Dom and Tom

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.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

360Alumni provides engagement and fundraising platforms for higher education, nonprofits and many other types of organizations.

What is your position?

I am founder and chief executive officer [CEO] of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to create a mobile giving solution for a client who wanted to have dueling fundraising campaigns on the Jumbotron at their homecoming football game.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

Dom & Tom were involved in the entire frontend design and development. The application was built for iOS, Android, and web, and the work was done in parallel for everything. I think we had three developers on the project. The project was originally supposed to last only a month, and we used Asana and Google Sheets for project management.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

They had done some work for Priceline, and an advisor to our company who had previously worked for Priceline referred us to Dom & Tom. I was very impressed by their website, their portfolio, and the fact that they’re an Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Company.

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

It was under $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was completed in November of 2014. We’re still working with them on general UX and design improvements to the platform. It’s not a clearly defined project with a start and end date; it’s on an as-needed basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Absolutely. They finished 25% under budget and a week ahead of schedule.

Our in-house developer loved working with them. They were a force multiplier for him, and Dom & Tom continues to be a force multiplier for us now. Even with our development team now, Dom & Tom’s guidance has led our overall output to be much higher in quality than it previously was. They’ve not only taught us, but the results have been much more user-friendly, and we’ve been able to get over some big design challenges and hurdles.

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

The results were absolutely outstanding, and they were incredibly meticulous with their process. They always kept us informed of the burn of the funds, and their professionalism was unlike anything I had experienced before with a development team.

What distinguishes Dom & Tom from other providers?

They have extensive resources, they’re very well organized, and they are able to quickly deploy resources on new needs that come up. They’ve been very flexible with us. This is true at the highest level in terms of guidance on architecture and product strategy, directly from Dom himself, all the way down to the most minute design aspects from their junior designers.

They’re a full-service design and development team. If you’re fortunate enough to have the funds to be able to use them for a well-defined project, you’re guaranteed to have an outstanding product. I would also say that for a non-technical client, Dom & Tom make it very easy. They have people who speak both languages, and they’re ready to serve their clients.

They’re not cheap, but they’re worth every penny. If you want quality design and user experience, you can’t get it through off-shoring. Dom & Tom is going to be one of the best choices you can make.

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

Because they are very process oriented, they are going to work best with teams that have the resources to be able to work well with a project lead, who serves as the core point person, and then communicates everything out. People who are considering a project with Dom & Tom probably shouldn’t expect to have real-time instant communication directly with their developer, but the quality of service that they get from their project manager is top of the line. They follow up on everything, and they’re extremely professional. If you’re a lone founder who is used to working directly with the developer himself, that may not be the model that Dom & Tom provides.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work for a consumer products manufacturer. We produce a wide variety of packaged foods for consumers. A large majority of it is protein-based, basically chicken, pork and beef.

What is your position?

I’m the senior marketing manager within the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

To begin with, I did not want to use an ad agency. The majority of the time, when you’re in shopper marketing, you hire an ad agency to do your Facebook posts, etc. Honestly, I didn’t want that, I wanted to have a developer because I felt that we needed to own the equipment. If I were going to create games, surveys, and other fun things, I could drive that myself but I would need the basis built. If I had given that task to an agency, they would just farm it all out, and I wanted to own it. The challenge, then, was getting the foundation built so we could do all of the things we wanted to do in the future.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

The original application they built was a chicken wing game. Our second app was Octoberfest, in which we had customers come on our Facebook page and upload their video of them yodeling. We had a contest, a voting component, awards, etc. It was engaging and fun, everyone thought it was fantastic.

I own a couple other games that we have, and we pull them out every year and update them a little. What I love is that I’m not paying every year for the same thing. They work with us on our budget, which is very important to us. I will tell them what our budget is, and they will say whether they can do it or not, or make another recommendation. I’m not an IT person, so there’s always a concern about whether we speak the same language – and we do.

We don’t have to worry about the program malfunctioning. The applications are available through web browsers, Android, iOS, and Microsoft devices. We built each application out one at a time. I couldn’t do it any other way, just from an internal point of view.

