Coffee with our Customers: Ep 2: VERBAL+VISUAL
“Come on, let’s get some coffee.” — George Costanza
For our second in the series, we continue the trend of agencies with ‘+’ in their name with VERBAL+VISUAL and the multi-talented Caroline Molloy.
Introducing VERBAL+VISUAL
VERBAL+VISUAL are a digital product studio located a few blocks south of Union Square in Manhattan. And fortunately right near one of my favorite coffee spots, Think Coffee. The Float team used to hold status meetings there before we had a home (props to their fine coffee and finer Wifi). Caroline lends doubt to the ‘coffee’ part in ‘coffee with our customers’ by requesting a chai tea. I pick myself up a latte and then head down to 11th avenue and up 11 floors.
Their office is part of Techspace, a modern, open, space, shared with the likes of Flipboard, Groupon and a bunch of other startups with envious environments. When you walk in you get a sense of the energy. Things get done here. We find a spot by the in-house café. Yep, they’ve got one of them too.
Introducing Caroline Molloy
I first met Caroline at the second DPM Connect, a meet-up community for project managers and producers in New York. Impressed by her first visit, she quickly got involved, and is now part of the team of volunteers helping coordinate events and grow the community.
VERBAL+VISUAL was her first role out of college and she’s almost into her third year there. As the only dedicated PM, Caroline has become accustomed to wearing many hats and defining process where there was none.
With a full-time in-house team of four, they draw upon a cast of specialist contractors from their network depending on what the project requires. I personally love this business model. It keeps things lean and ensures the right skills match the role. And that’s where Float comes in.
Float & VERBAL+VISUAL
Caroline uses the Float ‘reserve’ to store all the contractors, and the ‘skill tags’ to keep track of their specializations. She even takes things a step further by adding rating numbers within the keyword tag to recall later using search. If they fit the bill, Caroline switches them to ‘active’ and then schedules them. She uses Float’s email notifications to keep them updated on what to work on when.
Anshey Bhatia, the VERBAL+VISUAL founder, also logs into Float so he can quickly keep tabs on the team forecast and utilization.
For project management Caroline uses Asana. With it’s collaborative to-dos it provides ‘just enough’ features to be efficient without feeling bloated. The contractors also like it, finding it easy to jump in and out of between projects. Ironic, given Basecamp was developed as a lean PM solution, many are now finding it to have ‘too many features’ for what they need.
Caroline says they haven’t found the right solution for time tracking. Having tried all the usual suspects she still relies on a good ol’ fashioned spreadsheet to compare actual hours versus estimates.
We preview some of the new features coming to Float, and Caroline is already thinking about how she can use the upcoming API to integrate with Asana. We take a tour of the space (ok, we really like this place), take a few photos and its time to wind things up so Caroline can get back to it.
Thanks to Caroline, Anshey and the team at VERBAL+VISUAL.
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About VERBAL+VISUAL
VERBAL+VISUAL are a digital product studio. They intertwine strategy, content, design and technology to create memorable and impactful digital experiences. Not only do they a bunch of great work for great brands but they also give back, donating time, money and skills to worthy causes each year including the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Much respect.
