Cinnamon

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an online service that pays you out for your unused Gift Cards. We are seeing major growth, as the demand for cash exceeds the desire of keeping old, unwanted gift cards. I am their Graphic Design & Digital Marketing Specialist.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cinnamon Agency?

We hired Cinnamon to create a brand new website from the ground up, including a brand new design for the brand and website, a new user journey as well as brand new components for upcoming features of our website.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals for this project were to create a new and engaging user experience for our customers with visuals that greater express our company vision and our brand voice.

SOLUTION

How did you select Cinnamon Agency?

We selected Cinnamon because we like their design style based on projects they’ve worked on in the past and we thought that it would fit the look we wanted for our new website.

Describe the project in detail.

In September we started planning the scope of our project as well as some rough deadlines as to when we would like to have certain deliverables completed. We started with the creation of the pages related to the new features of the website as this required the most work. After the completion of the wireframes, low fidelity, high fidelity prototype, and mobile prototypes we moved on to the creation of the rest of the website using our current website’s sitemap as a base and building off of there and making improvements when suggested by Cinnamon.

What was the team composition?

Our team consisted of myself, our CEO and Co-Founder, Lead Developer, Sales, Marketing and Customer Success Director, as well as the Project Manager Anamarija and Lead Designer Hrvoje from the Design Cinnamon Team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

At the time of writing this, we have been able to easily translate the designs provided to us by Cinnamon into a fully functional and responsive website which will be launching very soon. Cinnamon was able to provide us with access to designs and assets that made it extremely easy for the developers to translate the designs into reality.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Cinnamon always came prepared with questions and answers so we never felt out of the loop on the project. Cinnamon would always get us what we needed on time and always made sure to clarify with us if something was unclear.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The designs created by Cinnamon not only for our website, but also our new company branding really blew us away, and we think that they were able to perfectly capture our company vision through their designs.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Corrily, a startup that provides price optimization services to SaaS companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cinnamon Agency?

We outsourced completely our UX/UI development to Cinnamon.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cinnamon provides us with UX/UI design. They’ve done different services, ranging from website usage flow enhancement to creating animations of all kinds for UX/UI work. The team has done extensive user research — interviewing around 50 end users — and has looked into our competition.

The website is running on React, however, Cinnamon didn’t recommend any specific technology and just delivered the actual design files. They’ve made the website incredibly simple to implement.

What is the team composition?

The team composition varies depending on the specialization we need for each phase. We have worked with over 6–7 designers.

How did you come to work with Cinnamon Agency?

I found Cinnamon on Upwork and saw they had a perfect rating, so I contacted them to work first on a personal project. I had been very satisfied with the partnership, so when we launched Corrily, we engaged with their team for the initial design. We got paired up with a really good UX researcher that managed the job quite well. Because of that, we decided to hire Cinnamon and rely on them for all of our UX/UI needs, instead of recruiting designers for our internal team. 

How much have you invested with them?

Our startup has invested around $15,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement started in November 2020, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website traffic has tripled thanks to their efforts.

How did Cinnamon Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management is extremely well done. They onboarded us with a Slack Connect Channel and assigned us a project manager. She checks on us and always makes sure to give us the resources we need. She also assigns designers depending on specific needs. 

We communicate mainly through Slack and have video calls on a weekly basis. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m definitely impressed at the speed at which they operate. The team understands quickly our business needs and is able to put together designs in a week. All their work is fantastic; they can do anything that’s design-related, from animation to web design They have a broad set of skills and operate pretty independently. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything I’d have them improve. Maybe they could expand into copywriting. 

Any advice for potential customers?

It’s important for you as a client to be sure of what the project scope is and define it very well. The team is very good and gets the work done, tell them what you want from them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Hello, I am Camille and I work in digital marketing at Attitude Hotels, a 100 % Mauritian (Indian Ocean) hotel brand, managing 9 hotels across the island and employing 1600 family members (staff).

I am responsible for the digital guest experience during their stay and coordinate the e-business department.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cinnamon Agency?

