Friends & Family

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a vice president with a large, national coffee brand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Friends & Family?

Our e-commerce site was outdated, so we wanted to redesign our web application and include more contemporary customer pathways.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us develop a concept that improves customer interaction. It allows users to type dynamic text and filter through different options, including coffee and tea products. Navigation of these products is presented in a modern way, and took into consideration the fact that we frequently feature updates and new product launches. Friends & Family provided the UX design and used Node.js to provide a portion of the development work.

What is the team composition?

Casey (Co-Founder, Friends & Family) was our main point of contact. We also worked with one UX designer and two or three developers.

How did you come to work with Friends & Family?

They were recommended to us, though I was aware of their prior work. I felt they were well-equipped to help us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between August–October 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Because they have a high degree of both customer and client empathy, they understood how to design the site to satisfy all needs. They’re technologically competent and capable of working within a broader team.

How did Friends & Family perform from a project management standpoint?

It was very well executed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have the necessary technical skills, but also understand the business side, relying on discipline to tackle the MVP. It was a great experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We were very happy with what they did.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO and co-founder of In Good Co, a social and utility mobile platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Friends & Family?

My business partner and I wanted to develope a mobile app for our business, despite our lack of a technical background. As a small startup, we weren't ready to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to test out our idea, so we were just looking to create a minimum viable product (MVP).

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We shared basic wireframes of the app with Friends & Family that their team reworked. Relying on their input, they designed and developed the app for iOS from scratch with just enough functionality for us to launch the app in beta.

What is the team composition?

Casey Gibbons (Co-founder, Friends & Family) was our main point of contact throughout the whole process, but we also worked with a designer and two developers. Casey was so invested in us that it felt as if he was a co-founder of our own company.

How did you come to work with Friends & Family?

Friends & Family was recommended to us by other founders and companies we had been talking to. I spoke to a few other San Francisco based vendors, but they were only willing to work on an app priced at upwards of $200,000.

Friends & Family was the only vendor I found willing to create the MVP app we were ready to invest in. We knew they were a great fit for us right away, because they understood and valued the fact that we were a scrappy startup.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we spent about $35,000. The original design and development was about $30,000 and then we spent another $5,000 on iterations.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 2017 and the app went live in October.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're very happy with the app they've built and how it functions. Any bugs were fixed immediately by their team. We launched the app with a beta test group of about 20 people and it's organically expanded to 200 users since. We've received nothing but great feedback that the product is clean, user-friendly, and engaging.

How did Friends & Family perform from a project management standpoint?

Casey made himself accessible and really quarterbacked the whole process. His team communicated timelines and expectations, hitting any deadlines they committed to. 

Casey also worked with our budget and came up with out-of-the box ideas to deliver a high-quality product. It was great having their co-founder so heavily invested in our product.

We recently hired a freelancer to incorporate further iterations, and Friends & Family's team has been incredibly helpful to streamline that process. They've gone above and beyond in terms of liaising without additional fees.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were extremely wonderful to work with and put up with my perfectionist tendencies. They seemed as invested in the product as we were—a true extension of our own team. Although it was our first time developing an app, they made us feel comfortable throughout the process, despite the size of our company and lack of technical knowledge. I can't speak highly enough of them from the perspective of a startup.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a small lifestyle business. We provide photo subscription services and on-demand photo printing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Friends & Family?

We needed a strong and creative software partner who could help us think through some of the challenges.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They started with building everything related to software.  We’re in the process of releasing more physical products and moving away from just being a service that prints mobile photos.

 We started with an iOS version and later developed it for Android. We also have two secondary apps on iOS and Android that offer print-on-demand services.

Our app had some nuances given that we’re a subscription service based on calendar months. At the end of the month, the photo area closes and begins with a new month. This presented some challenges because it’s very time-dependent and incorporates different time zones. We’ve only adapted it for U.S. time zones so far.

We also added some functionality to the first minimum viable product build where customers can go back to previous months to add photos. We have multiple sign-ins so that two customers can log into the same account and add photos from different devices. This also presented some technical challenges.

What is the team composition?

We started with a lead backend engineer, a lead mobile engineer, and a product manager. The relationship went so well that I was able to interact directly with the engineers after some time. I took on more of a product management role since I was familiar with that kind of work. The team grew and we now work with two backend engineers as well as a planned third one. We still work primarily with one frontend engineer and some project oversight.

How did you come to work with Friends & Family?

We considered 3–5 companies and were prepared to go with one. We’d already developed a scope of work and were ready to sign, as well as pay the initial deposit. However, we had a meeting with Friends & Family after a friend referred us to them and decided to go with them instead. We haven’t looked back since.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2013 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m incredibly happy with the team. They’re extremely responsive whenever there’s an issue no matter what their other engagements are. Our business hasn’t suffered by any means.

All of the user feedback we’ve received has been positive. We tried to make the app extremely intuitive and easy to use. The App Store reviews have been consistent and we’re also highly rated. We have an occasional user reach out to say it’s not working, but this is usually a one-off case and attributed to their unique situation or environment. We’ve still been able to address those issues right away.

How did Friends & Family perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s been an incredible relationship. It started with the standard process of sitting down and figuring out the requirements of what we wanted to build. We worked together to come up with a product that we’re really happy with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve been incredibly grateful to work with them. Their flexibility, speed, and ability to overcome challenges have all been impressive. We had a lot of pushback from developers in the past, but Friends & Family has worked hard to find solutions. They’ve never told us they couldn’t do something.

They’ve been an absolutely true partner and act as if they’re part of the team. It’s been very professional and collegial. Their approach to problem solving and building products are both focused on the end user. They’re really dedicated to helping us coming up with the best possible solution in order to provide an optimum user experience.

They really take ownership of their work. Even if their ideas are more difficult to implement from a technical standpoint, they still try to do it because it makes it easier for the user. They face challenges directly in order to introduce better solutions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

You have to work out the flow of timelines and milestones whenever you engage with someone in order to obtain a good rhythm. We’re in a really good spot with them now. They’re the best startup partner I’ve ever worked with. There’s nothing they need to improve upon.