Guidea

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital strategy and innovation at University Federal Credit Union, one of the largest locally-owned cooperatives. We’ve been in business for 86 years, helping improve our members’ financial lives and our community.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Guidea?

We were launching a new digital banking app, and we felt that we had an opportunity to revamp its visual design and overall UI to show our membership that our product was new and our brand was evolving and maturing.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we had a discovery exercise to identify our target audience, where we helped Guidea identify the members and non-members of our cooperative to conduct interviews and research with. Additionally, they got our internal teams to partner with them to learn from them; it was an intensive research process.

We had already identified user personas, but this initial process helped us update them slightly. After the discovery exercise, Guidea helped us create the designs and visual assets. For this phase of the project, they created three very different designs to discover what people thought about the different elements of all three. Then, they ultimately designed a fourth one with the best of each design.

Finally, Guidea implemented the design elements in the UI/UX of our system. As for the technology stack, they used Miro and Figma to create the designs and prototypes. In addition to the UI/UX design, they helped us craft a design guide that our marketing department could provide to outside agencies if we needed them to create collateral for us.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Theresa (Founder), a UX strategist who managed the project, a UX researcher who handled the research process and the interviews, and two visual designers who focused on responsive web design and iOS and Android design.

How did you come to work with Guidea?

We had worked with them before when we knew them as Theresa Neil: Strategy & Design. Theresa was also a member of our cooperative when she went to the University of Texas; that’s how we came to know her.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project ran from March–July 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Guidea was very helpful at delivering what we needed and working with us to craft the design guidelines, which was like a bonus deliverable for me because I didn’t think we would get that product. Moreover, they were supportive outside of their scope. For example, they taught us how to respond to comments in the App Store and other platforms once our product sees the light.

We haven’t launched the new banking platform yet to share some quantitative results. Still, one of the most important results was sharing the outcomes with certain executives that weren’t involved in the process. We received zero pushback from them, and everyone was very excited about our new look and the direction we had taken with our product’s visuals. Now, I’m very curious about how well our members will receive our new product.

We’ve worked with Guidea 3–4 times on various projects — we wouldn't continue engaging with them if we didn’t like what they did. We foresee engaging with them again as our needs arise, and we couldn’t be happier with what they’ve done for us so far.

How did Guidea perform from a project management standpoint?

Guidea did a great job at managing their resources and sticking to deadlines. I was amazed at how quickly they worked; they brought great resources to the table who were very dedicated to their work, which made them move what seemed to be too fast. At times, we even struggled to keep up with them, which was a good thing because it pushed us to move forward with the project.

Guidea sent me status reports, and I had weekly meetings with my internal design team. However, my team met with them almost daily over Zoom to check how things were going. Or engagement was 100% remote.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was fascinated by Guidea’s overall research process. Additionally, I really enjoyed that they’re a boutique design firm; they provided a personal touch and personal attention. We worked with really talented and dedicated people who listened to our needs and expectations, acting as active partners during those discussions, and creating a very collaborative environment.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone can always do things better. For example, things were moving so fast at times that we weren’t clear about our expectations and the next steps. Thus, I would only advise them to slow down a little bit at times so that we could catch our breath.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust them; they’re the experts and know what they’re doing, so don’t try to change their process.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and COO of Wrabbit. Platform build to assist Latinos and Latinas find good investment opportunities in crypto.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Guidea ?

We needed to extend the reach of our product to attract people who are new to crypto investing in addition to their more seasoned crypto-investment users. Our onboarding process was not ready for it, UX needed to be adjusted.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were familiar with Theresa's work and were introduced trough Manos Accelerator. We realized the team was really talented and professional since the very first meeting.

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

After refining the new target user with us, Guidea crafted and conducted a study with several potential users to evaluate their homepage and new designs for their onboarding workflow. Guidea also performed a UX Audit review of the homepage and workflow. Guidea delivered the test and audit results in a detailed findings document with actionable recommendations along with guidance on how to conduct similar tests with users in the future.

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

Wrabbit's team worked directly with Jes, Karin.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to redesign our onboarding to make it accessible for anyone who is not familiar with crypto.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They gave us very clear instructions and steps that needed to be completed in order for the project to be successful.

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

They delivered very actionable insights. In my experience, sometimes there is a lot of work and research, but at the end you do not know what to do with all the data. With Guidea, we were very clear and confident on what direction we needed to take after the project was completed.

