Dom and Tom

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Associate Professor of a medical company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Academic medical center

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Dom & Tom to accomplish?

• Discover of our patient population and their digital preferences
• Design a user-centered, theory-based sexual health app for adolescent and young adult males
• Develop the app based on user feedback

SOLUTION

How did you find Dom & Tom?

Online Search

Why did you select Dom & Tom over others?

• Great culture fit
• impressive proposal

How many teammates from Dom & Tom were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

In this project Dom and Tom partnered with researchers from the Department of Emergency Medicine at our University to create a patient-facing app for sexually active adolescent and young adult male patients aiming to increase their consistent condom use. Deliverables: 

• Wireframes: “Blueprints” for the screens based on the Platform Diagram
• Functional Specifications Document: Working document that outlines platform functionality for developers to code against.
• Look & Feel: generate look & feel options for the platform.
• Designs Production: Design of user interface (UI) screens, based on the Wireframes and the Look & Feel. 
• Technical Architecture Diagram: high level architecture of the system and integrations

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The app which we tested in a pilot randomized controlled trial to assess implementation outcomes and potential efficacy to increase condom use

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The team was consistently professional, accessible, patient and organized. But more importantly, they were creative and worked hard to understand OUR vision and how we can create an engaging digital tool for a hard-to-reach population with many other digital distractions! They allowed us to follow a timeline that met our deadlines but also created space for different versions of the app that reflected patient feedback.

What was your primary form of communication with Dom & Tom?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The camaraderie between the Dom and Tom colleagues were apparent. You could tell they liked working together and made us feel comfortable creating outside our comfort zone in the technology space. This led to a fun working environment and meetings we looked forward to!

Are there any areas for improvement or something Dom & Tom could have done differently?

No

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of marketing at a theatrical licensing company, headquartered in New York City and London. Everybody who puts on a show is required to buy a license, whether it be a high school play or a professional production. We have a website that allows customers to do that for our catalogue. Most of our business is from North America and the UK, but we have customers around the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dom & Tom?

Our website was designed with two developers, one in charge of the frontend and another, UK-based, in charge of the backend CRM. The time difference caused issues with the previous CRM developer and we decided we needed a North American company with more flexibility to take over the running of the backend of the site and build on what already existed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, they took over the project from our previous partners, which was built using open source Sugar CRM code. That feeds into the frontend of the site, which is still run by our original frontend developer.

Now, the D&T team is working on creating additional features, which they have to liaise about with both our teams in London and New York, along with the frontend developers. A website is a living, breathing entity and they understand that.

What is the team composition?

I work mostly with three team members: my account manager in New York and also two developers in their Chicago office.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

I received a recommendation. I met with a total of three companies, but Dom & Tom impressed me the most. They stood out based on their technical expertise, hands-on approach, and realistic ideas.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Dom & Tom on the project in March 2018 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The level of communication has been excellent. We have a very complicated set-up, so on some levels, I understand the challenges. Overall, they have performed well and the team have been impressed by them.

How did Dom & Tom perform from a project management standpoint?

We hold a weekly executive video conference with the three members they have allocated to us on our team. They manage their team very well and higher-level employees step in if necessary. We also use email and a Slack channel to connect remote team members and they respond very quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very strong listeners. The team was logical and calm during the development process.

Any advice for potential customers?

I recommend the client meet with Dom &/or Tom personally in the beginning; we found it most efficient after that to communicate via video calls, Slack and if necessary, email.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm an account manager for OLIVER Agency. We're a creative agency that specializes in creating bespoke mini-agencies for each of our clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dom & Tom?

Our client requested a microsite that had a lot of web functionality we were incapable of doing internally, so I needed to call in the experts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our client, who is a hotel chain, asked us to develop a homepage that a consumer can go to and select a hotel they would like to stay at. They worked on the development, which included a CMS set up, implementation and configuration, and DevOps with analytics and email notifications. They also helped us create an online forum so that once a consumer wanted to check out with a hotel, they would fill out an online ticket to be presented to a sales representative who would finish the sale.

We used Google Analytics and for the email notifications, they used a third party called SendGrid. They also helped with hosting the site as well.

What is the team composition?

