Kin + Carta

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the technology manager for a school communications company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We had a Flash-based application, and nobody at the company was aware that Flash was going away. We needed to get our UI fixed, and we had December 31st as our deadline.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the beginning, Spire Digital helped us create a website. Then, they worked on UI designs, and we decided to go with them to build our entire UI. They came up with the design portion.

The app was a UI software to communicate emergency responders with district personnel in Colorado. It used Node, Express, React, and PostgreSQL as the stack.

What is the team composition?

They were acquired two months into the project, so we worked with 20–25 people from their organization, ranging from VP to frontend developers, web designers, and project managers.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

The company had already started talking with Spire Digital and building the website before I was brought in, so I’m not sure 100% how that process went. However, when it came down to selecting a company to build the application software, I used Clutch as part of my presentation to make sure my president and VP understood the rundown of each company.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $257,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the project in May 2020. We were aiming to finish it by November 2020, but we technically never finished.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

They were supposed to help us move from a Flash-based THP stack to a modern, mobile-compatible stack. However, the solution didn’t work, and we aren’t satisfied. 

How did Spire Digital address the challenges that arose?

From a customer satisfaction standpoint, their ability to solve problems was zero. It was beyond frustrating.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

The app doesn’t work. It can’t support multiple users logging in at the same time, and I don’t mean 100 users; I mean four or six. It’s a huge flaw, and multiple developers have confirmed to us that the app is broken.

Spire Digital’s answer was to tell us that we could pay almost the same amount we already paid to fix it or go to other firms because they didn’t have availability.

How was project management handled?

Before the acquisition, it was actually great. From what we saw previously, I’d like to think that they would’ve been on the ball to help us fix it.

With the acquisition, we had three different project managers. They’d come through, and then we’d have someone new on the meeting saying they’d take over. We lost our lead developer and engineer because the acquisition made them unhappy enough to leave.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

The designs, UI, and wireframes were beautiful. They looked great.

In what specific areas can they improve?

Out of the three projects, two of them had issues post-deployment. Therefore, they absolutely need a new QA team to ensure the solution will be helpful.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

Research well. We looked at some companies that were used to dealing with corporate business, so they didn’t know how to work with a small company.

Company Responses

The vendor responded on November 18, 2021. 

First off, we love this company and its mission. Second, we’re surprised by this review.

As noted, this project ended in 2020. The client then came back over a year later in September 2021 to let us know of a problem they encountered. Despite the amount of time that had transpired, we made it a priority to provide support. We invested time in hands-on troubleshooting at our cost, but could not recreate the problem in the test environments provided to us.

Unfortunately, the client could not enable our access to their production environment or on-premise deployments to continue troubleshooting. These deployments differ by district and include key variables outside our control. Each district, for instance, has its own server, which may well be outdated/underpowered. Likewise, we didn’t have access to the radio towers that are a key component of these deployments, so our team instead tested on 400 simulated radio towers. 

As a next step, we offered to execute an hourly agreement for a yet-to-be solidified scope of work, as it’d be contingent on a more complete diagnosis (looking at the whole system, not just the app we built). We didn’t have immediate availability based on the skill set needed, so we provided a list of other firms that could potentially help sooner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of business development for Raven Health. We’re a healthcare tech data company that’s focused on improving the interaction between healthcare providers and patients.

We’re going to release an app for the applied behavioral analysis field to help clinicians acquire rapid data using a tablet.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We needed a full-stack team to help develop and design the UI/UX of our mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire Digital’s involvement can be broken down into four steps. The first step was the introductions to the team and stakeholders, the second step was the discovery, third was MVP development and design, and the last step was the delivery of the product.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

We found them through Clutch and we started working with them because their team dynamics connected with our values as a company.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March–October 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of our challenges was conceptualizing and developing an app that didn’t really exist in the marketplace, but Spire Digital was able to succeed in bringing our vision to life. They created a responsive mobile-focused app that implemented their tech-driven knowledge and innovative design.

