Brave UX

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CTO and co-founder of Armored Things. We provide a software-only cloud-based crowd intelligence and spatial analytics platform for venues, campuses, and corporate environments that anonymously shows where people are, where they have been, and where they are likely to be.

It’s like traffic in Google Maps or Waze, but showing people, not cars, and with the ability to span the big picture patterns of life to the fine-grained detail of what is happening in smaller spaces like conference rooms and concession stands.

For what projects/services did your company hire Brave UX?

We engaged with Brave UX to help us revisit and redesign the entirety of our analytics application and mobile app. They helped transition a spatial data analytics dashboard into a comprehensive application capable of actionable intelligence and analysis of people, patterns and flows.

After a discovery process, they led the effort to reimagine the information architecture and visual design. Our existing applications demonstrated the power of the data but didn't do a great job connecting that data to the needs and abilities of our users--resulting in lower than desired utilization.

And while we had good user data and feedback, we did not have the expertise on the team to design the capabilities, and we knew the existing features needed a more consistent and integrative user experience.

How did you select this vendor?

We tapped our investor networks and their portfolio companies for recommendations, came up with a short list of several firms: two small firms and one very well-known design firm.

It was in the proposal discussion with the well-known firm that they recommended we really talk to Brave UX (who was not on our original list) as a better fit for our project. Following that surprise recommendation, I met with Lee (CEO and Founder) and was impressed with his approach, team and prior work.

Followed up with a couple of conversations with former startup clients and confirmed not only that Brave UX did outstanding work, but that they were likely to be a good collaboration and cultural fit with our team.

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

Our project started with a five-week discovery phase. This is a key part of the Brave UX process but one we didn't fully appreciate until we had gone through it.

It was during this phase that we learned more about our product than was ever documented and were finally able--with the help of Brave UX--to have a comprehensive view of features and a common language for the elements unique to our platform.

At the end of this process, we understood much of what needed to be designed and why and had a sense of the complexity and effort it would take. The discovery process was also a chance to see how we worked together and the results of that collaboration (there is no obligation to continue into the design phase).

Out of discovery, the Brave UX team proposed a series of ten overlapping sprints across broad feature areas including asset management, activity exploration, context integration, analytics, reporting and alerts.

The ordering was based on dependencies and certain foundational elements we previously learned. At a couple points along the way, we altered the plan when it became obvious that the level of effort in one area was more than we expected or still had a lot of open questions we had to answer.

We also shifted a few sprints around to accommodate our desire to focus on a new feature area that we felt had the potential to be highly differentiating.

Jenna, the project manager on the Brave UX team, always collaborated with us and communicated across both teams to make sure these changes did not lead to budget overruns or missed deadlines.

The flexibility and creative shuffling helped us finish on time and with everything we needed designed complete.

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

There were three dedicated people on our project and two additional designers that worked with us through the majority of sprints:

• Jenna (director of UX and project manager)
• Jessie (lead UX designer)
• Hannah J (UX designer); in addition,
• Hannah B (UX designer) and
• Liv (UX designer) both worked with us during the design phase.

Our regular internal team was drawn from product management, customer success, engineering, architecture and data science.

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

Our data and use cases are complex, and our team is biased towards technology and engineering. But Jenna, Jessie and the other designers were able to take each discussion and a lot of unstructured feedback and give it shape and meaning in a consistently thoughtful design, week to week.

We shared the design progress in feedback sessions with customer success, sales, and marketing. A few months into the engagement, we started previewing sequences and storyboards built from the high-fidelity wireframes with customers and prospects.

The initial reaction was universally positive with specific accolades for the clarity of the graphics and interactions, the consistency of navigation elements across functions, the flexibility with which assets could be managed or defined, and the surfacing and visualization of previously hidden information that helped understand accuracy, coverage and confidence in the data shown.

One of the unexpected--but certainly welcome--benefits of our engagement was a wider appreciation in the product team of what “end-to-end” solutions could be, how the user experience was as much a part of a solution as architecture and design.

