Think Company

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of omnichannel operations at a pharmaceutical company. However, when we engaged with Think Company, I was working in my previous role as the associate director of payor digital.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Think Company?

I was working on building a road map for how we engaged with a customer segment digitally that we had never engaged before. We wanted to discover how to connect with our large B2B customers, known as payors. Typically, we connected to those customers through account executives who talked with them face-to-face and were looking at how we could build digital platforms, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, to connect with our customers asynchronously. 

One of our new projects was building a new web experience for this segment of customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Think Company designed the UI/UX of our new web experience. The team was responsible for initial market research to define the UI/UX design that they later developed. Think Company built UX prototypes and then worked with our legal department on approving concepts and putting together legal and regulatory reviews to launch the concept in the market. 

The team then collaborated on backend development and set up the site launch, helping us oversee the design and partner with our internal IT and tech teams to develop and launch our MVP. Think Company conducted market research to determine the unmet digital need in that segment of customers and helped us build a web experience. The team designed a product from scratch using market research insights and customer feedback.

What is the team composition?

We ran a team of 6–8 teammates. We paid a dedicated resource who could be a UX designer, a UI designer, or a technical expert, and we allocated a number of ours from that resource based on how much work we needed in that area. Think Company could flex across the team as needs change based on the project. If we needed more work from one resource, we could allocate those hours across the team without requiring major re-scoping efforts around the project. 

How did you come to work with Think Company?

I met Think Company several years ago while working on a different project around customer web experience. I initially met the team through an RFP a former teammate conducted, where Think Company became part of our agency's roster. I contacted the team for this project based on my previous experience with them. This project required UX design expertise, and we couldn't find a good proxy on the market and examples from competitors similar to the product we wanted to build.

We contacted Think Company because they had shown good ability in this type of work, which required market research, understanding unmet needs, and turning them into products.
How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $2.5 million on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

I joined the team in April 2020, and Think Company had just kicked off the project. Think Company launched our MVP in February 2023, and I left my former role at that time, too. Although I don't work with Think Company, the team continues to add features and content to the product and create a road map. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Think Company had internal processes we liked so much that we copied them into our company. For instance, the team used Airtable as a CMS to categorize assets and workflows we used to build the website. We brought that technology in-house because we liked it so much. The market research conducted by Think Company was helpful because we had customer insights we could use more broadly besides the website. 

Finally, we received positive feedback from customers about our website, which was in line with market research. Customers believed this new product could be valuable in building relationships with our company. I was pleased because it was a challenging project, and Think Company worked through various stepbacks and delivered a finished product that was in line with our vision and was unique among our competitors. 

Think Company didn't just create the designs and hand them off; the team stayed with the project from its design until it went live. Think Company had professionals within their team with tech expertise who helped us execute our ideas from paper to development.  

How did Think Company perform from a project management standpoint?

Think Company delivered work as expected. The team was incredibly flexible in how they allocated resources and hours, giving us flexibility that didn't require us to rewrite the scope when our project changed. We had setbacks from our side in terms of our ability to give feedback to the team, and we also added scope mid-project. Think Company's ability to handle new requirements and come up with different ways to achieve the desired outcome was great. 

When we started the project, we had set a launch window for September 2022 with our leadership team, and despite having issues we had to work through from our side, the team still delivered tightly close to the launch window we had set. Think Company's ability to be flexible and solve problems was impressive.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Jen (VP, Client Engagement) oversaw the entire engagement and was a great partner. She listened to us and understood our needs to ensure the necessary service and support were in place. The UX designer stayed with the project throughout its inception and until we launched, which was two and a half years.

Lastly, our content strategist was fantastic. She helped us audit many resources we potentially wanted to use internally on our website. These things weren't easily categorized, and she built an entire way for us to organize and get our content in this new web experience. She did a fantastic job working in a white space area to create something unique. These three teammates were the heart of the project.
What did you find most impressive about them?

Think Company's project and program management was their sweet spot. Think Company had a good balance between cost and value. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Think Company recruited good talent at an excellent price. Within that, the team could improve in ensuring resources were good at their core competency. Sometimes, Think Company tried to flex in spaces where they might not had as much expertise. The team could have been rock solid and direct about what they were good at and capable of doing. 

