Slide UX

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a startup management company. We help enterprise innovation teams connect with early-stage startups on innovation projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We were looking to redesign the first version of our platform to improve usability based on client needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Slide UX started with a discovery phase to identify our core value propositions. During this time, they go to know our business and our current platform functionality. They divided this information into buckets and supplemented it with the results they gathered during interviews with our clients.

Moving forward, Slide UX’s team created high-level wireframes and provided general directional options to us. Once we chose a direction, they added more pieces and functionalities, as well as integrated feedback from our clients to develop even more specific workflows. UX Slide took three main areas and went deep into them, fleshing them all the way out. 

After that, they skinned the platform based on our choices and created the UX with a beautiful design. We handled backend development internally.

What is the team composition?

We interfaced with two account leads, and there were 5–6 people working under them.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

Between Clutch and other directories, as well as posts I placed on LinkedIn and other sites, I gathered roughly 20 firms to interview, narrowing it down to a handful of candidates. We chose Slide UX because of reasonable pricing and focus on the B2B SaaS industry.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $30,000­–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April 2020–January 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Slide UX worked from what we had and came up with a thoughtful, beautiful new design. It’s a whole separate platform and a whole new way of doing business.

The platform makes our process easier, and it sells itself. We migrated clients from the old platform to the new one, and they love it.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They demonstrated wireframes over hosted presentations, showing us the reasoning behind their decisions and their attention to detail. We had internal meetings to talk through the points they asked for feedback on and then provided that input to them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Slide UX was highly passionate about what they signed on to. When they presented to us, they were as enthusiastic and as excited as we were; they couldn’t wait to hear feedback. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

For the last portion of the project, I felt like their turnaround grew longer. I wish it would’ve been as good at the end as it was for the first three-quarters of the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Keep the momentum going and keep the ball in their court. They take their work seriously and have expectations for their clients to be passionate and quick with turnaround. Also, have a single point of contact to interface with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital marketing at a cybersecurity service company that helps businesses detect and resolve any threats in their environment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We hired them to help us with two projects. The first was specifically for UX and the second was to help us with our rebrand.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Slide UX went through our website and provided detailed UX recommendations based on the current design and navigation. They helped us with best practices. After that initial project, the team helped us to revamp the look and feel of our brand and to create a better website design.

They conducted interviews with internal executives and our sales team to understand our challenges. They also did user research with prospects in the space to help us understand how the users were engaging with the current website. Based on a lot of that feedback and UX best practices, they put forth a plan.

What is the team composition?

My daily interactions were with Megan (Senior Consultant), who served as our project manager, and Brant (Founder & Principal Consultant). They also brought in a content specialist, and we interacted with their designer.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

My boss had worked with them in the past.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from April–September 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

On the first project, they made a strong recommendation to change our call to action (CTA) form and we doubled conversion after doing that. It’s much more simplified, which is really good. With the second part of the project, we’re still building out the website. 

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was really good. Megan was incredibly organized and always kept me updated on the project schedule and the burn rate. I give them high marks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their overall approach, which was very user-centric in terms of interviewing, was impressive. They really wanted to understand who our customers and audience were. They really dug into our messaging.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I talked to them about this, and it’s probably more of a personal preference, but I would’ve liked to have had project management tools. There were a lot of emails. Everything was so highly organized and they still did a good job of managing the project without any tools.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set your goals and desires and have those conversations upfront. This will help them understand exactly what you’re trying to do. What set Slide UX apart was that they really wanted to understand our business so that they could custom tailor the designs to deliver a good experience for our customers. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CFO and EVP of a software company that provides analytics to various industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We’re developing a new software platform and wanted their expertise to improve our GUI design. They also came up with a new logo for the software itself.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, they took the time to understand our product, industry, and customer base. By understanding our platform better, they were able to design various elements of our dashboard, user screens, and administrative screens to make the UX more ideal. It was an iterative process by which they came out with mockups, showing that they understood that they knew what we were looking for.

They also took the time to understood our branding preferences so they could come up with a new logo that appealed to our customer base.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 3–4 people depending on what we were working on. I spoke directly with Tom (Principal Consultant). He was our project manager and handled everything for the project. Darvinder (Associate UX Designer) was our design guru and he came up with the boards for what we were considering. Then we had a third person who developed the logo.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

We interviewed various companies but selected Slide UX because of their communication, culture, and past experiences. Their culture was similar to ours because they value openness and flexibility. They also showed us some of their previous work and their examples included elements we were looking to implement in our own solution.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $81,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2020 and we expect to finish within a few weeks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were able to hone in on what we were looking for and came up with a logo that was appealing to everybody, including our senior leadership. At the end of the day, the logo they created was ideal for what we wanted.

