Frog - Case Study

Frog CASE STUDY

WRITTEN & PUBLISHED BY ACHINTYA VASHIST

Intended audience This insight into Frog design is an academic report. Under no circumstances should it be made available outside academic reference use.

For permission, contact the author.

Acknowledgement I would like to thank Professor Sara Ekenger for this opportunity to explore & learn about a creative firm in the UK. Without this project, I may not have learnt about a global professional organisation in-depth.

I would also like to thank Frog's London studio & the people there for all their insights, hospitality & effort. They were immensely helpful with their inputs & I thank them for the time they gave me.

Lastly, I would like to thank Prachi Goel for assisting me with the interviews as my number 2 & providing suggestions wherever possible during the interviews.

Thank You.

Contents

01 02 04 06 08 11 14 15 16 19 I XVI

INTRODUCTION ABOUT FROG STRUCTURE & ORGANISATION WORK CULTURE DESIGN STRATEGY BUSINESS PLAN STRATEGY AS A TOOL COMPETITION ANALYSIS RECOMMENDATIONS APPENDIX BIBLIOGRAPHY

Introduction Frog advances the human experience through design.

What?

Frog is a global design and strategy firm. Since it’s conception in 1969 the company has developed and grown into one of the biggest design & strategy consulting firms in the world. Today, Frog has studios and offices in 13 cities across the world and assists the world’s biggest enterprises (including AXA group & Audi) as well as UNICEF, providing them with innovate solutions by challenging the status quo. With a 94% approval rating from the clients and their rallying cry of ‘Form follows emotion’, Frog aims to grow further and dominate the design consulting waters.

Is it creative?

Frog is a company which is focused on design, user-centric design to be precise. The company provides various services for it's clients, which include – Growth Strategy, Customer Experience Design (CX), Product & service design, Venture design and Org Activation. Design thinking and customer journey mapping are one of the many design-centric methods used by Frog to solve problems.

Why Frog?

Designers and executives at Frog believe in touching market areas & aspects previously untouched and find creative solutions to expand in those arenas.

Thinking out-of-the-box and deviating from traditional methods is one aspect that has drawn a lot of attention towards Frog in terms of employment prospects

for

potential

employees

and

partnership

opportunity

for

businesses.

But is it so? *This case study with focus primarily on Frog London and their interaction with the studios in their region (Europe & India).

01

About Frog History

In 1969, Helmut Esslinger started “Esslinger design” while he was still in college. The first goal set by Esslinger was to achieve economic success. He was confident that the design process would be important for businesses and that there were executives who would value it. This led to him devising a 6-step ambitious plan – Look for clients who are hungry to reach the top.

Focus on business and do exceptional work FOR the client.

Become famous, as a visionary.

Use the fame to build the brand and the company.

Construct the best design firm ever.

Always connect with the best people – employees, partners, etc.

First project was WEGA, a german electronics brand acquired by Sony

Headquaters in San Francisco & changed name to Frog (acronym for Federal Republic of Germany)

1969

Engineering, branding and packaging became Frog's core offering, working with Lufthansa, Olympus, etc.

1982

Hartmut Esslinger sold majority stake to Aricent, hands over company leadership

1990

TODAY

2005

Future integration of new capabilities like VR, AI, and adaptive environments

Esslinger Design

1975

1984 - 87

Mid - 1990s

Mid - 2000s

Continued to work for Sony and designed Trinitron tv receiver & Walkman

Developed design language for Apple with Apple IIc system & then NeXT computers

Led another shift towards software designing for web and mobiles

Frog enter UX and convergent collaborations with Microsoft, GE, etc. to develop software applications

I was certain that the design process was too important to be ignored by companies looking to gain a strong competitive advantage.

HARTMUT ESSLINGER

Today, Frog has been acquired by Altran.

02

Vision

The market Frog operates in is not a new one, It is a red ocean. Yet over so many years, Frog has constantly maintained its position at the top of the segment and is considered one of the most respectable and known global design and strategy firm. But what Frog wants to be, is to be on the top.

There have been major new entrants in the design strategy segment but the leaders at Frog remain determined to be the best in the business, be it in terms of employment or in terms of business.

A major of part of Frog’s success and continued rise is thanks to its vision.

Frog puts great emphasis on creating new and good experiences, but that is not all. Frog challenges the status quo, questioning every aspect of design and asking the necessary questions and then solving these questions by looking at new directions and methods. Another aspect that Frog focuses on is holistic approach and empathy. “form follows emotion” is the rallying cry for Frog design and they express it proudly.

As evident in the history of Frog, the company keeps growing with the market trends and it will continue to do so. Frog London as a studio opened in 2017. Internally, the future of Frog London is growing into a larger and more dominating studio in Europe. Furthermore, Frog aims to find new questions with respect to upcoming technologies, such as virtual reality and augmented reality, and then answer them with the same holistic & usercentric approach.

Everyone who works at Frog has a question in their head.

So, is always trying new ways to solve.

JAN HELLEMANS, frog London

03

Structure & Organisation What?

Frog is a global company which has a different and unorthodox internal structure. Instead of having individual studios work as separate entities catering to clients in their regions, Frog works a global studio and this approach works quite well for them. Considering that Frog has studios and offices in 13 cities across 4 continents, each continent is considered as a part of a region which generally operates together unless otherwise required based on the project.

The regions are specified in the map -

North America

Europe

India

How 'global studio'?

Asia

Based on the project Frog assembles teams of selected designations from the region, brings them together in the studio where the project & client are.

According to the people at Frog, this method is more efficient than every studio working on its own and it creates a global network. Overall, it is not uncommon to see people from different European Frog studios to visit and work in the London studio for weeks at a time.

The hierarchy and internal structure can be best described as “unstructured” and not in a negative manner. Frog focuses on a horizontal hierarchical setup rather than a vertical one.