A real example was when we were looking at service reliability for some contextual data sources: the engineering required designing for robust availability and failure handling, but after the entire experience considered, a better way of surfacing partial and unavailable data allows us to relax some of the availability handling and complexity--and still provide a better user experience for failures outside our control.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team communicated frequently, stayed on schedule, met every milestone and commitment, kept our team engaged through twice-weekly collaboration and feedback sessions and a shared Slack channel, and were able to flexibly shift things around when we wanted to focus on a different feature area.

The working relationship felt more like working with one of our internal teams and less like working with an external agency. For both the discovery and design phases, they proposed, and we agreed to the schedule, areas of focus, and sprints.

The Brave UX team met with our cross-functional team twice a week for 1.5h each session. Our team would meet informally in between each session to organize our feedback and ideas and share them with the Brave UX team ahead of the next meeting.

We appreciated how materials (Figma designs, PDFs and meeting recordings) were made available right after each session. The meeting recordings were especially helpful and allowed us to share parts of discussions with others on the Armored Things team and helped anyone that might have missed a session.

We made all materials available internally so anyone can see the progress. The team was available and responsive between sessions, often chatting with us through Slack to flesh out open questions, share examples, ideas or exchange feedback.

The channel was open to all of Armored Things, so those that weren't part of the core team could track--and participate in--the discussions.

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

The team showed an attention to detail, relevance and internal consistency that was not strictly necessary for our project--but really made it easier to share the intermediate work with others and start getting feedback earlier.

For example, early on they researched and found a campus that could provide all the types of spaces needed for different tasks and use cases. They used believable names, values and quantities and maintained interrelationships between spaces and values across features and capabilities.

This made feedback and discussions easier, provided continuity as features were expanded or connected, and made showing or explaining the work to others easier.

Brave UX understands what it takes to have a successful project: the importance of the discovery process, an agreed upon plan for organizing feature sprints and delivering results, and high expectations of involvement and feedback from their collaborators.

This last point is important: you must be willing to commit the time, cross-functional capacity, and intellectual energy to the process for Brave UX to perform at their best. This is not an agency engagement where you just review the results monthly.

I was personally grateful to Lee for working with me to find flexibility around the financial timing and terms of our engagement since the discovery and design phases straddled the final stages of our Series A fundraising.

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

No. We sometimes needed more time to gather feedback between our working sessions but realized we couldn’t do that without a longer engagement. The Brave UX team always worked with our feedback whether it was on schedule or not.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an online engagement platform for life sciences. I’m the SVP of product management.

What challenge were you trying to address with Brave UX?

We wanted to take a fresh look at our UI and UX for our flagship product. We needed an assessment of our UI/UX and some design direction.

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, they did an evaluation of our web-based platform. The team worked with us to understand all of our user types and how they use the platform. Then, they worked through our major pages and workflows and created a mockup for the next-generation design of our platform.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people from their team, including a director of design. There were also designers and UX specialists.

How did you come to work with Brave UX?

We did a comprehensive web search on different platforms, including Clutch. We narrowed it down to a handful of places we wanted to talk to them. We really liked their design work, and their cost was in our ballpark. Additionally, they fit well with our team.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $200,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project began in January 2021 and ended in April 2021.

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

We’re still in the process of starting user testing, so we don’t have quantitative metrics yet. Brave UX took our feedback very seriously and made adjustments in good time. We worked really well together. By the time it was time for our executive evaluation, the full team was on board without any reservations. They met all of our goals for the project.

We really liked how everything turned out in terms of design, UX, and documentation.

We liked that the look was very modern while remaining professional. The team was very thoughtful and detail-oriented. Their documentation at the end was absolutely amazing.

How did Brave UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They were perfect. The team always met their deadlines, even when there were shifts. They were always clear when there would be changes. We always knew what was coming up in the next meeting. Their project management was wonderful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The design is really nice. Their flexibility was also superb. The team listened and adjusted when we needed to. They really delivered. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I thought they were great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set a good amount of time for reviews and discussion. It was time-consuming in a good way. If you’re not attuned to that, a lot can happen quickly. Give an appropriate amount of time to get the best recommendations.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company’s an IDTF (independent diagnostic testing facility). We remotely monitor implantable cardiac devices such as pacemakers, defibrillators, and loop recorders.