The most complex application is our scavenger hunt that we do on an annual basis. In the scavenger hunt, we keep a dashboard so that everyone can see how they’re doing against different people. You’re submitting photographs, videos, and different things; so it takes interpretation, and keeping that updated day to day, and then making sure that the results are posted, so it’s fairly complex.

I have my interns try to break the games after I get them, as part of my quality assurance [QA] testing process. We’ve had a couple of things that they found and they’ve worked on together with Dom & Tom. It gives my team a great way to interact and try new products.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

They were just starting out, and a mutual friend recommended Dom & Tom. He said they were two guys starting out this new little company and that they were pretty smart, and suggested that we should try them. Since we were new at apps, we figured we would try them and it’s worked out great.

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

It’s about $400,000 annually on average, but it does fluctuate.

What is the status of this engagement?

I’ve been working with them for nearly four years, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Normally, it’s tied to other things. This is part of an overlay; it’s not just one component. We don’t just run a print ad; we will do everything in conjunction. You have digital, you have mobile, you’ve got print, you’ve got demos, etc. We do believe in omni-channel and 360. Let’s just put it this way - we always make our numbers.

We haven’t had an issue with users finding bugs. Two years ago, we ran a campaign where we had 20,000 people online at one time, in one hour, which is pretty amazing. We also did another program which was decorating nuggets during an off-season time for us. We got a huge response, having over 25,000 people participate, which is pretty incredible, but it’s fun and organic.

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

They’re probably the only vendor that has constantly delivered on time and within budget. We’ve had times where we’ve had products discontinued. We had to put projects on the sideline, and tell them we are unable to start the project. They’re like, ‘Okay, what’s next?’ I’ve worked with other developers, and I feel comfortable in saying that they are the best of the best.

What distinguishes Dom & Tom from other providers?

I think the biggest thing is that they’re very passionate about making sure that I’m not the only one satisfied, but that our own end customers are pleased, too. I think that’s a huge benefit. If they find that there is an issue, or they think that they see something, they point it out and give us recommendations. They don’t just say, ‘Here’s a problem, you figure it out.’ They will recommend solutions to us. Which is a really great thing because they’re keeping their eye on everything; they’re very proactive.

We have always given them information about areas of concern, and what our expectations are. Often, when talking with IT people, they don’t always understand that there is a voice and a personality. You have to be able to describe that, and make sure that they understand that. We have weekly meetings and kick off meetings with them on a regular basis.

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

No, I’m very happy. I love them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a retail services company that provides in-store marketing and advertising services for brands around the country.

What is your position?

I am the owner of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have a proprietary project management tool that effectively runs our business, and we needed somebody to take over the maintenance and support of that tool. The developer we had working on it was not able to do that anymore, so we needed to replace them with someone else equally as skilled.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

It went from the support of an existing tool, and then became the redevelopment of the tool from scratch, with completely new source code. Initially, they just managed someone else's work and kept it up and running, and then they developed their own and rebuilt the whole tool. We wanted some new, streamlined, and scalable for future growth.

We decided to revamp the tool because technology had advanced to the point where the code was no longer relevant and modern, and we knew we couldn't grow with an obsolete tool. We needed it to be mobile-friendly, and the old code just wasn't. They did a comprehensive study, where we came up with a set of criteria that we wanted to have incorporated into the tool that we didn't currently have. There was a whole new and different process behind that. They were the technical leads on the project, and we gave them strategic guidance and feedback.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

They were recommended to me by the developer who was not able to help me anymore.

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

It was more than $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The tool was launched in March of this past year [2014].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We don't have anything formal in place to monitor the success of the engagement, but it's the tool that all of our employees use on a daily basis, and every minute of every day – so it works, and it works well. We have the same functionality, but far better usability and performance speeds. Administratively, the new tool is also a lot easier to use. It's just more intuitive from a user standpoint. We'll be adding new features in the future and we expect Dom & Tom to help us with that, most likely.

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

We had no issues with them from a project management standpoint. We found them very capable, very responsive, and very intelligent. They came to the table with a great approach and a refined development process. They asked the right questions and helped us determine what the key features and processes were that they had to replicate with our new tool. They helped us articulate exactly what it was that we needed. We were all very impressed by them.

