codelab303

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of visual product and technology for USA Cycling. We are the governing body for the sport of cycling in the United States.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with codelab303?

Being a nonprofit, we’re always experiencing budget constraints so we have to augment a lot of our technology teams and outsource some of those products. codelab303 augmented a team for us to fill the talent gap and knowledge gap that we don’t have in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Codelab303 built a web application where users can apply for a membership to our association. They also filled out the application process to enable members to acquire a license to bike in the United States. The web app is a Laravel and Angular based product that’s on a PHP platform.

codelab303 was heavily involved in the discovery process where we spent three weeks identifying solutions within our organization to get a broader picture.

What is the team composition?

I’m in contact with Anthony (Founder), Laura (Project Manager), a UX designer, and a web designer.

How did you come to work with codelab303?

The relationship started before I joined the company so I don’t have a perspective on how it happened.

How much have you invested with them?

I believe we’ve invested roughly around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing partnership started in September 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The feedback from our users has been generally positive. They let us know that the process has been much easier and more streamlined, and they have a better UX in terms of purchasing a membership and joining USA Cycling.

One thing that codelab303 is actually good at is doing the discovery process. They delivered us a scope of work that was really strong and the collaborative effort and thought process we needed was really impressive.

How did codelab303 perform from a project management standpoint?

Laura is fantastic and keeps the trains running. If deadlines are missed, it’s more our fault than theirs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

codelab303 is forward-thinking and they sit between the bleeding edge and cutting edge of technology in terms of how to deliver the best UX for the website.

The way they’re thinking about content and how to apply that UX, as well as UI, and make that more open, welcoming, and stickier to our users, is something unique. They’re out there a little bit, so it’s good to have that kind of expertise on any project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be more affordable, but they have the expertise that nobody else has so we pay for that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say have your business goals aligned internally with your organization. The process slows down when your business goals are disparate.

One of our challenges was we had to align the goals and benchmarks of the different businesses within the organization and it took us a while, so it slowed the project down. Basically, get your ducks in order because you’re burning time and then paying for it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a membership-based organization that fosters Olympic cycling teams for the United States. We also do a lot of grassroots racing and facilitate cycling events throughout the nation.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with codelab303?

We worked together on several initiatives, most notably to redevelop our membership product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were aiming to broaden our reach to those who enjoy riding a bike but don’t necessarily wish to compete. Previously, we had a smaller audience composed of competitive cyclists. They worked with us to redesign our membership product to include a new audience. That involved altering the purchase path flow. 

Our teams started with a discovery phase, where they got to know our organization and goal. Then, they built up wireframes in the UX phase. Then, we provided feedback on how the adjusted website could work to accommodate new groups. From there, they helped us with the development and launch of the final site, using Laravel and Shopify. The site was built on a sub-domain of our existing site, still integrating with its look and feel.  

What is the team composition?

I worked with about six people, including the principal, project manager, and several developers.

How did you come to work with codelab303?

We originally did an RFP with them to redo our results and rankings website, but our team but that effort on pause. Because we were also looking for help on this project, we hired them. They are located in our time zone and had enough resources to scale to our needs.

Their team was also small enough to be able to prioritize our project. We had a very aggressive timeline, and they were willing to take on that challenge with their talented team. We’re a nonprofit organization without a huge budget, but they rolled with the punches for us. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on this project from Septemeber 2019–March 2020.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were able to create a membership product website in six months, whereas it took our larger organization for about three years to accomplish. They kept us on track and drove the project toward a completed, functioning result. At this point, we’re seeing new membership metrics outpace returning memberships, which is something that we’ve never experienced before. Their work allowed us to reach our new audience.  

How did codelab303 perform from a project management standpoint?

They're great project and product managers, building out logical, realistic roadmaps that satisfy all parties involved with the development. We communicated through Asana and Jira. They were flexible in adapting to our preferences for project management tools. I believe they use Clubhouse internally for ticket tracking. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a tight-knit, talented team. All of their teammates are incredibly adept, intelligent individuals. That allows them to accomplish big things as a smaller team. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. They had developers in other time zones, which increased productivity. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust their suggestions. They like to hand discovery and planning upfront, and your team will benefit from trusting that process.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our restaurant organization has two brands with 60 locations across the country. Our food offerings are made to order, healthy and delicious. As a result of our menu, we have a customer base that likes to customize their meals based on taste and dietary restrictions. I'm am the Elastic CTO helping the brands leverage modern technology to make the ordering experience awesome.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire codelab303?

