Modern Tribe

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a digital marketing specialist at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. We are a private liberal arts college.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Modern Tribe?

We brought them on to refresh and redesign the flagship website for the college. There was a rebranding initiative campus-wide, and the website was included in the list of key areas that needed to embrace the new branding.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were using a WordPress platform that utilized a framework that had more than 300 different subsites. We relied on Modern Tribe to examine every aspect of our website from start to finish. Our sides discussed the existing state of our website and exchanged ideas that utilized the current trends of higher education websites. Their team worked closely with our design staff to develop mock-ups of the website, and they scoped the amount of effort necessary to design a best-in-class online experience.

What is the team composition?

We interfaced with a group of 6–8 people, but their entire team size was closer to 10–12.

How did you come to work with Modern Tribe?

We searched for the best local and national design firms that have a proven track record with higher education projects. We found Modern Tribe at the 11th hour because their WordPress calendar solution caught our eye.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement spanned January–October 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our campus and community offered positive feedback on the website and its new design. The design was top-notch and exactly the way we wanted to present our brand.

How did Modern Tribe perform from a project management standpoint?

They are efficient in the way they operate. We’d use iMeet Central to monitor tickets, use Slack to communicate, and use Google Drive to maintain and collaborate on files. We were comfortable with their project management approach.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They bring a level of creative thought and critical thinking to the visual elements. We wanted something that was outside the box of traditional higher education, and they were able to marry the current technologies with the latest design trends for our project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One area we struggled with was the allocation of hours versus having a more clearly defined scope. If we did everything based on hours, we’d burn through them because of the number of people they have assigned to the project. Our alternative would have been to scope out much of the project ourselves. Finding the perfect middle ground was a challenge.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I oversee design and development for a law school website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Modern Tribe?

We had to do a complete redesign of the website, which hadn’t been done for almost 10 years

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After a thorough assessment of the site, we decided to overhaul everything, including the content management system (CMS). We collaborated on a second discovery assessment to construct a wireframe of the website, and then moved on to a full technical buildout.

The website supports 40,000 pages, 300 content editors, and over 60 organizations, so we opted for automation wherever possible. We wanted the site to utilize Modern Tribe’s panel builder technology to facilitate later changes. Modern Tribe did the technical build out and our team completed the content migration from our old site.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of around 10 individuals.

How did you come to work with Modern Tribe?

We sent out an RFP, and after narrowing our search to three companies, Modern Tribe’s technology impressed us the most. Their knowledge of WordPress – the platform we wanted to move to – and positive recommendations from colleagues also influenced our decision.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement started in September 2014 and ended in August 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

General response has been positive, and our editors are pleased with how much easier it is for them to manage and update their content themselves.

How did Modern Tribe perform from a project management standpoint?

They were respectful of our budgetary constraints. Modern Tribe was transparent around the cost and benefit of each feature, and would propose an alternative if something was cost prohibitive.

They adhered to our deadlines and were accessible via Slack and Google hangouts, which avoided any problems inherent to remote work. They really understood what we needed and the problems we were trying to solve.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Modern Tribe accurately understood our technical challenges and how best to approach them. They built a site that was powerful enough to meet our needs and manageable for our small team to maintain.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t see any need for improvement.

Do you have any advice you would give to future customers?

Be open-minded and willing to describe the problems without trying to design the solution yourself. Give them a chance to think it through with you and they’ll come up with creative solutions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the Director of Marketing and Communications at Middlesex School, which is an independent high school for grades 9 through 12 in Massachusetts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Modern Tribe?

Our school website was about 13 years old. Our old site was on Drupal, and making changes was a very cumbersome process. While it had functioned well for us, we wanted to update it and move to a more dynamic and flexible CMS. We decided to go with WordPress, so we were looking for a developer that could migrate our old content and create a more mobile-friendly platform. We liked the look and feel of our old site, so it was largely a refresh rather than a full redesign.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Modern Tribe migrated several years of back content that we had on our old site onto the new WordPress CMS. We started by going back and forth to determine a specific scope of work. We didn’t have the budget for a complete redesign and wanted to maintain a similar layout in building out the new site. They were very flexible in working with us to determine the best ways to allocate our budget to get the most value for our money. After working through the specifics, they set up wireframes and started building the site.

One of their features is something they call the Panel Builder. It allowed them to build large content blocks that could be customized to our needs. They made a panel for our gallery because we wanted to feature more photography. They also put together a news and events panel that we can easily move to different areas around the site. It automatically pulls upcoming events from various sources.

Another important feature they built out was a fully-featured calendar that syncs with our master school schedule. They created it to be intuitive, responsive, and mobile-friendly. Modern Tribe had developed their own custom events calendar widget, which was one of the reasons we chose to work with them in the beginning. We also needed a very clean and organized faculty directory, and they did that well.

Overall, the site is now streamlined and easy to use on both the user end and the administrative end. We have an in-house web technician, and between the two of us, we’re able to make most necessary changes without contacting an outside developer. A few of our other colleagues use the admin end to add new content, and we’re grateful to Modern Tribe for making the layout so intuitive.

What is the team composition?

We were in direct communication with about three people including a lead designer, an account manager, and a project lead that led initial conversations around planning the scope of work. The whole team consisted of 6-10 people that were constantly working and filtering updates through the lead designer.

How did you come to work with Modern Tribe?

