Command C

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

At the time of this project, I was the director of software development for Arccos Golf, which is a supplier of sensor hardware that screws into golf clubs and tracks data about the user’s game. My duties involved overseeing all of our client-side development, including iOS, Android, and web applications.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Command C?

Our company philosophy was to do all of our core business in-house, and we needed great agency partners for the rest of our business. We began looking for e-commerce partners to do our website, which we needed to sell our main product, golf club sensors.

One of the biggest challenges in the e-commerce project was that the website not only needed to provide the outlet for sales, but also to explain what the product was and why customers needed it. We already had a creative agency that we had engaged to design our branding materials, including our logo, but they did not have experience with e-commerce specifically and were not prepared to spearhead the technical side of the website build.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The site that Command C built for us was at its core a Shopify site. That technology worked well for our needs, as it is reasonably lightweight and comes with a lot of baked-in assumptions that suited our goals. I believe it is built using Ruby, and it allows for a lot of custom templating and extensions while still letting the user benefit from Shopify’s rich e-commerce ecosystem.

One of Command C’s primary challenges was the fact that we were laying a very intricate user interface (UI) on top of the e-commerce base. Our site’s design had many small innovations and details, utilizing a lot of small animations that are very Javascript and CSS-3 heavy, so the integration was not straightforward. While we knew that Shopify was the right platform for our needs, we did not know it intricately enough to predict how our UI changes would positively or negatively affect dev time in regards to integration and adaptation. That is where Command C’s expertise really came into play, and they were able to guide us through that process.

We wanted to get the site to the point where our internal team could manage maintenance in the future. Accordingly, we had distinct opinions about what technologies—including supporting libraries, third-party technologies, and best practices—were selected for the site. Once the work was complete, the site worked so well that we didn’t need to be constantly revising our templates whenever the Shopify core platform upgraded. Ultimately, we were able to let the site exist and do its job without feeling like it was a burden or strain upon our in-house team.

What is the team composition?

Our primary contact on the technical side was Tiffany Kutcha (Tech Lead, Command C), and she was fantastic. She handled a lot of the coordination in terms of technical decisions, and was generally very accommodating.

How did you come to work with Command C?

We interviewed a lot of potential candidates and came away from the process feeling great about Command C, both in terms of the level of service they provided as well as their expertise in the field.

How much have you invested with them?

The build itself cost around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The full range of the engagement was from around February 2015 to November 2016, including a support contract. Within that time frame, the build itself would have been around five months. We had released a remedial pre-sale website in 2014, before the actual terms of our work with Command C began, and I believe we launched the full website at some point in 2015. The engagement has since been concluded.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are likely not the average client, as we already had a quality assessment (QA) team in place by the time we got to the review stage of the project. When our QA team went through the site’s first, rough draft at Command C’s request, they filed somewhere around 200 small bugs or UI issues on various browsers. Because we had our own engineers looking at the site from a QA perspective, we came back with a lot more feedback than a typical client.

They handled all of our feedback really well and we never felt like there was any pushback on our comments. We definitely shot for the stars in terms of the design and the functionality of the site, and they were actually able to meet that high bar. It really feels like the version we designed was the one we saw at launch, and I think that’s rare in development.

How did Command C perform from a project management standpoint?

They managed their time well, particularly in terms of a staggered approach. By this I mean that we weren’t delivering everything they needed all at once, yet they knew what tasks they could get started on early. We used a Basecamp install to coordinate our teams’ work on the project, and that was great in terms of submitting feedback and bugs, in part because our team was already comfortable using Basecamp as a tool. We also had regular calls to discuss the project. Tiffany did a phenomenal job at trying to accommodate our needs while also using their own internal tools in order to make sure that they could work quickly and not be bogged down by our preferences. Command C was integral in helping us figure out where we needed to get the project in order to unlock their next stage of work, all of which I felt was well-communicated.

Additionally, they did a solid job of dealing with all the moving parts unique to this situation. Cooperating with us alone would likely have been enough of a challenge for them, because we were a relatively young startup that was still trying to find its footing. However, they needed to coordinate between their own work, another creative agency’s work, and the demands of our product team. They did a fantastic job responding to all the collaboration challenges that came with having three separate teams working on a single end product. The process went as smoothly as we had hoped.

