UX Connections: Business Achievements 2021

As a final goodbye to 2021, we thought we would do a roundup of our biggest achievements over the past year. Sometimes, you don’t realise how far you’ve come without processing everything that you’ve achieved, and so we thought we would compile a list of some of the standout moments of the last twelve months. We can’t wait to see what 2022 will bring us, but we also see it necessary to celebrate what we have already achieved, no matter how big or small they may seem. 

Exciting Projects

Our consultants put in a huge amount of work this year, taking on countless projects in order to provide seamless user experiences for consumers worldwide. Whether it was design, research, or testing, they put in 100% to make sure they provided the best service possible. Amazingly, they took on 72 projects this year, all of varying lengths and difficulty. Their work provides insights for so many other businesses, and allows all kinds of problems to be solved, everyday. Our company is grounded in their hard work and success, so we congratulate them on their incredible work over 2021. 

Gothenburg Office

2021 was also the year we started to expand our Gothenburg Office! As Sweden is a hub for Fintech (and innovative technology in general), we thought there could be no better place to launch our first international office back in 2020. In the 12 months of 2021, the office grew tremendously. Not only do we have consultants taking on UX work, but also a Marketing Assistant to help out with Swedish Business Development. We can’t wait to see the future growth of this office, as well as other international offices that may launch in the future!

Team Expansion  

2021 was a year of huge growth for our company. With 9 new hires, it’s fair to say that this year has been our biggest in terms of team expansion. With more consultants, we’re able to take on more exciting projects, and offer UX services to a greater number of companies. This number also includes our new Business Development Department, who now oversee the marketing roles of the company. With a dedicated marketing team, this allows us to be more present on socials, as well as more traditional media. This has already proved useful for us as a business, and we can’t wait to see what lies ahead in 2022!

New Relationships

Following on, the hard work of our consultants allowed us to make relationships with 17 new clients over the past year, providing them with UX expertise, whenever and wherever it was needed. We’ve loved getting to know the wants, needs and dreams of our new partners, and how these have come to life over the time they have worked with us. Companies big and small have asked for our services this year, and we can’t wait to see what the year ahead brings in terms of on-going relationships, as well as new ones!

Gothenburg Trip

In December of 2021, the whole UX Connections Team came together in Gothenburg to finally meet each other in person. Over the course of six days, we explored the city, showed each other our ongoing projects, and spent quality time just getting to know one another – with an occasional snowball fight here and there, too. After a year of huge success for our company, it gave us time to properly relish in what we had all achieved, together. The inclusion of the whole team was purposeful, as our CEO Chris thought it necessary to allow everyone to come along on this business trip, as a thank you for all they had done in 2021. We can’t wait to come together again in March for SXSW in Dallas, Texas – perhaps there will be more sunshine this time, rather than snow?

Back to the Office

Something we thought necessary to include, although not necessarily an ‘achievement’, was the fact that 2021 was a year where, for the most part, we were allowed back to our shared office. As a company with a flexible structure, we were never in the office everyday before the pandemic, but we could appreciate the benefit of being able to use a shared space with work colleagues, even if that’s only one or twice a week. In 2021, we relished the opportunity to come together again, all at our own pace. We started meeting at our London Bridge office once or twice a week, for those who felt comfortable enough to do so. This reunion of the team felt like a small piece of normality in what is still a very abnormal situation for the world. The Gothenburg team also started using a shared office space later in the year, which gave them this same feeling of collectivity. We hope this continues in 2022!

Award Nominations

After our Business Development Department was launched, they started working on getting us involved with industry-related achievements, such as award ceremonies that focus on UX and UI Design. In October, we were thrilled to learn that we had been nominated twice at the UK App Awards, for the B2B App of the Year and the Innovation Award. Sadly, we didn’t win this time around, but it was such a great experience to be a part of. It was our first time putting our work forward to an award organisation, and to be nominated straight away was fantastic. We received great feedback from the judges, which we will keep in mind for future applications. Overall, it was a great achievement, as well as a great learning experience.  

Billable Days 

Finally, we thought it necessary to include the huge amount of work that was done by our consultants over the course of 2021. All together, we amounted 2,952 billable days of work – what an achievement! Our consultants work so hard to create incredible pieces of work for our clients, and to see just how much they have achieved collectively over the year is astounding. As a smaller company, we applaud and congratulate our members for achieving such an incredible number, the highest we’ve ever had at the end of the year – here’s to you!

We have achieved so much this year, as a business as well as a team. The constant hard work, research, effort, revisions and conversations have added up to a wonderful year of success. Now that we are in January 2022, we set out to achieve even more over the upcoming year, and, of course, celebrate accordingly.