They were just really receptive to our needs and we appreciate all their efforts in meeting our requirements. This partnership helped us understand what our next steps should be as a company moving forward.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They were exceptional from a project management standpoint — they did really well in sticking to the timelines and budget. We mainly used Zoom to communicate and Miro for the intensive discovery work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were really impressed with their talented and personable team. They delivered high-quality work and they had well-rounded project management skills — it’s hard to find someone who’s as professional and creative as the Spire Digital team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had a really good working relationship so there’s nothing they could’ve done better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Candidly, I would highly recommend them. They’re a great team, they will care about your industry, and they will work with you to build a solid partnership.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Fulfilld, an enterprise software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We’re a startup needed an expert to help us with the initial UX design for our web and mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We leveraged Spire Digital in a multitude of ways. They designed the screens for our web and mobile apps. From there, they created the frontend UX design schematic, and built out the designs in Figma. That provided the foundation for the development. After that, they also developed a started website for us.

What is the team composition?

Spire Digital had a team of seven people, more or less, including project management, designers, and developers.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

They’re well-known in our area and have a great reputation. They do great work. Additionally, we’ve worked with them in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Spire Digital from August–October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Spire Digital delivered high-quality work on budget and on time. I’d use them again in a heartbeat.

Their engagement, professionalism, rigor, and transparency were all top-notch. Spire Digital created the foundation for the product we’re now developing. None of their work needs to be redone. I recommend them to everyone.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Their management was great. They used Jira to track the project from start to finish.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They felt like an extension of our team, and they were mindful of our budget. They treated the money as if it was their own. We completely trusted them, and we never felt overcharged.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If they’re looking for a high-quality and transparent team within the space, I’d highly recommend Spire Digital. They have expertise in specific disciplines and industries, but that’s not a requirement for them to do great work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CCO of USA Swimming, a 400,000 member organization. We’re the premier organization for the sport of swimming in the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We had an existing public website that was used primarily by the members of our organization, and it needed a complete overhaul in UX. The navigability and design were poor — it didn’t look or feel good at all. Thus, we looked for help to redesign and reskin our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire Digital created the new look and feel of our website, including a redesign of our UI/UX, which helped us align the site to our brand standards. We provided them with all of the content, and they did the complete redesign and layout of our site.

For the new site, we needed an improved navigation experience. We needed it to be laid out in a much more user-friendly way, so our members and visitors could find resources much easier.

We have a heavily resourced site, and, usually, people interested in the sport come in to find up-to-date data about it. The navigation experience to find that data was critically important for us. This enhancement included a much better top menu navigation and page scrolling, so it would be easier to find things from multiple points within the site.

They also worked on the responsiveness of the site. We need it to be more responsive than before to new and dynamic content, including videos on-demand, so people could play videos and watch races.

Spire Digital used our existing CMS because all of our content was already on the backend, so they had to integrate it into the new design. For the designs, I believe they used InDesign because that’s the tool our internal team uses.

Throughout the project, they let our technical and creative teams get involved from the initial designs all the way through the final designs and the implementation. Once we launched the site, they stayed for a bit on a consulting role to make sure that the site was working well.

What is the team composition?

We worked with maybe a dozen people from Spire Digital. We had a project manager, as well as designers and developers involved.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

Spire Digital was a personal recommendation. We issued an RFP to quite a few organizations to help us with this project, including them. They responded to the RFP, and we had a meeting where they pitched back at us.

They came to us in person, pitched their thoughts, and showed us what they had done for other companies. Pretty quickly, we knew that they understood our organization and the type of work that we were looking for. We had great working chemistry, so we assigned this project to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around October 2019, and the project was delivered around May 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen a great response to our new site. People are using it more, and there has been an improvement in the attitude towards it.

With our old site, we were getting a lot of negative attitudes and feedback because it wasn’t easy to use. Now, people can navigate and easily find the information that they need — we’re all enjoying the redesigned site.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Spire Digital’s project management was excellent. They were responsive and lovely to work with. They knew what they were talking about at every turn. We communicated mostly via videoconferences.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When doing an RFP process, the goal is to compare various agencies to see which one is the best. Spire Digital certainly distinguished from their competitors in their creativity, which was important to us. They brought something new to the table that we hadn’t seen before.

They were also very adept at the technical aspects, as well as very affable. We could tell from the beginning that they were going to be easy to work with and put us first.

Are there any areas they could improve?

From my perspective, there was nothing Spire Digital could have done differently. If I had seen anything, I would have corrected them on the spot. They were extraordinarily responsive, and they didn’t delay any request.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make yourself available and be vocal about what you want. There’s no particular way to engage with them, they’re easy to work with, and they can drive the process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of DifferentKind, a digital health startup that helps people transform their dental experience.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

Spire Digital developed a web app. They validated our hypotheses and built a prototype.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the beginning of the project, we spent two days working with the Spire Digital team to identify what an MVP would look like and create a story catalog. We explained the problem we were trying to address and they did their own research before outlining a solution and recommending a tech stack.

