Fastspot

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Big Huge Games is a mobile game developer based in Timonium, Maryland. One of our games, DomiNations, is a hit mobile game, reaching the top grossing charts in more than 60 countries. We're also developing another game, and I'm the lead producer on that title.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fastspot?

We want to not only grow our company but also bring more tech talent to Baltimore. We’re trying to sell prospective employees on how awesome Baltimore is as a city and Big Huge Games is as a company. We wanted to revamp our website. It needed to be more dynamic to reflect that we are a cool tech company, and also to encourage people to explore more about Baltimore.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had an outline of what we wanted the site to look like and the content. We talked with Fastspot and they made some suggestions about how to organize it. They did the whole layout for the site, all of the coding, and the QA. We provided feedback throughout the process. There were several design iterations before the site moved into development, and then several smaller development changes.

We used their platform, BigTree CMS, and Fastspot did the frontend design work as well. We wanted them to use specific fonts and gave them almost all of the art assets, but they also did a photoshoot in the office and made several videos for us.

They integrated a third-party HR provider so that our job recruiting was connected directly to the website. The appearance of the job display was really important to us, so they created drop-downs and expansions for that section.

What is the team composition?

There was one project manager who was our main point of contact. We also worked with two art directors and one director of engineering.

How did you come to work with Fastspot?

Since we're trying to grow tech in the Baltimore area, we really wanted to work with a Baltimore design firm for the website. We looked around and polled our contacts in the area. We sent out a call for a project to 10–15 firms. Fastspot went to the top of our list because we really liked them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Fastspot from September 2017–February 2018. The site is complete and the code is running on our servers.

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

Our CEO absolutely loves the website. He has sent me 3–4 emails a week for the past month of comments he’s heard from people about the website. He’s passed along notes from job recruits who say they’ve gotten a really good sense of the company from the site. Our accountants saw the invoice for the project on our books, which prompted them to go check out the new site and send the CEO a note saying how great it looks. It’s been really positive feedback from all sources.

How did Fastspot perform from a project management standpoint?

We had several in-person meetings in the beginning to discuss the design, and they used Basecamp to manage assets and ongoing conversations. They were really clear about what was going on and when there were going to be delays. Some of the delays were on our end because of content generation. They always communicated about what was causing delays and kept us informed about where they were in the process.

Even after we paid the last invoice, they still helped us get the site up and running when our developer was out of the office due to personal issues. We're not paying a monthly fee for support but they’ve still been helpful in answering our questions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were really prompt and easy to work with. They listened and responded to our comments on the design of the website. Their engineering team was easy to communicate with and worked well with ours. Everything was great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we really enjoyed the experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be on top of everything so you can be fast with your responses. If you're fast, they're fast. Everything goes more smoothly if you respond quickly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the data applications and systems manager for a university. My position encompasses web services and database administration.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fastspot?

Our president mandated we redesign our primary website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We decided to hire Fastspot and utilize their BigTree CMS. They came on site and conducted a day and a half of interviews with a variety of campus groups including alumni, current students, and faculty. They came back about a month later with a creative brief and a handful of other documents as part of the scope of work. We collaboratively took the creative brief through several rounds of revision to fine tune the objectives, target audience, and metrics indicating success. They came back with the revised information architecture and persona journey map which went through additional revisions as well. They also developed a functional requirements document, a content strategy style guide, and SEO recommendations.

They presented two design concepts of wireframes and we chose a specific direction. Our president and his cabinet signed off on the option and then two more rounds of revision to the designs and functional requirements took place. With the designs and scope of work finalized, they started development work.

There were several add-ons we requested in addition to the basic site. The first was a robust newsroom that could list information, encourage social sharing, and utilize twitter polls. We also had them add a complex event calendar that could quickly filter events by category. For 30 days post-launch, Fastspot fixed any bugs or technical issues that arose. While they handled most of the coding, my team assisted integrating the backend systems to ensure content wasn’t duplicated.

What is the team composition?

5–6 people from their team worked on this project. We mostly interacted with our primary project manager, but there was also a lead developer, a lead designer, and two UX designers. Their head of development would step in occasionally as well.

How did you come to work with Fastspot?

