Black Airplane

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Operating Officer of a real estate company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company is a leading vertically integrated real estate investment firm specializing in the development, ownership, and operation of multi-family and BTR properties across the Southeast. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Black Airplane to accomplish?

• Design a new website that represents our new brand

SOLUTION

How did you find Black Airplane?

used them in the past

Why did you select Black Airplane over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

After going through a full renaming and rebranding process, we hired Black Airplane to help us bring the new name and brand to life by designing a new website.  They wasted no time diving into our new brand playbook and getting to know the personality of the newly created brand and positioning in the marketplace.  

Black Airplane reviewed the brand guidelines, helped write and perfect the content, and brought the brand to life on the website through their interpretation of our style guide.  The key deliverable was a beautifully designed and navigatable website ready for development.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

A beautifully designed website that adhered to our brand style guide, and a site that was user-friendly and easy to navigate.  

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

All project management (and communication) was buttoned up, on-time, and ran smoothly.  

What was your primary form of communication with Black Airplane?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their professionalism, experience, knowledge and know-how.

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

The project was seamless and flawless.  That's why we keep using them through the years and recommending them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the President & COO of a presentation software company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We make presentation software

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Black Airplane to accomplish?

• Easy CMS management
• Help us launch a new project
• Create industry leading search

SOLUTION

How did you find Black Airplane?

Referral

Why did you select Black Airplane over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Black Airplane were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Build a platform for subscription payments 
• Create an easy and intuitive website search to help their users quickly find relevant images and templates. 
• High-end previews of footage, programatically generated to reduce level of effort for a media rich user experience. 
• Integration with desktop software used to manage downloaded assets from the subscription service.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

6ms search response times with world-class search service that allows for exceptional filtering. Subscriptions for the stock content are now effortlessly managed and easily maintained. Robust browsing feature developed, empowering users to discover content within specific categories, even if they were uncertain about what to search for. Fast and secure checkout process implemented for users using Stripe.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They did a great job responding to our needs, principals at the company got involved to meet our aggressive deadline. They have good project management and are organized.

What was your primary form of communication with Black Airplane?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I was impressed by Black Airplane's smart teammates who understood us and communicated well.

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

We had some conversations early on about the scope and investment when we realized we were slightly misaligned, but they rectified it quickly and we were happy.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and president of an advertising operations company. Our focus is on helping advertisers, ad agencies, and broadcast networks deploy their campaigns. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Black Airplane?

We needed to update an inefficient and outdated web application. We wanted to integrate different applications into one to improve our operations' efficiency.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Black Airplane built and launched a web application that managed our entire internal workflow system and prepared documentation we use for our invoicing. We initially shared information about our business with the team. We had a series of conversations during the discovery process, where they dug into our company and the different apps we were using. After that, Black Airplane started the design and development process, using Figma and MySQL for databases. 

Black Airplane was responsible for testing and launching our app. One of the app's main functionalities was that employees could enter information into work orders to prepare ads to be distributed. Our technical team prepared those ads and had detailed instructions and guidance from the work orders. Black Airplane also created an asset database where all the media files lived and contained trackable metadata in all the different areas where we utilized those assets. 

Another major feature was creating a streamlined system for our team to enter information for billing purposes, which was funneled directly through QuickBooks.

What is the team composition?

We worked with around 10 teammates from Black Airplane.

How did you come to work with Black Airplane?
We contacted Black Airplane through a colleague's referral.

How much have you invested with them?
We spent around $260,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Black Airplane from January–August 2023 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Black Airplane delivered an app that reduced our internal processes' time and had around 12 users. The team provided high-quality work and met our expectations by building a functional app that resolved our initial problem. The final design was excellent, and the process was fun. 

Our teams worked closely, and all the teammates we engaged with offered great work quality and customer service. Black Airplane had great project managers and designers who were detailed and had in-depth conversations with us to build a complex and powerful application for our business.

How did Black Airplane perform from a project management standpoint?

The project went significantly over budget and took longer than initially estimated. Project management was a struggle in this project and an area for improvement. Our overall communication with Black Airplane was good, but it turned difficult when we hit these instances where we were required to invest more money and time. The team communicated via phone, email, text, and Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Black Airplane was technically talented and great at using their expertise to build a functional app. Our business is niche and foreign to many service providers. Black Airplane did a great job investigating and understanding our company to deliver an app according to our needs. The team came up with creative technical solutions when we encountered challenges. 