I understand every agency is always trying to please their customer, and Think Company did a good foundation work in the UI/UX space. Service providers usually think they can do everything all the time, but it's better for companies to say their expertise and work within that space. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
I suggest having clear requirements and questions when engaging with Think Company. Be very clear about your vision and what you're trying to deliver because nothing breaks a partnership more than coming in without having your end goal clear. I suggest creating an RFP to set goals, budgets, and expectations. Think Company can use that to help you understand what you need and propose the necessary resources and approach. 

Think Company will help you ensure you have the necessary budget and the timing is right to accomplish your project. The team can pressure test what you want to achieve and help you define an achievable product, acting as a strategic partner. If you come in with a loose idea, you'll waste time figuring out your final product. I recommend coming in with a firm foundation in either what you want to do or what you want to understand. 

Think Company is good at asking questions and helping you understand your problem. If you come to the table with that, they're a great partner to sit down and design a product, understanding the steps.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a software development manager at a 401(k) Record keeping company as well as other systems for managing. The important thing is that we work with employers to process their plans on the retirement side.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Think Company?

Initially, we needed assistance with UI/UX design to complete our end clients’ projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Think Company provides us with software development resources — they’re half of our frontend development team. Initially, Think Company provided guidance about design and development to upgrade our work and learn UX’s best practices. They worked with Figma during that time. 

Over time, our relationship with Think Company has evolved. We now manage the UI/UX design internally, although Think Company’s developers still assist us with design and accessibility. Think Company’s developers are embedded in our team and help us decide the best technological approach for product development. 

Think Company has worked on updating and rebuilding sites we had already in progress. They’ve also helped us implement a pattern library component process and ensured our components worked correctly. We develop the components ourselves, and Think Company participates in that. 

When we receive a new project from an end client, Think Company helps us develop the required components and technology pieces. We run websites, and the frontend technology may vary. Think Company has used C#, AngularJS, React.js, and HTML.

What is the team composition?

I currently work with four developers: two senior developers and two DevOps engineers. I also work with Think Company’s project manager. We have a long relationship, and our process and team have varied. 

How did you come to work with Think Company?

When I started, my company was already working with Think Company — I’m unsure how we initially found them. 

How much have you invested with them?

Think Company has worked on multiple projects with different price ranges. Our current annual fee is around $1 million. However, it has varied over time. We’ve also had bigger projects in the past, so I’d say we’ve spent over $10 million during our entire relationship with Think Company. 

What is the status of this engagement?

I’m unsure when we began working together. However, we’ve worked with Think Company for seven years since 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have specific metrics because they’re not assigned to a single project. However, Think Company’s developers are completely embedded in our team, and we regularly do assessments. Our end clients’ satisfaction is high, and Think Company’s outputs and deliverables are excellent. 

How did Think Company perform from a project management standpoint?

We handle our project management internally and don’t measure Think Company’s work in that regard. However, I can say that they’re running ahead of schedule and on time with our current project.

We use email and Zoom to communicate with Think Company. We also use Basecamp to share files and reports. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with Think Company’s high-quality resources. Their developers are well-trained and collaborative — I’ve never been unhappy with a teammate from Think Company. We support with additional training and have great in-house processes. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything for Think Company to improve. I’ve always been happy with their work and results. There’s nothing I’d request Think Company to do differently. Although I don’t work with them directly on projects. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend treating Think Company as a full partner because they’ll deliver what you request.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief product officer for an industry association in the professional products industry. We have a membership model, providing members with access to educational information, shows, events, certification programs, and more. A lot of what we do is based on a platform that allows distributors to search, present, and manage their orders for end buyers, as well as interact with suppliers of different products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Think Company?

When I joined the company, I came on as VP of product management and UX. I was tasked with taking over one of our products that had been around for 12–15 years. In doing so, I was trying to introduce product management and UX processes and create a product management team. For this project, we enlisted Think Company to help us with user research to identify our customers’ pain points and learn more about them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Think Company helped us conduct the user research we needed. For this research, we defined different user personas and tested the different hypotheses that we had across the company, helping us validate or disprove them. Their team also helped us come up with more journey maps and other ideas for the product we wanted to create from vision and strategy standpoints. Moreover, their involvement included conducting interviews to identify and recruit users for our product.

After that initial project, we kept working with Think Company on other projects where they helped us redesign our platform from scratch. During this process, they identified different use cases, created a prototype, tested it, and did additional research to help us put together everything we needed for the new platform.

What is the team composition?

