AE Studio

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of BJ Fogg, LLC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AE Studio?

I was trying to make it easier for my customers to interact with my content.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I wanted a web-based tool — not an installable app, but something simple that users could access on any web browser or mobile app. I had some ideas when we first started working together, but there wasn’t any code yet. AE Studio built it from scratch. 

The design is very simple and neutral. On the backend, AE Studio built an admin tool, so I could enter and adjust content as well as view analytics. 

What is the team composition?

Greg (Partner & CTO) is my main point of contact. 

How did you come to work with AE Studio?

They reached out to me for some advice. After our phone call, I was really impressed with them, and decided to reach out for their services

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from August–December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s not necessarily a metric, but I was most concerned with whether the site was easy to use and would actually help people, which it does and is. I would say it was a successful project.

How did AE Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

AE Studio was superb. They were very impressive. The team made very clear how the project would be managed: they set expectations, brought in really talented people, and did a great job of introducing us and helping us develop relationships with different people.

AE Studio was clear about meetings and deadlines, and they were flexible whenever things came up. They were a delight to work with.

It was totally remote, so we kept in touch through voice memos, phone calls, Slack, and Google Docs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Working with AE Studio was really good. They asked me for feedback on a regular basis, which demonstrated how much they cared about our success. They were excellent — it’s why I’m planning to do more work with them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you can, work with AE Studio. They’re very good at asking questions and bringing out of it what you want. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief architect for Entertainment Partners, a production partner for a lot of studios. We help them create content.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AE Studio?

They developed a new informational marketing site.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our design partner created the look and feel, and AE Studio implemented it. They used Gatsby and GraphCMS to rebuild the site from the ground up.  

What is the team composition?

We worked with two full stack developers and one project manager.

How did you come to work with AE Studio?

They’re a GraphCMS integration partner. We received pitches from a handful of companies, but AE Studio understood our needs and knew how to help us meet our goals. They didn’t try to upsell us, either.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from January­–October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They did an excellent job and were great to work with. I look forward to working with them again.

How did AE Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They did well and used Pivotal Tracker to keep things on schedule. They delivered on time and on budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attention to detail is superb.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If it’s your first time using an outsource agency, define the scope and get it in writing ahead of time. You should also be engaged in the process. Some companies assume that once they hire another company, they don’t need to be as involved, but then they don’t get the results they wanted.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work in financial planning and analytics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AE Studio?

We were trying to build a data warehouse in order to perform more internal analytics. It was a temporary project and we needed help getting off the ground. AE Studio helped us establish a basic set up so we can move forward while our core engineering team was building other products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked on building a data warehouse and pipeline across our systems. It will help us gather data and then transform the information so it can be used by different analysts across our organization. We also built an administration tool to control the data coming in. They built tools that would help teammates that aren’t engineers manage the data.

What is the team composition?

We had an account manager, a project manager, and one engineer working full time on this. We could also bring on another engineer with special skillsets whenever we needed it.

How did you come to work with AE Studio?

We requested proposals across a few companies. We chose AE Studio because communication was really easy. We tried to work on this project with another company a year earlier, but it didn’t turn out well. That was sort of like a discovery phase for us and it helped us determine what we wanted and needed. AE Studio brought a leaner approach and their timeline was aggressive. That was great because it meant that we would get the final product earlier.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It lasted from July–August 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The results are phenomenal. We did fail before, so from our perspective, this engagement was very successful. Now many teams can leverage the tools we built.

How did AE Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

We work fairly through Slack channels, documents, and repositories we have access to. We always knew what was going on and they were always available. I was the person of contact on our side, so I tried to make myself available for them as well. I think what worked well for us. They scheduled daily standups, which although it requires time, it keeps the project moving.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their responsiveness. Communication was easy and their speed was great. If there was a scenario, they thought of all the unknowns and were able to complete the project in a way that was better than what we imagined. That was very helpful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. So far, they’ve been the best team I’ve worked with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If AE Studio has a question, then they need the answer before they can move forward. At the end of the day, they’re waiting on the project owner to make the decision. So committing to that will make the project easier for everybody.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of BioCentury. We’re a digital publication in the biopharmaceutical industry. We have a website and business analysis tools.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AE Studio?