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

No, we enjoyed very much working with the team, not only are they very professional and talented, they are great human beings.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the CMO of a company that provides digital credit cards as a service to other financial institutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

We were originally called differently, and our product offering was a digital credit card for international students studying in the US. However, the company evolved from that point, and Guidea helped us with that transformation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Guidea provided us with UI/UX design work, which was very helpful in bringing our new brand to life. Over our engagement, they did a couple of significant projects for us.

When we were offering credit cards to international students, we relied on a lot of other ways to score students and predict their creditworthiness because they generally didn’t have a credit history in the US. Given that our evaluation process wasn’t like any other credit card application process, Guidea helped us redesign our funnel and our application.

For this project, we went out to a couple of universities to interview actual students about their financial practices and challenges, as well as about their experience with credit card applications. Our research focused on other things beyond design, but it was still very beneficial for the design work.

After the research phase, Guidea designed a new flow based on inputs from our company and prospective customers. Then, they helped us perform RITE studies (Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation studies), where they had prospective customers go through the flow to provide us with feedback. This process helped us go deeper into the user’s friction points.

After completing the first project, we decided to rebrand and expand our product offering. Guidea helped us by taking some of the design work they had already done for our first product and expanding upon it. Additionally, they helped us design our mobile app. They used the Adobe Suite for their designs.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four main people from Guidea, but more people probably worked in the background. Their team included Rebecca (Associate Director of Research & Strategy), who acted as the UX researcher and provided the reports, Theresa (CEO), who was very involved in the strategy, a primary account manager, and a designer.

How did you come to work with Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

We got connected to some of the best firms in our area. We interviewed around four of those companies, compared their prices, and tried to understand their different approaches to the project. Of those companies, Guidea was the most research-and-evidence-driven, and they were at the midpoint of the cost range. These aspects made them the safest bet because they offered the best value for the money.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $300,000 across our multiple projects.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2016–August 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new workflow designed by Guidea for our student credit card applications proved to be very successful, increasing our application completion rate from 14%–19%. This 36% improvement not only gave us better results but also changed the trajectory of our business. It was a pivotal time for our company, and the work they did was instrumental in achieving that transition.

As a result of our change in direction, we were invested in by important financial institutions like Goldman Sachs and Mastercard. Although I left the company in 2018, the last valuation I saw was $500 million. The work we did with Guidea set us down this path towards becoming a unicorn, a private company with over $1B valuation.

Additionally, Guidea did great design work during our rebranding process. After our rebrand, we saw a significant lift in our overall business, as well as very little bounce rates. People were able to look for our former company’s brand, find the new one, and understand that they were in the right place. In general terms, we didn’t lose a lot of customers, and we gained new ones.

How did Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company perform from a project management standpoint?

Guidea’s project management was excellent. They were very good at hitting the milestones, staying on budget, and delivering on very aggressive deadlines. We had regular meetings with their team, and they always treated us as a priority. The project had good cadence, and we got daily visibility into the progress.

Whenever we were approaching a major milestone, Guidea was very collaborative and available so that everything ran smoothly. They adjusted to our needs and also held us accountable, which I really appreciated.

During the research, we worked with Guidea in-person on-site, and we spent a lot of time in our offices during some of the critical milestones. Inbetween those collaborative processes, we had Zoom meetings and communicated via email and Slack.

We also used Zeplin to collaborate and provide comments on their designs. For the RITE studies, Guidea used a platform to record the users as they went through the flow; we could see their screens and listen to the audio as they asked questions when they found it challenging to continue.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Guidea’s biggest asset is their research-driven design. Other companies might make research part of what they do, but research is the center of what Guidea does. The UXR (user experience research) helped remove a lot of the anxiety around how successful the final result would be because we were able to validate the designs along the way. We were excited to launch rather than nervous, which was a completely different experience.