We were looking for companies well-versed in working with higher education entities and could be subject-matter experts capable of driving the project forward. I previously worked with Fastspot at another university and could attest their merit. We considered two other companies but hired Fastspot for their ability to weave compelling narratives out of basic statistics.

How much have you invested with them?

I don’t have access to that information, so I’m not sure. Probably between $200,000 and $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

The redesign took place February 2017–February 2018. Our marketing team is putting together a maintenance agreement with them for future enhancements.

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

The previous site was faculty focused and the current version is not. As a result, a few adjustments have been made to accommodate our new shift in focus. However, the overall reaction has been incredibly positive by a large margin.

How did Fastspot perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything went fine, despite some communication issues. They had a Zoom conference line set up that we used on a weekly basis for calls. They also used Basecamp for collecting materials and Airtable for the QA process. I would’ve preferred to use one management tool instead of two because it caused issues when working on multiple aspects of the project simultaneously.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Fastspot was very accommodating regarding scope change. It’s easy to agree with designs while outlining the functional requirements and realize during development it isn’t what you’re looking for. As long as the change wouldn’t substantially affect the timeline, they wouldn’t charge additional fees for each readjustment. They were willing to work with us as a partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They were supposed to train our content editors to use BigTree CMS but were not prepared for that kind of presentation. Also, I’d sometimes have to keep track of their developers to make sure the work was being completed.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the former VP of Communications at Bucknell University. I have since left the University and am now the president of Mackey Strategies.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fastspot?

Our goal was to create the most innovative website in higher education. I felt that this approach would not only make Bucknell stand out in the marketplace but would exemplify the Bucknell educational culture. In some ways, it might be considered a "pie in the sky" sort of notion, and in some ways, it is also something that is indeterminate; it is subjective criteria. We wanted to push the envelope at every stage in how we were presenting the website, making sure it met the user needs.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We redesigned the Bucknell website from the ground up. Once we committed to Fastspot, we were in constant communication with them. They were intimately involved in the site’s whole creative development. They were involved in offering and amending concepts and turning those concepts into an information architecture. They turned that information architecture into design and then brought the design to life, working with us very carefully on the content and material we needed to flush out the design. We were able to jump quickly into the design process because they were already familiar with Bucknell and we had worked together in the past. 

We didn’t have a normal intensive discovery process, but we had a communication strategy that was developed around a discovery process we had done previously, including quantitative and qualitative analyses of the Bucknell community and culture. Most websites are built around how the institution wants to present itself, but we built it around what our users need.

Fastspot came up with the A to Z directory so a user’s search process goes straight to the information that is most typically responsive to the widest number of users, as opposed to providing an all or nothing option. The website, most notably the home page, remembers a user until the cache is cleared out. It serves each individual user the of content they prefer. When someone comes back to the website, the customized content choices they made loads every time the site is visited.  At the top navigational field of the Bucknell website, it is oriented around the user whether they are alumni, student, faculty member, or admissions prospect. Depending on the answer, content most likely to serve the particular interests of the user is delivered.

What is the team dynamic?

On this project, we worked directly with 3 to 8 members of their team, including their technical, creative, and project management teams. In a project as intensive as this, both teams were deeply immersed in the work together, but Fastspot was creatively and technologically critical to every phase of what we did.

How did you come to work with Fastspot?

We called about 20 firms and talked to them about their culture, interest, and the kind of radical innovation we wanted to pursue on our university website. Based upon those very carefully vetted conversations with the firms, we narrowed our pool down to 12, and sent the RFP we developed out to them. Out of the 12 remaining, we invited three of those to come to our campus, and in every step of the process, Fastspot, which was a firm we knew already, impressed us with their proposal, presentation, and the type of questions they asked. They had to demonstrate they were committed to doing something truly innovative with us, as they had worked with us on our previous website redesign in 2009. Both the university and the Fastspot team were dedicated to creating something special that would serve Bucknell well.

My partner and I had worked with Tracey [President, Fastspot] and the team on previous university projects. In some ways, it created a higher threshold for them to win our business given how innovative we wanted this new site to be. Tracey’s presentation at the campus review meeting was original, fresh, and showed tremendous creative thinking. She brought different ideas to the table, more than any other firm, suggesting what was possible for the Bucknell site. When that presentation was over, we knew we had found the firm to take the creative steps we wanted to take.

How much have you invested in them?

