Crux Digital

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of EDP Stack, a custom software development startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Crux Digital?

We needed someone to help build the prototype of an app I designed for magicians.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I brought in Crux Digital to help build and develop a no-code prototype for an app I was developing. We started by discussing the initial quote for the project and they came back to us with a solution to utilize Adolo, a no-code prototyping tool.

They took all my design files from a file transferring software to rebuild on Adolo, and then promptly deployed them on Apple TestFlight and Google Android test environments.

Moreover, they included some analytic tools, implemented Stripe as our main payment platform, and suggested a content delivery network through Amazon.

What is the team composition?

I mainly interfaced with Zach and Aaron (Co-Founders & Partners), and an engineer. 

How did you come to work with Crux Digital?

I used to work with Zach a few years back, so I reached out to him through LinkedIn to tell him about this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested somewhere between $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February–May 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They provided us with a prototype to demonstrate the potential of the app and when we put out a survey to ask people about their interest in the app, almost 99% of them answered positively so the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

How did Crux Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

The team was highly efficient from a project management perspective, as they made sure the project was on track through weekly meetings and regular check-ins. The team did a good job overall, in terms of the scope and process.

We managed the project through Airtable and typically communicated through Slack and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with their flexibility and how they were able to adjust to our budget. They recommended a no-code prototype because they genuinely wanted to see us succeed, instead of trying to squeeze out as much money as they could from us.

Moreover, they were able to leverage their resources so the project didn’t have a significant impact on their team — however, they were still able to deliver a fully-functional prototype in time for the conference.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were definitely times when some items in the development weren’t accomplished on time, so they could improve on their delivery timelines and prioritization.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To get the most out of your engagement with Crux Digital, I would advise you to be as clear as you can with your needs.

Their strength lies in their ability to understand and interpret what you’re trying to create in the long term and work with you on a strategy that aligns with the scope.

BACKGROUND

Introduce our business and what you do there.

I'm the lead technical product manager of General Electric, and we work in the wind turbines analytics platform. We provide cloud-based SaaS products for our customers to monitor and optimize the performance of wind turbines.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Crux Digital?

We partnered with Crux Digital to get UI developers and frontend architects to create our cloud-based application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Crux Digital helped us on the architecture part of the application we're building, including setting up the release management process's technology strategy, enabling our optimal utilization from a talent standpoint, and enabling an optimal workflow for software development. They also helped us onboard our internal developers and handed them off to our development team.

Our applications are built on the AWS backend, and the technologies used include React JS, Node.js, Package Managers, deployment on Jenkins and S3. They set up a framework and set up the frontend of the application interfacing with the backend services. 

They've also provided valuable input on considering the human ability to comprehend information when we have design challenges, such as how best to surface data from a UI/UX standpoint.

The experience design is also driven by a lot of input from Crux Digital about the optimal way to put things together in front of the user with a faster response time, ease of understanding standpoint, and efficiency in developing and maintaining the application suite.

What is the team composition?

We have actively worked with frontend architects, frontend development leads, project managers, as well as a business analyst from their team.

What is the status of the engagement?

I started working with them around June 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With their involvement, we released significant functional improvements and functional features to our product weekly, along with changes to our production environment — they've been instrumental in setting the process for us. In addition to that, our designs are more respected now. Finally, we can also reflect the closeness of the UX on the UI from a development standpoint and accelerate our development to meet our MVP timelines and release software to our stakeholders as planned, if not early.

How did Crux Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform well with scheduling and sticking to the budget. They're also effective with communication and always keep us in the loop with what's going on.

We use Rally as an internal project management tool, and Crux Digital has been utilizing this as well. Additionally, we've used Miro and MURAL for UX and active collaboration on content development, mockup, and requirement gathering.

For communication, we have frequent conference calls and weekly touch-base meetings. We run on two weekly sprints basis with Crux Digital where we have a unit of work defined, and they work through that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They've been very flexible with the whole development process and accommodating in determining the course and the paths we want to follow, be it in making technology choices, onboarding new development teams, or establishing procedures.