I started researching WordPress developers that had worked with schools before and they appeared early on in the search. They had worked with schools with larger and more complex websites, which we were very impressed with. One project similarly involved migrating an outdated site to WordPress, and Modern Tribe was able to complete the project successfully, on time and on budget. That’s exactly what we were looking for, and that’s what we got.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2016, and the new site went live in May 2017. They provided support for about a month after that, but they did such a good job on the initial build that we’ve had very few issues. Every now and then we’ve had general questions. Even though we’re no longer under contract with them, they’re still very responsive and communicative. They’re clearly a team that cares a lot about their projects, and they still give us very good support when we need it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve gotten tremendous, positive feedback on the site’s updated functionality. It’s a simple layout that’s now so much easier to navigate, especially on mobile devices. Parents have been very appreciative of the calendar feature. We tasked Modern Tribe with creating an aesthetic that felt modern and crisp, and they did that in a very elegant way.

They also did a great job of fully understanding our school values and reflecting those values in the design. We’re a school that cares a lot about the community. We wanted to present ourselves transparently, without a lot of unnecessary fireworks. The best compliment I could get was that the website feels very Middlesex, and that’s a huge indicator of success.

How did Modern Tribe perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication was very thorough. We had weekly status calls with the lead designer and also our account manager, and they were constantly updating us on their progress and asking us questions. Beyond that weekly status call, we basically could be in touch with them every day if we needed to be via email or Slack, asking questions. We used a QA testing service throughout the development process, so we were constantly giving them feedback and reporting bugs and things like that. They were great problem solvers and consistently fixed those issues effectively.

We also got regular updates on finances and budgeting, and we were very grateful to have a transparent and clear process with them. Halfway through the project, we determined that a slight increase in scope would be necessary to achieve our goals. They provided foresight that was instrumental in convincing our business team to increase our budget accordingly.

They used an Agile methodology with weekly sprints. The goals for each week were planned out very early on in the process. Because of how the school calendar is set up, we had a small window for development to avoid disrupting donations and fundraising efforts. We had a tight deadline for the launch date, and they worked backwards to create a detailed timeline. They managed to hit every milestone on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They always found innovative solutions to any problem that came up. When they didn’t know how to approach something, they researched it and reliably came back with an answer. They genuinely cared about the project and what it meant for our school. I had complete confidence in them throughout the engagement.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. I had no major complaints.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just try to communicate your values as best you can. Beyond just your goals for the project, explain what you stand for and what your mission is. Modern Tribe is very good at taking the intangible and turning it into design. Take advantage of their ability to listen closely, and communicate with them as often as you can.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of digital strategy at a law school. My team manages web properties as well as site and content migration.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Modern Tribe?

The CMS didn’t have a method to tag articles and pages. As a result, our content was being buried where no one could find it. We lacked in-house resources to modernize our web infrastructure from an outdated CMS into WordPress.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The engagement included three separate projects: updating our news content site, migrating our entire school’s site to WordPress, and creating a site for our school’s major milestone.

The most important consideration for us was to ensure the new sites were fully searchable and mobile friendly. They built three websites from scratch in WordPress to provide a better UX/UI. They used Photoshop to design the wireframes and added a series of dashboards organized by audience and affinity.

For the first two sites, they imported thousands of existing stories, tagged them to taxonomize the content, and curated them on a home page that they built. In total, they transferred 12,000 pages of legacy content across 20 departments, focusing on one department at a time.

They built and populated a third site with content including photo galleries, historical timelines, and an event page. Currently, they are streamlining the backend to bring features from the latest site to the previous two.

What is the team composition?

The lead designer and front-end developer were our main points of contact for a seven-person team. A daily project manager for each site kept track of the deliverables.

How did you come to work with Modern Tribe?

We considered a number of local and distributed WordPress vendors. We didn’t want to play it safe; their innovative development distinguished them from other vendors’ more conventional approach. Their values aligned with our own ambitions to be class leaders in both the online space and in legal education. We were impressed with their previous work and decided to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent just under $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started in August 2013 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback from our peers at other law schools. Our online team speaks at conferences about the work that Modern Tribe has done with us. Sharing our success as leaders in site functionality with other schools has been satisfying.

The launch was the easiest I’ve ever had. The UI made the site accessible for both visitors and contributors. They optimized the performance and usability for the backend, making it easier for the 100 editors in our school to edit and upload content.

They created a streamlined process to build features in an efficient manner. The team collaborated with multiple internal stakeholders; they adapted processes to their respective needs.

How did Modern Tribe perform from a project management standpoint?

Modern Tribe was time-efficient, completing more than 35 month-long sprints over the course of our engagement. They actually completed the project ahead of schedule and under budget. They adopted our agile processes and accommodated the model for themselves.

They were very amenable to working with our team structure. We held daily stand-ups to address the backlog; we also conducted weekly status meetings to train our community about better web practices. In terms of daily communications, we used Slack extensively. Consistently available and responsive, they replied within minutes, which is one of the best things a business owner could hope for.
 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We appreciate their ambitious attitude and collaborative outlook. They’re easy to work with, even under high-pressure situations. They are collegial, responsive, and willing to make necessary changes in real time to accommodate any concerns.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was a period when they could have been more forthcoming with their timeline and deliverables. However, they were quick to address the issue and have continuously improved in this area over the course of our engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As a customer, it’s essential to define the project’s scope and logistics to keep everyone informed. For us, the agile process has given us a great method for dealing with 20 departments with a varying range of technical aptitude. The more clarity the customer has on their goals and capabilities, the easier it is to work with a vendor.