Ester Digital

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a Chief Executive Officer at wilder.dev, a mobile app development company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ester Digital?

We wanted our website to reflect our approach to mobile development: experimentative and conceptual. We were looking for a company that can cover such areas as branding, logo, color coordination, UI design, and animations.

SOLUTION

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

We were searching for a vendor on several platforms, including Linkedin and Dribbble. We came upon Ester Digital’s profile on Clutch, browsed through their website and their portfolio. We were impressed by how they approach their work and how professional, creative, and easy-going their team seem to be.

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

We began working with the Ester team in April. We shared our expectations in terms of budget and deadlines and presented our view on how we want our website to look. The design team provided different variations of logos and branding within several weeks. After several iterations, we decided on the options that we thought fit our company more.

Ester designers were very quick to respond to any feedback and implemented all of our last-minute requirements straight away - from a brand style guide to different animations and portfolio covers and images. We finalized the design in May, and the work was officially over in June.

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

Primarily, we communicated with their Creative Manager Alex.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website is not launched fully yet. Ester’s avant-garde vision has been widely appreciated by our whole team.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their workflow was incredibly effective and quick. They were very understanding as well. The designers responded to our feedback immediately and always provided their creative insight into the work.

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

What we liked the most about working with Ester Digital, apart from their design knowledge and professionalism, is the customized nature of their work. They listened to us and created exactly what we wanted - exclusive design and branding that would make us stand out with a hint of Scandinavian minimalism.

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

We haven’t found any.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the head of Product and Design at our company, which focuses on connecting home buyers and sellers with great real estate agents across the US and Canada

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ester Digital?

We needed a broad redesign of one of our most important customer landing pages plus some flows directly connected to this page, a moment when one of our partner real estate agents is first alerted to a new potential client.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were recommended Ester initially through a friend of the company, and the group has done other (great) work for us in the past. They had a solid foundation for our business and had delivered quality work in the past

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

We began engaging with the Ester team in February, outlining what we needed from the UI/UX designs as well as our budget and timelines for the project.

After discussing and agreeing to a game plan I delivered a design brief to Ester with our vision and some of he nuances of our customer information hierarchy and our app's existing styleguide (which we were interested in referencing but not necessarily adhering to). We discussed the brief and answered all open questions before proceeding with the designs.

From there, Ester quickly delivered an initial version, which our team discussed and provided feedback on. Most communication was handled from here on the Figma app, an extremely convenient way to mark up designs collaboratively.

Ester incorporated our feedback quickly, and after a few revisions we were satisfied with the final designs and ended our engagement to begin engineering work.

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

We worked directly with a designer and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are still in the midst of engineering the UI that Ester provided, however we have used the design prototypes in some early stage usability studies with our customers and gotten very good feedback on the clarity of the designs. Additionally, within our organization, everyone was quick to agree that the design work was of a high quality.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. We found Ester to be highly communicative and have quick understanding of our ideas / feedback in addition to fast turnaround on the work itself.

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

They seem to understand modern web design intuitively, and were able to integrate that understanding quickly with the specifics of our business / customers.

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

No - we are excited to work with Ester again as soon as chance permits.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the COO of a B2B SaaS company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ester Digital, and what were your goals?

Our website needed a refresh and we didn't have any Wordpress developers on staff. Our goal was to rebuild the site with designs developed internally.

SOLUTION

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

We have worked with Ester on other Wordpress projects before. The cost they quoted was reasonable, and I already knew I could count on them to deliver.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We provided the mobile and desktop designs, and then had a kick-off call to answer questions from the Ester team. Ester came back occasionally with questions over the development period, and then provided us with a staging link to test the site's performance and functionality. We provided feedback, populated the site, and are now preparing to go live with it.

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

We worked primarily with a project manager and a developer, and on their side they brought in different resources as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The deliverables came on time and worked as expected. We have not yet launched the site so there is nothing to measure yet.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

I had regular communication with the project manager, over Slack and email with the occasional Zoom call. Their team always showed up to meetings on time, and responded quickly to questions.

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

Ester Digital has delivered a website that looked and worked as we expected. They did a great job setting up the backend so it was easy for us to edit every aspect of the site ourselves.

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

There were a few times that they probably could have solved an issue themselves, rather than coming back to me or our designer, but I'd rather a service provider over-communicate rather than under-communicate so for me this wasn't really an issue.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Partner and Lead Solutions Consultant at Propeller Plan LLC. Our company provides a whole range of services in the implementation and maintenance of clients' Salesforce environments. HQ is located in Long Island City, NY. Dev hubs are present in Minsk, Belarus, and London, UK.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ester Digital?

We constantly have projects in our pipeline that need to be delivered for the Marketing departments. Among all the customization our team is doing in Salesforce Pardot a decent amount of work is related to UI / UX for Marketing Collateral. And since Propeller Plan does not have a strong background in Web Design, we were constantly missing the opportunity.

What were your goals for this project?

The main and only challenge we always had is the lack of solid UI / UX expertise. We were looking for a design partner to strengthen our team so that we could provide our clients with a full cycle of services.

