Airnauts

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of True Progress.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Airnauts?

My father wrote a memoir book, and we needed a website to promote it. We were trying to generate interest and excitement for the book launch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Airnauts built the website from the ground up. They used Webflow and Figma. We had a lot of video content, text, and still photos, so the challenge was displaying the creative content in an organized, engaging way. They designed the website to display the images, and the structure was one of their significant innovations. All in all, they worked on web development, copywriting, research, and storyboarding.

What is the team composition?

We worked with five people: a project manager, a software developer, a creative director, a technical director, and a QA person.

How did you come to work with Airnauts?

We spent a lot of time researching the best website development teams in the world. Airnauts made it onto our list of 15 companies. We looked at them carefully and talked to each one. They were the best, so we hired them to create the website.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2021–May 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s a brand new website, so we don't have any baseline. However, the feedback we’ve gotten has been extraordinary. People have been really impressed with the site, and they’re very excited about the work and the book. It’s been a huge success.

How did Airnauts perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t see the project management on our end, but they stayed on budget and met the deadlines. We communicated through Zoom and emails.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their creativity, innovation, design, functionality, and reliability made them stand out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything was excellent.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust their development process.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a media, SaaS and data company in the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Airnauts, and what were your goals?

We approached Airnauts to develop a new media platform that employs several major elements: media publishing, social networking, B2B SaaS technologies. Airnauts was brought on to handle both the design and development of the platform. Our goal was to find a company that had experience with large scale global-sized projects as well as the design vision that would enable us to produce a platform with UI/UX elements that haven't yet been tried in certain market places. After interviewing over 25 companies around the world, we felt Airnauts was best suited for our needs.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

The factors that let Airnauts stand out was their portfolio of companies they worked with previously, as well as the openness and communication of their team. We considered Airnauts as a full-stack development company, able to do both design, and development. But their team, having worked on large scale projects previously, also provided us with valuable insight into new technologies as well as market intelligence.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Main steps were discovery, design, iteration, frameworking, and several stages of development. There are several phases of the project, a B2C component (the media side) and a B2B component (the SaaS side). The project is ongoing.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I do not know the exact number of people, but it was definitely greater than 10 from Airnauts's team. Everyone from the executive through to designers and developers works with us on every detail of the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We were able to launch the first phase of the program quickly—significantly faster than typical platform companies. We launched after 9 months. Typically, a project of this size would take nearly 2 years.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Airnauts's team uses all modern tools to communicate with us, such as Slack and Asana to keep track of deliverables and maintain an open dialog. We are able to reach them in a timely manner and communication between both companies is fair and honest. Honesty and directness are key to executing between two companies, and Airnauts is a stellar example of this.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Openness and communication style. Their team also does not shy back about challenging us on our own ideas to make sure they are sustainable and viable. They operate more like an integrated team rather than just a vendor or agency.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There is always room for improvement, from both sides of the equation. Any issues we may have had were promptly discussed and improved. We are definitely happy with our trust and relationship.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a department head at a fine jewelry business. We primarily sell directly to customers at a physical store and the workshop where our jewelry is made, and the rest is done online.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Airnauts?

We wanted to redesign and redo our website. Since we’re a luxury brand, our customer's experience in the store needed to be reflected online, and that wasn’t the case with our website, which was done in 2016 and needed a refresh. We hired an agency to redesign it and Airnauts to build it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Airnauts built our Shopify site. They migrated some backend content from our previous website and built the new site from scratch. Even though another agency designed the site, Airnauts had to make tweaks and enhancements to the design during development. We launched the site less than a month ago, we’re still in a warranty phase, and we’ll likely engage them for maintenance and enhancements. 

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with two people from Airnauts. One teammate was on the design side, and the other was a technology lead who acted as project manager, linking our requests, feedback, and QA with their team.

How did you come to work with Airnauts?

