Academy

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the executive director of experience design and research at a pharmaceutical company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Academy?

We were trying to help everyone at the company understand design and how it could help our organization.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Academy created an ongoing series of workshops for us. We have had a one-day workshop so far, in which a guest speaker from Academy met with us. The speaker had compiled a PowerPointt and provided an introduction to experience design. 

What is the team composition?

One subject matter expert from Academy has spoken at our company. 

How did you come to work with Academy?

I knew Adam (Founder, Academy) from a past position, and saw while searching LinkedIn that he has started his own company. I was intrigued that he went into this space and wanted to learn more, so I reached out to him.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our workshop took place in September 2018, although it is part of an ongoing series.

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

I have seen a greater interest to move forward and use design methodologies to support business problems, such as design thinking. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Academy possesses the unique ability to really understand where an organization is at in regards to their design maturity. They were able to adapt to our specific needs in order to help us grow. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did a great job with everything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Keep the lead warm. As the engagement continued and we opened avenues of dialogue, we sometimes got busy. It becomes difficult to keep everyone top of mind, but it’s worth the extra effort. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of the design community at a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that makes both products and content.

What challenge were you trying to address with Academy?

We needed a partner who could run Design Sprint workshops for our end clients.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We sold tickets to the public for a Design Sprint workshop on Dual-Track Agile conducted by Adam (Founder, Academy). He came in and provided services that he would typically do for private clients. Adam runs a one-day workshop to teach larger companies how to follow the sprint methodology internally. He offers actionable takeaways and tactical tools that our end clients can put in their arsenal. If our clients do the workshop and find they aren’t able to successfully implement the sprint methodology, then they can hire us to manage it for them. We’re currently exploring a few other consulting options to continue working with Academy.

What is the team composition?

We interact with Adam.

How did you come to work with Academy?

He was an internal referral. He’d already worked with our company before, so I decided to partner with him on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered in October 2017, and the work is ongoing.

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

He delivered amazing content and got great reviews from our audience. Many of them said they’d buy another ticket to come back for another series, and his NPS was over 40.

How did Academy perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is one of his strong suits. He’s a great facilitator and makes sure we’re satisfied. We’ve used Google Drive, Trello, and Asana to track the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

He elegantly moves through internal politics to accomplish shared objectives.

Are there any areas they could improve?

He could be more persistent with his development.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Bring him in early because one of his best attributes is his strategic thinking. He’ll ask good questions and help the project be as successful as possible.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager for CBRE Build, a segment of the largest commercial real estate firm in the world. I help develop technology products that serve our company and clients.

What challenge were you trying to address with Academy?

We needed a partner to design a real estate tool to help clients understand their workplace requirements and determine how much space their future offices required. The process was entirely manual at the time, and we wanted to automate it through a software product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a visioning session to uncover what problem we were addressing and how we wanted to solve it. This fully immersive workshop lasted for about two days, and then Academy put together a few different design proposals. We selected the direction we wanted to go in and then iterated together to develop that idea. Their designers worked on illustrations as well as UX/UI for the tool. They eventually delivered a final product, with all of the documentation and assets to allow our internal dev team to manage the product.

What is the team composition?

We worked with multiple designers, a research engineer, and project manager.

How did you come to work with Academy?

We found them online through Working Not Working. We saw their portfolio and spoke to several different firms to find the best fit. Academy seemed the best qualified and aligned closely with our own company culture, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership lasted from October 2017–May 2018.

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

Their initial design work allowed us to reach our MVP launch date. They were absolutely critical in helping us meet our tight deadline. The entire process was quick, and we were pleased with their designs. The product has a unique personality and distinctive brand, which has become fundamental to how people think about the tool.

How did Academy perform from a project management standpoint?

It took some time to learn how to collaborate, but it eventually worked out. They added a project manager near the end of the engagement, which helped tremendously. We used Slack, email, and G Suite to communicate and share live documents. We also had lots of video chats and in-person meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Even after we finished the project, they’ve still kept in touch to maintain a strong relationship and see how the product is doing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could think about hiring full-time employees to create a more consistent team. We worked with quite a few designers because of turnover, and the onboarding process took up time.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They’re as good as the amount of time you’re willing to give to support them. Put in the effort to help them be successful, and you’ll have a great partnership. Have clear documentation around your goals and onboarding process to make knowledge transfer as simple and fast as possible.