During the initial engagement, we worked with a lead designer, a researcher, a project manager, a business development lead, and a technical lead. We collaborated with a much larger team from Think Company on the other projects, and different people came in and out as needed. Their leadership team remained the same, but other designers, researchers, and content marketing specialists joined at different times. Our main contact points throughout the entire process were the lead designer and the project manager, who kept us on track.

How did you come to work with Think Company?

I already knew Think Company from another project we both had worked on in the past. However, the process of choosing them was already in place by the time I joined the project. My company had already selected three finalists, including Think Company, and had different sets of criteria for ranking those companies. Ultimately, we chose Think Company because they were the most innovative company, and the prototype they built to win the business was the best.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2019 and kept working together through 2020, 2021, and 2022 on many different engagements. We launched the MVP of the new platform in early 2022, marking the end of our latest project. However, I recently brought them again to work on a new user research project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve already launched our new platform and put around 600 users on it, as we’re getting ready to do the market launch in 2023. Now, my internal team is doing a lot of beta testing and taking the next iterations as they go into the development process. We’ve received very positive feedback and scores from people using our platform; they like the new designs.

Overall, working with Think Company worked out great. We really liked them, which was why we kept hiring them. Additionally, we really trusted their designs because they did great research to support their decisions.

How did Think Company perform from a project management standpoint?

Think Company did a great job managing the project. Their team knew how to keep things on track and get to the heart of the matter at hand, which was great. Additionally, they were very communicative and provided us with weekly product status updates and very detailed roadmaps.

As with most projects, things didn’t always go according to plan, but they were always adjusting their schedule. They were also considerate in asking us if it was alright to push things when facing delays, and they always found other ways to overcome those challenges.

We had very good conversations with Think Company throughout our partnership, and they always ensured that we got great value out of them. They solved questions immediately and went above and beyond to ensure we were happy with their service.

During our first engagement, we used the whole G Suite to collaborate, like Google Docs to keep things organized and Google Calendar to schedule interviews. As for the second engagement, we used Miro to sketch, design, and create different prototypes as needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Think Company was great at doing research, and they did an excellent job at taking insights and research findings to create beautiful designs. Additionally, all the people we worked with from Think Company were very good. They were always very attentive and knowledgeable, and partnering with them helped me upskill my team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be great if Think company were less expensive, but we definitely saw great value for the money, so we didn’t mind paying for their services.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

EVP of Sales Enablement and Marketing Communications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Think Company?

We were about to start a broader redesign project and needed some user feedback across a spectrum of audience types to help guide our scope of work. Think was hired to lead this user insights project.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Upon recommendation I connected with Russ (the Founder). We shared our needs and goals and he connected me with his team to put together a proposal.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Think was charged with developing the project schedule, conduct research and discovery to uncover what questions should be part of the study, conducting the client interviews, and deliver a report at the end to share their findings.

What was the team composition?

• Business Development
• Project Manager
• Developer
• Research Lead
• Design
• UX

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The work that Think did for us has been directly applied to some of the redesign work that has taken place. We refer to their work repeatedly in other areas of Marketing where their insights apply as well.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

This project flowed effortlessly, thanks to the detailed planning of the team. They owned and drove the flow of the project to make sure all stayed on schedule. Every interaction came with preparation and organization.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Our industry can be a bit convoluted however they were great listeners and really absorbed all of the intricacies, effortlessly. I felt they were committed to our project and were committed to do the work to understand all they needed to execute on the client interviews. I was really impressed by their professionalism at each step, even overdelivering in many areas; providing tangible insights that I didn't anticipate.

Is there any area for improvement or anything that could have been done differently?

No. Cannot recommend enough.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Projector PSA, and we have a professional services automation technology platform. We work with services businesses, and we do everything from project management, resource planning, and resource tracking in a single system.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Think Company?

We wanted to redesign our UI because we did a rebrand and redesign, and everything from our font, colors, and brand identity changed. We hired Think Company to help us with our design system, UI library, and React and React Redux components.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided them with our business’ background, including what our customers typically saw, the journey they went through in using our product, and some of the UI challenges that we identified based on customers’ feedback.

After that, we provided Think Company with a review of the different personas that were logging into the system. They then focused on creating a design system and component library for us. The team used Adobe, Figma, React, and a couple of project management tools on their side.

What is the team composition?

We probably worked with six different people from their team at any given time, including their project manager, UI/UX designers, and UI developer.

How did you come to work with Think Company?