Are there any areas they could improve?
Black Airplane's project management was an area for improvement. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should expect a lot of questions from Black Airplane to understand their business challenge. In return, clients should ask several questions about how the process functions to understand the cadence of communication and the design and development processes. Black Airplane is great at communicating; they're friendly and easy to work with. I recommend clients take advantage of that and ask many questions to ensure the team is focused in the right direction. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at Gulf Partyline Corporation. We provide a CRM platform to government and political professionals in DC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Black Airplane?

We needed help with mobile design and development services to build an app that connected to our CRM platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Black Airplane developed a product extension that allowed mobile usage of our CRM platform. Initially, we provided the scope to them. The first stage was design, and they began to develop the app about three months later.

They took our requirements and tried to mimic what we provided. We already had the user personas and user research. Black Airplane used Figma for the design and Flutter for development.

The application was for iOS and Android. Users could authenticate their accounts through the app so that they no longer need to log in. This provided fast access to manage events, guest lists, and attendance status.

Additionally, users could look up contact information and historical financial performance for the contacts that have donated to clients. The app included an extensive directory of members of Congress with contact information and the ability to track relationship touchpoints, meetings, and conversations they’ve had through the app.

What is the team composition?

We had about six teammates, including a project manager, an account executive, a designer, and developers. Some of them overlapped on QA testing as well.

How did you come to work with Black Airplane?

We found them through online research.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $150,000–$175,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from July 2023–January 2024.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We will launch in February 2024, so we don’t have usage statistics. However, Black Airplane definitely met our expectations.

How did Black Airplane perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management went well. We tracked the project through ClickUp and Slack. Additionally, we used Zoom for meetings and received regular email updates on the progress. 

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

April (Account Executive) was phenomenal to work with. Lillie (Project Manager) kept the project running on time and guided our sources. Benjamin (Web & Mobile App Developer) did a great job integrating our feedback and was very competent and responsive to our needs. Finally, Grace (Senior Product Designer) also did an excellent job translating our requirements into the UX.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They managed the client relationship very well and communicated professionally.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t imagine how they could have done better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We achieved our results optimally because we were responsive and stayed on top of what they needed from us. We ensured everything was prosecuted efficiently on our end.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of product development for ADDO Worldwide, a leadership consulting group. We help organizations develop emerging leaders, enhance their employer brand, and improve their culture.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Black Airplane?

The initial goal was to build a platform with a strong foundation that could take on users and wouldn’t break.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Black Airplane has built a web platform for a client project, including the front-facing marketing site and the backend app. We initially began with some discovery conversations so they could understand our development needs. Based on that conversation, they outlined the scope, timeline, and fees involved.

As we got into the project, we found out they also had design skills, so Black Airplane created the design. Since they were familiar with our client, they advised us on what would make the best UX and how to navigate launching the web platform.

Once we had the design all put together, specific experts on their team began with development. We ran the course for a few months, and they finished the project.

Currently, Black Airplane provides ongoing maintenance. They actively monitor the site for bugs or anything that needs to be fixed. Additionally, we’ve seen things we can improve and surfacing those to them.

The platform holds learning modules so a user can advance through them. Each module has a video that users can watch and associate resources they can reference, like PDFs. As the user progresses through the modules, they receive a personalized certificate of completion to the user’s name, which they can download and easily share.

What is the team composition?

We have an account representative; she’s on every call, ensuring the project runs smoothly. We also have a project manager to keep things organized. Additionally, we’ve worked with a frontend developer, a backend developer, a graphic designer, and someone guiding the working developers.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in July 2023, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform is still growing; we have around 500 users now. One notable metric is that we haven’t seen any bugs. Users haven’t received any errors as they navigate through the platform, which speaks to the quality of their work.

How did Black Airplane perform from a project management standpoint?

Black Airplane has led the project better than other partners. They use ClickUp for ticketing and tracking the things that need to get done. They’ve been incredibly organized, and we’ve found it helpful.

We have biweekly Zoom meetings with them to see the progress. We can ask any questions and provide new directions we receive from the client. Additionally, we use Slack for quick back-and-forth communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very clear on their expertise, and the team leverages that. For any question that comes up, we know who the expert is.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re an incredible partner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend time in the beginning to talk extensively about what you’re hoping to build. Black Airplane is great at translating needs into the technical requirements for the site.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of StoneLoads

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

StoneLoads is an online marketplace that connects quarries to wholesale landscape supply companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Black Airplane to accomplish?

