OAK THEORY

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer of

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a membership association for Black and African American professionals in insurance and risk management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire OAK THEORY to accomplish?

• Create a new visual identity and accompanying assets

SOLUTION

How did you find OAK THEORY?

Online Search

Why did you select OAK THEORY over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from OAK THEORY were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Create a visual identity and branding for the national office and each chapter. Key deliverables:

• assessment of current brand and emotional resonance 
• logo design 
• brand colors and typography
• national and chapter logos 
• style guide 
• design validation testing 
• brand assets

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• 95%+ chapter adoption of the new brand 
• Utilization of the assets 
• 100% national board approval of the new design

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The Oak Theory team was wonderful to work with on this project. In the beginning, they recommended assigning a dedicated project manager on our side to manage timelines and deliverables with their dedicated project manager and that proved to be wonderful!

What was your primary form of communication with OAK THEORY?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We loved OT’s approach. Our feedback and feedback from key stakeholders in our association we’re carefully considered and intentionally integrated at every stage.

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

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Business Development & Partnerships of Lynx

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Operated the an embedded fintech platform for healthcare use cases.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire OAK THEORY to accomplish?

• Put together a beautiful RFP executive summary
• Help us tell the story of our company visually

SOLUTION

How did you find OAK THEORY?

Referral

Why did you select OAK THEORY over others?

• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from OAK THEORY were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Design a 20-slide executive summary presentation that accompanied RFP responses for a prospect.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

CEO's positive impression of the output (and RFP outcome (still outstanding).

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes! Oak Theory delivered all items on time and was proactive about communicating activities and timelines. Slack communication during the product was a big help in keeping the project on track and making sure the output was in line with our expectations (which it was!)

What was your primary form of communication with OAK THEORY?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The willingness to jump in. I've worked with Oak Theory before but this request was an unusual one for us. I really appreciated the team's willingness to listen to my needs and figure out a way to meet them.

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

At the onset of the project I would find it helpful if we talked through what isn't included in the scope of work as well as what is included. It should be obvious, but it's always good to overly communicate.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Conscious Tech Senior Lead of Camelback Ventures

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Camelback Ventures invests in historically marginalized social entrepreneurs who are BIPOC, women and nonbinary. In addition, we work with White funders who are ready to critically examine and deepen their and their organization's commitment to racial and gender equity so that they might channel more capital to diverse founders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire OAK THEORY to accomplish?

• Design an online platform for the entrepreneurs who have participated in our Fellowship. We want it to serve as a resource that will support them to grow their social ventures.

SOLUTION

How did you find OAK THEORY?

Referral

Why did you select OAK THEORY over others?

• Company values aligned
• UX and development skills

How many teammates from OAK THEORY were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Platform research: investigated our current platform, conducted a competitive analysis of options on the market + made recommendations based on our needs and the offerings on the market
• User research: developed research plan + conducted research with our fellows, alumni and Camelback staff 
• Design and build: developed a platform based on research findings.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Designed, developed and launched The Stoop.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Oak Theory assigned us a project manager who scheduled our meetings, kept the project moving forward and on schedule, and made sure we completed our actions. Yes, they delivered items on time. Oak Theory also made it very easy for us to connect via Slack, even after the project ended.

What was your primary form of communication with OAK THEORY?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We're impressed by the fact that OAK THEORY reflects the diversity of the founders we serve at Camelback Ventures. Also, the fact that Oak Theory has design and development skills, which is fantastic.

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

I understand that Oak Theory is a design company but highly stylized documents aren't necessary after workshops; Google docs are just fine and are actually much easier to share across teams than InDesign.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and COO of an enterprise SaaS fintech company. We provide data processing and machine learning as a service for financial services in sub-Saharan Africa. Our company serves data to everything from banks to credit bureaus to fintech to lenders so that they can make better lending decisions for their customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OAK THEORY?

We hired them to do repositioning and a soft rebrand of our company. To better our service for our customers and to convert potential customers, we needed to reposition our website and make it very clear what we were selling. Our goal was to use the existing colors and language we had already built and bring that image to life through our website, making our site easier for self-service and our enterprise sales stream.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OAK THEORY has provided us with rebranding and web design services. We started with a workshop to help the team better understand our business and the project's scope. From there, they put together a project plan with workshops and the goals and outcomes of each workshop. Their plan outlined how they would convert our branding into a website design. 

We worked together in week-long sprints on the website's UI/UX design; they used Figma. OAK THEORY has delivered all the design assets to us, and our website is currently in development. 

