Acid Labs

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO at an Apple products distribution company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Acid Labs?

They manage everything related to our e-commerce capabilities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They used Spree Commerce.

What is the team composition?

We have worked with about 20 different people since we started our partnership with them. We’ve had a high rotation, started with a team of five people and they have changed over time.

How did you come to work with Acid Labs?

We had a licitation in 2016 and were looking for a technology partner to develop our e-commerce site. Acid Labs was selected in this licitation and we have been collaborating with them since. One of the reasons we selected them was that their executive team was solid and had a great knowledge of the business.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2016 and are continuing our collaboration.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We are very satisfied. Nowadays, we are positioned as one of the best e-commerce sites in the country. Our users really value how fast the site is.

We have had a great collaboration with them. Our team really feels comfortable working with them. They are always bringing in new ideas and have very fluid communications.

How did Acid Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They have their own project management tools and they work with agile methodologies, following all of the industry standards. We have direct communications with the developers too, which is something we requested. It’s allowed us to have a more efficient collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our process of buying via the web and picking up in-store that we call pick-and-go, is much more advanced than any other company in the market. It’s provided us with great added-value.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As a general problem throughout the industry, it is always very hard to define precise dates and hours to be invested in a project. We have this issue with them sometimes too, and I guess they could improve this process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am an innovation and development manager at a commercial bank.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Acid Labs?

We have collaborated with them with a scrum team that supports us with the development of our services on a gateway for the bank’s website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have developed several services for us, from basic ones like consultations to evaluation processes and online credit execution.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about 11 people.

How did you come to work with Acid Labs?

I was not involved in the process of hiring them, as there is another area that manages service providers' contracts, although I’ve had a good experience collaborating with them.

How much have you invested in them?

We spend around $50,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in March this year and it is a permanent collaboration.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The results have been very positive. We have been able to update our entire website and develop the services we needed via this gateway. The impact of these changes has been very positive. We designed the reach of the project ourselves and the way they executed them was great.

How did Acid Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They showed great commitment to the project; we didn’t feel like they were an external team. They were very open to feedback and collaboration with the company. They have become experts on the topic, and some of our other teams started coming to them for advice. There was a lot of flexibility from both sides and we are very happy with the way they have performed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were able to solve very complex things in a very short time, and it was very easy to work with them. They adapted very well with the front team and the results of this collaboration were very positive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Maybe organize quarterly feedback sessions to polish and talk about details and needs for the projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Bci is the third most important bank in Chile, it has a strong history of technological innovation, and is always at the forefront of everything related to it. I am in charge of the innovation lab in the digital transformation division. My role is to lead a multidisciplinary team of digital professionals whose mission is to create and/or present initiatives either internally created or based on the Fintech ecosystem to challenge and transform the bank and its value propositions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Acid Labs?

We hired for a process of design and discovery on the digital investment's customer journey.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to conceptualize, design and test digital proposals for our client's end to end journey.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They developed hundreds of concepts, some of which were tested in weekly sprints and we ended up with 5 digital products that were very valuable alone and even more altogether, we also had a lot of feedback from real clients. 

Describe the project in detail.

The project aimed to understand the complexity of an investment client's customer journey and to take different parts of this journey to submit them into a design sprint during a week, considering all the steps indicated in the methodology, plus additional methodological proposals from the Acid team, related to UI/UX tools for testing, feedback, etc. The goal was to provide the development team with detailed specifications.

What was the team composition?

There were two people involved from Acid, plus a project manager. From our side, we had a Product Owner, Business Analyst, and a Sprint Master. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The project marked a very high standard of what we should consider as a good discovery, a lot of the things that were designed have been or are in the process of being implemented.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was perfect, they worked with us in our office as members of our own team, we reached excellent levels of collaboration and cohesion.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their adaptability to adhere to an unknown project with its own methodology and to still be able to provide their own methodological contributions. They also had the commitment and startup spirit that we are always looking for on our projects.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I think that the model that we used during our collaboration made us lose some connection with Acid, and I know that they have a lot of resources that could collaborate on our projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a chief data officer and head of omnichannel digital capabilities at Walmart Chile. The company has around 50,000 employees nationally. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Acid Labs?

