TL;DR
When a major website redesign stalled, ASA Financial’s Head of Marketing, Becky, turned to Balsamiq to cut through confusion and bring the project back to life. In a few hours, she created clarity, regained control, and earned trust from leadership—saving months of time, thousands in budget, and countless headaches.
At a glance
- Company name: ASA Financial
- Industry: Financial services
- Use case: Website redesign, stakeholder alignment
- Company size: Startup
- Key result: Saved $5K and 2 months by using wireframes to realign agency and leadership
Meet ASA Financial
ASA Financial is a fintech startup that partners with banks and credit unions to help them deliver modern, secure digital experiences. Becky, their Head of Marketing, brings 15+ years of experience leading marketing at brands like Amazon and Upwork. Like many marketers at startups, she wears a lot of hats—including website strategy, content, brand, design direction, and vendor management.
When ASA set out to redesign their website, Becky knew exactly what she wanted. But getting an external agency to see that vision was the hardest part.
A redesign nightmare: “This isn’t what I asked for”
To kick off the redesign, Becky wrote a detailed brief: page goals, messaging, brand direction, even screenshots of reference sites.
The agency followed it…too well. What came back looked a little too literal:
“What I got back wasn’t ASA. It was just other people’s websites. They didn’t translate the inspiration into our voice or our brand.”
Despite having all the right ingredients (objectives, messaging, visual references, a killer brief), alignment was missing. The agency couldn’t "see" what Becky had in mind. They didn’t know how she translated inspiration.
And it was getting expensive.
That’s when Becky paused the project and opened Balsamiq.
Something better than a brief
Instead of waiting for another round of misinterpretations, Becky built quick wireframes to show what she actually meant. She started with the most important page (the homepage). Then, she tackled a few others that had gone off course, like the about and features pages.
“It only took a few minutes. If I had tried to do it in Figma, it would’ve taken hours,” Becky says.
Because Balsamiq’s wireframes are intentionally low-fidelity, stakeholders stayed focused on what mattered: structure, message, and flow. This gave Becky a shared visual starting point that everyone could understand—something that the decks and documents had failed to do.
“Balsamiq helped bring my message to life. We looked like heroes because we had a plan, we had visuals, and people could comment directly on it.”
With a plan set, the agency could better iterate on the UX, then add flair with typography, color palettes, images, and pixel placement according to ASA’s brand guidelines.
And Becky could have a much better time at work.
“We probably saved two months of development time and at least $5,000—not to mention the headaches.”
How Becky uses Balsamiq
- Templates to get started: Becky loved using Balsamiq’s growing library of templates. “They spark ideas and help you get past the blank page,” she says.
- One canvas for the whole journey: The large canvas lets her map out multiple pages and show how users would move through the app.
- Feedback made easy: With sticky notes, Becky could annotate her wireframes for the agency and internal teams alike. “Sometimes I’d add a note to clarify that something’s intentionally designed a certain way—to prevent back-and-forth that derails the conversation.” With comments, stakeholders could easily leave feedback on the wireframes.
- A project management tool, in disguise: The wireframes weren’t just a visual aid—they became a working checklist. “It was a way to say: ‘This is the plan. Here’s what’s been done, and here’s what hasn’t.’ It kept the project on track.”
Beyond website redesigns
Beyond website redesigns, Becky uses Balsamiq as her go-to for fast, cross-functional collaboration with busy product and engineering teams.
“Sometimes you only get 15 minutes with a stakeholder. You need something quick that makes the most of it.”
Wireframes help her show the product marketing perspective quickly, without stepping on design toes or getting bogged down in fidelity debates. Unlike other formats often used by marketers (dense comments, decks, docks), Becky’s found internal and external team members to be highly receptive.
And above all, they keep the focus where it belongs: on the customer.