We’re very happy with the GUI design we produced; they created a clean and easy-to-use UX. We were also able to move further along in our design capabilities.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They were superb when it came to openness, communication, reports, and managing the project. They responded to emails quickly and always were on time for meetings.

If we had any changes, they were very responsive. For example, the logo development wasn’t a part of our original scope, but they were effectively able to add that to our project description.

Their communication was very effective. One of our developers used Zeplin, which streamlined our collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their work really stands out. They’re thorough, communicative, and sensitive to our budget. They didn’t overrun our budget and kept within the limit we set.

They also have a lot of integrity. When they said they would do something, they did it. Overall, they have an excellent culture that makes them easy to partner with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was one instance in which one of their developers became very imaginative for a particular screen mockup. It was a very impressive design, but I have no idea how they would have produced it. So, there was a chasm between reality and desire. They could be more pragmatic.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be forthcoming and communicate openly. Slide UX works really hard to understand what their clients are trying to achieve, but they can be more effective if you plan internally.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior web product manager at a cybersecurity software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We had no UI/UX design partner, so our website was really dated.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Slide UX did all of the UI/UX design for our website. They did complete site-wide redesigns, and they also worked on optimization opportunities, user research and user testing.

The team provided specs in Zeplin, and they also used InVision for feedback. We’ve done two rebrands with them, and they’ve done full rebrands of our homepage and product pages. Slide UX also built out template pages. 

What is the team composition?

Erin (Founder & Principal Consultant) has been our primary contact. 

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

My boss hired them before I started at the company. We had both worked with them previously and had enjoyed that experience, which is why my boss hired them again.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent on average about $325,000 per year for the last three years, and the total is about $900,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

My boss hired them three years ago, and then I came on six months after that, so I've worked with them for about two and a half years starting in March 2018. They were onboarded in about October 2017 before I started. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Slide UX’s work has improved the conversion on our website. They’ve also done a good job of gaining knowledge for and with us. I’ve always been impressed with their thoughtful approach, but especially their user testing and the information they were able to extract from users.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

Erin manages everything, and the team’s communication is good.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Slide UX is very thoughtful and methodical in everything they do, including the design, optimization opportunities, user research, and gathering data. I’m always impressed with the questions they ask to kick off a project. They’re data-driven.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come prepared with data and background information. They’re so easy to work with, and they ask the right questions even if you don’t come prepared.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Revionics provides machine learning and AI price optimization software to retailers. I’m the SVP of global marketing for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We were doing a complete rebranding of the company, which started with a brand-new website. We were trying to make the company look more modern and give it fresh messaging. Our messaging and website were several years old, and we wanted to make sure that all of our latest capabilities and value propositioned were properly displayed on the site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Slide UX built a new website from scratch. It was done on WordPress at their recommendation. We worked closely with them to create wireframes and determine what the necessary sections of the website were. We created the content, but we worked with Slide UX to ensure that what we were creating made sense.

The design phase followed wireframing. Slide UX gave us a number of options, and they worked collaboratively with us to make tweaks and changes. From there, it was a matter of crafting everything. It was a collaborative effort between our two companies to make sure we had the right message and a great design that helped communicate it instead of getting in its way.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people from Slide UX: a project manager, a design manager, an SEO manager, and a developer.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

They built the website at my previous company. When I moved to my current role, Slide UX was the first team I turned to.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project ran between April–September 2020. We’re launching the site this week.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have internal experts who used to work on the retail side and are now working for us, and they served as a focus group for the site. They gave us some great feedback. Overall, they were enthusiastic about the site.

Our main metric after launch will be increased brand consideration, but we’ll also look for an uptick in brand awareness. One major problem with our old site was a high bounce rate, and we’ll be keeping an eye on that. We hope that an improved design and a more clearly-articulated message will make our bounce rate go down considerably.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent with that. Megan (Senior Consultant) was our project manager, and she was totally on top of things. They set up a Slack channel, and we also used email and had phone calls. Slide UX was open to various channels of communication. We met on a regular basis, but there was still a lot of one-off communication between those meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Slide UX was just a pleasure to work with. They focused on us and our happiness while balancing that with giving recommendations. The team was accommodating, and they spent the time to really listen to us and understand what it was we were trying to accomplish. They reacted to all of our feedback extremely quickly, and they were positive and upbeat.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing really stands out.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Before working with them, clients should spend the time inside their organizations to make sure they understand what messaging they want to relay. They should understand internally what their highest-value propositions are for their audience. Once you have all of those, Slide UX can help do the rest.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of a startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

I had an idea for an app several years ago and worked with another development company. Unfortunately, the app was unsuccessful for a variety of reasons. I decided to give it another go, this time, with Slide UX as my development partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The previous version of the app had a poor UI and wasn’t intuitive. We brought on Slide UX a few years ago and they started with some initial wireframes for some concepts. We did a few rounds of that and then they led customer surveys. They used a national database and sent out a description of what they were looking for. Then they screened those responses and selected eight potential users to interview.

