Dreamten

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of RepVue, we have an online ratings platform where b2b sales professionals objectively rate their company comp, culture, and more.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dreamten?

We needed numerous website improvements to enhance traffic, conversions, and the overall user experience.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We looked at a number of firms, both local to NC as well as national, and selected Dreamten based on the fact that they had strong experience with leveraging data within design.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Dreamten did extensive research with our team, our users, and our customers. We had a rigorous review and kick off process, and then an iterative approach to all the relevant pages that needed to be built.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked closely with a lead project manager, a lead designer, and the CEO.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Project was on time, within budget and we were exceptionally happy with the final output. We expected improvements to the conversion metrics and SEO within a few months, but it actually started improving within just a couple days of rolling out the new site.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There was an exceptional working relationship between the parties, utilizing recurring meetings and online collaboration tools.

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

They were very quickly able to understand not only our general business, but how to translate the data that RepVue has into a visually appealing, highly consumable front-end interface for our users.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None, highly recommend.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Product for PetScreening based out of Mooresville, NC. We build services based on a vision to make the world more pet inclusive no matter where you live, work, play, or stay.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dreamten?

What DIDN'T we use Dreamten for would be a shorter question to answer. We used them to completely design a UI/UX for a brand new software product - they also built the marketing site for this application. We used them to completely overhaul the UX/UX for our existing software product. They also completely redesigned and built a much more robust marketing site for our existing product. They have creating marketing inserts for us to be sent in mailers. They have designed t-shirts for our events and booth banners, tablecloths, etc. They took a few brands/logos we had and gave us ONE branding guidelines document to make our portfolio of products look like they were related. I know I am forgetting things they have done for us, but I think this shows our level of trust in them!

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They came referred to us by another software company we have friends at. We met with Philip and loved their outlook and felt they were smart, get the job done type of people.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

This team has been with us step by step. They've traveled to our offices for onsite meetings for us to just data dump on them everything in our heads and all our ideas. They've worked from pictures we've written on post-it notes so they could learn the product. They have gotten accounts to our product to see what exactly the current user experiences and all the different flow variations. They talked to our marketing team extensively to know what has worked and what hasn't. They've talked to our Chief Operations Officer, Chief Growth Officer, Chief Technology Officer, and CEO weekly, sometimes more than that.

We have recurring standing check-ins with them for them to walk through what they accomplished that week and how they are tracking to our deliverables and to ask/answer any questions. They have presented us with numerous Figma files, clickable prototypes, design systems, etc. All to work collaboratively to get approval.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I think everyone who works at Dreamten has worked on this project. The owner, one of his partners, many designers, many developers. They've all been incredibly sharp and a joy to work with!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have an unbelievable partnership with them. We have launched our new product and it is working quite well and we had around 70,000 registrants in the first 45 days. We have received everything they promised us in the timeline they promised. They have put together very complex designs and tweaked them numerous times when one of us changed our mind. They don't hesitate to challenge our request to advise us on best practice or suggest a different alternative. They were so easy to work with that we decided to have them redo our entire flagship product after they helped us with our first project. We can't imagine doing this without them!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

In my 15+ years of working, I have never worked with another team as communicative and on time as Dreamten. They were incredibly reliable and a true "partner". They also did a great job in making sure we kept our eyes on our original goal and timing without getting our heads so far into the clouds that we would never get anything put into Production.

They were incredibly responsive, always showed up to meetings on time, took fantastic notes and never once have I had to worry that they didn't pay attention to something that was said and that I should track that on my own to follow up with them later. They do what they are say they are going to do and by the date they say they will do it by. A simple concept, but one I haven't seen a lot through my years in Product.

