Idea Maker

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We provide real estate services to help our clients buy and sell homes in the Scottsdale, Arizona area.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Maker, and what were your goals?

We needed a way to capture open house activity and centralize it on one site for consumers. We work with all brokerages throughout the Phoenix area and want all agents to offer their open house events in once central place for consumers to view.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Tom and his team developed a website that met and exceeded our design requirements. Our design, workflow, and user interface ideas were enhanced by input we received. We value that expertise.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We started with a document that articulated our requirements and end goal. Tom's team provided a wireframe as step one to make sure our overall workflow was understood by both parties. We then moved on to visual and functional design. We received a prototype that allowed us to test our methodology. It was this stage that allowed us to revise and refine our user experience we wanted consumers to have on the front end and the experience we wanted real estate agents to experience on the backend.

Again, we received input from Tom's team that caused us to consider our approach since we are not technologists. We value that partnered approach. We went through our pilot program and worked together to resolve any issues or revise any features.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We took a project management approach to streamline communications. We chose to use Tom as our primary communications point for Idea Maker and we utilized a project manager on our end. Each person managed communication respectively into their organizations. We have a standard list of project members to CC on our end. We copy the owner, project manager, IT contact and graphic design contact.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Our initial launch has resulted in a collaborative effort between many brokerages throughout the Phoenix area. We have been able to secure commitments from brokerages, teams and individual agents that are now using our platform. We are tracking our activity and we'll be able to measure a variety of metrics on a quarterly basis. As of now we have launched our site and are currently advertising on TV with our local ABC channel as well as running a social campaign utilizing geofencing.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Our design and develop approach worked well for us. We started with a requirements document and we assigned rough timeline goals for each project stage. We still remain fluid with some flexibility for each stage since this is a new type of project for us. We have it every milestone so far and we consider this to be a living and ongoing project that will evolve. Our scope for the most part has not changes; however, the features and user experience has evolved as we want to keep adding value to our clients.

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

Idea Maker's portfolio is what drew us in. Their design style was in alignment with what we were after. We had initial consultations with 3 companies that we had narrowed it down to. Once we had our initial meeting with Tom at Idea Maker we knew we had the right choice to make. Their communication style works well for us.

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

We have yet to hit the ceiling of what Idea Maker has to offer. The more features we realize we want the more we ask them to do. So far we have not come across anything that appears to be a challenge for them. Everything is done very well with more than acceptable time requirements.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and chief creative officer of an advertising agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Maker?

One of our clients is the tourism office of South Korea. They decided to open up for travel again after COVID and were looking for our help to create a campaign that would help them promote travel to South Korea.

As part of this project, we were looking to develop a microsite that could be part of our overall advertising campaign. However, what differentiated this microsite from a regular one was that we needed it to be driven by AI and machine learning. We wanted to create a unique experience where the content would be populated on this site based on how people were navigating through its content, where they came from, and which ads had directed them to it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For this complex project, we brought in Idea Maker to help us out. We were in charge of designing the look and feel of the microsite’s pages and writing the content. Then, Idea Maker was responsible for building the site based on our designs, integrating the required AI and machine learning functionalities into it. They built the site from scratch and changed some aspects of the design to make it work better with the technology we were using.

As for said technology, Idea Maker developed the features on Python, and they used WordPress for the backend so that we could go in ourselves and populate the content, change images, and more. Additionally, we’re using AWS for hosting the site. Currently, Idea Maker helps us manage the hosting, maintain the site, and make changes to the code on an ongoing basis.

What is the team composition?

We work directly with Thomas (Founder), who acts as the account manager. We don’t talk directly with developers or programmers.

How did you come to work with Idea Maker?

We posted an RFP on Upwork to which around 20–30 different vendors responded, including Idea Maker. When we interviewed them over a video call, we had a very good feeling about Thomas and his team, so we decided to go with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around April 2022, and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our campaign launched in June 2022, and the site built by Idea Maker has been active since then. So far, we’ve had 252,000 unique visitors to the site and 500,000 unique page views, demonstrating that the project has been really successful.

We’re also very happy with the traffic coming to the site and how long those users stay on site. On average, people spend around two and a half minutes on the site, reading an average of three pages of content, which is great. Overall, the results have well exceeded our expectations and our end client’s expectations.

How did Idea Maker perform from a project management standpoint?

We had an incredibly tight deadline to deliver the site; the website had to be designed, built, and launched in less than two months, which was very challenging considering the technology we were using. Still, Idea Maker stepped up to the challenge and was very responsive — we couldn’t have done it without them.

