DEPT®

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at an online video platform that supports media and digital marketing companies in delivering video. I was the vice president of global services when I worked with Rocket Insights.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rocket Insights?

We needed to augment our staff because, for some projects, we didn't have enough professional services resources.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rocket Insights was involved in numerous projects, big and small. We'd bring them in to help complete projects either ad hoc or they would be onsite staffed. Projects varied from designing an Apple TV product to delivering large scale over-the-top [OTT] projects. Rocket Insights are often the technical experts behind the scenes. We’ve had one of their developers onsite for over a year, and he’s almost become a de facto member of our team.

For the Apple TV product, our limited resources meant we needed someone to create the design, and Rocket Insight led that process. They worked directly with our lead designer, but their team provided all the hands-on-work for the UX design. For the larger project, Rocket Insights did architecture, development, delivery, and even a bit of project management and strategy. It was as if they were almost like a pseudo-CTO.

What is the team composition?

Rocket Insights usually provides a range of options, and then we can choose which developer fits our project best. They give us as much say in the team selection process as possible.

How did you come to work with Rocket Insights?

Our company had worked with them before in a different department, and they were well-regarded, so I reached out to them about the Apple TV project, and we’ve worked together since.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $1,000,000–$5,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with them since August 2015. I’m not in a position that interacts with them anymore, but they still work with the company.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Apple TV project was actually one of the most successful projects with the services group. Like any other software developer, they had some bugs, but they quickly remedied them. Rocket Insights’ work was definitely above what other vendors or partners would deliver.

How did Rocket Insights perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. We have managers on site that work with them, but they also provide their own team of project managers, as well, who are consistently on our Slack channels. They’re good at communicating, and we’ve never had to question their availability or transparency. Besides Slack, they also used Basecamp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The caliber of their technical talent is incredibly high. They have smart employees who bend over backward to help us. They’re not the cheapest, but their rates are definitely competitive and you get more than what you pay for. They under-promise and over-deliver, always meeting deadlines and budget requirements. Overall, they’re a dependable services team that delivers high-quality products.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing really comes to mind. They have plans to move their office to a more central location, which will be nice.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Rocket Insights is easy to work with, so be transparent and upfront about what you want. They can be a great partner if you approach them like that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work with the marketing group at a video streaming network.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rocket Insights?

We wanted to develop a skill for the Amazon Echo to promote a specific show on our streaming service. We hadn’t done something like this before and hired Rocket Insights to provide guidance on planning and to build out the skill itself.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a meeting to discuss our major goals. After going back and forth, they came back to us with ideas on building out the various elements of the skill, and worked with us until they had an actionable development plan. They managed all aspects of development and worked closely with us and other vendors to make a successful product.

What is the team dynamic?

There were several developers on the team, but our primary point of contact was the project manager, Dave Wooding.

How did you come to work with Rocket Insights?

They came highly recommended by a colleague who had worked with them on various development projects in the past.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March/April 2017, and completed the project in July/August 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did Rocket Insights perform from a project management standpoint?

Very well. All parts of the project were delivered on time, and we never had issues with communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very attentive and seemed to be dedicated to producing something of high quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I think they were a great partner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Production Manager at Humongous Media. We are a video production company, but we handle a lot of other services as well.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rocket Insights?

We had to create a working app for a major cellular carrier’s devices over a very short period of time. We needed the app developed from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rocket Insights started by designing a look and feel for the app, a home screen, tile options, and icons. Once we had those approved by the client, we went through a few rounds of feedback and then they created the app itself.

Our client had a new phone coming out that is compatible with a voice activation app. The app has our videos embedded into it, which was challenging, and explains all of the new functionalities to customers in the physical stores who weren't aware of the features.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with five or six individuals from Rocket Insights over the course of the project. We communicated with a project manager and during short turnarounds, we communicated with the developers directly.

How did you come to work with Rocket Insights?

We were aware of their work because Ashley Streb (Co-Founder, Rocket Insights) had worked with one of our employees in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

Between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2017, and they delivered the finished product in July 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We loved working with Rocket Insights. They put in a lot of late nights and we had a very involved client. It was a challenging project and we had some unforeseen issues. We really appreciated them working very closely with us and the client to make sure that we could deliver the way the client wanted us to. We really appreciate their expertise, and they delivered the product on time without any critical bugs or defects.

