A global research and consultancy group with its beginnings in Scotland, Wood Mackenzie are one of the most prominent players in the field of natural resource data, annually being awarded for best data insights. This is particularly true for the energy market where they empower the major oil & gas sector to make vital, evidence-based decisions. With the digital era bringing increasing advantages, WoodMac were keen to further empower their corporate clients by giving them instant access to real time, actionable data.
While the impact of digital is huge, so is the impact of start-ups and industry disruptors, some of whom had recently brought digital platforms to market that offered access to similar data in a more user-friendly way. It was time to confront this and at the same time bring the organisation further into the SaaS movement. After operating an Agile development team for the past year, the company was eager to finally gain some traction toward their prospective digital offering.
As a new design partner joining the company, we were able to embed ourselves directly into the existing project team and deliver much needed design direction, which was previously lacking due to the usual corporate issue of over reliance on software development with little emphasis on design.
This opportunity allowed us to build the teams culture and behaviour from the inside out, uplifting the general attitude within the project and helping departments open their doors to each other and collaborate. Collaboration and culture being key here for a long-standing organisation to adapt to new market trends.
By embedding within the team as a design resource, the work we were able to complete in the discovery and iteration stages (from wireframes to prototypes) allowed the team to obtain tangible visuals to work from and test with.
Not only was this valuable in boosting morale across the transatlantic team, as well as stakeholders, it helped cement the initial idea the project started for. To create a fully-fledged visual platform that could vibrantly display key statistical data overlaid on a map, as well as offer the user a highly customised yet accessible interface with which they could interrogate any select number of data points together.
Having the team able to progress with such velocity was achieved by implementing simple, yet commonly undervalued methods of design, including: user research, rapid prototyping, usability testing and contextual interviews with their corporate clients.
Together we bred a winning team from the existing resources and infrastructure, married with simple evangelism toward establishing a design thinking mentality and leadership. This ultimately created the industry leading product they now have and continue to evolve.
Working directly with the executive team, we were also able to help the organization identify and develop a more thorough and grounded product strategy for their global reach product, an innovative solution that catered precisely for their oil and gas customers throughout North America and the Middle East.
Further to this, to ensure continued success, we established their very own in-house design capability, with key resources hired to cover vital areas of human-centred-design and a proposed new hire for head of design. Safe to say, we were able to leave behind a brewing legacy for the future.