The agency that designed our website recommended Airnauts to us. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re pretty happy with Airnauts’ work. The launch was very smooth, with hardly any hiccups. The team was very accommodating in terms of launch time; they were mindful of where our core audience is based when deciding the time to take down the old site and make the switch. 

How did Airnauts perform from a project management standpoint?

I manage the project on my side, and I’m very hands-on. Airnauts has stayed 100% on budget, and they’ve been very accommodating. For example, we had a very long and in-depth QA process, which involved a bit of a gray area, and they were super flexible. 

The team is really open in their communication and quick to respond on any channel we choose. We mainly use email, and we’ve also talked on Slack. Userback is our QA tool, which allows me to screenshot issues and ask questions regarding changes. I can raise tickets within the platform, add detail, and assign priorities. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Because we had another agency design the site, there was a risk that it didn’t come to life in the way we envisioned it in the flat design. However, that hasn’t been the case here; it’s quite impressive how faithful Airnauts has been to the design. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. If I had constructive feedback, I’d discuss it with them directly. Overall, our relationship has been pretty smooth.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you don’t have a dedicated team for a website development project, the best thing to do is own the project, even if you have a project manager on the agency’s side. Ensure everything gets done and considered. This has to do with accountability on the client’s side because you know your business the best.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

NOWNESS is a video channel premiering the best in global arts and culture across Art & Design, Culture, Fashion & Beauty, Music and Food & Travel. I am the digital editor at NOWNESS.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Airnauts, and what were your goals?

We selected Airnauts to build the new release of NOWNESS. At the time we had a rather outdated website that felt like a blog. We wanted to build something novel, exciting and something that would be on par with our content.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We met through a mutual acquaintance in NYC. Despite being a relatively small agency from Warsaw, we felt a great connection and no cultural gap. They immediately understood what we are looking for and more importantly were able to take a really deep dive into us and proposed a solution that was an exact match to our expectations - and actually managed to surpass them.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The project required a re-build of the entire NOWNESS experience from scratch. Frontend, backend, CMS, analytics etc. We worked together to define the final approach and Airnauts decided to provide a very bespoke, custom solution that would match our needs and our workflow - an Angular frontend application, a custom backend leveraging Node.js and a custom CMS.

Later down the road native iOS , AppleTV and Android applications were developed as well. We have also launched different versions of the platform for the Chinese and Asian markets.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We've been working with Airnauts for several years and the team is always flexible to match our requirements. We worked with their CTO who personally oversaw all of the work and ensured things progressed smoothly, their PM and their team of developers directly. We really liked their flexibility through our long term partnership, and we love the personal touch that they bring.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Airnauts performance in our project is outstanding. Their creativity and dedication made it even better than we thought it would be. They came with specific ideas about how to improve our platform. Additionally, their team is very easy to relate to. With other companies, it’s clear that you’re speaking to an engineer without a lot of interpersonal skills, but with Airnauts, it’s clear that they have both the technical skill and the ability to communicate well with others.

Over the years we have managed to retain a very high quality of the platform and didn’t have to re-build it even though it’s been almost eight years since the original architecture was planned out - it is actually still a modern stack and has been optimized eg via the use of GraphQL to conform to the latest trends in tech. We are proud to say NOWNESS has won numerous awards, including Webby Awards.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Everyone on their team has been excellent at keeping me in the loop and helping me understand what we can accomplish, which makes me confident about collaborating with them.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They are all technology driven. For Airnauts, there is nothing that can't be done. And all of that is "packed" in a beautiful outfit, they keep in mind that even the most complex project has to be well designed. This combination of technology and design make them one of a kind.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Portfoliobox. A website builder for creative professionals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Airnauts?

We hired Airnauts to redesign our website as it was already more then three years old and did not reflect the current version of the services we provide. We wanted a skilled design firm that could deliver a mind blowing experience that leaves the visitors amazed. In addition to the website we needed a redesign of our brand.

SOLUTION

How did you select Airnuts and what were the deciding factors?

