Bulb Studios

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Communications Officer of UK Sports Institute

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The UK Sports Institute provides outstanding support that enables sports and athletes to excel.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire BULB Studios to accomplish?

• Change our website to reflect our name change
• Maintain our SEO in light of our name change

SOLUTION

How did you find BULB Studios?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select BULB Studios over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from BULB Studios were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The English Institute of Sport changed its name in April 2023 to the UK Sports Institute to better represent its role in the High-Performance System. The change was one of the biggest in the organisation's history since its inception in 2002. We tasked Bulb with project planning the switchover, identifying all the requirements to ensure a successful switchover (including maintaining our SEO presence), and implementing the changes before launch. 

The key deliverables were: 

• ensure the switchover happens smoothly and on time 
• ensure all references are updated - ensure all imagery is updated 
• ensure SEO work is completed to maintain and boost our online presence 
• to create a landing page to explain the launch on our website

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website changeover went smoothly, with positive internal and external feedback received about the new look and feel of it. Our SEO presence has been maintained and enhanced in places, which was a key deliverable for us. The biggest compliment we can pay is that we put a lot of trust and faith in Bulb to manage and deliver this project, which they did independently whilst requiring little support from UK Sports Institute staff members.

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

A clear project plan was implemented from the start - everyone was clear about their roles and responsibilities and what needed to be delivered and when - there was also clear and frequent communication throughout the project via virtual calls and email. The project didn't exceed the budget and was delivered on time.

What was your primary form of communication with BULB Studios?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The most impressive thing about Bulb is their expertise and calmness - everything was in control from start to finish, with little assistance required - everyone involved in the project showed the same passion and enthusiasm to deliver it, which didn't go unnoticed. They gave the impression of being real industry experts in this space.

Are there any areas for improvement or something {provider_name} could have done differently?

n/a.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Research and Consultancy Manager of De Montfort University

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

De Montfort University is a university providing higher education to adults.The Design Unit within De Montfort University provides New Product Development expertise to business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire BULB Studios to accomplish?

• Develop an App to support a new sports product to aid young people in learning the sport.

SOLUTION

How did you find BULB Studios?

Other

Why did you select BULB Studios over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

What was the size of BULB Studios’s team?

2-5 Employees

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

Bulb were asked to develop and support in the deign and implementation of an app. They were requested to work in collaboration with other vendors in other areas to bring the full product system together.Due to the nature of this project there were many additional and flexible deadlinesand dependancies which affected the delivery of each unique team. Bulb were key to delivering this work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Bulb delivereda pilot (alpha) app within 3 months of the project commencing. This was alongside working with technology and teams that they hadn't worked with previously and they ensured they were communicative with all stakeholders throughout the journey. Bulb delivered fantastic prototypes and click through demonstrations which were able to be pitched and presented to large investors within a relatively short space of time.

What was your primary form of communication with BULB Studios?

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

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

BULB's project management is second to none. Incredibly communicative, knowledgeable and open.

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

Bulbs people are the most impressive part of their company. A true reflection of an excellent culture, incredible talent and exceptional leadership. They will deliver to the highest quality because they know nothing else.

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

The areas for Bulb to improve upon are extremely limited.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director/Producer of Created By TEN. Ltd

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A Full Service Production Company specialising in Film, Video and animation content.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire BULB Studios to accomplish?

• Design the visual concept
• Project manage deliverables
• Communicate directly with client

SOLUTION

How did you find BULB Studios?

Referral

Why did you select BULB Studios over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

What was the size of BULB Studios’s team?

6-10 Employees

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

We were commissioned to deliver several digital marketing assets for the launch of a new tourism website for the ASSC called Embrace Scotland. The assets to be produced were:

• 1 x Brand Film
• 3 x Case Study Films
• 10 x Digital Films

This was filmed all in Scotland over 5 days, visiting several self-catering properties and working with several cast members of varying ages.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Client Satisfaction
• Marketing Anayltics
• Delivery on all assets

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

They have consistently respected our process and are very supportive and receptive to any requests or advice we have provided on projects. Great communicators, strong planners and a company that 100% gets collaboration.

What was your primary form of communication with BULB Studios?

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

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

We've worked as a production partner and supplier to Bulb for many years now. BULB has a nice blend of creative and technical understanding underpinned by a friendly, dedicated, and talented team.

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

Nothing that springs to mind!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and engineer of Braces On Demand. We’re a tech company in the orthodontics space and we focus on 3D printing orthodontic appliances.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BULB Studios?

We needed someone to provide us with digital marketing and web design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BULB Studios provided us with digital marketing services, including video production, photography, content creation, and web design.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one main project coordinator, a lead graphic designer, and a couple of other team members.

How did you come to work with BULB Studios?