What is the team composition?

We've worked with Hannah and Veronica (Co-Founders), Amina (Project Manager), and Liz (Account Strategist), who makes sure everything goes to plan and runs our meetings.

How did you come to work with OAK THEORY?

Hannah reached out to us in January 2021, but we weren't ready to speak with them or go through a rebrand yet. When this project came around, we decided to engage OAK THEORY. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent a little over $30,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around June 2022, and our engagement is ongoing because we want to do more work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

OAK THEORY has created a website design that can help us convert more customers and better show off our brand. Despite not having deep market context in what our company does, they've been really good at articulating our service and visually expressing how we're trying to sell and position the product. We don't have any metrics because we haven't launched the website yet. 

How did OAK THEORY perform from a project management standpoint?

They've performed very well from a project management standpoint. We use Slack to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm impressed with OAK THEORY's great communication skills. I also appreciate that they stick to deadlines and work hard to achieve them. Moreover, when they've missed the mark on something, they've had no ego when we communicated that to them. For example, we had two issues within a week, and they addressed them and came back with something much better and more aligned with what we wanted. The team went above and beyond to correct those mistakes, which was really wonderful. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't see much that they need to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have a dedicated project manager. We've used our head of marketing to spearhead the project and ensure that everyone stayed aligned and that there was one-to-one engagement from departmental and company objective perspectives. 

You should also ensure that your project manager has enough influence with the stakeholders to keep the project on a serious schedule and turn things around in the required time. Luckily, we have someone like that in our organization, which is part of why our engagement has gone so well. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Carrington Creative Company. We provide software engineering solutions for startup companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OAK THEORY?

I hired Oak Theory for their branding services. I was looking to build my presence on social media, particularly on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. I wanted to figure out how to appropriately brand myself and build a brand that differentiates me from other people in my field.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

OAK THEORY held two branding workshops, which were primarily just one-on-one conversations between us. The first workshop lasted about an hour and a half and was more of an exploratory session to figure out my entrepreneurial psychology. This included my figuring out my mission statement, how I see myself and the world, the problem I wanted to solve, and why solving it was important to me. A couple of weeks later, the second workshop was focused more on figuring out the brand I am building, my target audience, pricing, and a little bit about the products and services that I offer.

Moreover, their team challenged me to think about other brands and how they were perceived by other people. We went through this one particular part of their workshop where I had to decide on a spectrum of different attributes and where I was on that spectrum as a brand. One of the attributes was whether I was innocent or sophisticated. It was a scale, and I could kind of move the scale on where I was on that spectrum. This helped me realize that I can be very vibrant and colorful, but also sophisticated.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two people from their end — Hannah (Co-Founder) was my main point of contact, and Veronica (Co-Founder) accompanied her during the workshop.

How did you come to work with OAK THEORY?

I met them through an app called Clubhouse.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $1,200.

What is the status of the engagement?

We worked together on this project from October–November 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don't have any key metrics; however, from a non-tangible standpoint, they helped me think through my brand and gain the confidence to be authentic and try different social channels. They also gave me a voice and helped me have the confidence to carry that voice out across various distribution channels.

How did OAK THEORY perform from a project management standpoint?

Every task was delivered promptly. The processing and payments were pretty fast and smooth as well. We communicated through Zoom and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their comprehensiveness was great, and they challenged me to ask myself questions I would never have thought of. Overall, the duo of Hannah and Veronica worked well together — both of them asked the same questions in different ways that resonated with me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

After this project, I felt like I had enough information to start building my brand. However, it would’ve been pretty awesome if they also offered me guidance on the next steps to take.

Any advice for potential customers?

Provide them with constructive feedback so that they are aware of the areas they need to work on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder and CEO of CEED Inc, a digital business ecosystem created to help Black cannabis entrepreneurs launch, scale and grow.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire OAK THEORY?

We are a newly seed-funded digital platform in need of help articulating our company mission and capabilities to various audiences. We initially hired Oak Theory for branding and their wonderful team suggested a landing page to help pull it all together in a visual way.

SOLUTION

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

We found Oak Theory via breef.com after an extensive yet fruitless web search for visionary creative agencies capable of yielding high quality output for disruptive, abstract conceptual companies. We are somewhat of a unicorn in our industry and we knew that from Oak Theory's past projects plus their proposal, they just "got" us.