We needed a team with expertise in website development and a service called GraphCMs with GraphQL. We needed Angular, GraphQL, and GraphCMS experience.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AE Studio reconstructed our website around GraphCMS. Their team added a number of capabilities that allow administrators to compose new pages centered around different topics.

For example, we created a large number of pages around the COVID-19 outbreak. AE Studio also set up a COVID-19 portal, taking it from concept to delivery within a week. They’ve begun to add interactive capabilities to the portal.

What is the team composition?

We started with two, but now we work with 3 individuals from AE Studio.

How did you come to work with AE Studio?

We found them through a reference.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $500,000 on their services so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our engagement in November 2019, and they’re still working with us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re good at implementing concepts at a rapid speed.

How did AE Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent at asserting the appropriate level of discipline needed. Their team works with us to fit into our environment and needs. They’re good at making suggestions, so much so that I turned all project management over to them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their execution speed stands out. We’re also impressed by their ability to assess what’s needed. Their team’s thorough.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything at the moment.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would be prepared to explain your needs clearly but also listen to them because they have good ideas.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a business intelligence platform for the media and entertainment industry. I’ve been in commercials and the entertainment industry for 22 years, and we’re tackling some issues that producers face every day.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AE Studio?

We hired them to work on our MVP to help us achieve our mission. Working in software was new to me.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built a go-to-market strategy with us, helping to create our MVP. That involved them researching and assisting with ideation surrounding some features as well as crafting our database.

There was plenty that was involved in the development that I didn’t understand, so they guided us along the way. We weren’t familiar with agile development processes, because that’s not our industry standard. They made that transition easy to digest for my mindset pretty easily. We’re in the beta testing phase right now. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with between 4–5 people on the project. They include their senior management team in meetings to ensure that we’re feeling good about progress. I appreciate that.

How did you come to work with AE Studio?

I was introduced to the founder of AE Studio several years ago, as he was starting the company. When my business partner and I were on the hunt for a partner company, we liked their team and how they offered data science resources. That was very valuable. It’s really impressive to see their growth over time. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in the fall of 2019, and our collaboration is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Working with their project manager, we have a complex way of budgeting that reflects the work we do in the industry. He worked with my team to grasp and understand that. I thought that went above and beyond.  

How did AE Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They provide us with account management services to ensure that we’re happy with the services week to week. With their consistent check-ins, I was confident that they had their eye on the ball. They did an excellent job. We work through the holidays, and they agreed to stick with us through that. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their quality of work gave me complete confidence in their abilities. We were looking at many teams, but they offered us the opportunity to build a rapport and collaborate. We’re on Google Hangouts and Zoom meetings and were still able to develop a meaningful partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. They’ve done a pretty stellar job so far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d highly recommend trying them out. They bring a lot of value to products with their experience and ideas.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Best Apps. We’ve been around for a few years at this point. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AE Studio?

We needed help building an already-patented customization platform. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

There are two platforms that they’re helping us build out at this point. The first is an app that allows users to customize apparel from their phones. The other project is more brand-oriented.

It allows companies to configure assets that appear on apparel. The end-user has the opportunity to customize as well, based on the criteria set forth by the brand within the app. The first platform is compatible with iOS. We’re working with their team to make it cross-platform for Android users. The second app is already cross-platform, serving both iOS and Android users.

What is the team composition?

We worked with around eight people: designers, developers, technical leads, project managers, and data science specialists. 

How did you come to work with AE Studio?

A friend referred me to them. We met with about a dozen other software firms and felt that they understood our project best. They were also local to us, so that contributed to my decision because I wanted the option to work directly with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the work in January 2018, and the project is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve always been professional and able to deliver high-quality work. I have nothing negative to say about our engagement. We’ve had audits and advisors review the code, and everything is top-notch.  

How did AE Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve always had very clear lines of communication with each other. My partner and I participate in daily standups with their team every morning. As far as involvement, they were open to whatever level of oversight that we felt comfortable taking. Transparency couldn’t be any better.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very accommodating from the beginning, offering support wherever needed. The project was always well-staffed because of their team’s skill level. In their past few years of growth, they bring in quality talent and maintain professionalism. They’ve grown with us, which has felt really organic. They seem to really know what they’re doing as they scale their company. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have no complaints at all. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

For any large project like this, the closer you are to the day-to-day development, the better. They’ve always been really supportive of that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a company called QuirkTastic, a community networking platform for people who identify with “geek culture”. That includes gamers, nerds, and people interested in anime and KPOP.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AE Studio?