We did some research online and found a few competitive quotes from several companies. We pitched what we needed to a couple of them, and BULB Studios had the best product for a moderate price.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested just around $22,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February–October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The best thing that they did was provide us with a reskin of the website, including updating the iconography, photos, and overall functionality. Their work surprised a lot of people and it made us look more established and professional.

How did BULB Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

BULB Studios kept up with the schedule most of the time, but because of the pandemic, they had a hard time hitting a couple of deadlines. Budget management was also good, though there were times when we found that some of the aspects of the project were more expensive than they actually were — I just wish they were clearer on that from the beginning.

We mostly communicated through email and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One thing they did particularly well was taking something that’s okay, and making it much better — they took our mediocre-looking website and made it look great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

With BULB Studios, I think the quality of the work depends on which designer you get. Other than that, there’s not much they can improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would suggest putting together a deck of the scope of work and what your product is going to look like. You should also ask for the specific designer’s previous work because there’s a personal factor that goes into this kind of project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a technology company and I’m the product owner for two of our products. I’m also the head of people operations at the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BULB Studios?

We needed help launching one of our sites and its branding.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They designed a bespoke website for us and we did the development ourselves. They’ve also been helpful in setting up our brand identity, logo, and content. They also created our landing page, solutions page, and pricing page.

During the process, we had a lot of back-and-forth discussions on what our logo should look like.

They guided us on what direction the site should go. After the initial branding was complete, they created additional pages and brand guidelines.

What is the team composition?

Jenny was our main point of contact (Operations Director). We also work with Charlotte (Senior Digital Designer), and Dominic (Digital Campaign Executive).

How did you come to work with BULB Studios?

BULB Studios worked on one of our products in the past. We had a good experience and we decided to work with them again.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent £10,000 in total (approximately $14,100 USD). We spent £5,000 (approximately $7,050 USD) on the project and another £5,000 (approximately $7,050 USD) on a retainer package we can use at any point in the year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2020, and we wrapped up in November 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m generally very satisfied, especially with the design. It took a few iterations to get the technical content right, which is understandable. As the product team, we know the exact language that needs to be used. I liked how they listened to what I had to say about what our product is. The launch is taking slightly longer than expected, since we decided to do the development in-house.  

How did BULB Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. Oftentimes, they would deliver before the deadline.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was very open about the fact that I don’t have a design or branding background. It was nice that they understood that and explained everything in a way I could understand. They showed great empathy and had detailed conversations with us if we didn’t understand something.

I liked that Charlotte was very patient with us, even though we took a long time finalizing our logo. I appreciated that Jenny took time to come up with the perfect package to fit our needs while staying within our budget. They definitely understood us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

While their design was impressive, they could potentially improve their content. I don’t blame them; not everyone comes from a technical background. Maybe we could’ve done a better job in explaining our expectations.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We took time to write a brand brief in high detail. If it weren’t for that brand brief, it would’ve been hard for us to convey information about our users, who we want to serve, and the language we wanted. I would recommend anyone come up with a similar document.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am part of the senior leadership for Higher Horizons - a partnership of universities who deliver widening access activities to schools and colleges in areas with low rates of university participation, to boost the number of disadvantaged young people accessing university study.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Bulb during the Coronavirus lockdown in the UK to quickly redevelop our website to be able to host educational resources for the schools we work with, which were now closed for face-to-face study. We needed the website to be easy to access and engaging for young people and teachers, and we needed it delivered quickly so we could keep supporting the young people we work with through schools closures and lockdown.

SOLUTION

How did you select BULB Studios and what were the deciding factors?

We had worked with Bulb before and always found them great to work with - they take the time to understand the brief, present solutions, bring us into the development and take our feedback on board, and deliver on time and to spec.

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

Bulb conducted an online discovery day with us to understand the brief, then worked up a solution and presented back their plan. They delivered wireframes of how the site would look and gave us the chance to feedback, and then developed the site in line with our feedback.

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

We mainly worked with Jenny and Lee as project manager and lead designer, though I know there were also developers in the background making it happen!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site launched and allowed us to share resources with our schools weekly during the summer term of 2020. We received great feedback from teachers about the resources and how accessible they were and we saw our web traffic increase significantly once it was launched.

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

Great communication throughout the project with a clear plan that was followed. Jenny and Lee stayed in touch with regular (virtual) catch up meetings to check on progress. Always felt that we knew exactly what was happening and where the project was up to.

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

They always take the time to check-in and make sure we are comfortable every step along the way. They have a way of making complex technical issues easy to understand. Our target audience is time poor and they always keep this at the heart of any web development they do for us, so that teachers can easily access our site.