What distinguishes Dom & Tom from other providers?

I don't have that much experience with many technology providers, to be honest. Dom & Tom is very knowledgeable in their industry. They seem to be on the forefront of whatever technology is out there and popular. They seem very knowledgeable about the latest technology. They have a deep bench of resources available to them, whether in-house or freelance, and they seem to know the right people to pull in for different things.

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

I've been working with them for a long time, and I don't think there's anything specific I would recommend. There are moments where I want things to happen faster than they do happen but, also quite often, it might be something where they need me to speed up on work that I'm doing. Like I said, because they rely on our guidance and feedback, sometimes we're the ones that slow the process down. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are an IT [information technology] management company. We license our properties for consumer products in media distribution. We license anything from entertainment properties to lifestyle and fashion properties.    

What is your position?

I am a director in the IT department.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

At the time that we engaged Dom & Tom for their services, we were trying to standardize our website platforms in order to provide scalable solutions across a different range of properties. At the time, we had several properties that had been developed in isolation from each other, so they weren't on a standardized platform. Dom & Tom helped us develop a full-brand experience across several disparate brands. While there was some content already there, they relaunched and consolidated the content into a new platform that was much easier to manage and maintain.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Part of the engagement involved standardizing the back-end system. We migrated all of our different micro-sites to a WordPress platform so that we could have a content management model as well as a development model for when we engage third parties for the creative process.

We decided on WordPress because it is easy for third parties to be versed in the platform. At the time, we didn't want to go with HTML5 because not enough creative agencies were versed in the new platform. WordPress had been established, proven to be scalable, and proved to provide content management capabilities that were aligned with our needs. At that time, it was more important to leverage the relative experience of our clients against the platform performance.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

We envisioned that we would separate creative from technical services, so when we put the RFP [request for proposal] together, we looked at agencies that were in the business of delivering technical solutions as opposed to creative solutions.

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

It's in the six-figure range. I don't have a close view of the day-to-day costs, but I would say it's probably a healthy six figures.

What is the status of this engagement?

They just finished doing a content update and upgrade to one of our power ranger sites, probably within the last 30 to 60 days [summer 2015].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or user feedback from this engagement?

I don't have any metrics off the top of my head, but every engagement and every project that we engaged has a defined timeline and milestones. In more than a dozen projects that we've engaged them with so far, not once have they missed any of those timelines or milestones. It's been fantastic. They're just extremely reliable when it comes to project delivery.

Anecdotally, everybody is satisfied with the project execution and the quality of their deliverables, and we have very few support issues, which is a great thing. Things run, so most of the engagement with Dom & Tom stems from strategic changes or content changes that we're executing, and everybody seems to be happy to continue to use them for those types of projects.

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

Dom & Tom has been one of the most reliable, accessible and responsive providers we've ever had the chance to work with. We've been very impressed with how they approach their client relationships.

What distinguishes Dom & Tom from other providers?

I think one of the things that they're really good at is they perform well in high-touch, high-cadence environments. Our clients here, who interact with them directly, are active, and they require a lot of attention. Dom & Tom reacts to them quite well and gives them the level of responsiveness that's aligned with their needs.

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

It's important to have a clear vision of what you need from them to be as successful as you need them to be. That being said, it's only a vision that is needed. If you need to work out details, they're actually quite adept at cooperating with you and helping you problem solve. Once we got our vision worked out, our engagement with Dom & Tom was more efficient simply because they understood what the strategy looked like.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a regulatory consulting firm. We provide consulting services to medical product companies that have products that are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.

What is your position?

I am the chief financial officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We first did a feasibility study, like an R&D [research and development] project, to determine whether it would be possible to build an app that would present content from the FDA websites, but only specific content that would be applicable to our audience. The FDA website serves a very broad range of people, and we were trying to focus on content that was more critical to people in our industry. Initially, we thought we would use an FDA-provided API [application programming interface]. It did not end up that way, but that was the R&D project that we first undertook.

Then we went ahead and contracted Dom & Tom to build the app itself, but the FDA didn't really provide anything that was usable to us. In the process we also built a small content management system where we store links to the pages that we think are important, and then those pages are made available through our app.

