Grand Studio

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of scientific programs and career pathways at a food technology nonprofit. I oversee our scientific programs and product development initiatives to build member engagement and value for our community.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Grand Studio?

We needed to do some market research regarding new products and initiatives.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Grand Studio helped us uncover and identify consumer needs and potential solutions for those needs. They conducted the research and held several interviews with our members. We codeveloped the discussion guide, and Grand Studio walked us through the process.

Additionally, Grand Studio did some wireframes from scratch and tested them.

What is the team composition?

Nicole (Lead Designer) was our main point of contact. We also had 3–4 people on our team at any given time.

How did you come to work with Grand Studio?

We received an excellent recommendation from a colleague. We weren’t familiar with this territory, so we decided to engage Grand Studio.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from September 2020–January 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were all extremely satisfied with the outcomes of Grand Studio’s work. The team identified three market opportunities from the interviews and provided a roadmap for each one with the different stages of that opportunity. All in all, they exceeded our expectations.

How did Grand Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management was great. Overall, it was well-supported. Grand Studio was great to work with; the team was organized and set up frequent calls.

We mainly communicated through Slack and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication was excellent, and they were great listeners. Moreover, they were extremely creative. Grand Studio brought a lot of ideas to the table.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we didn’t notice any improvement areas.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My biggest advice is to embrace them as part of the team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a service design director and my team is part of the revenue cycle function for Providence.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Grand Studio?

We partnered with Grand Studio on a discovery project to reimagine the patient registration workflow for cancer patients who undergo a series of intense treatments.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We invited three firms to pitch on the project. We evaluated firm qualifications relative to our project need, the qualifications of the individuals proposed by the firms, the proposed approach, the culture fit with our Providence team, and the fee structure.

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

Proposed and coordinated qualitative and quantitative research to understand unmet needs of patients; development of an experience map and 25 opportunity areas to support patients and employees in the registration process; prioritized opportunity areas and co-developed with our team a range of solutions to address the opportunity areas.

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

• Firm partner
• project lead
• researcher
• graphic communications designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Made a proposal of five solution areas, each including high level experience requirements and anticipated ROI; led our business partners through prioritization and decision to move forward to development with one of the solutions. Complex engagement with 50+ stakeholders.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Met twice weekly for progress updates. Project lead partnered with me to ensure all dates and project outcomes were being met and that business partners were engaged at the appropriate levels to support decision making.

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

There was significant complexity in the stakeholder engagement and decision making, and my Providence team was new and still learning the structure of Providence. Grand Studio has remained nimble and can quickly pivot their approach to give us the flexibility we need.

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

Provide more quantitative or evidence-based precedent research for the solutions proposed, relevant to my industry.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Senior Product Manager at a fast food restaurant.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Grand Studio?

The Grand Studio team was hired to help informc hanges we could introduce to our point of sale system to improve the usertbility of the POS and simplify the user journey.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We've previoulsy partnered with the Grand Studio team. I connected with Drew and Josh to share more about what we werel ooking to accomplish. They shared a very detailed proposal that aligned with our goals, as well as speccific deliverables we could use to measure success.

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

We had a few discovery sessions as a team to nail down our scope of work. The Grand Studio team then lead a series of workshops with my team and our CX partners to help identify the highest and rank the highest priorities. The Grand Studio team led a series of user research sessions to better understand how users use the current system and to inform possible enhancements.

The grand studio team then created prototypes for users to validate a few ideas. These prototypes were tested with crew members and confirmed the changes we developed.

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

In total, we worked with 4 Grand Studio team members.

• Chief Design Office
• Lead Designer
• Senior Designer
• Designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've completed development on a few of the enhancements that were an outcome of this engagement. These are being tested with users with very positive feedback thus far.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was very effective. The Grand Studio team was very communicative and made sure we were kept up to date on all stages of our engagement. We had multiple touchpoints each week to confirm we were focused on the right scope, share more on the next steps by the Grand Studio team, and ensure we were providing the team with as much knowledge, background, etc. needed.

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

The team is comprised of expert designers. As we progressed, the team created a very impressive prototype of our system in Figma so we had a realistic version of the system that could incorporate suggestions and test with users. The team was very collaborative, communicative, and enjoyable to work with. The Grand Studio team truly felt like partners throughout this engagement.

