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The United Service Organization (USO), a nonprofit organization serving members of the U.S. military and their families, was facing challenges in driving donations due to the increasingly crowded media and communication landscape. Potential donors were being overwhelmed with requests from various worthy causes, making it difficult for the USO to stand out and attract the necessary funds to support its mission. Over the past 25 years, the rise of email, social media, text messaging, and other electronic messaging channels have added to the noise, making it even more challenging for nonprofits like the USO to reach potential donors. Recognizing these shifts in the landscape, the USO decided to incorporate a robust email program into its marketing mix to help drive the donations it needed to carry out its mission year after year. To achieve this, the USO reached out to Message Digital, a full-service digital agency, for help.

Avenda Health, a company focused on improving the quality of life and outcomes for men diagnosed with prostate cancer, faced significant challenges in bringing their novel device to market. The company's team is dispersed across the country, making collaboration across product development and quality teams difficult without a unified source of truth. Additionally, navigating the complex regulatory climate to bring their Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) product to market was a daunting task. Keeping up with requirements and documentation, while ensuring alignment across teams from coast to coast, was a top priority for Avenda. However, the remote collaboration and staying up to date with the necessary documentation proved to be a significant challenge.

Medical device companies often struggle with managing their Quality Management Systems (QMS), Design Controls, and Risk Management. The challenges are often at two extremes: either the QMS is deficient and does not address regulations, or it meets regulations but is overly complicated. Both scenarios pose potential problems. A deficient QMS is a compliance risk that must be avoided, while an overly complicated QMS may not be followed as prescribed, leading to non-compliance. Additionally, companies often struggle with documenting Design Controls during product development, making the process unnecessarily complicated. The medical device regulatory world is also shifting its focus towards risk management, requiring QMS to implement risk-based approaches. This shift has left many companies struggling to keep up with the new regulatory focus.

MediBeacon, a medical technology company, was facing challenges in managing documentation and preparing for audits with a paper-based Quality Management System (QMS) while bringing a Class III device to market. The company's Transdermal GFR Measurement System (TGFR) is a class III combination device, which means it must go through the FDA Premarket Approval (PMA) pathway. Additionally, MediBeacon had contracted with multiple device development and manufacturing organizations, and the drug component of their device had to comply with 21 CFR Part 4 - Regulation of Combination Products. The company quickly realized that a paper-based QMS or a generic software solution was not sufficient to navigate the required regulatory and management hurdles.

Monitored Therapeutics, Inc. (MTI), a remote patient monitoring company specializing in respiratory diseases, faced significant challenges in navigating the global regulatory landscape. The complexity of maintaining compliance while distributing products globally was a daunting task. The company was also preparing for several audits, including FDA, ISO 13485, MDSAP, and customer audits. The challenge was to find a Quality Management System (QMS) that was not just a tool, but a comprehensive solution that could guide and support them through these audits. Additionally, as MTI began to scale, cost became a significant factor. The company needed a QMS that was affordable and suitable for all their key teams: Executive, Quality, and Product Development.

Tenacore, a leading ISO 13485:2016-certified medical device repair and service company in the United States, faced significant challenges with its paper-based Quality Management System (QMS). As the company continued to scale and manage over 100 medical devices, the paper-based QMS became increasingly difficult to manage. Crucial tasks such as obtaining Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) documentation, updating technical manuals, and managing and qualifying suppliers to meet Tenacore’s high-quality standards became exceptionally difficult. The paper-based system also hindered cross-team collaboration and created inefficiencies in their processes.

The Mill Casino Hotel & RV Park, a tribal-owned property on the Southern Oregon Coast, was in need of a state-of-the-art property management system and point-of-sale technology. The property, which features a 24-hour casino, five restaurants, and a 102-space waterfront RV park, caters to both business and leisure travelers. It offers 203 rooms and suites, a full-service business center, over 14,000 square feet of conference and event space, and a Vegas-style casino. Despite being a longtime user of the Agilysys Stratton Warren System for inventory and procurement management, the executive team was seeking a solution that could increase operational efficiency and enhance guest service across the entire property.

Neat Suites, a property management company specializing in uniquely-designed listings, faced a significant challenge in managing guest communication. With a rapidly growing inventory of properties, the company struggled to maintain a consistently high standard of guest experience. The process of responding to guest requests and inquiries was time-consuming and often disrupted the work-life balance of the managing partners, Jeremiah Hines and Ed Feldmann. The after-hours messaging was particularly difficult to manage, with guest responses taking up to 40% of their time, significantly more than the expected 10%. This left them with little time to monitor response rates and manage other aspects of their business.

