STRATEGY Zappts Case
Impacting business organization through design
Role
Head of Design
Company
Zappts
Tools
Figma, Miro
Location
Brazil
Duration
3 Years
Introduction
In this case I will be focusing on my current role as Head of Design and Innovation at Zappts, my role and responsibilities as the Head of UX Design and Innovation and, how Design has impacted the whole organization.
Role & Responsibi-lities
As the Head of Design and Innovation at Zappts, I was responsible for the following activities:
Lead and Support the Design Chapter to deliver High End Digital Product Design and Memorable Experiences for our Clients.
Define and implement the Design Strategic Plan  and Market Positioning, Design Products and Services
Evaluate and improve the organization’s UX maturity the organization’s .
Create, Maintain and Evolve the Design Processes and Initiatives, working close to the Operation Leadership, Development Squad Leaders, Quality Assurance and Engineering Chapters.
The Challenge
Zappts is an Experience Design consulting company, focused on Digital Products UX Design and Software Development. But it was not always so...

When I've started at Zappts, the company was really small. We were 18 employees only, 02 squads working on 02 digital projects, and none of the team members were designers, the company was a startup that, in addition to its product, offered software house services developing software for a few clients.
My mission: Change the game!
It was necessary to redesign the company strategy, adopting a new positioning strategy and to build the Design Team from scratch. Becoming a Design Oriented Organization focused on Digital Experience Design creating Solutions and Products with great UX.

We've created a new Logo and Visual Identity for the company and also a  new website was created with new offers of Products and Services were presented to the market.

New development processes and methodologies were adopted.Always having the principles of Design and the pursuit for Excellence and Quality, and of course the User Experience at the center.
The Impact
In less than three years, we went from a software house with 18 employees with no designers in the team, to a Product Design Consultancy with a consolidated image in the market, more than 100 employees, and more than 20 big organizations as clients.

From a single UX Designer for the whole company, the Design Team increased to 12 professionals creating amazing UX solutions for multiple clients.

Over the last 4 years our team has created dozens of Digital Products for great companies such as ABinBev, Johnson & Johnson, Santander, Auttar, Getnet, Ultragaz, Porto Seguro, iClubs, BTG Pactual and others.
NPS Score
Prior to the changes, we've conducted an NPS survey to measure our Clients satisfaction. The following topics were evaluated:
Deliverables Quality
Processes Adherence
Capacity of Understanding Users and Business Requirements
UX Heuristics Adherence
Design Assets Organization and Documentation
Top notch UI aesthetics
Collaboration and Interaction with Engineering teams
Interaction with key Stakeholders
The initial score was 68, which is not a bad score for NPS.

Six months later, after the changes were implemented, the new UX Services NPS Score was 98. This was an amazing evolution on our results.
Up Selling
The Quality of the Design Team's work and the Satisfaction of our Clients, reflects directly on our business opportunities. About 64% of all new projects started with our current clients are generated due to UX Design Positive Impact and our Client's Appreciation.
The Design
Strategy
In a consultancy company like Zappts, the Design Strategy aligned directly with client services, driving digital product development and supporting business strategies.

As the Head of Design, my primary responsibility was crafting and evolving this strategy. I closely collaborated with leadership, operations, development, QA, and engineering teams.

My role extended to influencing Design Processes and introducing New Products and Services. The Design Chapter, under my guidance, autonomously enhanced processes, ensuring stakeholder collaboration. For New Products, my meticulous approach involved board evaluation through a comprehensive Product Business Plan, guaranteeing alignment with our overarching strategy.
Products and Services Strategy
 I've implemented the services and product offers in partnership with the Board Leadership, marketing and Sales departments.The idea was to create a set of Design Services we could Increase our customer portfolio and Market Share. We've learned that through a solide Design Strategy we could increase the conversion rate of service proposals / contracts considerably.
The following services were implemented then:
Product Solution Design
Through the Product Solution Design Process, using creative design processes and tools such as Design Sprint, LDJ and Design Thinking workshops, the team designs, implements and tests high fidelity prototypes together with the user to create digital products in a short timeframe.
Design Facilitation
According to Client's needs and strategy, we can also help them on their discovery processes facilitating Ideation Workshops such as Design Sprint sessions.
UX Assessment
This services consists in reviewing the UX design of our customers' current digital products, propose improvements in the user experience creating new user journey proposals, developing and testing new prototypes.
Design System Implementation
Based on business needs the Design Team maps, plan, implements and maintain the Design System of the customers.
Design as a Service
Build dedicated teams for customers to support the strategic and operational demands of Product Design of the company.

Assembling teams with necessary professional profiles such as UX Designers, UI Designers, UX Writers, UX Researchers, Product Designers and Design Leads.

This way, customers can focus on the strategic management of the product while Zappts takes care of people management, delivery methods, platforms and digital tools, in addition to a very low turn-over to ensure the development and evolution consistency and continuity of the product.
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