Parade - Out of Business

Please describe your organization.

I work for Benefit Cosmetics, and we are a global beauty brand owned by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. Our purpose is to provide makeup and instant beauty solutions for anyone to use. Makeup tends to be a really feel-bad space, and our motto is “laughter is the best cosmetic.” We want to make people feel really good because when they are laughing and smiling, that's when they are at their most beautiful. The way we do that is by providing instant beauty solutions that you don't have to be a makeup artist to use. It shouldn't take you more than five minutes to look really good.

What is your position?

I'm the Digital Creative Director within Benefits Beauty Central. I oversee the digital creative that we do for our global market partners through our website and social channels. We're in 44 countries around the world, and we don't do any traditional advertising.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Parade?

In a few months, we’re launching an entirely new product category. Instant beauty is really what we're known for, but what we’re doing with this launch is really extensive. We needed a way to educate the consumer on why and how to use the products. We needed Parade to make it incredibly simple and easy to go through the experience.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We already have an existing website, but we needed to re-imagine a section of the site in order to bring this launch to life. Parade did a lot of competitive research, conducted user studies, and did a deep dive into our site. They did a lot of UX [user experience] exploration to help us determine the right mix of content and which content we wanted to highlight. One other thing that was valuable was their informal rapid testing that provided a lot of good insight. They were able to pivot on that information as it came in and course correct when necessary. It was a pretty tight timeline, but we were able to integrate the results of the user testing to create a great end-result.

How did you come to work with Parade?

We were looking around for a UX partner that was small enough to slot into our team rather than us having to augment the whole project. A lot of the big agencies that we looked at were more than we needed. Parade was recommended to me, and after a couple of calls and meetings with them we brought them on. We could tell that their level of experience, professionalism, and approach was going to sync with our project.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The engagement was in the range of $50,000 to $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Parade for the UX design sprints and then handed off the development to our own team. We have a couple of projects that are brewing on the horizon that we hope to re-engage with them for.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We won’t be launching the category for another month or so, but the general feedback within the company has been very positive. We haven’t retested it yet, but our CEO is happy.

How did Parade perform from a project management standpoint?

Good. Everything was on time, and they delivered to our expectations. They were good collaborators and partners and helped us source and brief the development team that we are working with. It all went very well.

What distinguishes Parade from other providers?

Parade is very small and nimble, which is what we needed. We got exactly what we needed and what we were paying for. The Parade team is small and highly collaborative. It was very easy to communicate with them and the whole process was very fluid.

Is there anything Parade could have improved or done differently?

No, there’s nothing that I can think of.

Please describe your organization.

My organization is a software company focused on the tax preparation industry company. We have developed a mobile application that connects taxpayers to a network of vetted tax preparers. We enable clients to get their tax returns prepared entirely on a mobile device.

What is your position?

My role is Founder and Chairman.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Parade?

We were trying to translate our business thesis into a coherent, elegant, beautiful, simplistic mobile user experience, which was no small challenge.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We came to Parade with a design and user interface that had been built by software developers. The design was relatively rudimentary, so Parade imagined themselves through the user journey and crafted a plausible and coherent user experience.

How did you come to work with Parade?

We were connected to a UX [user experience] expert – a trusted source – who was unable to take on our engagement, but had worked with Parade before and had tremendous regard for them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The final cost was $50,000 to $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I would call the project substantially complete.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We have business metrics that are only remotely related to the UX work. In other words, Parade's process was not a metrics-driven process, but rather a strategy-driven process. Measured in those terms, Parade effectuated and advanced our strategic goals admirably.

How did Parade perform from a project management standpoint?

They exceeded expectations on the project management front. One of Parade's strengths is the rigor around their process. They were great at scheduling, delivering on time and doing what they said they would do.

What distinguishes Parade from other providers?

A few things. One is the intelligence they bring to a project, the second is the nature of the team. Each member of the Parade team has a discrete skill set that complements the other members. Although it's not a large company, they have all of the key traits to result in good UI [user interface] design. There is an acute and attuned eye for beauty and minimalism, conjoined with a command of real-world business imperatives.

Is there anything Parade could have improved or done differently?

I would be hard pressed to identify anything.