I was previously working with an offshore tech firm that was helping me create an events ticketing management platform. Right before its launch, it got hacked and fell apart, so I reached out to AE Studio to pick up and finalize the product. We were trying to launch it as soon as possible.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We created Figma wireframes, which AE Studio examined and made design edits to. Wes (Product Manager & Designer, AE Studio) worked to streamline our designs before executing the final product. Victor (Full-Stack Engineer) took our designs and built the entire system on Ruby on Rails.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Wes and Victor.

How did you come to work with AEStudio?

I’d met them before at a happy hour in California, and I was very impressed by their portfolio. We’d made earlier arrangements for them to implement payment integrations into our site, but when my project collapsed, I took them on to rebuild the entire platform from scratch.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $65,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2019 and wrapped up this month in January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We recently launched our platform (two weeks earlier than anticipated), and it’s already enjoyed account sign-ups from a few event organizers. It’s gotten great feedback from different organizations who have highlighted it for its ease-of-use. On the internal side, we all think that the platform looks significantly better than our previous product. My in-house tech advisor also praised the code that it’s built on.

How did AE Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They were amazing. They were supportive, even off the clock—they let me know that if there was any issue, I just had to reach out. They maintained such great communication and their time management was also awesome.

We had 15-minute standups every day and communicated through Clubhouse, a project management tool. They communicated priorities and updated me on project progress through Clubhouse.

Since I’m working to build my own team, I hope to adopt some of their processes since they were so effective.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They felt like a very personal partner. They catered their processes to the nature of our company. Although it’s a minor thing, we’re a “geeky” brand, so they made the experience really fun for us— like using Pokemon references for file names.

On the same note, they were extremely transparent and personable throughout the entire engagement. Our standups would involve anonymous feedback sessions, making sure that everyone was on the same page. And, if anyone had frustrations, we could talk about it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No—they truly saved my project, and there’s nothing negative I have to say about them. They’ve really been great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them the full scope of your overall goals, as a company. They’re extremely talented and have resources that go beyond what they formally offer.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the merchandise manager at a large tech firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AE Studio?

We had recently migrated our website from Magento to Shopify, but we had a negative experience with the vendor who helped with that so we were looking for someone to come in and help us complete the work, including some more complex requirements and custom features.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

AE Studio did a comprehensive review of our Shopify store to make sure things were set up correctly. They provided more than just a black-and-white vision on things, critically looking into our e-commerce site and thinking outside the box. Their team was able to complete a lot of the things our previous vendor told us weren’t possible.

For example, we were told there were no Shopify apps for hiding variants for certain projects. AE Studio went above and beyond and developed the Shopify app from scratch for us. It’s not that there wasn’t a solution, it was just something the average developer wouldn’t be thinking of.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two members of the AE Studio team.

How did you come to work with AE Studio?

We found AE Studio through a referral. I chatted with multiple vendors, but AE Studio was the only firm that had a mentality similar to mine and my company’s, focusing on creative solutions. What I really wanted was someone that wanted to set us up for success and give us agency over our own site. I loved that AE Studio encouraged us to do so much of it ourselves. They had the best mentality, work ethic, and process, so we decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested about $16,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with AE Studio began in September 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

AE Studio was able to fix all of the issues left by our previous developer in under two weeks. They were even able to fix some in 24 hours. Their team is focused on finding solutions. The Shopify app they created is evident of that, and now it exists for others to use as well. 

They cranked through a bunch of work. It really impressed me how quickly they were able to get things done. There are no smoke and mirrors, they always make sure I understand what they’re working on.

How did AE Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

AE Studio is really great with project management. I feel like I can trust that we know what’s going on. Our teams do a daily standup in the morning to touch base on the hot button project. This allows me to re-prioritize if I tweak our approach or if my priorities changed. They’re always willing to make a quick course correction.

What did you find most impressive about them?

AE Studio is transparent, efficient, and creative all at the same time. They allow us to understand exactly what’s happening. Their team has more than just basic implementation skills, they have people that can really redefine what it is you’re looking for and create solutions. I have yet to find another agency that could do that for me as quickly and effectively as they have.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. My needs were so manic and quick that they were a perfect fit. They were willing to jump into a new project with no questions asked.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront with them. Tell them what you don’t like and be super transparent because they respond well to that. AE Studio will help you come up with the best solution. 