After gathering customer feedback from the survey, they reviewed the audio and notes from older customer research that I conducted.

Based on the market data and the conceptual wireframes, we developed more wireframes that look pretty much how the final output would look. The final product will be for both iOS and Android.

What is the team composition?

In the past few months, we’ve worked mainly with Megan (Senior Consultant) and Cat (Senior UX Designer).

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

I searched for UX companies, and actually had a friend who knew one of the owners of Slide UX, and he recommended them. In our initial phone calls, it seemed like they understood what we wanted. I talked to other teams in the area, but we didn’t click with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $67,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2018 and it is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From the beginning, they were outstanding. We also work with a development and marketing company, and they both have high opinions of Slide UX, not only in their work, but also in how they understand the product and customer. They clearly understand the vision and the brand.

I’ve also shown their work to friends and family, and they all gave Slide UX high marks.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great. They’re very accessible and collaborative. We met with some in-person meetings early on. Recently, everything has been on Zoom or we’ve had phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand the vision and our brand. They knew our goals and what we were trying to do, and are able to execute on that. They do a good job of making an intuitive UI as well. Their extra understanding is what sets them apart from other providers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly don’t know at this point. I’m sure that everyone has room for improvement, but nothing stands out with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend time communicating with them about the true purpose of the app. Not just the surface description, but also the deeper need you’re trying to address with it. Empower Slide UX to unlock that within the product.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief marketing officer for Cerity, a small business insurance company. We’re backed and owned by employers and we offer a direct to consumer model, which allows us to bring significant cost savings to small businesses. We created an online process that makes it easy for small businesses to manage their insurance themselves.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

I was concerned that our quote buy flow, so the part of the website where businesses can input their information, receive a quote, and buy a policy, had a lot of room for improvement, particularly from a UX standpoint. It wasn’t very intuitive, it wasn’t modern, and it didn’t display data efficiently. Examining our analytics, it was clear that the drop off rate was too high. I believed that a better UX and redesign of the entire flow was in order.

We didn’t have the expertise or resources internally to handle that, so after doing some research, brought on Slide UX.   

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re on a monthly retainer. In the first few months, we were focused on redesigning the user flow for the quote-buy process. The conducted user research to better understand our target personas. Diving deep into user analytics, they assessed the fall of rates on each screen and for each button. Then they created wireframes and did user testing. From there they went into the design phase. They delivered final designs that our development team was able to implement.

Now we have them on retainer and we work on various other projects. We’re working on

What is the team composition?

One of the co-founders oversees the project from a high level, but he is on every weekly meeting and contributes to our decision-making process. Then we have a project lead who manages the product and handles deliverables, tracking, and reporting. She also leads the creation of UX and wireframing. She is about to go on maternity lead, so they’re onboarding a new product lead who will play that same role. Then they have a few designers internally that we will engage with for an upcoming project we’re working on.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

We found them through a recommendation. We did not do a formal RFP but interviewed 2–3 resources and did some background online research and went into a proposal phase.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $20,000–$25,000 per month (approximately $120,000 in total).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2020 and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re about to launch the new quote-buy flow, so we don’t have specific measurements yet. Everyone believes very strongly, having seen the new design and the old design side by side, that the new UX is a huge improvement. We expect to see that in the metrics as well. The difference is night and day.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been excellent. I’d give them an A+. I’ve been in this business for a long time and this is as good as I’ve seen. They’re super organized and efficient. Everything is tracked and reported and that’s all done very efficiently. Still, they balance that well with execution. They spend the bulk of their time on the critical work we need done.

I get a full detailed call summary within an hour of every call. I also receive a weekly project status email which is always very accurate. On top of that, they’ve never missed a deliverable.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I would highlight the project management side. It keeps things moving well. They’re also very engaged. They’ve embedded themselves into our team and they think hard about our project and our business. They do research on their own and are becoming subject matter experts in our space. They put in a lot of effort to figure out the challenges that we have. They put all of their energy into it.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not yet.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Include them in as much possible. I would not keep them at arm’s length as an outside vendor, rather, it’s important to really bring them into your team. They do their best work when they’re holistically involved and aware of what the company is doing. The more information they’re armed with, the better job they will do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a software company that has a mobile app platform for creating training applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We had the products already, but we were building out a lot of new features for a federal government customer.