We had a dedicated team of a project manager, a designer, a DevOps person, and a QA person, as well as Dom (CEO, Dom & Tom).

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

We were introduced to them by a colleague and I've known them for a long time. We set up an initial meeting to run through the brief.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent around $65,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them on this project in November 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They send the metrics directly to the client, but there are close to 40,000 users per month.

How did Dom & Tom perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly communicated through email and they would also send us preview links that were hosted through their system.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very responsive and return emails within 24 hours. If there were any budget limitations, they were willing to work with us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be organized, know exactly what you want, and be clear on your timeline. Keep on top of them, because the more pressure you put on them, the quicker they work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the concierge and site services manager of a management consulting firm. We work with various companies in various practice areas, in a number of facets, from mergers and acquisitions to improving processes and platforms within organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dom & Tom?

We were planning to develop a custom mobile app for iPhone use only, that we didn’t have before. The app would allow us to communicate with the building in a variety of ways. This would range from communicating with our reservations system, such as booking resources via a mobile app, location awareness, connecting with individuals within the office, determining when a particular individual is here, and being able to find them within the building. We wanted to be able to connect with a locker system, including smart lockers, reserving parking spaces, and general office information. Also, we were looking to leverage the mobile app for digital communications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project was the first of its kind and wasn’t well laid out in terms of specifications. However, we had a good understanding of the direction we wanted it to go. Dom & Tom provided us with information on what was possible or impossible, and the level of effort that would be involved to create certain things we wanted. We had a few ideas that were a little far-fetched, but Dom & Tom made us understand and look at practical options, showed us what other apps were doing, and introduced us to some other solutions throughout the course of the project.

Dom & Tom worked through the requirements with us, and then worked throughout 2016 on different aspects of the project, including wireframes and information gathering. They video-interviewed people within our company to ask them what things they would like to see within an app, and how they would go about these things in specific details in order to help inform the design.

Everything lives within the app itself. We have a lot of services here that have open API sets, which is why we wanted to create something on our own to be able to communicate with that. It makes a lot of calls internally and externally to our reservation system. The app includes a feature called My Locker, which is a smart locker system. This feature allows a staff member to walk to a locker bank that has around 50 lockers, and through beacon technology, it will know which locker bank I am in. When the reserve locker button on the app is pushed, the locker pops open and informs the person which locker is theirs. This can be utilized as long as needed by unlocking and locking through the app. This involved various components; one was a locker API which was developed by a secondary developer, plus the furniture and hardware, and then the mobile app calls.

Another feature is our reservation system which allows someone to reserve a particular space in the building. While in the office, if a staff member would like to have a desk or a conference room, they can easily launch the reserve space feature. This can be in a full floor map view, or they can just search specific criteria and can book those rooms or desks on the spot. The app sends a meeting request confirmation, and it is reflected on the room screen display that the space is reserved. The feature is really cool, and has a fantastic UI. There was nothing like it that we saw on the market, a reservation system that had a full mapping interface. This was something that we wanted to do and was our requirement, and Dom & Tom built it out.

In addition to that, we have iPad minis at our workstations, and Dom & Tom built a companion desk reservation app as well, which communicates with our mobile app for checking-in purposes. A person is able to go to a desk, launch the mobile app through their iPhone, put the phone against the iPad, and through Bluetooth technology, it wirelessly checks that person into that desk. Another feature through the mobile app allows staff to upload personal family photos into the app, and once checked in, those photos then display onto the iPad minis that are on the desk. It serves as a photo album to thus personalize their space for the day. We have open seating here, so that staff can feel like this is their desk for the duration of their check in time, which is pretty much 24 hours. It also puts the person’s name and face on the iPad mini, which allows others that are walking by to see who is sitting there, even when they are away from the desk. If someone is looking for a particular staff member, they can check if the desk next to them is available via the floor map within the app, and reserve it.

Currently, we are going through a pilot phase on the second version of the app. When the first version was released, it had a multitude of kinks and bugs. We were pressed for time and didn’t really have a chance to give it the investment in resources to really pressure test the app to make sure there were no bugs. At this point, we are going through every single nook and cranny in this version, looking at every nuance, testing every scenario to make sure this is a bug-free, stable, solid app that we can distribute to our staff. We just didn’t have the time to really look at all those scenarios in the first version. We are really hoping that, with the second version, we can say the app is solid, and that it is going to work every time.

