LTSE

DEPARTMENTS

Product Management
Development

PLATFORMS

DURATION

7 months

Partner

The Long Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) is a U.S. national securities exchange founded in 2020 that is revolutionizing the relationship between companies and investors.

Focusing on long-term growth and sustainability instead of quick gains, LTSE employs listing standards and practices to promote strategic, long-term decision-making for businesses, while simultaneously incentivizing investors' ongoing dedication to helping next-generation companies succeed.

Put simply: In a world that arguably puts too much emphasis on quarterly earnings, LTSE supports healthier startups and helps them find the best ways to innovate and grow.

Because what LTSE does is unprecedented within the financial industry and disruptive to the status quo, their website was especially important for establishing credibility.

LTSE’s website audience includes high-profile executives, institutional investors, and company founders, so it was vital that the site effectively showcased LTSE's innovative vision and significant developments, such as new company listings. First impressions are critical, and LTSE needed their website to set the right tone.

LTSE initially pushed their website live ahead of their launch announcement using the content management platform Contentful but the content was static and hard-coded, making it challenging for the team to make timely updates. The internal team also lacked a dedicated team member to manage the website, making content updates and additions an even bigger hurdle.

Partner

With more than 1,100 stores mostly located in small to mid-sized markets, the Birmingham, Alabama-based brand does a brisk business catering to small town sneakerheads with an insatiable thirst for the newest releases and hottest colorways.

Founded in 1945, Hibbett is one of the oldest names in sporting goods and has evolved from a family-owned brick-and-mortar retailer to a publicly traded company with more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

It was clear that LTSE needed a more sustainable and efficient long-term strategy. Fresh off their huge launch, it was critical to get the website right — and to do so quickly.

Strategy

Post-launch, LTSE needed a dedicated development team to help them with website enhancements, updates, and maintenance so they could focus on their core business.

Strategic Challenges

The LTSE project involved a couple of key challenges that we needed to address to ensure the project’s long-term success.

First, LTSE's initial web implementation went live just ahead of their launch for PR purposes but it wasn't quite suitable for the long term. The site was cumbersome to update and add new content, so we needed to devise a solution that would enable anyone on the team to easily update the content without encountering a steep learning curve.

Another challenge involved concerns about website performance and uptime. In the financial industry, trust is everything, and it was crucial to make sure LTSE’s website was reliable and accessible 24/7.

Our goal was to help them achieve that level of dependability, making their site a solid foundation for building trust with investors, listed companies, and the general public.

Product Management

Time was of the essence following LTSE’s high-profile launch, so it was critical that we ran a tight ship when it came to project management.

Collaboration

Together we chose collaboration and project management tools (Slack and Asana) and set up escalation procedures and service level agreements (SLAs) that we continuously refined as the project moved forward.

At Heady we’re committed to providing dedicated teams that work so closely they feel internal, so we conducted joint sprint planning and prioritization sessions, along with retrospectives at the end of each sprint to discuss progress and gather actionable feedback. To keep everyone in the loop, we shared updates asynchronously and held extra calls as needed to further collaborate.

Since LTSE didn't have a dedicated content manager, we worked closely with their management team, who handled the content but weren't highly technical themselves. We also worked closely with LTSE’s internal design team, offering advice on what would be technically feasible with their new CMS and translating their design specs into scalable web solutions that fit the bill.

“Heady is a true product development partner that seeks to improve and enhance and be challenged by the work.”

SVP, Marketing
LTSE

Development

As we dove into the development phase, our team set out to tackle several key tasks to ensure the success of the LTSE site.

Frontend POV

When it came to the frontend development process, our primary goal was to create visually engaging and user-friendly web pages that would effectively showcase LTSE's content. We focused on setting up and managing the CMS internally, creating a seamless experience for LTSE's team to maintain their site.

To make sure the content appeared just as LTSE envisioned for their blog pages (and beyond), we developed content modules tailored to their specific needs. We transformed static pages into editable ones, giving them greater flexibility in managing their content.

Additionally, we launched several new pages on their website, including the Listings page where newly listed companies are added, further expanding LTSE's online presence and enhancing the user experience for their visitors.

Technical Challenges

One challenge we faced with the LTSE project was migrating their top-performing content from Medium to their owned CMS, Contentful. They wanted to house all their content on their own site for SEO purposes, and in order to collect additional data on site visitors’ behavior.Moving the content over while ensuring all old links remained active was a significant hurdle in the migration process.

Additionally, we had to ensure LTSE’s website remained accessible at all hours of the day. Even during the CMS migration, taking the site down briefly for maintenance wasn’t an option. Due to the nature of their industry, it was essential that their digital presence projected stability and reliability.

Technical Solutions

LTSE already had some key content logged with Contentful, including numerous downloadable PDFs for companies to use as resources, such as regulatory details. Heady is both technology and platform agnostic, so we were able to quickly learn Contentful models, apply updates for scalability, and start building out from there.

