The Gradient

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder and CEO of AiQL, an IT company. We provide infrastructure that connects and structures enterprise knowledge, enabling AI systems to reason through data, policies, and expertise for traceable, consistent, and defensible decision-making, especially in regulated industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Gradient?

We were looking for a next-generation AI-native UX for our product. We needed a group willing to explore, think outside the box, and go down a journey with us to explore concepts that were initially vague but evolved into structured product thinking workflows, design, and user application.We wanted a team that could connect with us, grow the thinking with us, and be creative and challenge us. Additionally, all of this needed to be grounded in research, current trends, UX, best practices, and distinct capabilities and experience from the best UX design firm.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Gradient provided UX/UI design services for us. The team delivered a technical capabilities and constraints log, a glossary, user personas, an entity relationship diagram, a BPMN of enterprise-level workflow with data in the system, a buyer vs. user jobs-to-be-done, a roles and permissions matrix, a time-to-value flowchart, a summary of the natural return triggers, a pricing hypothesis, and success criteria for the concept phase and release 1. The team also delivered a concept phase PRD with features, scope, release 1 scope, and discovery inputs.

Moreover, The Gradient delivered a role-based UX concept, SME and BA knowledge sculpting, knowledge refinement mechanisms, knowledge ingestion, system-pushed mechanics, and SME and BA delegation. The team also delivered onboarding for all roles, organization setup, roles and permissions assignment, integrations and sources management, and global rules setup.

In addition, The Gradient delivered a central lead view, a tech governance view, a core flows prototype in Cursor, a UI concept, color styles and tokens, typography styles, layout, spacings, round corners, and effects. The team also delivered a components library, core user flows in Figma, edge cases, and a Cursor prototype hand-off.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 2–5 teammates from The Gradient.

How did you come to work with The Gradient?

We found The Gradient through an online search. We chose them over other options because they had high ratings, a great culture fit, good value for the cost, and company values aligned with ours.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with The Gradient from January to May 2026.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Gradient continuously shows research versions, design versions, and thinking on canvases and mural boards. Each step of the way, we have visibility and transparency. We see the context of how something was thought out and can respond to it in detail. This has allowed for great back-and-forth discussions and very enriched outputs.

Moreover, The Gradient delivers very timely outputs, continuous iterations through mural boards, and design outputs that are coded drafts and iterations that are easily digestible and allow us to provide feedback and iterate quickly. The team also has very strong and open communication channels that allow for constructive discussions, continuous updates, and refinements. This has led to a very strong output and set of deliverables at each stage.

How did The Gradient perform from a project management standpoint?

The Gradient is extremely effective and orchestrates really well. The team is great at communication, project management, knowing where the deliverables are, showing us progress, getting our feedback, and allowing us to provide feedback easily. The Gradient is very transparent in their communication and very strong in how they work as a team and coordinate with us. We communicate via in-person meetings, virtual meetings, and emails or messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Gradient's creative thinking, experience in this area, and work ethic are impressive. All of those elements coming together don't happen so often. The team is professional in every sense, with a very high skill set and capability, complemented with a strong work ethic and great attitudes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think there's anything they can improve on. The Gradient is on point every step of the way over a long period of time. Their consistency is what really impresses me.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of digital platforms at Azercell, focusing on mobile app, website, and self-care digital channels. My role is to improve customer experience, define product priorities, work with design and development teams, and help deliver better digital services for Azercell customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Gradient?

We needed help improving and modernizing our digital applications and customer experience, especially across our mobile app and self-care journeys. Our main goals were to make the product experience more user-friendly, simplify complex telecom flows, improve UI/UX quality, and create a clearer, more consistent design approach that could support future digital product development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Gradient has handled the product design and UI/UX development for Azercell’s digital channels, mainly focused on improving the mobile app and key self-care journeys. Their work has included reviewing existing user flows, identifying UX pain points, redesigning important customer journeys, creating wireframes and high-fidelity UI screens, building clickable prototypes, and preparing design assets for development handoff. 
The main deliverables have been updated user journeys, UX recommendations, UI designs, interactive prototypes, and design system components to help keep the experience consistent across Azercell’s digital products.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 6-10 members of The Gradient’s team.

