PHASE 0

Understanding / Observation/ Research This stage focuses on understanding the client’s business. It involves diving into the product’s problematic: available literature, potential users, market situation. A Project Leader will monitor the direction of the project through all phases, and will appoint a team, each profile responsible for one specific aspect of research, e.g.: to design a digital strategy for a mass consumption product the following elements can be analyzed: current and potential users, market situation, other online solutions previously implemented, how users get to know the product, interfaces, new trends and trend setters of the category, among others.

PHASE 1

Visualizing / Brainstorming After observation, the group identifies potential solutions and selects the direction for the product development. This stage requires a close interaction with the client to ensure a fluent data interchange. The team combines ideas, technology and market perceptions with real world users’ observations to dig into the potential needs the product may satisfy. Statistics gathered by the marketing team are left aside to favor ‘real’ experiences through sequences. Each team member represents an aspect or problem, and brainstorming sessions are carried out following this idea.

 

PHASE 2

Presentation of total strategy and client’s feedback to agree on procedures. This stage involves the revision and optimization of concepts working back and forth with users’ experiences, to test ideas and their execution. 

PHASE 3

Production Once the strategy and the timeline by stages are agreed upon, the production team allocates resources and appoints the team to execute the Project, from technology to programming languages, hosting conditions, design, content, testing.

 

PHASE 4

QA This is a key stage for Qm. Thorough stress, functional and technical tests are carried out for all our applications. All codes are seen to comply with W3C regulations.
Testing is conducted throughout three stages: at first, development is tested through a single procedure which allows verifying changes made after the project was initiated, in order to avoid common integration mistakes. A second testing stage involves making use of the initial documentation, so our QA department can elaborate test cases aiming at guaranteeing a solid product for the end consumer. Lastly, automatic front end tests are carried out using Selenium based frameworks which allow, together with single tests, to constantly monitor the status of the application using continuous integration tools.

 

PHASE 5 

Reporting / Analysis / Learning 
At Qm we appoint a team who, working closely with the PL, elaborates reports on online and crossmedia actions. Based on this feedback, the team draws conclusions and profits from that knowledge for future campaigns.
Tracking tools serve the purpose of elaborating reports, aiming at providing conclusions beyond the actual figures, so performance of online applications is optimized and objectives reached.
The 10/90 concept is applied: 10% of budget is invested in tools and 90% in the human resources responsible for ideas and conclusions. They are the ones who decide what information is relevant regarding a tracking tool, as we understand a good analysis takes more than figures.