Five, an Endava company

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Founder and CEO of Mint House, a hotel alternative.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Five?

To develop and design our mobile application.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to facilitate and improve our guests experience from the time of booking through their check-in and check-out. We’re automating the traditional hotel experience.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We spoke with 10+ New York-based development agencies and had final rounds with three. We ultimately chose Five Agency, which was actually one of the easier processes that we've run because they were the clear answer.

Describe the project in detail.

We’re building a native mobile app that replaces all of the services and amenities that are performed by people in traditional hotels. This app allows for booking, check-in, building-access, keyless room access, in-app concierge services, in-room amenities (towel service, room service), and check-out.

What was the team composition?

We have about five staffed to our project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are currently rolling the product out to great initial feedback.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very seamless. Weekly standing meetings are very efficient.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Very professional across the board. I find all of them to be very trustworthy and straightforward across the board. They clearly have a culture of competency.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing at the moment.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the senior vice president of product at PuppySpot. We match breeders with people looking for puppies. We place healthy puppies in happy homes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Five?

Before we worked with Five, the biggest source of anxiety for our customers was the time between when they agreed to buy a puppy and when the dog arrived home. There was a lot of uncertainty regarding the location and the health status of the puppy, so our customer service calls were through the roof. We engaged Five to build a mobile application that tracked the puppy from the time it was bought until the time it arrives at its new home.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our teams collaborated to design the screens of the application. Those design discussions drove the development of iOS and Android apps using React Native. After the development phase, we relied on Five to QA the products and help us launch in their respective app stores. In addition to helping users track their new puppies, the app provides articles about how to prepare for and care for the pets.

What is the team composition?

Our team consisted of a project manager, a designer, and at least two developers.

How did you come to work with Five?

We learned about Five through one of our investors who worked with them during a different venture.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000­–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement spanned October 2018­–February 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have more than 2,000 users on the app, which is pretty impressive because it’s still somewhat limited in what it offers to users. We plan to build it out even further and foster a community of users. For this first release, we were hoping for a customer adoption rate around 25–50%, but we’ve experienced an adoption rate closer to 85%.

How did Five perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager is very thorough and responsive. She pushes us to meet our goals, but she also understands when things come up. We receive regular updates and new documents that we can review. We communicate easily through Slack and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Quite simply, the quality of their code is excellent. I’ve worked with dozens of other offshore teams, but Five has been the most pleasant to deal with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’ve worked very well together.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Put your trust in their project management staff. They will help you refine and build your product.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a product manager at a leading publisher. In my role, I manage our app channel and work with external developers to maintain our products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Five?

We hired Five to revamp a legacy mobile app and breathe new life into it.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to engage our existing app users and appeal to new users.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I have had the great fortune of working with Five on a number of projects. When we needed a developer to help us bring this app to market, Five was at the top of the list.

Describe the project in detail.

With Five, we conducted a deep dive into the legacy code, prioritized existing bugs, and identified opportunities for enhancement.

What was the team composition?

Our main contact was Five's product manager who was fabulously responsive, but we also reviewed tasks with their entire development team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They helped us successfully relaunch the project on time. Five continues to be a marvelous partner as we identify enhancements for our pipeline. I am always confident that we will reach total success when working with them.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We conducted standups twice a week with the entire development team to review the tasks of each sprint. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their team is very professional and passionate about the products they take on, and they have an impressive approach to problem solving. They often offer multiple solutions to any hurdle and are transparent in discussing the pros and cons of each option.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, not that I can recall. Working with Five is always a pleasure.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the inventor and founder of Moonlite, a device that turns your cell phone into a storybook projector.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Five?

We hired Five to build a mobile application and website.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed a children’s reading app that goes along with our projector. The app needed to work seamlessly with our product while providing the reading and sound experience. This would be a core piece of our product experience.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I looked on Clutch and was considering three different companies. Five seemed to have experience in the children’s product area. I enjoyed their style and the design proposal they put together. Five understood our brand and goals.

Describe the project in detail.