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

• Intro
• proposal
• acceptance
• kickoff call
• company summary (research and fact-finding)
• rough timeline and deliverables
• biweekly update call
• client project pivot call
• new timeline and deliverables
• final project review call

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

We worked with the founder & lead developer & designer, a project lead and an additional designer; 3 resources total.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Oak Theory team is highly adaptable and very clear on their processes. They knew the right questions to ask to achieve the desired result. Our page has just launched so though we don't currently have metrics to define, we have a beautiful, responsive lead capture page which greatly represents our brand.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Though the original scope of work shifted from our end, the Oak Theory team was able to provide clear, timely insights regarding expectations, deliverabilty and any changes or extensions needed ell beforehand.

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

My team and I loved that the agency is both, Black-(co-)owned and female led. These values were reflected in the clarity of their processes, the pivotability and adaptability of their team as well as their effortless understanding of our culture-forward brand and unique market positioning.

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

Though there were a few delays, mostly due to changes from our end, the Oak Theory team remained consistent & clear, managing new deadlines and updates with grace and understanding.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences is dedicated to improving health and reducing the burden of disease in the world's most vulnerable populations. I am the communications director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire OAK THEORY?

We hired Oak Theory to design the UX/UI of 9 main pages for our website redesign.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I wanted to go with a woman-led, BIPOC-owned person or firm. They were speaking at an online career event that I was invited to attend.

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

Their team set up a project plan and timeline. We started with an extensive brand discovery call, we provided them with content, we had 4 to five rounds of versions for the 9 template designs along with follow-up meetings to provide feedback.

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

Both founders kicked off the process. Then we worked with one of the founders, a project manager and an additional UX designer at any given time. It was great!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The fact that we were able to complete the design process and get started on the web development process in 3 short months was amazing. I transitioned out of the organization so someone else will be leading the implementation of the designs that Oak Theory created for us.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team was extremely communicative and organized.

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

Their expertise was stellar. I love that it's run and operated by mostly women of color!

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

Nope!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

EigenPatterns develops collaborative anomaly detection and pattern recognition systems that blend machine learning and human insight to deliver powerful real-time monitoring capabilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with the vendor?

We are building an application to proactively identify and classify anomalies in large systems such as natural gas pipelines and payment processing, using proprietary algorithms, to provide sufficient time for mitigation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

OAK THEORY helped us design an intuitive workflow and frontend for alert management and pattern classification.

What is the team composition? 

On our side we had a product, analytics, and engineering team. OAK THEORY had a product and design team. 

How did you come to work with the vendor?

We identified multiple vendors gathered from online lists and interviewed them. OAK THEORY seemed like a very smart, talented and motivated team. They seemed to have a solid mix of technical and product skills, and an impressive list of prior clients.

How much have you invested with them?

The value of the contract was around $40,000–$50,000

What is the status of this engagement?

OAK THEORY has completed and delivered the workflows and frontend.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As an outcome of the project, we now have a solid understanding of the key workflows, data, and user actions. We are now building on this by developing the application backend. 

How did the vendor perform from a project management standpoint?

OAK THEORY is very easy to work with. They were flexible with the start date as I secured funding. They helped drive the project forward and had clear timelines, which they were able to meet. OAK THEORY was proactive in understanding the business requirements and we built a roadmap early on.

They mapped the process flows in detail and delivered solid design. They created a detailed plan that accommodated my timeline and delivered on schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The founders seemed to take a personal interest in the project. The team was very motivated and invested time to understand the business need/technology beyond their immediate focus, which I think helped build a superior interface and workflows.

OAK THEORY was easy to work with and the team was very smart and highly motivated. They bring cutting edge tools, an excellent design sense, and good product intuition. And, it was a fun experience to work on the project with OAK THEORY!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Vice President of Product & Operations at a mobile advertising company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire OAK THEORY?

We wanted to reimagine our platform experience for a particular personalization tool we used. With no definitive style guide and the need to build from the ground up, we needed talent that was familiar with the advertising landscape & our personalization technology, as well as the needs of the users we were looking to solve for.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

An internal product manager who had worked with the founders of Oak Theory at a previous company recommended them. Given that their prior experience was exactly what we needed in terms of understanding the landscape and the particular problem we were solving, enlisting their help was a no brainer.

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

The project was to deconstruct a tool we had already had and build it from the ground up. All the while, building a new imagine and brand for the tool. They started with asking to understand what brand image we wanted and began work on the style guide simultaneously.

As we aligned on that general direction, with the expectation that we would refine it along the way, as we iterated on the actual platform, they began remapping the screens of the tool we had into a brand new, user friendly, fresh, and bright user experience. All the while, they worked with the product managers & stakeholders to continue to capture feedback, iterate, and help us with decisions on key UI/UX elements we wouldn't have otherwise known to look at.

