Sharpen

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Executive Vice President, Connected Experiences of Laughlin Constable

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a 360 advertising agency serving nationwide and global businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sharpen to accomplish?

• UX design work for a website redesign for one of our key clients

SOLUTION

How did you find Sharpen?

Prior working relationship

Why did you select Sharpen over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned
• High quality deliverables

How many teammates from Sharpen were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Sharpen created wireframes and components for 3 total sprints of an enterprise-level website design. The design was for a european audience, based and elevated from an existing design already available for US markets.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sharpen created 8 total UX templates across 3 design sprints. The client teams were very satisfied with the work and the Sharpen team found a smart balance between preserving existing functionalities/design elements and pushing the work into new territory.

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

Yes. JD and Michelle were very responsive and delivered everything we requested within the project timelines.

What was your primary form of communication with Sharpen?

Virtual Meeting

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

I was very impressed with the level of detailed thought and best-practices recommendations the Sharpen team put into all of the work they shared with us. We didn't adopt every one of their recommendations to share with the client, but most of them we did and we appreciated the attention to making the best user recommendations they could.

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

The only slight area of improvement I would mention is that the Sharpen team did go a bit over budget due to some mixed and competing project priorities near the end of our timeline. We were able to find a satisfactory resolution to the budget issue.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Client Engagement Lead of Block + Tackle

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Marketing analytics and strategy solutions

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Sharpen to accomplish?

• Creative redesign
• Copy writing

SOLUTION

How did you find Sharpen?

JD has done previous work for us

Why did you select Sharpen over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned
• Previous work

How many teammates from Sharpen were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Block+Tackle will partner with Marriott Stakeholders to update the existing Cobrand Pitch Deck and Process Playbook with a consistent visual appeal and tone-of-voice. B+T will be considering both Internal (Marriott) vs external (bank) views of the Playbook materials, ongoing edits to the materials, visual anchors such as iconography and color coding to tie sections together, as well as the need to create a visual representation of the high-level process and tie sections back to that process visual. 

We will also emphasize the bank relationship and create framing for alternate financial products.​ ​ As part of this project B+T will design and produce two sales support decks:​ ​ Pitch deck​ An overview sales deck speaking to executives and decision makers about the opportunity and ROI for co-branded credit cards.​ ​ Playbook deck​ A highly-detailed procedural deck that outlines the many steps and requirements necessary to facilitate these financial products ​

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Successful Pitch Deck and successful Playbook deck

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

Deliverables were completed in a timely manner and very well thought through. They created a change log to track changes being made. They responded timely.

What was your primary form of communication with Sharpen?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We work very well together and our personalities work well. We worked as a team rather than client/vendor.

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

It was a difficult project to work on due to the client, but we worked together as a team and did everything possible to get through the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a former manager at a telecommunications company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sharpen?

We needed a tool for our frontline employees to better understand customers' feedback and end-to-end journey. The goal was to improve the customer experience.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sharpen designed and developed a data visualization platform for operational and consumer feedback data. We gave them our brand guidelines and an idea of the data and how it would be useful to understand it. The team interviewed several potential users and leaders within our company. 

From there, they created a dashboard that structured the information to make it easy to read and understand. The dashboard also combined all data into one view. They built the tool as a web application. Sharpen used a variety of design tools, including Adobe Illustrator. 

What is the team composition?

They assigned three client-facing teammates to our project, though I’m unsure how many people worked behind the scenes. 

How did you come to work with Sharpen?

We found them through mutual connections because they’d had previous projects with people on our team. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent just under $2 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2018–January 2019. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sharpen’s work was key to our company winning several awards for customer-centric businesses. The tool got glowing reviews and 80%–90% user adoption within the company’s management. Overall, the product was a big success that’s still living, breathing, and growing today. 

How did Sharpen perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was excellent in delivering work on time and within budget. The team was very responsive to our feedback; they listened very well and always came back with really good recommendations and solutions. We worked in sprints, so we did biweekly in-person meetings and had daily back and forth through Webex Teams and meetings. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Sharpen created very simple solutions to very complex problems. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they needed to improve; we were very pleased. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you provide them with a good understanding of your business objectives and challenges. From there, allow them the freedom to interview and discover where they need to so they can start the project from a good place. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Brand Marketing for Conga, a SaaS company providing predictable income products for companies investing in holistic revenue management solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sharpen?

We hired Sharpen to design our Keynote presentations for the CEO and CPO for our largest yearly event, Connect.

SOLUTION

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

We needed someone who can communicate high level C-suite concepts with intelligent design. It was very important the designs were to brand but also felt new and interesting.