What is the team dynamic?

There were various people on their team that were working with us on this project. Initially, we had a team of 4-5 people, with a range of different expertise. We had a project manager, who was dedicated to us. We then had a lead mobile developer that has been with us since the beginning, and is still currently working with us. We had other architecture developers and creative consultants as well. Our project manager changed, but this was our decision.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

There were a number of vendors that went through the vetting process for consideration. It came down to relatability. We felt they were a young enough company that would be able to translate our vision into a product that would be relatable to the young people starting within the company. Through our initial conversations with the team at Dom & Tom, we made a connection, and they grasped what we were trying to accomplish. They were easy to work with, and were very flexible in their approach. Through internet research of my own, I looked at reviews and saw the positive feedback from other clients that they’d worked with, and took it from there.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our relationship with Dom & Tom in the latter part of 2015. We have been working with them since that time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We gave Dom & Tom a timeline because we wanted to show off the mobile app at a staff meeting in the summer of 2016. We wanted to show staff what it was going to look like. Although it didn’t have a lot of functionality, it mostly had content for the event that we were in. It wasn’t thoroughly tested through, and was very buggy and would crash.

There was also the CMS backend that they built, allowing us to be able to push content through it. In the first version, we wanted to push content to the mobile app to relate specific messages to staff. It was frustrating in the beginning; I am not sure if it was because we put too much pressure on them to produce the app. We didn’t have any expertise in how to deal with a mobile app firm, and I don’t think they had a lot of expertise in dealing with a corporate entity like ours that has very high standards. It was a learning experience for both of us.

How did Dom & Tom perform from a project management standpoint?

In the beginning, we had a project manager that tried his best to really help, but unfortunately wasn’t doing the best job. He was too emotional throughout the first leg of the process, and we requested a change in staff to help fit our needs better. They were flexible with us and since that change, it has been very stable.

We wanted a little bit more understanding and visibility into how they billed us. We wanted real-time budget information, including how many hours were spent on specific things so that we had a better sense of managing our budget. They put together a web portal on Basecamp, which is a virtual collaboration room, so we are always in the loop of what is going on, and we can share snapshots and report issues. Dom & Tom implemented some tools to help streamline the process, and in addition to that, they also made shifts within their team.

We pushed their team hard throughout the project, and this is probably the biggest and most complex product that they’ve created for a corporate entity. With any relationship, with any company, it ebbs and flows in its dynamics. There were occasional times when we were frustrated with what was going on, and I am sure they felt exactly the same way. Without those dips and rises, you don’t come out with a solid relationship. Through that, we learned about each other’s ways, and each other’s culture. We would spend time with each other, whether that meant they would come up to the office, or we would go to their office. Even though it was a little rocky in the beginning, we are now at a place where they have been very supportive when it comes to ensuring that this product is finished right. I don’t want to speak for them, but I think they want this to be completed as well.

What did you find the most impressive about them?

They put things in place to help them get to where they needed to be. They partnered with an external vendor that helps with their QC [quality control] process. Whenever they send something out, they know the end product will be what meets our requirements. Things were missed here and there, as I don’t think they’d had help with their QC process before, and they learned from that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Should they work with another corporate entity like ours, my one improvement point would be to invest more time with their client to really understand the client culture. After spending time within the space and observing how people work, they can then know what to expect while they are working with the client in the future. Also, they will know how to better refine and develop their product because they are familiar with the people working there.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing for a boutique consulting firm. We partner with organizations to help them better meet the needs of their employees, so they can have more effective, productive, and profitable organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dom & Tom?

We hired Dom & Tom for two major purposes. One was our website and driving our business, and the other one was for the product that we actually offered to end clients. Mainly, we had the need to build a new product: a web-based application that would allow us to use one of our proprietary diagnostic tools in a B2C environment, which we had not had before, just kind of a normal B2B, nothing done online, very old school consulting type. We were looking to have an e-commerce-like platform with the ability to sell this diagnostic tool to independent coaches and consultants. We had looked to hire someone to build that out in an intentional and beautiful way, and also to manage our website on an ongoing basis for any updates that we may need or any major branding efforts, etc.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The diagnostic is a 20-question true/false questionnaire. The goal was to have that live online, and then have someone come in, create an account, purchase a license to use that 20-question questionnaire, and then through the platform, email their clients directly to drive them to the platform to take the questionnaire. The buyer would then get the full results, so they could go over how their client is managing their energy or how their responses showed up in an in-person meeting. This whole process was completely new for us.