Think Company was referred to us by someone in our private equity group. 4–5 other companies we talked to had a strict approach on how they were going to do our project and they offered a generic solution to our challenge. However, Think Company offered us a unique package that aimed at providing what we needed.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March–July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From a business perspective, we were able to increase our opportunity close ratio. In addition, we were able to sign more business, and we received positive feedback from our users. There was also a reduction in clicks and an increase in usage across our product. Overall, Think Company’s work made a significant impact on our business.

How did Think Company perform from a project management standpoint?

They had a perfect project management process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We appreciated that they focused on our problem first as opposed to giving us work that they already did before. We had a unique situation and they really made it a lot easier because they understood our problems. Above all, the team allowed us to adapt to a much more reasonable scope that fit the bill of what we were trying to achieve.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they were great. I’d highly recommend them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask for Shawn (Design Manager) — he was awesome.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the senior director of analytics for the local media development team of a mass media and entertainment conglomerate. We create product platforms and experiences to help our business connect with the local communities that we serve.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Think Company?

We create an annual set of state investment reports for our lobbyists. This includes state-level data points around all the ways that we invest locally as a company — everything from the number of people we employ in each particular state, to the amount of money we have invested in our network infrastructure, to the number of dollars we’ve donated to nonprofit organizations. 

We have over 30 data points that we provide in what used to be printed reports, and our lobbyists are often looking to tell more nuanced, specific stories with the data. What they wanted to be able to do was pick and choose data points and put these into a custom report template, rather than have us supply kitchen-sink documentation. 

We hired Think Company to help us build a portal where we could bring reports into a digital-first atmosphere and allow lobbyists to customize the reports according to their particular audience conversation and circumstance.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Think Company built a custom digital portal that our lobbyists could interact with. This portal was developed to store all of our custom, state-level data as well as a number of state-level photos, maps, and media.

The team built it in such a way that our lobbyists could quickly and easily create custom, one-page state reports in no more than five clicks. These lobbyists are not necessarily tech-savvy; they are relationship people, which means they need to get in, get out, and get what they need in a way that is essentially foolproof.

We asked Think Company not only to design the UI and the lobbyist-facing platform but also to build the backend to be able to accommodate all of our data and store it in the way we needed. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with Emily (Senior Project Manager), Keith (Principal Experience Designer), Stu (Senior Technical Lead), and Ian (Technical Lead) for the actual project. I touched base with John (Director of Technology) and Dave (SPV, Business Development) at the beginning as part of the introduction and scoping process.

How did you come to work with Think Company?

We heard about Think Company through our colleagues; they had worked with other departments in our company. We saw that their previous work was excellent. The end-product was exceptional and the execution was thoughtfully and intentionally well done. It was based on that referral that we selected them over other competitors.

The team was also very Intuitive and asked us questions that we hadn't even thought of. We could tell that they were really a step ahead in terms of technical skills and project understanding.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $140,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in early February 2021 and concluded in May 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don't remember the specific metrics but one of our main challenges was to deliver the portal on time. We were really pressed to roll out in May 2021 no matter what. Our priority was to stick to the project timeline and budget and Think Company Was able to accomplish exactly that. They successfully delivered on time and within budget.

Beyond that, the other metrics revolved around meeting the scope of work that we had set out, several key attributes of the project, and a number of qualitative product requirements. For example, the portal needed to be able to populate a one-page report based on the state that was selected without any glitches. All of those product requirements were met by Think Company.

How did Think Company perform from a project management standpoint?

In the past, I’ve worked with teams that are more sequential and would pass off the work to the next person or department that was involved. Think Company was also sequential, but their entire team stayed involved throughout the project, which I really liked. As we moved from one milestone to the next, different members of the team would take the lead while the previous leads would still be present in case anything popped up that needed their immediate attention. 

We had weekly meetings led by Emily, who always came prepared with a deck of what the milestone was for the week, what the next major sign-off we would be working towards, and how we were going to benchmark towards the timeline and requirements. It was extremely well organized and well sequenced. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Think Company was really aligned with their process, which is the biggest differentiator between them and other firms I've worked with. They have a system in place that works and that they all knew how to execute. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything right now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do as much initial work as possible. Really think through how you would define your outcomes. If that’s something you need help with, make sure that you build that into the project timeline. The clearer you are, the easier it will be for Think Company to help you succeed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Sleigh, a consumer services business during the holiday season. We receive packages on our customer’s behalf, and we unbox, inventory, and wrap them — those are Christmas presents that they get for their family and friends. Thus, we’re a multi-sided marketplace for multiple standpoint customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Think Company?