Our main challenges were :

• Our main paint points with the actual website 2.1
• Design Confusing differentiation between sections
• Quite monochromatic
• Very rigid in the look, very squarish
• Static feel to the website (no auto-animation present on website to catch attention)
• Not enough immersive home page.
• The HP does not reflect the strong Attitude commitments (cf. Positive Impact Movement)
• User experience: Lack of pictures in the Hotel Page (rooms, experiences,...) clickable to enlarge
• Difficulty for users to understand and differentiate our products/hotels (No graphic elements, or table, ...). It is challenging for users to be sure they have chosen the right hotel.
• Business: Not enough conversion oriented (complex navigation, lake of strategic CTA,...) Lack of booking engine entry at the bottom of the Hotel page

What were your goals for this project?

• Increase of qualified traffic
• Better online conversion
• Display of our new visual identity
• Neat and smooth user experience
• Display our new company purpose

SOLUTION

How did you select Cinnamon Agency?

Initially we wanted to work with our previous UX/UI designer, but he was not available for this project. Therefore we did a first selection on Upwork of 2 UX/UI designers + one recommended by network. The selection process included our art director, the e-commerce manager and I.

Our criteria for choosing Cinnamon was the work done previously for other companies and the fact that they were an agency so it was reassuring due to our deadlines (a team vs a single person).

Also, our first call with agency helped us as we had a very good feeling which is the perfect starting point for a good collaboration.

Describe the project in detail.

We hired Cinnamon for designing UX & UI prototypes for our new website. My manager (e-commerce) and I, worked on a precise brief, shared some materials, websites benchmark, our personas + we arranged a call between our Art Director and the UX designer, Emili, so he could present our brand visual identity and each hotel visual identities.

Emili (Cinnamon) helped & advised us during the whole process, what we really appreciated because her goal was not to only satisfy us but also to make sure our website will be 100% optimized in term of UX/UI design.

She did as well a great research job in the beginning of the project as it was her first time designing a hospitality website. Same when we were facing difficulties at this design phase, Emili has always taken time to do some research and revert us with the best solution.

What was the team composition?

So the team was made of :

• our assigned project manager, Anamarija
• the UX/UI designer, Emili

The team remained the same over the time

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website is still being developed by our developer (agency we worked since 2015) so we do not have yet figures to share, but we received great feedbacks from our colleagues and our top management.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was really effective. We worked on Trello, and received each week a reporting mail of job done and pending points from our side (if any) so we could tackle them the soonest.

For quick and fast communication process (ie. missing info or visual,...) we talked through Skype to not lose time. I would like to precise that we had 3 hours jet lag and we did not feel it at all. The workflow was really optimized.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

What we liked with Cinnamon is their organization and their web design skills. What we have been promised has been delivered. They did on they could do to help us with our tight deadline. We also had a great collaboration, working with Cinnamon was a real pleasure.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No Everything was perfect

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of financial services firm that is pivoting from web to mobile and from investing to cash flow assistance.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cinnamon Agency?

We wanted dedicated UI/UX expertise versus having our development team handle the design.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal is to nail the design in the first iteration. Ideally, as the app grows in usage, the feedback & wish list from the users will be on functionality instead of design/layout.

SOLUTION

How did you select Cinnamon Agency?

We use Upwork and received approximately 50 bids. Out of those, 5 were short-listed and Cinnamon was selected as the finalist. We chose them due to their previous work, high ratings/positive feedback.

Describe the project in detail.

We started the project with discussing the app, the target user and providing access to the current app in development. From there, they assign us a designer who created the work flows, wire-frames, etc..

What was the team composition?

We had a project manager and lead . There were also other supporting members that stepped in for their area or when there was more depth needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are on target to launch the application. The design looks great. We really appreciated the time the UI/UX lead took in understanding the application goals, re-working the the flow, seeking & including feedback from other users.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Great, their team ran with the project and reached out whenever there were questions or major design decisions to be made. The use Figma which worked well, especially in calling out areas or sections to discuss. The pass-off to the development team was flawless and they kept involved with the project through development.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We hire experts for a reason, with other vendors - they require constant direction and signoffs on the most minor details. However, with Cinnamon, we really appreciated the attention to details and the ability to run with the project. They struck the right balance of when to ask or confirm something and when to follow their own lead.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As always, it would be nice to be done faster. But the quality was worth the wait. On our next project, I will use them for the development in addition to the design.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Managing Director of a business development and financial planning consultancy firm headquartered in Brooklyn, NY. We hired Cinnamon Agency to undertake a strategy, user experience and user interface design and a prototyping project for a fintech mobile application.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cinnamon Agency?

