Useagility

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing and communications director of Unbound, an international nonprofit sponsorship organization. Our mission is to work with those living in poverty. We work to build one-on-one relationships between sponsors and persons in need to help them overcome their challenges. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Useagility?

They’re helping us with website redesign and web best practices. It had been about six years since we’d redesigned our site, and we knew we wanted to make a number of improvements. 

Our goals as an organization are to increase sponsor and donor conversions on our website, increase user engagement with the content of the site, build a stronger relationship between our sponsors and their sponsored friends that they’re supporting, and improve overall loyalty to Unbound. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had Useagility look at our site from an ease-of-usability perspective, and they gave some recommendations for us that we put into action. We’re currently engaged in an official website redesign project with them.

Initially, they did user research. They engaged with the existing visitors and supporters of our site, but we are obviously also focused on the acquisition of new audiences. They also engaged with potential prospects that we might want to reach out to and invite to be a part of our community through either sponsorship or donation. 

Useagility conducted all of the UX research with these different audiences. They helped us recruit individuals for our focus group sessions, and then they also conducted the sessions with them. They led the user through a discussion on how they were using our site. 

We are now into phase two of the effort. We’re focused on the design of the navigation and the information architecture. Based on the findings from the focus group sessions, internal organizational needs, and their own experience and best practices in web redesign, Useagility is looking at site navigation structure and functionality.

We know there are improvements needed to our checkout experience, and they’re digging deep into that. Also, there is a thoughtful way of going about sharing who the people are that need sponsorship, so that’s another area they’re focused on.

What is the team composition?

We have a project manager on the team who is keeping the project on time and within the scope that we approved; she’s also the director of experience design. She has been central to our efforts since our initial engagement with them when they helped us with best practices. She’s still our main designer on the website redesign project. 

How did you come to work with Useagility?

When I started at Unbound just over a year ago, we were already engaged with them. I’d say the reason why we engaged with them on this larger initiative is that we’d taken a smaller assignment to test it out and hear their recommendations, and they provided several quick wins.

A lot of nonprofits focus on the fourth quarter for their large fundraising efforts — it’s the end-of-year giving season. We had engaged with them prior to that in 2019 to make some quick improvements on the site, such as allowing users to do things more quickly. We were very impressed with the services they had provided, so that engagement led to the larger website redesign engagement with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

For the first engagement, which involved an initial review of the site and best practices, we spent between $15,000–$17,000. We’ve invested around $70,000–$85,000 on the website redesign so far. We haven’t gotten into any development work yet.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from July–October 2019 on improvements to our checkout experience. Then, we engaged with them on the larger website initiative in June 2020, and the project is ongoing.

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

Useagility has been very thorough in the work they’ve done with the UX research. They conducted at least 25 different interviews with a variety of audiences. They did a research synthesis of those findings and provided recommendations on moving forward. 

They presented a 70-page document to our core team, and we had them share it more broadly with key stakeholders and directors at our organization. It guides where we’re taking the website with this redesign. 

How did Useagility perform from a project management standpoint?

I’d rate them very highly on project management. Our project manager is our main point of contact, but they’re a very accessible team; if we have any concerns, we can reach out to the lead designer on the initiative. They have a great way of keeping clients up to date. We get a weekly status report from them about where the project is, as well as a recap of key meetings.

The team also has a thoughtful approach to their work. They recommended the research first, asking who the users are and what they’re saying, and observing the interactions that the user has on the site. Then, they go into the strategy piece of it to understand our goals and whether the user research aligns or doesn’t align. From there, they move into the design stage.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Just like their name says, they do a great job of bringing the users’ perspectives into their recommendations; it’s a user-centric approach that they represent very well in their work. I’ve also been extremely impressed with their team. Useagility has strong expertise in web best practices that we benefit from. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything critical to say about them; they’ve been a great partner to me. I’ve actually compared them to a couple of other vendors that we’re working with, and I feel like there’s a very strong level of trust that we have with their team — we consider them a trusted partner.

I feel very comfortable just reaching out to them directly for their insights, even if it’s not related to our project or not part of their service model. They just have a really good handle on the digital space.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear on what your organizational goals and objectives are. Make sure that you’re clear on everything that your organization is trying to accomplish before going in and working with them.

If you don’t know that yet and need their support getting to that point, identify it early on. I believe we’ve been good with what our goals and objectives are, but I do think we’ve leaned on Useagility to fill us in on best practices and things like that. Be very upfront and organized about what you’re trying to achieve when engaging with them for the first time.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of operations for Nascate. We’re in the healthcare space serving health plans and health systems. A lot of our work is around data science, data analytics, and transforming healthcare. In my role, I oversee our IT, development, and product.

What challenge were you trying to address with Useagility?

We have great technical resources who are very skilled with data analytics. However, we needed to present information to business users as well as needed some help and additional perspective on how to present information to be readily consumed by those users. We brought on Useagility for their skillset and a contract-based engagement.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us with product design as we were building our product and thinking about the intent of it. Useagility provided a UX person and designer who looked at the product with a focus on how to convey and how we present information.

At some point, our marketing team worked with Useagility on website design, but I was not involved in that work.

What is the team composition?

I’ve personally worked with three individuals but there are others who jump in as needed.

How did you come to work with Useagility?

I was aware of Useagility through work at a prior company. There was established trust, and I knew what we were getting. What’s more, as a startup, they were a good cultural fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $60,000–$70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in March 2017.

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

Through direct feedback and discussion with clients, potential clients, and our senior management team we were able to see the impact of their ability to interpret and interact with information with the UX professional engaged throughout the development process.

How did Useagility perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a good job of maintaining general communication. We correspond through email, Zoom, and occasional calls. They build wireframes for us and put them on websites that we can then access and review on our own.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We have a tremendous amount of confidence in our primary contact particularly, who is very adept at both UX and data analytics. Useagility has been very flexible in the contracting arrangement for us to align with our stage of development and needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing that comes to mind. We have a good working relationship.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have clarity on what you’re trying to achieve. Work with them on some standards that you can agree upon, that was helpful for us.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of product management at a financial payment collection solutions company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Useagility?

We needed help redesigning the UX for a product we were having issues with.

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of our products was struggling with adoption because of the frustrations from some of our clients. Useagility helped us redesign a piece of its UX based on feedback they received through research, user interviews, and talking to stakeholders. They also tested prototypes with users as well.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people.

How did you come to work with Useagility?

They were referred to us by an associate who had worked with them before. We spoke with them and one other consultancy. Useagility’s combination of experience, pricing, and expertise in the areas we were looking for had the right mix for us. We felt that was the best route to go, overall. We used them for a small project initially and since then we’ve worked on another 4–5 projects overall.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000–$100,000 over our work together. We also have them on retainer.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2019, and our work is ongoing.

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

Since the completion of that project, we implemented the UX into the product and the results were overwhelmingly successful. We were getting a 30% customer complaint rate on this product before we implemented the changes, and now that rate is essentially nonexistent.  

The qualitative feedback was fantastic and our adoption rates picked up immediately. They continue to deliver above expectations.

How did Useagility perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. The team is very transparent and they work with us to meet our goal timelines. They’re also very honest and will tell us what’s unrealistic.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Since we started working together, there hasn’t been a single time that they delivered outside of our timeline.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. Whenever I’ve asked them to change their process or speed things up, they always have been able to accommodate our request. They’re willing to work creatively and find a way to deliver an appropriate level of value on a timeline that works.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to keep in good communication. Make sure you loop them into your proposals and keep them abreast of any internal changes. If you do, they’ll synthesize that information and bake it into what they’re developing for you.