp, and Slack during the projects.

What did you find most impressive about Momentum Design Lab?

I would say the team is very capable of scaling. They were never asking for only large or small projects. They did whatever work we talked about doing together. The team was able to scale to meet the demand, which says a lot for a design agency to do that and then maintain their quality. That is very important and very powerful.

Are there any areas Momentum Design Lab could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Momentum Design Lab?

Be mindful of what your ideal budget is and consistently reach out to have a discussion with MDL around where they are sitting within the estimated budget. They’re very good at ideating and elucidating the ideas from the product owner, and sometimes that can mean it really doubles or triples the scope of the project. Sometimes the client is completely fine with that; other times they may enjoy the conversation but then when they get to the point of talking estimates, they get concerned about going over budget and then have a hard time pairing back the functionality. If they're mindful of that and enter into that dialogue on a regular basis it should prevent any surprises or negative experiences.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a freelance marketing consultant. In the past, I’ve held various roles at primarily mobile consumer-facing startups.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Momentum Design Lab?

We were a small company in San Francisco. We were launching mobile applications that were distributed through the wireless carriers. This was before smartphones. As most tech startups are, we were very resource-constrained. We had internal design teams and developers but we didn’t have the bandwidth and we were forced to meet external deadlines set by our carrier partners. We needed outside help in order to expand our staffing capabilities and get these mobile apps developed on time so that we could launch with our partners.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Momentum helped us with an application that we were creating, which would be distributed on Sprint. They designed the user experience around a certain feature within the application. This product was made in the early mobile days. It was a way of faking your way through your social life using your phone as your secret weapon. The feature Momentum worked on for us was around developing various personas within the app. For example, you could have a fake boyfriend or fake girlfriend within the app and it would have wallpaper and text messages and ways to pretend that you are taken when you might not be. That was one of many different features.

We also had a rescue ring where you could preprogram a call that would come in during a certain time during a first date with voice prompts, creating a conversation in real-time to get users out of a situation. It was a fun project. The pricing model at the time was driven by the carrier so it was on a monthly recurring charge which is probably what sank the product. All of the features have gone on to be standalone products by other companies. We had a section that allowed you to get a quick download on what was going on with pop culture and politics and anything you might need to know to master cocktail party chatter.

I’ve also worked with Momentum at a different company where they helped us with the onboarding experience for consumers who were signing up for mobile phone service through our application. We liked them well enough that we used them again for the second project. This product was a way to add a second line to your mobile phone so that you could manage both business and personal with separate numbers but the same device. They did the user onboarding flow. If someone signed up on the website, the experience of onboarding, selecting the phone number, and pricing the plan was all managed by Momentum. They owned all of the UX/UI for both of these projects.

How many resources have been assigned to your project?

It was a small team. I don’t remember the specific number.

How did you come to work with Momentum Design Lab?

I don’t recall exactly, but typically I would select a partner through referrals from my network. I would put out an appeal on Facebook or LinkedIn or ask people about their experiences with firms and if they had any recommendations. I trust the good word of someone I know and trust.

How much have you invested with Momentum Design Lab?

We spent between $10,000 and $50,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first project was probably in 2007, and the onboarding for the mobile voice application was in 2011.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any metrics from either project.

How did Momentum Design Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

I remember the project management was handled well, and the projects went smoothly. I had no complaints, which led me to hire them twice. That was a strong point for them.

What did you find most impressive about Momentum Design Lab?

They’re very personable and easy to work with. They know their stuff and focus on getting in the consumer mindset.

Are there any areas Momentum Design Lab could improve?

I don’t recall.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Valore Labs. Our mobile consumer app helps increase engagement between customers and retail stores.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Momentum?

We had a very basic app and wanted to transition between a prototype and a much more polished version that we could start showing customers and investors. We wanted an experience-driven transition between the various flows. The biggest challenge for us was keeping it under budget and within a month-and-a-half to two months.