When it came to migrating content from Medium to Contently, we chose to use GraphQL to ensure a seamless transition. First, we assessed the structure and organization of content in both Medium and Contentful. Then, we crafted a custom GraphQL schema for Contentful, taking into account content types, relationships, and any necessary custom fields.

With the schema in place, we built GraphQL queries to retrieve data from Medium and transformed it to fit Contentful's structure and format. After preparing the transformed data, we used Contentful's API to populate the content within the new system.

Next, we focused on preserving LTSE's SEO presence during the migration by setting up URL redirects for existing links pointing to Medium. This step helped maintain search engine rankings and ensured any old links from external sources such as publications or social media would continue to function. As we worked to maintain that mapping,we also added additional tagging so the content would be more findable, further enhancing SEO.

Finally, we tested and optimized the migrated content, website performance, and user experience in Contentful. We made necessary adjustments to enhance the website's functionality and SEO, ensuring a successful migration and a smooth user experience for LTSE's visitors.

Solutions & Features

Heady took a speedy, agile, and all-hands-on-deck approach to create a long-term, sustainable solution for LTSE’s content management needs.

Here’s an overview of the solutions we crafted to address their challenges and solve for business needs:

Migrated Content & Managed Integration

We migrated high-performing content from Medium to the LTSE website, enhancing SEO and insights into site visitor behavior by moving all content in-house.
Streamlined Branding

We worked with their internal designer to translate a rebrand of their business software solution, LTSE Equity, into dev specs, streamlining the new site experience and presenting a more cohesive brand vision.
Implemented Designs for Key Pages

We worked closely with LTSE’s UI and UX designers to implement dynamic and informative front-end designs for all key website pages including the landing page, main blog page, and more.

Improved Navigation & Findability

We refreshed the site’s navigation so all of LTSE’s content including blogs, announcements, and new company listings were easily findable by site visitors.
Ensured Site Reliability

We crafted an incident response plan and website monitoring solution to ensure that any concerns about site downtime were a thing of the past.
Refined Processes

We gave LTSE the ability to preview content through Contentful prior to it going live. We also merged existing models with new models in order to help easily manage and stage content across multiple pages.

Results

Heady met LTSE where they were and acted as a seamless extension of their internal team, serving as the dedicated development partner they needed to take their website to the next level.

By implementing fresh new designs for key site pages, refreshing the navigation, and streamlining the branding for LTSE’s different offerings, we ensured a great user experience for site visitors.

Using their existing CMS as a jumping-off point, we delivered a robust content management solution that made it simple for the internal LTSE team to update content at will — and one that reflected the brand’s commitment to long-term thinking.

“We were very impressed with the Heady team's work. They accelerated our velocity and quality of output overall.”

SVP, Product Management
LTSE

The Heady Difference

At Heady, adaptability is in our DNA.

While our roots are in native mobile apps, our team has a wide range of expertise that also allows us to serve web-only clients like LTSE.

We can plug into a client’s team as an extension to fill in any gaps — and if it’s not just a matter of filling a gap but filling a void we’re here for that too, by building whole teams that integrate seamlessly with a client’s internal infrastructure.

As a full-service digital product consultancy, the Heady Difference lies in our agile and platform-agnostic team: We seamlessly adapt to tackle your biggest challenges and achieve your most crucial business goals, providing the resources needed to keep digital evolution at the forefront.

Product Design

Product Strategy

Product Management

Software Engineering

Growth

LTSE

DEPARTMENTS

PLATFORMS

DURATION

Partner

Partner

With more than 1,100 stores mostly located in small to mid-sized markets, the Birmingham, Alabama-based brand does a brisk business catering to small town sneakerheads with an insatiable thirst for the newest releases and hottest colorways.

Strategy

Strategic Challenges

Product Management

Collaboration

Development

Frontend POV

Technical Challenges

Technical Solutions

Solutions & Features

Results

The Heady Difference

At Heady, adaptability is in our DNA.

LET'S TALK IT OUT.

Figuring out your next step? We're here for you.

Or drop us a line.

Hit us up!

Brooklyn

Mumbai

Online

LTSE

DEPARTMENTS

PLATFORMS

DURATION

Partner

Partner

With more than 1,100 stores mostly located in small to mid-sized markets, the Birmingham, Alabama-based brand does a brisk business catering to small town sneakerheads with an insatiable thirst for the newest releases and hottest colorways.

Strategy

Strategic Challenges

Product Management

Collaboration

Development

Frontend POV

Technical Challenges

Technical Solutions

Solutions & Features

Results

The Heady Difference

At Heady, adaptability is in our DNA.

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LET'S TALK IT OUT.

Figuring out your next step? We're here for you.

Or drop us a line.

Hit us up!

Brooklyn

Mumbai

Online