heartbeat

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of Product at an education company that sells e-books to universities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Heartbeat Agency?

We needed our landing pages redesigned. The pages weren’t clearly portraying our company’s current processes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We began our engagement with Heartbeat Agency redesigning our brand and marketing materials. After those were finished, they took on the landing pages. We gave them a blank canvas, and their team tackled everything from UX to the page design itself. They had broad creative freedom, but we selected between the different ideas they showed our team.

What is the team composition?

Dima (Product Manager & Co-Owner, Heartbeat Agency) and Leonid (DesignOps, Heartbeat Agency) are our main points of contact. We’ve worked with four or five people at different aspects of the engagement.

How did you come to work with Heartbeat Agency?

We found them on Dribbble. Initially, we chose Heartbeat Agency for their designs. We wanted a product in a similar style. After speaking with them, their approach to design stood out to me. They spend time thinking about the branding look and UX, not just the interface’s look. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $15,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Heartbeat Agency in January 2019, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The designs are almost finished, so our team will soon start building the pages. We’ve shown the designs internally, and everyone’s pretty happy with them. Some of our customers have seen them as well and have had nothing but positive things to say. The designs Heartbeat Agency created are giving our business a modernized look.

How did Heartbeat Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Heartbeat Agency delivers high-quality work on time. Our central communication is through Slack, but their team is always available over the phone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They work quickly, producing quality work. We’ve appreciated Heartbeat Agency’s experience in UX and design. As we went along, their team supplied helpful suggestions and recommendations. It felt like we were a team throughout the engagement.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing major. The start of the project was a little slow as their team was learning about our company. We’ve debated whether waiting was worth it or if we should’ve jumped right in.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We’ve been delighted with Heartbeat Agency. There are plans for follow-up work with them once everything is complete. We recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CMO of Finiata, a technology startup in Germany. We lend credit to small businesses across Europe.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Heartbeat Agency?

After having lackluster experiences with other companies, we needed a skilled team to redesign the UI/UX for our landing pages and for the web-based app as a whole.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project began with a free kickoff meeting to understand the scope of what we were trying to solve, who our target customers were, and what our end goals were; it was an extensive session. From there, our team and their’s began designing the app in Figma, a web-based design tool. We then had three revision sessions together, and they redesigned the app and landing pages based on our discussions.

What is the team composition?

They provided a business developer, project manager, designer, and creative director. I worked directly with those four people but there were more members working on it.

How did you come to work with Heartbeat Agency?

I searched for companies online, using Behance and Awwwards. After looking through the high-ranked agencies, we sent 10 agencies an RFP. Heartbeat Agency impressed us most in this process.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $40,000 for the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in May and finished a few months later in September 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t launched the site yet, but we’ve received positive feedback from employees and friends. We are very pleased with how it looks.

How did Heartbeat Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated primarily over Slack and Figma. Their communication was extremely effective and responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had a strong work ethic that stood out to us. We got everything we wanted and more; they were excellent on all fronts.

Any advice for potential customers?

It’s worth investing time in preparation for your meetings. If you can tell their team exactly what you want, they’ll be able to do a better job. It is also important to give them the creative freedom they need once the scope is laid out.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Similar.ai. We do product understanding for retailers and technology product companies that work with retailers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Heartbeat Agency?

We started with a really simple website but realized we needed to upgrade after we changed our product. We needed to build a new website with a new design, and explain what had changed and what we’re now doing. We needed an agency to help us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We asked them to define a new visual identity and a better way of developing inbound prospects. They built our brand, logo, and visual language and identity, as well as a new website with a lot of detailed pages.

We asked them to keep it as simple as possible to make it load faster. After they did the initial build, they updated some things to speed up the loading times. It’s very simple and easy to understand so that we can update the content if we want to.

We've finished the website and now we’re starting to ramp up more outbound and inbound marketing.

What is the team composition?

Dima (Product Manager & Co-Owner, Heartbeat Agency) worked at structuring. Stan (Director, Heartbeat Agency) was the designer and implementer of most aspects. Somebody else worked on the brand, visual identity, and language.

How did you come to work with Heartbeat Agency?

I found several companies on Upwork that I was interested in working with. I went through all the portfolios and narrowed it down to two or three options. Heartbeat Agency was number one on my list. I told them I wanted to do everything from scratch and we took it from there.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we went live, we were inundated with compliments from both people we knew and people we didn’t. That included investors, customers, and partners. I was asked who did the work more times than I ever have in the past. I've recommended them to friends and colleagues as it’s been an amazing experience for us.

We’ve had a number of inbound leads from people who want to work with us. They come to the website and understand what we’re doing. Previously, I found it hard to articulate. We’re getting 20–30 inbound leads, which can be worth a lot. The website was also nominated for a design award which also led to a lot of traffic. The overall site traffic has gone up a lot.