We looked for design firms in Europe on different sites and based on rankings, the design and quality of their own website, their portfolio of projects, we decided to get in touch with a hand full of them. After all the interviews and proposals we got we decided to go with Airnauts. One of the deciding factors why Airnauts got the project was that they put in time and effort in the initial proposal they sent us.

They took the time to brain storm ideas they had and what directions we could take. This was more than your standard copy paste design proposal. We where also looking for a firm that had the ability to deliver all the front-end code as well.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We provided wire frames of all the pages and blocks we needed. Then we created a mood board together where we put all things that inspires us. Once the mood board was finished they started to show what they had in mind with high-fidelity visuals and animations. What they had come up with was spot on amazing! Almost nowhere in the process did I ask them to come back with new concepts. I think it was due to great communication skills from their part.

They understood what I was looking for immediately. Once the design part was finished they started to code the site for us. We had very specific criteria, such as: we did not want any kind of framework involved, everything should be in plain html, css and optimized vanilla js. And they did as we asked, and they did it great. Their developer was just amazing!

How many resources from the Airnuts team worked with you, and what were their positions?

In total I believe we worked with 6 people including one of the founding partners, 1 project leader, 2 designers, 1 developer and 1 QA resource. But I think there were more people involved in brainstorming of the concept.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have good engagement rate on our site and the feedback from our users are very positive.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Everybody on their team was amazing to work with. We had a slack channel where we could discuss but we also used Figma extensively to leave feedback. I could freely talk to the designer and the developer and they addressed any concerns I had very swiftly.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They are one of the best design firms I have worked with. They just went above and beyond to make sure I was happy with the results, even in times when I was undecided or unclear.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Not really, keep doing what you are doing and don't change!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CTO of GROO. Groo is a Nordic engagement platform that allows consumers to earn rewards by shopping at affiliated stores and pay down their subscriptions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with the vendor?

Our tech was outdated and we were looking for a partner that could first help us in the short term but also elevate our product in the long run. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Technological audit, UX and UI work on the entire application, full mobile apps development, full backend development including 3rd party integra[ons.

What is the team composition?

I work closely with their CTO as well as their PM and lead backend dev. There are several mobile devs and their involvement changes depending on our requirements and needs. We appreciate the flexibility.

How did you come to work with the vendor?

We were contacted through a mutual contact. We hit it off immediately – Airnauts has the perfect mix of business professionalism but with a light, human touch to everything they do.

How much have you invested with them?

Approximately low six figures.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A completely revamped app that is now very much up to date both in terms of the user experience & design, and the underlying technology. It is now easy to modify the product and work on new features.

How did the vendor perform from a project management standpoint?

The project was well managed, they had to take a very deep dive into everything we do and how we work with partners and various 3rd party vendors, and managed to do that very well, actually enhancing some of those processes along the way.

What did you find most impressive about them?

How they kept suggesting coming up with enhancements and small things that overall made a big difference. They definitely understood our business and product goals, which was rare for an outsourced vendor.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything! 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and Founder of an outdoor adventure website, connecting adventurers with professional guides.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Airnauts, and what were your goals?

Initially hired them to build out the MVP, and have continued to work with them as we scale the product from MVP and beyond.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I found them online, and was impressed with their track record and noticeable focus on design. I was deciding based on cost, communication, and track record.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They took a loose idea and helped build out the MVP. The basic marketplace model is proven, so we've looked to other established companies for design and tech stack.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Anywhere from 1-5. This is the huge advantage of working with Airnuats. They have a full stack team and can bring in expertise as needed to grow and build with you and your current company needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Very solid foundational product. At times, things took too long and there was some lapse in communication, but that mostly falls on me. If you bring more clarity to the deliverables (unlike I did in the early stages) they can execute against that and at speed.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

They use slack, asana, and other tools to manage project management. They are fluent in english and they can grasp embryonic ideas and turn them into reality. They have a ton of experience working with other clients and have a full stack team to build and develop projects no matter the scope.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Flexibility and ability to build something with not a ton of guidance, all while leveraging 3rd party tools (e.g. APIs) to expedite development processes.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Sometimes the site was buggy, and QA could be improved a little bit. But bugs are inevitable, especially early stage.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are working on a novel sleep-enhancing suite of products based on years of scientific data that we have been gathering and analysing. I'm the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Airnauts, and what were your goals?

