We worked with Adage Tech from 2015 to 2023.
Adage Tech
Strategy, Design, Analytics, & Tech Powerhouse
Adage is a habitual winner of awards. Adage provides strategy, analytics, user experience design, and software development to venues, theaters, ballets, operas, museums, aquariums, and associations. All agency services, not web dev or project management, come from our team under the Strategy & Design department.
Adage’s early stages focused on software development. E-commerce and web portals are now a focus. We’ve helped Adage refine its brand and grow its digital services. Adage now offers in-house digital strategy, analytics, content strategy, and user experience design. We introduced the organization to agile, design thinking, and UX strategy for digital transformation.
In 2015 the company was 35 people strong. Today, the company is close to 200 people and growing steadily—Adage is “Advancing Purpose” with technology.
Select Clients
We lead digital transformations for organizations seeking to address CX, UX, branding, and commerce.
The American Academy of Pediatrics
BEFORE
Adage was founded in 2001. By 2015 Adage enjoys a stellar reputation for high-quality coding, but most do not associate Adage with “UX.” It was our job to change that.
AFTER
We led design thinking workshops to help the organization better articulate its mission, vision, and purpose. We arrived at “Technology Advancing Purpose” as our brand mantra and Organizing Idea.
Creating an environment where design can thrive.
DELIVERABLES
- Brand Strategy
- Brand Book
- Style Guide
- Design System
- Motion Graphics
- Creative Direction
AWARDS & MENTIONS
- 6 Awards:
- The Communicator Awards
- MarCom Gold
- 4 Awards:
- AVA Digital
- DotComm Awards
- Horizon Interactive
- 3 Awards:
- Hermes
- 2 Awards:
- Awwwrds Best Commerce Site of the Year
- WebAwards
- Webby Nomination for the Cleveland Orchestra and the Kennedy Center
COMPANY
- 10+ Awards:
- Best & Brightest Places to Work, Chicago
- Best Places to Work in Illinois
- 3 Awards:
- Crain’s Best Places to Work Chicago
- Optimizely Partner of the Year Award
- Other recognitions:
- Inc. 500/5000 Fastest Growing Companies
- Optimizely Platinum MVP (2021 – Present)
YEAR
2015 – 2023
Colors & Material
Medium Blue
#1578D0
Magenta Magma
#951143
Night Sky
#130B2D
Details of a Digital First Brand.
At the heart of strong branding are strong guidelines on its proper usage. The little things matter, like this video guide on how the logo should be paired with partner logos in video applications like presentations, and social media. Little things become great things with discipline and vision. Vision matters.
Agile Transformation
When we were brought in to help Adage establish a user experience design department it was clear that the brand needed to be an early part of the job. The brand had to be brought up to speed. We covered a lot of ground. Everything from presentations, one sheet, and infographics, to photography and video.
The Adage brand matured quickly. We went on to register the trademarks with the USPTO for Adage, ACE Commerce, and Venue Builder. Service Marks were established for SmartStart (a code accelerator for Optimizely DXP), Adage Align (vision & discovery sequence), and Indago (an enterprise federated search accelerator product available on the Optimizely marketplace).
With the groundwork for the brand complete, we continued to build the internal environment for UX design at Adage. For design to succeed it was clear that the entire organization needed an update. People, processes, and tools. With our earlier experience helping Caxy move to agile we were in the right position to help Adage transform into an agile organization. So, working with the leadership team, together we transformed how teams were organized, how work was assigned, and how we went to market.
Between 2015 and 2017 we led an internal effort to restructure Adage delivery from a single pool of resources into a series of scrum teams. While the design team continued to operate in an inner agency model, the move to agile allowed for scaling teams quickly and predictably. Of course, the transition to scrum required lots of change management, training, role definitions, changes in recruiting practices, operational changes, and much more. No change is easy, but the benefits of scrum allowed Adage to deliver larger projects at scale.
At the end of 2019, we celebrated a gigantic year. With the strategy and design team rapidly growing between 2015 to 2023 from 3 designers to more than 20. With a larger team there were more opportunities for new team leads, and design managers.
Role
Vice President of UX, Strategy, Analytics
Client
Adage Tech
What We Did
Strategy, UX Director
Agile Transformation Leaders
Adage Brand Owner
Internal/External UX & Brand Champion
Thought Leadership & Public Speaking
Process Innovation Leader
Service Design & Design Thinking Leader
Design Operations (DesignOps)
While working on establishing consistent process and delivery methods across the organization we simultaneously were building the UX, strategy, and analytics practice groups. As the team continued to scale we focused on developing a systematic approach to process documentation, design principles, methods, and tools. Working groups were established to support DesignOps, Continuously Learning and Professional Development, Figma and Axure Best Practices, Strategy, and Analytics.
Thought Leadership
We value continuous learning. Wax on. Wax off. The value of kata. Repeat the process and practice. Practice makes masters. Mastery and a sense of purpose combine with autonomy to drive engagement and happiness. We are at our best when we share what we have learned. In the spirit of continuously learning we share our thoughts, expertise, and passions with the world.
Select Thought Leadership:
- The Association Podcast (Episodes 1 thru 40),
- The Actual Disruption Webinar Series (Seasons 1 and 2),
- This Blog,
- and the Adage Blog.