Stay at Lina, an international property management company, was facing significant challenges as it expanded its portfolio across four different countries. The company was struggling with a lack of visibility and integration, leading to issues such as double bookings and delays in response times. These issues were negatively impacting their commitment to providing exceptional guest service. Additionally, the absence of an efficient revenue management system meant that despite their growth, their expenses were too high to scale sustainably. The company was in need of a tool that would provide them with the visibility and centralized management they required to expand their business without losing their unique touch.

Ryan Scott, a frequent traveler, ventured into the short-term rental market in San Diego, leveraging Airbnb for property management. He initially managed his Airbnb profile and bookings while his neighbor handled guest check-ins. As his rental success grew, he took over the entire property's online management, eventually leading to the birth of his own short-term rental company, Surfcomber Rentals. However, as the business expanded, managing each additional unit became increasingly challenging due to the exponential growth in management requirements. Balancing a full-time job and the growing demands of his rental business, Ryan needed a solution that could adapt to his business style and personality, provide quality management control, and a system that could learn and improve over time.

Tangy Mgmt, a South Florida Property Management Company (PMC) specializing in luxury homes, was facing a significant challenge in managing their growing portfolio. As the company expanded, Managing Director Victor Feria found himself spending five to six hours a day on guest communications alone. The inquiries ranged from simple questions about amenities to complex queries about local attractions. This time-consuming task was detracting from other crucial aspects of the business, such as brand building, website development, lead pursuit, and team training. Furthermore, prioritizing communications from staying guests often led to sidelining messages from potential leads, negatively impacting their response rate and resulting in missed reservations and crucial initial lead guest inquiries. The company needed a solution that could efficiently manage this influx of messages, converting them into booked stays and satisfied guests.

Tiny Away, a unique accommodation business founded by three Singapore-based entrepreneurs, faced significant operational challenges as they expanded their collection of tiny homes across Australia. The company, which partners with Australian farmers and landowners to erect luxury tiny homes on underutilized land, saw rapid growth from five to twenty houses in 2018. This expansion led to an increase in incoming messages from potential guests, which became time-consuming to manage manually. Additionally, publishing new properties on various Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) became a daunting task, with the team often losing track due to the sheer volume of listings.

Viagem, a property management and hospitality company, was founded in 2019 with the goal of providing authentic urban experiences for travelers. The company had an ambitious growth plan, aiming to manage over 100 listings across various US cities within a year and several hundred more in 2021. However, as a lean and remote-working team, they faced the challenge of finding a property management software (PMS) that could help them scale quickly while maintaining their high standards of service, quality, and guest experience. They needed a PMS that could streamline operations, provide actionable analytics, and offer marketing and automation solutions to help them build the hospitality brand they envisioned.

Wehost, the first tourism startup in Georgia, had a clear and ambitious vision to manage 1000 apartments by 2025. They sought to implement a scalable and efficient business model, requiring advanced task management capabilities and automation. They were in search of a comprehensive solution for all their property management needs. Additionally, they faced the challenge of building trust with property owners in a region where trust is scarce. They needed a clear and transparent platform for communication and performance. Their search for a software that could match their ambitious goal led them to Guesty.

Endurance Land, a property management company, faced the challenge of connecting their workplace experiences across their vast portfolios. The company's properties, including the London Wall Buildings and the Regent Quarter estate, span hundreds of thousands of square feet, making it difficult for tenants to stay aware of the various happenings at their workplace. This disconnect strained the landlord-tenant relationship and the connections tenants felt to each other and the office. The rise of remote and hybrid work models due to the global health pandemic further complicated this challenge. Endurance Land needed to find solutions that address safety, communication, and engagement for a post-pandemic workforce. The company also wanted to support local retailers and elevate their leasing strategies. The historic nature of the buildings and the numerous entrances (seven for the London Wall Buildings and ten for the Regent Quarter estate) made it difficult for tenants to stay updated on site happenings.