• redesign platform to be more buyer friendly
• transition from load based to individual product based

SOLUTION

How did you find Black Airplane?

Referral

Why did you select Black Airplane over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Black Airplane were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Black Airplane built StoneLoads 1.0 about 18 months ago. We learned a great deal from both buyers and suppliers over this past year and a half. We went back to BA with a list of features we needed to add but we also gave them a blank canvas and said make it all better. Make it look better, feel better, and more user friendly. It was a serious overhaul of the platform and they were on time and on budget.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Evaluation of features and changes to platform 
• good understanding of the tasks
• accurate time estimates 
• accurate budget 
• accurate deadline. 

Black Airplane did a great job understanding what needed to be done and providing accurate estimates so we remained on budget and on time.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

very timely and responsive. were always available to meet via slack or zoom and willing to meet in person should we ask.

What was your primary form of communication with Black Airplane?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

their skillset coupled with their intentionality around people. They do a good job of understanding the business, not just the project

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

this was our second time working with black airplane and each time it gets better.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Flexia, Inc., a smart connected Pilates company. We make hardware for home use, which has sensors built-in and connects to a data and content platform, making it easy to use and progressively challenging. Currently, we’re in the startup phase of our company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Black Airplane?

Back in 2021, we received seed funding and needed to develop our first content product. This product would be the interface our customers would use to access our digital library of classes.

As we were a small company, we were interested in hiring a permanent development team to work as part of our staff. When we found Black Airplane, we partnered with them to help us build our subscription library.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Black Airplane helped us develop our subscription library, the web app our customers use to access their content and data. Initially, we talked with them about the project, and I provided them with some descriptions of what we wanted them to deliver. We also provided them with some visual examples of our beta products, so we already had a rough framework of what users would initially respond to.

By sharing that information, Black Airplane was able to determine the direction we intended to go and fill a lot of the gaps regarding the product’s quality and user journeys. From there, they designed and developed a JavaScript web app in the Vue.js framework.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Lillie (Project Manager) and a UX designer during the initial phase of the project. Once we started the active development process, we worked with Lillie, David (Managing Partner), who acted as the lead developer, and 1–2 other developers, depending on the stage of the project.

How did you come to work with Black Airplane?

When this project arose, I asked for recommendations in an online community I belong to. At the time, I was still evaluating whether to outsource the development work or hire a developer internally. Looking around, we found that Black Airplane was in that forum, so they contacted us.

We also discovered that they were skilled in the technologies we wanted to deploy. They provided us with a portfolio detailing the apps they had done in the past. It was very important for me to have a sustainable product at the end of the project, and in describing how they would build this app, Black Airplane conveyed and built a lot of trust, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a little under $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around November 2021, and our project was paused around April 2022 after going through two different phases. I’ll return to Black Airplane to continue the product’s growth, but we’re not actively working together at the moment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Black Airplane delivered a critical piece of our subscription product. Without this app, it would be hard to imagine how our company would have progressed.

Overall, Black Airplane’s work met our expectations. They kept a good development pace, even outpacing our backend engineers at times. Thanks to their support, we’ve even been able to release some unpublished features since stopping our active development work. This fact demonstrated that Black Airplane was very constructive and flexible, giving us more than we were asking from them at the time.

How did Black Airplane perform from a project management standpoint?

Black Airplane delivered on time and under budget, demonstrating good design planning on their side. The UI/UX designer was very experienced in creating designs that he knew his team could execute. We met either every day or every other day.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

The UI/UX designer was very helpful in translating a lot of my engineering jargon into a rich visual design. I also really appreciated working with David. He was great at constructively handing off responsibilities between the frontend and the backend.  Moreover, Lillie was very good at ensuring everyone had the right information at the right times and was instrumental in ensuring that the project moved forward at the projected pace.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Black Airplane offered direct, quick, and reliable communication, which was fantastic. We embedded our developer and one of our creative people into their product development team. By being included in their design meetings, we were able to keep pace with the development throughout the entire project.

