Interview with Craig Murphy, Managing Director - ALT Agency

1. What inspired you to start ALT Agency, and what are the company's core values and mission?

I started building websites a long time ago at the age of 12 when I got my first computer, I was just fascinated by the internet and what it could potentially become - One thing I noticed a few years later and what really inspired me to start ALT Agency, aside from my love for web design, was that a lot of people were getting a poor service, mainly outsourcing and the quality of code, security and the overall end product was quite often extremely poor - I wanted ALT to produce a better end product.

2. Being a Managing Director, how do you ensure effective communication and harmony among different departments and teams?

This was always probably one of my biggest challenges, I was diagnosed quite late in life with Aspergers/Autism and always found it quite hard to explain what I wanted to say without it coming off as blunt - I also had challenges understanding what people really were saying especially when using what I call ‘vague corporate speak’ where a lot is said without actually saying anything. 

To counter it, I built a great team around me. A fellow director who helps me to phrase things and my mindset, especially around tough and difficult decisions, and then also gets an absolutely exceptional project manager who just ‘gets’ what needs to be done and liaises with the team on a daily basis.

Having a head of SEO, head of Dev, head of design, and a senior project manager allows me to deliver the message through them directly to the other team members, as they are far better at communicating than I am.

It is something I had and have to continue working on, and I will often take advice from the heads of department and my fellow director on when communicating my ideas, if I feel they need further refining/clarification.

3. What UI/UX methodologies does  ALT Agency primarily rely on, and why?

Everything we do comes from the initial client pain points, the frustrations they have with their current website, the goals for the website, and the future growth of the business, and how the website ties into that; all of these things and more get taken into account.

We always like to start with a mini prototype, which we build in Figma so that both the client and the team here can get a feel for the flow and layout of the website.

Customer journey is always essential, as is how we present messages - We want the user to any website to know within a handful of seconds what they are looking at, the problem they solve, and where they need to click next to continue their journey.

Behind all this is research into the type of user who will be using the website, is it a younger generation on the move, is it for a charity and they require certain accessibility requirements, or is it for marketing managers, IT managers? All of these require different approaches and different elements in the end design to really dial in and ensure the website achieves its goals and speaks to the right audience.

4. What sets ALT Agency apart from other Web design companies, and what are some of the company's unique strengths?

Without doubt, our project management process, attention to detail, and technical knowledge are key. 

The project management process that we have ensures our clients' on-time delivery and no mid-project price increases.

One of the earlier frustrations from clients we used to hear was that they had paid over the odds for an agency to do a job, only for them to misunderstand the requirements and then charge the client more. We don't do that, and we are built around that ethos. 80-90% of the project foundational work is done before a single pixel has been designed and certainly before a single line of code has even been thought about being written.

5. As a managing director, how do you achieve a balance between short-term goals and long-term growth?

Another challenge for me personally is exactly this, it’s one of the topics we constantly discuss in our senior management meetings, short-term goals and long-term goals. I always describe it as trying to run a sprint and a marathon at the same time.

The good thing about having John as a director is that he is very focused on the end goal and the long goal, where as my thinking is quite short term overall and so we each have our areas to focus on, but the overall thinking is to make the short term quarters work and the long term growth will follow.

6. What actions do you take to build and maintain strong relationships with clients?

It all starts at the very beginning, with our ads and marketing, that's the first impression that we have with a client, and so showing what others think about us, our project management process, and providing excellent communication throughout really sets up the foundation for a strong relationship post-launch.

We offer post-launch services to keep websites growing and in great health, and we’re also very flexible with our support as well, when it comes to bug fixing.

Our overall attitude is to always help the client no matter what. If the phone rings at the end of the day, we wouldn't brush a client off; we would do our best to support and be totally flexible throughout the whole process.

We have a great newsletter as well (who doesn’t!) and a growing YouTube channel where we just provide not only the latest commentary on the latest happening but also what it means and how you can make the most out of it with actionable steps.

7. Can you speak about the company culture at  ALT Agency and how you think a diversified work culture contributes to the success of the business?

The culture at ALT is very diverse, some introverted, some extroverted, some who like to lock themselves away in their room and get on, and others who, for example, prefer to take long walks in the woods to refresh and blow you away with their creativity.

We are very client-focused, very no-frills - no bean bags or sushi chefs type of thing, everything we do is geared towards maximum productivity, allowing people to excel in their role, and being very flexible when needed.

8. With the rise of AI and machine learning, do you foresee any major changes in web design approaches?

Changes to the way we work, for sure. I’ve been quite heavily invested in AI, as are certain members of the team, and there is a lot of hype around what it can do and how good that output truly is.

Web design always relies on creativity so that element will always be essential but processes such as client briefing interviews can us eAI to transcribe key notes, Ai can offer its opinion on page designs and of course theres a lot of talk around AI SEO and the impact that will have - which could potentially be quite big.

9. As a MD, how do you motivate and inspire your team to achieve their best work?

We are on what I would say is quite an aggressive growth trajectory, and by that I mean working on a Mergers & Acquisitions strategy, growing our sales team, constantly tweaking sales materials, and it's all to inspire that we can never stand still.

Each department has time that they can use for self learning and looking into opportunities and new tech, and software to improve the agency and further themselves in their role.

I love it when the team goes away and comes back with ideas; their eyes and ears are always open, and they are looking to adapt to what other industries are doing that can propel us forward.

I think our actions and quarterly growth show that we are really on that path, and I would hope that inspires more than words ever could.

10. You’ve been in this sphere for a long time. What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to start a successful software development company?

Yes, 26 years now since I got my first PC and started to mess around with HTML, I'm still nowhere near where I would like to be, but some things I think are very useful:

• Get a mentor, it's someone to rely on, don't do it alone, and their experiences can help cut down your time to your end goal. They can’t do everything for you, but they certainly can guide you in the right direction.
• Hire people far better than you - they can do the job better than you 100% of the time, and it frees you up to focus elsewhere. Hiring people better than you will bring your average up as well.
• Get out of the way - Don’t micromanage (something I struggle with at times), get out of the way and let the highly capable people that you choose to hire do what they do best.
• Make time for your health, thinking time, and, importantly, family time. It’s hard running your own business, you very rarely switch off, and that suited my personality and stress threshold. Others might need to switch off 95% of the time, and that 5% they are on, they do incredible work; everyone is different.
• Focus on sales - There is no business without customers and sales. I don't care about social media, flashy offices, or the frivolous because, without sales and a strong positive cash flow, you really have very little to nothing.
• Invest excess profits wisely - When your company starts to make some excess profit, it’s not wise to leave it sitting there doing nothing; invest it in new team members, new equipment, or even in personal investments that suit your appetite for risk.