What challenge were you trying to address with Brave UX?

 We were building a physician-facing portal to increase engagement with those customers but didn’t have design capabilities. We needed a partner to create the platform's interface. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Going into the project, we had minimal requirements. Brave helped us paint a picture by creating requirements for what the physician portal would look like. They gathered information from us and performed market research. They then came back with wireframes and built the platform’s UI/UX from scratch. As we went along, we made adjustments.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people from Brave but mostly Jenna (Director) and Jessie (UX Designer).  

How did you come to work with Brave UX?

We had a consultant on board who was impressed with Brave after working with them on a previous project. We then met with them and went through the vetting process. Brave’s CEO showed us some of their old projects, and we decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $150,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between October­–December 2020.

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

Brave created outstanding designs. They captured our vision, which was super challenging because we didn’t have exact ideas for the portal’s design. Their team was able to talk with us and capture our dreams for the product.

How did Brave UX perform from a project management standpoint?

Brave stayed on schedule throughout the project. That’s hard to do. Their team was on time to the day. We communicated via Zoom calls three times a week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their project management was outstanding, and their design capabilities were incredible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I would recommend them in a second.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any other project, have a solid idea for requirements. Even though we didn’t, Brave did an incredible job of painting that picture for us.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Ascend is a nonprofit organization based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. I’m a product manager on the Ascend team.

What challenge were you trying to address with Brave UX?

They supported designs to expand the Ascend Network, which is a technology platform that connects job seekers across Indiana with internships and full-time job opportunities.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Brave took the Ascend Network from an MVP and built an enterprise-level system that could serve a larger array of audiences. We started with a five-week discovery process to understand the product and its core audiences. Brave provided a high-level roadmap and wireframes for the redesign. At that point, we signed a new contract with them. Their team then did the full redesign, focusing on the UI/UX components.

What is the team composition?

Brave had four members on the core project team, but they incorporated a couple of other folks for specific elements of the project.

How did you come to work with Brave UX?

After beginning our search for a UX design firm, we found Brave on Clutch. We met with a host of potential partners and went through multiple rounds of calls with different prospects. Ultimately, we chose Brave because their team wasn’t fazed by our high expectations. During the proposal process, their interest in the project was clear. They took the time to understand our needs and promised to be intense because they wanted to build a great product. Their mindset aligned with ours and their approach was unique with the robust discovery process.

What is the status of this engagement?

We collaborated on this project between July–December 2020.

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

During the first sprint, we focused on the platform's visual direction. As we moved further into the engagement, we started seeing our screens reimagined based on that visual direction. It became clear to us that we weren’t finished although that sprint ended. We raised our concerns to Brave, and they were completely willing and able to keep the project moving forward while also looping back around to refine the visual direction for us.

We landed in a place that was warmer and better spoke to our company. They validated our visual identity through color theory, so it was intentional. Their team had an intelligent, thoughtful approach to creating this visual direction. Brave was receptive to our feedback and worked well on quick or concurrent deadlines.

How did Brave UX perform from a project management standpoint?

Their lead project manager was exceptional. She managed multiple cycles of feedback while keeping us on track. She didn’t let the project sprawl or get too far behind. They did an exceptional job of holding us accountable for giving them the feedback their team needed to move forward.

Brave was organized and shared information with us in an easily digestible manner. They made sure that we knew where the project stood by recording calls and sharing folders on the Cloud. Their team made sure that we were all on the same page every week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Brave pushed deeper and asked thoughtful questions that pushed us to reach the best outcome. Their team doesn’t skate by on templates.

It was clear that they wanted to teach us the principles that their team applies to design, improving our knowledge and communication back and forth. That allowed us to create an experience that made sense from business and design perspectives. Their willingness to teach us and invest time to truly understand our business was unique.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we have nothing but glowing remarks to say about their team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

There’s a lot to learn, and Brave will throw a lot of information at you. Invest the time to understand them and then follow up with them. Their team will iterate and incorporate your feedback. They throw a unique depth and volume of screens at you, so invest the time to digest them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the co-founders of Tradeswell. A platform for e-commerce brands to connect their entire value chain across marketing, logistics, and retail in order to optimize their business and grow in a healthy and profitable way.

