ustwo studio

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re Australia’s largest bank. We employ 55,000 people. I work in the payments development team which is responsible for the bank’s retail roadmap. We put that roadmap together and we build and execute products that become a part of the bank’s digital banking features.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ustwo?

We wanted to create some value added service features within our digital world that were non-banking assets. So we wanted to provide the environment where we use geolocation technology to prompt customers to be directed to different sorts of merchants. It’s very new for the bank and we went outside seeking expertise in helping us put this out. We wanted someone that had not worked with a bank before and weren’t traditionally bank focused. Some of their UX team had heard about us too and suggested them as a good fit.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They gave us a lot of prototyping expertise and the ability to move very quickly in a testing environment. They also gave us a UX rigor that we hadn’t followed before, which was useful in a very new space. They had, at various times, different levels of resources they could devote to the project. Initially, we had three or four resources to help us quickly produce a prototype and test it. As we started to build things more in a bank environment, we asked two resources to just help compliment the build that we did within the bank.

How much have you invested with ustwo?

Over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project is ongoing. We’re not working with them now. We are building everything within the bank. We have now the necessary UX resources to do what we want to do. If we wanted to prototype something very quickly we’d probably work with them again, but at the moment, we’re in a heavy build phase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A lot of the work that they did was a pilot, so that’s information we can’t share. The feedback internally was always positive, certainly from me. I’ve recommended them to other areas of the bank, particularly if they want to try and prototype something very quickly. I think that was their core strength, which in some cases is not the strength of a big bank. I know that they had feedback from compliance, and we on-boarded these guys as employees and gave them access to the building and the network, which was never abused. It was always respected.

How did ustwo perform from a project management standpoint?

Strong, although they had some resources who were stronger than others. You come across that in any area. Overall, their project management was very strong.

What did you find most impressive about ustwo?

Their ability to move very quickly was something that set them apart when we were observing how they work. They had a fantastic developer with us early who was great regarding business. He certainly helped with that core strength. They had the ability to think quickly, act quickly, and build quickly.

Are there any areas ustwo could improve?

Their strengths were that they weren’t part of the bank and they had very different views. I think they almost gelled too well with the bank. If I had interaction with them again I would ask them to keep that point of differentiation and work well within the scope of a heavy external set of eyes rather than gelling too well with the team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work for a network operator. It's a retail online hybrid business model. We engage with our customers online. The majority of our development team is on-site.

What is your position?

My role is program manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with ustwo?

We wanted to build a mobile application that helps our customer to connect their smartphone to the Internet when they're not on Wi-Fi. We wanted an app that would allow them to do the basics like check their data and their voice balances and some account management pieces.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We had a full team on site. We had a UX [user experience] design, project management, and software engineering. We provided a business analysis capability and some design work because we had some concepts that we wanted to flow through to the final product.

How did you come to work with ustwo?

We submitted our work request out into the general market. We were impressed with ustwo's previous work, and I liked how personable they were. They were priced well and were realistic. There was enough creative energy and commercial sensibility that was transparent. There was a personal human touch to the way they went about their work.

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

Our engagement cost between $500,000 and $800,000 Australian [approximately $384,000 and $614,000].

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project is ongoing. We started in December 2015. We couldn't make it work without doing some work ourselves. We put the ustwo engagement on hold temporarily, and we are back to working with them. We hope to complete the project in the next six weeks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

One thing we were able to do was come to the agreement that ustwo have the work when we were ready. We were able to put that in writing. Many times, it doesn't happen. Their desire to finish the work hasn't gone away. I can't give you any end user stats. We made it commercially work for both.

How did ustwo perform from a project management standpoint?

They were amazing. I think it goes along with itself with how transparent they were. Their metrics in terms of how the team was delivering were transparent. We have brown bag sessions. Their engagement was awesome, and their project management was second to none.

What distinguishes ustwo from other providers?

The people at ustwo are genuine. They're genuine about the products they deliver. They're genuine about the situations they find themselves in. They had a sense of fun. You can tell they enjoyed delivering the product. It's infectious. Our team was energized by it. They also have a sense of practicality in terms of their commercial team and being able to reach beneficial outcomes that without the right mindset you wouldn't get to.

Is there anything ustwo could have improved or done differently?

No. The fact that we got where we got to with smiles on our faces shows they did a good job.