We use Asana to manage the project, and Idea Maker also uses ClickUp, where we can submit requests. Whenever we’ve submitted a request, we’ve checked the site the next morning only to find out that they implemented the required changes overnight. Additionally, we exchange emails and have a weekly meeting with Thomas via Google Meet to discuss progress and changes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Idea Maker’s strength is their customer service; they’re very responsive. They’ve been able to talk to our designers and made things very easy for us to understand. Additionally, they understand how creative agencies work, making them very easy to work with, which ultimately has helped us get our project done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve only had one issue, and I’m not entirely sure that it was even their fault. Initially, the website hosting on Amazon was very costly for us, and I believe it was because the site was on an incorrect server. Still, Idea Maker addressed and corrected the issue quickly, and the costs came down.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be really clear about your goals upfront so that they can understand the purpose of your project and get them involved in the creative process early on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a physician and entrepreneur and founder of MatchMaker4Business.com

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Maker, and what were your goals?

We needed an expert to build a robust backend database to allow customers to enter their information anywhere in the world and let that information be readily searchable. In addition to having a shopping cart, we wanted a platform where one could easily navigate and have a positive feel and look about the site.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Beyond technical skills, we considered the ability to communicate, consistency in holding promises, clarity, integrity in communication, ease of getting things done, and overall support and grasp of the project. We also required signing an NDA, which Ideamaker happily honored to comply with our legal requirements

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The goal was to create an automated platform that can be handled by the website features and have minimum human involvement. The site now has a development backbone and a production front. This has allowed a dual system in place to avoid an incidental crash. In addition, it has allowed to marketing staff to make cosmetic changes without affecting the development site

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

One person worked with us--which was beneficial. It allowed us to reach out to one person/liaison for any questions and enhancements. That person then communicated/coordinated with others in his team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The overall impact and feedback from other colleagues and professionals have been quite positive. We anticipate that the site will do financially well.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Most tasks were completed expeditiously in a matter of days. The overall project was quite detailed, hence took a few months--and involved our improvised modification requests. Each step of the project was handled after video conferencing and through email correspondence and occasional in-person meetings.

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

1. the ability to comprehend the concept and support us.
2. Integrity and ease of communication
3. Contracting and communication with lawyers
4. Quality of technical deliverables
5. Availability and affability

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

No. Cannot think of something that I would have wanted differently

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Founder & CEO of an online two-sided marketplace that offers music creators (singers, songwriters, etc.) a complete, fully-immersive music experience for fans, all centered around video.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Maker, and what were your goals?

Our web application was initially created by a separate development team, i.e., other than Idea Maker. When our application was towards the end of the development process, we handed everything off to Idea Maker in preparations for beta testing and ultimately the final launch of our product. Idea Maker has been involved with the maintenance of our application ever since.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

After working with a development team that was completely offshore prior to launch, I was hoping to find a local development agency to work with that would allow me to better focus my efforts towards creating awareness and generating traction on the application. Because of Idea Maker's areas of expertise, cost/fee projections, etc., I thought it would be a perfect match. I ended up working with Idea Maker for two years plus!

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Idea Maker was able to work with the original architect of the application for a short time when the project kicked off. And, the transition, i.e., "hand off," happened pretty seamlessly.

We had laid out a list of items that needed debugging as well as some product enhancements that needed to be implemented prior to launch. Idea Maker was able to develop high-quality effective solutions while sticking to the timelines.

In terms of the technology stack, we are using Django's web framework and Python's programming language, which runs on a Linux-based system. The front-end was created using a single-page JavaScript application (SPA), with Vue.js as the framework. The front-end communicates with the backend using the REST+JSON API.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

The founder of Idea Maker has been my main point of contact and has been throughout the entire process. Multiple developers have been assigned to work on various parts of the application throughout the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Idea Maker took on a relatively complicated video-related project with many intricate layers. And, they have been able to come up with solutions that optimize value while at the same time are also cost-effective. Idea Maker has been easy to work with, and I believe can they take on projects at all levels of complexity.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

My interactions with Idea Maker were on an as-needed basis. When the workload was heavier, for example, we would have a weekly call towards the beginning of each week, and I would receive task updates almost daily via email. Tasks would initially be created and uploaded to GitHub, then would be categorized and traiged using Trello (for tracking purposes).

