As part of our relentless efforts to identify and share some of the meaningful startup stories from India and around the world, this week we invited passionate entrepreneur and leader Hemal Gathani for an interview with us to know his startup story. Hemal is a first-generation entrepreneur, he commands 15+ years of experience in managing teams and driving measurable results in the UX industry for marquee clients. He has led over 100 projects – from inception to delivery – and architected several large UX transformation programs including the world’s first BOT of a UX operation for a large global telecom. Having a passion to learn, unlearn and relearn – Hemal has also mentored large UX teams comprising analysts, researchers, and designers across regions. He also played a key role in establishing UX skillset in India by expanding UX Training and Certification Program across major cities in India. There are now over 5000 certified usability professionals in India. Hemal is a Mechanical Engineer and went on to earn his Master’s degree in Science from the University of South Florida. Let’s learn more about his startup and the way forward!
Excerpts from our exclusive Interview with him:
Tell us about your company ZEUX and the services that you offer?
ZEUX was established because of a strong market need to have design solutions focused on achieving business goals rather than making something visually appealing or just following a cookie-cutter process-driven approach. The ZEUX approach is clear. Empathize with our clients, understand their core pain point areas, and design the process and solution that helps them move the bottom-line – increase online sales, conversions, engagement, decrease costs, errors and improve satisfaction. Our tagline says it all “Outcome-Driven Design”.
ZEUX offers holistic UX solutions at the intersection of design, technology, process, cognitive psychology, and behavioral science to empower its clients, achieve their business objectives. It offers refined services such as UX Assessment, UX Research, UX Design, UI UX Audit, User Testing, Omnichannel UX Strategy, and UX Lifecycle Management. We are one of the leading UI UX design agency Mumbai. For more details, visit www.zeuxinnovation.com
Describe the initiative taken by the entrepreneur to bring differentiating factor, growth or any other key impact it had on the overall company’s business.
1) First in the industry to introduce an outcome-based pricing model
2) First in the industry to conduct UX Front End Review Audits to help improve the performance and load time of the websites.
3) Adoption of user-centered design framework to be agile and lean. Helped balance the need to design and deploy rapidly in a fast-evolving digital landscape.
Relationship building with all key clients thereby ensuring repeat business. More than 80% of the clientele have been retained thus far. Of course, this wouldn’t have been possible without our awesome design team’s delivery.
What are the major challenges currently faced by companies that provide solutions in the UX/UI domain (UI UX company)? How different and better is your approach to providing the same?
Most UX/UI companies have mainly 3 kinds of challenges:
1) Lack of understanding amongst clients on what it takes to create and sustain exceptional user experiences
2) Difficulty in identifying and recruiting the right UX talent with the right skillset
3) Scaling Up
ZEUX’s core USP is outcome-driven design. Our approach to design is not just on how to make an interface look great but also on whether it has helped improve business metrics. Over the years, we have perfected the art and science of outcome-driven design and have successfully delivered to several large corporations. It is easier to convince key stakeholders on the outcome rather than subjectively prove one’s own worth on mere aesthetics.
We at ZEUX are not only focussing on helping our clients provide the best user experience to their customers but also working with several institutions to improve the overall UX design ecosystem in India. For e.g. We partnered with ISDI Parsons to teach a semester-long course in user experience design. We also regularly create and share thought leadership on advanced user experience topics & trends.
We at ZEUX, believe that the key to scaling up is actually saying no…to clients who have unreasonable timelines and expectations (“give me 40 wireframes in 2 days”). We have seen UX companies making this mistake over and over and eventually great designers get burnt out and leave.
It is not just about getting more sales and more people but also providing a culture where designers can thrive and grow and feel empowered & engaged. Our decade long experience of building and managing large UX teams has made us realize that designers cannot be managed by a carrot and stick approach, the key to scaling is “Outcome-Driven Work, Right Resources and Right Culture”
With more and more organizations inclined towards selling experience and not just a product or a service, how have you positioned yourself in this segment to enhance the user experience that you are providing?
ZEUX positioning has three key aspects:
1) A clear focus on “outcome-driven UX” instead of “pretty picture design”
2) Process-driven UX design approach, grounded in cognitive psychology and behavioral science.
3) Fast turnaround time: Speed is critical in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
We have adapted our robust user-centered design framework to be more agile and lean as required. This balances the need to be process-oriented with the need to design and deploy rapidly.
Which are the sectors with maximum adoption in India?
BFSI, telecom, retail, travel, media, and software product companies are placing UX as a strategic priority. As an innovation company, ZEUX Innovation continuously strives to craft UX solutions that push the boundaries of a human being’s experience with technology. However, ZEUX’s real secret to delivering customer satisfaction and best-in-class digital experiences lies in being able to marry cutting edge innovation with specific measurable business outcomes.
What are some of your marquee use cases?
Talking about the use cases, our recent project for HDFC Life garnered amazing ROI post our designs went live for their flagship product called Click2Protect 3D Plus. The whole journey was reimagined to make it simple and jargon-free. ZEUX ensured to keep the user at the core of the design. The UX design changes led to some phenomenal improvements. Their Number of policies issued increased by over 76% and Average ticket size increased by over 25%. From business POV the client recovered the invested amount in the project within 5 days of going live.
Another recent success story that makes us feel proud is for Discovery India. ZEUX designed the Discovery+ app – with an end objective to help it stand out in an already cluttered entertainment streaming app ecosystem.”
This led to designing a novel user experience using principles of UI design – to enhance the stickiness of the user, improve recommendations based on intelligence, offer better discoverability, and sustain shareability of the content on the platform to attract newer users. The firm’s unique & core features include Shorts and WhatsApp sharing that garnered great user reviews.
During this COVID19 crisis, what are the measures ZEUX has undertaken to continue its own business without disruption?
Safety: Our first priority was to ensure the safety of our team. We took a pre-emptive decision as a company to have our entire team work from home two weeks prior to the nation-wide lockdown.
Support: Our team constantly stays connected over WhatsApp, email, zoom meetings, and phone. It goes a long way in ensuring that the team collaboration is smooth, and the mood stays upbeat.
Service: We have assured our clients that we will do whatever it takes to ensure that project deliverables don’t get delayed due to the corona upheaval and we are willing and able to put in the extra effort to make up for the loss in momentum.
Follow ZEUX At:
Website – www.zeuxinnovation.com
Follow Hemal At:
LinkedIn – https://in.linkedin.com/in/hemalgathani
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