“When I reflect on the Academy’s initial launch in 2017 and the growth of our digital membership experience since that time, I am incredibly proud of the Eight Bit team and what you all have accomplished in just a few short years. As we explained during one of our first meetings with Eight Bit, the mobile app and website house the vast majority of our association’s suite of offerings, so these platforms must remain valuable and engaging to our audiences. The talent, creativity, innovative mindset, and strategic thinking of the Eight Bit team are qualities that have enabled us to evolve the app experience in ways that we never could have imagined.”
Tammy Johnson Peón
MDRT Academy Executive Director
Client
The MDRT Academy is a global Professional Services Association that helps financial advisors learn from top industry professionals and teaches innovative and essential skills they’ll need to succeed with a digital-by-design approach that focuses on connectivity and content to ensure advisors get what they need, when and where they need it.
Overview
Networking, advocacy, quality content, and engagement are the cornerstone of any Professional Association's success. With the global financial services market sitting at $28 billion in 2023, there are a lot of people who need the support, guidance, and networking MDRT’s Academy provides. It’s not just enough anymore to operate under the belief, “If you build it, they will come”. Eight Bit needed a research-driven, highly collaborative, and innovative approach to build a web and digital solution that would achieve Academy’s goal of reaching a highly specific and engaged international target audience and helping them learn from top industry professionals, build habits for success, and gain confidence among their peers.
Ask
In 2017 Academy approached Eight Bit Studios with a wonderful ask: help us build an association app for budding professionals in the financial industry who need and want help maintaining healthy habits, finding key content, and networking with industry leaders who could help them reach success.
Solution
A custom-branded mobile and web app experience for budding financial service professionals featuring seamless enrollment, mentorship, production tracker tools, relevant content, gamification, and easily navigable goal tracking all geared towards reaching the Academy’s international target audience and helping them learn from industry leaders, build successful habits, and gain access to tools needed to professionally thrive.
Results
Over the past 7 years, The Academy has combined these elements to help financial professionals expand their knowledge, and networks, and see success.
Active user rate 50% higher than global standard
87% CSAT score higher than industry average
4 available languages
Research-driven Strategy
Thorough and engaging stakeholder and user interviews coupled with interactive workshops to dig into business needs and required features
Powerful Analytics
Custom analytics database designed to provide easy access to all data in one place. Allowing quick and easy ways to spot trends and correlations and identify and focus on areas for improvement.
Data-Driven Development:
Well-defined benchmarks aligned with product goals and objectives provide greater visibility into feature development, enhancements and in-progress work
Improved decision-making: By leveraging data, organizations can make informed and data-driven decisions, leading to better outcomes.
Enhanced data quality and consistency: Data governance practices ensure data integrity and consistency throughout the organization.
Increased operational efficiency: By integrating data across systems, organizations can streamline processes, eliminate redundancies, and improve efficiency.
End-To-End Testing
Thorough testing of the complete application decreasing the time and costs spent on testing and ensuring that application dependencies work correctly and cohabit without issues, including any third-party codes