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

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Program Leader of the Global Operations Performance consulting platform used for all of our restaurants

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Grand Studio?

We introduced a new performance consulting platform with market specific KPIs for all of our Global outlets. We worked with Grand Studio to develop the initial dashboard/portal. This was our second engagement with the Grand Studio Team for this specific project.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Grand Studio came highly recommended from another project team at our company. We met with the Grand Studio team to lay our our needs and based on this listening session they put together a proposal/statement of work that reflected a clear understanding of our needs.

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

The project entailed capturing and synthesizing feedback from all levels of user regarding of Phase 1 of the Tool. We then worked together to prioritize needs for further development...then Grand Studio developed different options to meet user data / insight / experience enhancement needs

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

We worked with 3 of their UX/UI designers, a project design lead and received expert consultation from their CEO, who had knowledge and expertise of the Phase 1 work previously completed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

User experience rating of the tool increased 16% globally across all user groups, based on some of the minor enhancements we made after collaborating with Grand Studio.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Grand Studio team was very clear in setting out objectives for each time we met, thus making our interaction effective and efficient. There was opportunity to iterate as well, so when new ideas gained traction we would align and agree on any changes to initial plan/scope.

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

The team was able to synthesize many sources of feedback and distill it all into relevant / actionable tool enhancements. They also did a great job integrating any feedback we provided, in many cases taking elements of various options they provided to create the best solutions to meet our diverse user needs.

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

We would have liked to have had some more overlap between the phase 1 project team and the phase 2 project team., but in hindsight I think some of the fresh perspective provided actually drove us to some new out of the box enhancements

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

A large nonprofit healthcare organization with over 150+ hospitals and 2500+ sites of care in the United States. During my time as VP, I established human-centered research and design to drive experience transformation for patients and clinicians across the end-to-end care journey.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with the vendor?

The company was leading several initiatives to transform the patient and provider experience through new products and technology-enabled services. I was hired as the first design executive to build and scale an in-house team to enable this transformation in a human-centered way.

Several projects were already underway without any design support. I hired Grand Studio to lead research/ design on these projects while I built our centralized research and design team in parallel.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Grand Studio led research and design for several digital products and service offerings. This included early strategic research to shape UX/product strategy and design execution and evaluative research during product development. 

Some of their projects went from problem discovery to product delivery - beginning with exploratory research to help define the product experience, continued design iteration, execution and testing and ultimately through delivery of the MVP.

They helped educate clinical and technical stakeholders about the value of design and built trust by inviting them into the process and bringing them along the design journey. They also supported a smooth transition over to our in-house researchers and designers as they came onboard.

What is the team composition? 

The team composition varied based on the project size and scope, ranging from 4-5 UX designers on large projects to 2-3 on smaller/ medium-sized ones.

How much have you invested with them?

1 Million+ over 2+ years

What is the status of this engagement?

Worked with them from 2019 - 2021

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of the projects Grand Studio led resulted in the launch of a new product that increased conversions by 70% and had 60+ Million in revenue flowing through it within the first 6 months.

How did the vendor perform from a project management standpoint?

Grand Studio is excellent at project management. They communicate regularly to provide status updates, proactively flag any potential blockers/risks and really partnered with us to find solutions to unanticipated challenges.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with a number of large and small design firms and the kind of attention that Grand Studio gives each client is unmatched. I’ve worked with them on several projects and have never been disappointed on service/ deliverable quality or communication.

What I find most impressive is their ability to navigate ambiguity – they often leaned in early to help scope the work rather than wait for us to draft it.

Their leadership understands the challenges of establishing design in an organization that’s new to it and really partnered with us to evangelize the business value of design. 

The attention they give each client is unmatched. I’ve worked with much larger design firms that charge a lot more and had some disappointing experiences

Are there any areas they could improve?

None.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the former innovation strategy manager for an insurance company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Grand Studio?

We engaged Grand Studio to conduct qualitative research to help us develop a new life insurance product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Grand Studio managed and coached our team throughout a research project, designing the overall approach and holding workshops with our team in the process. They set up contacts and customer research, trying to understand how our customers felt about life insurance in general. We were able to develop a prototype based on some of their finished product concepts and research. 

What is the team composition? 

We worked with about four people, including two researchers, a graphic designer, and a project manager. 

How did you come to work with Grand Studio?