We wanted to lay out our problem statement and have somebody give feedback on the five main things to focus on out of the 20 things we were looking at. Momentum came in to help us transition from a very basic UI template to a more experience-driven framework.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They had a couple of senior people in the room — people who had done this numerous times — so they could very quickly home in on what was required. They got a couple of designers involved and went down the path of giving us options A and B. On a weekly basis or every few days, they would show us what the evolution of what options A and B looked like, and within a week-and-a-half, we zeroed in on one of the options and took that to completion. On an ongoing basis, beyond the two primary designers, we had a part-time project manager who reported back on the status.

How did you come to work with Momentum?

We've used 99designs and other third-party groups in Australia, Ukraine, and the UK. While the pricing was great, we didn’t get great results. Ultimately, we realized that design needed to be done in person. The remote environment setup was not productive or efficient.

On the other hand, design houses in the Bay Area were way over our budget. Between the time constraints and the budget we had in mind, we couldn't get on the same page. Some organizations approached it as a big project, and we were looking at it as a small and quick.

Momentum was great for us because they immediately understood our needs and mindset. They knew what a startup needed. Time was of the essence. Whittling things down to the bare minimum to make it a success was also important. Within the first couple of sessions, they provided meaningful feedback: Here's where we think you are. Here are the attributes you’ll need. This is what we can do in that month and a half to two months. This is what the budget will be like. That process was the most compelling for me, compared to the others that we'd spoken to.

From evaluating them alongside everybody else, the process they used and the way they were able to meet our requirements were just right for us.

How much have you invested with Momentum?

It was in the $15,000–$20,000 ballpark.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started early- to mid-November 2015. We were completely done by mid-January 2016. Now, we're discussing going back to them for a broader set of revisions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It isn’t extremely quantitative, but consistently, users and customers have seen a clear difference between what we showed them before and their overall experience after Momentum worked on the project.

Post-Momentum, it was a lot more intuitive, as people said, "I think I understand what this app can do.”

How did Momentum perform from a project management standpoint?

They were top-notch. When the project kicked off, I was overseas working with another group, so a lot of this was done remotely. Between the process and tools they adopted, we didn’t miss a beat. We had very clear communications on a daily/nightly basis (including weekends) with updates on what was achieved. The first couple of weeks was a weekly drop, and then after that, it was daily tweaks and updates of what they were working on.

It was fairly low-touch: the project manager would report back saying two things that I thought were very useful. He'd tell me how things were going on a daily basis, and how we were doing against the budget we had set. I thought that was super useful because, at the month mark, we saw that we had 30% of it left, and I wanted them to do a few more things. I don't think I even needed to get on the call because I knew exactly where they were just between the tools they used and the daily updates they sent us.

What did you find most impressive about Momentum?

We knew what we were getting into and we knew the seven or eight things we needed to achieve. We knew the money and time we had to work with. The two primary designers were just crisp. Spot on. The thing is when you only have a month-and-a-half for a project, you don't really have time for slippage. We had no slippage whatsoever; everything stayed on track.

Are there any areas Momentum could improve?

I would have loved to see option A, B, and C before we narrowed things down, but that's just a personal preference, and I know we were constrained by the budget and time we had.

Another thing that could have been beneficial for them is to dive deeper into our products. If they had, they might have had even more insightful feedback. For example, if you went from an app that had only five screens to seven, here's how we would suggest you extend the framework. That could have been very helpful, which is something that we ended up doing on our own.

Take our feedback with a grain of salt. We're a startup, so we're always going to push for more, but within the context of what we needed, and given the time frame and budget, they were easily in the 99th percentile.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

TowerData is a technology company that offers email data services. We help companies improve the quality of their emails lists and learn more about the people on their subscriber lists. I’m the CEO and founder. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Momentum?

We wanted to overhaul our customer portal, which allows our clients to upload their customer data for our processing or to create API keys to access our APIs. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with the existing design to get us started, but the dataflows were different, and we added more dashboards. We discussed what we wanted to achieve and the brand objectives. We did an initial requirements document, and we worked with Momentum to come up with a page template from that. We designed each screen and got feedback on what worked and what didn’t. We did wireframes and designs for 30 screens.