04

Frog London

Being a younger studio, the heirarchy structure of Frog's London branch is smaller.

Studio Head and Business Development Head

Executive Director

Creative Directors

Program Manager Marketing Manager

Manager

Designers Business Developers

Associate Interns

...and then they say, you know "we're Frog!" and "we'll see what happens.."

ANONYMOUS

Management & Leadership

There is a difference between a manager and a leader. ‘Manager’ often has a more technical aspect to it and it works as a designation. ‘Leadership’ on the other hand is not a title but a quality and is purely empathy-based. At Frog, ‘Manager’ is a title given to a person whose job it is to delegate the work and manage teams. ‘Leader’ is a term which is used to define a person who is on the top, for example – a Creative Leader.

According to a lot of current & former employees, Frog may have managers, but it does lack leaders. In recent years, there have been questions asked internally by employees on the future of Frog but those who need to answer do not have answers. With 3.3 out of 5 rating on glassdoor.com, it is quite evident that employee satisfaction is not a strong suit at Frog. Many complain that there is a lack of leadership and forward-thinking approach, which is down to the executives.

Many believe it is also because of the fact that there are creative leaders and not business leaders at the top.

05

Work Culture There's definite warmth here and people take their jobs very seriously.

ELIZABETH WOOD frog London

What?

The culture at Frog mimics that of any design firm. Friendly, open and semicasual are the best few words to define the work culture. Even the architecture of many Frog studios gives out a sensorial & warm mood – open spaces, interactive environment, no formal dress code – all of these things make Frog an exciting prospect for any designer to work in. The funny part is that even the ‘business’ people tend to forget the largely conservative ways of a corporate environment here. Furthermore, whenever questioned about the possible clashes between ‘the creatives’ and ‘business-people’, the answer has been a No. For the London branch, being in London is a major contributing factor to the work culture. Employees often talk about the diversity and different kinds of people from various disciplines they get to meet while working here. ‘Family’ is an apt term that can be used to define this group of creatives and business developers. Coffee time and having lunch together is something many might call ‘cheezy’ but the people at Frog London are proud of.

But all is not rosy at Frog London. Due to the diversity in the studio, people tend to be opinionated and that might sometimes create clashes, especially during projects but that is generally justified by the fact that this also enables a wide variety of thought processes and that it is a ‘family’.

Frog is a project-based company and client satisfaction is important. There are times when this inclination clashes with employee satisfaction and most times than not, the client wins this battle. Another aspect that inversely affects the work culture is the lack of proper leadership at the top. Employees have complained that the leadership does not have answers to the growthrelated questions. While their competitors are focusing on increasing employee satisfaction ratings, Frog is yet to acknowledge their shortcomings in this department.

06

We're trying to choose people we think will be leaders in 5 years.

ROSS LANDLES frog London

Hiring Policy

Frog is a global name which is renowned across the world. To maintain their consistency of delivering the best solutions for their clients, the hiring policies become rigid and long. The company acknowledges that it may not be easy to hire the best people right off the bat. To help with this, Frog hires based on ‘who will be a leader in the next 5 years?’ and if a certain individual has the potential to be a leader in design. Further, the aim is to work with these individuals and help them follow a path to eventual leadership. The motive behind this approach is that it is may not be easy to find individuals with Frog values in-built, hence it is better to develop these by working and learning at Frog.

Benefits

07

Frog also provides health-care benefits and pension plans for their employees.

Design Strategy ...clients say, "we don't know what to do, we want to be no. 1 in the industry and we want to push into something new".

JAN HELLEMANS frog London

Services

Being a design and strategy firm, Frog approaches their projects with a designer. The company tailors their services depending on the needs of their clients, which are B2B (Business to business) services.

Frog helps companies grow by identifying untapped areas and using these to expand

Growth Strategy

business opportunities. This service includes ideation, research, market strategy, technology planning and business modelling. An example of this is when Frog partnered with Rambus, a semiconductor company to develop a new IoT (Internet of things) using a human-centred approach.

Focusing on developing strong customer relationships, Frog helps their clients design experiences for their users. Employing human-centric design with data science as tools, they attempt to understand customer motivations, behaviours and values. Example – Frog worked with BT to redesign their TV ecosystem to increase customer satisfaction and

Customer Experience Design (CX)

ratings.

Architecture, Product & Service Design

Converging design, technology & strategy, Frog creates product, service & brand experiences. They approach every aspect of design and implementation including branding, interaction design, architecture, etc. Working with LQD, Frog designed ‘Palo’ which was aimed at connecting people more deeply with their communities by reinventing payphone designs.

A dynamic approach in which Frog helps start-ups and companies to rapidly conceptualise, build and launch a new business. Frog partnered with Charlie, a seed-funded startup on a mission to transform how people manage their daily spending and money.

Venture Design

Frog helps companies develop, modernize and grow their internal capabilities for better

Org Activation

outputs by using design as a tool to reveal organizational, operational and cultural barriers and solves them.

08

Process

Frog has a set of step-by-step processes they employ to solve the businesses’ most complex problems. Although pre-defined, it is not necessary to follow these steps because the idea is to approach questions from a previously unknown direction and answer them accordingly. All of this depends entirely on the ask of the client and the scale of the problem. Average timeline of any project at Frog ranges from 8 weeks to 2 months.

PROJECT ARRIVES Timeline Team Selection

A timeline is set depending on the contract and is done by the Program Manager.

Depending on the project, a team is selected by the Resourcing Manager and assembled at the studio close to the client.

Immersion Phase

Problem is identified. Full-day workshops are done with the client to understand the situation and cumilate all the information available with the client and the business in general.

Stakeholder Interviews

Interviews are held within the client's organisation to understand the vision, their views and the business.