Five needed to develop an app that worked seamlessly with our projector and shop. The app had to display all text, play background music, have sound effects, and keep story content private. It needed to be unlocked for use. We partnered together to create the best flow. Five provided strategy, design, and developer. The mobile app was for Android and iOS. They also designed the website.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a project manager, iOS developer, designer, and Android developer. There was also a team of developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Five exceeded expectations, delivering a flawless product. We get rave reviews on the fantastic app. We’re one of the top children’s reading products in the world. Users love the product.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had weekly check-ins. Our communication is done through Slack and email. They’re excellent at receiving feedback.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was blown away by their professionalism, attentiveness, and creativity. Five goes above & beyond, which shows in their work. Their team cares about your product and business as if it’s their own. A lot of companies aren’t like that.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There are none that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the user acquisition manager for an investment advice app. We help users invest in stocks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Five?

We’ve been running paid marketing campaigns for several years. We engaged Five to audit our efforts.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted an objective third-party to review our campaigns thoroughly and to identify areas for improvement.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

A member of Five’s team sent us a proposal for digital marketing work. After some later discussions, we felt that they would be an excellent fit to meet our marketing needs.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

Five first took time to understand our brand positioning as well as the company’s mission and voice. They made some introductory calls and reviewed our marketing efforts so far. The process was thorough and detailed. Five then began an in-depth audit. 

Once they completed the audit, Five presented their findings and recommendations. They created a detailed review of each channel, an overview of our competitors’ marketing efforts, and a review of our app store listings. The team also listed their recommendations in order of priority.

What was the team composition?

We worked with two members of their client services team and a data specialist.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve started implementing Five’s recommendation and have already seen positive results. We expect their work to begin yielding dividends in a short while.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project went smoothly from start to finish. Five made communication straightforward and responded quickly to any inquiries or requests. The team demonstrated experience in project management and marketing at every step. They ensured that the project kept its momentum by setting agendas at meetings and running an efficient process.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their attention to detail and their thorough efforts to understand our business stood out to us the most. Five was the only agency we spoke to that asked for our business goals and quarterly goals in our initial interviews. They also went above and beyond our scope, offering feedback on how our apps onboard users. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, I don’t believe so. We made an excellent choice in working with Five.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior genetic counselor in market development at Illumina. We’re a company that provides genomic technologies to laboratories, and I specifically focus on the clinical arm on non-invasive prenatal testing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Five?

We wanted to create an educational app that patients could use to learn more about prenatal screening and testing options.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We met with them and described exactly what we needed. The app had to be something that patients could use at their own pace and on their own time, and be able to share with other people invested in the pregnancy. Patients needed to be able to take notes and create a summary document so that they could bring any questions to their healthcare provider. Five really helped us figure out what we were trying to accomplish and how we could best accomplish it in a user-friendly manner.

Our first step was a weeklong design sprint where we started from nothing and walked away with a solid framework for what the app was going to look like in a very tangible output. From that point, Five’s team took over. We went through a design phase where we worked with a UI and a UX designer to produce an app that was appropriate for the market and meet the needs we were trying to address.

We had internal branding limitations, and they were able to take those guidelines and create something that had an individual look and feel.

The final stage was development; they created native Android and iOS apps. We did user testing throughout the process, and they were responsive to our feedback. We ended up with a product that we are proud of and have gotten many compliments on.

What is the team composition?

For the design sprint, we worked with a product manager—who was our main point of contact—a business developer, a UI and a UX developer, a design project manager, and a developing lead. I know that there were other developers involved, but those were the people that we interacted with.

How did you come to work with Five?

We went through a fairly extensive RFP process where we talked to a number of different app developers, many of whom we found on Clutch.co. We decided to work with Five because we felt like they listened to and understood our needs, and addressed them within a reasonable budget. Many other companies tried to inflate the product into something beyond the initial scope and weren’t addressing our needs or what we were trying to accomplish with the app.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $135,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in September 2017, and the app was officially published in July 2018. They had finished the app prior to that, but there were internal delays—on our side—that pushed back the date.

In addition to this project, we have a maintenance contract with them so that they can provide app maintenance for 12 more months. We also have future development plans for the app that we would like their help on, such as upgrading to iPad compatibility and potentially using other languages.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have measurable metrics because we made it available in the app stores without any gatekeeping or marketing, but we are working on getting a study done that demonstrates the app is an effective educational tool.