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

There is nothing they cannot do. They are so dedicated, kind, passionate about what they are doing. They make you feel like you are their only client at times. They always seem to overdeliver and never cease to amaze me with the quality of their work. Every single person I have come into contact with at Dreamten is of the utmost quality. There are zero weak links. They are incredible at communicating internally as well. Their project management skills are tremendous.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There is not a SINGLE thing I would change about working with Dreamten. They are phenomenal as they are. The ONLY thing I wish is that I could pick up their office and move it directly into mine because not only are they a great team to work with, they are really fun people to be around as well!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at Fathom, and we’re a software development company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dreamten?

We wanted to augment our internal design capacity.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dreamten is doing product design for us, including design ideas, direction, and production.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with Philip (Founder), a designer, and other resources that come to the project behind the scenes as needed.

How did you come to work with Dreamten?

Someone in our product team brought them in-house.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent $6,000–$10,000 with them every month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website is filled with their work because Dreamten is our go-to product design provider — they’ve been instrumental in our fast growth, and we’ve received great reviews on our user-friendly site.

How did Dreamten perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is what I appreciate the most about them! I’m a difficult client, but they’ve been responsive throughout the process responding to my needs. They also give constant updates, making them a great partner to work with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their work is super high, and the way they collaborate with us is also outstanding.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’d be great if they grew their team; we’d love to get more days a week with them, but they’re super slammed, which is not surprising. I’m even nervous about this review because I’m going to raise their demand! Overall, they’re a great team, and I want them to succeed.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to push back, which will get you good results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief growth officer, and we use technology and data to help properties manage their pet populations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dreamten?

We were launching a new direct consumer brand, and we hired Dreamten to help us. We had a one-page vision document, and we engaged with them to codify that vision, codify the product strategy, and bring our product to life visually. We hired them to create our user journeys, user personas, UI design, and UI kit and to bring all of those to development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our founder had a vision of where we were going and Dreamten came up with the whole concept to bring his vision to life. The team created the concepts for deliverables such as logos, design, name, and layout on Figma, and they built a UI kit and HTML CSS UI kit to help expedite frontend development.  We also had some specific asks on the data we needed to capture and what we wanted the platform to do.

The work they’re doing is similar to a marketing landing page. It also features the consumer onboarding flow, both initial short signup flow and upsell flow to capture additional information after initial conversion, which would be followed by an authenticated dashboard once the consumer signs up for the product. Overall, their main goal is to produce a very consumer-centric design.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with their founder, project manager, design manager, and two senior designers. We work with a variety of folks depending on the pain points we’re trying to solve.

How did you come to work with Dreamten?

I found them through a referral. When I reached out to them, I built a great connection with their founder. We were also impressed with their initial work and we hired them to do some additional work for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $60,000, but we expect to spend about $100,000–$150,000 at the end of the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in September 2021, and we continue to collaborate.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re not live yet, but the quality of their work is excellent, and some of the concepts that they’ve come up with are revolutionary. As such, we’re really pleased with their creativity and how they marry creative-focused design with a funnel conversion-focused approach. Overall, they’re performing well and have exceeded expectations.

How did Dreamten perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a good project management process, and they hit our deadlines well. We have a weekly touchpoint with them and we usually spend about two hours per week brainstorming, reviewing, and collaborating. We mainly communicate via email, Slack, and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their innovative approach is impressive. I wouldn’t hire them for a traditional basic design project. Instead, I’d hire them for projects that requires next-level creative thinking. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Smaller companies don’t have as much on the project management side so there’s always room for improvement. However, as I said, we’re happy with Dreamten.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Think through and flesh out the vision for your product because Dreamten is good at creating visual experiences based on your vision. In doing so, you’ll get to optimize their creativity.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-owner and managing partner of Formation Healthcare. We’re a healthcare consulting group that works in the seniors’ industry, including nursing homes, assisted living facilities, or any type of senior care setting. We provide consulting services and have a few software products for that space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dreamten?