Furthermore, when working with large firms, clients usually get assigned a B team. Something that really stood out about working with Guidea was that we got their top talents working on our project, which made a huge difference.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any constructive feedback about their work, but Guidea probably could have done a better job articulating what they did during our first interview. Although their pitch was good enough to gain my interest, it wasn’t until we had a second meeting that we understood better what they meant by research-driven design and its value.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear on your objectives, understand your customers, and be honest about what you don’t know. Their research will help you validate your beliefs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Software startup offering a Platform as a Service for enterprises and system integrators to design, deploy, and manage edge computing infrastructures.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

We worked closely with the Head of Product, CTO, and subject matter experts at Pratexo to map the user experience and design the user interface for their new Edge Computing, Cloud Platform as a Service. The final deliverables included development-ready assets, design specifications, and scalable information architecture.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Recommendation by Bill Scott, a member of our Board of Advisors.

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

• Align & UX framework:
  • Prep Strategy & Alignment workshop
• Facilitate Strategy & Alignment workshop:
  • Customer Journey Map
  • User Roles
  • Storyline for Vision Deo Prioritize key scenarios for Configuration Draft the overarching IA for the platform (mid January) and start capturing requirements for the configuration scenarios
• Design & Validate:
  • Create wireframes for the top 3 configuration scenarios
  • Add deployment to configuration scenario
  • Test wireframes with 5-6 system Integrators, possibly test the vision demo storyline too Update wireframes based on feedback
  • Create high fidelity designs for unique screen types (subset of all wireframes) in a single form factor
  • Create designs and interaction specifications for Design Studio (palette/canvas pattern)
• Vision Demo:
  • Prep the storyboards and a few high fidelity screens to crisply communicate the value proposition of Pratexo for future clients and prospective investors
  • Estimate is based on 5-6 high fidelity screens integrated into storyboards
  • Complete and polish the Vision Demo

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

• UX Lead
• UX Researcher
• Director UX Designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The experience was great. We had a very old version of the product to start with and had to redesign the UX from the ground up. We won Edge Computer Startup of the Year at Edge Computing World conference.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was easy. We used the point person as a program manager - they doubled as the UX designer. We had interactions with a UI designer in Europe. Finally we had strategic design time with Theresa herself.

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

The end result is what impressed me the most. They thought out-of-the-box. It was a new market for them but they came up to speed very quickly.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the Director of Product Management and a Distinguished Engineer at IBM running a portfolio of Emerging Solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

We've worked together on two UX research & design projects, the Digital Twin Marketplace and a project for Aviation Innovation. The first project involved UX design and prototyping for the future of the Digital Twin Marketplace, and the Aviation Innovation project entailed assessing business opportunities, strategic alignment, design concepts and validation, product road mapping, detailed design for MVP.

SOLUTION

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

Guidea came highly recommended from past experiences with our VP of Product Management.

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

We've worked together on two UX research & design projects, the Digital Twin Marketplace and a project for Aviation Innovation. The first project involved UX design and prototyping for the future of the Digital Twin Marketplace, and the Aviation Innovation project entailed assessing business opportunities, strategic alignment, design concepts and validation, product road mapping, detailed design for MVP.

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

On a day to day basis we worked actively with two people from Guidea who were dedicated to our projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For the Digital Twin Exchange we launched the product in a record breaking amount of time. We onboarded partners and had active engagement creating a solution in a space in dire need of our solution.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

My experience with Guidea has influenced how I personally approach new product introduction. Their best practices and human centered focus on how users engage with a product is a gold standard. Each meeting expectations were agreed upon and a roadmap shared to align on project deliverables.

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

They are experts in design thinking and taking a step back to truly understand user needs to develop a solution that doesn't just become an artifact, but instead develop a plan of action to bring the idea to life in near term and future iterations.

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

No, wish I could work with them on every project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the head of product management for Stem, a renewable energy company. It’s a startup in Silicon Valley that focuses on AI-powered energy storage solutions for distributed energy systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

We were looking for design solutions for single and multi-use smart energy storage customers, including enhanced data visualization and product value propositions. We wanted to make it easier for our customers to understand their energy usage and how they could get the most out of their energy storage system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Guidea worked on UX/UI design. They did user research to understand our customers’ challenges and redesigned the overall product dashboard based on the best way to display the information for non-technical users. Our dashboard was a bit technical, so they proposed a few designs to implement to make it easier to understand the data.

What is the team composition?

We had a total of 3–4 people. We mainly worked with the creative director, but there were other 2–3 designers helping us with sketches and designs.