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

We had several presentations that required templated powerpoint designs with layered actions. Sharpen provided multiple template designs and then helped us lay out the content in interesting ways.

There were multiple rounds of edits that required Sharpens attention to detail. It was a difficult task but the end result was impressive.

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

JD Jordan, Designer/Owner

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The CEO was really impressed with the design of the keynote presentations. It doesn't get much better than that.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Sharpen was diligent in maintaining our deadlines despite version control issues and lack of access to our cloud.

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

JD is as much a professional and creative director/designer as he is an intelligent thinker and business owner. He wears all hats well. His level of expertise is hard to find.

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

We have made sure for additional projects that JD is able to access our cloud files so we don't have version control issues. It wasn't his fault, just an IT security issue that we have since resolved.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a former employee of Next Page Events.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MaxMedia?

We needed an experienced design firm to help rebrand our client’s internal sales communication materials. The deliverables were going to be unveiled at a marketing event, so expert-level skills were necessary.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our client hired us to develop the visuals for their yearly marketing redesign. MaxMedia worked directly with myself and the client to discuss the project’s overarching vision. The collaboration process ensured that each party started the engagement with a refined understanding of each other’s goals. We approached the client with three potential looks and made additional adjustments per their feedback. Once the design elements were outlined, MaxMedia starting creating new marketing materials.

From newsletters to general email signatures, MaxMedia redesigned the client’s entire communication suite. That process involved creating new PowerPoint presentations, images, and fonts. They also developed new banners, print materials, pop-up displays, email headers, and visuals.

What is the team composition?

Their co-founder and project manager were our primary points of contact, respectively.

How did you come to work with MaxMedia?

We sent out RFPs to about five different design firms, but MaxMedia​​​​​​​ stood apart from the rest. They have experience communicating with large-scale corporate clients, so it made sense to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first reached out to them in June 2018. The project was delayed several months, but it’s currently ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There are a couple of different metrics we look at with this project, but what was most important to us was getting the approval of our client’s communications team. In addition to our main contact, there’s a team of 12–14 people that we needed to impress. Thanks to MaxMedia’s contributions, we quickly got the reassurance that we were heading in the right direction. That was followed by approval from many of our client’s executive-level employees.

We’ve received both positive feedback and constructive criticism from the sales and marketing teams that use our deliverables to do their jobs. We’d make immediate adjustments if dictated by client feedback. It’s an ever-evolving engagement.

How did MaxMedia perform from a project management standpoint?

They were incredibly involved in our scheduling. Due to communications problems on our end, we had to delay the project for several months. Luckily, MaxMedia was more than willing to adjust their timeline and accommodate our needs. They modified their internal resources in response to the project’s progression and budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re passionate about their work. I appreciate their willingness to look outside themselves and find suitable solutions. The client gave us a lot of stock images to work with that weren’t hitting the message we wanted to put forward. MaxMedia​​​​​​​ fought with the issue for a long time before admitting that the materials didn’t work. That transparency allowed us to come up with an innovative approach. They went above and beyond our expectations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our ability to communicate with each other could be improved. That’s likely a symptom of two small companies trying to serve a giant one by comparison.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Approach MaxMedia​​​​​​​ with a passion-project. They have real creative talent on their staff, so not leveraging that would be a waste of money and time. Come to them open-minded, prepared to be challenged, and willing to take risks.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the director of consumer experience at Moxie, a marketing agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire MaxMedia?

We engaged them to redesign our website’s UX and provide consulting.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to amplify our value proposition in the marketplace and differentiate our team from the competition. Specifically, we wanted to build brand trust and loyalty in a vertical that had seen year-over-year declines in enrollment. An enhanced website would showcase our team’s new direction and take advantage of modern web and marketing platforms.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I worked with JD (Design Director, MaxMedia) at previous agencies. We needed someone who could deliver specific requests and own the workstream with little-to-no oversight. I engaged JD because he had the right experience, maturity, and focus to deliver a superior product.

Describe the project in detail.

MaxMedia redesigned the website with an entirely new feature set and platform. They provided branding services and updated our set of metrics.

What was the team composition?