From there, we went through a design phase where they started mocking up the ideas. Once they did that, they created a clickable prototype on Figma and did some user testing.

What is the team composition?

There were three people working on the project — the director of product delivery, a designer, and Sara (VP of Operations).

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

They were recommended to me by a friend. The president of Spire Digital is also on the board of an organization that I trust. Ultimately, we decided to work with them because they were local to us in Colorado but have expertise from around the globe. We figured it would be helpful to have their perspective.  They provided a small startup experience with the expertise of a global company.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $24,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2021 and we just finished our current scope of work with them in April.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We wanted to create a clickable prototype and we succeeded. On top of that, we were able to see how that prototype was received through their user testing.

We’ve been incredibly happy with their work. They have a team of really experienced and empathetic people.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Things went exactly as we would have hoped. They finished on time and on budget. We were able to define how we wanted to collaborate, so we consistently checked in with them and provided feedback. We were easily able to schedule calls with them and we used Google Docs to track where in the project they were.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They felt like members of our team. They were as committed to the goal as we were and were always willing to do more work if it needed to be done. We wanted a team that believed in what we were doing and could help us reach our goals, and they were perfect for that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We should have had a discussion about the specifics around the deliverables. Until we got a little bit into the project, we didn’t know what the final product would look like. We still ended up with a better product than we expected.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to the process because they have a really good team that can approach problems from a bunch of different angles. When we were able to go with that, we were able to meet our goals. I don’t think we would have designed it the way they did, but we still ended up with a great result.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a cloud technology company. I’m the customer engineering manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kin + Carta?

The project that we worked with Kin + Carta on was for a financial services company. We were building and optimizing their data analytics pipelines.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The customer was running an inefficient program. It wasn’t well optimized and there were a lot of reruns. We developed a pilot program that ran through the same kind of pipeline, but was more efficient. We built an optimized solution from there. 

We used cloud technologies such as Dataproc. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with several data engineers. 

How did you come to work with Kin + Carta?

We’d had prior experience with them in application development. We knew that Kin + Carta was in the process of beefing up their data analytics team, and this came about as a good opportunity to work with them again. We knew we wanted a high touch engagement, and we knew that Kin + Carta was well suited for that. 

How much have you invested with them?

I think we invested about $150,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June–July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we presented the final product to the customer, they were really excited and happy with the results. Kin + Carta worked really hard to come up with the right solution and create the most value for the customer. 

How did Kin + Carta perform from a project management standpoint?

They were really good at keeping us in the loop. There were a few starts and stops because we were waiting for the customer to get back to us. However, we never had delays because of something on Kin + Carta’s side. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their engagement model is much higher touch than other providers. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could work more diligently to make their business more scalable. Growing their team of  high-quality engineers will benefit their business in the future. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about your expectations, but be open to different kinds of solutions. In addition, allow them some space to work independently.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a customer engineering manager for an internet company focusing specifically on retail, quick-service restaurant (QSR), and customer packaged goods (CPG) customers. We’re mostly focused on helping our customers successfully adopt our products. We do a lot of demos, proven concepts, and initial implementation projects. We end up working closely with both our professional services team and our partners to do more of the heavy lifting on the actual implementation side.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kin + Carta?

We had an opportunity at a quick-service restaurant and one of my customers really needed help with a couple of things. They were trying to figure out a better way to engage with their customers digitally and they had been at the forefront of this initially but then had kind of been leapfrogged by a couple of their competitors. 

The company asked us what we could do to help from a digital perspective and we landed on building a voice ordering assistant using our technology. We were very focused on UX for the end customer, how they were engaging with QSR, and whether or not it would be compelling from a business standpoint in terms of repeat customers. We engaged Kin + Carta to help pretty much from end to end and we knew we were going to need additional expertise, especially on the UX side.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kin + Carta focused on the UX side of the work. They brought the brand in line with the company’s goals. The team was more focused on the product instead of just writing code or doing designs. In the beginning, they helped us look at the larger picture of actual deliverables as well as help with the overall conversation design and really got into the details of what an order looks like at a fast-food restaurant.

They also did a lot of heavy lifting on the backend as well in terms of integrations to make sure if someone wanted to order a particular item, it was available at a given store at a given time. They had to get many of us working on all of the integrations between the digital assistant that we were building out and designing and the restaurant’s menu and our system that already existed.