Secondary Research Field Research Analyse

Identify what needs to be done, conceptualise and research which then defines the

Further Research

Visiting another country to talk to people. It is important to talk to the right people

spectrum - This may be good for the business but how is it for the user?

and ask the right questions. Sometimes a recruitment agency is hired to identify people. Approx. 3-4 interviews are held per day.

Synthesis

All the research and knowledge is combined to identify patterns and opportunity

Presentation

Findings are presented to the client using qualitative and quantitative information as

DELIVERY

09

areas, following which more concepts are developed.

well as the opportunity areas.

Concepts are finalised into a product or service or sets of the same.

Design Management

At Frog, the person who most closely resembles and acts like a Design Manager is the Program Manager. The job of a program manager is to be the person-of-contact and communicate with the client. Frog has multiple channels internally and so does the client. The program manager acts as the connecting point between Frog and the client. Any recommendations, negotiations, timelines etc. are set by the program manager. It is the job of the Program manager to ensure that the project is being delivered according to the set timeline and that any delays or shortcomings are communicated & negotiated with the client through proper channels. Although, the role of a Program Manager may not always be that of a leader since the people who lead the teams on projects are Design Leads.

Communication

Frog is a global network of studios across 4 continents. Regions work together and communication is the most important aspect of a proper functioning team. Slack is a common chat platform used by designers and business developers to interact. Channels exist based on different services and aspects of design, for example – Visual design channel, UX channel, which are meant for Frog employees across the world to communicate, share ideas and socialize. Frog has setup 3 separate regions that work together to ensure that studios in similar time zones can effectively work together.

Unfortunately, communication is an aspect which has become a primary issue at Frog. This has been echoed by a majority of Frog people who find it difficult to communicate with different studios.

10

Business Plan Frog is a premium design firm ROSS LANDLES frog London

Strategy

Frog’s basic business strategy is to have its top 2-3 designers across the global network work for every client to collaborate with and solve them.

These designers have deep expertise in ‘horizontal’ business problem which include – Experience Design, Service Design and Business Strategy. These are business problems that any company in the economy needs to taken advantage of. How this achieved is by hiring the best designers in those domains across the world.

All these aspects are what Frog calls its value proposition.

Part of Frog’s business model is to invest in start-up and new ventures that real potential to be big players in their respective industries in the future.

250

Revenue (in Millions USD)

Revenue & Pricing

200

150

100

50

0 2005

2020

Years

Frog is a business-focused company. The company has seen an up-hill increase in its revenue in the last 15 years. Following the end of this quarter and the financial year (31st March 2020), Frog is set to hit USD 200 million mark. This is due to the company being acquired by Altran and its constant urge to continue expanding their avenues.

11

.Pricing at Frog is a confidential detail which is limited to the knowledge of the company’s business heads and the client. The projects are entirely contract-based. Being a premium design firm, Frog charges are high fee for its projects. Each employee at Frog generates USD 400,000 in revenue. The business development head at Frog London justifies the fee by highlighting that Frog hires the best people in the business who demand the best pay packages, hence the premium fee for projects.

Marketing

Frog is one of the top 3 design firms on earth. With that comes a certain brand value and reputation, which essentially makes it an exciting prospect for potential clients to work with Frog. To add to that is the distinctive approach that Frog studios have towards any given problem in a business and how the fundamental problems that businesses have can be aligned with Frog’s capabilities.

At a smaller scale, Frog regularly holds events and sends out newsletters to engage its audience and further increase their client base. Furthermore, email marketing is another strategy to increase clientele. A lot of the events include design workshops, general discussions and focus groups. Currently, Frog is working on 'something' (cannot be reveiled) which will be another exciting opportunity for interaction.

Clientele

Frog has a big list of companies they have worked with. Starting from budding and new start-ups that are looking to approach and make a stand in their industry to known brands looking to internally or externally modify their various arenas. Their clients can be anyone looking for answers to a specific set of questions that fall under the services provided by Frog. Although considering the fact that Frog is a premium service provider, the clients are generally companies who have a decent of revenue and/ or cash reserves. At any moment, there are approximately 5 projects on-going at Frog London.

Few Companies that have partnered with Frog are -

12

It is evident by Frog’s revenue estimates and standing in their industry that clients have experienced good quality solutions and have smiled with satisfaction when writing a cheque.

The following client reviews add to that evidence.

Our collaboration with frog leveraged their spectrum of capability and contribution from strategy and market opportunity identification, to user-centered design, to story telling and promotion. Big ideas, practical insights, actionable deliverables…

13

By working with frog, we’ve been able to establish design as a cornerstone pillar of Kidaptive. Combining design with technology and the learning sciences has positioned us to build a world class organization that will help children learn and have fun, and empower parents in this process.

Strategy As A Tool What?

Apart from design services, Frog provides strategy consulting services to businesses with a design touch. The phrase ‘business value of design’ which highlights the importance of design-related aspects such as humancentricity and empathy, has been talked about a lot in recent years and Frog has published its own take on the subject.

Frog offers Venture design and Org Activation as services to clients which are meant to enhance the experience of their users. ‘5 key sources of value’ are a set of tools that are used to effectively judge the impact on businesses.

Increase speed to market

Which helps organisations outpace their rivals to the market giving them a competitive advantage.

Methods include - rapid iteration and co-creation.

Extend market reach

Is meant to reduce failures, launch successful products and expand reach in the market.

Methods include – Deep user insight (adds empathy value to market research)

Drive engagement and loyalty

Is also part of the customer experience service. The idea is to avoid experiential frustration and inconsistencies thereby increasing customer loyalty towards the company/ brand.

Method includes – 3-factor framework of breadth (no. of interactions with the customer), depth (quality and meaning behind each interaction) and consistency (ensures a promise to each interaction).