That’s confidential, but their prices are among the most competitive in the business.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started this project with Fastspot in May 2013.

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

The site not only made a dramatic difference right away for Bucknell’s reputation and recruitment but also has remained successful in terms of the experience users are having with it. We have low bounce rates, with visitor numbers to the main site and the admissions site being very strong.

In particular, Fastspot’s A to Z directory was a very innovative concept. The site that we know today would not be what it is without Fastspot. There are some features that are original to the Bucknell website, and all are ideas that Fastspot brought to the table as part of meeting our goal.

How did Fastspot perform from a project management standpoint?

They were exceptional; they are as good as it gets. Tracey is the management and creative wizard that keeps the project going. We mostly communicated through phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their categorical commitment to getting the job done however their client wants, while giving honest feedback at every step, along with a smooth and thoughtful process, bring them to a successful resolution.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the director of digital initiatives at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. At the time, I’d been there for six years. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Fastspot?

We were on a rigid proprietary CMS [content management system] called Blackbaud NetCommunity. We’re a cultural organization that’s similar to a museum. We had a lot of great content, photography, and stories, but the system we had wasn’t reflecting our organization or allowing effective storytelling.

We also were looking to integrate our new ticketing system. We wanted to move to an open-source platform so that this integration would be easier. We had just launched a new digital strategy for our organization, and the website was part of that. We needed Fastspot to redesign our website from concept and strategy all the way to development and execution. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a pretty detailed RFP and goals, but we weren’t trying to be prescriptive about the solutions we needed. We were open to implementation ideas but had clear goals for the site. They did a pretty extensive discovery process with us and involved all the different stakeholders in the organization, which for a nonprofit is not always easy.

They’ve built the entire site alongside one of our developers internally. We launched in eight months. They were really fantastic. I’ve never worked with an agency like them before. They’re incredibly thoughtful and took all the feedback from these different groups of people and came up with a really interesting solution for our information architecture, content presentation, and how we use design to really tell the story of our organization.

We went through a pretty extensive design process because that’s a huge priority for our organization. They came back with some innovative concepts that didn’t just look like every other website out there. Ultimately, they helped us decide on our CMS direction. They have an open-source CMS that they created called BigTree in PHP. Any developer can work on it since it’s like Drupal or Joomla. We decided to go forward using that.

We had a lot of content, but it wasn’t digitized. I hired a freelance writer who did all the writing for the site. When we were going through the design and IA [information architecture] process, they helped us think through new content and areas that could be developed for the site. One of the biggest challenges for us was establishing our Buildings of Chicago database. We’re an architecture organization, and people constantly asked us about specific buildings around the city. Based on Fastspot’s design and concept work, we were able to think about developing content for that feature of the site. So, while they didn’t write the content with us, they did help create the information architecture that really drove our content development process.  

What is the team dynamic?

We originally spoke with Tracey [President and Chief Visionary Officer, Fastspot], who was the chief creative officer and owner. We worked with the creative and technology director, a couple of UX people, and one or two developers. There were six or seven people assisting throughout the duration of the project. Some people were more involved in the beginning. I never felt like we were being passed off. Whenever we started talking to the developer, I could tell that he’d been briefed. It felt like we were working with the same team the whole time.

How did you come to work with Fastspot?

Fastspot found us. Our company was in Chicago, and they’re in Baltimore. My RFP got put on some sort of wire because we suddenly started getting inquiries from all over the country. Katie [Director of Business Development, Fastspot] stumbled on our company online and thought we’d make a good fit.

We selected them from 45 submitted RFP responses. Katie wrote probably the best RFP response I have ever seen. They really understood our problem before we even spoke.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $175,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2014 until April 2015.  

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

We received huge kudos after the website launched, and it has won quite a few awards. The site was announced at the museums and the web conference and was well received. We put a lot of effort in publicizing it, and people absolutely loved it. The most important part was that our 450 volunteer docents absolutely loved the site. They do all of our architecture tours throughout the city. They’re incredibly important but quite critical since they’re volunteers as well as architecture experts. Somehow, we got them involved throughout the process, and they loved it.

