Thunk

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of products at Cerebro Solutions where we create software that helps hospitals manage their labor.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Thunk?

We’re working on a new product development with Thunk. We are a startup ourselves, and we’re building sort of the Version 1 of our product, and we don't have any in-house design except for myself. Thunk has been my partner in UX/UI work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a digital presence before Thunk, but we were pre-product. We had done some early prototypes to earn us some initial customers and investment, but we had no real product. When I joined the company three or four months ago, one of my first responsibilities was actually designing the product so that we could build it, so I hired Thunk pretty quickly to help me with that.

The work Thunk did for us can be divided into three components: the first is UX research, the second is UX interaction design, and the third is visual design. Most of the scope of our engagement so far has been on the latter two. This is helping us sketch out the various screens and flows of the product and iterate on those, and then as that became more finalized, we added on to the visual design so that all of the aesthetics were done as well. The bulk of the work has been on those two components, but Thunk also helped us with surveying nurses and putting some of the mockups that we’ve made in front of them to get feedback so that we can use that to iterate on the designs as a part of the UX research.

Thunk’s deliverables are mostly the design files. I think we’re just breaking ground on the actual engineering of the product, so I imagine our work with Thunk will be ongoing as the product continues to develop and go through different iterations, etc. The product’s never done.

How did you come to work with Thunk?

I had a prior relationship with James, who is sort of the principal of Thunk. I had actually hired him to be my director of design at a prior employer. I then found out that he had left his previous company and had started his own agency. My prior experience in working with him played a huge role in me deciding to hire him with Thunk, and I was confident that he was going to be able to deliver what I needed. I also had talked with a couple of other agencies who probably would have worked out OK as well. But in the end, it was the existing relationship that led me to choose Thunk.

How much have you invested with Thunk?

I would say I invested between $25,000 and $50,000 with Thunk.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with Thunk in March 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our company was part of a startup incubator, and the program culminated in a demo day that was a presentation to a group of industry folks and company investors. Part of the presentation included a number of product mockups, and Thunk did a significant portion of those. It was a successful demo day, and I think the work that they delivered for us played a role in that success. In terms of getting ready for ramping up the product definition for engineering, I think that’s generally happened on the timeline that we wanted. Our intended timeline is a function of the timeliness of the work that Thunk has created for us.

How did Thunk perform from a project management standpoint?

Primarily two people worked on the project, but it was a little elastic and I think four total were involved. My primary point of contact is James, who’s the principal at Thunk. We communicate pretty regularly across all mediums, including email, phone, video calls and in-person meetings, and we communicate nearly every day. In any given week, I think I probably spend 2 to 10 hours with James.

What did you find most impressive about Thunk?

One of the highlights in working with Thunk, especially when I compare them to other design agencies I’ve worked with, is that they seem to have taken a real interest in the problem we’re solving, which is in a relatively esoteric industry, specifically labor-related processes. I think it was necessary for them to have an interest in absorbing that understanding, because it enabled them to create smarter and more thoughtful designs. That resulted in fewer iterations in general, because they could make good decisions along the way, rather than having to constantly review them with me and have me provide direction. Having them internalize the business logic has been great in helping us rapidly get to designs that were suitable for implementation.

Are there any areas Thunk could improve?

I think I’d like to have fewer surprises when it comes to budgets, not that there were ever any big surprises. For example, we get an invoice every couple of weeks, but it might have been nice to get a weekly summary along the lines of, “This is the end of the week. This is how many hours that were worked across all of the different resources assigned to your project.” I think that would be one improvement, and I actually communicated that to James, and he is looking to implement more frequent updates.