Hudson Pacific Properties, a real estate investment trust with a portfolio of office and studio properties, was faced with the challenge of maintaining tenant engagement and communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rapidly evolving commercial real estate industry, accelerated by the pandemic, presented significant complexity and change. With over 8,000 proptech companies to choose from, finding the best solutions to safely attract and retain tenants while differentiating assets was a daunting task. The rise of hybrid work models and new workplace innovations shifted the value equation from buildings and location to the building occupants themselves. This prompted a revised focus on connecting with tenants and their employees through new digital mediums. Hudson Pacific needed a tenant engagement and communication tool that could not only bring typical on-site amenities to tenants everywhere but also collect important data to inform landlords of how people are really using their buildings while addressing current-day health and safety concerns.

Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation faced a significant challenge with its 955 Massachusetts Avenue office property. The building, located in the heart of Cambridge's technology hubs, was competing with neighboring properties that boasted modern amenities and a significant footprint of both people and commercial office space. These included offices of technology giants such as Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft. The 955 Massachusetts Avenue property, constructed in 2001, was not built with modern amenities in mind. It did feature a small, internally-run cafe for tenants, but its business was slow and not well-known among the building occupants. The primary challenge was to elevate the building's profile, show appreciation for tenants, build a greater line of communication during construction and maintenance updates, and compete with the amenitized spaces of neighboring properties.

J.P. Morgan, the landlord of London's iconic Spitalfields Market, faced the challenge of enhancing the property experience for its office tenants, public guests, and on-site retailers. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for health and safety measures, such as building updates and virtually-activated amenities, became paramount. J.P. Morgan aimed to create safer and more engaging experiences for their tenants and visitors. Key objectives included re-opening their office space and market post-lockdown, providing information on COVID-19 safety measures, granting office occupiers access to the market, its traders, and deals, and elevating their sustainability initiatives. They also sought to reduce congestion and create more touchless experiences, such as order ahead capabilities, to supplement their on-site amenities. The challenge was to find a reliable partner and provider to help them achieve these goals.

Jamestown, a leading real estate investment and management company, faced a significant challenge in communicating and connecting with the thousands of tenants and daily visitors at their landmark Ponce City Market (PCM) destination in Atlanta, GA. The property, a mixed-use asset, was home to diverse tenants, making it difficult to establish common experiences across varying sectors and groups. The Jamestown team had to manually communicate with their various tenants and public guests, which was a cumbersome process. They also sought to promote their local retailers and restaurants to the general population beyond their website, social channels, and earned and paid media programming. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the need for increased landlord-to-tenant communication to keep occupants updated on the latest health and safety regulations.

National Development, a multifaceted real estate company, was faced with the challenge of enhancing tenant engagement in their suburban office park, The District Burlington. They were tasked with uniting and strengthening their workplace culture across the property’s large campus. The company was heavily reliant on tenant gatekeepers for communication, which often led to breakdowns in the communication process. This was due to the gatekeeper’s presence in the office and their ability to quickly disseminate information. National Development realized that depending on email was not an efficient way to inform people of property-wide events and information. They needed a way to directly own the tenant communication process, cutting out the middlemen and connecting directly with their building’s consumers. They also recognized that the modern tenant population was more technologically advanced and that capturing a larger audience relied on a mobile app that would place these communications right in the palms of their tenants through their smartphones.

Jamestown, the owner and manager of the Innovation and Design Building (IDB), a 1.4-million-square-foot commercial mixed-use, multi-tenant asset located in Boston’s Seaport District, faced the challenge of staying competitive in a fast-paced industry. They had invested heavily in amenities for the building, including on-site retail, a fitness center, shuttles, and community events. However, they needed a way to track which amenities were popular, effectively communicate the offerings to their tenants, and incentivize and promote the on-site and local retail to its tenant population. The challenge was not just to attract and retain highly sought-after tenants, but also to understand their needs and create experiences to fulfill them. They wanted to activate their investments, build a stronger community with their tenants, and reinforce their brand.

The Swig Company, a privately-owned real estate investor operator based in San Francisco, was seeking to modernize its tenant engagement strategies and further establish its brand. The company had already invested heavily in tenant engagement, but needed a more advanced platform to spread its company culture and brand. The company's approach to their Bay Area office buildings was focused on placing the customer first and re-invigorating an already energetic workplace culture. However, they needed to expand upon their existing tenant programming in a way that was both meaningful and adaptable with the times. This included placing emphasis on their return to the workplace, corporate social responsibility efforts, and sustainability initiatives to keep their tenants informed, aligned, and involved with the company’s progressive goals. The challenge was further compounded by the arrival of COVID-19, which separated their workforce and necessitated a tool for staying in contact with tenants and conveying important information.