What is the team composition?

There were three key roles that I interfaced with the most including a project manager, a conversational architecture lead design teammate, and an employee support teammate. Behind the scenes, they had about 10 developers.

How did you come to work with Kin + Carta?

I believe I was introduced to them by one of my colleagues because we had used them before on a voice experience project, so we knew they had some experience there. We had a couple of meetings and then after our first flight, it was very apparent that they were really good at this kind of work.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent a little under $2 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2019–February 2020. In the first quarter of this year, they went from being subcontracted to working directly with the client.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They actually gave our company more credibility and the customer expressed their happiness after the first couple of meetings. The actual output was rock solid as well being the delivery quality and the code they wrote.

How did Kin + Carta perform from a project management standpoint?

Kin + Carta was really excellent in the phase of project management. They were really flexible in helping us divide what their teams would look like how to keep the milestones in place when making staffing work. The communication from that standpoint was excellent; there were no surprises, no last-minute fire drills, everything was talked about within a month in advance.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Kin + Carta didn’t just come in and put together some designs, hand over the Adobe files, and walk away. They really forced everyone to take a step back and think if this was going to be enough several months into the future, and if it wasn’t, they would assess what needs to be done to improve. Kin + Carta had the hard skills when it came to building an engaging ordering assistant. There aren’t many partners that I could go out and ask to help with this sort of project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

With this particular customer, I think it would have been beneficial for everyone if they had existing relationships there that they could leverage.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be really transparent with them about what the overall end goals are. The more transparent you can be with them on what your goals are and what you’re trying to accomplish, the more they’re going to be able to kind of tailor their recommendations in their approach.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief digital officer of an insurance company. We’re a corporation focused on retirement annuity and mutual custodial business. My accountability is focused on consumer-centric data and systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kin + Carta?

We engaged with them to focus on design and service-design thinking around our customer experience. Our customers include financial professionals and policyholders.

Kin + Carta came in and facilitated an open dialogue and conversation with our senior leadership team and with core groups that are focused on delivering a high-end experience. After that, we’d wanted them to develop a hypothesis and do rapid prototyping for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a new venture that’s targeted on the direct consumer space that we were looking at. Kin + Carta came in and created jobs to be done in the service design landscape and produced a document with this information; that was one of the deliverables. We iterated over the top of that and then selected areas of impact and truth for the consumer.

Their team developed a hypothesis and then produced high-end — both high-fidelity and low-fidelity — wireframes. They performed usability tests as well as went out and actively recruited target consumers. Those consumers went through the usability test then Kin + Carta pulled the information back and provided feedback on what resonated and what didn’t.

We went through a number of different iterations for that, and they did some research and data work for us. Those all were high-level deliverables on our path, trying to understand the direct consumer line space specifically for carriers.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with a team of 8–12 individuals depending on the phase of the engagement. This includes managers, directors within their space, a core strategist, UI/UX design researchers, project analysts, program analysts, and specialty resources that were focused on technical and business sides.

How did you come to work with Kin + Carta?

It was through an existing relationship. We had an existing executive who had a relationship with one of the account execs. We started an open dialogue with Kin + Carta as well as other companies within the same space. After an RFP process, we were happy with what we found with Kin + Carta's reference points and deliverables.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from July 2019–May 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their work and deliverables were very high end. They were flexible in what we needed, whether it was executive reports or a service design document. Their team was accommodating and worked to make sure what they produced was meaningful for the individuals we were interacting with.

They were thoughtful and a lot of times openly challenged our norm. We requested that Kin + Carta come in and challenge us and our leadership team, and they did an excellent job of doing that.

How did Kin + Carta perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was good. Kin + Carta did a good job of keeping us informed. There were a couple of scenarios that were driven more by us than them. We pivot a lot and change our minds. Sometimes that can be complex but they did as good of a job as they could've. I wouldn’t say it was stellar, but it was average and adequate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Kin + Carta does an effective job of challenging norms. They worked with other financial professionals but also brought in individuals who had different vertical experience. I felt that exposure was great.

