Project Reality

Led a team of 12 to deliver an interactive website redesign that so impressed the client that they handed it over to the web developer the very next day—an achievement that felt highly improbable just 6 days prior. Strap in. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

“Throughout the work, I was impressed with the capability, energy and professionalism of the team. As a client, they kept me informed along the way and provided high-quality deliverables which will be very useful for enhancing the website and better positioning our brand in the market.”

– Matthew Mulrine, Managing Director, Leading Insight

“This was a mistake”

Accepted by the group as team leader, I was keen to kick-start preparations for the first meeting the following day. Reality, however, had different ideas. With newcomers enthusiastic about their first client project, impromptu huddle meetings, numerous questions, and discussions about project expectations consumed most of my day. This left me with only thirty minutes to prepare my agenda.

The meeting proceeded well enough, but without sufficient time to digest and analyse the brief for myself, I lacked determination in setting tasks. I opted for an open discussion to compensate for my lack of confidence. Despite successfully locking in a couple of details for the next day, I anxiously awaited the end of the meeting, severely questioning my leadership abilities. Upon conclusion, I immediately received two more requests for 1:1’s. One from someone who had suffered technical difficulties, seeking an overview, and another from someone with criticisms about my meeting style. Mortified, you can be sure that from then on, I tried my best to ensure I prioritised my responsibilities as a team leader, even if that meant learning to say no.

“The website? I haven’t looked at it in years”

After our initial meet & greet, the client provided details for four individuals who worked closely for, or with, Leading Insight. Given the primary pain-point that we identified during our evaluation was a lack of clear, comprehensive information for first-time users (including ourselves), we saw it as a great opportunity to gauge the staff’s perspective. While the client, as the business owner, had been very cooperative in answering our questions, we were interested in the observations of individuals who could shed light on the day-to-day limitations of the website, which the client might not be aware of. Our questions focused on current lead interactions, common website tasks, and pinpointing queries that the website could be answering.

Unfortunately, the interviews proved less fruitful than we hoped. Only three individuals returned our calls, with one cancelling last minute, resulting in only two interview responses. Further diminishing our research effort, one respondent had minimal involvement in the business and hadn’t viewed the website in two years. Despite the setback, it was a valuable learning experience, one that required us to adapt our questioning on the spot. Between my fellow team member and I, we managed to obtain some relevant information.

Reorganising the Information Architecture

I worked with the group focused on restructuring the IA, sifting through the website’s convoluted and repetitive copy to identify opportunities for enhanced information sorting. [A copy rewrite was a key recommendation for the second phase of the project.]

Original Information Architecture

Proposed New Information Architecture

To improve clarity and discoverability, we split the three key services into separate pages, as only Advisory had its own dedicated page.

Our competitor analysis and user research both highlighted the importance of comprehensive case studies to help develop trust and interest, a far cry from the three short, generalised ‘case studies’ buried within the Advisory page. Additionally, the site featured a page titled Thought Leadership presenting several blog posts from a long past initiative. Given the growth needed in both areas, which were beyond our current scope, we opted to consolidate them under the page Our Work. This would allow for flexibility for expansion if the client were to follow our recommendations for phase 2 (expand case studies and revisit the current articles to consider if they are still relevant).

“TEN ‘style guides’?! This was not the plan”

Within the group tasked with creating a style guide, I had noticed a handful of the individuals had a preference to work alone. With time running low and an increase of teamwork on the horizon, I particularly advised they split into trios to brainstorm two alternatives, hoping it would nurture some collaboration. Alas, instead of heeding my suggestion, I discovered the task lead had proposed developing individual style guides, which led to the submission of… ten homepage mock ups. But there were only six in the group, how did we end up with ten?