Enhance internal capabilities

Is where Frog attempts to challenge the status quo by re-evaluating and modifying the internal structure and capability of any organization which inturn helps them pursue long-term opportunities.

Visonary transfromation

Is where org-activation comes into play. In this, opportunities are explored in order to bypass competitors and reset customer expectations.

14

Competition Contenders

According to the Business Development head at Frog London, the company has strong competition in every industry (considering that design and strategy are the primary focuses of Frog).

We try and win where design is the key question.

ROSS LANDLES frog London

FIRM

EMPLOYEES

ESTIMATE ANNUAL REVENUE

FUNCTION

500-550

USD 200 M

Design & Strategy

600

USD 150 M

Design & Strategy

IDEO is considered the main competitor Frog has since it is a firm that offers services similar to Frog.

69

USD 7 M

Design & Strategy

Fjord is the another competitor Frog has although with less revenue.

100 (EY-Seren) 270,000 (EY)

USD 4.4 M (EY-Seren) USD 36.4 B (EY)

Multi (inc. Strategy & Design)

USD 10 B

Strategy

30,000

New player in the design strategy market, not considered competitor yet by Frog

New player in the design strategy market, not considered competitor yet by Frog

To counter this, Frog acknowledges its strengths as a design firm and aims to be the strongest option where design is the central question and win there.

People at Frog do not tend to consider big consulting firms as a threat since they are new design strategy market whereas Frog has been there a long time and can offer distinctive service while being at an advantage.

15

Analysis

Strength, Weakness, Opportunity & Threat

S

1/ Semi-causal & democratic work environment inspires creativity.

2/ Diversity provides different perspectives.

3/ Hiring policy for developing future leaders.

4/ Client involvement in projects and holistic approach.

5/ Creatives and business-people work together on projects.

6/ Solve complex business problems using innovative design-strategy solutions.

7/ Potential investment in new ventures.

8/ Growing revenue.

9/ Focus on exploring the unknown and focus on user-experience.

10/ Variety of projects.

W

1/ Team assembly every time a new project is commissioned.

2/ Leadership is not effective and decisive.

3/ Communication gap because of technical glitches affect productivity.

4/ Marketing, immediate competitors and are easier to spot on platforms.

5/ Do not acknowledge strategy competitors and their revenue.

6/ Lack of vision for the future.

1/ Expansion into the core-strategy market using.

O

2/ Have market standing, can use this to expand marketing horizons.

3/ Potential equity partnerships with new ventures and start-ups.

4/ Improve clientele by landing fortune-500 clients.

5/ Advancements in technology & design-strategy expertise.

T

1/ Competitors have higher revenue capabilities, can poach the best talent in the market by their sheer size and high salaries.

2/ Possible stagnation if strategy competition is not acknowledged.

17

Micheal Porter's 5 Forces Model

COMPETITIVE RIVALRY 1. Red ocean market.

2. Well

SUPPLIER POWER 1. No primary suppliers.

All in-house.

established competitors

BUYER POWER 1. Revenuebased.

THREAT OF SUBSTITUTION 1. Unique

THREAT OF NEW ENTRY 1. No major

services

competition

2. Substitutes

offered.

as Frog has

available.

2. Approach

standing in

solutions

the design

3. Veblen effect

with a

– Price can

differently by

significant

increase with

exploring

market pull.

demand.

unchartered

power of

areas.

management

3. Core-strategy

4. Offer

consulting firms are possible

premium

consulting

services.

firms and

5. Large

competitors.

market.

2. Revenue

their recent

audience.

investments

6. Medium say of

in design-

customers.

strategy firms is a major threat.

HIGH

VERY LOW

LOW

VERY LOW

VERY HIGH

18

Recommendations The idea is to explore and analyse.. then talk about what I would do..

ACHINTYA VASHIST

Competition

It is understood that Frog has a major market standing in its industry.

Unfortunately, its competitors are growing exponentially. Big management consulting firms are acquiring companies like Frog and expanding their horizons by venturing into and incorporating design-strategy methods.

Therefore, it is essential that Frog considers them as competition judging by their revenue and investment capabilities. Agree, they may not reach Frog’s level for a few years but they will soon.

Secondly, management consulting firm’s salary brackets are bound to be higher when compared with Frog along with more branches globally. This may be a very attractive prospect for potential employees.

This can be done by investing a part of their revenue by building new offices and employing more man-power as well as improving marketing.

Marketing

Today, marketing at Frog is based on their brand value. A quick google search puts IDEO and Fjord above them in fame. It is recommended that Frog invest in marketing and attempt to land more fortune-500 clients. Their reputation and vision will help them in this endeavour.

Leadership

Hartmut Esslinger wanted to be a visionary. Although, it has been known that at Frog the leaders do not have answers to questions related to the companies vision and future. The only answer available is that “We are Frog”, which technically shows that the ‘top-men’ at Frog do not have a direction.

This eventually may demoralize their employees and affect productivity. A few employees even suggested that they would rather have a businessminded leader with a vision that a creative-leader without one.

Known leaders have always made sure that their vision is well communicated and sent across the entire company. Jordan Belfort hosted regular talks

19

where he motivated people to work.

One possible solution could be to hire a person proficient in leading and business. Another solution could be to hold regular conversations and talks with the employees to motivate them. Telling an employee that Frog is going to compete with a McKinsey or Bain would surely instil a drive.

New Ventures

This aspect of Frog is not a problem but rather a good opportunity. Frog invests in new ventures and start-ups and also assists others. A good possible solution to increase the revenue further would provide services by acquiring certain equity in the new venture and help them grow. With their growth, the investment will multiply and that can then be used to improve Frog’s capabilities and increase their revenue.

