What makes a successful website project? Some, maybe most, would say the metrics. Did we reach or exceed our quantitative targets? If so, success. While we certainly agree that strategic targets are a big part of having a successful project, we would add that focussing only on metrics can miss the human element. We’re thinking here not of qualitative feedback from the people interacting with the website (though that’s important too); but of the people who worked on the project.
For us, here at Aequilibrium, and, in this case, the wonderful folks at DUCA, a big part of success is the relationships that are grown during the project. From our point of view, relationships are much more than one of the contributing factors to reaching success, it’s part of the success itself. It’s a little bit like what an incredibly wise person once said about journeys being destinations.
Looking through that lens, working with DUCA to create their new public website was a resounding success. Of course, we exceeded the target metrics on their public website. We are proud of the fact that we could show that their confidence in us was well placed — to be a strategic partner who could understand their needs, help them translate those needs into a website, and grow with them into other projects.
As Arthur Krzycki, VP, Retail Banking Channels, put it: “What really impressed me is that Aequilibrium was intellectually flexible enough to understand that we were doing things a little bit differently than other credit unions. Aequilibrium recognized what our priorities were in terms of making our website an engine for member interaction and digital sales. We were working on a very real piece of our distribution network.”
For our part, we can say without a doubt that DUCA was, and remains, a great partner. They had a strong vision and consistent point of view. In short, they really knew what they wanted to achieve with their public website and every decision was made with that backdrop in mind. The strategy we co-developed drove every creative decision. That consistency, along with being great people to talk and work with, is a huge part of a successful project.
When challenges arose, as they usually do, there was a real feeling of facing them together. One challenge was that at the same time as we were creating the new public website, DUCA was going through a banking transformation — a huge project in and of itself. Of course, that can be planned for and we were prepared with contingencies and timeline considerations and the usual project management details. But, it goes beyond that — we also cared about their banking transformation project, checking in with them and giving them extra time when they needed it while always working behind the scenes.
Then, of course, what was impossible to plan for was COVID-19 and the effects of lockdowns across the world. We met that challenge together too. Sure it disrupted how we worked because we could no longer go to meet in person to hash out details, but we didn’t let it disrupt the work itself. And that’s a credit to working together, having patience, and trusting one another.
It’s that trust that’s most important — two teams that believe in each other and are working towards a single goal. In DUCA’s case, that goal was clear: to create a public website that embodied their brand promise and allowed their members to do more, be more and achieve more. Certainly, the metrics bear that out but more than that our journey with the people at DUCA continues on with other projects which is the real success.