We’ve gone back a couple of times asking for changes and updates. Momentum provided a project manager and several designers. We also had periodic interaction with a higher-level executive.

How did you come to work with Momentum Design Lab?

We reached out to a number of companies and reviewed their portfolios. We tried to get an understanding of whether the companies would be able to articulate what we wanted to do. We discussed price and availability and spoke with references. Eventually, we ended up choosing Momentum to work with.

How much have you invested with Momentum Design Lab?

We spent close to $100,000 with them for the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship started in April 2015, and the work was completed in October 2015. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They did a good job of articulating our vision in conveying our brand and making a smooth UX while looking professional. We get compliments on the site’s design and the ease of use. We’re proud of the work Momentum did.

How did Momentum Design Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a dedicated project manager who was good at communicating details about the timeline and budget. He was a good interface between us and the designers.

What did you find most impressive about Momentum Design Lab?

I thought they provided high-level service and quality results. They created a very sophisticated site with a great design, and we’re pleased with what they did.

Are there any areas Momentum Design Lab could improve?

We just used them for design. We talked to them about doing HTML, but that didn’t turn out to be a cost-effective avenue for us, so we did that elsewhere. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

SumTotal Systems is an HR software provider. When I worked with SumTotal Systems, I was VP of product management. I was responsible for the overall user experience (UX) and product management and innovation. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Momentum Design Lab?

We had a product that had grown through acquisitions. There were nine products that were cobbled together through a SharePoint portal, and we were getting beaten up in the market over our UX. This was also the primary limiter of our ability to sell the product. We needed to redo the UX so that we could get past those roadblocks. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

During this project, I worked directly with Momentum. They were diligent in their process. They came to Florida where the company is headquartered and spent a week with us going through all the major things we were looking to get out of the project. They also made goals and timelines to come up with a detailed project and resource plan. They had 3 teams working with us with 8–12 resources involved, depending on the phase of the project.

I worked directly with the head of Momentum along with various project managers on both of our teams. Our internal team was comprised of 200 engineering resources in project management that were involved in the revamping of the entire suite. They helped us with 2 major and 2 minor projects. The major projects would last a year, and we would utilize a few teams on their side and big teams on our side. For the minor projects, we would use a single team on both sides.

How did you come to work with Momentum Design Lab?

I worked with another firm, York & Chapel, who outsourced work to Momentum, in a previous position. At the time, we had an Oracle project where we were rewriting the frontend of our cloud-based HR solutions. Momentum had done great work, and I wanted to use them again when I moved to this company.

How much have you invested with Momentum Design Lab?

We have spent between $1.5M and $2M over the course of our relationship. When I left SumTotal 6 months ago, the contract was still project-based, but I don’t know the current status of the contract.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2015. After this project was completed, we used them as our default UX vendor for any other big projects we had because they had done such a good job. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had a set number of goals and some baselines that we compared against. From a customer-win rate, we went up by 30%. UI had been an issue before, but that totally stopped being an issue.

We did usability studies; in terms of satisfaction with the product, it went from 49% to 83%. The results exceeded what we expected, and we were happy about that.

How did Momentum perform from a project management standpoint?

SumTotal helped with material support around project management and made company-wide changes. Momentum was able to navigate the politics and silos that existed at SumTotal very easily. They put processes in place that we needed to follow from a UI perspective.

From a timing perspective, we hit all of our milestones. There may have been some minor delays by a couple of days, but nothing major. The project was highly successful, the project management was great, and we executed what we needed to.

What did you find most impressive about Momentum?

I’ve worked with UX firms in the past, and Momentum was excellent in being able to navigate a difficult political work climate and get things done. I haven’t seen that from other UX consulting firms. Most firms get bogged down, but Momentum didn’t. They were willing to go beyond the call of duty to make things work in a timely manner. That also sets them apart.