How did you come to work with The Gradient?

We chose them because they were a great culture fit, had good value for the cost, aligned with our company values, and were specialized in design.

How much have you invested with them?

Confidential

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The main measurable outcome has been the successful revamp of Azercell’s mobile app and website, with a more modern, consistent, and user-friendly digital experience. Although I can’t share exact internal metrics or confidential commercial data, we’ve seen clear positive progress after the redesign.
Overall, the refreshed Azercell mobile app and website have made the digital experience more intuitive and easier to use. Users can find key services faster, complete self-care actions more smoothly, and navigate the product with less confusion. We’ve also seen stronger engagement with digital channels, especially around everyday actions such as checking balance, buying packages, managing tariffs, and exploring services.
Moreover, the feedback that has stood out the most is that the new Azercell mobile app feels much more modern, clean, and easier to use.

How did The Gradient perform from a project management standpoint?

The Gradient’s project management is professional, structured, and transparent. They communicate clearly, keep the process organized, and are responsive to feedback from our side. Regarding communication, we’ve used in-person meetings, virtual meetings, and email or messaging apps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Gradient’s strong design and UX experience have been impressive. They’ve been able to look beyond the visual layer and understand the full customer journey, business context, and practical implementation needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. They are flexible, responsive, and professional throughout the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Inferoute, an AI business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Gradient?

We needed help with the design of our landing page and web application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we had a discovery phase where we sat with one or two people from The Gradient to gather information about what we were trying to achieve with our business. The team researched companies similar to ours, their websites, target markets, and competition. The Gradient also helped us define user personas.

We looked into the AI, crypto, and blockchain industries, and their designs were too complicated. We wanted our designs to be technical enough because of our target market, AI and blockchain, but not too complex. The Gradient used Figma and Miro for the designs.

The Gradient also included a business analyst in the project. They analyzed our business and helped us identify some shortcomings.

Additionally, The Gradient hired an external company to work on the landing page to get the correct message out.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people: a business development person, a design director whose name was Simon, and a chief designer. They also hired an external company to work on the landing page.

How did you come to work with The Gradient?

We asked ChatGPT to give us a list of reputable design award companies that award designers. We looked at the list and saw who was winning the awards. We found The Gradient on two websites and looked at some of their designs.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $42,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April to June 2025.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don't have any customers yet because we're a startup, but The Gradient was excellent. The team used a lot of AI tools, which made their work better and more advanced than that of other designers.

The Gradient was remarkably faster in iterating designs and came up with a lot more complicated designs because of their knowledge around how to utilize AI tools properly. The Gradient's bringing in a business analyst was nice, and they also added considerable positive feedback, which helped us shape what we were doing in the background and improve the app's overall design.

We made a few changes based on their feedback, so it was very positive overall.

How did The Gradient perform from a project management standpoint?

The Gradient was exactly on budget and met the timelines. We used Google Meet, Slack, Miro, Figma, and email to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing was The Gradient's knowledge of using AI tools properly, and to their advantage.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything for The Gradient to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The Gradient was very demanding regarding the information they wanted from us. The more we gave, the more we got. Don't take it half-heartedly if you engage with someone like The Gradient. You have to put in the work yourself as a company and provide them with all the information they want to give you the best possible outcome.

I was unaware of how demanding it would be, but the results were terrific.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the COO and co-founder of a software startup building a SaaS platform for the healthcare supply chain.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Gradient?

We needed help with UX/UI design and initial prototyping.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Gradient has helped us refine some of our product artifacts and has created an app prototype, which has been super helpful for us to show to our advisors and potential users and get feedback. The team has conducted UX research and helped us define user personas.

The Gradient has also helped define our product requirement documents, user workflows, and use cases. They've leveraged Figma, Vercel, v0, and Cursor AI. The team has also developed marketing videos for us using Adobe After Effects and redesigned our landing page to make it more interactive and easier to use.

We've posted one video on our company website and used a sizzle reel that we don't publish publicly but leverage for marketing purposes.

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with two people from The Gradient: Sasha and Rostyslav.

How did you come to work with The Gradient?

