THE MYERS-BRIGGS COMPANY (2018)
Large-scale company rebrand
CHALLENGE
The Myers-Briggs Company wanted to refresh their company image in order to unify their brand globally across the U.S., U.K., Australia and Singapore. The initial brand exploration was conducted by an outside agency, and our internal design team was tasked with translating the agency’s high-level brand guidelines into tangible elements across our various web properties.
MY ROLE
I served as one of the designers in the internal design team. I worked alongside designers across the company in developing and defining elements, creating guidelines, and implementing these guidelines across our websites and platforms. I also assisted in managing the design team's tasks, scheduling / leading meetings, and streamlining the team’s workflows when needed.
1. DISCOVER
The Myers-Briggs Company has 3 subsidiaries operating in the U.K., Singapore, and Australia. Prior to the redesign, the company’s global online presence was disjointed, with each of the subsidiaries having their own branding. This often led to confusion for our customers. They didn’t know our company operated globally, or that our subsidiaries were tied to The Myers-Briggs Company. And if they did, when they interacted with one of our subsidiaries, the online experience was completely different than that of The Myers-Briggs Company.
The U.S. site (before)
The U.K. site (before)
One of the key aspects of the rebrand project was to create a more cohesive global experience across the company.
The initial phases of the project were led by the executive management team and an outside design agency. As the agency began to provide different design directions, an internal design team was assembled to assist in narrowing down the direction. Myself and 3 other designers provided design input on each of the directions to assist key stakeholders in making the final decision.
Guidance provided by external agency: The Brand Consultancy
Once a direction was chosen, the agency provided The Myers-Briggs Company with high-level brand guidelines, including a color palette, patterns, and logo.
The internal design team was tasked with translating these guidelines into tangible elements.
To kickoff this process, we decided to have each of the UI designers take the high-level brand guidelines and begin designing how they would translate to their respective website or platform. This allowed each designer to explore how we could potentially apply these guidelines in a way that felt authentic to the company’s new mission, vision, and values.
I worked alongside a UI designer on the Elevate platform, the company’s full-service management tool to send, manage, and purchase assessments. As the UI designer went through her design exploration, I provided guidance and feedback on the direction prior to presenting to the larger design team. Providing this coaching helped me learn how to provide better feedback and critique someone else’s work.
The Elevate platform (before)
Additionally, I worked on analyzing and auditing the various websites and platforms across The Myers-Briggs Company (6 total), documenting common elements and how they were used. This served as a guide for all of the designers as they were working through their design exploration.
As the designers completed their design explorations, we moved into the Define phase to critique each other’s work and finalize key elements.
2. DEFINE
The Define phase began with each designer showcasing their work from the Discover phase. We critiqued each other’s work and refined designs throughout this process, until we felt comfortable with the elements that were designed.
As a team we revisited the goal:
creating a more cohesive global experience.
We knew that to create a cohesive experience we needed to do more than just have matching buttons, so we looked at each of the sites to determine which elements would help bring the most cohesion.
Using the audit list I had created, we worked to define which elements would help provide the most cohesion across the sites. The team decided to focus on the following key elements:
Headers
Footers
Buttons
Links
Patterns
Logo
Once we decided on these key elements we further refined the designs, thinking through how each of the elements would work, and what modifications would need to be made for each of the regional sites. Throughout this process I provided guidance on best UX practices, ensuring that usability was considered when making final design decisions.
Once we finalized how these key elements would look and work, we were ready to move into the Design phase.
3. DESIGN
The Design phase focused on implementing these keys elements across each of the sites. Throughout this phase the designers worked independently to design mockups for their respective site, meeting weekly to discuss progress, address questions, and make sure we maintained consistency across the sites.
I worked with the UI designer on the Elevate platform, documenting where we would need to make adjustments on the site to ensure that we covered all cases and scenarios. I provided feedback to the UI designer throughout this process.
The rebranded Elevate platform (after)
As the team moved through the Design phase, I documented decisions we made in our weekly meetings and any ongoing work to ensure we stayed on track.
I also created a comprehensive requirements spec for each of our websites and platforms. This helped serve as a high-level guide for the development team, so they understood what was in scope for phase 1 of this project, keeping everyone on the same page.
As each of the designers completed their work, we were ready to move into the Deliver phase.
The rebranded U.S. site (after)
The rebranded U.K. site (after)
4. DELIVER
The Deliver phase consisted of handing off all design requirements to the development team. Handoff for each of the teams was slightly different. For the Elevate platform, the UI designer provided the mockups through Zeplin and I provided any additional functional specifications that were needed.
This phase consisted of a lot of QA work. The design team was consistently testing each of the sites to ensure that each was functioning as per the mockups and specs. As we were working across multiple timezones, I created a
Google Sheet for us to track feedback for the development team. This helped ensure that the developers always had access to the most up-to-date feedback, and avoided any redundant feedback that had already been documented or addressed.
Q.A. feedback
RESULTS
Phase 1 of the The Myers-Briggs Company rebrand launched in October 2018. Within the first few days of the launch, we received positive feedback from our customers. This was the first step in creating a more cohesive global experience. Work is ongoing and we’re currently scoping out phase 2 of this project.
Alongside our launch, we announced that we had become a Certified B Corporation. I served as a co-chair for The Myers-Briggs Company's B Corp Committee, tasked with educating internal employees about B Corporations and why they matter. Ultimately, ensuring that the company met the 80-point requirement to become a Certified B Corporation. This was an incredibly rewarding experience, and one of my proudest acheivements to date.
Ahhh! Love the new brand! [...] I had no idea you were a B Corp. AMAZING.
- The Myers-Briggs Company customer