We wanted to update our marketing website for one of our software products. We previously had a homemade website, so we wanted to modernize it and bring it up to speed with the marketplace. Also, we had Dreamten working on updating and redesigning our UI for our web-based search portal to add functionalities and make it more user-friendly and intuitive.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dreamten did most of the design from scratch. We initially gave them some design concepts and websites we liked, and they put together a portfolio with samples that were in line with the look we were going for. We narrowed it down through that process, and then their team custom-designed the marketing website and UI based on our color scheme.

We were going for a clean UI, and we wanted it to look very modern and intuitive, so they ran with that. For functionalities, they enhanced the design for the user account function and created more intuitive selection features for the nursing home search tool. The interface allowed users to save nursing homes under their accounts. Also, they updated a functionality so users could save reports of what they’ve previously searched for. Basically, it was a whole website redo.

What is the team composition?

We mostly interfaced with Philip (Founder) and Dante (Design Director). Initially, we didn’t expect to have much contact with the owner, but he was involved and helpful in the process. Dante was our project manager and developer; he was great.

Overall, it was nice to work with them because we didn’t have to keep track of many people. They went to their team, did what they had to do, and brought things back to us.

How did you come to work with Dreamten?

We have another software product; it’s a 50/50 joint venture with another company. They’d used Dreamten to update their marketing website and UI; they came in contact with them because Dreamten was a local company. We really liked the work, so we asked them who did it for them. They praised Dreamten and told us there wasn’t anyone better out there.

We didn’t even interview any other firms because we were so pleased after our first meeting with them. Their pricing was right, their work was excellent, and they were efficient and quick. Additionally, they came so highly recommended that we just went with their proposal right away.

How much have you invested with them?

It was between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June–August 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site is up and running, and our users and clients are very pleased with the new interface and functionality. We worked with a different developer on our team; he hooked up the UI, rolled it out, and made it live. He was very impressed with all their coding, and it was easy for him to bring it online, which was great.

As far as our marketing cycles, we’ve found a lot of hits. They worked on our marketing page to help us bring trust to our brand and incorporate some client reviews and quotes, which have helped bring more credibility to our site. Now, we’ve got a lot more hits on the website from people searching online or clicking around.

Moreover, they hit the ball out of the park and met all of our expectations. We didn’t give them a lot to work with, and they were still able to come up with something that made us happy.

How did Dreamten perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great to work with. We’d worked with other companies where getting on their schedule is like pulling teeth. However, Dreamten was very communicative; they set up standing meetings with us and stuck to timelines, even finishing earlier. Everything was in scope, and the pricing didn’t change.

Dreamten brought us new ideas, and the team was lovely. We did the project during COVID-19, so it was a strenuous time for many companies. Nonetheless, they were kind and easy to communicate with. They weren’t technical, and they were able to synthesize our explanations to put them into production. All in all, the project went nicely and seamlessly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What really made them stand out was the quality of their work — their designs were modern and trendy. Dreamten had current knowledge of their field and technology. Also, their team was genuine and communicative, and working with them was a pleasure. We could reach out to them at any time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. I can’t think of anything that needs improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you have specific ideas on what you’re looking for or need, pull them together as best as you can to help them meet your expectations. If you have color schemes or designs in mind, make sure you’re clear about that.

On the flip side, if you don’t know what you’re looking for and want them to help you with copywriting, design, and so on, they’re very skilled. We were pleased with what they came up with in that regard.

In summary, be prepared and let them bring ideas to you.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of IT for a Pharmaceutical Consulting company based in Durham, NC. I handle all things infrastructure through security and innovation!

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dreamten?

We are developing a SaaS application for internal use and possible external use. Our design needed to be modern and intuitive.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

DreamTen was recommended to us by another vendor we use. After reviewing DreamTen and other firm's portfolios, we were very impressed with DreamTen's work. They had samples of a workflow project that fit perfectly in our product.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Since our project is a very technical, industry-specific project, the series of discovery meetings was longer than usual. This certainly wasn't a problem as DreamTen needed to understand the details before continuing.

Once these meetings were complete, DreamTen provided many iterations of the product, each one better than the previous!