We needed to create an inventory system that was both operational and customer-facing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Think Company helped us develop our system’s web applications. Their services included page design, UX design, and front and backend development. They used Ruby on Rails and jQuery.

By the time Think Company came into the project, I had already designed most of the UX, so they focused more on the development. We did the wireframes, and they did certain pages. Then, they built out the functionality — it was all very well organized.

On the customer-facing side, our customers can log what they’re getting for each person on their gift list and see when they could expect the delivery on a Sleigh location. On the operational side, we’re able to see what items to expect by what date, log them in the inventory as received, take photographs of them, and store them in our physical inventory.

We also have a gift wrapping assignment where customers can select among the different wrapping papers to wrap each of their gifts, so it’s a fully customizable and personalized experience — the application helps us facilitate that.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, a frontend developer, a backend developer, and a QA person. We also worked with a designer in the beginning.

How did you come to work with Think Company?

Think Company was recommended to us by a friend of a friend. We evaluated three other agencies and chose them based on their merits. When they were pitching us their services, they brought in their full team to do so — we could tell that they were really engaged in the vision of the project and that they had expertise.

My co-founder is a woman, and one of Sleigh’s criteria is that all of our vendors need to have diversity and female representation. One of the deciding factors of choosing Think Company was that they were the only company that had female representation in about half of their team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2020, and the application went live in September 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the main successful results was the speed of log in the inventory. We get hundreds of deliveries from multiple providers every single day at our shop during the holiday season, and we had to do all of that login manually before having the application, which took about two minutes for every single delivery.

With the application that Think Company built, that login time was cut to just a few seconds, which really sped up our operations. The application has also allowed us to have multiple people operating our services from multiple locations, something that was impossible without the gift inventory system.

Our customers were really happy with the application this year, so we couldn’t be happier with the service that Think Company provided.

How did Think Company perform from a project management standpoint?

Think Company’s project management was awesome. I’ve worked on large technology projects for major Fortune 500 companies, and this was one of the best-managed projects I’ve ever worked on.

Think Company used Agile sprints as the project progressed, and they were really great about having clear plans and deliverables for each of those sprints. They used Basecamp for project management, to which we had access, and they also used Jira on their end, to which they offered access. However, we didn’t want to get into the weeds of it.

We had 2–3 meetings a week on a regular and scheduled basis. The expectations for those meetings were planned in advance, and they were very well organized from an agenda perspective.

Think Company was very responsive. They usually responded within one hour or within the same day at most.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Think Company’s team was great to work with. They really tried to understand our business, our customers, and our goals. They didn’t just tactically and transactionally build the application to get the job done. They wanted to build the best experience for us, our operators, and our customers, and they achieved that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come prepared to be engaged. Be enthused by building your application because Think Company will be ready to match that enthusiasm, and it’ll only make your project and process better.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Penn Mutual Life Insurance and I’m the AVP of product marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Think Company?

We wanted to update our website and make our content more digitally focused. Much of our content was uploaded to our website as PDFs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided design and strategic services for our website. Our in-house team took care of most of the development, but Think Company helped with conceptualization, creating wireframes, and web design. They also reached out to users and stakeholders to get their feedback on the website. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of 5–10 people including a design lead, tech lead, project manager, and research lead. 

How did you come to work with Think Company?

I wasn’t directly involved in the hiring process. However, they’re local to us which was important. We looked at two other companies in the Philadelphia area but decided to work with Think Company because of word-of-mouth recommendations. 

How much have you invested in them?

We invested around $400,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in the summer of 2019. However, the bulk of the work was done in November and December of that year. We wrapped up in June 2020. However, there’s still some maintenance and updates they’re taking care of. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website hasn’t launched yet, so we don’t have any metrics to track their success. However, feedback from our community has been very positive. The design is sleek, and the website is easier to use than our previous iteration. 

How did Think Company perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a bit of a rocky start, but over time everything came together. We were struggling on both sides. As soon as they made a change to their project management, everything fell into place. 