We wanted to introduce a bit more discipline into our design process, so we decided that bringing on a credible, third-party UX firm would be a good way to ensure that our development priorities were aligned with the requirements coming from the government customer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Slide UX participated in design meetings that included our government customer stakeholders, end-users — instructional designers, and folks that were also representing the trainees — and our iOS and Android frontend development team. 

In those meetings, we ran through the requirements on the contract and outlined the proposed solutions to those use cases. Slide UX then worked with us to put together the formal technical specs, which became the inputs into our engineering planning process. 

They aren’t doing the software development; they are building formal UX specs for web and mobile that our team then implements. 

What is the team composition?

Travis (Senior Consultant) is our lead and Darvinder (Associate UX Designer) also plays an important role.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

I don't remember exactly how we found them, but I think it was just sort of by way of their reputation since they’re a well-reviewed UX team. Additionally, our CTO and a lot of our engineering team is also based in Austin.

We liked the idea of coworking being possible if it turned out to be necessary, which it hasn't been. Once we found them, we did some interviews and spoke mainly with Aaron (Founder).

Slide UX demonstrated a high level of competency with the sort of processes that we were looking to implement and gave us the impression that they were going to be good partners and help play the role of the good faith, third-party UX arbiter in that relationship. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve had two contracts: the first was between $50,000–$100,000 and the second is about $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in November 2018, and our engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The biggest impact is that it's helped bring to focus a shared source of truth between our development team and our government customer. This means that there have been fewer revisions in the middle of engineering and development. 

This also means that there's been less overhead for us to accomplish the same amount of work. Also, having that really well-defined design spec has accelerated the velocity at which our development team is able to implement and satisfy the requirements of our contract. 

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They manage the project very well. Travis is the lead there because he has been our main point of contact. Slide UX is up to speed with all of the most current and most effective tools for project management and collaboration. We use Slack and Zeppelin. 

Whether it's using our systems or inviting us into their communications ecosystem, the communication has been very smooth. Additionally, they are responsive and get back to us quickly when we need something. Once we synced up on what the requirements were, their work was great. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Slide UX has been very understanding when it comes to accommodating our customer. The baseline with a team that's supporting you in a design capacity is that they are very good listeners, and this team certainly checks those boxes.

In addition to that, they have been able to accommodate the dynamic nature of supporting a government client. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don't have any complaints. They’re certainly a premium firm, and they live up to the expectations that they're setting for themselves in terms of the value they deliver. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of e-commerce sales for an MRO manufacturer. We’re the largest distributor of bearings, and maintenance, repair, and operation products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

We were getting more into the B2C digital programs, and we’re traditionally a B2B company. As more and more digital functionality became B2C, we saw a lot of room for improvement. We wanted to partner with an external UI/UX team to help us out.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, it was augmenting some of our UX and design teams. Then it shifted to include design support for new applications. Now they’re 100% our UI/UX team. They’re the sole designers of our new website and mobile app. They handle everything soup to nuts, from helping us gather requirements, to doing customer interviews, AB testing, design, and working with our software development team on the final product.

What is the team composition?

We work with everyone from the owner of the company to the actual designers. I was actually just on an agile scrum meeting with them. We meet weekly and go over the backlog and design review. We have project managers, graphic designers, and UX experts.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

We had never used a third party before. Like everyone else, we got online and started doing some research online. Then we conducted interviews with about five companies. After narrowing it down to two companies, we held final interviews and talked to the designers. Slide UX was the most nimble and the look and feel of their projects matched what we wanted. They had a good reputation as well.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $200,000 annually (approximately $800,000 in total).

What is the status of this engagement?

We brought them on in August 2016 and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For us, the executive buy-in has been a big measure of our success. Our management group is always wowed by what Slide UX delivers. We have high expectations, but Slide UX delivers.

Our newest website just launched, and we’re certainly going to measure the conversion rate and revenue. We continue to set records each month, but it has only been out for a few months.

They’re a part of my team. I have faith in them and feel confident that they’re going to deliver a good product. Working with them, I don’t have to worry about the design because they’re going to do everything right.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They use modern technology and are on Jira. They easily integrate with my design team, and now that we’re all remote, that’s even more important.