Our website is still completely separate, but there is a web-based interface to the content management system where we flag pages on the FDA website that are critical for our users.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

The app was built for iOS, as we were initially targeting iPhones. We're just about to move to the App Store a release for the iPad that leverages a larger screen.

The content management system is a fairly simplistic web-based UI [user interface], but I don't know what it was built with. We didn't have the necessary skill set in-house to develop the functional app, so Dom & Tom to the lead with it and also handled the integration, configuration, testing, and support.

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

We're somewhere in the ballpark of $100,000 to $150,000 right now with the application development costs, and we pay a fairly nominal monthly hosting fee as well.

What is the status of this engagement?

The iPhone app and content management system projects were run simultaneously. We kicked them off in late June 2014, with the intent of going live in November [2014] but, for a variety of reasons, we ended up going live in March [2015]. There was never a driving reason to launch, but that was just the initial project plan. We weren't in a rush. The most recent milestone reached with them was the completion of the iPad release, which we're in the process of moving into the App Store right now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The number of app downloads is the way most people initially measure app success. We have not seen the volume in downloads we would have hoped for. In our company, no one feels that reflects upon the work of Dom & Tom, but instead, the difficulty of getting the word out, making people understand what the app does. So I don't think that lack of downloads reflects poorly on them or their work, and that's not a measure that probably tells you very much at the moment.

In the content management system, we add probably between five and 10 pages per day. We've been live since March, so we have hundreds if not thousands of pages marked in there right now, so we are pushing through a lot of content, which is a positive sign. We're just not seeing the app consumption that we had originally expected.

We didn't get any negative feedback regarding defects on the user end. We have put out one patch release that addressed a minor problem, but that's it. There really has been no negative feedback, nor have we found any significant bugs ourselves.

Our company is a single member LLC, so the president, who is the sole proporietor, invested all the money. He's very pleased with the results. We took what we considered a vaguely formed idea to Dom & Tom. They took interest in our small idea, which several other shops wouldn't even consider. Dom & Tom took a genuine interest in taking on this project and trying to help us figure it out.

I think what we all came to was not exactly what we were hoping for in terms of how much effort it takes to maintain, but it's still a very workable option. We are very pleased with the work that they did in coming up with the concept and then really bringing it to market. I think the app is well designed from a user experience perspective. Dom & Tom have very good designers, and they brought a lot to the table on that. They don't have any real knowledge of our industry, so we contributed all of that, of course.

What distinguishes Dom & Tom from other providers?

I think they are the right size to take on things like this. Dom & Tom are genuinely interested in building something different. They weren't concerned necessarily about the project having to be a certain size, dollar amount or anything like that. They encourage their technical folks to find projects that are compelling and to carry them through.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

I would say that they struggle with project management and making sure that the communication is constant on where we are. In our case, we didn't have any strict deadlines, so that was okay. Also, we have a completely separate day job so, in our situation, it worked fine and we have just worked along with it. If someone did have a critical deadline, they would need to really ramp up their communication and project management efforts. As we went along, resources disappeared – which happens and we all understand that – but it became quite a guessing game to figure out who was working on what.

I can't tell you how they operate with their other clients, but we were open upfront that we did not have a driving deadline. We wanted to get the work done right, not by a particular date, so certainly that would have impacted their staffing. I think like any other shop that is resource constrained, you plan and then when it's three weeks after it was supposed to end, you're still testing and finding bugs. It's the game that everyone plays, but because of their size, there are only so many people they can tap into and only so many projects that can be run concurrently.

I really think that communication is the trickiest part of all of this, and that's an area where everyone who does application development can improve. It's better to over-communicate with your business sponsors than the opposite.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work for a top-tier public university. Specifically, I'm in the Web Communications Department. We are involved in a lot of projects to update technology on campus to improve the experience that students have while they're here.

What is your position and responsibilities?