Digital Telepathy, a San Diego-based design firm, has a unique approach to design called Objective-Based Design. This process involves a constant flow of conversation with clients to build products, design experiences, and solve business challenges. The challenge lies in maintaining this constant dialogue and collaboration with clients throughout the project. The firm creates various assets to spark discussions and move the dialogue along. However, these assets need to be effectively managed and updated to reflect the most recent design decisions. Furthermore, the firm also needs to ensure that the conversation continues even when the project is passed along to other stakeholders.

The case study revolves around a project led by John Henry Krahenbuhl, Lead User Experience Designer at Epsilon, for a product launch microsite. The project faced several challenges. Firstly, it had to cater to the interests of multiple client stakeholders, all on a single page. Secondly, consensus had to be reached among the members of a cross-functional team at the agency. Lastly, all this had to be achieved quickly in a distributed work environment. The team consisted of about five core members, with several more who floated in and out as needed. The team was globally distributed, and the client base was also global. The project required fast, efficient, and flexible solutions. The client needed low to medium fidelity assets, along with documentation. The wireframes could be grayscale, and 90% pixel accuracy was sufficient.

Dani Nordin, UX Director at Pegasystems, was tasked with transitioning the design team at Harvard Business Review (HBR) from creating static mockups for large screens to interactive mobile-first prototypes using Axure. The challenge arose from a disconnect between the design team's creation of documentation for the development team and the way the development team built things. The design team was primarily focused on the larger screen experience and presented their work in static comps due to short timelines and an impression that stakeholders couldn’t “think in mobile”. This resulted in an inconsistent experience across devices as the front-end team had to interpret how the designs would adapt to smaller screens. This led to communication breakdowns and frustration across the team. Nordin's key recommendation was to shift from static comps to interactive, adaptive Axure prototypes.

ZS Associates, a global professional services firm, underwent a company-wide rebranding in 2014. This presented an opportunity for a systematic, standards-based approach to the design overhaul of their product portfolio. The challenge was to develop a consistent look and feel across all software products, with a single set of interaction patterns. The UX team, led by Elizabeth Benker, aimed to create a central repository for design standards, working examples, and functional assets that could be accessed by UX designers, product managers, front-end developers, and consultants. However, the lack of documented standards was causing alignment issues across teams and frustration among new team members. The team also struggled to find the right tool to create and distribute the new design framework, as many of the available options were not suitable for their needs.

Twitter's bug bashes, which are crucial for identifying and fixing software issues, were facing significant organizational challenges. The process was traditionally carried out in a Google document, requiring a written description of the bug and links to visual screenshots. This method made it difficult to get a clear, comprehensive view of the bugs at a glance. The process was not only cumbersome but also inefficient, as it involved dropping links into a Google doc, making it hard to keep all relevant data in one place. The challenge was to simplify this process, make it more organized, and improve the overall efficiency of bug bashes.

AdvisorEngine, a pioneer in digital wealth management technology, faced the challenge of transforming their legacy CRM product into a new, innovative, user-centric CRM solution. The mission was to gather and implement client feedback in a productive, accessible, and meaningful way while collaborating cross-functionally in real-time. However, the shift to a remote working environment due to the pandemic posed a significant challenge. The team needed to replicate the feeling of in-person brainstorming, iterating on the fly, and collecting real-time feedback in their new remote reality. The challenge was to break down cross-functional barriers and create a culture of inclusive collaboration.

Atlassian, a leading software company known for its team collaboration tools like Jira and Confluence, faced the challenge of maintaining a coherent customer experience across its various products. The customer journey, from purchasing to using a product, involved multiple internal teams. The challenge was to ensure that the design was centralized across the organization and not split into product units. This was crucial to maintain a consistent user experience across all their products. Additionally, the company wanted to foster a culture of innovation and collaboration, where ideas could be freely discussed and critiqued, and where the focus was on continuous improvement and customer-centricity.

Crate and Barrel, a renowned retail company, was faced with the challenge of maintaining its unique aesthetic and customer-centric approach while transitioning into the digital era. The company had a rich heritage built on a shared passion for customer experience, with customer engagement and feedback shaping the selection of curated products from artisans around the world. However, translating this customer-centric approach to their digital offerings was a significant challenge. The company needed to ensure that the quality craftsmanship, which was at the heart of their offerings, was not lost in the digital translation. The challenge was particularly evident in the case of selling custom furniture online, a multi-year project that had to meet existing standards while introducing a functionality that did not exist when the company's founders established the brand's shopping philosophy.