How did you come to work with Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

I had collaborated with Theresa (CEO) before at another company. When I moved to Silicon Valley and started working at Stem, I already knew their talent and had a relationship with them. Since I needed somebody I could trust, I brought Guidea along to help me with this new challenge.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March–June 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They delivered on time and budget what we asked for, and they were really flexible with what we were looking to do. From that perspective, it was a successful project.

How did Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company perform from a project management standpoint?

They did great. A lot of UX engagements can be a little on the creative side, so you don’t know what you’ll get, or it’ll get dragged. However, Guidea was excellent at the project management side. We set timelines to connect, and some of their designers worked on-site with us.

We usually communicated via email and phone. Also, 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were really experienced, and the team understood what business outcome we were trying to get. Also, they had senior and skilled people that helped us figure out our goal, and then they created designs that achieved that outcome. Some other companies have more artistic rendition than an objective perspective. However, Guidea was great at backing up our strategy with their design skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. On the contrary, our team could’ve made things differently to make the project even more successful. Guidea did a great job and delivered what we asked.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re looking for somebody to help you clarify and support your business strategy through design, Guide is an excellent option. Just have a clear understanding of what you want to accomplish. They can run the engagement with their expertise if you give them those directions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of product management technical for MasterCard. We’re a financial institution, and we primarily focus on processing credit card transactions and fraud detection. A lot of our products are on AI modeling and other ecosystems that complete the fraud detection.

My role mainly focuses on product management and product ownership of the features for the backlog. My team is also composed of UX and UI designers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

We had two in-house UI/UX designers, but we’ve tried to grow the team in the past few years. We contacted Guidea to help us kickstart some projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Guidea helped us with Brighterion. We had quite a few different products within the company, and our target customers were financial institution merchant consumers around the world. They provided the fraud detection solution for data scientists, and we had a prime financial investigator in between.

When I started working with them, they were working on UI and UX. Guidea has focused on developing and redesigning a few of our products and applications. We have a machine learning workbench and a case management tool, and they’ve helped us maintain the system and kickstart the redesign of those products.

They’ve been engaged in our entire design exploration cycle. They’ve mainly done stakeholder interviews and come up with detailed UI/UX design or mock-ups, as well as the specifications for the development team. Their team collaborates very closely with us, and it’s like they are part of our team.

We share the mock-ups using InVision, our main tool. They also maintain our design language system, which is Sketch.

Additionally, Guidea has designed the styling and some of the guidelines. Mastercard has some, but they don’t have everything we need because we’re a B2B company, so we have a different customer focus. They’ve made a lot of the styling, icons, branding, and UX patterns.

Before they come up with a design, they help us with usability studies, UX strategies, and so on. We don’t have a UX team in-house, so they basically help us kickstart those initiatives. We’re currently ramping up hiring an internal team.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked closely with Jes R. (Director of UX Strategy & Design), Jes A. (Principal UX Designer), and Khati (Principal UX Designer) in the last two years.

How did you come to work with Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

They were helping us with Brighterion, which Mastercard acquired in 2017, but I don’t know many details. The people who started the initiative with Guidea have already left the company, so I don’t have insight into the onboarding process. I heard it was a referral.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Guidea started before I joined, back in 2018. A lot of the work began in June 2019, and we’re still working with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve always gone above and beyond. We work closely with them, and we’re really happy. My team basically considers Guidea as our team. They’re very knowledgeable in their field and are experts in usability and UX areas, information architecture, research, and wireframing. They’re top-notch.

Moreover, they’re very receptive to feedback. If we have internal reviews, they’re open to ideas, changes, or updates to the design or wireframes. Guidea also is flexible in terms of pivoting to different priorities. Our product backlog changes at times based on customer needs; they can jump on it and produce the delivery quickly.

Overall, we’re very happy with their work over the last few years, which is why we keep renewing the contract.

How did Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great at managing the UX side of things and chasing us. We work very collaboratively and have multiple meetings with them every week. They’re the whole package, and the team is top-notch at providing UX/UI consultation services.

We use email, Zoom, and Teams to communicate. It has all been remote, and there haven’t been any problems at all. My team is on the West Coast, and they’re flexible with that as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The expertise that they provide is outstanding. We lack UX/UI knowledge, but we can always go to them and ask for suggestions on the pattern, meetings, or information for the prototype or wireframe.