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

Because of the founder's background as both an engineer and an entrepreneur, Idea Maker was able to see things from a very unique perspective. From my standpoint, it was nice having a partner that could look beyond just software development, e.g., They were able to provide technology solutions that matched my business goals and objectives.

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

I just wish the application itself would have had more success, but these doesn't take anything away from what Idea Maker was able to achieve and do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Quila Flower. We develop social media apps.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Maker?

We needed help with mobile app development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Idea Maker developed a social media app. First, we worked closely with the team on the color scheme. They then developed the app and set up a landing page to announce it using WordPress. The app is called Quick Friends, and its key features are the ability to find friends and schedule events in your local area. The app is integrated with Google Maps and is available on iOS. Idea Maker is now developing the Android version.

What is the team composition?

I’ve only worked with three teammates, including Thomas (Founder).

How did you come to work with Idea Maker?

I posted a job listing on LinkedIn. I interviewed 3–5 companies and ended up choosing Idea Maker.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in June 2020 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work has gotten a lot of positive feedback, and our users love the app. They’ve truly exceeded my expectations — I’m looking forward to moving on to the Android development with the Idea Maker team.

How did Idea Maker perform from a project management standpoint?

Idea Maker has done an excellent job. They’re great at responding immediately and fixing any bugs within a short timeframe. To communicate, we use text messaging, phone calls, and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their customer service is excellent — they’re incredibly accessible and available, which I appreciate. Furthermore, they have enough experience and bandwidth to fulfill all my needs. They’re one of the best vendors I’ve worked with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s a bit of a time difference between us, so it would be great if they could have a teammate work around my business hours.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just be sure of your requirements. Overall, I highly recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CoFo of the app; I Am Available Owner of the company; Very Very Exciting Productions PTY Ltd.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Maker, and what were your goals?

Idea Maker was engaged to develop an app that I have wanted to have made for a long time, called I Am Available

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

My CoFo and I looked in multiple directions over several months for a suitable app developer, and I in fact engaged one in Australia for a while, but it didn’t work out for reasons of costs and them over scoping, which was a shame as the original plan was to use a local company. We ended up choosing Idea Maker after having interviewed numerous other app development companies, but when we talked to Tom, Idea Maker's Founder, we knew immediately that we had the right partner for our endeavour.

I have zero experience in creating an app and my CoFo has some but for a very different type of offering, so we needed some guidance and to be pointed in the direction of what would work (easily and within a small budget), and what has worked successfully in the past that we could 're-use', and most importantly what wouldn’t work and/or would cost way too much.....plus, the quote was ‘all in’ total price, phased over a number of stages and within our budget (just about).

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Phase 1: Regular meetings initially for IM to understand the concept and the visual ideas we had and to discuss how that would be most effectively deployed in a ‘real life’ app.
Phase 2: App wireframe created and evolved through more discussions.
Phase 3: Test app create on Test Flight and some beta testing.
Phase 4: Weekly call to work though, correct and update ‘Issues List’.
Phase 5: App released on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Phase 6: Ongoing support.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Tom the boss - A lot of engagement at the beginning and then less because he handed over to an excellent PM. Tom remained always available but he was required less after Phase 1. Raquel the PM - Excellent, regular and irregular communication. Helpful, very knowledgeable and fast. A Dev Team - We didn’t engage directly with them but were clearly there coding etc

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The app 'I Am Available' has just been launched in the past few days, so I cannot judge any true commercial outcomes yet, but please download it for yourself and check it out!

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

This is my first mobile app.I am pleased and appreciative of the guidance and the quality of the work that the Idea Maker team has provided. At no point did I feel that I might have been given the wrong information because I was a newbie and inexperienced. Tom and crew are a team to trust.

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

Possibly set timelines expectations slightly differently.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Executive Director of a tech startup nonprofit.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Idea Maker, and what were your goals?

We tasked Idea Maker with building a web-based framework for importing, storing and automatically updating data from multiple sources and creating a methodology and work-flow for merging the data into a standardized presentation.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We found them through an online portal for finding contractors and developers. We had conversations with, and got proposals from two agencies and one independent contractor. Idea Maker' provided us the a cost-effective proposal showed the most insight into our project.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The framework is dedicated to gathering business information about minority-owned businesses, built with Django and Selenium. The system also includes dynamic web pages, such as the database viewer, which uses Vue.js as the frontend. The system is flexible for adding new data sources, and features as our budget allows.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked directly with the owner and a senior developers; we also reviewed work by a UI/UX designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The development was completed on time, and they provided us with a functioning system that would serve as the backbone of our consumer-facing product.