20

Appendix

Interview Transcripts Date:

19th December 2019

Location:

frog design, 2 Glade Path, London SE1 8EF

Interviewer:

Achintya Vashist (AV)

Elizabeth Wood (EW)

Interview 1 Time:

12.00 - 12.25 PM

Marketing Manager

AV: I am an architect by profession. I study in LCC, MA Design Management.

EW: So you have an architecture background.

AV: Yes. AV: So I’ll tell you the project brief, which is basically that I have to take a company that has a creative output or is a creative industry company. Frog has that. I have to analyse everything i.e how the internal function is & how the external function is. How you interact with the clients, how you manage the company internally.

AV: So, I’ll start by asking you a few questions & then we’ll take it forward as a conversation.

EW: Sure, Yeah.

AV: Would you like to introduce yourself?

EW: Yeah sure! My name is Elizabeth Wood. I am the marketing manager at Frog now but I’ve been with Frog since 2011, in different capacities. I started in the New York studio, working there on the product side as the company’s first copywriter & content person. So like a lonely writer in a sea of all these designers. I was there for several years. I left for a couple of years to go to IBM which wasn’t a great fit. I can back & I am very happy to come back to Frog. So now I’m here in the marketing team which is really exciting because I get to talk about Frog.

AV: So, what exactly is your job function?

EW: Yeah, so, we’re a global team. We have studios all over the world but I’m here now. I am a student as well, I study at Birkbeck in the evenings in creative writing. I’m here during the day

talking about what we do, which is, I write reports, I write blog posts, I write articles, I help support events with the community but we’re on a global level but I try to represent what Europe & Middle-East is doing. We also have studios in India as well so trying to get the word about the work we’re doing in there various studios.

AV: Ok, so as in marketing, which countries do you concentrate on from the London office?

EW: I’m based in London which is pretty useful as I speak English. In terms of the events & everything, I can really be an asset. We also have a representative on our marketing team in Spain & we have a couple of offices there as well so, she helps with that. We have the marketing director who is based out of Munich. Frog originally started in Germany so we’re in 2019 & this is our 50th anniversary year. We’ve had a lot of events around that & a lot of content around that. Yeah & so, we have a team in the US which we work really closely with, I used to work in the same studio with them & now we communicate over Slack, like most companies.

AV: Is communication comfortable? You know, coordinating with all the offices around, is it comfortable?

EW: Yeah, I mean it definitely sometimes has challenges. Like we have an office in Shanghai & they have someone who doesn't really interface through us as much because of the kind of bounces between China & Boston. So she generally communicates with the team there. But then Ian Lee, he is our creative director & he spends a lot of his time in Shanghai as well. He is based here but he goes kind of goes back & forth so I get the low-down of what’s going on them but of course, they have different market needs in terms of communications as well.

AV: Alright. What is the company structure like? What’s the hierarchy?

EW: Hierarchy is really interesting here. This particular London studio is so small that everybody knows what each other is doing & usually tends to be working on the same projects together.

So I think, Frog is a very project-based organization. Like the teams are really dependent on the engagement you are in at that time. But in terms of hierarchy, we have creative directors & executive creative directors that lead the teams. Ross Landles, is always a phone call because he is basically the general manager of the studio but he’s also the head of business development here so he’s very client-focused, he’s really about getting in new business & managing those relationships.

AV: Ok, so what all departments do you have, as in, what does Frog do?

EW: So, we have creative teams. We have a multidisciplinary design team so that’s visual designers, interaction designers who handle different disciplines. Jan, whom you’ll meet with later is an experience designer which is about interaction as well but a lot of more. We don’t always do digital things. Our history is industrial design, so now, just the nature of the way the world works We’re always trying to straddle these lines between digital products, the way they interface with real-life & your physical surroundings & things like that. So, it’s more about larger experiences. In fact, Ian will start by giving a preview when you talk to him. Ian, his focus is convergent design so really about making those experiences feel holistic from a brand perspective. So, we make everything from apps to dishwashers to everything. It’s dependent on the client need.

AV: Ok, so you’re basically into the product line, services and anything else?

EW: A lot of visual design but yeah, we’re really all about products & services.

AV: Ok, so all the branches of design; industrial design etc.

EW: Yes, we also have mechanical engineers.

AV: So, are they all here in the London branch or spread all across the globe?

EW: Right all across the globe. For instance, the New York office where I spent a lot of my time is physically larger space & has more people there so the industrial team is there & they have their own workshop & studio there. We’re in 10 countries with approx. 11-13 studios, so like I said, people will come in here a lot. Like for this past month, we had folks from the Milan studio here working very closely with our teams here. So, people really go in & out.

AV: It is basically dependent on the type of client you get & whatever their needs are, according to that you commission the project into the branch which is most apt for it, right?

EW: And all also on the basis of the relationship we might have in the region. Because all of our studios are pretty multidisciplinary & let’s say if there was a need for mechanical engineer here, we would either work with our studio in Malmo to help with that or there might be an opportunity for someone from the US to come here or us to go there.

AV: Ok, So it’s a global approach. Rather than having individual people in individual offices.

EW: I think in the studios there’s always a balance, especially from the marketing stand-point communicating is funny because every studio has their own culture but we’re all part of this bigger global network. I think especially being here, I’d say even more so that New York, you meet people from other studios all the time because it’s physically closer. Like people can jump in from Munich for a day or Milan or from our couple of studios in France & Spain, whereas in the US, you would get a lot of visitors from around the States mostly.

AV: How many people do you have in the London branch?

EW: I think 12-13 people, Something around there. So it’s a small team & it’s really nice being on a small team. All the Frog studio actually do this thing called ‘Monday Morning Meeting’, where everybody gets together & it’s like all-hands, everybody can talk. But I think what’s really exciting about the London studio is that everyone is pretty knowledgeable about what’s going on with each other’s work because the structure is so client & project-based, a lot of times you’ll be on a project for like months or a year & then you can go like –“Hey, what have you guys been doing”, you know you kind of miss what your neighbours are doing because you’re really super-focused on your own teams. That’s something I really love about this studio is that everybody is really aware of what everyone’s working on & how to help them.

