Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
The problem there—and this is going to be a bit unique to us—is that we have not deployed the designs as of yet. There are some internal budget constraints and prioritization we need to take care of. It’s a project that we really want to do. If there’s any stat, it’s that we have 100% internal satisfaction with Momentum.
We had probably 15 key stakeholders involved throughout the process. I was leading the effort to do the redesign with Momentum, and then I ultimately sought approval from all 15–16 of those people, which we obtained. Everyone is very happy with what Momentum did. We have not exposed it to clients just yet, but everyone to whom we do show it understands the intents of the design and they approve of it.
How did Momentum perform from a project management standpoint?
It was pretty slick because they had separated out the project manager, the lead designer, and a contract contact. The project manager facilitated all of the logistics; this person would go to meetings and recordings, and take notes. Then the contract person would facilitate at what point we paid for certain phases of the contract. It was pretty smooth, from a project perspective. We’ve spent most of the time talking to the lead designer, which is what you should be doing in this type of engagement. From a project management perspective, it was pretty clean.
What did you find most impressive about Momentum?
My company takes itself pretty seriously—aside from myself, I should say. Then we went to Momentum and their whole demeanor was a bit casual. To be honest, that was a bit off-putting at first. I did get a little bit of concern from my supervisors about how nonchalant Momentum was. But once we got into a design piece, we totally disregarded that impression and we realized that it was very easy to work with them precisely because they were so casual. I thought this is worth mentioning: They are very easy to work with, but their casualness can be somewhat off-putting.
Beyond that, the designer that they had working on our project at the time was fantastic. She intercepted all of our mumblings with concerns about the current design, and then did something about them in the next iteration. I’m struck by how she really consumed all the feedback that we gave her and got back to us very quickly. I was very impressed with the design itself; it was exactly what we were looking for, and exactly what they showcased on our site—that level of quality.
Are there any areas Momentum could improve?
This has probably changed since then, but the initial contracting piece of it could have been improved. We had to go through several different amendments, and it wasn’t the cleanest thing I’ve ever seen, as far as contracts go. Maybe they would be able to improve in that area. Other than that, I enjoyed the fact that either the managing partner or the CEO stepped in a couple times just to say hi and ask how things were going. They truly wanted to be involved after they handed over the files, so we felt like they were our partner.
The client is still implementing the design, but is satisfied with Momentum's organized project management. Momentum maintained meticulous billing practices and remained within budget.