This phase of the product development stands on its own for demonstrating the capabilities and possibilities of our product for donors and grantmakers. Idea Maker was really helpful in building a framework that has the capability to grow in sophistication and functionality without sacrificing performance.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We had weekly meetings in which updates were reviewed, questions/options/paths forward were discussed and decisions were made. Demonstrations/Instructions were provided as screencast videos. As mentioned, earlier, the scope of work was completed on time.

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

We interacted directly with the owner and a senior developer, who both were very invested in the work and our mission. There was a situation where one of the team members assigned to our project was impacted by a major winter storm, and the owner made sure that the project continued to move forward.

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

Overall, we had a really good experience.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of an e-commerce platform that provided communications services for inmates and their loved ones.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Idea Maker?

I needed to develop a backend service system to facilitate communications. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a new website for me. They also built the system that manages our e-commerce orders. I had a website that I made myself, but they redid the whole website for me. I think they used WordPress. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with Thomas (Founder). 

How did you come to work with Idea Maker?

I found them on Upwork. I chose them because they understood what I was looking for, and they were within my budget. 

How much have you invested in them? 

We spent $17,000–$20,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August or September 2020, and we completed the project in January 2021. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of the work was excellent. The website is working well. Everyone seems to like the new look. It looks very professional. 

How did Idea Maker perform from a project management standpoint?

It was good. Every time they developed a feature, they uploaded a video with instructions. We mostly communicated over email. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Their knowledge impressed me. They knew what I needed, and when issues arose, they figured out how to fix them quickly. They worked hard to gain all of the knowledge necessary to complete this project. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I’ve found yet. We just launched the new website, but so far, everything is going according to plan. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you know what you want. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The name of the organization is Advance CPE and I am the CEO. We facilitate the provision of continuing professional education primarily to accountants and CPAs through a unique webcast delivery system.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Idea Maker?

I had some specifications for a webcast delivery platform so I hired Idea Maker to develop it from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Idea Maker to create a webcast delivery platform using Django for the database, PHP, and JavaScript for the front- and backend. They are also currently doing the hosting, maintenance, and designs for us.

They built mockups as temporary placeholders which I use as a logo now. And in terms of security and ancillary services, he’s the de-facto IT advisor in addition to the developer. 

What is the team composition?

We are aware of two people from their team. Tom (Founder) is the primary face of the organization. Everything goes through him and we directly deal with him for all project matters. 

How did you come to work with Idea Maker?

We found Idea Maker through LinkedIn. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we've spent approximately $45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Idea Maker in February 2020 and we continue to collaborate.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There are milestones and tweaks we’ve assigned to them. I’ve got an Airtable spreadsheet that we share where I type in our requests. So far, they've completed all the tasks we've given them. If it turns out there’s a new feature we ask for, he creates it, and then he charges me. 

In addition to the overall development of the project, he is cognizant of building our platform with an eye towards scalability. 

How did Idea Maker perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very responsive. The way they understand the requirements we present to them is fairly solid. In cases where there’s vagueness in what we ask for, we discuss and negotiate it. After that, they manage to complete the tasks we ask of them. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communicative approach and their ability to interpret our assigned milestones impressed us. There is a bit of improvisation required in this particular job and I think they always get it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really don’t think there’s something they could still improve on. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This advice would be to anybody going to any developer to be as clear as possible about your actual vision. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Raytec Systems Inc

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We manufacture and distribute precision metal parts for industrial equipment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Idea Maker to accomplish?

• We wanted to automate our inventory and production reporting process. Our staff spent hours every week manually recording data from machines and inputting it into our system.

SOLUTION

How did you find Idea Maker?

• Online Search
• Clutch Site

Why did you select Idea Maker over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Idea Maker were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The project included analyzing our current workflow, developing APIs to pull data from our machinery, building an internal dashboard, and setting up automated alerts for maintenance schedules. They also trained our team on how to monitor performance metrics using the dashboard.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our reporting process went from manual and time-consuming to fully automated. We now have real-time visibility of production rates, which has reduced downtime and improved scheduling accuracy.

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

They were responsive, clear about deadlines, and flexible when we requested small adjustments. Everything was completed on schedule.

What was your primary form of communication with Idea Maker?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their ability to connect technical precision with real-world operations. The system they built has become an everyday tool for our supervisors. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something Idea Maker could have done differently?

None. Everything worked as expected.