Lastly, they provided us "working" components of the product; actual HTML/CSS components, not just a set of images of how it should look. This allowed us to accelerate the progress of the project exponentially!

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

I believe we worked with 3 individuals. 1 designer, 1 project manager, and 1 product manager. They were all excellent!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

This project is currently still in development. As mentioned before, the working components provided have been essential to our development process.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication was top-notch. I have worked with many vendors throughout my career, and I believe DreamTen to be one of the best I've worked with. They constantly kept us up to date and provided updates on time.

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

I am impressed with their ability to take a very complex, industry-specific concept and find a way to present it and understand it. I'm sure he has learned more than he ever wanted to know about our industry!

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No! In all honesty, many companies could learn a thing or two from DreamTen!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of product management for a software company that sells library software to public and academic libraries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dreamten?

We’re building a new suite of engagement solutions and we needed to create the vision of what it’s going to look like and have a story to tell. I also needed somebody to be able to design that vision, and turn it into a prototype in a very short period of time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For the Q1 of the project, we did an initial interview of what we were trying to achieve, and determine the objectives and purpose of the prototype in the short term. We had done some wireframes, but our team couldn’t turn them around quick enough for the sales meeting we were going to present it at.

After that, Dreamten interviewed me, looked at the wireframes, and were able to turn around concepts quickly. We reviewed them, tweaked them, and put together a script which Dreamten used to refine the prototype. In addition, the script provided the vision and helped our sales team understand what we were building.

We had asked them to stay on to continue building the concepts, and help us with our Q1 development goals. We used to utilize resources from our parent company, but we stopped doing that and started outsourcing all of our design work to Dreamten. Now, we have a senior designer and senior design manager on the project, that’s also doing a design system with a frontend developer for us.

What is the team composition?

We primarily work with two people. One is a senior design manager, and the other is the founder of the company.

How did you come to work with Dreamten?

We found Dreamten on Clutch and the reviews were fabulous. They were in our price range and they responded to us incredibly quickly. We gave them two weeks to do this project, and they were able to turn it around despite the tight schedule.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent somewhere between $15,000–$20,000 for this particular project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2020, and the partnership is still ongoing. They did such a great job in Q1 of the project, that we decided to extend them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Dreamten has done such a fabulous job on our initial project, that we decided to outsource all of our design work to them. We’ve asked a lot of them to flexible, and they adjust with our organizational needs — even working within some constraints we have with the development team.

They’ve been able to give what the teams need on time, which allowed us to work at a pace that we need to move forward. Moreover, they do their work efficiently, so we can get further ahead and have better conversations.

Yesterday, Dreamten revised some additional concepts that they put together for future phases, and my boss was thrilled to death by what he’s seen.

How did Dreamten perform from a project management standpoint?

Dreamten is incredibly organized — they stay on top of everything and they’re very responsive. They’ve been a phenomenal partner because they understand what the business is trying to achieve, and their goal is to make our business successful. We use Slack to communicate with them, and they use Figma to manage the project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

What we like about Dreamten is they understand our business objectives and they’re really committed to helping us succeed. You can tell that they’ve been in the software business for a long time, because they understand new technologies, new design patterns, and they’re very thoughtful in making sure that everything is consistent.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, because we’re so happy with what they’ve done. I think they have a very good process for a good system.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a marketing technology company.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dreamten?

We wanted to enhance the existing platform that we had and upgrade the entire user experience and interface.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dreamten built and designed our website. To start, they consulted and performed a system analysis on what our current designs lacked. Then we had another session to decide on what approach we wanted to take.

After we finalized benchmarks and determined the best design approach, we started to finalize various sketches of each type of page and service that we wanted to provide. Then we started going into the UI elements, including the colors, the features, and how it’d look. They used Webflow to build our site.

Our teams collaborated on the project. We had the colors and the branding from our side already. From their side, they provided the finishing touches and the flat overlays. They cleaned everything up from what we currently had, making it more modern and up to our standards.

