hedgehog lab

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital program manager for a Newcastle City Council, a large local government and we deliver public services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with hedgehog lab?

We had a basic prototype version of a product, but we needed to improve it so it would be more credible when we launched.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, they conducted user research. They went back to square one to understand what our users need. The collected 350 survey responses and provided us with a comprehensive report. They used various pieces of software to analyze and test how users would use the platform.  

Based on that information, they designed a new beta version. The next step was to develop a beta product that met accessibility and security requirements, as well as UK government standards.

What is the team composition?

There were about five people on the team, but I interacted with 2–3 people on a regular basis.

How did you come to work with hedgehog lab?

They were recommended to us, so we invited them to participate in our procurement process. They competed and won the work based on their tender.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent £46,800 (approximately $63,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August and we wrapped up in November 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had a number of show-and-tell sessions and several stakeholders from our organization attended. Our executives provided glowing feedback. They were all very impressed because the new product is a huge improvement compared to the original prototype.

We also did a retrospective, which was like a debrief at the end of the project. We discussed what did and didn’t go well, and overall, we gave them very positive feedback. Very few things went wrong.

How did hedgehog lab perform from a project management standpoint?

They did really well. They communicated exceptionally well during the user research, but that could have been better through the development stage. Overall, they made the project really easy for me. I knew they were doing what we needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were nice people and they knew what they were doing. They were reliable and they came up with a great solution.

I was also really impressed by how they conducted user research. That had a huge impact on the success of our project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I knew that they were busy building the site and writing code, but I would have liked to have more regular progress updates during the development process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Outline communication protocols from the outset. Agree on how you communicate and how often they’ll be in touch. You might want to schedule weekly calls.