I had scheduled a meeting a few days afterwards to share the style guide offerings and start wireframing. As I was to be absent, I left directions. These were observed, to a degree… yet at some point during this meeting it was proposed that everyone should create a style guide of their own, due in two days’ time. (A directive I couldn’t undo because of my absence and an inconveniently timed public holiday.) This was the point in the project where I genuinely questioned our ability to get this project over the line. With less than a week remaining, instead of making progress, more time had been spent on a task than I ever anticipated.

“Go with the flow & you’ll get where you need to be”

Below is an example of our how we developed our user flows.

Heuristic Finding: The home screen and services page are the same page.
Why is this an issue? Both pages are necessary, however serve different purposes; information and navigation is blurred and the user can become confused. It also misses an opportunity for your home (landing) page to ‘capture’ the user.
_{Heuristic 3: User Control and Freedom | Heuristic 4: Consistency and Standards}

Recommendation 2 (R2): Create a separate home page and services page.

User Story: ‘As a potential client visiting the Leading Insight website for the first time, I want to easily find information about the different types of services that they offer so that I can quickly determine if they have expertise’s in management advisory ‘

Userflow 1: Home > Nav Bar > Services > Management Advisory > Call team
Userflow 2: Home > Scroll to Services CTA > Services > Management Advisory > Scroll to Team CTA > OUR TEAM > Contact CTA > Contact Us > Submit form (or call)
Userflow 3: Home > Scroll to Services CTA > Services > Management Advisory > Scroll to Contact CTA > Contact Us > Submit form (or call)

“This is What I’m Talking About!”

As a designer, it’s sometimes challenging to put aside the desire to prove your skills and express your own opinions. However, as the lead of 12 designers, you can be certain there were already plenty of opinions in the mix, (as we found out in the style guide exercise). Moreover, there was a presentation to assemble and handover artefacts to complete.

Considering these factors, I felt it would be beneficial to act as a stakeholder for the building of the prototype; checking over each page with fresh eyes so I could question the decisions being made without being swayed by my own biases. This approach ensured someone was overseeing the process to confirm that design decisions were supported by reasoning—not just ‘because it looks cool.’ It also ensured a sense of cohesion in the flurry of a three day build.

To illustrate the rationales behind some of our design decisions, let’s touch on user flow 1: A user wishes to check out Leading Insights services before deciding to make contact.

Lesson Learnt: Good Leadership Lets the Team Shine

Since I wasn’t as involved in the design stage in the way that I was used to, it offered a different perspective, one that I valued in its own way. Those last five days were incredibly rewarding. My biggest concern was that the pages would look disjointed, but the team worked together like a well-oiled machine. To an outsider, they would never have suspected the challenges we faced just a handful of days before. I enjoyed the buzz immensely and was thrilled to see everyone taking initiative and striving to deliver something that would truly impress the client. I feel this was the point where I found my confidence in my leadership, particularly in utilising my enthusiasm and good humour to uphold morale. Most importantly, we even had some fun.

“Ready for Phase 2?”

There’s a moment when the presentation wraps up and you’re holding your breath, waiting for a response. I’ll be honest, I feared for a moment that we’d missed the mark… but nope! The client was incredibly pleased, and confirmed he would be handing it over to the web developer immediately. He was thrilled with the interactions, the clear break-up of information, and the pairing of navy with orange— deftly paired with rounded corners to soften the corporate feel. The client even offered the team an opportunity to continue with the project for phase 2.

“Given the quality of the work, I have asked the team to further support our brand positioning and website enhancement work. I would definitely recommend the team to anyone looking to undertake evidence-based improvements to communication, UX, UI, or website products.“

– Matthew Mulrine, Managing Director, Leading Insight

I’ll be honest, the buzz after this glowing feedback was enough to almost make me misty eyed. It had been a genuine rollercoaster. I hadn’t anticipated the extent to which I would need to manage team dynamics, including balancing personalities and different learning styles. Yet, for that very reason, I felt I gained a tremendous amount from this project, though between you and me, I think I’ll leave team leadership for the future when I have more hands-on experience.