We’ve had positive feedback from our health professional colleagues and other users. People have told us that the app is easy to navigate, that it breaks down the information into an easily digestible format, and that it’s clear and concise. I was expecting feedback that was a bit pickier, so I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the positive response the app has received.

How did Five perform from a project management standpoint?

They were always accessible through email, and we met on a weekly basis. During those weekly meetings, we would discuss our progress and upcoming milestones. There was good two-way communication, to the point that we knew exactly what they were working on and they could anticipate our needs. They were also incredibly organized.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Going into this with limited technical knowledge about the process, we were very impressed with how they listened to us and were able to convert what we were saying into a usable tool. We could speak very generally, and they would produce something that was exactly what we were trying to articulate. Because of their technical skill and knowledge, they were also able to anticipate things that we couldn’t. They’re very responsive, flexible, and we developed a really good working relationship with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were very happy working with them and were thrilled with the results. I don’t have any concerns.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My biggest advice on any project is to make sure that you feel comfortable with the path you’re going down. Going through the extensive RFP process, and meeting with so many different companies, was really disheartening and made us start to question what we were doing. It was nice to land with Five, who was a partner that understood what we needed, respected our expertise in the field, and were able to utilize their technical skills to help us instead of reshaping the project. They understood the project and how to help us effectively reach our goals.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of product at a B2B company. Our SaaS platform offers consumers and enterprise customers reputation management and lead generation services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Five?

We wanted to improve both the quantity and quality of our online sales leads. Our website was aesthetically dated and overdue for a refresh. We hired Five to conduct our first redesign since the late 2000’s.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Following “The Five Design Principle," we brought their resources into our office for weeklong design workshops. Rather than designing the entire site at once, we scaled these exercises to the smallest possible component. The weekly focus ranged from profile and category pages to mobile responsivity and product offerings. After each session, they compiled an executive summary of the ideal solution. Once we were fully in agreement, the team presented design options.

After conducting thorough research, Five refreshed the UI and heavily touched up the UX. Notably, they designed an algorithmic survey that matches users with their ideal enterprise partner. We assigned them a series of small tasks including internal designs for our enterprise marketing team. Improving our conversion rate required not only more online leads, but also more specific data. Click leads typically yield less personally identifiable information (PII) than the phone and email varieties. We used a design approach to gather more useful details from potential customers who visit our site.

What is the team composition?

Five contributed a full-time creative director, project manager, two graphic designers, and a UI/UX expert. We scaled up for time-sensitive tasks, adding one or two people as needed. There's an explicit amount of trust in our partnership, so they always assign us talented resources. They work as an extension of my team on a daily basis.

How did you come to work with Five?

I initially considered 38 different design agencies. My former job involved assessing a new acquisition’s mobile apps. That company’s founder gave Five a wholehearted recommendation. I’d heard glowing stories about their coding skills, so I took his advice and hired them. They made such a great impression that I used them again at my current company.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent a monthly average of $20,000- $30,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?Our project lasted from September 2016 to December 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re very happy with the deliverables. Five developed beautiful mobile app mechanics. The code was written so well that I had my internal engineering team study it. I’ve heard multiple partners praise the design during our calls. Based on feedback from panels we’ve held, users love the new look and feel. A handful of our staff disliked minor details. Since we templated it for 95 percent of the audience, this was to be expected. Certain clients have to make strategic choices about their account. About 99 percent of our internal stakeholders are very happy. The remainder probably just needed a scapegoat for unrelated problems.

Since launching the redesign, we’ve seen formal improvements in online conversions. It’s a smaller increase than I’d hoped for, but I can’t hold Five fully responsible. Google released four algorithmic changes over the course of our engagement. Their biggest achievement was the automatic assistant’s UX design. That conversion nearly quadrupled from entry to exit. This metric takes place inside the app and is decoupled from organic trends.

How did Five perform from a project management standpoint?

I held weekly status calls with the creative lead and project manager. They have standing instructions to pull me into a room for snap decisions. Interfacing is more effective than email for hashing out time-sensitive problems. Both leads provided regular feedback on my team’s performance and efficiency. Although I struggled with the 24-hour design reviews, everyone else seemed to meet those deadlines easily.

