Ingenious hues

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Hairfibril.com is an e-commerce store selling hair products. We launched the product earlier in 2017, and are trying to market it. We have a two-person team. One of our offices is in Irvine, and the other is in Newport Beach, California. I am the owner of the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ingenioushues?

We needed to develop and design the website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ingenioushues was brought in to come up with a long-term plan to ensure that we had a successful implementation. They came back with a reasonable proposal and helped us develop our site. I had one point of contact, so I don't know how large the team as a whole was.

We were trying to set up not only an e-commerce store but the memberships which went along with this. From a technology standpoint, Ingenioushues has had to come up with ways of providing discounts based on different variables and monthly plans. It's a subscription-based, tiered product sale, and Ingenioushues helped me architect a lot of this.

We chose the WordPress platform for developing the platform. I am not sure what was used for payments. Ingenioushues handled both backend development and frontend design.

How did you come to work with Ingenioushues?

I found Ingenioushues through Upwork, where I interviewed a number of companies. We set up an initial call on Skype, after I conveyed my needs, and also made research on Ingenioushues' background and expertise. They sent me the best proposal for timeline and price.

How much have you invested with Ingenioushues?

The initial development had a cost of $300–$400, but I've made additional tweaks.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Ingenioushues in October 2016. The whole website was developed in three weeks, so Ingenioushues moved very fast and efficient. We have had a few subsequent implementations on the site. The relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Since I haven't used Ingenioushues for SEO [search engine optimization] or marketing, I cannot attribute the website's traffic to them. I haven't experienced any issues or bugs with the site, which is a report in itself. The changes we've made were due to my end, and not Ingenioushues' work.

I've continued to assign more projects to Ingenioushues because they've done such a good job and delivered on time. Believe it or not, this is a tough thing to find for web development, and I've had past issues with other companies which were unable to meet deadlines. This hasn't happened with Ingenioushues.

How did Ingenioushues perform from a project management standpoint?

Ingenioushues took my feedback seriously, moved fast, and delivered on time. They kept constant communication with me, whether it was through email or periodic Skype sessions. I was in contact with Ingenioushues every day or every other day during the process and received feedback regarding any concerns they had on their end. I've never had any issues dues to the time or language barriers.

What did you find most impressive about Ingenioushues?

The quality of work and speed of delivery is great. It's hard to find a company which won't try to cut corners, especially in development. Even if they have other priorities, if I bring something to Ingenioushues' attention, they will jump right on it. From a budget standpoint, Ingenioushues is also reasonably priced.

Are there any areas Ingenioushues could improve?

I haven't had any issues.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Ingenioushues?

The only advice I could give to future clients would be to hire Ingenioushues. They do very good work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a web developer with my own my web development company. I work with several clients consistently. It’s a little convoluted because I work with three companies primarily, so they’re the end user of the situation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ingenioushues?

It’s hard to find a good, consistent designer for website design. The thing is, certain designers have certain skill sets—some are good for some things and some are good for others.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

My primary focus with Ingenioushues is website design and landing page design. I’ve hired them to do design work on quite a few websites. They mostly do frontend web design, and I've had them do a couple of logos as well. They use standard tools like InDesign and Photoshop. As far as I know, that’s about it. They’ve designed from scratch and they’ve done redesigns, as well as cutting up the design into HTML. I've had them do that for me a few times as well. I haven't employed their search engine optimization services.

How did you come to work with Ingenioushues?

I found them on Freelance.com, and then it got purchased by Upwork. I had gone through a few designers prior and wasn’t happy with the work. These guys do a pretty consistent and good job. I had looked through their initial portfolio and I liked what I saw. We had a little conversation about it and it seemed like they knew what I was looking for. We’re often on the same page in terms of how I'd like the design to look. Occasionally, we miss the point, but that’s just like anybody, I guess.

How much have you invested with Ingenioushues?

I don't know. It’s in the thousands, I know that much. It’s probably under $10,000. They would have a better idea of that than I would.

What is the status of this engagement?

I don't remember when our first project was. January 2014 sounds right.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I’ve been happy with the results that come out. When you're working with freelancers, the big deal or the big issue is communication. I've had designers sitting at a desk right next to me, and I still couldn’t convey sometimes what I was trying to accomplish. But then doing it over instant messenger is sometimes even more difficult, and that is how we conduct business primarily. However, they do a pretty good job of getting on the point. The more legwork I do to describe what I'm looking for—providing examples, things like that—the better off the end result that comes back.

It’s hard to say in terms of return on investment, conversion rates, and things like that exactly what leads to those individual items. I do know that by employing Ingenioushues, we’re able to pump websites out more quickly and landing pages out more quickly, and obviously, that lends itself to the overall success of the business. I can't say on any particular project that they’ve done that it’s accelerated anything in a measurable fashion. That being said, they do great work. I would recommend them to anybody, honestly.

How did Ingenioushues perform from a project management standpoint?

I have one point of contact. I don't know how many people they have internally. Everything that I do goes through him. From what I understand, he farms it out to his guys internally, and they do the work. We pretty much collaborate through Skype.

As far as project management, you mentioned the two primary metrics—budget and time—and they’re very good with both. All of the requirements are usually delivered within the specified timeframe and budget we discussed. There have been times when I would like to get a project done quickly. We have an idea, we need to move on it fast, and I ask him if it can be done. Usually, he cranks something out very quickly on short notice. I’m willing to pay extra for that, of course, but in those times when I've put those time constraints on him, they’ve come through every time. We never had an issue with language or time barriers.

What did you find most impressive about Ingenioushues?

On the time aspect, it’s nice because they’ll work over our weekend. A couple of weeks ago, they had done the design for a project. I provided some revisions on a mock-up and sent it back to them and asked them if they could have the HTML version of that same page done by Monday. I handed it to them on a Friday. He said that they would, and sure enough, everything was completed and turned in Monday morning, and it looked fantastic.

Are there any areas Ingenioushues could improve?

Like I said, there have been just a couple of times where what they came back with initially didn't quite fit my thought process, but that’s going to happen with anybody. That’s the nature of outsourcing and of trying to translate your vision to text and communicating that way. That’s a common problem, and it rarely happens with them. If I'm not satisfied with the work at any given time, they’re more than willing to take a hit on it.