We were in the early stages of developing our product and had many ideas and initial designs. However, we were looking for a team to help us assemble it and make sense of a broad set of features for a complex enterprise system.

I had known about The Gradient in the past. In my previous company, we partnered with a company that someone from The Gradient worked at, and I had talked to them then. When we were looking for a strong design team to partner with, they were one of the first companies I wanted to call.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2025, and the engagement is ongoing. The Gradient has finished the initial phase. We're discussing additional work with the team at the moment.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're at a pretty early stage, and it's hard for us to get metrics. However, we've gotten a lot of positive feedback from our advisors and users. We're making a lot of user discoveries right now. We have advisors from companies like Apple and OpenAI on our board, and they've all been pretty impressed by the quality of the designs from The Gradient.

How did The Gradient perform from a project management standpoint?

The Gradient has met deadlines and stayed on budget. We use Slack and have pretty regular check-ins several times a week. We also communicate via email and calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We're impressed that The Gradient has made sense of very complex business processes and deliver high-quality work very quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything off the top of my head. We're delighted with what The Gradient has delivered.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We didn't know exactly what we wanted, but we knew the timeframe and desired result. We've given The Gradient a good goal, and they've worked closely with us to achieve that. I advise having clear channels of communication and making sure the team understands the goals and what you're trying to accomplish.

We've also included The Gradient directly on some user discovery calls, so they could capture many insights from that and run with it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Intrepid, a technology startup. Our remote team is primarily located in the US, and we offer AI creator marketing SaaS.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Gradient?

We needed a more professional, world-class design for our product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Gradient has been helping us with product strategy and usability, ensuring we communicate through our product. They’ve also been working on our UX and product design, helping us translate the essence of our product to customers. Their work entails creating interactive Figma prototypes, well-defined user journeys, and UX research based on customer data.

We’ve come to them with user personas and AI-analyzed transcripts, so they’ve used AI tools to understand our customers, map out the journey flows, create the strategy, and put together the actual design for the product. The Gradient has also made design suggestions, including an AI brand manager that helps fine-tune the AI system and provide more accurate creator matches.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact is Olena, but I also work with Anna and Andrew. Olena is the lead, and Anna works with the AI tools and customer data. Andrew interprets the specifications and comes up with alternative concepts. 

How did you come to work with The Gradient?

I found them through Clutch and worked with them on previous projects. We went off in different directions for a few years, but Olena saw some of the work we were doing and proposed we pick up the partnership again. It was the perfect timing because I was already thinking of reaching out to her anyway. 

How much have you invested with them?

Our budget for the current project is around $50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in February 2025, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their work is always a 9/10. The Gradient provides high-quality designs, and the value for money is the biggest highlight. My team is overwhelmed and impressed with their work to the point where we must level up our game.

How did The Gradient perform from a project management standpoint?

The Gradient is responsive and ships fast with accurate outcomes. They make us feel like we’re their only client, and they feel like an extension of our team. We collaborate a lot in Figma and Google Documents, and we communicate through WhatsApp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Gradient has an international style of design that is world-class and translates across cultures. They have a comprehensive team, so we’re not just getting a designer; we’re paired with a strategist who can help us understand the product and translate that into designs that get us the business outcomes that we want.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If they had more formalized project management, that would be amazing, but it does not detract from their service.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more precise you are on your product vision and business goals, the better your relationship will be.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and owner of Briolight, a company from Ukraine that works with MedTech and EdTech solutions. We’re creating a platform for digital rehabilitation and inclusive education.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Gradient?

We've had four generations of our platform over the last 12 years. Last year, I visited Stanford University and studied there with Olena, The Gradient's co-founder. I upgraded my business model there, and for the last year, I’ve been working on the fifth generation of my platform. This new generation will include cloud solutions and AI.

MedTech and EdTech are conservative industries, and there aren’t many productivity tools or modern business services. As a result, we have a comprehensive task to create an effective and modern platform that’s simple for teachers and doctors to understand. We needed a digital agency to create a modern UI for my platform's fifth generation, so we hired The Gradient.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We connected with The Gradient through Stanford. With the new business model, we wanted to create a comprehensive product that would be easy and understandable for the conservative medical and educational industries.