Their team was always open about providing us with other opportunities we didn’t look at ourselves but would’ve benefitted us. They understood our business and were great at identifying key problem statements and providing solutions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had scenarios where a couple of individuals were ramped up as a resource, and then they left the company or were deployed to other projects. We lost some focus in that particular case. Overall, having dealt with many partners in this space, I wouldn’t critique them on that. However, keeping individuals focused on specific programs or projects would be a value add for us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have continuous calls with the leadership team. Focus on what your overall objectives and outcomes are, and make sure Kin + Carta is aligned with them. Their leadership team did a good job of understanding our problem statements and focused on what we needed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior IT director of Million Dollar Round Table. We’re a professional association for life insurance agents and financial professionals. We have about 66,000 members and 90% of them are outside of the US. The basic tenet for the organization is sharing sales ideas between agents.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kin + Carta?

Most of our membership is in Asia. We provide a lot of content like training materials, podcasts, videos, and articles. Our membership growth outside the US has been very explosive in the last several years. We recognized the need to customize more of what we do to our members in other cultures and also look at ways to provide that information to our members in those other areas.

A lot of our content is in English but we’re also translating a lot of it. Our members in Asian countries have issues accessing materials. We’re running into issues with managing that volume of information as well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We engaged Kin + Carta to look at our overall technology environment. Our CEO’s vision is to be a digital-technology-driven organization. We know that’s how most of our members want to access our content and other services we provide.

We had Kin + Carta look at our current technology environment and vision. They interviewed nearly 800 members in the Asia region to see what they wanted from us. In turn, we looked at what technology we needed to put in place to address those needs.

They looked at our business model and the services we provide centered on four products: members, events, content, and building community among the organization. Their team looked at how we’re structured both from an organization standpoint and from a staffing standpoint analyzing whether that aligns with our goals of being a digitally enabled organization. They also looked at the market and collected insights on what people in other cultures expect from an online service that provides content.

What is the team composition?

Initially, it was one of the managing principals, a project manager, and a couple of individuals who were involved heavily. Once we got into the meat of the analysis, there were approximately 20 people on the Zoom calls.

How did you come to work with Kin + Carta?

We were looking for organizations that looked at digital technologies. We starting talking with Kin + Carta, and they presented us with a different perspective. Our marketing director was very excited about that viewpoint so we started talking with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement ran from January–August 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were very impressed with the depth of research they did before coming to the meeting. Internal feedback touched on how well Kin + Carta understood our organization in such a short period of time. Everyone was surprised at how quickly they picked up on some of the nuances. The Kin + Carta team was great, they put together a good proposal and story behind why.

How did Kin + Carta perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management went very well. We had weekly meetings, sometimes more, where we went through task status. They stayed on top of everything and highlighted the things that were critical. They kept on track and came in on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

In comparison to other companies we considered, they were much more focused on the IT aspects. They came in and looked at our systems and told us what to replace and what to put in; they looked at the whole organization strategy. Kin + Carta looked well beyond IT consulting and did more business consulting.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind because I’ve been happy with the results and the entire process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear mission and vision established before starting the engagement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing venture capital fund. We invest in food and agriculture companies that are looking to make the food system healthier and more environmentally friendly.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kin + Carta?

We needed help with branding.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a creative exploration and had some virtual workshops. Then, they translated all of our inputs into a few mood board directions. They worked with us to narrow them down. Next, they did some competitive analysis to look at the landscape of venture capital and find a white space in our visual identity that was unique.

They helped us go through a brand refreshment process. It was a very creative-led project. The team redid our whole brand visual identity, from a new logo to modernizing the whole look and feel for our site’s UX. They did everything from image asset selection to actual content development. We owned the writing, but they took care of the visual assets.

They also delivered a new brand book, including colors, imagery direction, revised company overview slide decks with new PowerPoint templates. Finally, they gave us an asset library with photography and things we use across all of our channels.

What is the team composition?

We had a UX designer, a creative director, a developer, and an engagement director.

How did you come to work with Kin + Carta?

We found them through our network. We went through an RFP process and they were one of the leading candidates from that pool. They came on top because I had confidence in really knowing their relatable experience, their culture fit with our team, and they really worked with our budget as well.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve been extremely pleased with the end result. The brand that they built for us is on point for our culture and heritage. It’s also really modern and fresh. We’re thrilled.

How did Kin + Carta perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great at meeting deadlines and managing the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We came in with a certain ask and they performed super well. They really stood out on the creative side. I would certainly recommend them to any company that needs a brand refresh.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, for what we asked they certainly delivered. I haven’t tested them in other areas like analytics and SEO.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to be really clear and transparent about the ask from the beginning.