Viget

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP, Product of a healthcare company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Matchwell enables healthcare workers to access flexible work that works for them, and healthcare organizations to find the help they need, when they need it.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Viget to accomplish?

• Create a design pattern that would scale with the application.
• Design a intuitive and personalized user experience.
• Simplify the UX for some complex features.

SOLUTION

How did you find Viget?

Referral

Why did you select Viget over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from Viget were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We engaged with Viget to review our current app, and help us create a new design pattern that would more easily scale as the business grew. We had quickly outgrown our MVP design approach, and needed a more sophisticated and polished UI, that better supported data at scale. We asked them to help us redesign the main elements of the user applications (two applications total), as well as some key features and enhancements that were in the roadmap. 

Key deliverables included prototypes of both applications and detailed design system documentation in Figma. Additionally, Viget provided a blueprint for Google Analytics event captures that would identify areas of friction and improvement. Viget also worked with end users to capture user feedback and insight into how and why they chose our application.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

1. Did we have the required documentation to set to rebuilding our application's v2 experience? 
2. Once released, did we see an increase in user engagement, and a decrease in identified friction areas? 
3. Did the design system allow us the flexibility needed to add new features and functionality without having to redesign or break away from the created design system?

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Viget not only delivered on time, but often times they were early. The project team was exceptional. Their communication was stellar, and each person we worked with was best in class.

What was your primary form of communication with Viget?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They were not only competent, they were fun to work with. We got to know the project team very well, and they took the time to really understand our product, our company values, and our longer-term strategies.

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

I honestly have nothing negative to say. They are pretty pricey, but I firmly believe you get what you pay for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of UX for SHL, a global talent insights business. SHL uses data science and technology (including AI) to help organizations make objective talent decisions. My team is responsible for the user experience across SHL's digital products and platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Viget?

SHL's flagship product, the OPQ, a personality questionnaire for predicting performance, potential and fit in the workplace, has been used by organizations across the globe to understand talent across the entire employee lifecycle. We knew we needed to evolve the user experience of the OPQ for it to continue to hold the same value for both present and future clients.

What were your goals for this project?

Workplace personality questionnaires, like the OPQ, are typically long and contain seemingly repetitive questions - completing them can be a frustrating experience for the participant. We knew we needed to redesign the OPQ to meet the evolving needs of recruiting teams who are looking for a more positive participant “experience” along with predictive people-insights to understand the potential and fit of their candidates for a specific job or role. Clients were reporting that the experience felt monotonous, unintuitive, and out of date. We also knew that it was essential that we complete the redesign to a more engaging candidate/participant experience while maintaining the validity of the questionnaire and results.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We issued an RFI soliciting details from a number of design agencies and consultants, across various geographies in which SHL operates. Based on the responses we received, we selected two finalists for the OPQ redesign project and conducted final interviews with members of a cross functional team from SHL. Viget was selected based on their prior experiences on a diverse set of digital projects, their ability to work with members of the SHL team virtually (across a few different time zones and functional areas), and most importantly their emphasis on and experience with user-centered design.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we selected Viget, we completed a few rounds of quick discovery and research conversations, familiarizing the team with the science behind the OPQ, the constraints we had to work in, etc. Within 2-3 weeks we had received initial designs for options for the redesigned experience of answering the OPQ questions, as well as a robust testing plan. After a few iterations on the design options, Viget’s team carried out their user testing plan, keeping our team involved and informed during the process. They also provided options for new visual design and animation, which we socialized internally and then made a final selection on. Viget also provided a realistic prototype of the full questionnaire by our R&D scientists, which we then used to confirm that the proposed redesign maintained the validity of the questionnaire and results.

What was the team composition?

Viget's team comprised senior UX designers and researchers, a creative director, a UI designer and developer as well as a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within a few weeks of launch, all of SHL's clients had moved to the redesigned OPQ experience. We received positive feedback from clients and prospective clients especially since we were able to demonstrate that:

• The redesigned OPQ can be completed up to 50% faster than the old design.
• The new experience had not weakened the science behind the OPQ. We conducted several studies from which we provided that the redesign is functionally equivalent to the previous design. That means, the scoring and functioning of the instrument was not affected by the change in the response design and that clients and users can expect the same validity outcomes when using the redesigned OPQ!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The quality of their work was excellent - they demonstrated the value of user centered design process. They really walk the talk when it comes to UX design.

Are there any areas for improvement?

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the senior director of marketing at FiscalNote. I ran all of our marketing functions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Viget?