Are there any areas Momentum could improve?

I was hoping they were going to be more innovative in their approaches. We were looking for radical things, so we had to coax them in that direction. I think they’re used to working with organizations that would incrementally increase things, but we wanted to throw everything away and start over. It wasn’t a big issue, but it did take some time to let them know what we wanted. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of goLance, a global freelancing marketplace.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Momentum?

We needed a new user interface for our company for a mobile and web application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with them to upgrade our current user interface by designing a new one. It was a beta interface and we had enough revenues to do an upgrade, so we went from MVP to full solution. They did some research on the industry independently, but there was no preliminary research or a discovery process. The design was collaborative. They only designed the interface of the web app; our in-house developers implemented the designs. One resource from Momentum was assigned to the project.

How did you come to work with Momentum?

I found them online. I looked at some of their designs, flew out to meet them, liked them, and decided to move forward. I had considered other providers in my search. They’re a pleasure to work with.

How much have you invested with Momentum?

They charge $250 an hour, so I paid them around $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them at the end of 2015. It lasted about three months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We got very good positive feedback about the upgrade. Everybody was really happy. It was a good version 2. Although there are no metrics I can give, it has definitely upped our game.

How did Momentum perform from a project management standpoint?

I don’t like working with project managers, so we didn't work with one with Momentum. I worked directly with their designer, and that was very efficient. I have a cultural difference with the concept of a project manager, but that’s specific to me in the way I run teams, not to their business. I prefer to work directly with the resource.

What did you find most impressive about Momentum?

They’re nice people to work with. Good people who are very flexible. I liked them.

Are there any areas Momentum could improve?

What gets measured gets done, so the areas of improvement are all on my end. There are certain things I wish I had continued to work with them on, instead of taking a step back, and I don’t think their project manager would have made a difference. There are some things that I’m changing and upgrading now, but their work provided a good foundation. Overall, I’m happy with their work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was also the co-founder and CEO of another company called Yola.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Momentum?

That company’s website and app needed a UX overhaul.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, Momentum evaluated what we had built already and brought some best practices around the redesign. We had a tight timeline so it couldn’t be a full overhaul, just partial. To get it fixed, we needed to be smart about what we spent time and energy on. It was very collaborative. We explained what we needed and they came up with good suggestions on how to implement and how to make it work.

How did you come to work with Momentum?

It was a while ago so I don’t remember the details.

How much have you invested with Momentum?

We spent $10,000 to $50,000 for that project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was finished 4 or 5 years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Momentum was able to get the project out in time. The feedback we got was great. We saw some very positive metric improvements in conversion rates and usage of the tool. It was a huge improvement over the old site.

How did Momentum perform from a project management standpoint?

I had a project manager working with them directly. I wasn’t personally involved.

What did you find most impressive about Momentum?

The team was fantastic and the lead designer was great. They were able to execute what we wanted. It was a very good engagement and we had no problems.

Are there any areas Momentum could improve?

None.

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Verifone, a terminal manufacturer. We are a market leader in point of sales terminals and product terminals used in the retail environment. We also have a payment processing and securities business. I am the director of product management for merchants and the director of partner experience for new commerce platform products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Momentum Design Lab?

Our commerce platform is the new way of opening up the payment ecosystem. We provide applications for our banking partners so that they can offer better service to their merchants. We are coming up with a new, publicly announced product called Verifone Carbon, hardware with an ecosystem component where third party developers – individual as well as enterprise developers – can publish their applications through our marketplace. Those applications will be available to the Verifone commerce marketplace merchants.

The value proposition we are trying to solve is to design an experience for the merchants so that they can use our products effectively. It's an Android-based system with a web interface as well. We engaged with Momentum to help design the new merchant experience. When merchants get the device, we need to show them how to use it and how to manage day-to-day operations like employee management, transaction management, receipts, and so forth.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Momentum was engaged to help design the merchant experience for the device. We extended that engagement to design the web interfaces for our partners, developers and the app market space. Specifically, they helped us in creating the information architecture. We had several brainstorming sessions to create the information architecture documents. Then, we had sessions where we focused on what the vision was – how our vision translates into the drive experience as well as the online experience for merchants, developers, and bank partners. They helped us create the high volatility wireframe mockups and final design specs that our developers could implement.