How did Rocket Insights perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn't use any project management tools. They were very responsive to emails and they gave us their phone numbers. We had a lot of same day turnarounds during our project, and it was easiest to pick up the phone and call them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are really good at what they do and they really like doing it. It never felt to me like we were hassling them whenever we called them to make last minute changes or revisions. It was great that they seemed to enjoy the project so much.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not during our project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The company is the largest global weight loss services, provider. We focus on helping people live a healthy lifestyle. I’m in the marketing department and oversee our social media department.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rocket Insights?

We used Rocked Insights to support a couple of acquisition focused campaigns we were doing over a years’ timeframe. They were also leading efforts to build a supporting website for a photo generation campaign that we were doing. We wanted to drive word-of-mouth and user generated content sharing across social media platforms.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We built the photo generation as a mobile responsive website. We provided the UX and design but they partnered with us on that. Users can go to the website, upload a photo, and edit it the way they want to. They can then share the photo on social media and email. There was a photo gallery on the site where users could view other users’ photos.

How did you come to work with Rocket Insights?

They were actually brought to us as part of a relationship we had with our creative agency at the time. Our creative agency came up with the campaign and the photo activation, and then they looked for a partner who could build it out. I believe they had a previous relationship with Rocket Insights. After six months, we were no longer with the creative agency but continued to work with Rocket Insights directly.

How much have you invested with Rocket Insights?

The cost of the project was $10,000 to $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

In total, we’ve had a relationship for over a year and we continue to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The functionality worked from launch date on both campaigns we ran with them. That has been a challenge with development partners in the past, where the project is late or they don’t have the features and functionality that we agreed on. They were great partners to work with.

How did Rocket Insights perform from a project management standpoint?

They delivered everything on time and to the specs we were asking for.

What did you find most impressive about Rocket Insights?

They’re very thorough in asking questions and figuring out the scope before they start. In the course of the project, when we needed changes, they were flexible in adapting to that.

Are there any areas Rocket Insights could improve?

The second project was easier because we were working directly with them. We’re very happy with the work they’ve done so far.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are Craft, a product design studio that works with startups and large organizations to help them implement design strategy and product design into their company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rocket Insights?

When we have engagements where we are providing product design services, they help us from an engineering standpoint to launch new products for clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They work with us from a product perspective (engineering and creating the product) and a front-end web development perspective.

How did you come to work with Rocket Insights?

I worked with them at a previous company for many years. That is how I connected with them, and that is why I want to continue working with them.

How much have you invested with Rocket Insights?

We have spent between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

It is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Every project I have done with them has been met with rave reviews from both the clients we are working with and consumers. In terms of the work they have done, from an engineering standpoint, it has been completely sound and well received.

How did Rocket Insights perform from a project management standpoint?

What I like about them specifically is the fact they are very easy to get along with and talk to. In addition to being great engineers, they are nice guys. From my perspective, that is really difficult to find. When you are working with them, they can communicate what they plan to do in plain language since not everyone will understand what they are talking about in engineering terms. That is a real value that they bring.

What did you find most impressive about Rocket Insights?

Their number of years of development experience, matched with their experience with business-to-business and business-to-consumer work is difficult to find.

Are there any areas Rocket Insights could improve?

Not that I can think of right now.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have developed a new kind of wine bottle which uses software and electronics. We have a 15 person team. I am the chief technology officer [CTO] of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rocket Insights?

Because we're building an aspirational consumer product with a high aesthetic standard, we quickly got to the point of surpassing our staff's ability to make interface decisions. We needed to start designing interactions with our wine bottle and website through an experienced user interface and graphics team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rocket Insights has provided design services for our company. We have talked about using their team for other tasks. We have broken our scope into multiple small pieces, so we constantly have at least one active task, designing the next flow or set of screens.

How did you come to work with Rocket Insights?

Rocket Insights was recommended by my peers in a CTO circle that I frequent. Technical people are always looking for designers who can hit aesthetic standards, but who are also skilled enough to understand the layout and workflow of the app being built. Rocket Insights gets high marks on both points.