The platform was custom-built. However, we had a fair amount of framework already in place from a previous build on our website from another developer. Dom & Tom came in to create something from scratch while also using code that they had nothing to do with, which I think is probably quite complicated and difficult.

Because our website was built on a custom CMS, we were only able to change small bits of text here and there. Dom & Tom made random marketing site-related changes as needed. For example, we wanted a new headline on the About Us page, and they changed that. They also built out multiple language functionalities for one of the proprietary tools that we have on our website. It’s all a bit complicated. Basically, they took a tool that was coded by another agency, fixed a boatload of bugs, and then proceeded to code the ability to have seven additional languages supported, which was huge for us.

There were two major reasons why we didn't re-contract with the agency we had used previously. I don't want to speak ill of them, but there were a lot of issues with their work, and the customer support was not there for us to get it fixed. The second issue was they wanted to move from a website development company to an iOS application development company. Basically, they didn't want us as a client anymore. Their work was sliding with us because they really didn't want to be doing it anymore, so it worked out well. I think they had a team of three to five members with two core project managers who covered all of our projects, and then the account owner or manager, and then the as-needed developers who came on.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

We found Dom & Tom through a referral. The fiancé of one of my co-workers had worked with Dom & Tom in some way before. I’m not sure in what capacity, but he really liked the quality of work and the customer support that he had gotten, and he thought they would be a great place to look to potentially partner with. Our first call really sealed that for us. Our first account manager is no longer with them, but he was just phenomenal, and I think that’s been indicative of the people I've worked with the entire time.

We had two other companies under consideration at the time. We try to keep things to at least three when we’re looking at signing on new vendors. Dom & Tom stood out from the beginning, and quite frankly I think we were a bit biased in looking at the other ones because we had this co-worker’s fiancé saying he would vouch for Dom & Tom. He did vouch for another one of the organizations we had scoped out as well, but the two other ones.… One clearly didn't have the capacity to take on a new client, and they were really sloppy with their communications if they got back to us. The other one was just so expensive that I couldn't even begin to think about working with them. All three were local to us. They all had bases in New York, and I think they all had offices elsewhere in the state, and though those might have actually been their headquarters, the qualifier for the agency we would pick was that they had to have an office in New York. Locality was important to us, especially when we were building a new tool. We wanted to be able to have hands-on support with a UX person and to be able to scribble things on a piece of paper in real time and to explain by moving things around on a table, versus attempting to do that on Skype or whatever.

How much have you invested with Dom & Tom?

All in for everything, we’ve probably spent close to $200,000 with Dom & Tom. A sizable sum.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything that Dom & Tom did went successfully. In the end, we couldn't support the product as a company, and we actually ended up having to shut it down, which was a real bummer. That was all on us and our business processes. It had nothing to do with the actual quality of their work. I can say our head of business development and sales hated working with the old vendor, but he loved working with Dom & Tom and repeatedly said, “Those people are really good.” He does not have anything to do with our website other than when we’re using this multi-lingual proprietary tool, but he liked the experience with Dom & Tom.

In the fall, we hired a new CMO who wanted to switch to a different vendor and work with folks that she had been working with before, and we actually are in the process of a complete rebranding, so new logo, website, value proposition, the whole nine. I did want to have Dom & Tom in the running, but she was pretty adamant about working with people that she had worked with before, and she’s the boss, so that’s the way it crumbles. I do have to say I was probably more upset with having that conversation with the Dom & Tom team than they were. They were like, “That happens. No big deal. We’re sad not to be working with you.” They were very understanding and it made for an easy conversation. It’s always crummy having to fire someone.

How did Dom & Tom perform from a project management standpoint?

Other than my account manager and a project manager, I think there were maybe three or four more people involved that I saw come up with either server-related work, development work, or user experience work. I interacted with the other people as needed, but I had those two main points of contact.