Moreover, we can rely on them, and we trust Guidea to provide us with their best knowledge, which is the most valuable thing for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

So far, it’s all good. I don’t have anything I can think of. We rely on their expertise, and we haven’t had any negative experiences or things that we’d wish to change. Working with them has been a great experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communication is vital. Guidea needs to understand the business problem and customer’s needs to provide an innovative solution.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of Neopenda. We make medical devices for emerging markets. Our first product is a wearable vital signs monitor that was originally designed for neonates, but due to COVID-19, we adapted it for use in adults as well.    

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

There were two different areas that we focused on with Guidea last year. Our products are primarily used in hospital settings. However, during COVID-19 adaptation, we started to observe remote patient monitoring becoming more relevant. Therefore, we wanted to work with Guidea to develop a remote patient monitoring application that users can use from home instead of in a hospital.

The other piece of the project was to validate our human factors and summative evaluation and help us conduct testing in our target markets, which are primarily in Africa.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Guidea provided us with a mock-up of the app that we used to start the development phase. For this, they did formative usability testing by collecting feedback from 10–15 users. They did an iteration of the app and provided feedback based on their findings. Additionally, they created a packaging prototype because these products were packaged in a different way than the ones delivered to a hospital setting. They came up with a prototype of what the end user might see with a remote patient monitoring device.

As for the wearable vital signs monitor and summative testing, they helped with the generation of the summative test protocol. They also analyzed the data that came out of the summative testing and how to report these findings. Then, they helped us compile the actual report and provided templates. We did most of the writing for this project, but the strategic guidance and documentation was generated by them.

What is the team composition?

There were approximately four people working on the project.

How did you come to work with Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

I’ve known Theresa (Founder & Creative Director) for a couple of years now. I’m not sure how we got connected, but I believe she found Neopanda through some of our media coverage and crowdfunding campaigns.

At the beginning, we reached out to our network to ask if anybody would be willing to support us as we started to evaluate and work on new ways and opportunities to help in the current pandemic. Theresa was very responsive and provided a lot of feedback on the support that they could provide during such a challenging time for everyone.

We’ve known Guidea for quite some time. We’ve interacted with Theresa on an advisory or mentorship basis. When it came to actually implementing the project, we discussed the scope of it, and their experience and expertise aligned with what we were looking for.

How much have you invested with them?

We were in the $10,000–$50,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June–October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A lot of our users emailed me directly afterwards to say how impressed they were with the prototype in the app that we created. We were also excited about the advances we made during the pandemic.

On the summative testing side of the project, it was the culmination of many different documents. We were pleased to receive the CE mark, which is the EU version of FTA clearance, because a big part of getting regulatory clearance is making sure that we’ve done our usability testing and human factors appropriately.

How did Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company perform from a project management standpoint?

Guidea had a tool where they managed who was working on what, but I can’t recall its name. However, we had weekly meetings to discuss updates. They sent us questions in advance to make sure we were prepared for our meeting. Their project management skills were really wonderful, and we always felt very up to date on timelines, end goals, and what they were working on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Guidea did a wonderful job at really listening to what we were looking for. They made sure that whatever they designed was actually applicable and met our needs. We started out blue-sky concepts and just told them that we needed a remote patient monitoring app. However, they took the lead and understood all of the things that we needed to consider and were able to work without much direction, which I really appreciated.

On the summative testing side, I appreciated their patience the most. This was certainly a new concept for us, and they made sure that we understood exactly what went into it so that it created a more repeatable process for the future.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only areas for improvement are really on our side, such as making sure we are clear with deadlines. I don’t necessarily have any areas for improvements on their side, which is weird —  I normally do.

Any advice for potential customers?

I’d say to future clients to be open-minded because Guidea is very creative and has wonderful ideas. Therefore, if you come in too narrow-minded, it will limit their creativity. This wasn’t something we came in, but it was such a huge benefit for us.

Also, be specific with what you want the end deliverable to be. Beyond that, give them the freedom to explore to the extent of their abilities, and they will come back with a lot of creative ideas and feedback for you.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Lead product for Hive Networks, a mission-driven software company with a platform to support learning health networks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

We engaged with Guidea to help us create a UX for our new software platform

What were your goals for this project?

Sustained user engagement. We wanted Guidea to help us better understand the hooks and carrots with our diverse set of users and guide us on front-end design

SOLUTION

How did you select Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

We evaluated 5 firms and chose Guidea due to their familiarity with the digital health space and the enthusiasm and synergy displayed by Theresa and her team.