We had to identify the right human capital resources and expertise to bring a mobile application to market.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to understand how to build a financial planning mobile application.

SOLUTION

How did you select Cinnamon Agency?

Our company went through about 7 candidates leading up to our decision to engage Cinnamon. Their breadth of experience within our targeted industry, positioning as a turnkey solution, human capital options and genuine ease of engagement proved to be the deciding factor.

Describe the project in detail.

We kicked off with a discovery meeting to analyze the competitive landscape, iron out deliverables and delineate a realistic timeline to project completion with structured deliverables. Once we kicked off the initial UX exercise we iterated on the path to completing high - fidelity wireframes, complete the UI and arrive at a branding story with a full working prototype.

What was the team composition?

We had one PM, one UX/UI lead and a supporting designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are on target to launch our application as a result of the clear direction established through this initial engagement of the project.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our project manager was a pleasure to work with and available as needed. We received frequent updates and communicated seamlessly throughout the entire engagement. Overall, I was impressed with the ability to meet deadlines, quality of work and ease of experience.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was blown away by the quality of the work, ease of workflow, and constant updates towards completion. Their people are top notch and genuine experts in their field.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief medical officer for a health tech company. We’re a startup focused on rapid cancer diagnostics. The other focus is the digital health platform which is more focused on data, analytics, and providing new biomarkers that help clinicians to do a fast diagnosis or optimize treatment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cinnamon Agency?

We needed additional domain experts for specific languages we use for our digital health platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We work in collaboration with them on our digital health platform. The main focus is to have high-quality structured data input, data analytics, and the means of new biomarkers. They worked as part of the team. They were contributing to all deliverables. They did 100% of the design.

What is the team composition?

They have front- and backend developers, domain experts in Angular, domain experts in GoLang, a QA person, and a designer. We scale up and down as needed. At the moment, there are two people working with us. At the maximum, we had five people.

How did you come to work with Cinnamon Agency?

They had a project in Switzerland and we had an informal meeting with them. We realized they could help us with their services.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2019, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They respond really fast to our needs and provide the domain experts we need in a short time. We can adjust the dynamic of the project in a very agile way. We have regular one-on-one meetings on a monthly basis and the internal team provided positive feedback about them. Their deliverables per sprint are very good.

How did Cinnamon Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication is excellent. Mladin (Managing Partner) is our contact. Communication is very prompt. We get quick responses because they’re very proactive. They’re completely embedded into our team. The project management is done completely within our company.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They find candidates very quickly and are proactive. They do pre-screenings so we don’t have to go through the whole hiring process. It saves us time. Their hourly rate is very competitive. They provide flexibility.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Maybe they could have a strong professional development for their people to acquire new skills. Our programs have a steeper learning curve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you clearly know what you want, they will provide you better service. Have regular meetings. We have at least one monthly progress meeting. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the communications manager for the Beary Group, an internet media company based in Southeast Asia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cinnamon Agency?

We engaged Cinnamon Agency to bring our mobile app idea to life. They worked on the project right from the start, which included early-stage brainstorming to UX/UI design to mobile app development (which is currently ongoing).

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal is to develop a communications platform for users to engage with one another. Our primary focus is on the social impact that the app is able to generate.

SOLUTION

How did you select Cinnamon Agency?

The team canvassed various providers and asked for references. We ultimately decided to hire a few companies as part of a 'test' to see which company would work best with us. Cinnamon Agency was the best of these.

Describe the project in detail.

In essence, there was a kickoff followed by milestones for the project. Cinnamon was very organized and their designated project manager would ensure that everything was on track.

What was the team composition?

There was a project manager and two designers during the design phase. We are currently assisted by a team of developers for the mobile app development phase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app is still under development but the early feedback from focus groups on the moodboards and app design seem to resonate well. We are satisfied so far with the quality and speed of their work.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Overall, things were very smooth. It is pretty clear from our personal experience as we had the opportunity to work with a few different firms in the past.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Cinnamon stands out with their effective communication. In addition to using tools to give us a sense of overall progress (e.g. Trello), the team would always give frequent updates.

