challenge
The Kern Family Foundation (KFF) works to empower the rising generation of Americans to lead flourishing lives through three program areas: Education and Character; Faith, Work and Economics; and Entrepreneurial Engineering. The Entrepreneurial Engineering program is focused on instilling entrepreneurial mindset in undergraduate engineering students and primarily works with faculty and institutions to accomplish this mission. To help accelerate the work and reach a broader audience of faculty, KFF created Engineering Unleashed, an online platform to help those influencing undergraduate engineering students network, collaborate, publish, find and share entrepreneurial mindset resources, and further their professional development in the engineering education space. After launching in 2018, Engineering Unleashed quickly became a national resource to thousands of engineering faculty members. As the platform matured, KFF needed a partner to help increase utilization and create additional value for Engineering Unleashed members.
solution
Starting with a 4-week Discovery engagement, our team focused on rapid, deep learning to investigate the usability landscape and technical environment of the platform. We also gathered data on current usage and produced a prioritized backlog of development work to maximize value and minimize time to market. Our product goals for delivery included:
results
Member feedback on the search functionality updates has been overwhelmingly positive. One Engineering Unleashed member said, “(Search) works so well! (I) have been playing around with it looking for topic-specific content and it’s great.” Another member said, “Definitely an improvement. I’ve tried the new search and got quick and accurate results. Thanks for making this update happen!”
Further member research during the delivery process led our team to focus on enhancing the card creation user experience. After usability testing, the primary action buttons were reworded and reorganized for clarity and usability during the card creation process. All of the members interviewed remarked positively about the revisited card creation workflow. One member commented, “(There is a) streamlined workflow… not super cluttered.” Another shared “I like the left side (navigation). It’s not zigzag top to bottom. I can click on something and get to it quickly.”
After updating the third-party email system to MailChimp, Engineering Unleashed emails have the highest ranking in every reputation factor: open rate, click rate, bounce rate and abuse rate, and the overall reputation status is more positive than the range of “most MailChimp users.” Transactional emails also have the highest ranking in reputation and a deliverability rate of 99.5%. Bounces and unsubscribes are low for both transactional and marketing emails sent through the new system.
tech used
Azure Cognitive Search, Bronto, Blazor, Telerik Kendo UI, Mailchimp API, C#, ASP .NET Core 3.1, Microsoft SQL Server
New Trading Desk Enables Continued Growth for Top 10 US Bank
Following the merger of two major financial institutions, our client—a top 10 US bank—needed to expand their suite of offerings to attract new Fortune 500 clients and increase their competitive advantage. Learn how our expertise in complex capital market solutions helped us establish a state-of-the-art trading desk to fuel future growth.
Centralized Reconciliation System Transforms Payments Company’s Treasury Operations
A rapidly growing unicorn payments company, faced challenges managing payments across a complex and expanding ecosystem. Learn how we created a centralized solution to streamline data management, ensure compliance, and maintain trust with stakeholders.
Future-Proofing a Payments System for Scalable Growth
Our client, a rapidly-expanding payments company, needed to lay the groundwork for their next-generation payments platform. Their existing payments system was outdated and lacked the scalability and flexibility required for future growth. Learn how we built a façade around their legacy system to modernize their payment management processes without disrupting ongoing operations.
Reimagining the User Experience for a Top 10 US Bank
A top 10 US bank recognized the need to improve the user experience within their Corporate & Investment Bank’s operations. They lacked a clear definition of their diverse user base and struggled to design intuitive interfaces and experiences that met the specific needs of different user groups. Learn how we created a single source of truth that would drive user adoption.