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

Initially it was just Hannah & Vee, with Hannah participating as Product/Project manager & Vee as UI/UX designer. As the scope grew, they added two more members to support in capturing requirements & hitting deadlines.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were thrilled with the prototypes they delivered and how intuitive it was. What they shared with us demonstrated a deep understanding of the original tool we had as well as a grand vision on how we can rebuild. The success was demonstrated in the ultimate deliverable, the user experience, the speed at which a user can run through a "build", and how they're able to activate their builds. This product now serves as a launchpad for future iterations of our tool.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Incredible. They dove right in & got onboarded into our Slack. They quickly met the whole team and knew who was working on what part of the project. They consistently reached out whenever more was needed from our side and were involved every step of the way. They also ran numerous feedback sessions with our product team & also demoed how to use their prototypes to our engineers.

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

Aside from being an absolute pleasure to work with, it's impressive how easy they made the entire process. We came in with a very wide open ask - help us redefine our style guide while building a new product. There were many decisions that were to be made along the way and they were one step ahead and more than willing to help us define the project in steps. Their expertise on the ultimate platform we delivered also demonstrated a deep understanding of our technology.

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

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of Growth Blazers, a global community for modern marketers and growth leaders sharing actionable advice and strategies for sustainable growth, business growth, and career growth. We produce multiple virtual and in-person events.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with OAK THEORY?

The biggest challenge that we always have is how to present our brand and to make sure that it's credible and trustworthy. With us being a new player in the field, it's important to have a very professional design. As a result, since I know one of the co-founders of OAK THEORY, I reached out to them to help us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We spent quite a bit of time outlining the core of how we want to be perceived and who we were. We communicated that to their product manager, who also helped us work directly with the creative team. After some time, we received several options and mood boards. Based on what they presented, we chose how our logo would look like and what our main colors would be.

The biggest and most important project that they helped us with was the design of the collateral and the theme design for our entire event series. We went with a special theme that they suggested. They also assisted with a little bit of copy and overall brand positioning. The team continues to support us with our branding needs.

What is the team composition?

We’re in touch with their project manager, product manager, lead designer, and junior designer.

How did you come to work with OAK THEORY?

I knew one of the co-founders of OAK THEORY for many years, not necessarily from a professional standpoint, but I knew she was a good friend of my wife. I also knew that she worked as a designer for Sephora and some other large brands like HBO while working on a different agency. Based on that, I knew that she produced high-quality work. When she formed her own agency, they were the first choice for me.

How much have you invested with them?

The project was around $50,000–$70,000, but we only paid it partially in exchange for sponsorship of our events.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We track the conversion rate on our website and we've noticed that with the new branding and design, the conversion rates on our website have tripled. It was really hard to provide a good representation for a virtual event through a website and through sponsorship, but their designs were so good that we were able to attract really big brands like Salesforce to join us as our sponsor. We also attribute our recent conversations with Facebook and Google to OAK THEORY’s designs.

How did  OAK THEORY perform from a project management standpoint?

We usually have bi-weekly calls, and we use ClickUp to track everything. One person on our team communicates with our assigned project manager. The team uses Figma for the design. Once in a while, we also have review meetings with their lead designer or junior designers.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team's creativity and quality of work are impressive, which allows them to create unique designs. Their lead designer also understands and quickly absorbs what we’re trying to go for. Overall, they’ve done a great job, and we’re very happy with their work.

At a previous company that I worked at, we had a larger operation and I was running a conference with a larger budget. We spent over $100,000 with another agency and there was a month-long process just in creating the brand and doing all of the exercises. However, OAK THEORY’s accomplishments within two weeks represented us better than what the previous agency created — even though we paid much more to that agency.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everything has something to improve. I know that they’re struggling to attract new talent because they have such high standards. Perhaps, they should lower their standards a bit so they can bring in more people and scale faster because in some cases they're unable to take on more work. With our specific scenario, they’re doing pretty well. However, I know every small agency is struggling with that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don't underestimate the fact that they're a small team. They might not have dozens of people executing tasks, but they’re able to accomplish a lot. More importantly, they can deliver work that some enterprise-sized agencies will charge double for.

In addition, don't think that their prices are too high. You should definitely keep in mind that you're paying for the quality of work so don't look at the size of their agency. Instead, look at the talent that you'll be working with. I also know that they do a really good job with software applications, which I believe is their specialty, based on the feedback from other friends that I referred them to.