Georgetown Psaros Center for Financial Markets & Policy

Balancing a Tight Timeline with High Expectations

The Georgetown Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy is the go-to place for expert insights at the intersection of policy and finance. It fosters solution-driven discussions, conducts research on important global market issues, and actively engages students in the process.

The Psaros Center approached Teal with a tight deadline to redesign its website within three months, or risk losing crucial funding. The existing site was outdated, visually unappealing, and didn’t reflect the Center’s expertise. Its CMS was difficult to manage, and the content lacked a clear structure, requiring a complete strategic overhaul.

With a major funder setting high visual standards and expecting advanced features, Teal had to balance delivering an impressive design while meeting the tight timeline.

A rapid-response approach

In order to hit our critical launch deadline, we leaned into an agile working style and hit the ground running on day 1. How exactly did we do it?

• We did our homework. Before the project was even kicked off we formulated a plan, and brought a draft content strategy and sitemap to the kickoff meeting.
• We ran a “wireframe war room.” The wireframing process was condensed down to just four days. Each day focused on a specific set of pages, with a specific goal to achieve in a client working session.
• We setup a visual design system. Working closely with the Georgetown brand team, we created a visual UI system that could quickly be applied to the page designs. We also identified specific areas within the designs where we could “push it” visually while staying within scope.
• We streamlined development and content population. Content population can often take the longest, so we took on this responsibility for the Center and populated their site while development was being completed.