We didn't always meet in person. My company has a remote worker, but also I think we ended up switching to a project manager who was in Chicago, so we used Basecamp and Google Drive—Google Sheets and Google Docs almost exclusively—in addition to phone calls. Everything was in writing and any phone call we had would be typed up immediately by the project manager into Google Sheets, and then I could approve it and pull that over into Basecamp, which was really helpful. I think they used some other tool that I didn't use for more of the technical stuff. All of the tools that they had us use were useful and enhanced the experience rather than annoy, take away, add extra tasks, etc.

What did you find most impressive about Dom & Tom?

We really like to work with organizations that live our values, and I think Dom & Tom do that. Normally you have developers chained to a desk working 24/7. They clearly don't do that. Their developers are quite happy, and they’re happy to talk to you about any questions you have and will dumb it down for you, because God bless them, I don't understand anything that they do. They valued the camaraderie and the community and what we value, which is taking a step back and renewing. For their founder's day, they closed their office, which we loved. We thought that was just amazing, which sounds ridiculous. “Oh, you want your vendor to close for the day?” They live the values that we hold dear, and that was very important. Every person from Dom & Tom has been lovely to work with, even the two gents that I spoke to maybe three times total. They’re all really good people, which is nice. You don't always get that.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Dom & Tom?

I think if you have questions, ask them, and don't feel like it’s a silly question. No questions are silly. I think they are happy to answer questions you have and they will really try to help you understand their answers. Everyone’s probably worked with a vendor at some point and has felt that they’ve kind of made them feel crappy for not knowing everything, even though that’s why they hired them. Dom & Tom are experts in their space, and they let you kind of give them the reins so they can deal with everything.

BACKGROUND

Please introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of a retail services company offering a variety of in-store marketing and advertising services for prestigious national brands

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Dom & Tom?

We originally hired Dom & Tom to redevelop our flagship product, which is effectively a project management tool that supports site survey, installation, and maintenance of store fixtures, graphic elements, boutique vendor shops, and retail interiors. Once they delivered that, we kept working with them to add new features to the solution. A couple of core additions have been their main focus. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have been in charge of 2 main development projects for me. One is the ongoing development of my main software program that runs my entire business called Project Manager. They had redeveloped that project from version 3.0 to 4.0. With the launch of 4.0, not only did we launch in the United States but also in Europe. The European program required up to a 40% redesign because of the nuances of the work, currencies, and the process being a little bit different from ours. They took our existing program and redeveloped it to meet the needs of my European office.

In addition to that, both the European and the United States have ongoing maintenance requests—incremental changes and adoptions to the program such as versions 4.01 and 4.02. Some of the changes are fairly significant in the business process and programming. The changes were all functional, but very little was done on the look and feel of the user interface of the program.

The second thing they did for me was redeveloping an extranet site that is client-facing and used to deliver project-specific information to my clients. We'd been using a program for 5 years, which was severely outdated. We retained Dom & Tom to redevelop it from scratch.

How much have you invested with Dom & Tom?

In the last year, it’s been $125,000.

What is the status of the engagement?

It is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The relationship is good condition. They understand my process and unique needs. I feel like it’s sometimes based on their workflow, too. My needs are sometimes responded to within 24 hours, which is incredibly fast. Sometimes, it takes a little bit longer, but it varies on the workflow they have internally.

Some of my requests aren't predictable. I’ll try to collect noncritical maintenance patches over a couple of weeks and submit them all at once to them so that they’re not constantly working on it and are able to do it more systematically. However, if I send an email and say we are at a standstill and have a huge issue, they will jump on that right away. They are always able to deal with mission-critical issues that pop up. I've really appreciated that level of support.

How did Dom & Tom perform from a project management standpoint?

I had a project manager that I filtered my work through. Joe is also involved in everything that I do as my senior account manager. I was also able to interact with the development team, which was between 1 and 3 people, depending on the need and the timing of the program. In total, it was 3–5 people at any given time. I had worked with them all before from a year ago. We recently had a turnover with our account manager at Dom & Tom. We were working with someone named Chad for quite some time. He was unassigned, and someone named Anna was reassigned and deployed to my account to take over for what Chad had been doing. Another change that happened was that one of our programmers, Mauricio, left our project. Christian, who we had also been working with as a programmer, took over.