The Gradient has helped us with the UI/UX design. After finishing the design, they arranged professional interviews with our existing customers, doctors, and teachers. They recorded the interviews and gave us a report. They've also tested our equipment; we manufacture equipment, and our existing devices, plus the new software, are like an e-system. The Gradient has tested the new design on our existing devices.

In our case, to create the UI, The Gradient has had to figure out our business process. We've spent most of our time talking about the business, then about the UX, and finally about the technologies, including AI. We've also talked about how to monetize it. The Gradient has divided this project into three stages: hardware, mobile application, and web software. The first stage is finished, but the project is ongoing.

What is the team composition?

We’re mostly in contact with 4–5 teammates, including the lead designer, a business analyst, and 1–2 designers who have joined the project at different stages.

How did you come to work with The Gradient?

I found The Gradient at an event and did some due diligence to understand if they were reliable. I also followed them on LinkedIn. Still, the main reason we hired them was the personal contact with Olena.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $22,000 so far. The total will be about $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in January 2025, and it’s ongoing. We plan to finish the last two stages later this year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re working in deep tech with hardware, so until we arrange a new version, we can’t measure success. However, I have some working screens of my existing software with a part of the new design system. My programmers and engineers will implement what The Gradient has designed.

How did The Gradient perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re very satisfied with The Gradient. They’re a professional company. I live in another city, so sometimes I work in their office, and sometimes I work with my team remotely. The Gradient always has a professional schedule. We had plans for many weeks of our work, and it was a great pleasure to work with them. I can plan my time, and I know that every meeting will be held on time.

It’s convenient to work with modern tools like Slack and Figma. We use Google Meet for video conferencing and sometimes use WhatsApp in rare cases.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Gradient is a modern UI/UX agency that’s knowledgeable about modern technologies and business processes. Their advantage is that they don’t only make a UI for their clients; they explore end customers and business needs and combine them with modern technologies. As a result, clients get a good product for the market.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any ideas for improvement. I’m satisfied with the service.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be honest and open with The Gradient. If you discuss your needs openly, they’ll understand what you want. Provide them with lots of information, and they’ll combine it into a good product. I also recommend being flexible about planning. We had our first contact with them in October 2024, and they offered to arrange all three stages into one batch. However, they were flexible, and we understood that we should divide it into three subprojects.

Discuss your big vision with them. We have a big vision, and inside that vision, we have most of our projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product owner at a commercial bank in Ukraine. I’m in charge of implementing open banking. We work with retail and corporate clients and have different lines of products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Gradient?

We needed support with the UI/UX design of our mobile app. Our goal was to incorporate open banking into our existing mobile application flow.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We contacted The Gradient to provide knowledge and advice on the best approach for this product and service since the app addresses a specific financial topic using account information and payment initiation services. The Gradient provided a subject matter expert who understands UI and open banking. The app is internal, and The Gradient was responsible for building the designs, flows, and prototypes. 

The Gradient provided fully finished designs in Figma with all the needed descriptions and localization adjustments for white and black modes for iOS and Android. The Gradient delivered the design systems for our developers to build. The Gradient considered the different preferences of iOS and Android users. They knew where to put certain features and were able to guide us through the preferences of the target audience.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a UI product designer and a product strategist, who was the subject matter expert.

How did you come to work with The Gradient?

We already had a positive experience with The Gradient in the past. We had an ongoing contract with the team because they had recently relaunched our mobile app, so we decided to contact them again. Open banking was a new feature in Ukraine, so we wanted to work with a partner who could provide us with benchmarks and best practices. We met with The Gradient and described our needs and expectations. We provided high-level requirements, and after two weeks of consideration, The Gradient came back with a proposal.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $33,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July–October 2024.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Gradient's subject matter expert was really valuable for us. I loved the quality of The Gradient's proposal; the visualization and content were perfect. The team understood what we wanted and our needs. I liked how The Gradient proposed to address the scope because they defined which core functionalities should go into the first release and what could be done later. The team addressed the scope well and professionally.

How did The Gradient perform from a project management standpoint?