I also like that we are able to interact directly with individual team members if required in order to better understand the dynamics of the project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

So far so good

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the managing director of a road sector company based in Finland. I manage the company and oversee a small team working on a service package to the public sector road asset management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cinnamon Agency?

We hired Cinnamon for the development project of the MVP for our company, a crowd sourcing App for data collection on road defects.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to develop an MVP, which is reliable and enables us to deliver a pilot project for our first customer. We also wanted the App to be a delightful user experience.

SOLUTION

How did you select Cinnamon Agency?

We found Cinnamon after searching through different platforms where freelancers and agencies advertise their services on software development.

Describe the project in detail.

The project kicked off with a session where we defined the deliverables and Cinnamon Agency listened to our needs. After this the developers got to working. Once the App was ready to be tested, we started carrying out tests and doing troubleshooting to get rid off any bugs. Finally Cinnamon Agency published the App on our behalf in Play Store.

What was the team composition?

From Cinnamon Agency we had a project manager, Android developer, backend developer, QA tester, and a project director in the team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We received a well-functioning, cool, and more than adequate MVP. We are about to start our first project with it and we are more than happy with the end result. After the first phase of the development was finished we immediately engaged in negotiations for another round of development with Cinnamon Agency.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was fantastic. A large thanks for that goes to the wonderful project manager, Sven, who did a great job. Good, timely communication throughout the process and Sven went the extra mile more than once for us.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are a very professional company that provides good communication. The process was quite stress-free, even though the App itself is somewhat complicated.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There was a small miscommunication on the timeline in the beginning. However, Cinnamon Agency put in some extra hours to catch up with the time. A good example of excellent customer service from their side.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the e-commerce manager for Play&Go, and we are a children’s toy brand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cinnamon Agency?

The challenge for us was to develop a platform that supported improved performance in B2C and B2B sales.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team significantly built out our website, focusing on the addition of the B2B section so that we could expand that side of our business. They also allowed us to add integrations displaying estimated shipping time and cost information on the product page to help decrease the site’s drop-off rate. The site itself is built on Magento, and they handled both front- and backend of the components they worked on.

What is the team composition?

We had contact with 3–4 people from their team, including a UX designer, a programmer, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Cinnamon Agency?

I found them on Upwork, and our initial interviews went well so we decided to move forward with them from there.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost of the project was around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in May 2020 and are continuing to work together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is going very well, and we plan to launch the new website components in three weeks. Because we’re still working on the project, we obviously don’t have any formal performance metrics, but the design files have all been finished on time and we are very optimistic about the quality of the final product.

How did Cinnamon Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

I have been surprised by the speed of their responses and general communication. When we ask questions, we always hear back within 12 hours, and they have never hesitated to make a change that we requested within the terms of our agreement. We’ve been very pleased with their performance so far.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team’s design skills definitely set them apart from any other companies that we’ve worked with. They do excellent work in all areas of the project, but it is specifically their design work that puts them head and shoulders above the rest.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly don’t have anything negative to say. Every aspect of the experience has been great so far.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Careful Apps primarily produce apps and websites for pharma industry. The management have background in healthcare, pharma industry and the communication industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cinnamon Agency?

Cinnamon Agency help us update our app and website SSY Engine, which is a medical device used by eye doctors all over the world.

What were your goals for this project?

Develop a safe and usable tool for our clients. We are very happy with the communication and cooperation we have with Cinnamon Agency, they are all very responsive and professional.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Cinnamon Agency approached us at Linkedin. We met up in Stockholm and we really liked the offer they had.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Mainly translation of the app and website to additional languages.

What was the team composition?

Team composition is dependent on the tasks we have.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we started working with Cinnamon Agency we feel that we have more control over our product, which feels really good and safe. Cinnamon are very good at responding quickly if anything occurs or we need help in any way.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We are invited to the Trello board which gives us a very good overview of where Cinnamon is in the process. We also do hangout calls and old fashion emailing. Over all a very good and effective project management.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their communication skills and the rapid growth of the company were impressive. :)

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I can think of..