We have amazing minds on our team, but not enough technical expertise to turn our vision into a final product that could be adapted by a large user base. We contacted Airnauts because we knew they could take our concept and turn it into an actual digital experience.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We were connected through a mutual acquaintance. We compared with competitors but we felt the best connection with Airnauts, by far. What convinced us the most was their deep understanding of our mission - which they managed to grasp very quickly - and the ability to analyse and positively challenge it on many levels.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Airnauts worked with us from the very beginning of the project, starting off at the conceptual phase, working on the final strategy for the product and translating that into ux and ui. The scope also contains frontend work, Flutter iOS and Android development, architecture and development of the backend stack, infrastructure/devops and all 3rd party integrations.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We're in constant contact with Jacob, their amazing CTO who ensures that our grand vision is properly translated into the language of modern technology on every level. We also work closely with their project manager. Internally there is a team of approx 6 developers and a small creative team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Thanks to the amazing strategic work of the entire Airnauts team and great guidance from their CTO we were able to secure the necessary financing to continue with our vision. Currently we are running a closed beta and are progressing into the market. All of the deliverables so far have been of outstanding quality.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

They are friendly and relaxed but very committed to the final result. The communication is constant and very low profile, in a good way. They definitely feel well integrated with us. Everything is happening as planned and on time.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The mix of professionalism and the human-centric, friendly approach towards the relationship with us. We can definitely see working together for many months and hopefully years to come. Their expertise is outstanding, they bring a lot of knowledge from many different sectors of the digital ecosystem. They can truly translate a vision into a real product in a way that focuses on the key aspects and is actionable within the time & budget constraints.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

I would have started working with them sooner!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of Technology at Cognixion. We build assistive devices for people with communications challenges.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Airnauts, and what were your goals?

We wanted to quickly roll out an AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) iOS phone and tablet application to be used by people who for various reasons are unable to speak.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

This was already in place when I joined.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Our CEO, CTO and a designer drafted the requirements and a set of UI wireframes. The technology stack was jointly defined: - AWS cloud components including API gateway, Lambda, S3, RDS (PostgresQL and DynamoDB) and Amazon Polly. - iOS front end implemented in Swift The project plan included interim deliverables including the architecture design, API stubs, and periodic releases via TestFlight

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked closely with Airnaut's project manager/technical lead, as well as with a front-end developer and cloud developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We were very happy with speed and quality of the initial release of the software. We further engaged Airnauts for a major feature releases to incorporate Apple's eye-tracking functionality.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had a regular weekly meeting via teleconference with the Airnauts team to discuss progress and provide feedback, as well as email and ad-hoc meetings. We were generally happy with timeliness and progress to plan.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The team had expertise over the entire stack from the mobile app to the cloud backend.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

The difference in timezones occasionally made it difficult to get all parties together to communicate.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Marketing for a small software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Airnauts, and what were your goals?

Our website was outdated for the products we sell. We hired Airnauts to provide front end development, working with our in house design team.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We have worked with Airnauts on previous iterations of our website and have always been pleased with the results.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We delivered the designs for the website and after initial kick-off meetings the Airnauts worked for several weeks on developing the website. Nearer to the end of the project, we worked together closely on previously unforeseen animations and user interactions.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with two members of the team - a project manager and engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Clients and internal team members love the new look and feel of our website.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We used Slack, Github and Asana to work on this project. Airnauts were always very quick to provide feedback and advice, and we had great communication throughout.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We trust in their abilities to provide a fantastic website, as well as troubleshooting and finding solutions to challenges we face along the way.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No - everything was great!