SOLUTION

How did you select Ester Digital?

To find a reliable partner we started by reviewing Dribbble and Clutch. Ester caught our attention with their spectacular portfolio, so we decided to assign them to one pilot project that went perfectly! As a result, we are now using services in UI / UX and Front-End implementation from Ester on all our projects.

Describe the project in detail.

Together with the Ester Digital team, we are working on landing page design and development for our clients’ marketing departments. They were involved in every stage of the project: from the design based on the clients’ requirements and style guide to the Salesforce setup.

What was the team composition?

We were working with the design team, frontend, and backend developers. Designers created mockups that corresponded with the clients’ style, frontend developer Denis turned mockups into landing pages while backend developer Roman took care of the dynamic content and web pages integration into Salesforce Pardot.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is still ongoing so it is too early to talk about the results. But I should say that we are fully satisfied with working together.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There were no problems with communication. They were always online and ready to answer any questions or implement any changes in the design.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

It was a surprise for us that one company has such an experienced team in both web design and development. All the team members we've been working with have been talented, experienced, and very nice.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It seems to be a trick question. We are going to work together in the future so maybe one day we will find some flaws. But for now, we are more than happy with our partnership.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a marketing director at the Jaktar company. We are an aluminum boat reseller.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ester Digital, and what were your goals?

We were looking for a vendor to manage website design and development for us. As the Jaktar trademark was a newbie in the market, it was important for us to launch a website and ensure the informational presence and marketing promotion on the internet.

We wanted our website to be interactive and informative at the same time. It should be easy to use for customers and provide them with full information about our products and services.

SOLUTION

How did you select Ester Digital and what were the deciding factors?

We were surfing Clutch to find a reliable vendor with solid experience and reputation. We were impressed by Ester’s website. After several meetings with the team, we realized that it is an agency we were looking for: creative, professional, friendly, and ready to meet all the challenges.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We started with the discussion of all the details and signed a contract. At this stage, we were working closely with the business development manager. Ester follows the Agile approach, so once we agreed on the project plan, the whole scope of work was divided into several sprints, and a dedicated project manager kept us aware of all the design and development stages.

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

We were always in touch with our dedicated project manager. Creative art director, web designer, developer, and DevOps engineer were also involved in our project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

As I have already mentioned, Jaktar is a new trademark. It was web design and development from scratch: we needed a website to enter the market. We are absolutely in love with our website design, its usability, and functionality. Our top priority was to make a website as informative as possible to be able to introduce our product to customers. With the help of Ester Digital, we achieved this goal.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

I should say that project coordination was brilliant. We had daily meetings where the progress was discussed, and in case some issues and questions appeared, they were fixed in no time.

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

Ester Digital demonstrated a great desire to understand our business needs and market specialty. The team was very friendly and professional. We enjoyed working together. Once the project was finished, they not only provided us with the complete documentation of site administration but also created a video instruction. Such a customer-centric approach is key to a successful and fruitful partnership.

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

We found some issues while testing the website but they all were fixed online without any problems. So it was our pleasure to work together, and we are very happy that we partnered with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am project manager of a vaporization technology based on ceramic material and mainly applied in inhalation devices.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ester Digital?

We hire Ester Digital to do branding and webpage design.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to have a Sci-fi style Webpage and create the branding guideline to present this new technical brand.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I first found them through their webpage, and we like a few of the cases that they have done before for other clients. After a few rounds of discussion with different vendors, Ester digital understood our requirements the best and the communication was very smooth and efficient. Price-value was also one of the best options.

Describe the project in detail.

We work with Alexsandr first to draft the service contract and agree with the terms. Then we worked closely with Tetiana and Iryna to have some brainstorming sessions, they help us to have a clearer view of how to position our brand and provided us with valuable inputs. Then they created the logo, a mock up of the webpage, a style guideline for us. because there are a few different parties involved from our group in this project. there were quite a few back and forward changes and modifications. Tetiana and Iryna were very patient and we were happy with the deliverable.

What was the team composition?

a customer manager, Alexandr. two senior designer, Tetiana and Iryna.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

we are happy with the deliverable. the webpage is online and the style guideline has been applied in all our promotion events and online marketing.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The work from Easter are very effective, we have regular meetings to provide feedback

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Professional, flexible and very customer oriented.

Are there any areas for improvement?

they use multiple platforms to do presentations and mock-ups, which was a bit confusing for us in the beginning. but it was no problem for our team member to coop. so it was totally fine.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a real estate marketing agency that provides services to over 40,000 professionals nationwide. I am the Vice President of Marketing and Growth.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ester Digital?

Our website needed a complete facelift, both on the front and backend. We also needed UX/UI experts to help us launch additional initiatives.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a new website that was easily editable by our marketing team and could integrate with our current development stack. The website had to be optimized in a way to generate as many leads and new clients as possible.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I searched various review sites and ran site speed tests on their own homepages to ensure vendors could execute the technical side of this project rather than just a pretty design.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They designed, developed, and provided support on both a front and backend Wordpress website. They implemented technical SEO optimizations, created custom gallery functionality, and additional custom, proprietary elements.

