Annanuna

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a business development manager for an investment group.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Annanuna?

We needed to upgrade our website because the one we had was in really bad shape. We ended up hiring Annanuna for the job.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Annanuna asked us what our expectations were for the website. They built our logo and did everything from scratch, including the website’s design and the front- and backend development. In mutual funds, several changes have to be made every time you need to change the name of the fund, so Annanuna built us an option for changing everything inside our website. It’s great that we don’t have to wait for someone else to make the changes now. They made it very simple and user-friendly.

What is the team composition?

There were five people involved, but my main point of contact was Alex (Owner, Annanuna).

How did you come to work with Annanuna?

They worked with a good friend of mine, so we felt very good about working with them. We met two other companies as well but decided to go with Annanuna.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $25,000–$35,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January until July 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Annanuna delivered a quality website that’s functional and reliable, and our traffic has been amazing. They also placed a commercial on the website when it was completed. It’s very organized, simple, and easy to use, which gives us new prospects every day. Annanuna’s team delivered on time and within budget.

How did Annanuna perform from a project management standpoint?

I spoke with Alex almost daily to know the project’s progress. They always tried to help us and never said no. We really enjoyed the process with them, especially since they kept us involved throughout the project. They were also open to receiving our feedback, whether it was good or bad, in case we wanted to change something.

After we completed the project, they called us to know if we had any problems. We mostly used email and phone calls to communicate. We also had a meeting in our office every two weeks to discuss the process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Annanuna is fast and delivers good quality. They were the only company that could give us the answer that we needed in a very short amount of time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything bad to say about them. We’re very happy with the results.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let them work and don’t bug them to ask what’s happening every five seconds. Give Annanuna 1–2 weeks to work and then have a meeting to see where they stand.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of YouMap, Inc. We are currently in developing a map-based platform to help people create communities on a map interface rather than a forum interface.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Annanuna?

We were particularly concerned about our old website and reaching out to new people to test our development. We reached out to Annanuna to design both a new website and some landing pages that were geared toward specific demographics.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They mostly took care of the UX and UI side of things for the mobile experience for the website. We had an initial call to describe some of the services we were shopping for, and I was really impressed with how they really wanted to study our product and users and understand what we wanted to offer in the future. Currently, we’re working on some wireframing, and I expect we’ll do some custom illustrations and animations.

They helped us design by offering various layouts initially, and I selected the ones that I thought were the most suitable. There was a lot of freedom on their end because I was very pleased with their previous products, and I thought a little bit of creative splash (outside of my specialty) would really be useful. We worked together on amplifying those I chose with more custom illustrations and animation throughout the website and landing pages. This helped it be more tailored to fit our branding, which is more whimsical and tilted toward younger demographics.

They work with WordPress, and rather than come in with templates that other people have seen and used before, they custom create everything. I had some security concerns about WordPress, but they were able to address them. The biggest benefit of WordPress is having my own custom dashboard where I can easily update information and content on the site without their help. They were very keen on giving me a modular product that I could continue to modify rather than a custom-tailored website that then makes you fully dependent on the studio.

They really added a lot more movement to the site because our actual product has more animation than mapping products usually do. They worked with some of our previous materials to minimize the cost. I really appreciated that because we’re a startup with a more limited resource pool than a profitable company.

What is the team composition?

I mostly worked with Alex (Owner, Annanuna), but I also was in touch with Shon (CTO, Annanuna), as well on a number of occasions. There was another developer involved in the project as well.

How did you come to work with Annanuna?

I looked over various websites and platforms including Clutch to see what I could do to answer my design needs outside of New York prices, which is where we’re based. After looking at Annanuna’s website, I reached out to a previous client of theirs. I sent a cold email to ask if they would be willing to give me a referral and they did. After that, I contacted them via their website, and the next day I was speaking to Alex about the project.

How much have you invested in them?

We have invested around $10,000 USD so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in July 2019, and the work is still ongoing. They have completed a number of projects, but I signed on for another project as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I have heard from a lot of people about how much happier they are with our new website. We were live on the App Store, but we’ve pivoted our product a little bit, so we actually took it down and are waiting to relaunch in December. There has been a lot of great internal feedback, and the work they have done so far has allowed us to get our message across more effectively. I’m super thrilled with the product and I think it is a lot more in line with our brand.

It’s going to be a lot easier to track our success in the future, as well. Alex was very diligent about setting up all sorts of analytics on the website so reporting would be easier for me. They’ve implemented both Facebook and Google Analytics to be able to track where people are dropping off and what pages they are looking up and spending the most time on.

How did Annanuna perform from a project management standpoint?

They have consistently been able to deliver on time and budget. They are very communicative, and, generally, their written and spoken communication has been amazing.  

I started the project in New York and had to travel a lot for work to Europe and the Middle East, and they were very accommodating of my weird hours. They were always happy to jump on a WhatsApp call, and when there were drafts to send, they used email. They were very quick to respond when it came to email, and there have been times when they chased me to make sure that they could deliver on time.

There was one incident where I missed a meeting, and Alex was very diligent about getting in touch with me and resolving an issue that we had.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very passionate about design and really want to produce the best product out there. They want their products and their clients to stand out.

We did negotiate a bit after getting the proposal. I was quite thrilled with the initial proposal, as I compared it to some American and European vendors and it was a lot more affordable.

They have always been very diligent at keeping the price low, understanding my position as a startup, which I was really happy with. I also liked that they understood our market is primarily in the mobile arena, designing things that would look and feel great in a mobile environment.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could try to be a little bit more adventurous with their designs. Once I gave them that feedback, however, they were. I think they were trying to be both original and conservative at the time at first, as well as conscious of best practices. Sometimes, though, you have to step out of best practices to make it stand out.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Once you sign an NDA, be fully transparent about your needs and challenges. They have experience working with other startup companies, and they’re committed to doing their best to help you and become part of your team. Don’t treat them like outsiders, and you’ll get the result you’re reaching for.