Snap Inc., parent company of the visual messaging app Snapchat, is a technology company all about the camera. Their emphasis on fun, thoughtful design comes across in their apps and products, and the company recognized the need to apply the same focus to their sites and web platforms.

At the start of what would become a multi-year partnership, Snap came to us for help launching new websites, increasing business conversion rates, and working with stakeholders across the business to get the work done. Right away, we worked to understand Snap's talent gaps and needs, their organizational structure, and the nature of the work we'd be delivering most often. From there, we built a multidisciplinary Platform Management Team that both augmented Snap’s own engineering team and led design for their web platforms.

Our Platform Management Team — which still serves Snap today — consists of a core team of senior design, technology, and delivery leaders supported by a flexible team of specialists who cycle on or off the work based on Snap’s roadmap. The core team establishes and steers projects, overseeing strategy and ensuring quality of the work done by specialist engineers, designers, and content strategists. Together, everyone functions as an extension of the Snap team, which allows us to proactively apply our experience as if a part of Snap and, in turn, helps Snap close their talent gaps without needing to hire.

This dynamic came into focus early on when we identified a number of ways to improve Snap’s design system, linking Figma and CMS components in a way that would make the whole system cleaner and more cohesive. It wasn’t work we’d been explicitly asked to do, but we knew it would dramatically speed up site builds and make Snap’s online experience more consistent. That work has since become a part of our remit, alongside storytelling architecture, competitive audits, wireframing, and technical design documentation.

As our engagement with Snap evolved over time, so did our Team strategy and approach. We rearranged roles across regions to cover more time zones and get more work done over fewer days. We fine-tuned the design of the Team to better match Snap’s evolving needs. And we tailored our work more specifically to Snap so that we were delivering value and setting up projects in line with how Snap functions. When projects required expertise less related to ongoing Platform Management, like video production, we supplemented our Team with trusted talent from our partner network, managing their work as if it were our own.

To project stakeholders at Snap, working with us is just like working with other Snap team members. We think of Snap's engineers, brand design leaders, product marketers, and business stakeholders as colleagues, not as clients. And we have consistent joint team rituals to make sure we are constantly in sync, which allows us to push the bounds of creativity while still staying grounded in what can feasibly be accomplished. 

All of this has allowed us to take on increasingly more complex and high-profile projects that have received praise from Snap’s leadership.

As an extension of the Snap team, we’ve always wanted to deliver each project with excellence, but we’ve also doubled down on improving the processes and infrastructure that make it easier to collaborate on future projects as partners.

Throughout the years, we’ve designed and developed a variety of highly visible, high priority sites that created value across Snap's web presence. We improved conversion rates, expanded Snap’s marketing capabilities, enhanced brand consistency, and secured stakeholder buy-in. But just as importantly, we’ve built trust and the makings of a long-term partnership. More than just delivering good work, our Team is investing in Snap’s ability to continue to grow sustainably.