AV: Do you guys innovate?

EW: Yeah, Frog is a global design strategy but yes, always about innovating.

AV: So when it comes to strategy, do you function as a consultancy as well?

EW: Yeah, I think the nomenclature will change over time. The way we communicate it has changed over time, just kind of with the nature of the need but there’s always this innovation & consultancy practice that is viewed from the design perspective.

AV: Right now in the London office you must have clients. So may I ask how many clients do you have?

EW: I actually don’t know that number but right now we might have approx. 5 projects on-going but I wouldn’t know. That would be a better question for Ross.

AV: Which year has been the best financial year so far for the London branch?

EW: That would be another thing to ask Ross about because I’m really new in London. I moved here in September.

AV: Pretty much the same as me.

EW: (laughs) From where?

AV: India!

EW: Ok, so straight from India to here?

AV: Yeah.

AV: Since you’re forte is marketing, what are the various means of marketing for the company here, specifically for the London branch? So ways through which you market or get new clients or probably maintain a relationship with the existing ones.

EW: You know, we try to see our audience as being on a journey with the company. We help clients understand how their customers are on a journey but I think for us it’s important to think about our audiences as either being in a state of discovering Frog or working with Frog to advocating on our behalf. So, I think our content & things we do kind of, support that. So sometimes I’ll reach on digital channels, social media & email campaigns. Other times it’s about hosting events here that we have here in this physical space, we had another location for a few years not too far from her but now, we have our own studio & we’re really excited for more opportunities to have design-related events – workshops, general discussions etc. A lot of times that’s an opportunity for people to get to know us & will help with that. Other times we will write blogs or articles.

AV: So you must have newsletters & all of that stuff.

EW: Yeah, we have the US focused newsletter & we’re relaunching our other newsletters.

Sometimes we do prints as well, print-pieces. I can share one of those with you before you go.

We basically will do case-studies with people after a project & work with a client, help put a story together based on how the work went & if we have outcomes to share. We are working

AV: Ok, great! So you obviously have competitors in the field. Whom do you consider your competitors here in London?

EW: It depends on a lot of things. Like there are some more traditional design firms & more like us, for example – IDEO or Fjord. Also, bigger business consultancies are starting to embed design within their practices so I think you’ll have some people who’ll say that we’re competing against Bain, Mckinsey & PWC. So I think kind-of in some ways it could feel like we’re up against them. For us, it’s really about what’s the design advantage & not the competition itself.

AV: I feel you guys might have an advantage over them because at the end of the day they are management consultancies. They are trying to implement design methods that we study & you guys do.

EW: Right, exactly. Yeah, for instance, we have an offering we call Org-Activation which is about helping companies transform, it’s really about helping them think differently or re-organise their businesses around their offering, around helping their employees deliver better experiences for their users & things like that. In some ways that could feel, in that line of work like we’re against McKinsey. We are thinking about new organization as well but we’re always doing that through design lines. We are thinking about what’s the new tool we can design to make this better or whats the new way of doing this. But it is depending on the nature of work it really is.

AV: As you said, Frog is client-based. So do you focus more on the business side or the design side? What exactly is the major focus?

EW: I’m not sure. I think it just depends on the client & their need but there is always something that we’re designing ultimately.

AV: If you’re comfortable answering this question – when I talk about the pricing? How do decide the pricing of any project?

EW: That is not my scope. That is something you can ask Daniel Ingram about. A program manager, he might have more thoughts about this.

AV: No worries. Do you have an HR department here?

EW: We do. Not located in the office but she comes here often & otherwise we can always reach out on Slack.

AV: What are your hiring policies? What do you look for in people?

EW: We have talent acquisition teams at different studios. We look for referrals. If there is a requirement for a writer then I am asked if I know someone as I have been a content writer.

Mostly people with a design background & then we have partnerships with a lot of schools to bring people in. We do internships & things like that. Most people who work at Frog have a design schooling.

AV: If you had two candidates, one from a design background & the other from a management background, who would have a better chance?

EW: I think it would depend on the fit for the team. I’m not sure if it would be one way or the other necessarily because we definitely have like business strategists & they might be coming from more traditional business backgrounds. But generally pretty consistent from both the camps.

AV: Would you have any idea about the HR policies that are here in this London branch?

EW: For London, I’m very new so I have to ask questions myself, especially because I’m part-time. I am a student. I’ve always been really happy with Frog in that department, especially working in the US where your workplace determines your health care so often, I would say that is something I always found so worthwhile about being at Frog. I know some other places where it wasn’t like but Frog took care of it. Another thing is that here in London, we tend to eat lunch together whereas in the US, people may eat at their desks. That’s also because people are less & we’re more close-knit.

AV: It’s like a family.

EW: (Laughs) Yeah, I know it sounds cheesy but this one time I had come back from Amsterdam after work & the executive director told me “Welcome home” & I was like “awwwww..” so yeah it’s like a home.

AV: Yes, design firms tend to have this warmth.

EW: Yeah, there’s definite warmth here & people take their jobs very seriously, they’re very passionate about it, very detailed.

AV: Great! This was good! We’re pretty much done. I have no other questions.

EW: I guess, just things to know about Frog? We’re all over the place, London studio we’re really excited about, opening our doors more, getting people in. We do partnerships in organisations like WIN (Women In Innovation) & so we’re really trying to help bring design expertise to different workplace challenges & being a good part of the London business & design community.

AV: Last one! Would you have any idea about the future plans of the London branch? Like where do you see yourself in 5 years?