What challenge were you trying to address with Brave UX?

We hired Brave UX because we were looking for help with our UI/UX design. We had already had an initial product in the market, we had an MVP out there, and we were finding the product-market fit. 

We were ready to take that next step and make our UI a bit more elegant and create an experience for our users that was a bit more reflective of what was going on under the hood. 

We use a lot of machine learning and AI to power insights and decision-making, and I want to make sure that we are able to communicate that back to the user in a way that isn't overwhelming, especially for customer segments in e-commerce with brands that are not as tech-savvy. 

There are plenty of UI designers out there and UI in a vacuum isn't what I was looking for; I was also looking for help with creating a UX that was more engaging and would not only keep our existing customers coming back but also appeal to new prospective customers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with Brave UX on our application UI/UX. First, we brainstormed ideas of what type of emotions we wanted to evoke for the users and gave the UI itself a persona so that we could better communicate with our users. 

They then dug in and tried to understand not only what we were trying to convey, but actually how our users thought about stuff. They helped us with that research there. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with 4–5 teammates, including two UX designers, one UI designer, and a design lead.

How did you come to work with Brave UX?

I had worked with Lee (CEO & Founder) previously on a very small project, and I was happy with the work. When I needed people for this project, I called up 3–4 design agencies and ended up going with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $125,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from July–October 2020.

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

I couldn’t have been happier with the quality of service. Brave UX was always available and incredibly responsive when I had questions or concerns. After our engagement ended, I had one or two questions for them and they were responsive and helpful. 

How did Brave UX perform from a project management standpoint?

For one-off communication, we typically used email. We also had meetings three times a week. At the end of every week, we’d review what we had accomplished and what was coming up. The team was on top of their deadlines, probably more so than I was. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their teammates were collaborative. I’m not a designer, so when we had ideas that we wanted to bring to life, Brave UX would listen to us and pick up the valuable parts to come up with something. 

It wasn’t always what it needed to be at that exact moment, but we’d use it as a base to iterate. The other thing I liked is that they would challenge my ideas. Sometimes I had ideas that weren’t the best, and they would push to make sure that we were keeping our customers in mind. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind. It was a great relationship. We even extended the scope of work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just do it because it’s worth it. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager of a stealth-mode startup in the Bay Area. I’m working on a core technology that is set to revolutionize the beverage landscape. We’re trying to change the way people create and consume beverages through new advances in technology.

What challenge were you trying to address with Brave UX?

We’ve been making some big strides in developing our core technology, but now we needed to start thinking about applications and the best way to bring this to market. Brave UX’s task was to think through, ideate, and design one of the applications and channels that we were thinking of.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They delivered user flows, as well as high-level, early wireframes. It was completely from scratch. They worked with our team to come up with the core requirements. We were targeting iOS and Android, and then we wanted to embed software on a hardware device.

What is the team composition?

The head of UX was project managing, and then there were a few more contributing to the project on their end. I think it was two full-time designers and then one lead designer.

How did you come to work with Brave UX?

I looked around and reviewed portfolios of several companies. We wanted a partner with a hardware and embedded software background. Brave UX did a small project that was along the lines of where we’re going with our project. It seemed fitting and they have the experience we needed.

We went with Brave UX over other large firms because we like the small, dedicated team. Then we liked how much they could do within our budget. Their approach to problems through a human-factors lens and that was very helpful.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started working for us in July and they wrapped up in August 2020.

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

We’ve been working on several other projects, so we haven’t been able to implement the final designs yet. We’re lukewarm on the final deliverable. It’s definitely going to help us and move us forward in what we need to do, but it’s going to require heavy lifting internally in order to take it to the next level. That was our expectation because of the budget. We weren’t expecting that they would deliver something that was ready to be implemented. We wish they embedded with the team a bit more and spent more time asking questions.