After completing the platform, we picked up the website part of the project. Then they helped us with some content writing. They also came in and did some testing and gave us some feedback. We took their suggestions into consideration and we’ve already fixed and edited them on our existing site.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people from Dreamten.

How did you come to work with Dreamten?

I reached out to 5-8 UI/UX companies on Clutch. After a couple of interviews, we found that Dreamten was the one we felt had the most passion. They understood the project as we were explaining it and they had that startup feel. That connection was the answer to what we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $80,000-$150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Dreamten set us up for success. Thanks to them, we have a useful UI kit, which makes it easier to scale our platform. We're still utilizing that UI kit now.

Their kit is very clear, it’s so much easier for us to be able to create those new pages and designs quickly. Dreamten's documentation makes things easy as possible. Even after we found some missing elements, all we had to do was reach out and they provided us with help even after the contract ended.

How did Dreamten perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management skills were great, especially in the beginning. Some back and forth caused us to lose grasp of the timeline a bit, but they ended up completing the project in a timely manner. They were able to catch up and deliver earlier than our estimation.

They set us up for success by preparing all the documentation and everything early on. By the time we finalized the designs and all the pages, they were ready to deliver.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We really appreciated Dreamten's creativity. They were willing to quickly jump on a call and get clear feedback. Their team communicated really well with us in terms of what they expect us to do or what they need us to do.

We were also very impressed with the knowledge Dreamten exhibited. They kept doing a lot of research and gave us a lot of pointers and tips even on things that they weren’t working with us on. We continue to use their consultation as we move forward. It’s a natural partnership that we built together. They’re not just a vendor that closes the door.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had some miscommunications while working on the website. They had a smaller team with a lot on their plate, but they've expanded their team quickly since then. 

As a result, there were a few delays, so we provided them some feedback on the issues we were having. They accepted the feedback and did a much better job in order to make sure we were satisfied.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what you want the end result to be before going to Dreamten. They can help generate the full idea. As long as you understand the end result that you want, Dreamten will be able to help you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an experiential education company that started hosting in-person events across the US, aimed at teaching older adults how to use technology. We’ve expanded since, especially since the pandemic caused a shift away from in-person events. Now, we’re primarily an e-learning webinar development, operations, and design company related to online events and event management. We also provide design and animation services as well as software development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dreamten?

We’re developing a relatively large-scale web application for a client. We needed assistance with UI/UX development to support our software developers, who were focused on backend implementation and code rather than frontend design work.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The platform allows for branching educational content that feeds into a content management system (CMS), where the app learns user preferences for educational content types, in terms of subject matter, format, and behaviors surrounding accessing content. We’re targeting an older audience, between 45–65 years of age.

We had the initial structure for the app and know the key views and the overall system structure that we needed to design. On user flows, organization of pages, UI kits, and layout, we decided to work with them. They built an understanding of our goals for the system and its primary purposes. Then, they put together initial wireframes for the client. They had to design them to be as neutral and adaptable as possible because the client was in the process of rebranding. They proposed different visual languages as well as wireframes. As we progressed, they continued to refine the wireframes to build out all the pages.

We’re also working with them to build the frontend components, so we can loop their frontend work directly into our code to build out the pages. We have a shared GitHub repository to facilitate that. They worked on everything from the initial concept to visual language to applying our wireframes to layouts. They also created the HTML and CSS we use to build the pages. Their end of the project was completed through Vue.js.  

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with two main points of contact, but there were also a group of designers working on the account behind the scenes. We worked with Philip (Founder) on the conceptual parts of the project, but we collaborated with Dante (Design Director) on the design phases and implementation. There’s at least one designer working under Dante. 

How did you come to work with Dreamten?

One of our software developers found them while looking for UI/UX partners. Because we had a relatively short timeline and this was a larger project in scope, we decided to reach out to an external company to work on the UI/UX in parallel with our internal backend engineering team. We’re located in the same city and they were flexible with us when we started the project in a bit of a rush. They were flexible and adaptable to take our required structure into consideration to allow us to hit our Q4 milestones before mapping out the project. 