What was the team composition?

There were four main contacts with a very stable line of communication and understanding of everyone's roles. No matter who I talked to, I knew that our needs were being met and that work was being done proactively to ensure our site launched on time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We are saving numerous hours a week thanks to their backend build. Our team is able to make changes on the fly without the need for a web dev team. We've also seen huge spikes in our Google rankings, lead generation, and e-commerce conversion rate.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We primarily used Slack for ongoing communications with a set weekly meeting via Uberconference to discuss any roadblocks inhibiting Ester from moving forward with the website launch. We also used Google Suite tools for content and timeline collaboration. Everything was streamlined and efficient.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their speed and understanding of our needs and vision impressed us. They truly made the intimidating feeling of launching a website extremely easy. In addition, their designs were fantastic. I provided our vision, and with very few edits, they nailed the design.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not at all. They were fantastic to work with and we continue to partner with Ester on an ongoing basis.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a project manager of an Estonian company Andres that is manufacturing and selling products made of glass. I’m responsible for our ecommerce store.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ester Digital?

We hired Ester Digital for updating our ecommerce store design.

What were your goals for this project?

Our main goal was to increase conversion rate.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I looked through over 100 different companies or individuals in Estonia and Ester was the only one who had the projects that I liked.

Describe the project in detail.

We had an online meeting where I explaned current problems and what I wanted to see in the end. Afterwards, we communicated over email. That was conveinient, becase the task was pretty clear and there weren’t many questions.

What was the team composition?

Sales manager and two designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We gained better positions in SEO because we launched mobile version (we haven’t had it before). Also, the traffic had a significant increase (more than 2x), but it was the outcome of SEO, new website, Google Ads, all together. Bounce rate was decreased by 5-7% and conversion rate increased from 1 to 1.3%.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was very effective and conveinient. The task was clear and communication was easy. Invision App helped a lot.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

As they say on their website “Time is money. We don't like wasting either. Neither do you.”, so, yes, the most impressive is that they do their work really fast and very professionally.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is always something to improve but I’m struggling to clearly define what should they improve. Everything is good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a founder of a UK-based startup - Safara. We are developing a revolutionary platform which changes the way people book hotels.

Every big booking site makes money the same way: by charging fees that are hidden in the cost of the room.

A Safara membership allows us to eliminate these fees by giving them directly back to our members. Safara was designed for frequent travelers — whether they’re traveling for business, pleasure, or both. Many of our members use work travel to earn Safara Points towards free leisure travel.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ester Digital?

We had a scheduled production launch for January 2020. We hired Ester Digital to help us build critical features and polish the application for production release.

What were your goals for this project?

We had a roadmap of features related to checkout and membership flows which were critical to finish before launch, as well as some UI enhancements.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found Ester Digital on angel.co and conducted a series of technical interviews with their developer Alex Noel.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We scheduled a call with Alex for a quick interview to discuss high-level details and to agree with legal details. Communication was smooth, and Alex fit into the team well.

After some time to familiarize himself with the codebase, he started to improve the stability of the app by configuring tools for a reliable CI process and fixing bugs.

What was the team composition?

It was one person.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Within a few months of the project, we released our app into production. We had a major performance boost for front-end (up to 50%) and a bunch of CI tools that we still use, such as storybook, dependency tracking bots, automatic test runners, and etc.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Alex loves standardizing things in terms of workflow, which I think is a great thing to do. Our planning and the estimating process became more stable.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Smooth workflow and communication with the client.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Overall price can be a bit lower.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the head of product and design at Spring Health. We provide a comprehensive mental health benefits program for employers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Ester Digital?

We needed a team to redesign and rebuild our marketing website.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal for the update was to be in the top 10% of industry websites. To do this, the site needed to look great on all devices, have no obvious bugs, and require minimal maintenance from our non-technical marketing team.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We evaluated over 25 potential candidates and interviewed around 10 of them. At the end of our consideration process, we selected Ester Digital.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We started with a highly ambitious deadline. Ester Digital needed to develop the first version of the new marketing site in time for a key company presentation, which they did. Then, we collaborated to finalize the site to meet all of our specific requirements. The final product can be easily managed by our internal marketing team.

What was the team composition?

We worked directly with Alex (CTO, Ester Digital).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

With the help of Ester Digital, we were able to launch an exceptional website in less than two weeks. We’ve seen tremendous improvement in the quality of the leads visiting our site and requesting a demo of our product. This is the single most impactful change we’ve made to our marketing website in the history of the company.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We met with Alex weekly to review our progress. If there were any urgent issues, the Ester Digital team was able to schedule a call and resolve the problem in under a day.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Ester Digital was highly efficient. They exceeded all of our expectations in terms of scheduling and deadlines. The team proactively asked for clarification on outstanding questions. Their attention to detail was very impressive, making sure they met every one of our requirements.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I genuinely can’t name a single area of weakness. I’m nothing but grateful for their high-quality work.