I am the Web marketing manager. My department is responsible for the university's Web presence. Our team is also responsible for the university's official social media accounts. They function as our very public-facing work.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to improve the experience of rising freshman who were new to campus by offering them materials to make their transition into our university smoother. We determined that we needed to put together a cleaner rendition of information that students need to start on the right collegiate path. Then, knowing that our students are wholly familiar with using smartphones, we thought that the creation of a mobile app to walk them through that process would be a wise tactic.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

The original app that Dom & Tom helped us develop was focused on the experience starting at the moment of admission until the moment a student steps on campus. We also want to improve the experience for our students once they're here, so Dom & Tom is working with us on another app, which targets current students on campus. I believe they've also done some work for a couple of other departments on campus, but I'm not familiar or involved with those.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

As an institution of higher education as well as a public institution, we have to go through all sorts of red tape in order to do anything worthwhile. We put out an RFP [request for proposal] for which we got 10 to 12 responses and Dom & Tom had, by far, the strongest proposal for us. They were just far and away the best proposal and outlined a lot of stuff for us that we hadn't thought about. It was very impressive.

I believe we were one of the first institutions of higher education they worked with. Price was a definitely an important factor, too. As a public institution, we're beholden to certain rules, and Dom & Tom was willing to work with us on that. Their presentation showed that they understood what we were going for.

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

I don't know if that's something that I can speak to from my position. However, we are a public institution, and I'm sure that information is available somewhere.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement is ongoing. The most recent milestone was when some people from their design and development teams came and visited us for this newest project, just a couple of weeks ago [June 2015].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I don't have any measurements to share. We missed a number of deadlines, but that was mostly because of problems on the university's side while Dom & Tom was waiting on us.

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

A lot of times in higher education institutions, we think we know the best way to do something, so we do it that way for 40 years. Working with Dom & Tom helped us realize ways that we can perform better. We were able, qualitatively, to figure out how we could operate better as an institution while working with vendors.

What distinguishes Dom & Tom from other providers?

They're a cool team. Something that I think is really special about them is that we always enjoy our interactions with them. Even when they would visit us on campus, it was fun. We were coming up with cool ideas, and they would come back to us having gathered up all the stuff that we talked about and putting it into a sensible presentation. They did some fantastic work.

I think that they're gaining some brand presence. They won an award for being good, cool, and new or something. We were excited to be able to say that we worked with Dom & Tom – this creative development agency. That was something that was particularly cool about them - their name seems to carry some serious weight.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

There's always an opportunity for some improvement. There were times where our expectations were not clear. They would deliver something they felt would meet our expectations, and we would think that it wasn't up to par, and we would have to work through that together. It's important to have very clear expectations of deliverables and have your stuff ready for them. Dom & Tom would always be waiting on us for content and information. I think that one of the best things you can do, if you're working with Dom & Tom is make sure to have your stuff together.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are called LISA, which is an acronym for Life Is Simple Application. We're the first-ever open marketplace for mobile technology that connects artists or artisans and clients together in real time.

What is your position?

I am the founder and CEO [chief executive officer].

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The number one problem we were trying to solve was how to allow artists who love what they do to continue doing what they do without having to drop out of the industry based on the finances. This was a huge problem in the hairstyling industry, for example, considering that 50 percent of all artists that get licensed drop out of the business within the first two years. There was major problem within the industry, and nobody was happy except the salon owners. It's a million-year-old model that's never really changed, until now.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They've definitely taken over the development end and are pretty much in charge of all the visual design and functional development. They've been involved in the planning process heavily. I would say they have gone beyond what a typical developer would do. To be honest, we weren't looking for a typical developer. That's why we went with Dom & Tom. We wanted someone who could offer insight rather than just do what we tell them.

Dom & Tom helped us build the project to scale to different areas and sectors that we may move into in the future, like medical. They never miss a beat when we are ready to launch in any other sectors. Their recommendations have been invaluable to us from a strategic standpoint.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

We created a list of potential vendors using personal contacts and through some online research. I personally interviewed about a dozen developers in Chicago, San Francisco, and New York, and Dom & Tom was just simply different from all of them.

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

To date, it's somewhere around half a million.

What is the status of this engagement?

It is still very much an ongoing relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

That's going to be hard to share right now, simply because we don't technically launch until the third week in August [2015]. I can tell you that our sprints have been on time and delivered with perfection. That's all we can continue to hope for, up to launch.