I don’t think they’ve worked with a lot of early stage startups, so there was a learning curve for them to be comfortable with the ambiguity associated with that business. They’ve done a pretty good job navigating that. We shifted on what the project goal was an what we were targeting, but they managed that well.

How did Brave UX perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly calls in which they presented their work from the past week. And then I started communicating with them over email, but infrequently throughout the process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There were a few noteworthy things. I really appreciated the rigor they put into thinking about edge cases. They really tried to come up with solutions that accounted for everything.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is a caveat—they didn’t come up with anything inspiring or special. They delivered a conservative approach, but they did go through all the edge cases and had a holistic view in their designs. I would have liked a little more communication. We would have liked them to be embedded with our team. It felt like a client-agency relationship.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re an early-stage startup, they might not be the best fit. But if you’re a larger company with a larger budget, they could be great with clear direction.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a government contracting firm in the intelligence community. This company is a spinoff of an existing company that we have. We are developing a project management and accounting tool specific to our industry.

What challenge were you trying to address with Brave UX?

Ultimately, the industry is entrenched in some fairly Jurassic platforms. We were looking to take existing tools and apply new technologies to them. We felt that the biggest weakness in our industry was poor design and less so functionality; our goal was to enhance functionality a little bit, but mainly to really overhaul the design that our industry is used to. We wanted to catch our industry’s design up to what the rest of the market or world is dealing with.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was very design-centric. We looked at some of the tools that exist in the marketplace and discussed their functionalities. Then, we did several deep dives into what we’re trying to accomplish and what the issues are. They did ground-up design with the idea that the backend would eventually be developed around the design.

They teed things off and looked at things from a universal design perspective, which was key for us. We didn't want to get bogged down with our way of thinking, which was helpful; they really introduced a fresh set of eyes to how humans work in general, not necessarily how we're used to working in our industry. We were able to liberate some of the constraints and in-the-box thinking that we had been taking in our approach while keeping the components and functionality that we needed. 

Ultimately, they did take the lead on the design, and they took a lot of input into things we liked and didn't like. We leaned on them to educate us on how this was going to be designed, and they leaned on us regarding what the product was supposed to do. It was a fairly strong collaboration, and I think we've gotten a lot of success out of their approach.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 3–4 people consistently, including a project manager, a chief designer, and a lead architect, who laid out how the infrastructure would look per our discussions. They also brought people in, as needed, to address specific things like colors.

How did you come to work with Brave UX?

We shopped around. Because we were focused heavily on design, a colleague who used to work with Lee (CEO & Founder) highly recommended Brave UX. After some interviews with other candidates and companies, we decided to go with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We did a 3–4-week discovery process in August–September 2019. We brought them on and kicked things off officially at the beginning of this year, and we ran through March 2020 on the design process.

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

The response from a design perspective has been very positive. We’ve received a lot of great feedback. It’s a huge step in the right direction for our industry; even our developers were impressed by how well it was designed. They thought it was very thorough, straightforward, and considerate to design requirements. Overall, I don’t think I can point out anything they missed or that is lacking; they really just did a fantastic job on everything.

How did Brave UX perform from a project management standpoint?

It was exceptionally efficient. They were highly organized, which allowed us to just dive right in. I’m used to leading these types of things, so it was nice to sit back and lean on their organization, structure, and processes. This is an industry and sector that they had no experience in, and their process allowed them to come in and get educated very efficiently on our work. 

They did a really fantastic job of getting what they needed to develop a really strong understanding of the project and then develop something that was more or less right on with what we needed. There were a couple of times when something didn’t work, and they were quick to realize they should flip their process around for that phase because they weren’t moving at the pace they wanted to be. They were quick to adapt and adjust.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re just really smart, and they know what they’re doing. My biggest concern ultimately was cost. I did get cheaper estimates, but I was consistently impressed with Brave UX during our initial meetings, the discovery phase, and throughout the design process. I don’t think I’ll come across a better team – they were really wonderful to work with. 

