What was the scope of their involvement?
The entire lifecycle of a project includes the planning, high-level design, detail of the design, development, implementation, and rollout. Think Company was really involved in the high-level design. They took the legacy application, did their analysis, and came up with personas, which was a deliverable for which we were designing the tool. They completed all the research and created a high-level design of what the new application was going to look like. This included new information architecture, some of the new visual design elements, 10 unique screens, and all the different interactions of those screens. It was a collaborative effort for long stretches of time. We collaborated, they got feedback from us, and then they’d go back to the drawing board.
For deliverables, they sent the personas, the requirements for the personas, the actual interaction design, the visual design, and the story requirements for the interaction design. They were not involved in the implementation of the design at all. This solution is a white-label product, and around 80 customers use it. It is the same core product that visually looks different for each customer.
What is the team dynamic?
We worked with 5 members of their team, including a project manager, relationship manager, lead designer, and junior designer, and visual designer. Throughout the project, it was clear who was working on which aspect and responsible for each deliverable.
How did you come to work with Think Company?
My superior had an indirect relationship with Think Company via his spouse and already had some familiarity with the type of work they do. After personally researching them online, I reached out to them, and the onboarding process was pretty easy from there.
I did research other firms at the time, and I chose Think Company mostly because of their vicinity, as I knew we would be able to get people on-site, and their cost was reasonable compared to their primary competitors.
How much have you invested in them?
We spent around $200,000 with Think Company.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in December 2016, and the final deliverables came at the end of April 2017.
Think Company is proactive and dedicated, maintaining regular communication and accommodating to changing needs. Their designers do amazing work, and the products have resulted in less work and quicker turnaround times.