EW: Yeah, the plan is to keep growing because we’ve been here in London for several years & even before we had a physical office, we had clients in the UK so we’ve been working in & out of UK for a really long time so I think to keep growing & to keep being a place for people to come for different events & opportunities.

AV: Great! Thanks a lot for your time.

EW: You're welcome. I’ll send in the next person.

Jan Hellemans (JH)

Interview 2 Time:

12.25 - 13.00 PM

Experience Designer

AV: I’ll start with my introduction. I’m an architect by profession & I study MA Design Management at LCC. This project is a case study that I have to do for the course.

AV: Let’s have your introduction.

JH: What do you want to know about me?

AV: So, how long have you been a part of Frog?

JH: About 4 years now. So basically my official title is interaction design. But that means a lot of things within Frog. Not sure if anybody’s talked to about that so far or if you know what interaction design means.

AV: No, I was about to ask you what exactly do you mean by interaction design, because that’s a very wide topic.

JH: Yeah, exactly. I think it boils down to two major categories – one being the traditional UX designer, as in UX/ UI & you’re really into the deep end of UX i.e where buttons need to go & like how the thing works. That’s not what I do! I’m the other side which is more like off-stream, it’s more thinking about hardcore experience strategy, as in more thinking about or doing research like secondary research, thinking about what are the opportunity areas, what are the concepts we can build & how does it match with what the users are saying, Also, how does it match with the business, What does it mean for the business, what does it holistically mean & how does the eco-system look. So yes, you are asking for something but the solution might be several different things combined together & how does that sit on your timeline. Which ones to do first. It could be a combination of physical things with service or digital. So that all that I work on.

AV: Whenever you have a project, what’s the process of the project? How do you go about including where do you start from, what’s the first thing that you do which I think would be identifying the problem areas of the project?

JH: It really depends on what project we’re getting. How we do it depends on what the ask is from the client & what we need to do. I can only talk about projects that I’m mostly involved in, which more off-stream, blue sky thing – which is where the client says, we don’t know what to do & we want to be the number 1 in our industry & we want to push into something new, but we don’t know how or what or when or where. So that’s where I work mostly, these are the type of projects I work on mostly. Those projects are like on for 8 weeks to 2 months, something like that. It always starts off with the immersion phase, in which we try to identify what the client wants & where the client is in their business. To do that we hold workshops with the clients, mostly it’s a full-day workshop. We go over with them identifying what are all criterion that you have or has & maybe also trying to see where our heads are at, what information they have. On top of that, we do our stakeholder interviews that involve talking to people within the organization to understand what their vision is, what their views on things are & again, to understand how the business works. Of course, at the same time, we try to dwell on the topic ourselves as well which is more like secondary research. So all of that takes about a week or two maybe. At the same time, we’re also preparing to go out to do some field research & that usually happens in the 3rd week or so. So, coming out of the kick-off meeting or brainstorm meeting with the client, we start to analyse what are the things we can do & at the same time, we come with our own perspectives on things.

Then we try to combine these two together into some concepts that we might come up with & it’s those things that we then take into research to validate which spectrum are we talking about here, if let’s say these things make sense for the business but what things make sense for the user? So we test the waters a little bit & then we research on it for about a week by going to a specific country & talking to specific people. We need to make sure we are asking the right questions, we’re talking to the right people. Usually, we get help from recruitment agencies for that, we can tell them what we want & they can then find people for us. The client also helps in finding people to talk to. Let’s say if we talk to 10 people & that’s 3 or 4-aday.

After that, we could do the synthesis which depending on the project can go longer or shorter. I would say synthesis is normally about a week-ish of work & it is analyzing everything we’ve heard from the research.

Then if we combine everything we start to see patterns & opportunity areas following which develop more concepts. Along with this we also give a presentation back to the client to say this is what we heard from the people & this is all we found out. Some of the things might be surprising, some they already know. Then we tell them that from all the things we heard back, these are the opportunity areas that we will look to explore.

So yeah, then we try to work it out & come out with a system of products or concepts.

AV: Is it easy to make the clients understand what you’re trying to say when you’re presenting your research?

JH: What do you mean by that?

AV: As in, so when I was in my first term, I learnt the fact that as designers we understand qualitative date & business people understand quantitative. Since you’re in the profession, is it actually like that or do you experience the gap?

JH: Sometimes, but when our clients come to Frog, they already know what we do usually & they have some kind of an understanding about what we do. And before we even start a project, there’s this whole process which has setting out the contracts & they are told how we work.

Also, when we pitch to the clients, we tell them that this is what we’re going to do & they’re kind of familiar with it, especially the main stakeholder should know this but yes, there are sometimes that people from the business side do not understand & they go like – “Ok, you just talked to 10 people, what does that mean?”. So we try to shape our presentation that way that we explain what this qualitative research means & what we can get out of it. Of course, we also use our name, Frog & we have a reputation so they trust that this our process. But yeah, again we have to at times explain what the differences are, why we should do one thing & not the other. But a good point you made is that we try to combine both & that’s why we have strategists as well who are mostly doing the qualitative research bits on top quantitative ones. For example, For this one project, we went to several different countries, interviewed different people – around 50 or so. But also on top of that, we did quantitative research by sending out surveys & we got 100s of responses. So we give the qualitative bits & then back it up by numbers. Frankly, as I said before sometimes it is needed, sometimes it’s not needed & depends on the fact that whether it makes sense for the project.

AV: Ok, so what according to you is the vision of Frog?

JH: The vision of Frog. According to what Frog wants?

AV: Let’s say, what Frog aims to do in the next 5 years? Or what is the main motive, I mean, what do you want the customers to experience?