How did Heartbeat Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They gave us a very clear idea of what to expect and then executed it. We were very pleased with how quickly that all went. We had a lot of intense iterations and got a lot done in a very short amount of time. We used Slack, Google Docs, and a tool to mark corrections or improvements we wanted. It worked really well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve worked with about 10 agencies in the past and I can’t recommend Heartbeat Agency enough. When we first started working with them, we went through a highly intensive process. It wasn’t uncommon to do five iterations per page until we were fully satisfied with it. They understood what we were looking for. They loved the product and what we were doing. We loved how they worked—they’re extremely capable and competent. The people we worked with were the best; very professional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Most reviews I do, I have several areas of improvement, but Heartbeat is the exception. On national holidays, they need to make sure there’s a contact available. We had an emergency on our side where the site went down. We pinged them, then they went above and beyond to help. They were always available and helped very quickly. We were spoiled by working directly with Dima. When he’s not working, we could reach out to the other members of the team, but they’re better at their own jobs than being project managers. They could focus on how project management is scaled.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go to Heartbeat for development and design work rather than splitting it between two agencies. They were able to do it all so well. If you’re doing a larger project, they have the right specialists to bring it all together.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the co-founder and CIO of an education startup. We combine offline and online teaching methods to help students in Germany and Austria pass their exams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Heartbeat Agency?

We needed a partner to help us fix various problems with our website’s design and performance.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we scheduled discussion calls that allowed Heartbeat to develop an understanding of our business model and the problems with our website, then we planned the scope of the project. After determining the more profitable customer base to target, the team redesigned our website.

Heartbeat helped us accomplish the four major goals we set for the new site. First, they created a clean and corporate identity for our company and implemented it across our online and offline communication channels. Second, the team helped us build a style guide for our future outreach efforts. Third, Heartbeat designed better UX strategies for our interface to increase conversion rates. Finally, they helped launch all of these projects quickly and gather user feedback on the changes we made. We are currently still in contact to discuss user responses and find areas for improvement.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of three representatives from Heartbeat. There was a project manager, a design operations manager, and a designer.

How did you come to work with Heartbeat Agency?

I was searching for a company in Germany, but I was having some difficulty. I started looking on Dribbble and Behance, which is where I found Heartbeat’s artwork. After talking to them, I felt that they would be a good fit for our project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $15,000–$20,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The official project lasted from October 2017–March 2018, but we are still in contact to make additional improvements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We implemented all of the visual strategies and style guides that they produced, but we have no hard business statistics at this point. We sent out a satisfaction survey to some of our customers to gauge their response to the redesign and over 75% agree that our brand looks better than it did before partnering with Heartbeat.

How did Heartbeat Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We scheduled weekly calls to address problems and exchange important information, with additional interactions about three or four times a week. Besides calls, most of our communication was done via Slack channels, where they were very prompt in their responses. Heartbeat was consistently time-oriented, they never missed a deadline. They were very good at prioritizing and organizing their workflow.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate the set of tools and solutions they introduced in our company. We continue to use some of these to improve our internal processes.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I think they performed well from a design perspective. They have their own strong opinions about projects, but you are free to discuss this with them.

Any advice for potential customers?

It’s important that clients provide Heartbeat with as much information as possible in every aspect of the project. The more you give, the more you get.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a startup with a CRM-based platform for venues to reach their customers directly.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Heartbeat Agency?

We wanted to create a unique UX using state-of-the-art technology. We also wanted the design to stand out from other apps in the market. My in-house team is amazing with development, but they aren’t as professional with designs. Once I had all the wireframing for the project, I need to hire a design agency.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We gave them the project scope and wireframes; they designed the app.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact was Leonid (DesignOps, Heartbeat Agency). He took care of the Russian-speaking clients. Another person took care of the English-speaking clients.

How did you come to work with Heartbeat Agency?

I did an online search for companies with different design approaches. I found Heartbeat Agency through Dribbble and Behance and contacted them. Heartbeat Agency gave me a good discount because the project’s unique aspects interested them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February–June 2018. I’ve since bought a fixed-hour support service to help us refine and adjust the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a project that is currently trending with several views and likes. Some people are even trying to copy our design, we consider imitation a good indicator of the project’s quality.

How did Heartbeat Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Occasionally, my team had problems with Heartbeat Agency because their style and approach were different than ours. The team did things last-minute when we need quick adjustments, and while I’ve never had a problem with them, my developers communicated to me some [issues].

In addition, their workflow—discovery to various processes before they started designing—has lacked flexibility, which is important in the IT space. For example, for design support, I provide the project scope, improvements, and changes. Then, I calculate the number of hours and Heartbeat Agency then sends a monthly invoice. After that, they complete the project based on feedback and revisions. It’s been a little frustrating for my development team. Although they have the right way of doing things, it would nice to have more flexibility in the process.

We used Telegram or Slack to communicate, and Teampaper to track design work. Teampaper is Heartbeat Agency’s internal tool. Recently, they started using another tool called Figma.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They always pushed limits to provide the best solution for the client. The team also leveraged trends for design and collaboration tools. Furthermore, Heartbeat Agency maintained the app’s clean and minimalist look while completing tweaks. Their design approach successfully preserved its style and UX.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They were perfect from a design perspective. While there were some issues, it’s hard to say if the team needs to improve response time; their workflow is part of their company culture.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure the initial scope contains every deal. We had to include extra things during the project, which increased costs. The monthly design support cost more money than I spent on the project itself, but that was my fault because I didn’t put it in at the beginning. Sometimes we forgot about screens or certain functions, specifically design compatibility for iPhone 5. Again, that was my mistake because I didn’t list out everything from the very beginning.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of First Table, an online restaurant marketing company and booking service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Heartbeat Agency?