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

They are very responsive and very organized. The quality of work is exceptional. The Dom & Tome team is just very involved in every aspect and very interested, not only in the development aspect, but also in every single area that is involved with this project. They're very interested in what those other areas are and how they are doing. They're very involved and that's made a huge difference. 

What distinguishes Dom & Tom from other providers?

They had a vision for where this platform could really go as opposed to a vision of how it could just be built. They strategized with us and offered insightful recommendations. We don't feel like they're just going to drop us off at the finish line and leave. That's a key differentiator between them and other companies: the fact that they've been heavily involved in the process, in the flow and the future of the app as opposed to just the buildup of the app.

I think they have heart, and I think that is very different from a lot of other development houses. I think that they want you to win, and I think that that matters. They take their work very much to heart, they're very proud of what they do, and you can't put a dollar sign on that.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

No. Not really. They have iOS and Android developers working on our solution, they have a great PM [project manager]. There's nothing that they're missing that we need, and that's one of the reasons that we went with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We partner with leading digital design firms and provide project scope, resource allocation, and project management services in all digital spaces.

What is your position?

I am the founder and CEO [chief executive officer].

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The initial challenge was to strategize how to build our website. What attracted me to their team right away was their technical and research side. They really tried understanding, conceptualizing and spending a lot of time upfront with us. That was very impressive from a client point of view. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Initially, we were able to focus with their team on narrowing down our original concept so that we could just focus on the digital design area. After that first phase, we went into full user experience, user design, and then they built out our website and have handled all our technical work ever since. We built our site using Bootstrap PHP, and WordPress for our front end. On the back-end, we are possibly looking to use MongoDB and MySQL databases, mixed in with some additional PHP and possibly Rails. That's what we're working on now for our next iteration of the site. As our company is evolving and growing, we're adding new features. The release of the site will be sometime between now and this time next year [2015-2016]. It could be sooner, it just depends on our growth and implementation.

How did you come to work with Dom & Tom?

My initial contact with them was about three years ago. Everything just clicked when I spoke to their team. It worked well for me, from their approach to their mindset, and how they go about things. The fact that Tom & Dom are both involved in the company was another factor for me. It's not a hands-off deal. The founders are there. They're working there, and I work closely with both Tom [Tancredi] and Dominic [Tancredi, co-founder] on a daily basis.

For example, last year [2014], on July 4, I told them I had some questions, and within 20 minutes, on the Fourth of July, they called back to clarify what all my questions were which showed me they were very committed to their clients. That's why I chose them and why we continue to work together.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative in financial terms?

It cost about $60,000 to $100,000.

When was the project completed?

Our engagement is still ongoing, and it started back in July 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback from this engagement?

For our version one launch, our bounce rate dropped about 25 percent after we had done several revisions. We have about a 65 percent bounce rate right now, organically. This site has only been up for six months. From an ROI [return-on-investment] perspective, the site is 60 percent of our growth for our business.

How did they perform from a project management perspective?

Regarding project management tools, we used Basecamp and Google Docs obviously for the JIRA stuff. All of our collaboration stuff is done through Basecamp. We never had issues with responsiveness or delayed work. They usually reply within 15 minutes – they're super quick with that stuff. But, as I said earlier, we are still working on the project.

What distinguishes Dom & Tom from other providers?

One of the key things that really stood out for them is their fantastic communication – above all the rest. They have lots of other amazing attributes but, communication, at the end of the day, is really the main component that sets them apart. Dom & Tom are great at modifying their recommendations to terminology that we can easily understand. That's been very much appreciated.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things that you'd do differently?

We didn't run into situations where they didn't have the capabilities and the services to meet our requests. There was one miscommunication from our side on something. Things were moving quick through one of the sprints, and something was built when we didn't want to build it. I think that happens in every project, and we eventually got back on track. When things were moving really quickly, we just built too much.

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

You have to present them with detailed and clear information for what you're trying to do. That's the best thing to do, just give them as much detail as you can on what you're looking to do. You have to have some concrete objectives and a solid road map before you begin developing, otherwise you run the risk of building features you don't need or that the end users don't want.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

I work for the Television Academy. We produce the Emmys, among many other things. We have TelevisionAcademy.com as our website, and also Emmys.com, which we use during Emmy season. We are a nonprofit trade organization with about 60 employees altogether, and we support almost 20,000 members of the Television Academy across the country.