We had an old website that didn't work very well. It was inflexible, we wanted to do more internally, and we needed better tools. The more we built on top of the old site, the worse it looked. We were rebranding the company, so we also needed to rethink our visual brand and our design. We wanted a vendor who could do both the creative design and a custom CMS.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did everything for us. We had a lot of talent on our team, but we needed an external influence to win over all our internal stakeholders. They started with a brand strategy and a tactical build out of our website. They explored our mission and translated it into visual ideas and content, and then into a functional website.

They recommended Craft as a CMS. It's easy to build customized backends. We used to work with WordPress, but Craft eliminated a lot of the confusing, legacy options in WordPress. Everything is customized, and all the functionality is based on the work we do in the backend. They also did some custom JavaScript work for animations and other functions.

What is the team composition?

We had a full complement of people. The team consisted of a brand strategy lead, a visual designer, a project manager for brand strategy, another project manager for the site build, at least one technical lead, and a business development manager. I may be forgetting a few of the people we worked with, but I interfaced directly with six to eight people.

How did you come to work with Viget?

I first worked with them five or six years ago. They were recommended by the CTO at a startup I worked with, and they helped with the initial application development. It was a different project, but I really liked the way they thought and wanted to work with them again. When I started this project, they were the first firm I considered. I took bids from a few companies, but Viget put more effort into a unique proposal that fit our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

This project was about $220,000, but I hired them again to build out our mobile app, so our total cost was greater.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking in early 2018, and the project was close to completion around February 2019. We faced some snags on our side that held up our actual start date, so the actual work probably happened between summer 2018 and March 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I left the company shortly after this project. The most important metrics within the project were delivery time and staying within our budget. They nailed both. I work with a lot of vendors, and I don't know of anyone who is better at staying on time and on budget. We had regular calls every week about hours and progress.

How did Viget perform from a project management standpoint?

They were awesome project managers. Their process is very clear, and we always knew where we stood.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everyone that works for Viget has a shared appreciation for high-quality, tasteful work and design. The interest and excitement are consistent across their team, and they all share the same values. There is no B-team there, and they're all very good at this kind of project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They provided very good visibility into cost problems and tracking, but every firm can be more upfront about scope. We scoped well on this project, but it never hurts to be as transparent as possible about setting realistic goals.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of marketing of Washington Speakers Bureau. We’re an agency that represents professional speakers and connects them with buyers who want to bring in their voices to grow their businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Viget?

It came down to two big components: streamlining our online brand expression and redesigning our corporate site, moving away from a static experience and focusing a search function that allows users to find and book published speakers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project was split into branding and development tasks. Regarding branding, Viget developed both strategy and positioning, along with a style guide. They also planned how to integrate those ideas into our web presence. Web development was done using Ruby on Rails. They based the design on internal and external research and insights from our team.

What is the team composition?

The size varied depending on the phase of the project. We worked with Ally (Creative Director, Viget) early on in our brand initiatives. She was our main point of contact as we explored our positioning and strategy and articulated a solid set of goals. We then worked with someone else from their team for the brand and frontend design. Once we got into the nitty-gritty of development, we worked with several resources including their information architecture team, developers, and frontend designers.

How did you come to work with Viget?

After another vendor delivered unsatisfactory results, we went through an extensive RFP process. Viget came out as our preferred choice because of their comprehensive capabilities (covering both branding and web design) and proximity to us in Washington D.C. Finally, their timeframe and pricing were fair. 

How much have you invested with them?

The whole project cost around $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Viget in January or February 2018. There was a delay on our side halfway through the process, so we had a two-month hiatus, re-engaging around August or September of that year. The website and brand launched in November and we’re no longer engaged with them. The maintenance work is being handled by another developer, as per Viget’s request. We’ll potentially engage them again for mobile apps.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The branding has been highly successful. Viget’s guidance helped us get on the same page as a company and build from a place of truth. They delivered a framework we could grow our content and marketing around, lending us consistency. It was really empowering. By capturing our people’s voices in the web design, Viget has ensured us a positive ROI. They imbued the site with the essence and culture of our company. Finally, their ability to deliver on time and budget took a considerable weight off my shoulders. I could make reports to our leadership with confidence.