The workflow was so collaborative that they rarely felt like an external agency. I even embedded two of my UI/UX resources into their team. They practically worked for Five’s creative director. All three project managers I’ve been assigned were excellent. Whether I’m contacting the CEO or a graphic artist, I always get email responses within one business day. If they can't pick up a call, they'll immediately return it. I love that they confirm receipt of my messages. Not many agencies do that, and it gives me a sense of peace.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their creative director, designers, UI/UX and mobile developers are all amazing. Despite being a design agency, Five’s singular driving force comes from their project managers. They have the finesse to promptly deliver excellent creative output. Their emphasis on data-based results keeps us honest about our satisfaction.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m a firm believer in “The Five Design Principle.” It’s based on the premise that surveying five percent of persona audience will reduce the risk by five percent. Since other clients might not see it that way, being flexible could help secure more business.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We make fitness apps that allow influencers to monetize their following.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Five?

We wanted to build a new app from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Five handled everything about our app except the backend engineering, which was an existing part of our platform. They designed and built the app using React Native. It was developed for Android and iOS. One of its features is a click-through workout player.

What is the team composition?

They assigned four members including a project manager, a designer, and two engineers. The project manager was our main point of contact, but we communicated with everyone else.

How did you come to work with Five?

I was referred to Five by someone who had worked with them in the past and said that they were fantastic.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their services was around $35,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Five in September 2017. The project was delivered in January or February 2018. We plan to launch it in a week.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Five produced a trendy design. It was a simple project, but their development skills were outstanding. We’ve shared the app with some trainers and users who’ve loved it. There have been a couple of tweaks to do, but, for the most part, the development was much smoother compared to the apps we’ve built in-house. Three of the four people in our company are engineers, so we know how to build apps. It was impressive to have Five produce such a high-quality, well-designed app with very few bugs.

How did Five perform from a project management standpoint?

The timing, speed, and quality of the work were excellent. They managed the process, and they stood out in terms of project management. Five has been very responsive in terms of communication. We communicate through email for the most part but also have video calls using Google Hangouts. The whole team was involved in meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Throughout the process, they showed initiative in terms of business thinking. They caught items that we should have been catching ourselves by thinking about what we were trying to solve for our users. They were truly engaged in the project and cared about our success and that of the product. This showed in their performance. Five solved problems that were not delegated to them. They think strategically about a project and take ownership of it. This quality felt unique and powerful.

They incorporated analytics functionalities into the app, so we can analyze it beyond the revenue generated. Five asked to follow up about the app because they tie their success with ours.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind. I’ve been very happy with the experience.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to find a partner through a trusted network, whether it’s a platform with multiple ratings or someone who used the company in the past. Checking references is fundamental for a collaboration.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was employed at a major hotel chain when I started working with Five. We were leading a project on using digital technology to connect with both job seekers and our existing employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Five?

We had a lot of digital touch points in technology that we were using at the time to connect with job seekers and current employees. We needed a company to do an audit and an assessment of existing tools and touch points to ensure that they were still providing value to job seekers and to us as a company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought in Five to take a look at one specific digital technology, which had been developed a couple years in the past, but was not providing value. Revamping it would be a very large investment. Five helped us decide whether we should consider refurbishing it or shut it down and switch our allocation of resources to a new technology. We eventually decided to focus on an emerging technology, which turned out to be artificial intelligence. Then we worked with Five to bring that to life from start to launch.

We worked with them to develop a set of recommendations to be presented to our global leadership about what would be the right direction we should head to maximize our investment in digital and social. With those recommendations, accepted by the global leadership, Five did the actual development – the creation of a Chatbot. 

They helped us with all of the discovery that was necessary to develop a strategic plan for the Chatbot. They also worked on the user experience, outlines, some of the content development, and a bit of the design. We did it within the Facebook Messenger environment, so the design opportunities were limited. But they helped us leverage the Facebook platform despite the design limitations.  

What is the team composition? 

Throughout the course of the project, we worked with an account manager, a project manager, a creative lead, a user experience expert, and about three developers.

How did you come to work with them?

We went through a long process to select the right partner: we looked at partners we worked with in the past and searched online (which is where we found Five initially). We reached out to them and requested a proposal describing how they could contribute to our needs.

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working with them in June 2016 and the product was launched in October 2017, but our partnership is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we launched the product, there were two metrics we looked at: the number of users and the amount of time they spent using it – both showed good results.

