Christopher Burgess, founder of Prevendra and former executive within the CIA, chose Galactic Ideas and development partner Facet Digital as his trusted end-to-end product development team to bring to life his vision of an easy-to-use online life-planning product that could store your most sensitive information with an unprecedented level of security.
Our Contributions
Minimum Viable Product “MVP” Planning
User Research
Product Strategy
Rapid Ideation and Prototyping
Information Architecture
UX/UI Design
Our Backstory
We all have bank accounts, physical assets, credit cards, investments, wills, documents, mortgages, and an ever-expanding online footprint made up social networks, shopping accounts, blogs, etc. How could your family possibly be able to manage all of these things, and know what you want done with them, in the event of your extended absence or death?
“During my time with the CIA I had to travel near and far, often times with minimal advance notice. Without advance notice, it was difficult to create lists of accounts and access protocols for my family in the event something came up during my absence or if something happened to me. What we did was create a system of red folders for use by my wife.”, explains Christopher Burgess. He goes on to explain a sophisticated protocol for keeping his physical red folders organized and secured through a manual two-factor system that he conceived during his time as an intelligence officer… and thus the idea for Red Folder was born.
According to Burgess, “The type of information you need to store for your family and loved ones in the event of your unavailability is a treasure trove for hackers and identity thieves. In order to bring my system into an online product, it was critically important to partner with a deeply technical product development team that could architect and build a rock-solid cybersecurity system and still make it look and feel like a consumer product.”
The Challenge
Prevendra knew they needed to partner with an end-to-end product team — one with the experience to manage the entire process from concept to delivery, that knew how to keep the budget lean without cutting corners on security and scalability, all while designing a simple user interface for exposing potentially complex concepts to a non-technical demographic. The system would need to stand up to the scrutiny of industry-leading security experts, and the app would need to meet the usability needs of both the high-tech user and the elderly non-technical user alike. And it all needed to be built quickly on a lean startup budget.
Our Approach
After a few initial face-to-face “war room” discovery sessions with Christopher, Galactic’s designer director, Leif Jensen and Facet Digital’s Scott W. Bradley got to work building out the initial feature definition for Red Folder’s MVP (Minimum Viable Product). Through a collaborative process of detailed wire-framing, pixel-perfect design mockups, and user storyboarding, Leif and Christopher were able to produce a compelling product story and feature set for Facet engineers to architect to. This “Phase 1” discovery process was key in framing the problem scope such that the software architects could design a technology blueprint that would enable the specified feature with a focus on a rock-solid security system as it’s foundation.
Product development commenced using the Kanban methodology with a focus on efficient just-in-time delivery and fast iteration and feedback cycles. Post-launch, the same process is used to rapidly adapt to market feedback.
The Result
The result is a leading-edge security architecture that has been blessed by Fortune 500 Chief Security Officers and crypto-security pundits as “as bulletproof as it gets”. In addition, an end-to-end user experience primarily targeted at non-technical users in a way that hides the complexity of the security system while still providing the utmost peace of mind.
Users are guided through a sophisticated on-boarding process, covering numerous security details with ease, and within minutes are educated about what types of information they should store, and how it stays secure through Red Folder’s patent-pending authentication and authorization mechanism. “Designees” — individuals you trust to access your information on your behalf in case of emergency — can use the site for free, and can only access your accounts using their own identity according to your policy using an innovative time-lock protocol. You never need to share your password with them.
Customers have been quick to realize the benefits of Red Folder, and have been spreading the word by inviting their Designees. Channel partners such as estate attorneys, financial planners, insurance companies, HR departments, and military/law-enforcement organizations have been raving about the benefit of the Red Folder system to their clientele.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Automated user on-boarding, walking new customers through normally complex setup features.
- Contextual user education, covering new technology concepts like two- factor authentication, encryption keys, and designee invitation.
- Measurable conversion funnels.
- Channel partner and affiliate tracking and reporting.
- Bulletproof security.
“Galactic designed not only a great user experience, but a secure data storage and access architecture that was designed to pass the highest of security tests.”
Christopher Burgees, CEO of Prevendra