The Gradient delivered everything on time and within budget. We worked in two-week sprints because we worked in the same mode, and The Gradient adjusted to our way of work. Our scope was divided into two big blocks. On the sprint's first day, we discussed topics and did the planning. During the first week of the sprint, we had a status meeting to check and sync work. For instance, we had a planning meeting on Thursdays and a checkup meeting on Tuesdays. We discussed the topics and goals for the two weeks and what would be delivered. On the following Tuesday, we had a final checkup to provide extra feedback, and on Thursday, we had a demo sprint to demonstrate the finished prototype.

We had three control points within the sprint where we could track what The Gradient was doing, see the preliminary results, and adjust if needed. After each sprint, the team emailed our internal project team summarizing what was done and providing links to Figma files.

We communicated through email and Microsoft Teams. We collaborated via Figma since The Gradient had access to our board due to our existing partnership. Due to our security policies, we couldn’t share tasks in Jira with external teams.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Sergei was a good facilitator, guiding hard topics and discussions during our meetings. He designed this new app in alignment with our existing app's design concept. Sergei provided a smooth customer experience. On the other hand, the designer was an expert and knew how to address the work quality properly. Both teammates kept a balance between hearing what we wanted and steering us away from things we didn't need based on their professional opinions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Gradient was an expert in mobile apps and knew the best approach to customer interaction. The Gradient delivered their expertise in a professional and diplomatic way. They were able to negotiate with us and had a strong position advocating for their vision while keeping in mind our requests. 

Additionally, The Gradient's design work was excellent. We have another mobile app for a different customer segment that wasn't designed by the team, and it was much worse. We plan to partner with The Gradient again next year.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I’d have The Gradient improve. I’d like them to extend their expertise to web design as well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I suggest preparing a description of your requirements and demands to help you move forward efficiently. We did our homework and had written requirements. We understood what we wanted and what was mandatory and nice to have. Be strong in your position on what is best for you and your company. The Gradient is an expert and can propose best practices and ideas, but you need to be sure what is best for your company to ensure their design aligns with your company's.

I also recommend not being afraid to ask for things. We were demanding and asked The Gradient for two or three alternative scenarios, which helped us get the best outcome. Be ready to edit and develop all of their ideas. I advise splitting the project into MVP and later releases. Edit the ideas according to necessity, criticality, and the effort needed for development.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO, CPO, head of board of directors, and owner of a fintech company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Gradient?

We needed external support from an IT development team to create a prototype for our product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Gradient provides UI/UX design and product strategy services for our company. We own sophisticated mathematical models and calculations that we deliver to clients as PDF reports and UIs. The Gradient helps us build UIs and reports to fulfill our clients' needs. The team also answers our clients' questions. The Gradient has created all the visual communication and UI for our company. We involve the team when we need to do conceptual work and UIs.

Our project consists of two blocks. On the first block, The Gradient has designed PDF reports from our handwritten notes and Microsoft Excel tables. On the second block, the team has designed a UI based on user use and lean methodologies for our next product. The Gradient uses Figma and Microsoft OpenAI Studio for some of the extensions and documents every single notion. 

What is the team composition?

We work with a product strategist, a product analyst, and a UI designer.

How did you come to work with The Gradient?

The Gradient was a referral from our IT development company. The Gradient had sufficient experience in fintech applications, especially in our core markets, like England and the Middle East. The team had designed complex applications, like trading applications for professional investors.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2023, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project's primary success metric is our end clients' feedback, and all our customers mention that we have an amazing visual design when they see our products.

How did The Gradient perform from a project management standpoint?

The Gradient generally delivers work on time. The team is very responsive and agile. We mainly communicate through Slack, WhatsApp, and email.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I want to highlight Nazar's work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Gradient is super agile and skilled. The team delivers high-quality work at a good price, which is difficult to find. I'm impressed by the type of expertise the team has in small boutique companies, which can be expensive, price-wise, and very difficult to find in Ukraine. The Gradient's expertise is much more expensive in Switzerland and the UK, but it would be three times more expensive if I worked with a company from where I’m based. For me, as a startup, that is very important. The team is also very flexible in project setup and always makes themselves available on very short notice, which helps a lot.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There could be little improvements in terms of project management. When we had a big delivery, I mainly did the project management and scoping. However, this is still minor, and The Gradient's flexibility is much more important.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend trusting The Gradient's expertise and process and having fun.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the CMO, CBDO of a medical laboratory

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Medical Laboratory

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire The Gradient to accomplish?