JH: We want to create good & new experiences but that’s pretty standard. The one thing that people need Frog to do is really questioning everything and trying to challenge the status

quo and the client as well, in a way. Improve our processes. Other companies can do everything we do but we really push forward to what is next and challenge the client in what they ask for. So we can go like, you asked for this but maybe we can do that? Because everyone who works at Frog has a question on their head, so always trying new ways to solve.

AV: Ok, so is that like your selling point?

JH: For me, Yes. But I’m not sure about the business guys. For me, yeah, I think that’s where we separate ourselves because we actually can come with point of views and different perspectives. I think that makes us much stronger compared to the other agencies.

AV: Ok, that makes sense. So how is it working with people who have business minds? People who see black & white while designers have this grey area. You’ve got business development people working on marketing and all of that, how is it working with them? Are there any issues or anything?

JH: So, I mean, whenever a person in a certain area, for example, you’ve got your project managers, then you have designers, you’ve got business developers but within that spectrum, they’re all different and they work differently. Sometimes a business developer may have a more creative background, sometimes not. So basically, it’s always different who you talk to and same for the project managers, they always work in different ways so there is no one set rule or one set way the Frog BD works. There’s always this personal touch to it which is, although I like that, it’s also challenging sometimes because every time you work with somebody you have to get to know the person, see how they work and so that’s a bit of a challenging area. But in general, I think this has been managed really well from the higher management and the higher management is really with a creative background. They’re creative leaders and so that helps. Also, when people join Frog they know it’s a creative industry where creatives work and I think the BD folks generally like it. They don’t always prefer the corporate structure.

I think everyone likes it!

JH: (laughs) AV: Any communication issues you face because Elizabeth told me that Frog works as a global company. London itself is not a separate entity but is a global network. So, you must be

AV: be interacting with people in Asia, Europe and people in America. How’s the communicating aspect?

JH: We usually don’t go across borders of regions. As in we have the North America region, we have Europe & India region and then we have the Asia region. We usually don’t go over the borders of those regions that much, at least not the designers and creatives, we don’t do that.

Creative directors sometimes. We use Slack as a communication tool so there are different channels on slack, for example, all things related to visual design or all things related to interaction design, all things related to strategy, all things related to impact design and all things health care related, so these are specific groups which you can join and you can get to people, you get to know what’s going on in different studios. I think I really like working with Slack and you can have one-on-ones. Also, you can always reach out to people and this one thing I would encourage every frog to do is to reach out to people and be as interactive as you can be. Everyone is open to talking to you and everyone is down to earth and very friendly but you need to take that step, right? Because nobody’s gonna say – “Hey, you should tell me that”, so you have to be interactive yourself. But for me, it’s in my personality so I have no issues with that. For some people, it can be challenging.

AV: Great! So, anything else you would like to tell us about Frog, say for example, how’s working for Frog?

JH: Oh! It’s great! (laughs). So, in the beginning, let’s say my first year – year in a half, I was just working on anything I could get. But you kind of get to choose your path and choose what you want to do. I also ended up being on the off-stream design part and now I’m more in health projects. So, you can find your own way and there are managers and creative leads who try to accommodate what you want for your own career path. I mean, usually, if you’re under a good manager you can always rely on Frog to support you in things, which is a good thing.

AV: What’s the work culture like here?

JH: The work culture. It kind of feels like a family sometimes in a way. As in like with the good

things and the bad things. Because everyone is so opinionated and has a very certain, particular personality that you really need to know. So, a lot of very different personalities which makes it very interesting also sometimes you can go head-to-head, especially in projects when you’re trying to figure out the research and what it is. But it’s like being in a

in a family so it’s ok. I think that’s a good thing. Also, if you want to be left alone for a while, you can just sit in your corner. So, yeah, it’s very open, very transparent culture and I think the people you work with day-to-day are very down to earth and nice people. I think that also comes down to how we recruit people and we have a very rigid and long way of recruiting but usually, we can cherry-pick the people who really fit with the Frog culture which is being quirky and try to challenge the status quo.

AV: Do you innovate?

AV: Like, if you had to rank Design, Innovation and Management – what would be the order that you’ll follow?

JH: I’m sorry I don’t get the question.

AV: So, sometimes companies are too focused on designing that they forget to innovate.

JH: But those two things mean the same to me.

AV: Ok, to you they do but generally but if we talk about other design firms, for them innovation and designing are two completely different branches. So, the previous interviewee told us that Frog is all about innovation, you guys always try to create something new that nobody’s ever thought of. That’s also the selling point that you have. You give the clients what nobody else can give them. You think out of the box so that’s what I want to know, how important is it for you to innovate?

JH: I think that’s why people actually join Frog because of these very cool projects that you may never get to work on in your lifetime otherwise. Very different projects as well like you have a farming project and I think that appeals to people. Generally, for Frog, innovation comes on the top but it’s much broader than design. Also, we have the Org-Activation which is, how your company needs to change, how can we help you in changing your company structure and how can we innovate in that sense. I think around 20% of what we do is that kind of stuff these days. Maybe I shouldn’t say out loud but I don’t think Frog is that good at management lie our management doesn't always have top management people which is okay because there is all innovation focus or design focus but as a company, you do sometimes need a toptier manager on the top, who knows how business works, which we sometimes lack. It’s frustrating sometimes because we need to know where the company is going, changes

happening, give us a plan or give us something and they are like - “mmmm.. we’ll see what happens” and then they say, you know “we’re Frog!”. So that’s a little bit of a downside of being so innovative. But you kind of have a little freedom as well at the same time.

Sometimes Frog could seem a little unstructured but that’s because of the nature of the beast. This is Frog, we might be unstructured but we do it with high quality, always on time.

So, it’s like sometimes you need that unstructured to deliver something high-end.

AV: Very good! So, I think that should be it. I have no more questions. Thank you for your time.

JH: Yeah, no worries. That was fast. Great!

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