How did Viget perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well, which is not to say we didn’t have any hiccups. With a project of this scale, it was helpful to have dedicated project managers and open lines of communication. They raised red-flags appropriately and often if things were getting off rails, which let us course-correct. They were also open to how we needed to work and report to leadership. Everyone was in the loop and had the appropriate expectations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Viget has a strong internal culture that allows multiple disciplines to come together and work toward a customer’s common goal. Thanks to their communication, every resource working on our project knew what that goal was, from UX designers to information architects. Bringing new faces onto the project was never a concern because we knew they would be up to speed. Viget’s transparency, openness, and partnership-approach helped us make informed decisions and stay on track regarding both performance and costs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As we neared the project’s end, everyone was anxious to push things out the door, so we had an increased number of missteps and things falling through the cracks. If we’d all dug a bit deeper and taken more time on the backend, it would’ve been smoother.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

First, customers should come to the table with a clear understanding of their expectations and picture of success. Though Viget has a strong consulting process, customers have to understand what they want at the end of the day.

Second, it’s important clients give Viget a chance to ask questions and engage their people. They excel at digging around for insights and helping customers reach those “Aha!” moments. Letting them take the lead was a big success for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

WealthEngine is a technology company based in Washington, D.C. We offer a data platform and data-driven marketing approach. We help clients prioritize their sales, marketing, and fundraising efforts better. We have more than 3,000 clients. These include universities, hospitals, financial services institutions, and luxury brands. We help identify customer segments with the most market potential, and our specialty is wealth intelligence. I am the lead for product management within WealthEngine. I became part of WealthEngine by virtue of the fact that WealthEngine had acquired my company. I was the CEO and founder of my prior company, a big data analytics company. After the acquisition, I joined the WealthEngine team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Viget?

We needed to update the design, visual elements, and user experience of our primary product. We enlisted Viget to provide a refresh to our SaaS [software-as-a-service]-based software solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Parts of our product are relatively intricate in terms of the user interactions. For example, Viget worked on a tool for creating prospect lists. A user would say, "I want to see everybody in this particular area that has these wealth attributes. They must also have these other attributes." We have hundreds of attributes. Things like your political party, the car you drive, interests, sports, and so on. We wanted to make it easy and intuitive for a user to build up a list by clicking through and selecting different attributes. It was a complex user experience challenge to do that really well. For that project, Viget's deliverable was a set of detailed wireframes. Our team then took those and did the implementation. Following a similar process, Viget also helped us with other parts of our system with key interaction. They helped us think through the UX [user experience] and have a workshop for ideas. They would then deliver high-fidelity wireframes that we then use as drivers for our development process.

Before the acquisition, we worked with Viget in a similar fashion for other products. Some of those were SaaS-based software products while others were more public-facing Internet products. Viget also assisted us with some technical work. They have very capable technologists on their team as well. During a prior chapter of my career, Viget had assisted us on our product efforts in a technical capacity.

How did you come to work with Viget?

Viget was working with us in our prior company, so they just continued working with us when we became part of WealthEngine. I've actually worked with them before. Prior to WealthEngine, I've founded, built, and sold a couple of companies. Viget has been quite instrumental with a couple of the companies that I've built.

How much have you invested with Viget?

We have spent $50,000 to $200,000 on our projects with Viget.

What is the status of this engagement?

WealthEngine started working with Viget at the end of the first quarter of 2014. The timeframe is a little more than two years. Our relationship with them is more of a ladder. We have an ongoing relationship with Viget. As things come up, we'll reach out to them and scope out a project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We definitely get very positive feedback on our user interface. That's anecdotal, but we consistently get high praise from customers as well as other industry professionals who look at it. The work that Viget did was transformative, so it's almost hard to compare the before and after. Many of the things that they were working on were relatively new, particularly that prospecting product I talked about. I think that it's flowing through to our sales, the product benefits. WealthEngine has continued to grow as a company and we're doing pretty well.

How did Viget perform from a project management standpoint?

Viget is very strong in project management. They also excel in visual design, user experience design, technical work, and strategy. I have a lot of faith when they estimate or scope something and then say, "This is the deadline we're shooting for." In the time I've worked with them, they have rarely missed a deadline, if ever. They are extremely professional in their project communications, project expectations management, and project status. I would give them very high marks.

What did you find most impressive about Viget?

Viget's just great overall. They excel in many places. I consider their visual design and user experience design skills to be second to none. Whenever we have sensitive products or high visibility projects – something where a marginal difference can have a big business impact – we'll bring in Viget. If you have a very strategic project where you need a partner that you can trust, I would recommend them. Viget can deliver very high-quality digital products, media properties, apps, or user experience. They are just about as the best you can find. I'm sure there are others out there that are as good. I've worked with a wide array of different user experience professionals and firms both as a client as well as inside. But, I would say that Viget is right at the top. At some level, what they do is timeless. I think they do a good job of staying on top of forward-looking trends. Viget continues to innovate and adapt as the market does. Like all firms, they need to stay true to their values while still evolving over time. They're good at doing that.