• Digital Transformation

SOLUTION

How did you find The Gradient?

Referral

Why did you select The Gradient over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from The Gradient were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• The Gradient worked on customer experience strategy as a part of a broader perspective of company’s digital transformation plans.
• They then conducted a JTBD-interviews to uncover consumers’ unsolved needs and carefully explained us principles of the methodology along with presenting insights from interviews.
• Afterwards, there were a couple of sessions to discuss competitors and benchmark analysis, which gave us knowledge of other players that we knew, however never looked close enough.
• As a result, the team presented their take on the strategy and, later during the project, strengthened it with the product concept of our company’s future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

As this is a strategic project, it is too early to evaluate, however it opened up array of new projects that we are working on right now and we already have clear vision and guidlines how and where to move. 
We are in possetion of plan of projects and guidline for their implementetion. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The Gradient made sure to give highlights on the project progress. I can not tell that 100% of the project went absolutely smooth, however the agency did very well with managing all stakeholders while being laser-focused on getting to the end result. Project management was condacted skillfully and any delays was caused by need for better or further investigation for better result.

What was your primary form of communication with The Gradient?

Virtual Meeting

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

I would say this would be there willing to grow with each project as I was told that they changed some of the things after our project to make things more efficient. While from reviews and portfolio the agency seems like a good partner to build digital product, however we discovered a great partner to create a strategy and transform the company, which is more than a product. It was good example of when the agency was almoust integrated as part of the internal team.

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

In our opinion every thing where done good, but like in any project, in process new demands are arising and first "result of the project" descriprion can be more specified. However we needed speed to start the project more then precision planing so it was done good enought.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CPO at a startup. We’re building an investing app focused on the US market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Gradient?

We needed help with customer research and digital product design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially arranged customer interviews and meetings with the agency. We interviewed many customers to understand the pain points. Then, we did a lot of prototyping and more customer interviews to show people the prototypes and see what they liked about them. Afterward, we talked with The Gradient to find a product approach that resonated with the customers. At that point, we started with mobile app design.

We’ve built more prototypes and called customers again to show them the different approaches to the mobile app and a few product iterations. The Gradient has assisted with product design and business logic. They’ve also introduced creative ideas for the product.

The mobile app’s frontend uses Flutter for both OS, and the backend uses Node.js and Python. The Gradient has provided detailed instructions for the internal development team to implement because the product must behave and interact as the product team designed it. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with up to four teammates from The Gradient, but we usually have three people on the team.

How did you come to work with The Gradient?

I had experience working with them from my previous agency.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $200,000 in this period.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2022, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app is already live and available for download in stores. So far, we’re happy about the user conversion. Users can start investing and putting money into their brokerage account almost immediately; they have to answer a lot of questions, but the process takes 5–10 minutes. Currently, around 15% of the users successfully go through the long onboarding process and fund their brokerage account, which is a high number for this industry.

How did The Gradient perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re happy with the deadlines. The Gradient uses an agile methodology. We try to move as fast as we can, but they’re also flexible. When we need to speed it up, they can add more designers.

We mainly use Figma and Notion for project management, but the tasks for the developers are posted into Jira.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Oleg (Founding Partner & Design Director) has led the project through the most important stages of the conceptualization of the product. He’s been highly involved in crucial design and product decisions.

Ruslan (Product Designer) is a strong designer. The visuals in the app are great; users love them.

Tania (Business Analyst) is the third piece of the team. She’s glued the project all together and has been crucial for its success.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The depth of their approach is impressive. They dive deep into the problem and become an expansion of the theme. Also, The Gradient is ready to innovate; they don’t limit themselves to the initial tasks we ask of them. The team always tries to figure out the best way to solve the problem.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think they could do anything differently. Nothing in particular comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The Gradient works for people with a lot of flexibility and ownership of the product. As a startup founder, when you have an idea that you need to develop, you might not know the project’s boundaries. If you feel like ideating and creating something new, The Gradient is a perfect fit.