How did you come to work with Momentum Design Lab?

When we were seeking quotes and proposals from various design agencies, Momentum came in as a personal reference, so we had that initial introduction.

One important factor in selecting Momentum Design was their proximity. We are based out of San Jose, California, and they are based out of San Mateo. They could drive down to working sessions on short notice compared to some of the other agencies that were farther away, making it difficult to manage design sessions that are more about sharing ideas and being agile remotely. That was certainly one consideration.

The other thing was obviously their proposed deliverables. The proposal that we received was clear and laid out what their discovery process was going to be. What I liked particularly was how they were going to go about developing what we were looking for and then providing the code.

Last, but not least, was the price for the code. We were in a very tight budget situation with a specific budget already approved for all this work. Our selecting Momentum was a combination of all these things.

How much have you invested with Momentum Design Lab?

It was well in excess of $200,000 – it was a large project lasting six months. We started with two designers and the project manager. We provided the strategic guidance. We expanded to two additional designers, two interaction designers, one information architect, and one project manager.

What is the status of this engagement?

The whole timeline was about six to eight months, in the October or November to May or June timeframe.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They are on top of the work and are still available for questions. They are good at communicating what they need. The information architecture architect was good. Through the discovery process, we uncovered a lot of information. That information drove the whole discussion in a very meaningful way. They kept the projects under budget and stayed within the timeline.

How did Momentum Design Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

They helped create the initial project and would keep on top of the deliverables using tools like Basecamp or Slack. They communicate and collaborate in an agile manner. We used to have a weekly budget call to make sure the work was going appropriately. As with any vendor or contract position, there is obviously a need to pay attention to budgets and timelines.

I was happy with their project management. Every engagement is different and every organization is different. Obviously, we had to adjust a little bit to their working style, but we managed to do that.

What did you find most impressive about Momentum Design Lab?

What distinguishes them is their availability. Their senior executives and staff were available all the time to answer questions. If there were any questions on the budget, extensions on the project or technical questions, they'd be there.

I would highlight the discovery process and the delivery of the information architecture. We are able to build on that because that document fulfills the vision that we had. We can now secure that vision.

Are there any areas Momentum Design Lab could improve?

Obviously, nobody's perfect, and there's always room for improvement. There was a little bit of a problem on the team when another designer had to go on a personal leave. That caused friction because we were working under tight timelines.

The other thing was when our senior designer left, we had to ramp down and then ramp up again. Other problems were obviously the function of people and timelines. We could have spent a little bit more time in exploring different design options. But, obviously, we had to start somewhere.

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a startup in the financial technology space. We have an application that is aimed at making international money transfers extremely fast and simple. We've been working on this out of China for a couple of years now. I am the chief executive officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Momentum Design Lab?

We essentially needed a backend engineer. We had an employee leave, and so we were shorthanded in that respect. I had talked to Momentum previously for UI/UX [user interface/user experience]. I reached out to them and asked if they had expertise doing what we needed on the back-end. They said they could help us, so we retained them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us create and develop some of the back-end features – server side development, development operations – things like that. We have a back-end API [application programming interface] that serves our mobile application, and that's the piece where we needed help. Their work wasn't really client facing, but it's obviously an integral part of our services.

How did you come to work with Momentum Design Lab?

I heard good things about them through a mutual professional relationship. We had explored retaining them earlier for some UI/UX work, but had ultimately decided not to go that direction. We had good conversations during those talks and, when I needed someone, I reached out to them. Based on word of mouth and reputation, I felt comfortable giving Momentum a try.

How much have you invested with Momentum Design Lab?