We worked with JD, who coordinated with multiple offices and agencies in the same corporate network. In total, we worked with account leadership, project management, UX, creative, development, content strategy, brand strategy, and intelligence, and QA resources.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They moved our website into the modern age. The site is not yet launched, but we already have mobile-responsive design and modern web technologies and components in place. Our users expect these advanced features.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

JD owned the project with minimal oversight. He was extremely effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

MaxMedia was committed to the final product and doing the “right thing” for the client. Detail-oriented and communicative, the team handled difficult interactions with diplomatic tact. What’s more, their sound thinking resulted in expert decisions and sophisticated design artifacts.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Scheduling was our only challenge. Occasionally, our clients and internal structure put strict time constraints on our availability. At times, our expectations for short-term deliveries were impractical due to scheduling conflicts with MaxMedia. However, we resolved that issue each time it arose.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a creative producer for Studionow.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MaxMedia?

We had an important PowerPoint deck for a client that needed to be completed in a week. It was a high-level, demanding request, and we needed a creative team to help us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our client and I laid out the PowerPoint slides we wanted, and MaxMedia did design work for us. They took notes and redesigned the slides quickly. The final product was a presentation deck and out-of-home design pitch. They built a deck for the pitch and another for our client to present. The team came up with 3D design layouts, added point-of-sale assets, rebuilt a quick serve retailer into the design space, and did some high-end rendering.

What is the team composition?

I'm not sure how many team members worked for us, but I interacted with both of the owners. They handled my project personally.

How did you come to work with MaxMedia?

They joined our network, and we reached out to them and started working together. We typically don’t do many presentation decks, but we'd worked with them in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $8,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together for about nine days in September 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their work was very high, and the design was beautiful, engaging, and easy to read. Our client was thankful for the decks; the pitch went well and opened new doors for them.

How did MaxMedia perform from a project management standpoint?

They had to balance their time with other work but always delivered what I asked for, even if it meant working late. MaxMedia hit all their timelines and did a good job.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their creativity is unique, and they bring new assets to the table that other vendors don’t. The quality was much better than expected.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve their communication and availability. Sometimes, I needed instant feedback and didn’t always have the time to wait on last-minute deliverables. That’s the only place they could improve; otherwise, they work really well as a team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront about your expectations. Give them exactly what you expect and a solid timeline to stay ahead of schedule.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of a program called Cooking Matters, which is a part of Open Hand Atlanta. We are a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) agency that works with low-income individuals and families on healthy food shopping and cooking.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MaxMedia?

We engaged MaxMedia to come up with creative ideas for videos that we could then shoot and show in different settings where lower income individuals would be able to watch the material.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

MaxMedia helped us make a total of five videos. One is around 10 minutes and was shot in a grocery store while the others are 30-second snapshot videos about a farmer’s market that are shown on the subway system in Atlanta. MaxMedia oversaw the pre­– and postproduction of all the videos, and even rewrote the script for our longer video after we expressed dissatisfaction with it. We really didn’t have any experience with this type of thing, but J+E were great at helping us with storyboarding and dealing with the different personalities on set.

What is the team composition?

We worked with their design director and media director.

How did you come to work with MaxMedia?

They have a long-term partnership with Open Hand, so they came referred from our senior director of development and communications.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with them since February 2017 and have some more video productions coming up.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The short videos that we created ended up being run on our subway system and they have definitely grown awareness of our agency's brand and the farmer’s market. Fruit and vegetable sales at the farmer’s market increased this summer, and I get messages and pictures of our work from people saying how excited they are to see the videos on the subway they're riding.

Additionally, the larger product we shot has been shown to two focus groups and the feedback has been extremely positive. As a result we have received approval to show it at Georgia Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) clinics.

How did MaxMedia perform from a project management standpoint?

Very well. They have stayed on deadline and on budget for us, and they really have been miracle workers at times when we found ourselves up against a tight deadline. They make everything work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Creative and film is not our specialty, nor do we want it to be. It was a very stressful process for us so having a firm like MaxMedia to manage the communications, outcomes, and the expectations in a way that I didn't have to become an expert in the field has been super helpful.

They are very reliable and understand that we're a non-profit with pretty strict expectations as to what the end product should be. They really work with us to meet those expectations and they don’t have an ego when our superiors want something slightly different than what's been proposed. It's just been a pleasant experience and they definitely have saved the day a couple of times on our video shoots. I definitely want to work with them more when I have the chance.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not so far. They are a small agency but I think there's a benefit to that. I actually think it would be sad if they grew to be huge and we were just one of a million clients that get handed off. There's a lot of one on one attention provided by MaxMedia, and I think they're darn near perfect.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Coming in with a project scope, clear expectations, and being as transparent as possible will help them do their best to work and facilitate creating the programming at a faster pace.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at a broadcast media company that provides foundational access services, such as internet, metro ethernet, and voice solutions to business customers. I support the carriers – indirect and wholesale groups – and make sure they have the foundational access they need for different collateral pieces, trade shows, and events.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MaxMedia?

