Frogmouth Digital

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of operations at a public benefit corporation. Our platform connects people looking for in-home care with vetted caregivers. We also manage the caregiving process throughout the relationship; we take care of scheduling, payroll, and all of the logistics that surround hiring an in-home caregiver.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Frogmouth Digital?

We’d been working with a full-service Drupal development company to build the first iteration of our website. By the time they were 80% done with the work, they were over budget. Even though we were close to being ready to go live, my company felt that there were still enough significant hurdles ahead that we decided to stop working with them.

We wanted to bring on an individual who could be a bit nimbler. We were spending a lot of money on the nuts and bolts of managing the project, and we wanted more of our budget to go toward the actual development of the site, rather than the activities surrounding development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Frogmouth Digital finished developing our website. They took over the projects that were in progress and also helped develop and roll out new features.

What is the team composition?

We only worked with Jim (Founder, Drupal Architect & Senior Drupal Developer, Frogmouth Digital). Our understanding was that it was a one-man shop; I’m not sure if Jim has brought on more people since we worked with him.

How did you come to work with Frogmouth Digital?

Jim answered a Craigslist ad we’d posted. We were looking for a Drupal developer who was local to us and could allow us to be nimbler; over the course of talking to Jim, we felt assured that he could meet those requirements.

What is the status of this engagement?

My company worked with Frogmouth Digital from 2015–2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were a pretty small organization at the time, so our focus was on meeting deliverable dates. We’ve since grown and now track specific KPIs, but while working with Frogmouth Digital, it was about meeting deadlines and delivering features on time. We definitely felt successful in that sense.

How did Frogmouth Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We felt clear about the status of projects at any given time. We always knew where features were in the development process. Overall, Frogmouth Digital delivered what we needed on time. Deadlines were the biggest thing that we tracked their success against.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

We had a good experience working with Jim, but I wouldn’t say there was any one thing that really blew us away.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t want to take away from the fact that we had a good experience working with Frogmouth Digital. Communication could’ve been better; being a one-man shop, there were times when Jim was a bit out of touch. However, I think his organization was fairly young at the time, and I’m not sure how much it’s grown since then. This might have been resolved over the past two years.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the creative director at Outdoor Project, an outdoor adventure company. I manage all of our web-related projects, including our main website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Frogmouth Digital?

My company brought them on to be its main development consultant.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Frogmouth Digital rebuilt our CMS-based website, which has over 10,000 pieces of content. As the creative director, I managed all of the wireframes, user research, and prototyping and worked with Frogmouth Digital to ensure that the technical solutions we came up with were feasible. We handed everything over to them, and they did all of the development work. I helped with QA throughout the process.

Whereas all of our content was previously divided between two channels, Frogmouth Digital created new ones and split the content amongst five channels. They also introduced a new mapping feature so that users can search through more than 8,000 pieces of location-based content. They implemented custom lists, to which users can save pieces of site content.

The site has been live for about four months, and they continue to troubleshoot and do QA.

What is the team composition?

I work with Jim (Founder, Drupal Architect & Senior Drupal Developer, Frogmouth Digital). He’s responsible for disseminating work.

How did you come to work with Frogmouth Digital?

They were already my company’s contractor when I came on board, but I believe Frogmouth Digital initiated contact.

What is the status of this engagement?

I began working with Frogmouth Digital in October 2017, and the work in ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Frogmouth Digital has helped us improve our web.dev rankings, site speed, and other performance metrics. Our web.dev SEO ranking is 100%, which is fabulous. Site speed is about half what it was prior to the rebuild.

How did Frogmouth Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great. Having one main point of contact means that there’s never any confusion over who I should get in touch with. Jim is very easy to communicate with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their willingness to explore new technologies is awesome. My team proposes some crazy ideas, and they’re always interested in pushing the boundaries and seeing what’s possible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall, we’re satisfied. The only challenge is that they work in a different state, and sometimes getting ahold of them can be challenging. However, once we do get in contact, communication is easy.

Any advice for potential customers?

Go for it. I’ve really enjoyed working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at RE Tech Advisors, a sustainability consulting firm based in Falls Church, Virginia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Frogmouth Digital?

We needed to develop a large project in support of the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Program. The project consisted of an online tool called the Better Buildings Financing Navigator, which helps owners, financiers, and anyone in the world of energy better understand project finance. The tool could also connect them to partners to define financing for their projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The website was developed in Drupal. Frogmouth Digital worked within Drupal to build a custom tool from the ground up based on a spreadsheet and mockups we produced for him. He transformed the idea into a fully functional tool.

What is the team composition?

We primarily worked with Jim (Founder and Senior Developer, Frogmouth Digital).

How did you come to work with Frogmouth Digital?

I believe Jim reached out to a public RFP that we released.

How much have you invested with them?

The initial engagement was around $30,000 and the second was around $5,000. It was somewhere between $35,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The bulk of the work started in June 2016. There was a second round of work that picked up in 2018. If we do have changes in the future, we’d reach out to Frogmouth Digital.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The tool has been one of the most popular resources on the whole website. The website looked good and operated well. He was able to transform our vision into a website with flying colors. The project was cost-efficient and we were blown away with what Frogmouth Digital could do.

How did Frogmouth Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, Jim performed well—he was on track and communicative. There were times where it was difficult to reach him, but that was mostly because of time difference issues between San Francisco and the East Coast.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Jim’s ability to develop the ideas, algorithms, and complex tools we had in the mockup and convert it into a functioning website with Drupal was fantastic, especially considering Drupal is not a very advanced system. Frogmouth Digital was much better than other developers I worked with before.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not much other than his responsiveness. That wasn’t a major issue; I think he had some overlapping client work that was unforeseeable at the beginning of our project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would just tell them to do it. Frogmouth Digital was fantastic.