Are there any areas Dom & Tom could improve?

Programming is expensive, and there needs to exist an element of trust between the client and the developer. You get a bill for hours worked and a brief description of what they did, but you’re really not having clear visibility into the hours worked or the amount of effort it takes. It’s not that I don’t trust them, but it would be useful if there were some way to really track hours worked against cost received. They do submit a spreadsheet of the work that was done with the hours required, but I don’t have any way to vet that at all. I either trust it or I don’t. I just wonder if there is something we can do.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Dom & Tom?

It is always important for the client to have a very good understanding of what they want and to have it outlined in as much detail as possible. Developers will develop what you tell them to develop, but they don’t really necessarily understand your business process. The clearer you can be about what you need and articulate those goals, the more effective Dom & Tom will be. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project manager, and we are a small digital creative agency. We build websites, manage, and rebrand, for the most part, nonprofits and other organizations in need of either content strategy, marketing, or digital strategies. More often than not we get to work with an array other different clients to address any other digital needs that they have.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dom & Tom?

The original project was a website redesign for an insurance company. It started in September or October and it was a really big call for us. We were doing branding, marketing, and content strategy for them, as well as redesigning their website. The contract had an aggressive scope involving significant complexity. Because of this, we decided it would likely be best to subcontract the more technically demanding aspects of the work. That’s when we began hunting or a suitable, capable partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had encountered an issue on our end in terms of development bandwidth. There was a time crunch and we had understaffed our development team. Dom & Tom didn’t have any involvement in the creative design; their developers coded, tested, and implemented requested features for us. We came to them with wireframes more or less. It was kind of late in the game, and they helped us get back on track with the backend.

I’m not entirely sure of how many developers they had on the project. I worked mostly with a couple of their coordinators and team leaders. All of the work was WordPress related since that’s what the end-customer had their site on.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

A previous partner recommended them to us based on familiarity with their work. Dom & Tom was incredibly responsive and very warm toward us from the very beginning. We had a fairly tight budget, but they were able to accommodate us. They made it a pretty seamless transition back and forth for us. None of the other suppliers we contacted had the level of professionalism or competence demonstrated by Dom & Tom, so it was really a no-brainer to go with them.

How much have you invested with Dom & Tom?

We have spent between $10,000 and $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This is our first project with them, but we have some calls scheduled with them to discuss some future projects that we would like their assistance in. We hope this is a partnership that can continue because they’ve made it such a seamless experience for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Look at it this way: at the last minute, we looked at our internal resources, and we were in desperate need of backend support. We contacted them with minimal time and money, and yet they came in and finished the backend of the website for us in a remarkably short period. They have no history with us. They could have easily taken our project and dropped the ball, but instead, they made true on their word. The whole thing took less than a month. Our teams collaborated almost daily, coming up with development tasks, and finishing them in record time. Nothing was lost in translation, which was surprising given how late they jumped in the game. They have a very meticulous process and some driven people who take serious ownership over their work, and it definitely shows.

How did Dom & Tom perform from a project management standpoint?

Things were very fluid. They had a project management tool that they wanted to use at the beginning of the project, but we had already begun managing the project on our own tool. I recall asking them to work with our internal tracking, and they were incredibly willing to use our tool instead. We gave them a demo of our project management tool and they picked it up pretty quickly. This no doubt contributed to the success of the project.

What did you find most impressive about Dom & Tom?

Their staff was incredibly helpful. They follow up and they’re very attentive. They worked relentlessly to help us complete this project on time and within budget, which was phenomenal. A portion of the work overlapped with the holidays and yet they were able to muster a team of developers capable of putting together some features at the very last minute. Again, that wasn’t the kind of attention we were necessarily expecting from a new supplier.

Are there any areas Dom & Tom could improve?

Honestly, I can’t think of anything based on my own experience with them. There is absolutely nothing that they could’ve done better. We were in a tight spot with very few options. Our own credibility and reputation were essentially on the line with this end-customer. We bit off more than we could chew, which was our own fault. Dom & Tom rescued us from a bad situation and helped us deliver a viable solution.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I worked as an independent consultant helping a client build a custom platform similar to TaskRabbit. We wanted to create a better version of that platform, which had some bad reviews on the app store.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dom & Tom?

