Tailoring Your Approach to Meet Rising Client Expectations - J.P. McCarvel, Michael Francis - S2 Episode #6

In today’s episode, we have the privilege of hosting the brilliant minds behind Elva Design, J.P. McCarvel, the Co-founder and Partner, along with Michael Francis, the Co-Founder and Creative Director of this remarkable full-service design group. 

Elva Design is on a mission to craft stunning and impactful branded e-commerce experiences, where they seamlessly blend design, technology, and strategy. Get ready to explore their insights on creating exceptional customer journeys and discover the magic that sets Elva Design apart in the world of design.

Discussion Points - 

Q1. What misconception bogus strategy do you want to clear up? 2:34
Q2. Why did you decide to do a remote? 5:27
Q3. Tell us a little bit about your origin story. 6:35
Q4. What tools are you using? 8:56
Q5. How do you overcome situations when there is friction? 18:41
Q6. What are your client acquisition strategies? How do you approach it? 21:13
Q7. How do you manage your team and support them in facing difficult challenges? 26:18
|Q8. What are the steps you have taken to ensure the team stays smart and up-to-date? 29:40
Q9. How did you come up with the name ‘Elva’? 34:37
Q10. What's exciting you about the future? 36:05

Show notes - 

• When we work with partners, we like to act as an extension to their team and constantly communicate and be in conversation with them. - Michael Francis 8:40
• Every client is different as far as what they want, as far as what they want out of a partner and what their expectations are, what their culture is, I think my experience at Yeti was, and coming from GoPro and Crocs before that was, agencies come in and tell you the things that they do and how they do them, and why you'll benefit from them. - JP McCarvel 10:05
• If you get too big to tailor to or if you just start to do a one size fits all for brands, especially for brands like it's a losing strategy, it will lead to failure. - JP McCarvel 11:31
• We’re really coming in humble and just listening to what we've been through as a brand and where we're going. And we try to advocate that to the team today to say- hey, you can, you should go into brands and tell them that you don't know and that you rely on them for that knowledge. - JP McCarvel 13:40
• We disagree probably multiple times a day. And you know, it's really around, 1. We both trust each other. We've gotten this far and, 2. Talking about it being open and transparent with what we have issues with. - Michael Francis 19:15
• E-commerce doesn't work like that it's messy, and it's very difficult so is running an agency, so just embrace it, and work through some days, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you keep working together to do better the next day. 20:38
• Ideal for us, or there are those brands that want to have the best-in-class brand experience for their customer. Now they're focused on what's the digital experience for my customer, and then going out and finding a team that can help support them in that journey - JP McCarvel 21:36
• Communication is key, having conversations with them (team), providing support where they need it, whether it's the extra support, buying more time with the client, limiting the number of pages that are due, you know, working with the creative team, first of the design team first, to alleviate any type of stress - Michael Francis 26:36
• Finding creative talent for e-commerce design is somewhat of a needle in the haystack to have an understanding of UX and UI, and some lean more on one than the other. And so being open to that type of talent when it presents itself or when it comes in and creating a space for that type of talent on the team. - Michael Francis 30:12
• What's exciting is that I don't think the challenges are going away, I think they're getting even more tough to grasp. And for someone like Michael and myself, the thought of things changing and getting more difficult is exciting. 37:04

Myth-busted - The creative agency people have to be in the same room to create the best work. 

Links - 

JP McCarvel’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnpaulmccarvel/ 
Michael Francis LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjfrancis/ 
Company website: https://www.helloelva.com/ 

Show Credits - 
Host - Varun Bihani & Jessie Coan
Produced by Bobby Soni 
Edited by Priyanka Sharma 
Content by Aakash Damani, Yashika Neekhra, and Juhie Bhardwaj