I often tell people that they actually educated me on my own product. They forced us to consider things from a different viewpoint, which ultimately made us smarter when we were discussing our own product and more intelligent to address concerns, questions, and challenges proposed by clients and customers. That was really where it became an impressive experience to work with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No; I generally like to give one thing, but I think it was an exceptional experience and service that they provided.

Any advice for potential customers?

What it takes is commitment from the end-user. You can’t just go in there and expect them to do everything; they need you there. If you walk out of those structured meetings with a little bit of homework to do, such as delivering answers or samples by a certain day, you need to commit to that. If you’re not willing to commit, you’re not going to get the results you want.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a software company that makes data science products so that the world can better utilize AI and machine learning. I’m the chief data and analytics officer here.

What challenge were you trying to address with Brave UX?

We were creating a new product, and they helped us design it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were doing a screen design, and they spearheaded the UX/UI project around it.

What is the team composition?

A team of 5­–6 design professionals helped us with the project.

How did you come to work with Brave UX?

I consulted a number of sources, but I believe that Clutch was among them. I also considered their portfolio of prior work that's showcased on their website.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together in April of 2020 and the project wrapped up in June of that year.

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

They did a phenomenal job. Their work was very high-quality, and the speed of their turnaround was also great. They demonstrated their ability to understand the customer and the space they operate in.

How did Brave UX perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great — on time for everything they did. We had regular touchpoints every couple of days.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The speed at which Brave UX understands their customer was better than that of any other company I’ve worked with, in this space.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They work very quickly. Be prepared when you engage them because they’re easily able to outpace you.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm Director of Engineering at Penn National Gaming. Penn owns and operates 43 facilities in the United States and Canada, many of them under the Hollywood Casino brand. Our Engineering headquarters is based in Philadelphia.

For what projects/services did your company hire Brave UX?

We engaged the Brave team to assist with designing a world-class UI/UX experience for our online and retail sportsbooks.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal for this engagement was to produce a sportsbook product designed in such a way that advanced sportsbetters feel excited about using it while keeping it approachable for novice betters.

How did you select this vendor?

We reviewed hundreds of portfolios for UI/UX companies and settled on the three best. We held meetings with each of the three and solicited RFPs. We felt the most confident in Brave's understanding of the project and their ability to effectuate our vision.

Describe the project in detail.

We initially went through Brave's 5-week discovery process to give them a good idea of what we were trying to build and why. After that we began design sprints scheduled one sprint ahead of our engineering sprints. We met at the beginning of the week to discuss initial designs for the screens that were scheduled that week, we'd comment, then we'd review changes at the end of the week.

What was the team composition?

We communicated with the entire team working on our project throughout the engagement.

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

We haven't launched the product yet but we held our first focus groups last week and our demo product was rated #1 on every single metric compared against the industry leaders.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our workflow was efficient and when we had suggested changes the team worked with us to effectuate them.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were very impressed by their ability to quickly synthesize information about an unfamiliar industry and suggest improvements to the current status quo -- which is exactly what we were looking for. Some of our other initial meetings involved people not really interested in pushing the envelope, which Brave was 100% on board with doing.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The time allotted for design revisions was too short for my liking but may be part and parcel of using a design firm. Ideally we would be able to take a legitimate stab at building the screens before the revision period ends but they obviously move a lot faster than our engineers.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior product manager at FourthWall Media, a pioneering company at the intersection of technology, media, and data. FourthWall Media uses proprietary software to collect and process hundreds of millions of second-by-second viewing events every day, adding to our five years of historic data from millions of homes and nearly ten million set-top boxes sourced from more than a dozen distribution partners. Our Reveal Analytics Platform instantly matches households with first and third party data to visualize custom audiences with a click. This allows us to create groundbreaking insights into advertising, program, and network performance far beyond traditional methods. All of this is so our partners and customers in the TV and media ecosystems have the right tools to leverage their experience and knowledge to grow their businesses.

What challenge were you trying to address with Brave UX?

Our core competency has traditionally been in collecting, processing, aggregating, and analyzing large, complicated sets of data – and using that data to report analytics-based insights that support programmers, advertisers, and operators within the media industry. We know that our end clients need a modern, clean, and intuitive way to access and interact with that data, so that they can make sense of the data and unlock value to power their businesses. We needed to more effectively turn data into insights by re-energizing our UI.