They provide us with software development services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Acid Labs has helped us with multiple software development projects. Their developers are integrated with our development team. Most of our projects are around e-commerce, mobile app development, management, and sales platforms, amongst other areas. They always use the latest technologies.

What is the team composition?

They have grown a lot, so I don’t know the exact number, but they should have at least 30 people.

How did you come to work with Acid Labs?

I believe someone from Acid Labs contacted us to offer their services. We started talks with them and then sent them a small test, which later became a full-on project. We hired some of their talent for internal projects and got good results. It was clear that we were a good match with them, not just on the technical side but also in terms of culture and personal attributes. We’ve grown alongside each other.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with them for about one year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We have been able to update our digital proposal and get good results. We still lack some things; however, compared to a year to a year-and-a-half ago, we’ve been able to create a better experience for our clients based on the joint projects we’ve done with Acid Labs. This has meant that our sales and loyalty index have increased. Our experience rate has improved by at least 30%.

How did Acid Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We have our own set of project management tools, like Jira and other code review tools, and they’ve adapted to them well. We work very well together. They have spent a lot of time and energy building a good relationship with us, and we can see the results of that. They have people focused especially on improving their work, even if they are not part of the talent hired to work in-office.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s not easy for us to find the right talent to work here at Walmart, and they have been outstanding at that. They have always understood our needs and been able to find talent that fit them right away.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, we are very happy with their work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a business innovation partner at a telecommunications company based in Chile.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Acid Labs?

We hired them to provide consulting services on process digitalization. We were looking to digitalize the process of enterprise customer service management through our attention channels: call center, online, or in person.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Acid Labs provided a consulting service. They studied our current processes and then proposed digital solutions to test with clients. What they proposed was to connect a biometric solution and our databases. It was all conceptual; we didn’t have any tech development yet. 

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with three people, and I believe there was a bigger internal team working on the project, although I’m not certain. 

How did you come to work with Acid Labs?

We did a benchmarking for another project before. They were not selected for that project, but we really liked their proposal. When this project came up, we contacted them, asked for a proposal, and started working with them.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent around $8,800.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted four months, from October 2019–January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The quality and planning of the projects were two things that stood out. The original schedule was respected, and all of the deliveries were timely. 

The quality of the solution allowed us to clearly see what was going on with new technologies at the time and what our possibilities were. As we became aware of new technologies that we didn’t know about before this, our decision process expanded a lot.

How did Acid Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication was very fluid. We were always in contact, and they were receptive to all of our feedback on the project. They were very precise with deadlines; everything was met according to what we had planned.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility to listen, adapt, and establish their goals according to our requirements impressed us. We started with one goal that wasn’t addressed the way we expected at first, but after getting our feedback, they made the appropriate changes and delivered a solution well-suited to our needs. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

At first, it was hard for us to communicate our needs and what exactly we were looking for with this solution. That could improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the e-commerce and digital channels mid-manager of a holding company with 3 main brands.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Acid Labs?

They're helping us with several e-commerce solutions.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We launched the e-commerce site for one brand, and they’re now developing the e-commerce site for another. They’re also working on a mobile application for both iOS and Android, a chatbot, and a payment system for our company.

We’re using Spree for our e-commerce sites. The mobile app will be service-focused, and will allow users to do things like see and schedule their medications for chronic disease treatments.

What is the team dynamic?

There are 3 developers working on e-commerce solutions, as well as 4 people involved with app development.

How did you come to work with Acid Labs?

We made bids with different companies, and Acid Labs turned out to be the best by far in terms of services and costs. Their proposal was good, and they had worked with prominent clients in the past, so they gave us the comfort of knowing that they could deal with a large brand.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2014, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We are the first e-commerce pharmacy in our area, and we’re growing at a 200% annual rate. Acid Labs has been a great partner, from creations, to development, and all the improvements they’ve done to our site.

How did Acid Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Trello to manage all of our projects. We have an executive on our side who gives feedback to Acid Labs’ developers. Their counterpart is in charge of identifying and communicating needs and requirements to the developers in order to improve projects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re always proactive during development. Additionally, they make sure to stay current with new technologies and pay attention to markets abroad, all while offering innovative suggestions. I’m also impressed with their overall management, because there’s someone who effectively and peacefully communicates all requirements.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that comes to mind. Initially, we had issues communicating with their development team, but then a project manager was assigned, and the problem was solved.