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

None that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of group product technology for a property technology (PropTech) firm, and we are a group that specializes in a mixture of finance tech, insurance tech, and health tech products and solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BULB Studios?

I go to BULB studios any time I need exceptional UX/UI work done. I need to be able to simplify complex problems to present to the user in a very simple way.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For every project, I provide a brief on the situation and we went through discovery and investigation from there. They take the time to understand the market, its segmentation, and the potential users and stakeholders. From there we follow a standard process, usually revolving around identifying key workflows for the product and then wireframing the journey using industry standards.

Following the wireframing, we move into a higher definition piece of work that focuses more on UI and develops into the first full product prototypes. Their team spends a lot of time on design, delivering fully developed assets to enable my development team to focus on the digital aspects of the project. They stay on top of the latest trends in technologies, using InVision as a prototyping tool in order to collaboratively develop the final results with our team.

What is the team composition?

I work with one project lead specifically, and then also with the designers to create all of the workflows that they follow for the projects.

How did you come to work with BULB Studios?

I was introduced to BULB Studios around 2015 and have been really satisfied with their work since then and have continued to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

I would estimate that we’ve spent around £120,000 in total since the beginning.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began to work together in 2015 and are working on many different projects continuing today.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

On one of our most recent projects, they updated a workflow for a particular business problem that has now seen increased user traffic by 700–800%. With a project we were working on with a large blue-chip company, we improved the workflow of a particular product, which increased the call flow capacity in our call center by 75%.

On a more general level, in all of our projects, they take a very complex business problem and simplify it to enable faster processing, and increased service to our users from that particular workflow, and that’s exactly what we look for from them.

How did BULB Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very strong performers in project management. Their team keeps me regularly updated on key deadlines and deliverables. Over the years we’ve obviously adjusted certain projects, but they’ve met every single critical deadline we’ve set for them. We use tools to communicate like Trello and Slack, but we also use email for more regular or longer messages. Across those platforms, they are consistently very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the things they’re particularly good at is getting under the skin of the problem and the facts that we’ve given them. If we say that we are looking to improve a user experience, they dive so deeply into the intelligence on market segmentation in the problem that they are able to come up with creative solutions that nobody else could think of. That’s why I’ve used them time and time again, and why I will continue to do so.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There isn’t anything that springs to mind. They are one of the most dependable companies that I have ever worked with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner of a utilities software company which provides software and services to gas, electricity, and water utility companies to help protect their buried assets from accidental damage.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BULB Studios?

We wanted a new platform to help owners of buried assets to improve their data about those assets in order to avoid accidents. I needed outside help for the project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

BULB Studios did logo design, UI, wireframing, and implementation of the public-facing website. They also did design and development of the web and mobile platforms to the point where we have a minimum viable product. I worked on the backend and database while BULB Studios worked on the frontend. We’ve primarily used the React JavaScript library, including specialized Geospatial JavaScript libraries such as OpenLayers and Leaflet.

What is the team composition?

I initially worked with the digital director, managing director, and operations Director. Earlier in the engagement, I worked with UI/UX designers, and later had a direct working relationship and communication channel with the software development team.

How did you come to work with BULB Studios?

I had met one of the founders in a different context, and my local network strongly recommended BULB Studios, so it was a happy coincidence. Contracting locally is important for the agile development process. They also embody the discovery process that we were looking for.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in 2017 and the relationship is ongoing. We are developing the product past MVP to a full launch version this year, and we'll be continuing our close working relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We couldn’t have succeeded without their expertise. We’re now engaged with several large utility businesses.

How did BULB Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They were highly responsive to feedback we received on the platform from test users, which helped us make progress. We worked under an Agile development process and used Bulb Studios’ established systems for managing tickets, backlog, and communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They made us feel like a partner. Our problems became their own problems, and they did everything to try and solve them. Their range of skills ensured they could take ownership throughout the process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Customers should become comfortable with the design foundations at the start and trust the BULB Studios process.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Technical Director of an Air Quality company offering innovation solutions to a range of private and public-sector organisations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire BULB Studios?

We were looking to develop an app which enabled users to understand air quality risks, and make appropriate lifestyle decisions, including routes taken.

What were your goals for this project?

The development of a demonstration app.

SOLUTION

How did you select BULB Studios?

We had worked with Bulb in the past, and had been impressed by their work.

Describe the project in detail.

As above, an app to demonstrate air quality data integration into mobile platforms, including demonstration of routing advice.

What was the team composition?

EarthSense specifying the app, Bulb leading on UX/UI, and development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

A very smooth and attractive app was developed, and which attracted a number of users.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

very effective - used teams and slack to manage development very smoothly

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The UX/UI was completed to a very high level - obviously professionals at delivering effective user experiences.

Are there any areas for improvement?

not really- it was well-delivered.