How did Fastspot perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager was Stacy [Director of Operations, Fastspot]. She was fantastic, and I never saw her get flustered. The collaboration was challenging because they were remote. We were only able to meet with them maybe three times in person. Stacy always made herself available. She adjusted the schedule whenever something threw us off track. I was amazed that she remembered everything I said and stayed so personable. She kept everything straight on our project from start to finish. I don’t know what tools she used to manage the work, but she knew what was happening and remembered everything. We did have a few hiccups but worked through them quickly. Stacy was open to listening to me and understanding where I was coming from. Overall, she was a fantastic project manager. We talked on the phone a lot and used Basecamp to manage our progress.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Fastspot brought incredibly creative people onboard. They specialize in higher education and cultural nonprofits, so they obviously were a good fit for us because they understood our industry. They brought creative solutions to the table and surprised us every time.

I keep in touch with them to this day. I’m friends with all of the team on Facebook. They care about what I’m doing, even though I don’t work for their client anymore. I know they’re still doing work with the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Their care for their clients really came through originally in the RFP. We had a great relationship. They’re the kind of people you want to keep working with repeatedly.

They were as excited about our site launch as we were, which feels really good. Everybody put so much work into it that in the end, we were all able to celebrate the results. We made something really great together.

They’re the real deal. I hope they keep doing well. I work for an agency now, and I often bring up points from their working style with my current agency.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We did have a conversation with them originally about Tracey, who came out to make the pitch and during a discovery process but didn’t participate in the next phase of the project. We felt a little bit like the person we’d bought into was dropping away, which didn’t fit well with our leadership. So, she jumped back in. It’s hard to keep leadership in the project the whole time, but keeping the team consistent is important to us and was accommodated.

Also, they went over budget, but they never passed that information along to us. I had a weird moment wondering, “Are we going to get charged for this?” I’d watched the project going past the timeline, and I didn’t really know if we were going to get charged for that or not. They ended up not charging us, which was great. I’m sure they solved this problem, and it didn’t impact us in the long-term. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the senior vice president of visitor engagement for a non-profit organization.

What challenge were you trying to address with Fastspot?

We were in great need of a website redesign. We had a very dated and inefficient site and wanted something new, fresh, and effective.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We went from being a laggard in our space in terms of website presence and capabilities to one of the leaders in our category. We were gratified by the elevation as we had a site that finally worked on mobile, which is a significant part of our business.

We refined our brand with them as well. Fastspot created the design as well as the brand presence we have today.

Fastspot uses their own BigTree CMS, which made them a very compelling choice from the beginning. During the redesign of the website, this CMS was already in place. We had been in need of a good, clean, effective, and robust CMS that non-technical people could use. With the implementation of their CMS, we have been very pleased. It has been a major improvement for us in terms of who can publish and how we create content within our organization. We wanted to be able to run our own site, and they created it in a template structure and taxonomy that we were able to employ and update using the BigTree system.

What is the team dynamic?

We had four or five people that were regularly involved, with some that spent more time than others on the project.

How did you come to work with Fastspot?

We went looking for sites that we liked, and felt that if we could find out who was behind the creation of the sites, we might find some interesting candidates. We were interested in working with a partner in our local area for added efficiency. Once we started seeing Fastspot’s name on a number of award-winning sites that we really liked, we made contact. We loved Fastspot’s pitch and chose them to do our redesign, and we are glad we chose them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2014, and the project concluded in March 2015. We have used Fastspot for a number of post-launch improvements. We launched an updated homepage recently, and they are helping us to update our quiz as well as video templates. It has been a great partnership even post-launch.

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

We get great feedback all the time. Since the launch of our new site, we hear compliments, and people are recommending our site to others. I frequently talk to other corporations and organizations that are keen to consider Fastspot. They are one of the leaders in our area right now.

We now see a significant part of our ticket transactions coming through the mobile platform. It was a major catalyst for us to build our web presence in terms of unique visitors, and since the new website we have probably gone up times four in terms of our reach.

How did Fastspot perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. The project management was just as strong as the design work and helped us to stay on track as well as on budget. We most often communicated through Basecamp in terms of project management, and had a lot of face-to-face meetings when necessary, in addition to calls, and emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Fastspot was very easy to work with and loaded with talent from a project technology and design viewpoint. They are extremely professional, nice, hardworking, and passionate about delivering something that we wanted and that they thought would succeed. It was a very pleasurable experience all around.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I think it was a very successful project. There may have been really minor things, but they are not worth mentioning given the larger success.