We needed to figure out what direction to take in terms of research and business concepts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dom & Tom consulted us on everything from creating a link canvas, to mockups and making designs. We created screens for every page of the website using their help but used a different developer for the coding.

Dom & Tom made a list of potential customers for the business, actually interviewing a number of people. They also brainstormed a number of business ideas for us, based on the TaskRabbit concept. We went through some different ideas with Dom & Tom, like TaskRabbit for dog walkers, and ultimately decided to have a version of the platform aimed at finding agencies. Our site would become a place where clients could match with the perfect provider.

Dom & Tom provided an account manager, a head designer, and a backend designer. Their principal acted as an advisor.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

We went through an interview process, talking to a number of agencies, and eventually chose Dom & Tom.

How much have you invested with Dom & Tom?

The total cost of our project with Dom & Tom was $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took 3-4 months to complete.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Dom & Tom was engaged with us for the entire time. We came to them with one concept, and they told us flat-out that cloning another app was a bad idea. We went through a research process in coming up with a better approach. The client is still running a business, which would not exist without Dom & Tom.

How did Dom & Tom perform from a project management standpoint?

Dom & Tom always delivered on time, within budget, and with good quality. We worked through a fixed-price model and used Basecamp as a project tracker.

What did you find most impressive about Dom & Tom?

I appreciated Dom & Tom's openness to trying different business concepts and finding people for the research. When we decided upon the agency concept, we didn't have any connections in that world. Dom & Tom, being an agency themselves, linked us with at least 10 founders who provided research material. We would never have had this without Dom & Tom.

Are there any areas Dom & Tom could improve?

No. Dom & Tom was quite flexible and didn't push back on us very much towards the end when we were reaching the limit of the contract. We made a change order without having an increase in budget.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a nonprofit trust fund for a labor union. 

What is your position?

I am the director of operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Dom & Tom?

We are looking to redesign the web interface for our project-tracking program and create a mobile application for it.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Dom & Tom worked on our web-based application. Eventually, we plan to use their services for designing our website as well.

We are working on a data feed that will be searchable based on different criteria. We will distribute our data into multiple user groups and export it into Excel or PDF formats, customizing it based on our locations. We have affiliates in both the United States and Canada and it's important to display data only relevant to their areas. We're also working on a news feature for the platform.

The application they're developing is going to run on iOS. We don't yet intend to build one for Android. Our intention was to follow the path of least resistance and come up with a viable product fast. Our employees are Apple-heavy in terms of cellphones and tablets, which gave us a good opportunity to stick our foot in the water before deciding to support other platforms.

We collaborated with every member in their team, from the UX [user experience] designer to the lead technical developer to the project manager and so on.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

We'd had prior experience working with outsourced developers for web development, but I hadn't worked on a mobile app before. We did some research on companies that develop apps, both small, mid-sized and large and liked what we saw with Dom & Tom compared to two or three other companies. We focused on the apps that each company had developed, looking especially for intuitive and easy-to-use ones. We spoke with each company considered for the job and asked for proposals. We decided to work with Dom & Tom, although they weren't the cheapest solution. We liked their development style and communication. Their team was very easy to deal with, letting us know precisely what they could or couldn't do. My boss and I sat down face to face with them before signing on and went over our goals. We didn't want a small company that would not be able to handle a project the size of ours, but we also didn't want a huge, corporate structure where I would need to ask permission in order to make a call. Dom & Tom were within the sweet spot of being a decent company creating excellent products. Ultimately, the quality of their work was the deciding factor in our choice.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost was between $200,000 and $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them at the end of 2015. The platform is expected to launch at the end of June 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

It's a little early in our progress to have significant metrics for their work.

How did Dom & Tom perform from a project management standpoint?

We have great meetings with Dom & Tom in which they present wireframes to us and explain the functionality of our platform. We use Basecamp in our collaboration, which is a tool I'm very comfortable with. They're very good from a communication point of view. I never feel that we'll be steered down a path at the end of which we'll regret our decisions. If there is a possibility that Dom & Tom will not understand something, they will stop, drop, and roll, letting us know what they require from us.

