2024 in review

A successful 2024 has just come to an end, thanks to a mix of ingredients. The first, a bold positioning that often led us to say “no” in order to focus on a few innovative, high-value projects. The second, many clients who have chosen to work with us for years. The third, a good dose of luck – that always matters.
In 2024, we had the privilege of welcoming new clients we are particularly proud of, such as Commerce Layer, a globally successful Italian tech company. We also strengthened long-standing collaborations with successful brands like ClioMakeUp, Caprionline e PastBook.
Alongside client work, we launched Hellotime, our SaaS designed for creative agencies managing people and project planning, and watched with excitement as the first companies subscribed to a paid plan.
We also overcame our reluctance toward events by participating as speakers at UXDay, where we shared our experience on doing agency work versus product work.
But above all, this was a year marked by a significant transition in our studio’s leadership: Giovanni stepped down as CEO to embark on a new chapter of his life in Umbria, where he has lived for several years. We are deeply grateful to Giovanni for the years we spent together building Moze; his departure pushed Matteo and me out of our comfort zone and into the forefront. This experience has been immensely enriching, allowing us to connect directly with the clients who choose Moze and to build meaningful relationships from the very first moment.
To those who ask, “Who is the CEO now?” we reply that Matteo and I have chosen to lead the company together. This decision perfectly reflects the essence of Moze: a rare balance, with no clear divisions between design and technology.
Once upon a time in the digital revolution
Amid the ongoing digital transformation, we have all been swept up by the rapid advances in artificial intelligence. While market conditions—conflicts, inflation, and more—have led to cautious corporate investment, this has been offset by a renewed push for innovation, driven by AI technologies that promise to further accelerate digital progress.
In our daily work, collaborating closely with entrepreneurs and innovation managers, we observe emerging trends: phenomena appearing with increasing frequency that hint at a clear direction.
Here, we share a few of them.
Doing things well is no longer optional: brand and UX as strategic elements in digital product development
We’ve noticed a decline in first-time founders seeking initial development for a new product. Instead, we’ve encountered:
- Startups or tech companies with an existing product looking to make a leap forward in terms of UX and brand identity.
- Enterprise or mid-sized companies strategically investing in better UX for their B2B products.
This trend is evident when observing the websites of tech companies. Even in Italy, the average quality with which these companies present themselves has significantly improved compared to past years.
Those who build a good product soon rush to enhance its UX, understanding that it’s not merely about aesthetic vanity but the very essence of a brand’s value proposition.
Rethinking collaboration around added value: agile contracts
We’ve often highlighted the value of agile contracts in digital innovation projects. The time has come to finally see the agency as an extension of the client’s team. Innovating “on paper” doesn’t work if it’s reduced to ticking off a checklist of deliverables defined months earlier in a contract.
It’s far better to focus on the client’s objectives, working iteratively (in short work cycles, called sprints) and incrementally (gradually evolving a simple system into a complex one).
In 2024, more than half of our revenue came from agile contracts, meaning contracts based on value. What’s new is that we’ve successfully applied agile contracts not only with clients in the tech or IT sectors—where agile practices are more familiar—but also with companies from other industries looking to develop innovative digital products.
At the end of a major project, one client wrote to us: “Thank you for what you did and, even more, for what you convinced me not to do.”
This kind of acknowledgment is our greatest satisfaction: it means we’re helping create value without waste.
Now more than ever, the challenge is not selling skills but solving problems and achieving goals
Years ago, finding developers skilled in technologies like React was rare, and an agency could stand out simply by offering these competencies. Today, the landscape has changed: many companies have hired internally, and AI promises unprecedented productivity gains.
When I think of our most satisfied clients, I realize they’re the ones to whom we’ve offered not just technical skills but also guidance toward the right solutions. More than ever, an agency must distinguish itself not only by what it does but how it does it—offering vision, expertise, and the ability to guide companies through critical decisions. We need to move beyond being mere executors and become active partners, capable of defining and solving problems. Here, experience becomes an enabler and accelerator, shortening timelines, unlocking new possibilities, and avoiding costly mistakes.
This is why, for years, we’ve been proposing to kick-off new projects with a Co-design Workshop, collaborating with clients to figure out what to do before actually doing it. At the same time, we’ve invested in training our team of designers and developers, building skills like public speaking and problem solving. These efforts help us push past the constraints of technical roles and view problems from a broader perspective—that of the client.
Artificial intelligence arrived slowly, then suddenly
When it comes to AI, its impact on a wide range of products and services is now undeniable. In recent years, our role as designers has increasingly intertwined with projects involving artificial intelligence.
In this race, it’s easy to fall into the temptation of taking shortcuts and making mistakes, as AI often introduces entirely new interaction paradigms. These paradigms have the power to turn a product into a memorable success or a complete failure.
For this reason, we’ve developed a dedicated guide to designing an exceptional UX for AI-based products.
On the development front, we are integrating AI technologies both into our workflows and into client projects. On one hand, we’ve adopted tools like GitHub Copilot to assist our developers in writing code. On the other, we’ve started leveraging AI in the projects we deliver for our clients.
Taking a gradual and experimental approach—often starting with Proofs of Concept that later evolve into production projects—we’ve implemented tools like OpenAI’s Vision and Assistant AI. The results achievable in relatively short timeframes are truly remarkable. While we’re still exploring the broader impact of artificial intelligence, we can already say that AI represents the future of development, though in ways different from what we had initially imagined.
This 2025 is already bringing a fresh start: we’re working on exciting projects that we can’t wait to share. We are deeply grateful for all of this and, as always, we’ll continue to share our work and experiences on the pages of our Journal.