We also were able to make changes along the way, which was how we wanted the project to go. Black Airplane really carried through with the free, open, and constructive development environment we established.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although this didn’t necessarily require a change or improvement, there were times when Black Airplane’s frontend development work was outpacing our backend development support. I would have paid them to provide us with resources for backend development. Still, I knew I could have asked them to do for us, but given their specialty, I decided to not ask them to do anything more for the project than they did.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To get the most out of the engagement, expect to embed into their agile development process. Have at least one person on your team attend their standup meetings and be readily available for them via Slack, which they use for real-time communication. Respond quickly because they can immediately act on what they’re asking for.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Arch-I-Tech Doors, Inc. We’re a wholesale distributor of commercial doors, frames, and hardware.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Black Airplane?

We’ve been aware for the past 3-4 years that we’re been losing a small bit of our market to online hardware sales entities. We decided to take on that front because we also felt that we could do a better job than our competitors in the online space.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Black Airplane built a new e-commerce website for us from scratch. They created a custom tech stack in Laravel and using components that allow for fast processing for search.

The team spent time getting to know our business first. They came onsite, asked some very insightful questions, and took the time to understand components, products, and relationships. That helped them structure our data warehouse in a way that lets customers easily retrieve information about our hardware components, which can have up to 1,400 variations. 

We’re now leveraging AI and VR technology to make the decision-making process faster for customers. Black Airplane created a drag-and-drop build assembly that pulls information for each component that customers select. They’re also finding a way to identify a customer’s knowledge level as they’re completing a purchase. For less experienced customers, we want to jump in and offer help so that that customer is less likely to return a product.

What is the team composition?

We work with Will (Developer), April, (Account Executive), and David (Partner, Technology).

How did you come to work with Black Airplane?

We felt that out-of-the-box solutions like Shopify and WooCommerce were too constraining for our complicated product mix, so we looked for custom development agencies that could help with a custom tech stack instead. 

It was the culture of Black Airplane that landed them for our project. We met with David and Michael (Partner, Operations & Business Development). The competence they showed in understanding our build’s complexity and reassuring us of their capacity impressed me.

How much have you invested with them?

It’s about $500,000–$550,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began last August and are still working together. We plan to have 5–6 more phases once we launch the e-commerce site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have about 20 partners and customers in our beta testing group reviewing small pieces as we build them. We’re in control of design, but Black Airplane’s design team is putting the palette and visuals together. The overall look and feel as well as the flow of the wireframe designs have gotten an overwhelming amount of praise. We’ve gotten only one revision from the peer review process; otherwise, Black Airplane’s work has been well-received.

How did Black Airplane perform from a project management standpoint?

The way they manage projects is very comprehensive. It was a thorough onboarding process. They asked many, many questions about the “story” to make sure we were in alignment. They’ve also been instrumental in helping us navigate software issues we were having with middleware. 

We have biweekly check-ins with April that we now conduct virtually. Will is now in daily contact with me so I know where we are right now and whether we’re on time or not. Michael and David are also available if I have any questions. I never feel like I’m in the dark at any time. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’d love it if they could reopen so we can come back and sit around a table. The energy and creativity are a lot more real when it’s in person.

Any advice for potential customers?

If a client is involved in a very complicated business, they should take the time to illustrate their products and the relationships the customers may have when they enter the e-commerce marketplace. I did the best job I could so that Black Airplane fully understood what they were getting into before they gave me any estimates.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing manager for the city of Woodstock, Georgia. For this project various agencies coordinated with the vendor: Main Street Woodstock, the Woodstock Convention, and the Visitor’s Bureau.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Black Airplane?

We wanted a user-friendly and well-structured website for tourists.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a customized website with added features. The team built the framework according to guidelines we created during initial meetings. Black Airplane also built a touchscreen app that we deployed in numerous downtown locations. The app presents the site’s content in an interactive format.

What is the team composition?

I work with two points of contact; they’re partners in the company.

How did you come to work with Black Airplane?

We had mutual contacts in the industry. They had impressive experience and expertise.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $14,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started in February 2017 and is ongoing. We’re starting another project in the next few weeks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Bounce rates have decreased while the average duration of site visits has increased. The app was also a big deal for our efforts.

How did Black Airplane perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve exceeded our expectations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a positive attitude.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open-minded at the start of the engagement. Develop a strategy, but don’t prematurely commit to concrete ideas. They’re efficient and will simplify a lot of issues.