It's right around $50,000 give or take, but it might be a little more than that.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship was more of a collaborative experience that didn't have a real start and end date. They jumped in, plugged some holes for us and had a guy who could help push us ahead a little bit quicker and in areas where we necessarily didn't have the needed expertise.

In time, we also were able to hire another in-house person, and so as we ramped up, we could wind down our relationship with Momentum. It faded out more than came to a hard stop at any particular milestone. All that was about a year ago, and I think the actual engagement lasted three or four months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was generally satisfied with what they did. I think they were effective and efficient, which is important given that their rates are not at all cheap. I think in time – and this is not necessarily their fault – we had to make some changes to what they did. What they provided us wasn't the most well-architected solution, but it got us to where we needed to go at that time. Overall, I'm generally satisfied.

How did Momentum Design Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very good and very clear on what they were doing. They had a dedicated project manager who I think ended up not being all that necessary because I worked more directly with the programmer. The programmer himself was very good at project management. He let me know what he had worked on, what he was planning to work on and provided accurate estimates as to how long each piece would take.

What did you find most impressive about Momentum Design Lab?

From my point of view, they're very professional. I think, as a consulting firm, they're very well managed. I felt comfortable that if I retained them, I'd get what I'd bargained for. This is in contrast to many consulting firms that are often programmers without much management or organizational experience.

From a client's point of view, the ability to budget and have the outcome fall in line with expectations is quite important because it helps immensely with our ability to plan. I think that their ability to manage and organize a project accurately is something that sets them apart.

Are there any areas Momentum Design Lab could improve?

While their technical expertise was good, it wasn't necessarily top of the line. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I spotted a few things in his technical implementation that could've been better.

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is called Llamasoft, and we specialize in supply chain software. My title is senior vice president of software development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Momentum Design Lab?

We are in the process of building the next generation of our flagship product, which is a desktop supply chain modeling tool that's been in the market for more than 10 years. Slightly more than a year ago, we began an effort to do a ground up development of a brand new interface with a lot of new functionality to replace the existing flagship product, which had evolved from an initial code base during the better part of a decade.

Instead of continuing that evolution, we wanted to take advantage of the new technologies, the new underlying off-the-shelf software. Most importantly, we wanted to design a much richer, more compelling interface that we knew would be impossible given the constraints of the existing technology.

We started from the ground up and struggled with our limited in-house user interface design capabilities. Our team had developed an initial offering, something a bit more than just a prototype but the beginnings of a working, new, functional application. Unfortunately, none of us were satisfied with the overall look and feel of the workflow.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I first engaged with Momentum on the workflow of that particular product. We narrowed the involvement down to the main left-hand navigation, top-level navigation and three or four different primary workflows, mostly centered on data manipulation. The application is very data-manipulation heavy – bringing data in, getting it ready, putting it into the model, and configuring it – there's a fair amount of configuration associated with the model building process, which ultimately then gets represented into a mathematical optimizer.

Momentum needed to understand that data, get it prepared for the optimization and then visualize the data after the fact. We didn't do a complete soup-to-nuts user experience workflow design for the entire application, which would have required a deep understanding of supply chain design in order to do that successfully. We focused more on the style, on how we wanted to present certain screens and options, including the look and feel, the color palette, and the icon design.

How did you come to work with Momentum Design Lab?

We had a full-time UI [user interface] person for the better part of a year leading up to this initiative, but this person just wasn't able to create what we thought was a compelling new design look and feel. We had a few outside consultants provide some ideas and inputs, but we didn't go very far with that. Finally, we went on a more comprehensive search with a specified budget of $75,000 to $100,000.

During the past year or so, we had been reaching out to individual contractors and design firms, but just couldn't find anybody that brought strong capabilities to user interface design. We kept searching and finally came across Momentum. We had interviewed three or four different firms and short-listed Momentum. The process wasn't extraordinarily formal. We gave them some existing screens and workflows and asked them to come back with their designs to show us in a relatively small scope how they would handle a couple of pages and the workflow associated with the application. We just liked Momentum's work, and so we chose them.

