Creating Purposeful Innovation

Customer Research and Analysis

Meaning and value are determined by customers. We can help you find the insights that define both.

  • Focus Groups
  • User interviews
  • Behavioral Analysis
  • Usability Studies

Design and Development

Every project has unique design needs. We taylor our design approach appropriately and have the talent to bring designs to life on the web, mobile or print.

  • Visual Design
  • Information Architecture
  • User Experience
  • Prototyping
  • Front-end Development

Workshops

Our workshops take place within our standard process or as 1-3 day self-contained offerings. We can help your team cut through distractions and uncover true business value.

  • Business Strategy
  • Process Evaluations
  • Ideation/Brainstorming
  • Persona Development

An idea

Founders Mike and Bob started with an idea. Create a model that can quickly build teams that match the skills needed for each client’s unique challenges. The end result was a way to build teams that focus on talent and capability, not just titles on an RFP.

Building Momentum with good people

Earning a great reputation with clients, The Big Studio’s approach to creativity secured the client base and helped it expand into more areas. With the greater demand came the need to add more talented design thinkers to the team.

Setting down roots in Cambridge

Moving the business to the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) was a key strategic decision. Hosting over 200 exciting businesses, the CIC provides The Big Studio with a connection to a robust community that ensures that the team is on top of the latest innovations and trends.

Promoting new thinking

Having re-located into a great thinking space and eager to share the company’s enthusiasm and experience, The Big Studio began hosting speaking events and Meetups as a way to engage and inspire the local design community.

Going global

In 2011, The Big Studio took its unique approach to creativity half way around the globe and partnered with folks from IDEO and Westpac in an effort to create the next best product in banking and wealth management.

Our entrepreneurial spirit going forward

With so much big thinking going on, the team couldn’t resist harnessing that energy to start an internal Big Studio venture in 2012. Will it be the next Angry Birds or a powerful tool to help fellow designers achieve great things? You’ll find out soon!

100 Sessions

The Challenge:

Why it was a success:

Above are a few key activities from our approach that helped define the product

Putnam Investmants Deal Finder
Helping people spend and save

Through extensive user feedback and interviews on existing savings tools, it was clear- people didn’t want their hands slapped for splurging. Instead, we created an application that flipped the traditional savings philosophy on its head. This app helps users splurge smartly and send the savings to their future selves.

Monster The Closer
Reinventing internal collaboration

We created a new internal business model for Monster’s marketing and sales team. To support this we designed a digital warehouse that gave the sales team access to the latest information, intelligent recommendations and the foundation to build a community knowledge base.

Merril Lynch Design Think Session
Workshops On Demand

From persona development to concept iterations, The Big Studio has hosted hundreds of design thinking sessions at the Cambridge facility. Combining our process leadership with our client’s energy and expertise always leads to great innovations.

Aclara
Cultural analysis and mentorship

Redesigning a site or product requires a certain approach and skill set. Redesigning a company’s culture is a different challenge all together. Using our years of experience building teams and processes we were able to establish more creative and efficient ways for Aclara’s internal teams to collaborate.

Fidelty Infographic
Casting a net with Design Thinking

Re-imagining a world class system requires a broad view of potential solutions. Utilizing design thinking strategies that we originally introduced to the Fidelity team several years back, we were able to think wide and focus quickly to deliver an insightful product roadmap.

We’re a collective of talented thinkers

We have an innovative model that starts with finding passionate people and developing a team that fits your overall objective. We draw from our deep bench of experts that includes Behavioral Economists, Social Strategist, Concept Designers and other folks in the User Experience space to create the most successful mix of thought leaders for helping you achieve success.

We believe that quality people will always win over quantity of bodies.

Michael Tuccinard

Mike is a highly acclaimed strategy and innovation expert, with a creative business background in user based solutions. His 15 + years of professional user experience and design strategy is built on an education at St. Johns University and interactive design at New York University. His ability to connect BIG ideas with cutting edge solutions has become an invaluable mindset for developing unique offerings. Prior to co-founding The BIG Studio, Mike was Fidelity’s Director of Innovation. It was there that he developed and implemented processes and programs that influence The Big Studio’s approach to innovation.

Michael Tuccinard

Mike is a highly acclaimed strategy and innovation expert, with a creative business background in user based solutions. His 15 + years of professional user experience and design strategy is built on an education at St. Johns University and interactive design at New York University. His ability to connect BIG ideas with cutting edge solutions has become an invaluable mindset for developing unique offerings. Prior to co-founding The BIG Studio, Mike was Fidelity’s Director of Innovation. It was there that he developed and implemented processes and programs that influence The Big Studio’s approach to innovation.

Robert Gauvin

Bob has more than 15 years of Design Development experience using the latest web technologies such as Flash, HTML 5 and multitudes of 3rd party development applications and was formerly an Interaction Design Director at Fidelity Investments. With a degree in Art Education, he is able to teach teams how to tap into the creative processes that can drive innovation into their products and brands. Using his unique experience, Bob leads teams to higher levels of collaboration by bridging the gap between business needs, design sensibilities and development considerations.

A new way to build teams

Our bench is comprised of talented people with deep expertise within their areas of focus. What makes our team unique is their passion for solving complex challenges within a team model. The world is switching to a virtual workspace and because of this we are able to tap into a deeper pool of talented specialists. This allows us to assemble the strongest, most agile teams for our clients.

Merrill Income Explorer App

Change the engagement model between a Financial Advisor and their clients by using the iPad to tell interactive stories that reinforce financial topics.

We took complex topics such as income in retirement and created a simple and intuitive illustration model that Merrill’s financial advisors could use to educate and enlighten their clients. The result was a more confident advisor and a client that understood more clearly the context of their financial decisions. It was a “win win” for both the client and the company.

1. Customer creating an image canvas of their future retirement goals

2. Sketches of customers’ retirement

3. Interactive iPad prototype to gather customer feedback

Monster The Closer Dashboard

Empower the sales team with a community-based knowledge system.

In envisioning an integrated knowledge system for Monster, we were able to demonstrate the value of building and expanding upon the information that the sales team acquires. This resulted in an increase in sales and a reduction in the knowledge lost due to sales personnel turnover. It also provided Monster with the means to unify their marketing message.

1. Defined the top 5 user personas

2. 3 unique end-to-end concepts sketches were created

3. Final designs were tested on the iPad with the Sales team