We considered several UI/UX companies but felt Dreamten’s approach would be best. One of our biggest concerns about working with a UI/UX company was that we’d be handed designs that they’d have to rebuild before implementing. We had to find someone that would be able to build components within view since we had a frontend framework in place.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $68,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re going to start doing focus group testing in mid-to-late March once the designs are all fully implemented. At this point, though, the only people who have seen their work are us and our client on this project. Our client has been happy with their work, particularly how they’ve set up the platform so that color and branding can be uploaded and modified. They’ve approved the project for continued development and funding. Internally, our developers have been very happy with the workflow and front-end implementation. 

How did Dreamten perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed very well. I’m a bit envious of their ability to administer such a strong project management system. We meet with them on a bi-weekly basis, and they’ve put together a project plan organized into three categories. They broke down the project into concept wireframing, design development, and implementation of frontend code. Our meetings are at the beginning and end of every week, so we can receive status updates on each part of the project and figure our week out accordingly. So far, everything has been completed in a timely manner. When we’ve needed to shift project milestones around, they’ve been able to adjust the project plan.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They work for any number of hours over a set period of time, so they’ve been very flexible. They’ve stepped up and gone above and beyond to complete tasks ahead of schedule when needed. Their ability to assess what we were trying to accomplish with this project on their own rather than just asking us what we wanted also stood out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have anything they could improve on–we’ve actually signed on to do another more marketing-focused project with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To get the most out of working with them, I would start the engagement by explaining your objectives rather than just how you plan to reach these objectives. Also, give them enough room to work and don’t keep them waiting.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a B2B SaaS platform for the seniors housing industry. We provide market analytics and other tools that are operator-focused. I am the CTO and co-founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dreamten?

We don’t have an in-house design team. We have a bunch of skilled full-stack developers that are great at what they do, but nobody has put the attention into the look and feel of the application that a good design team could.

Around the same time, we noticed that are our tooling was in a dated platform, so we wanted to erase the technical debt and start over.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a kickoff to help them understand our niche product. We have a lot going on in the tool. After we had a four- or five-hour discussion to get on the same page, we asked them to start redesigning the platform from the ground up.

They work primarily in Figma. The first phase involved getting the general aesthetic right before moving on to tackling different critical views within the application. At the same time, they started working with our existing clients to receive user stories they could incorporate into their work.

We’re now starting to branch out into some smaller applications.

What is the team composition?

I primarily work with Philip (Founder) and Dante (Design Director). There is another designer behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Dreamten?

We found them through Clutch. We interviewed five design firms but found that Dreamten was down to earth. Their pricing was transparent compared to other firms.

After speaking to them, we felt very comfortable. It also didn’t hurt that they were based in Raleigh, like our team.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve committed $70,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our engagement with Dreamten in October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re still building out the platform. So far, the feedback from stakeholders has been universally positive. We’ve shown some of the work to another company, and that’s advanced our conversations on that end. Everybody likes it so far.

How did Dreamten perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is extremely organized. Everything is done in Figma. They break down our existing screens and workflows, and then we have standing calls on Tuesdays and Fridays.

During those, we catch up on project timelines and iterate on any specific items. We also communicate with them through Slack, where they are very responsive. We have an open dialogue.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team at Dreamten is easy to work with. Their flexibility makes them willing to adapt to our changing needs. We’ve thrown them for a loop at times, but they’ve been positive. I also think that their design work is excellent. They seem to employ and retain great designers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing really comes to mind, to be honest. We keep extending the engagement because they’ve exceeded our expectations.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Responsiveness is key. They’re very responsive on their side. They mentioned in the past that they’ve worked with very hands-off clients, but our team is the opposite.

The ability to communicate with their team efficiently keeps the ball rolling. It’s worked well for us.