ZeroDegrees Inc.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a VP in our eCommerce department at the bank. I am responsible for oversight of our website, online account opening, online and mobile banking strategy, and some digital marketing efforts and analytics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ZeroDegrees Inc.?

Conducted a heuristic review of our website as well as a general review of our mobile app to support the goal of optimizing key customer journeys. We also had them research and review best practices from other websites and apps to help inform the final recommendations.

What were your goals for this project?

Optimize the user experience for the website and the mobile app and create a source of best practices to refer back to as we move forward with implementing improvements.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I had done some work with one of the founders in the past when we were both at different companies and we reconnected. He explained what ZeroDegrees did and I brought them in to meet the rest of the team. As with anything, these things take time but they were a natural fit for our team to do a fresh engagement.

Describe the project in detail.

The general process was as follows: ZeroDegrees and Salem Five conducted a workshop to review the website and mobile app and define key personas and scenarios that would inform customer journeys.

ZeroDegrees then conducted a heuristic review of both the site and mobile app, as well as performed a best practices audit both within and outside of the financial industry.

The observations and recommendations from both exercises were then pulled together into a readout document that was presented to Salem Five, along with sketches to illustrate potential solutions. Solutions and fixes were also categorized into immediate-, short-, and medium-term for the Salem Five team.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of a UX Design Lead, a Strategy & Research Lead, and an Associate Director of Project Engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was great working with ZeroDegrees. They were highly efficient and always available. They didn't go into a black hole while conducting their work and were open to additional details and input even when they had completed most of their work.

They provided something like a 100+ page deck with many specific recommendations that we could actually act upon. The team at the bank really got along with them and in fact, we said in a meeting the other day about a decision we had to make "What would ZeroDegrees say to do?"

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The ZeroDegrees and Salem Five teams worked easily and efficiently together. The ZD project engagement manager was able to propel the project forward without any major hurdles with the help of the project lead at Salem Five. The project stayed within budget and was delivered on time, resulting in a favorable outcome for both parties.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

You work with the top-tier talent, not entry-level staffers. No A team for the pitch and then handed off to another group of not as experienced professionals. They have a lot of experience inside and outside our industry, and they brought a fresh take and perspective to the project and thought process.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As with any agency, it would be nice to be able to tap into top talent for very small questions/engagements but it is often difficult to do as either a retainer or SOW is usually needed. With a small agency like ZeroDegrees, I would have appreciated this type of arrangement if possible.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We provide an online retail solution tailored for the furniture vertical at the enterprise level. I am President & CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ZeroDegrees Inc.?

We hired ZD to provide UX design advisory as well as user testing of a prototyped solution.

What were your goals for this project?

A better user experience for the checkout process.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had contacts at ZeroDegrees that we'd kept up with over several years. When a suitable project came along, they were able to demonstrate the right skill set at the right price, while meeting our urgency requirements. It was an easy decision and avoided a time-consuming competitive bid process.

Describe the project in detail.

The general process was as follows: ZeroDegrees provided input to the Blueport UX design process for redesigning the checkout process, including brainstorming, reviewing designs created by the Blueport UX team, and sketching.

ZeroDegrees also provided Axure guidance as needed. Once the checkout process prototype was in a good place, ZeroDegrees managed user testing of the prototype, including recruiting, screening and scheduling participants for the sessions. They then conducted 10 one-on-one interview sessions and evaluated the findings from the testing and compiled a readout for Blueport.

What was the team composition?

The ZeroDegrees team consisted of a experience strategist, lead UX designer and a project manager. On the Blueport side, we contributed two UX professionals and I acted as executive sponsor.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This project was the precursor to the perhaps the most important and ambitious technology re-architecture project the company has ever undertaken.

These projects are hard to estimate, hard to execute and can lead to spectacular failure if dates are missed and clients start adjusting priorities. It was critical to get the UX right from the start and ensure that we had universal buy-in on requirements that wouldn't become a moving target.

By focusing on a prototype that was backed by user testing data, we've been able to not only get comprehensive client approvals on UX, we've been able to keep those requirements fixed and keep our development team moving forward. The overall rearchitecture project is about to launch as a result.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project involved a collaboration between our internal UX team and ZeroDegrees on the prototype development, where our team took the lead and ZeroDegrees provided expert support. These roles reversed for the user testing phase. Project management was simple, collaborative and very effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

ZeroDegrees was very committed to the success of the project. They were proactive in asking where we needed more help, and willing to pitch in above and beyond while remaining very flexible on timing.

It felt like our priorities were their priorities exactly. This made the project seem straightforward and easy, as we were all able to focus on executing with the same goals.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Things can always be improved, but nothing stands out on this project as an obvious gap.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a marketing consultant that Mosquito Shield has employed as their acting CMO. Mosquito Shield has well over 40 franchise locations, nationally. I strategize annual marketing plans and help deploy them.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ZeroDegrees Inc.?

We hired Zero Degrees to review all the software platforms we were using and help us integrate them better into our website so we have a better, more singular source of data and can better automate marketing programs to our leads and customers.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a highly connected marketing stack solution that would allow us to better automate marketing programs. Since we use a very industry-specific SAS, it was important to find a CRM solution that would be highly effective with the least amount of custom-api building.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I've worked with Zero Degrees on smaller, past projects. I felt from their reputation of being technology agnostic and smart solution builders, they were the right choice for this task.

Describe the project in detail.

We have multiple technology platforms; website CMS, business operations SAS, call center software, etc. None of these, due to the nature of our operations SAS being speciality to the industry were connected and API builds were always tens of thousands of dollars.

We wanted Zero to dig in, review all platforms with a critical eye and tell us what we needed to keep, what we could get rid of and how we could connect everything with a relative ease, avoiding custom apis as much as possible so we weren't ever married to one particular solution.

Also, our website was at a critical juncture of needing a massive update and they helped us address what needed to be done to make the load times and conversions FAR BETTER.

What was the team composition?

On the Mosquito Shield side, we had a team of Director of Marketing, Director of Sales and a Franchise Owner that is a highly ranked CIO with the government to determine our Business Objectives.

On the Zero Degrees side, we met with a tech solution architect, a UX/UI director, and a technical project manager. They reached out to our various tech solution contacts to get smart on what they do and how they contribute to our Business Objectives.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within 2 months, we had a very detailed recommendation on what tech to use, with all the comparisons in the industry in a very unbiased discovery document that we could bring to any other shop to build if we so chose.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I really loved their communication style. If they needed more information on something, they set up a call. They documented everything, calls, emails etc. It gave me the confidence to answer any questions or objections to the solution they recommended because they were so thorough.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They truly come to the table with unbiased solutions. I've worked in the web design world and most will sell what they are comfortable with using or who they have coding is the platform they sell. It's refreshing to have a true strategy shop pull together the right solution for the right reasons.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They are an intelligent group of people. Sometimes the vernacular in their documents need dumbing down for the folks that don't have technical knowledge. If I were to advise on anything, I would recommend more simple-speak.