CodeLab303 was hired to streamline the websites in React, and create a shared codebase that could drive multiple brands with minimum reworking. We also wanted to be able to make quick iterations for fast moving business changes.

What were your goals for this project?

Our primary KPI is increased revenue. But to support this goal, we look at increased conversions, minimized clicks to purchase, increased site speed, and customer feedback.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Anthony, the owner of Codelab303 and I had worked together on previous projects at two other agencies. And I was thrilled that his team had the bandwidth to take on a new project of this scale.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They built the front end architecture for our site in React and Mobx. This included building the system that makes API calls, handles errors, is optimized for load speed, accessibility and PCI security. To support this, they also help with devops and development best practices.

What was the team composition?

The team on the client side included myself (Elastic CTO), a technical director (who managed the various internal restaurant systems), and a brand manager. On the Codelab303 side there was a producer, tech lead, and front end engineer. But I was impressed by CodeLab303's ability to flex up and down as needed. At one point we had several other developers working in parallel.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched the first site days before the Covid-19 government shutdowns. As a result, we quickly iterated through hundreds of changes to support the transition from in store ordering to online ordering being the main source of revenue. The CodeLab303 worked with me tirelessly to adjust and refine aspects of the site that were not initial requirements. The results is that our restaurants are thriving in hard conditions while many others are simply going out of business. Having a partner that can think on their feet, bring great ideas, and then have the chops to pull it off is a very rare combination.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was fantastic from Codelab303. We used Jira, Slack and daily standups to prioritize. As mentioned above, the Covid shutdowns took a formal process and ran it through a chipper. During the shutdown, everyone had to operate on limited, often contradictory, bits of information and make business choices... only to re-evaluate a few hours later. The project management process quickly evolved to meet that challenge and never slowed the innovation down.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their agility and expertise were impressive. Really what else could you ask for in a partner?

Are there any areas for improvement?

A few of the overseas developers weren't as strong as others on the team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a producer for an experience design agency. We operate fully remotely and have about 12–15 full-time employees and freelancers who supplement our services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with codelab303?

We hired them to be our web development partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

codelab303 has worked on a couple of web development projects for us. At the beginning of our engagement, they used Reactive and Contentful to develop a website in a quick turnaround. Contentful is modular and basically means that when they build it, they have to build for a lot of eventualities.

codelab303 made the whole system completely flexible. If I want to add a page, I can pull a module straight from all of the custom modules we made. We build design systems rather than exclusively building page-level designs. First, we build the design system and then proliferate it to pages. Basically, the system dictates a lot of what the page looks like.

codelab303 has also built a second website using WordPress.

What is the team composition?

I work with the developers, but Laura (Executive Producer & Director of Production) is my main point of contact.

How did you come to work with codelab303?

We heard about them through one of the freelancers we regularly work with. Our team considered a couple of shops for the first website. Based on their responses to our questions, we knew that codelab303 knew what they were doing and understood the way we work, which is a little nontraditional. It was clear they’d be flexible with us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested roughly around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership began in October 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

codelab303 did an excellent job of developing the first website. One of its biggest problems was page load, and now it’s four times faster than it used to be — even as a fairly robust site. The website would’ve taken other agencies a long time to build, but codelab303 did it in 12 weeks, start to finish. They launched it exactly on time and that’s a huge deal for my business. What’s more, we didn’t have any huge issues with QA or anything.

We really appreciate how codelab303 pivoted and differentiated the way they work with other agencies to work with us through Contentful, which is a unique platform.

How did codelab303 perform from a project management standpoint?      

Project management has been really good. codelab303 has done a great job of integrating into our team. We communicate daily through Slack, email, or Zoom. They’re truly a part of our team and not just a company we’re working with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a really strong tech development shop supplemented by really strong project management.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m super happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do it! That’s my advice. They’re hands-down the best development company I’ve ever worked with so they should get hired by other people.