We needed a new design for the website. We had been using the same design for three years and there were a few usability and design issues with it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Heartbeat was thorough from the start, working out exactly what did and didn’t work on our current website. They figured out what our needs were before we even formally engaged them.

Our website was built on SilverStripe. We have our own developers, so Heartbeat only handled web design. They were quite good at giving us technical advice, which shows that they’re technically-capable, so we’re looking at possibly engaging them for frontend development as well.

What is the team composition?

My main contact was their product manager.

How did you come to work with Heartbeat Agency?

I found them on either Behance or Dribbble while browsing for designs I liked. I contacted a few groups, out of which Heartbeat was available.

How much have you invested with them?

I believe we’ve spent $9,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first contact was in September 2017, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The work they’ve done for us isn’t live, so it’s hard to attribute anything to it yet. Heartbeat supplied everything we needed; now we just have to finish building it. Internally, everyone is happy with their work.

How did Heartbeat Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been much more professional than any other company we could’ve found in our own country. We use email, Skype, and Slack for communication, with Slack being the main tool. They also use Figma for design, which allowed us to see designs in real-time and comment on everything being done. We could raise issues and questions through that tool as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated their thoroughness. They conducted multiple interviews in order to really figure out our needs and identify which parts of the website were working well and which ones weren’t. The process was quite exhaustive, which I greatly appreciated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The biggest challenge for us—which would be difficult for them to improve on—was the time zone difference. We’re in New Zealand, so we’re on an opposite end relative to their team. We’ve had some late-night phone calls, which made the process more difficult, but it’s something we’ve experienced with many other partners since we’re in the middle of nowhere.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of a local cleaning company in Singapore. I oversee our day-to-day operations and expansion strategy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Heartbeat Agency?

We were very small in 2014, without a real online presence. We wanted to expand and felt our best option was through a good website and strong digital options.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the beginning of the process, we didn’t know much about our options for a website. Our understanding of the digital world was fairly primitive, but they walked us through what it meant to provide our customers with a client-centric experience on our site. We had an earlier design, but they converted that into more modern UI [user interface] design language.

They really expanded the scope of what we thought we wanted. They ran a user envisioning and study exercise, where we mapped the user journey for a variety of customer personas. They helped us explore what our prospective customers might be looking for, and then built a wireframe that could deliver those client needs. After showing us a few mockups, they built the site from the ground up on an Agile platform in WordPress, which includes an in-app calculator that allows customers to choose the services they want and receive a customized quote.

We had conversations about search engine optimization and marketing strategies, and they have advised us on which campaigns might have the highest impact. They helped us build a brand story and narrative to support our internal marketing efforts. They also optimized our site’s interface, making contact information more visible to increase our conversion rate and the usability of our messaging services.

What is the team composition?

Dmitry is our project manager, and Stan is the lead designer. There were up to two other team members, depending on the stage we were in, so our team was usually between two and four people. I spoke mostly with Dimtry, especially regarding business strategy and vision, and Stan did the heavy lifting for the design.

How did you come to work with Heartbeat Agency?

We looked for companies through Upwork. We didn’t have great success with our previous choices, who all just wanted to deliver quickly without getting to know our needs. The sites we were getting were unfinished, unsuited to our business, or just plain bad. It was pure luck that Dmitry contacted us. He talked about how a website would fit our company, both from a design perspective and in terms of user experience. We felt we could trust him for complex projects.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $15,000 for the initial build, and are discussing the second wave of website building for an additional $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started building the website in April 2015. We had two weeks to set user requirements, two weeks of design, and two weeks of development. The whole site was built by June 2015. We pay a retainer for occasional updates, edits, or help with branding, so our ongoing relationship is currently low-maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve seen tremendous growth in both our company itself and our customer base. We went from 5 employees to 160, and from about 15 customers to over 450. Those new customers include big international brands and government ministries who would not have found us without our web presence, which ranks third in our industry in Singapore.

How did Heartbeat Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very responsive. Even though they’re in a different time zone, I get responses back within a day if ever I need something. They invited me to use Asana, which I only used occasionally to check on the progress of a sprint. Mostly we spoke on Skype or emailed each other.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really understood our business. They could have recommended a digital payment plan, but that wouldn’t be idiomatic in our industry; most of our customers still prefer to pay by check. They crafted solutions that made the most sense for us, even if they weren’t the most glitzy or glamorous. They’re the only company we’ve worked with that took that extra step.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Get on the phone with Dmitry. You’ll find out from a conversation with him just how smart he is. He’ll prove to you how well he understands combining digital with whatever you hope to achieve. Even if you don’t use their services, you’re certain to learn something from them.