Culturally, Viget is extremely good at hiring. Their team members are very high quality and very skilled. At the same time, they are very friendly and are just very good to work with. There's this consistency in the caliber and the vibe of the team at Viget. It's a positive vibe. It's interesting. Their culture is very creative but laid back and not too full of itself. They are extremely skilled, extremely creative, and performance-oriented.

Are there any areas Viget could improve?

No, I think that they are good at what they do, across all the disciplines. I don't see a real weak point. It's a firm that's been around 15 or 16 years, and it's grown organically. The leaders of the firm are very vested and very engaged in making a truly great company, and I think they've been quite successful at it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

At the time, I was working with ID.me, a company that enables customers to produce verified ID cards for various organizations.

What is your position?

I was Vice President of Product Development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Viget?

We had a need to build an e-commerce platform. We brought Viget in to do the product launch of the platform, as well as help out with user experience, design, and the full development of the platform itself.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Viget is a full solution organization. They handled the project management aspect of the engagement as well as the design, user experience, and wire framing. Their development team of front-end and back-end engineers worked alongside ours to build out the initial launch of the product. The platform was built on Ruby On Rails.

They were involved in every aspect of the project. They had a technical project manager that worked with me to flesh out requirements on the UX and technical sides, and then they managed the entire process through to the end.

How did you come to work with Viget?

I have known Brian Williams, the Chief Executive Officer [CEO] of Viget, for many years. We kept in touch over the years, and when it was time for my company to look for outside resources to launch this platform, Brian was one of the first people that I called. We brought them in, vetted them, and had them meet the team as well as our CEO and Chief Operating Officer [COO]. They put forth the proposal to do the work, and we ultimately selected them to engage with and build out our platform.

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

We spent $200,000-plus. It was a large engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement started around January of 2014 and lasted about nine months from start to finish. The first couple of months were the user experience and design phase, and then we rolled into the actual development phase. We got to the launch phase in September of that year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

It’s been a while, so I don’t have any hard metrics.

How did Viget perform from a project management standpoint?

We had an incredibly aggressive timeline that was almost unrealistic, and we had a lot of pressure from our CEO to get the platform released. We were also building some backend systems at the time that needed to be integrated into Viget’s platform, and they were able to deliver their piece of the overall product before our own internal engineering team.

We had regular ongoing demos and internal releases of the product. Viget didn’t waiver from their schedule much at all, which was really impressive given the ambiguity of the beginning phases of our project. They were able to take a high level concept, draw out the requirements, and deliver. It was impressive how well they were able to manage the whole process.

What distinguishes Viget from other providers?

Viget is very good at putting the right team together for their client. Their project managers were able to work with us to determine exactly what we wanted to build because we hadn’t defined everything on our end at that point. Within a two hour working session, they were able to really grasp what we were trying to build, and then they developed user experiences and requirements around that. You don’t typically find that skill in other agencies.

Another strength of theirs is that they have a group of awesome designers, developers, technical project managers, and client engagement managers. They are able to pull levers and put the right people together in order to be most successful. Viget really understands the business that their clients are in, and as a result of that, they are able to deliver that next level of product that other agencies cannot.

Is there anything Viget could have improved or done differently?

It’s not necessarily something to improve upon, but one of the things I would have liked would have been to have the engineers on site with us. I understand that they don’t typically work that way, and at the end of the day it all worked out fine.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Product leader at tech startup

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Viget?

The first project we hired Viget for was to create a complementary mobile app to our web experience. They were efficient and effective, so when I moved companies, I hired them again to lead the design of 3 apps in 6 months (2 web, 1 mobile). Most recently, I engaged Viget a third time to support a redesign of our flagship product.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Our first engagement was the result of an RFP process. They came in enthusiastic and thoughtful.

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

In all cases, they came in with a learning mindset. We kicked off with research and moved into UX and design. Along the way we tested with users for validation. The design team collaborated with engineering during design and build, as well as supported design QA.

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

Varied, anywhere from 1-5 at a given time. I have worked with UX research, UX design, designers, engineers, project managers, and accessibility advisors.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Feedback from testers and actual users is consistently positive. Our in-house teams love working with Viget too.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Great. The Viget team is collaborating and willing to adapt to our process/style, while making recommendations for improvement.

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

Non-hierarchical structure. How easily they embed with in-house teams. The high quality of their UX deliverables.

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

Can't think of any right now