We used Basecamp to manage the project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge of the technical elements of building a marketing website was impressive. We were also surprised by their thorough research. At first, we were skeptical about the intensity of their research phase, however, at the end of the project, it was clear that their methods paid off. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We could’ve done some more team building changes so the process would move along smoothly. It’s important to make sure members of a third-party team mesh well with internal teammates. Beyond that, it was a great interaction. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Speak candidly and transparently upfront about the research and feedback aspects of the project. This drives their work, so it’s important to pay attention to it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former CEO of a business management software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Think Company?

When we acquired the business and I was brought on board, it was a really well-run company, but it had been a mom and pop and was run for profitability rather than growth. Therefore, there hadn’t been a ton of investment in the team, internal systems and go to market strategy or really in keeping the technology fully up to date. We observed was that the codebase and the technology stack was somewhat obsolete.

On top of that, the UX was definitely reflective of an organic process that had been built up over time, adding feature by feature without really an intention or holistic view of what that experience would be like for the end-user.

We weren’t in a great position to scale or to have a compelling offering for new client acquisition. As we were rethinking technology, it made total sense to also think about the UX at the same time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Think Company created designed the UI/UX and established a framework for a business management platform.

They took a full look at how users were experiencing the system, what work they were trying to accomplish, the workflows they were going through in order to do that, where the frustrations were and what was working well among other things.

With that, we came up with a lot of new ideas around what the experience should be like, what the paradigm is for how people use this, and how can we introduce it without giving too much from a change management perspective and without frustrating users. It is totally new and different and really hard for existing users to make that transition.

At that same time, we wanted to make it as modern and user-friendly as possible and have them provide us with a framework that would allow us to continue to add features and build the solution overtime without going down the same track of making a really crowded, jumbled, and cluttered experience.

It was a lot about information gathering from various stakeholders. They met with our product people, they met with our salespeople and a number of clients. We h identified a range of clients, different sizes, different levels of sophistication, different tenures with the product, and not only engaged with them to ask them questions about their experience, but they also observed their usage firsthand. That process informed everything we did afterward.

They created a comprehensive solution. It started with ideas and then evolved into wireframes. Ultimately, it was a full system for managing UI, so we could give the end product to our engineers and have them have a toolkit that they could use for ongoing UI complete with icons, workflows, and tools to manage those.

What is the team composition?

Over the course of the project, we worked with at least a half dozen people. They had a really broad range of skillsets working on this. There was a project manager, there were graphic designers, there were people who had expertise in workflow, but there were also people who had expertise in just day gathering and observing users and collecting the information that would inform decisions.

How did you come to work with Think Company?

Both businesses are based in Philadelphia and we learned about them through the Philadelphia tech community. We did an RFP, scoped the work that we needed to have done, and we did an assessment of a few different vendor partners. Think was unanimously the group that we felt the most excited about working with.  

How much have you invested in them?

We spent between $100,000–$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this effort from July–December 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our engineers were able to work from a toolkit that could easily be scaled. This was all part of a broader change management effort and part of a broader investment in the future growth of the business.

As all those things came online together, someone just turned on the high beam lights. Everything came together. The product was right, the go-to-market was right, our topline execution from lead to collecting sales and renewals was right and the business just took off. It would have not been possible had we not elected to really invest in the UI and had they not delivered on their promises the way they did.

Our existing clients hated it at first. I learned that we didn’t do a good enough job managing the change, communicating the extent of the change, and providing resources to facilitate a smooth transition. It wasn’t that the outcome was bad, it was that the transition for people was painful. Over time, those very same people came back to us and told us it was objectively far superior to what we had before and that they just needed to understand it better.

Still, we wouldn’t have been able to do it ourselves. The team had such diverse skillsets that we wouldn’t have been able to find just by hiring an additional person. On top of that, it would have been more expensive.

How did Think Company perform from a project management standpoint?

It was really good. are complex things we were trying to solve. It requires commitment, adjustments, and really getting familiar with one another. Thankfully, that was a strength for both of our teams. It was hard to start, but pretty quickly, we got really comfortable and good at communicating, which made it all work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really helped frame the project at a time when our thinking about it was almost definitely way too limited and way too naïve. They were definitely thinking about creating a system that was far more scalable in terms of time, how the system was going to evolve, for the users. They were thoughtful about creating a sustainable system rather than just providing us with a new UI and navigation. They really thought about the project in a holistic way and that was super valuable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I know there were at the time, but I blocked them out of my memory.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You just have to work at it to really make sure you are aligned on the scope and that you have established really good systems for communicating so that you can course-correct in a really agile way.