I used to have a full UX team inhouse, and they worked with Slide UX. Now that I don’t have that resource anymore, we have weekly scrum meetings in which we go through the backlog and prioritize. We have a weekly review meeting where we see the output of the applications they’re working on. Then they have multiple customer meetings during the week, in which we set them up with customers to walk through the design.

Then we have Slack channels with our development and product management teams, so they’re involved in everything we do. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They do an outstanding job of listening to what we want, comparing that against the competition, and then providing best practice solutions. They’re not afraid to challenge our requests. They have top-shelf people. I always feel like I’m their only customer.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have a single complaint.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let Slide UX participate in as much of the process as possible, from initial discussions about the application through the development and scrum meetings. They do a good job ingesting what they hear and taking action on it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at a spirits company. I’m the senior director of global owned platforms, which means I run the digital experiences for all of our brands in the portfolio.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Slide UX?

I had a specific project that I needed design expertise on from a consumer-first lens. Slide UX is really good at being consumer-centric. We wanted to do usability testing and research to ensure that whatever we were developing from a business perspective was relevant to the end-user.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Slide UX is our design company, and they help with research and usability. They helped build the consumer insights and pain points, and then they identified what features and functionalities we’d build to satisfy those needs. They also built the UI, so what the experience will look like and how it will behave with different users. 

They partner with our development agency to ensure the handoff and transition is really clear and clean so that we can get to the outcome that we want, which is a fully developed product with a well-thought-through experience for our consumers.

What is the team composition?

I mainly work with Tia (Principal Consultant), and she’s amazing. What’s great about Slider is that their team members all wear many hats, and Tia does that very well. She manages the account as well as research and usability. There are other players, but I’d say Tia is the lead. We also work with Erin (Founder & UX Architect). 

I like the tiny but mighty analogy; they’re not a huge team, but we definitely get a lot accomplished with them, probably more than we would with a bigger agency.

How did you come to work with Slide UX?

I’ve worked with some of the people at Slide UX in the past, so I had a lot of trust and confidence in the talent and skillset. Also, I was really eager to work with a smaller, less complex agency that allows us to move really quickly and is the right size of investment for our budget.

We chose to bring them on based on the value system of how I like to work and the types of partners my company prefers to work with. Slide brings high levels of transparency and integrity to the table; there isn’t a lot of fluff in the sense that they’re able to scope a project and keep it the right size based on the maturity of the product and where the business value is.

They’re true partners in every sense of the word. They’re like an extension of our internal team. It feels like there are a lot more barriers with some of the bigger agencies, such as necessary approvals and people to get through. If I need to make a quick change or there is a change in scope, Erin is very reachable and able to quickly adapt. Nothing has prevented us from succeeding.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together began in March 2019, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve only launched the beta to date, and we’ll have the MVP in the next four weeks. The measurement right now is that our company has been able to do something very innovative with low risk, so the investment level we’ve made is much smaller than what we would’ve done with a big agency model. It’s also been a very calculated risk; because they do usability research and collect consumer insights throughout the process, we’ve been able to validate every spend we’ve made. From a build perspective, it’s been a very smart and responsible way to innovate.

How did Slide UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really buttoned up. I always have a true sense of where the burn is and what we’re going to be able to accomplish. Expectations are always very clear and met. Their transparency and visibility are a strength, as is their ability to track the progress of what’s been done and what’s next, and understanding where the burn falls to that. There haven’t been any surprises, as there can be with other agency models.

We communicate via email, phone calls, and Zoom. We also use design tools to comment on their work and leave messages. It’s pretty simple.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There are a couple of things. First, I think they’ve built a practice that doesn’t oversell things, so we feel confident in the transparency that they share of how they’re billing in terms of rates and hours. It’s very clear about what to expect on the deliverable side of it. I don’t think that’s always true with other agencies; there can be a lot of vagueness and ambiguity. 

Secondly, they really work like they’re an extension of our team. They’ve gotten to know the internal team and our company’s process, and they’ve adapted to what we have, versus having us form-fit to them. They’re very good at that.

Finally, their focus on the consumer is a big piece. They’re very clear about making sure that whatever we’re creating or designing is from the perspective or lens of the user that we’re serving, rather than it being a solely business-driven decision.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think they have the capability to scale up or down, but I haven’t had the luxury of doing that. I think that over time, the question will be whether they can scale to bigger projects.

Any advice for potential customers?

What’s worked so well for us is having a lot of directness and clarity around what success looks like. They’re very keen on having a clear view of what success metrics look like so that they are successful. I think that can get lost with larger agencies. They’ve taken a very disciplined approach to the end goal, which comes back to their value system. Their transparency is a big confidence builder.