Their team is also very upfront about collaborating with us, sharing their opinion, and providing recommendations on how as a customer, we could go for the best-suited technologies and what works for us the best in the long term.

Additionally, we look up to them to give us input on meeting the immediate timeline and give their feedback and recommendation on keeping our long-term strategy in mind, be it technology or a user experience strategy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think there's anything they can improve on — I have no complaints about their work.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be as detailed as possible in your planning phase with them, and they will deliver more than you bargained for.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO and head of engineering in the digital services department at a renewable energy company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Crux Digital?

We were looking to develop a cutting-edge, futuristic digital platform to solve our industry challenges. We needed a firm to develop the entire frontend of the platform. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Crux Digital developed our platform’s entire UX/UI based on our external design team’s deliverables. Their board of engineers worked closely with our product managers to understand our products and then translated that information into the UI. We provided them with the flexibility to develop the UX/UI as they wanted in React.js, which they did rapidly to our specifications. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with the project manager, the chief architect, and a team of 5–6 engineers. 

How did you come to work with Crux Digital?

A friend recommended me to Crux Digital, so I reached out to engage with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested over $2 million with Crux Digital. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Crux Digital began in August 2019, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Crux Digital’s development speed and high-quality work are amazing — within the first few months of our partnership, we had a working prototype. The prototype was then turned into an MVP, which is now becoming our main product. We like their work so much, we’ve continued to work with them.

How did Crux Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Crux Digital has a dedicated project manager who connected with us weekly in Microsoft Teams to discuss the project. We clarify the user stories during those meetings and have sprint demos — we have a continuous feedback loop. The project manager ensures that the work is well coordinated and completed on time. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Crux Digital is well-versed in Angular framework development — their team quickly understands our development challenges and helps solve our most difficult challenges. Their final UI deliverables are always highly complex and interactive. When I work with other vendors, they act more like body shops and all the responsibility falls to us to ensure the project is done. However, Crux Digital takes ownership of their work and uses their expertise to improve and expand on our projects. 

The cost-savings of working with Crux Digital is tremendous. If we were to build such a complex application in-house, it would take a large team, but they could complete our project with few teammates for a reasonable price.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

Crux Digital needs to be more flexible when working with larger corporations. It may slow down projects, but large corporations like ours don’t have the flexibility that startups like Crux Digital do, and their team needs to have patience with large corporate projects. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise customers to hire them! Crux Digital’s team is one of the most skilled and capable UX/UI development teams. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a cable company in the US. We service small and medium-sized companies and enterprise customers. I'm the director of portal application architecture.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Crux Digital?

We hired Crux Digital to design our component system library. We had a home-built component library that was crafted according to our design system specifications and was built by individual teams. As a result, it lacked consistency or overarching architecture and documentation. We reached out to Crux Digital to get them to assist us in building out a full new version.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Crux Digital’s goal was to create a library in a well-crafted architecture that was documented, useful, and easily consumable by our developers. They weren’t responsible for creating the design system specs, their focus was on creating the Angular framework components that implemented that design system. On top of that, they worked on the related continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) systems.

What is the team composition?

We usually worked with 3–4 people, ranging from testers, developers, architects, and more.

How did you come to work with Crux Digital?

They were referred to us, and we chose them because they had experience in design systems.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in July 2019, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measure their success based on the adoption rate. In connection with that, the library they’ve built is now the default library that’s used across all of the Angular web portals in my sphere of influence. There are a number of additional projects in our company that is also leveraging the library. Overall, the project has been successful.

How did Crux Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done a great job in terms project management process. We have frequent stand-ups and a weekly architecture sync and progress sync. Crux Digital also knows when to flag issues so I have no complaints about their service. We use tools such as Webex, Jira, Teams, and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their domain knowledge is top-notch. As a result, they’ve implemented processes and architectural strategies that have become core to how we operate today.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They had some amount of turnover, causing the amount of people available for the project to go up and down. Despite that, they handled the transition, onboarding, and offboarding in a perfect manner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to Crux Digital’s perspective because they can give you great advice and suggestions. On top of that, they always find ways to optimize their work.