We engaged Brave UX because we needed assistance with our client-facing UI called “Reveal." Our existing UI was somewhat lacking in several areas and needed to be revamped to unlock the full potential of its underlying datasets.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We contracted with Brave UX to revamp the UI of our analytics platform. In doing so, we completely overhauled it with a sleek new design, more intuitive interactions, and additional reporting capabilities.

We began our engagement with a five-week discovery phase so that both companies could become mutually acquainted with each other’s team, processes, styles, businesses, and products. Through this, both companies became acclimated and set the stage for the engagement. Brave UX was able to develop a greater understanding of our existing product, where we were falling short, and where we wanted to go. Our teams then worked closely to determine the scope and a plan for execution. We planned for seven three-week sprints, with each sprint dedicated to equal parts information architecture and visual design. Our information architecture discussions centered on the fundamental data objects and the overall groundwork for each section of the UI, while the visual design work included packaging those pieces together and making them visually appealing and presentable through various colors, fonts, flow, and Brave UX’s own user experience techniques.

The goal was essentially to create usable, repeatable patterns and behaviors within the UI so that the user would be able to learn quickly, become accustomed to, and use these patterns throughout. Then the visual design aspect added the flare on top of that IA groundwork, which paired beautiful visual elements with the intelligent information system that was created. The result was stunning.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Lee (CEO & Founder, Brave UX) and Jordan (Director of User Experience, Brave UX) heavily throughout the project and more so initially, alongside their trusted team of capable and creative designers. Lee and Jordan were extremely engaged in the discovery phase and the early stages of the sprint work. As the project progressed, and the larger team felt comfortable with the work that was being delivered, we had increasing time and interaction with Brave UX’s lead information architects and designers – and less from Lee and Jordan personally. As a client, we felt that each and every member of Brave UX’s team (from the top down) was fully zoned into the requirements of what we needed to be accomplished, and they delivered each and every week of the months-long project.

How did you come to work with Brave UX?

We initially found them online. But we discovered that the process of sourcing and evaluating the right partner took many months of conversations on the phone and in person to determine who was going to be the right fit. Ultimately, we felt comfortable that Brave UX was going to be the best possible partner for us. We were not looking for incremental improvement but rather a quantum leap.

We evaluated over two dozen companies and met in person in a final round interview with three of them. Halfway through the meeting, I knew Brave UX was the one. They were miles ahead of the competition.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement spanned September 2018–March 2019.

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

We’re gearing up for a full product launch. We have received promising feedback from all stakeholders in our company, from the executive team to the engineering team to our board of investors. We have been blown away by the quality of Brave UX’s work.

Similarly, we’ve presented teasers of different screens, applications, and reports within the new user interface to existing and potential clients, and their feedback has been just as positive. We believe this upgrade will be a game-changer for our products and our company. The work Brave UX has done for us is directly translating into positive business results and an upward trajectory.

How did Brave UX perform from a project management standpoint?

Brave UX makes effective use of all project management time. They’re engaged appropriately, meaning they were neither overbearing nor distant. We communicated with them several times per week, and they always managed to reply and give feedback promptly. We would also meet at least twice a week to discuss the work, course correct, and make sure we were still on the overall project timeline. Brave UX made sure never to waste our time.

In addition to sending emails and holding conference calls through Zoom, we communicated extensively through Dropbox and Adobe XD. They were very accommodating in terms of scheduling time and being available for us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They fit very well into our culture. Brave UX has an extremely complementary skill set and set of core competencies. There was a gap that we needed to fill to take that quantum leap and become extremely competitive within our marketplace. Brave UX is proving that they can help us do that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have more work on their plate by the day. They’re a small boutique shop that has proven it can operate at this level, but it will be interesting to see if they decide to grow and how they handle that growth.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s vital to be open and honest with them about as much as you possibly can. We had to be very realistic about where we were with the product, where it was falling short, and where it had room for improvement.