Additionally, ask for their advice. I think people often think they know what’s best, but if you’re willing to listen to AE Studio they have valuable insight.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at Protocol Labs, a tech company that builds internet infrastructure. I help manage our relationships with external agencies, contractors, and collaborators.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with AE Studio?

We needed help building visualization products on top of our low-level protocols for debugging purposes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

With Chrome developer tools, you can see where every part of your request goes. Their team achieved that on a distributed hash table, creating a really cool web app that visualizes the request process. It's like Chrome developer tools but for the distributed web.

Our relationship has grown, and they’re now contributing to some of our core protocols. That involves working with targeted issues in our peer-to-peer networking library.

What is the team composition?

Initially, with the visualization library, there were two people assigned to us. With our ongoing efforts, there are an additional two people. Throughout our career with them, we’ve worked with 5-6 different individuals.

How did you come to work with AE Studio?

They came to me through a reference from one of my college roommates from Stanford. He referred me to Greg (Head of Technology, AE Studio), and I did some reference checking. Greg had past experience working for a very well-known development shop in Los Angeles, so we decided to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $26,000 in total so far, but we’re continuing to work together.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started collaborating in July 2019, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We bring these agencies and dev shops in to supplement our existing development team. We’re incredibly technical and have a lot of engineering talent. Oftentimes, in evaluating agencies against each other, the biggest metric is how much of our development time is saved by working with an agency.

AE Studio is really stellar. For an hour of our developer’s time, a lot of shops we might get 3–4 hours of return. We get significantly more hours of return than that with AE Studio.

How did AE Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management has been stellar. Out of all the development shops we hire, AE Studio requires some of the least amounts of hand-holding while still delivering excellent work. They are a joy to collaborate with and provide high-quality work. They’re very concise in getting to their exact point.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We've needed to provide less direction and hand-holding to them compared to most any other contractor or development shop. The quality of their work is very competitive with other providers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I do a weekly call with Greg. He’s constantly asking for feedback every single week, but don’t have much to say because they’re excellent.

If we have a challenge we want to solve, we evaluate everyone's skills to put our best resources on it. Generally, AE Studio has great skill sets, but it would be awesome if I were able to see who is best at certain skills within the Studio. Perhaps, there could be an automated way for AE to showcase their individual talent. It hasn't affected our development, though.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They suggested we have a shared Slack between our organizations. It’s really useful because everyone involved can communicate directly. There’s very little friction there.

Otherwise, just be really honest and open. Describe to them your perfect relationship and exactly what you want out of it. They will likely move mountains to make that happen.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Here at The Chicagoist we are undergoing a complete relaunch and AE has been an integral part of this process. As a project manager, I work with the developers, designers, and coders of this team very closely to ensure that we have a tangible product that we are all proud of at the very end.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire AE Studio?

We hired AE originally to revamp our website but now we are working on creating a highly functioning mobile app with various features including a reader, multimedia player, along with sharable cards for social media promotion.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to make a fully-functioning mobile app that could be used by millions of users without any crashes or major bugs that would make us lose credibility. Also, we wanted to make sure that we were meeting the needs of what we wanted to see in the app but also being realistic about the functions.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Through mutual friends.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We started off with several in-person meetings and workshops to set the tone and expectations of the project. From then we had scheduled calls throughout the week along with three separate rounds of user testing.

What was the team composition?

The number of people that worked on the project fluctuated depending on the need. We had 2 designers, 4 developers and a project manager. At the most, we had close to 10 and on the low end we had around 3. it made great sense for the need of the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Since we haven't exactly launched yet, it's a bit difficult to answer this question but I will say that AE Studios is putting us in the best possible position to receive large traffic volumes without the app crashing.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was very effective. Melanie was and still is an awesome PM. She is super accessible, very organized and proactive.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was most impressed with how quickly they were able to get tasks done even when they were super complicated and took a heavy-lift. They always delivered.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There isn't much that I would suggest for improvement. I think us setting clear goals, in the beginning, to make sure we are staying on tasks with what would have helped us be more focused, but that more so fell on us and not A.E because we weren't entirely sure what we wanted initially.