What is your position?

I am the executive producer for digital.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges that you were trying to address when you first approached Dom & Tom?

We were working on a collaborative project, driven by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which is also called NATAS. They’re based in New York. We have a common heritage, and we both give the Emmy, but we give it for different things. Our groups give the Emmy for primetime television, and they do things like daytime television, sports, news, and documentaries. They have 19 regional chapters around the country, whereas we just have the Los Angeles chapter.

They had uncovered a need, among their prospective Emmy nominees or Emmy award winners, to determine whether the work that they do was eligible for Emmy consideration, or even to which regional chapter to apply. So, they came up with an idea for a website, which we collaborated on. People in the television industry, or even students, could go to this site, enter some information, and determine whether they would be eligible to submit for an Emmy. They also could learn how to go about that process. So, that was the challenge that we faced, and it meant collaboration between us and the National Academy. Dom & Tom facilitated that. 

SOLUTION

Could you describe the actual scope of work assigned to them during the engagement?

We contributed the basic idea and all of the data, the content that would drive the structure of the site, and the way it worked. They did information architecture, wireframes, and graphic design. We contributed some graphic elements, as did NATAS, which Dom & Tom incorporated into the overall design. Early in the discussion we realized there had to be two sites, so we expanded the scope even as we started. They designed and developed everything, gathered up all of our data, gave the specifications on how they wanted to get the data, and they put the whole thing together.

They did some usability testing, where they created some sample pages to try out. The project manager from NATAS and I tested things like rollover behavior, click behavior, and where text should appear, and all that. They did a nice job of presenting that to us, spending time with us on the phone going through it, and then leaving it with us to come back with feedback. On the NATAS side, they brought in a number of other stakeholders to test, evaluate, and give feedback. They did the testing and QA [quality assurance], and then installed it on the servers that we had implemented for the project. We didn’t have to know anything about how the process was going to work or about the technology. They took care of it all.

How did you come to choose Dom & Tom as your partner?

I don’t recall how we heard of them. It may have been through one of the folks we were working with at NATAS. We had a couple of other vendors that we had used in the past, and we went through a bid process. Dom & Tom did a great job on their presentation, and came in at the right price. They were centrally located between us all, so that worked out well. It just seemed like a good choice.

Can you provide a general cost estimate for the amount you’ve invested in their services?

It was between $85,000 and $100,000.

When did the site launch?

The site soft launched around February 1 [2015]. We haven’t done a lot of promotion for it yet, but it’s been up for a while.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the overall quality of their performance?

I don’t have any metrics because we haven’t put any big marketing push behind it, and we don’t really have any users yet.

Dom & Tom did a terrific job managing the project and coordinating people on different coasts in different time zones, and people with very busy schedules. They managed to pull it together, so the project kept moving forward at every step.

They were very responsive in terms of accommodating the changes that came up. They probably did a few more iterations than they had signed up to do, but they were excited about doing the project, so I was very pleased about that. Working with them was a very satisfactory experience.

I’ve worked with many vendors, and a number of them have just been excellent, but I would put Dom & Tom in the top ranks of that group. They were very professional, very organized. Whenever we had a meeting, they knew exactly what needed to be discussed, what the outcome needed to be. We worked out things about how we paid them, which was a little tricky because there were two organizations that had to pay into this. I could not be more pleased.

When working with Dom & Tom, is there anything that you would consider unique about their practice that distinguishes them from other vendors?

Because we’re a nonprofit, we tend to go with the lowest bidder, which might not always have the level of professionalism required. The thing that really impressed me was their professionalism. They were very solid, and they managed things well. They used the Basecamp application to keep us informed on everything and to help us keep track of a lot of dialogue among all the different players. I just thought they were very well organized. They had a really nice design sensibility, good instinct for the information architecture, and the flow of the user experience. Overall, they were just excellent. 

What advice, if any, would you give a future client of theirs?

Make sure you schedule enough time for the changes that you’re going to have to make. That way you can make sure that the original team that you started with is by your side all of the way through the process.