We talked to a range of companies with varying prices, and we had also been using an offshore firm with design capabilities, but my inclination was towards Rocket Insights from the beginning. They had good references from people whom I trust. Rocket Insights clearly understood the goals we were after and knew how far they could go within our budget constraints.

How much have you invested with Rocket Insights?

The cost of Rocket Insights' work has been between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Rocket Insights 3-4 months ago. We're currently working through our remaining portions and building more depth into the user interface.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We had an existing user interface, as well as a conceptual design input created by a big design firm in Boston. We gave Rocket Insights all of this material, together with a written document for the makeover we wanted to make, detailing how many screens we were willing to revise in a certain period of time. Rocket Insights came back with a user experience which really hit the nail on the head.

How did Rocket Insights perform from a project management standpoint?

From the beginning, we were paired up with a designer from Rocket Insights who took part in all of our meetings and had a hand in making sure things were working right. Rocket Insights was easy to approach whenever we wanted to make a change. I've heard from their CEO regularly, and have come to know the whole team well.

What did you find most impressive about Rocket Insights?

Their changes were lean and easy to implement. We were able to have multiple iterations over the course of our project.

Are there any areas Rocket Insights could improve?

With any project like this, costs will be relatively higher than having a designer on staff. I'd like to see some long-term models for an affordable engagement from Rocket Insights.

Some small details have been lacking. We were always able to catch them through a second or third iteration, but Rocket Insights should have paid more attention in these cases. We've had a good collaboration overall, so I don't have other criticisms.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Play Impossible is an active entertainment system. We are adding electronics and sensors to sporting goods and toys in order to turn the real world into a video game. I am the chief executive officer and a co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rocket Insights?

We connect our sensors to an app, which is where our collaboration with Rocket Insights began. We are looking to ship our product at the beginning of 2017, so we needed top-end app engineering talent on a deadline.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When hiring engineers, either full-time or on a contract, we've looked for problem solvers. We assign individuals to the technology stack best suited for their abilities. Rocket Insights' team was an iOS candidate, which has higher priority than our other platforms. Rocket Insights can provide deep backend and client experience as well, but we have focused on iOS first.

How did you come to work with Rocket Insights?

Our chief technology officer is working out of the East Coast and had a past relationship with Rocket Insights. This hasn't been an important consideration for our group, but it has helped to have Rocket Insights in the same time zone.

How much have you invested with Rocket Insights?

The cost of Rocket Insights' work has been between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Rocket Insights 6 months ago, and plan to have a long-term collaboration.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Rocket Insights' check-ins were of the highest caliber, which has resulted in successive builds of our product, as we're iterating towards a final market version.

How did Rocket Insights perform from a project management standpoint?

Rocket Insights made it easy for us to get started, continually improving on a weekly basis. Our project debriefs and ramp-ups were delivered by Rocket Insights.

What did you find most impressive about Rocket Insights?

Rocket Insights has integrated quickly into our virtual office startup environment.

Are there any areas Rocket Insights could improve?

We always try to gain efficiencies without sacrificing quality, but there isn't anything I could mention about Rocket Insights. They've been outstanding, and I would jump at the chance to work with Rocket Insights again.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

‎Brightcove is a video delivery platform for a variety of customers, including anyone looking to perform digital marketing.

I am one of the engineering directors of the company, responsible for our products and technology on the software development side.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rocket Insights?

We were looking to bring a new product to market and had some resourcing challenges. We have a longstanding relationship with Rocket Insights and a lot of faith and confidence in their abilities to not only act as a resource augmentation provider but also as a partner in the UI [user interface] design and implementation phase.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rocket Insights has helped us from the beginning of the front-end UI design process, through much of the development process.

How did you come to work with Rocket Insights?

My company was first engaging with Rocket Insights a year ago when I came onboard, so I don't know how the relationship was started. Rocket Insights was clearly a go-to for us when the time to augment our current staff came.

How much have you invested with Rocket Insights?