We needed a company to help us create collateral, such as images, icons, and a new map, to show what was on our network and how data transferred across the network. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I usually reach out to them via phone or email to let them know what exactly I need – presentations or artwork for different trade shows – and they deliver it. So far, we've done 10 projects with them.

What is the team composition? 

We work with JD [Jordan, Design Director, MaxMedia] and Ellie [Jordan, Media Director, MaxMedia].

How did you come to work with them?

It was a referral from one of my co-workers who had worked with them. We looked at the collateral that MaxMedia had created for other companies and liked the quality, so we decided to choose them.

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working together in December 2016 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our internal team and our external clients are very pleased with the pictorial and the diagram that MaxMedia has created. They took something that was very technical and made it visually appealing. 

How did they perform from a project management standpoint? 

They're very responsive and never missed a deadline. Exceeding my expectations, they reply to my emails within 2–3 hours (with other vendors, it's 24–48 hours). If I request any changes, they implement them promptly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They think out of the box, creating materials that are better than anything I could think of – even if it's something simple.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, what they're doing is great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Block & Tackle.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MaxMedia?

We wanted to prototype an application we were developing, which is the core of our business model for our co-working space. I’d worked with other development companies on app design and builds before, and my biggest complaint was the speed at which it took to get them to market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

MaxMedia did work for us on a new company that we started called Post-Office Cowork. They helped us refine our business model through user research, as well as through our app’s UX and design.

They have a product called Unicorn Rescue that brings a product from concept to prototype in five days, which intrigued me. We started with user research on the first day, and they worked with us to figure out a target market and then gather a sample of relevant people. They interviewed them about how and where they work, as well as what they were looking for in a co-working space. They delivered a summarized user research analysis at the end of that first day. They organized all of those comments into clusters of similar user needs.

On the second day, we started addressing user needs from a functionality perspective within the app. The next day, they created a high-fidelity design. They sat in front of a screen and designed our app based on all of the user scenarios we’d created in addition to the originally defined functionality. By the next day, we were testing and making live changes to our prototype.

Our board and investors provided feedback and revisions after we showed them our prototype. We were able to engage with MaxMedia again to bring in a second phase of the app’s design. They translated all of that design into a packet for our development team, and then consulted with them to ensure that the design and functionality specs were respected. They were engaged throughout the entire development process.

The app was built for web, but we wanted to make everything scale across mobile and desktop without requiring multiple builds. The app was actually designed for desktop and mobile, but our developer then decided to go in the native app direction, so they ended up becoming iOS and Android apps. After we paid for all of that, we moved back to having it as a desktop app. They used a lot of different tools, including Zeplin and Sketch, which were all really effective.

What is the team composition?

We worked with six people from their team, including a copywriter they’d brought in for us.

How did you come to work with MaxMedia?

I knew JD [Design Director, MaxMedia] when he was at another company. He worked with another company for a while, and we tried to do work with them there, but the principles of that company weren’t great. I checked out his website at that time and saw they were doing Unicorn Rescue, and it happened to coincide with our development cycle.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent $37,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in May 2017, and the work was completed in November 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were able to go from concept to prototype in five days, which speaks for itself. The fact that we were able to use the prototype to secure another round of funding is pretty impressive. We have hundreds of users. When I look at the time we saved, that product is the most valuable and also probably the hardest to quantify the value of.

How did MaxMedia perform from a project management standpoint?

I was highly satisfied. They were on site for five days, and we worked directly with them from 8AM until 5PM. After they left, we could see in Slack that they were still talking about the project and working on it all evening. I really appreciated the visibility of everything. There was nothing hidden from us. We didn’t have to have complex client meetings where they presented formal deliverables. Everything was continuously open and transparent, which was refreshing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to understand their clients is impressive. I felt like they were reading my mind at times. I also really appreciated JD’s meticulous attention to detail during the design and development processes. Their passion made us better. I also really appreciated their humor because it made for a nice working environment.

They also trained the copywriter to write with our brand’s voice in mind, which I didn’t think was possible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re great. It’s tough to search for their stuff sometimes because of the plus sign in their name.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Lean into their process. It’s unique and different, and probably not what a corporate buyer is expecting from an agency. On the first day, I felt frustrated because we were rehashing territory that I thought we’d covered already. I’d been thinking about those questions for two years. However, relaxing into the process validated all of my ideas.

I learned new things, and I got other people’s perspective on things that I’d thought about so much that I couldn’t even see my own blind spots. This is really tough, and although I didn’t enjoy the first day, it was worth it.