They've been able to deliver their work consistently within time and budget. Of course, I have some experience with this type of work and, as such, have factored in a certain amount of leeway in our budget – which, of course, I don't let them know about. I don't want to reach the end of the project and find out that we could have had an additional feature or another had we only spent a little more. We're currently working on a fixed-price contract.

What distinguishes Dom & Tom from other providers?

We met Dom & Tom in person when we went to New York. They're great people – very easy to talk to and approachable. They provide an excellent product and all the developers I've dealt with have been great. We haven't launched the platform yet, so I may have a different view in July, but I doubt it.

Could you share any tips with future clients?

Anyone interested in a similar collaboration should focus in defining their project and know what they want. A contractor can't read minds, so they need to have a clear-cut idea of what an end-product will look like. It's OK to rely on the developers' creativity but, at the end of the day, the client must specify that they require it to do A, B, C, and D. We just went through a very painful features-matrix discussion with Dom & Tom. It gave me a headache, but I knew that it had to be done. We needed to quantify and prioritize each requirement in order for them to know what they needed to do.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're building a mobile application that provides ephemeral messaging for both iOS and Android users.

What is your position?

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Dom & Tom?

We needed a development team for our idea. We didn't have the skills internally.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Dom & Tom started out developing our iOS platform. They've expanded their involvement to our Android application as well.

We had a concept in place and came with a good idea, but they've definitely helped narrow down the focus and create what we consider to be a very good product. Dom & Tom were undoubtedly integral in helping us create the product.

The size of their team varied during the development process. At any given time, there were around four developers assigned to our project. The total team was typically comprised of around six people, including a project manager, user experience designer, and graphics artists. The founders were also involved in the process.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

We had an extensive research process for a mobile application development company. We're based in New York City and wanted to work with a local company in order to have face-to-face meetings throughout the development process. Thankfully, there are a few good shops in our area to choose from. We had multiple interviews and narrowed down our choice, ultimately choosing Dom & Tom.

They had experience in handling the design of sleek and visionary applications. We looked at their body of work and felt confident that Dom & Tom would be a good addition to our team. There's also an intangible element that comes through when having a personal conversation with someone. They came out as warm and fuzzy, and we felt a good connection to their team. We also spoke to some of their past clients and heard good things.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total development cost is approaching $1 million during our first year, for all of the products we've worked on.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work started in May 2015. The applications haven't been launched yet, but we're close to that moment. The iOS version is in beta, and will be made available within a few weeks.

I see us having a long-term collaboration with Dom & Tom. We've developed a relationship with both of their founders.

We've had some bumps along the road, which helped us expose their true capabilities. We found them to be quality people who wanted me to build an amazing product. They were concerned with the final outcome, not just with slapping code together. This came across not just through words, but also through actions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The results so far have been excellent. I'm happy with the beta version we currently have. We've done extensive testing on it and gotten good results. Dom & Tom were in charge of quality assurance, and we hired another company for additional QA.

How did Dom & Tom perform from a project management standpoint?

There were certain hurdles, which we had to overcome in terms of budget constraints. We had to refine our vision and address costs, which we weren't expecting. This wasn't a Dom & Tom issue per se, but rather a concern for my team and me. We went slightly over budget, but not because of Dom & Tom's activities.

We use Basecamp for project tracking. It has been an effective tool. Most of our meetings were conducted face to face, which was an important requirement for me.

What distinguishes Dom & Tom from other providers?

I haven't come across many people whom I've trusted during my career. I've hired hundreds of vendors during my 30 years of activity, but Dom & Tom is the only one I trust so wholeheartedly. There have been very few instances of offering someone a budget and setting them off to do the work. I would entrust Dom & Tom to do this, which is the highest recommendation I can give.

Is there anything Dom & Tom could have improved or done differently?

We had a bump in the road that had to do with some unexpected turnover in their assigned team. This is a prevalent phenomenon in the industry right now. Headhunters are reaching out to their staff constantly and encouraging them to jump ship. I do wish that this had been handled a bit differently. However, as a person that has built multiple startups, I know that it's a part of business. This is the only minor thing that I have to mention about Dom & Tom: they should make their clients aware of any turnover and handle it as efficiently as possible.