Describe the project in detail.

Three phases: hooks and carrot research, low-fi designs, hi-fi designs for high-complexity screens. We completed all three phases over the course of a 10 week period.

What was the team composition?

We had a research consultant/project manager for phase 1. Then Theresa led phases 2 and 3 with support of designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are still in-development so no tangible success to share but we were pleased with the design phase with Guidea.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We used basecamp which was a good mechanism for sharing. Out of the gate the project management was a little bumpy but quickly fixed and the rest of the project ran smoothly from a coordination stand point.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Theresa has a very creative mind to go along with her deep knowledge of UX technique.

Are there any areas for improvement?

More organization and communication around tasks/completion dates early in the project would have been helpful. However, this was improved significantly when we brought it up to the team.

Only other area for improvement might be in flexibility with designs - at times we felt the team defended their designs rather than listened to/addressed our input. However this is common in this space and I would say Guidea demonstrated more flexibility than most others I have worked with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company called 2NDNature Software, a centralized digital solution for clean water compliance for state and local government. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

Currently, cities and counties comply with the Clean Water Act in a series of disparate systems and workflows spread across multiple departments. Several people working on data collection, inspections, and management have to consolidate all of that information and provide annual reports to the state regulator manually. 

We’re creating a SaaS product, and we needed Guidea to help with our higher-level UI/UX organization and workflows. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Guidea helps with the centralization of workloads. They help in understanding how a user enters our system, streamlining the onboarding process, and familiarizing them with clean water accounting, which is the output from the data collected.

Our system does analytics to help Guidea evaluate their program performance. We also plan where green infrastructure and clean water investments would be most useful and have the greatest environmental return. 

Guidea helps with our analytical model to create a singular way to move through the system. They help with sorting users out into different types and how the workflow would be consistent across different modules, ensuring we have a system roadmap. 

What is the team composition?

We do a lot of work with Theresa (Founder & Creative Director). She’s had various designers to help us with specific tasks once we know a particular element of the solution that we want to build out. 

How did you come to work with Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company?

I stumbled across them by chance. Our children go to the same school. When we were at a kid’s birthday party, we started chatting and hit it off. She offered to help us out. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $25,000–$30,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the engagement in October 2018, and it’s ongoing and iterative. We’d launched the product in 2017, and she helped us with the initial scaling for our comprehensive vision and structure in 2019. She and her team are still helping us with various elements, so it’s been a steady collaboration for a couple of years. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Guidea has provided a huge amount of work, which is super helpful for us as an early-stage technology group. We didn’t have any specific KPIs at the beginning of the project. We were lucky to have her and we’d take the support when we needed it. 

They’ve certainly accelerated our scalability from a product perspective. Once we get the basic workflows, we can fill in the details on the technical side. This helped our product go faster. Having an outside expert design and architecture group to help us has taken a lot of burdens off from our end. 

In terms of costs, we’ve gotten 10 times the value of what we’ve spent. 

I don’t have specific metrics, other than that. She’s always there when we need her and helps us stay two steps ahead of the development team as far as new features, functions, and layouts of the various workflows are concerned. I wish we had more resources to give them more work and time. 

How did Guidea - A Theresa Neil Design Company perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great in terms of project management. They lay out a timeline, deliverables, and scope. We typically have a weekly meeting cadence and work through it. While we’re not working directly with Theresa, we’re working with one of her designers. 

Guidea has talented designers that ask questions about requirements and help us lay out the product workflows to address our needs and our customers’ needs. They’re always on time and under budget. They’ve been incredibly gracious with their time helping us. The main methods of communication are email and video calls. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing about Guidea is the understanding of patterns that Theresa has. We’re in a unique space. Nobody’s doing what we’re doing and it’s fairly technical, but she has the ability to understand the patterns in our work and workflows. 

All her people are super personable, talented, and responsive. They’ve taken us as one of their pet projects, which has really helped. They’re incredibly talented and responsive to us regardless of the fact that we’re not paying the big dollars and demanding their time. It’s been great, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with them. I know my staff also enjoy the partnership. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven’t pressed them for improvements. It’s been a gracious relationship, so it’s not like a typical contractor that we have that we’re really pushing to meet our timelines and goals. We don’t have the resources behind the project to demand that output from them. 

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