We wanted the Chatbot to be a digital assistant for job seekers who were interested in working at our company. We hoped to provide an interactive resource that would answer the common questions about the job application process or about the work environment and the workplace culture. The priority for us was the job search functionality, which was the most used functionality within the line. Based on the architecture and the recommendations Five had given us, we knew that we were on the right track – the function we wanted to use most ended up being the most used. Also, the most used terminology that was being fed to the Chatbot was accurate and relevant for what we were trying to accomplish. 

Another success was the favorable results we got from the survey within the Chatbot (we asked people to indicate whether they found what they were looking for).

There are definitely some improvements and enhancements to be made over time, but the Chatbot was launched and positioned in the right direction.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint? 

We had a dedicated and consistent team of account managers and project managers. We were impressed with their responsiveness given that their team is primarily located in Croatia and we're in the United States. They've been accessible during all times of day and late at night and open to working around our schedule. Also, their team was very organized in terms of the administrative side of the account.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It was one of the first times that either of us worked with Chatbot, so we had to learn along the way, but they remained proactive, presenting us with solutions and bringing new ideas to the table.

They brought a lot of structure and organization to the project, which is uncustomary for agencies. They built different types of template materials for us and could turn things around quickly. The project was very collaborative and they did very well at it. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing I would like them to look at more thoughtfully is bringing third parties into a project. They recommended some third parties to enhance certain aspects of the Chatbot. We were open to that and let Five manage those third party relationships, but we'd prefer it if they introduced those partners to us earlier on in the engagement – so that we know who else is working on our business and whether we'll have any additional costs for further integrations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a software-as-a-service company. We provide identity theft protection services through providers and other large distribution channels. I am the director of product management and development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Five?

We wanted to revitalize our mobile application, and we wanted to hire a third-party development firm to do that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have used them for three different versions of our pre-existing mobile app. They are our monthly maintenance troubleshooting team. For any iOS or Android updates that are software related, we utilize Five to do that. We started using them late last year in a separate platform strictly from a UX perspective and client side design. We have development onshore who codes and stands up our APIs and Five works on the client side to absorb those APIs and stands up the UI. I have contact with four or five members of the Five team. My main point of contact is the lead project manager.

Our mobile app is an extension of our web platform. It provides subscribers with the ability to look up data, add assets, and password management into their mobile app. We alert users on a frequent basis to notify them of potential changes or threats to their identity and they’re able to view that on their mobile app instead of logging into a computer.

How did you come to work with Five?

They were recommended through a LinkedIn connection of mine. Being in the development field for a while now and having a lot of connections, I requested referrals to offshore development teams. I had a few folks recommend Five as a company they had worked with and had success with. I did research on every company that was recommended and narrowed the search to five or six firms. I did an RFI into an RFP which narrowed it down to two companies, one of which was Five. Through their presentation and discussions with key stakeholders in my own organization, we decided to hire Five.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2014, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we started using Five, the number of crashes we’ve had has been minimized drastically. That said, I also have a lead engineer who is in charge of our API development on the internal side so it’s definitely a collaboration of the two teams coming together. Our original mobile app was us putting something into the store and then moving onto another project. Now, we’re doing continual development with Five on the mobile app.

How did Five perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really good. We’ve had to work through some challenges around timelines and finances. I have a budget and there’s certain features or functionalities that may exceed the budget. They’re very good at being creative around that. They’re very good at executing and achieving the milestones. In fact, they go above and beyond because if they understand the critical nature of some features and functionalities, they do what needs to be done in order to meet the timeline. They’ve allowed us into their JIRA ticketing system. We also use Slack to communicate with them hourly.

What did you find most impressive about Five?

They are willing to work above and beyond. They’re in Croatia so there’s definitely a time difference. I’ve seen them put in incredible off-peak hours. We had two major changes within the last six months. We had to change a third-party vendor that we used within the mobile app to do all the notifications. Another provider we used for our internal services was going through an acquisition and making significant structural changes so we were given very narrow timeframes around both of those initiatives and Five worked tirelessly during both of those projects. They also listen to feedback. We’ve had different teams come in and had structural changes on our side, but they’re very adaptable to feedback.

Are there any areas Five could improve?

No, they’re very good.