Overall, Command C was willing to listen and were candid about what they did well and what tools they could use to make us the site that we wanted. A lot of creative agencies just say yes to everything, but Command C is competent enough and confident enough in their relationships with their clients to occasionally disagree with suggestions. Their priority is making sure that they can deliver the best build possible rather than obeying blindly, which I appreciate. They do well to sell their services without constantly “pitching” the client. Budget-wise, we managed to stay pretty close to what we had expected, which was partially a combination of providing our own QA work and them optimizing the best ways and areas on which to focus our joint efforts.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The level of polish on Command C’s work was extraordinarily high. Because they have such a focus on e-commerce, they are very aware of all the options and platforms available. They are able to cater their suggestions to exactly what we needed and had the maturity to be able to work with another creative agency on the project. In terms of the constraints of the project, I don’t think that there was a whole lot that they could have done better. They did their work well and in a good amount of time. They are really top tier in their industry.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It might be nice for them to take a look at some of their longer-term support options for small companies like us, where our ongoing maintenance needs were both on the lower end and unpredictable. Their current support options and less expensive tiers are geared towards companies that know what their demands are going to be on a more regular basis. Because of our status as a startup—and this is a common problem in our industry—we weren’t sure of our needs going forward. We would have greatly benefitted from having Command C do further iterations of the site, and although we had them do a couple of things, we could not keep them on an ongoing basis as a result of their pricing structure.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would encourage future customers to know what’s out there in terms of e-commerce platforms so they can plan in advance what they need out of Command C’s services. For example, a Magento customer is very different than a Shopify customer, and it would benefit everyone involved if you know which one you are in advance. Do you most need endless customization or simplicity and efficiency? Be aware of the space.

Lastly, make sure to engage Command C on projects where you have enough of a budget to make use of their skills. You want to make sure that it’s the right project for an agency with these kinds of talents on board.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

This collaboration occurred when I was with Doppler Labs as their director of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Command C?

We needed to build and develop an e-commerce website to effectively market our products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were selling audio products and ear technology such as outset earplugs, High Fidelity earplugs, and wireless earbuds that can be adjusted through the company’s app. Our site needed to be a place customers could visit to learn about our company and products in addition to making purchases.

They are primarily a development agency, and their expertise is helping clients like ourselves by pinpointing what’s possible with design from a development standpoint. They essentially helped us build our site. They helped us choose Shopify as our e-commerce platform and helped through the development process once we had designed the site. Although they built the site using existing Shopify templates, they customized our check out functions and other site details to our specifications. They would share staging versions of the site before it went live, so that we could provide comments and bug fixes. They helped push the site live and fix any issues as well as develop further iterations of the site. We typically worked on a project by project basis with them. We would define a project, then set a budget for that project.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one primary developer and one project manager, but there may have been more people working behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Command C?

We had decided to work with them before I joined the company. My understanding is that we knew we needed to build an online presence in order to sell our products, and we looked at a range of different agencies, but they actually came recommended to us by companies we worked with on marketing. Based on their experience and other clients that had worked with them, we decided to collaborate with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $50,000-$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around August 2015, and we finished collaborating in November 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We found the site to be very effective for what we wanted it to do. They customized the site to our specifications, and we saw increased conversion rates throughout the various site iterations. The site conveyed the look and feel of our brand and was distinct from other Shopify sites in the market as a result of their work.

How did Command C perform from a project management standpoint?

They were diligent throughout our collaboration. We had a project manager act as our point person on a daily basis, and the owner of the firm would also step in as needed. They had a good project management system that enabled us to communicate effectively, and they stayed on top of their work extremely well. We primarily communicated using Basecamp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their expertise in e-commerce makes them stand out from other agencies. This was the reason that drew us to work with them in the first place and made them a good fit for us. They also focused specifically on the development side of the project, which we appreciated. We wanted to handle design with our in-house design team to ensure that our design was consistent with our brand, and then hand it over to them for development. However, their team stayed in touch with our design team throughout development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always challenges when you're working with an agency instead of an in-house team, but there wasn't anything that we would have changed or done differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure they’re the right fit for you. Command C works particularly well if you’re building an e-commerce site. It is also important to consider your in-house design capabilities because they don’t focus on design. They're a strong partner to work with, but you have to know what services you’re looking for.