The cost of Rocket Insights' services has been in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range for the first year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with Rocket Insights for 9 months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our product was released in October 2016, broadening our capabilities around social media integrations, specifically YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. We provide the ability to take managed video assets from our cloud product and distribute them to social media channels, pulling back analytics data for them. It is a one-stop-shop for social digital marketers to get their message out through video.

There's a bit of a rinse-and-repeat process around user feedback, changing designs and tweaking the products. Rocket Insights has been along our side, showing a fundamental understanding of how our systems work. I came to specifically appreciate Rocket Insights' ability to provide ideas on how we could provide the best possible user experience. In this sense, Rocket Insights is a true extension of our team. They made sure that our project was going to be successful, thinking about the work as if Rocket Insights was serving its own customers. That overall mindset is top-notch, just like the quality delivered.

How did Rocket Insights perform from a project management standpoint?

Rocket Insights has been good around estimating the work, which is always a little dicey. Day-in and day-out, we've had a high degree of collaboration and communication. We have different internal collaboration tools for team productivity. Rocket Insights became involved in them, acting as a part of our team, with regular communication.

What did you find most impressive about Rocket Insights?

Rocket Insights has shown a great commitment to doing the right thing, working with us in understanding our development practices and standards.

Are there any areas Rocket Insights could improve?

Rocket Insights has a lot of strength around front-end development and UI design, but we've engaged them for some backend development as well. We may not have provided the right level of oversight, and Rocket Insights may not be as used to this type of work, so the work didn't go as flawlessly. There were some lessons learned around the need to engage Rocket Insights in a different way on the backend side.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

ezCater is a nationwide online marketplace for business catering. We connect business professionals who need to purchase catering for events, meetings, etc. anywhere in the country with top-notch caterers in the local area. Before our business was created, these professionals went to Google to try to find caterers. Now, with our site they can quickly search, find a matching caterer, and place the order on the website. We take care of the order, from placement to fulfillment, which saves them a lot of time.

I manage the mobile development team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rocket Insights?

We’ve got a small mobile team. Hiring top notch mobile engineers is challenging, so for the sake of speed, we looked at a few vendors and chose them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The goal of the project was to launch version 1 of our iPhone application. They were brought in to spearhead that from a design and development perspective. It was a close collaboration between our two teams.

How did you come to work with Rocket Insights?

We liked the caliber of their team. We met with two of the co-founders and two of the designers and we were really impressed with what we saw and what we heard. Culturally, they seemed most closely aligned to how we operated. They’re fairly young, fairly small, and fairly nimble like we are, so we thought there wouldn’t be any clash in terms of trying to align the two approaches towards software engineering.

How much have you invested with Rocket Insights?

We’ve spent under $200,000 with them on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them for four months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

It was definitely a success from the perspective of time and budget. We came in slightly ahead of schedule and right on budget. We just launched two weeks ago, and we purposely launched in a very stealthy mode, so we don’t have any numbers to share.

What did you find most impressive about Rocket Insights?

We suspected they would be very easy to work with and would align culturally with ezCater, and that happened more than we could’ve hoped for. It was one of the best projects I’ve ever worked on.

Are there any areas Rocket Insights could improve?

I’ve suggested to them that they could take a stronger stance on mentorship. The project had a tight timeline, so that was hard, but I’ve told them it would be a high-value addition from a client’s perspective. They’ve agreed and they want to deliver more on that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company does TV audience measurement by monitoring a panel of people watching television. We provide accurate information on exactly who’s in the room, what they’re watching, and if they’re actually paying attention to the television or not.

I’m head of product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Rocket Insights?

We have a lot of valuable data and we needed a way to visualize the data and make it easy for our customers to access and interpret it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The scope of the work was all UX [user experience] design.

How did you come to work with Rocket Insights?

I found them through old colleagues of mine who work there.

How much have you invested with Rocket Insights?

The first project was between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We had worked with them for a month and now we have been working on another project for a couple of weeks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our clients think it’s easy to use and are happy with it.

What did you find most impressive about Rocket Insights?

They’re super flexible. They work using design sprints which have been really helpful for us to advance our design quickly by trying different models and finding something we can use.

Are there any areas Rocket Insights could improve?

No. We just work with one person and he’s been flexible to work with.