How much have you invested with Momentum Design Lab?

So far, we've spent about $175,000 working with them – with good potential that we'll do more.

What is the status of this engagement?

The flagship project was successfully completed and the results were good – all the way up to our CEO, who is not easy to please, but who was very happy with the overall look and feel of what Momentum had produced.

We have another product that is not specific to supply chain design but is an ETL [extract, transform, load] data manipulation tool that people use to help prepare the data for modeling. We wanted Momentum to bring that user interface in line with the new interface of our flagship product so that when we release this new product in 2017, the data manipulation tool, which is often used in conjunction with it, will have a similar look and feel.

We just finished that engagement, and it capped at $75,000. We will likely engage Momentum again for a third product, which is a web-based product associated with a company that we purchased at the beginning of this year. I'm in talks with our main contact at Momentum. We may or may not do that project. If we don't, it's not because of them, it's because we don't want to spend that money right now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Momentum helped significantly with the overall look and feel of the application. Many of our users are going to be very interested in how to build these models and what the setup is for them, but Momentum didn't focus on those issues. Instead, they focused more on the aesthetics and the application interaction.

They worked on how menus are controlled and on how many things should be put on a particular menu. They looked at all of the configuration options that would appear on the left-hand navigation, how fly-outs are controlled, and how our detailed master is organized. They weren't responsible for the actual setting up of the model and the nuts and bolts of how to build a model, although that's of course a big part of what the users care about.

The application is not going to come out until 2017, but we do have a dozen or more advisory council customers, and we have shipped an early version to a couple of them. We had our annual conference in June [2016], and the feedback on the look and feel of the application has been very positive.

How did Momentum Design Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

They executed the project very well. The owner wasn't engaged on a day-to-day basis, but he stayed engaged enough so that we felt we weren't just sold and then left alone. We had one main designer who was working with our team. Once the initial understanding was put together and the teams got to know each other and how people worked, the project settled into a comfortable weekly rhythm.

We had meetings every week during which we would lay out what we wanted from Momentum for the next week. They would talk back and forth about that and come to an understanding of how our customers would use what we wanted, what the purpose was – they would just get a good feel for the requirement. They then would typically go off for about a week and work on that. They worked with an online tool that allowed them to build prototypes that are relatively interactive but not hooked up to the database – there's no code behind it. It provides a good idea as to what something is going to look like which, in turn, is what they would give to the developers.

We had our UI person on their team who was their main contact throughout the week for any follow-ups or questions they might have. Then we'd meet the following week. Momentum would show us what they did, and our team would provide feedback, perhaps suggesting some changes or modifications, then we would talk about what we wanted Momentum to do the next week. That cycle continued from start to finish.

What did you find most impressive about Momentum Design Lab?

Their project management was good. They did have a separate project manager as well who kept things on track. There was good transparency into the money, how it was being spent, and where we were along the way. That part was all good.

Ultimately, what distinguishes Momentum from others we've worked with is that they put together nice designs. We've had a lot of in-house attempts to execute designs for multiple products, and although what we did was OK, nobody got excited. That also holds true for external consultants we've used.

I would say that for the first time in the two-plus years that I've been here, the designs that Momentum put together got people, even our CEO, excited, even to the point where people said our other products should look like this. That's where the second engagement came from. We wanted to keep the identity of those other products but, in some way, be compatible with the look and feel of our flagship product.

Are there any areas Momentum Design Lab could improve?

If I were to give a reference for them, I wouldn't point out any red flags or anything someone would have to worry about. I think they're a little bit on the high side as far as price is concerned, but you get what you pay for. In the end, it's money well spent if you get a good design. I don't think in any way they're overpriced for the quality of the service they provide.

I don't really have any criticism. People can always improve in terms of communication, execution, and speed, but we never got complaints from anyone that we're going too slow or we're not getting what we asked for. I definitely give them high marks overall.