Grand Studio was one of about five different vendors we considered on a different project that we ultimately awarded to another company. However, we were very impressed by their skillset and decided to reengage them when a more appropriate opportunity to work with them presented itself. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $250,000–$350,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on the project from around November 2017–March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to build a product around the research Grand Studio provided that has helped generate between $5–$20 million in annual revenue. 

How did Grand Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a great job overall. They were very flexible and accommodating to the whims of our executive sponsors, despite the many pivots we threw their way. Since they're located a few blocks from our office, we were able to have a lot of in-person working sessions with their team as needed. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our team has ongoing discussions about ways they can continue working with them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I asked their team to clarify how the inputs from a workshop led to effective outcomes, but they immediately made improvements after I provided feedback. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of strategy at a for-profit subsidiary of a nonprofit organization in the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Grand Studio?

In our company, we were just starting innovation initiatives. We were looking into a new product space and needed help identifying consumers’ desires. We also needed support with the continued development of products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Broadly, Grand Studio helped research, define, and illustrate the strategy and digital components of the potential product suite. Their team managed the exploration, design, and development phases of the platform.

While we provided some initial research, they directed the majority of design exploration. They committed to learning our aspirations as well as the viability of the project. Their team collaborated with internal stakeholders to understand who the platform’s potential customers would be and what their needs are. They integrated our research into the design methodology, which Grand Studio designed. To gather research into our audience, their team recruited consumers through well-structured empathy interviews.

After, we held a value proposition workshop based on the consumer insights we’d acquired. Their team performed user-testing to understand which components of the product could be valuable, working with consumers to create them.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 4–5 user-experience designers from Grand Studio.

How did you come to work with Grand Studio?

Colleagues recommended several companies and we engaged a careful selection process. After, we created ROI and interviewed several candidates. We chose Grand Studio because we liked them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent approximately $250,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We collaborated with Grand Studio between October­–December 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Grand Studio delivered but the impact has been primarily qualitative. To our surprise, we received more than we expected from the collaboration. We’re still experiencing positive consequences. Some things we discovered while working with them still impact our product development activities.

How did Grand Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated regularly over the phone, in-person, and through e-mail. Their team adjusted to our complex organization’s differences and specific requirements. They organized and facilitated workshops to support numerous stakeholders. Grand Studio worked well with us every single day, providing useful tools to help us produce the project.

Their team was customer-oriented. Whereas sometimes you’ll talk, and a partner will appear to be listening, Grand Studio teammates really listened and heard us. Although the project was quite ambiguous, they helped us create new concepts and distill those ideas into actionable next steps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re one of the best vendors I’ve worked with. The project was directed to support consumer needs and Grand Studio helped us move forward with this orientation. They helped us to hear our consumers, which is why we still experience positive product development consequences. Their team also helped us involve internal stakeholders well. Our team still remembers them because of their amazing people and communication skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing they could’ve done differently.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work as a product manager at a Tier 1 bank.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Grand Studio?

Our credit traders had to use many different applications on a daily basis, so they wanted to have one place where they could access all the information they needed. We hired Grand Studio (formerly Moment Design) to help us design that new UX/UI experience.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, Grand Studio assessed what the product should look like. Then, they interviewed a few of our credit traders, trying to understand their workflows and what data they needed in order to make their sales decisions. During the second phase, Grand Studio turned that information into a solution and created the wireframes. After we tested the concept, they designed the new user interface. It was only a design project, and we had our internal developers handle the development.

What is the team composition? 

We worked with a total of four people, including their owner. 

How did you come to work with Grand Studio?

We had worked with Grand Studio in the past. We liked the quality of their work, so we thought they'd be a great fit for this particular project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them in 2015. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Grand Studio did high-quality work and met all of our expectations. I had worked with many other vendors, and I was impressed with Grand Studio. They provided a lot of value in terms of the dollars spent within the bank and came up with great recommendations, helping us understand the design. 

How did Grand Studio perform from a project management standpoint? 

They were very transparent and responsive to our feedback. Their owner always made sure everything was running smoothly. We had brainstorming meetings on-site, and we also used email to communicate. They kept the project on track and addressed our questions promptly. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had little background in finance, and because this project had many complex financial terms, I was impressed with their ability to pick up and understand this project quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really. When we had any miscommunication, they did their best to resolve it quickly. The cost was a bit high, but considering the value they provided, it was worth it.