Kalamuna

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for the Texas Water Company as a communications specialist. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kalamuna?

We needed to create a new website. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The website is built using Drupal, and we use it to promote our company, services, and the quality of water through the website. Customers can also use it to make payments, so it’s multi-functional for us. We recently went through a rebrand, and Kalamuna has been responsible for redesigning the website for the new branding. 

What is the team composition?

We work with two people, but we know there are two more people working behind the scenes. 

How did you come to work with Kalamuna?

We’ve been working with Kalamuna since before I came on board, so I’m not sure. 

What is the status of this engagement?

I’m not sure when the partnership started, but I’ve been at the company for two years, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don’t have any concrete metrics, but we’ve seen an increase in site traffic and conversions. We were having some trouble when we first started our rebrand, and now we're at the top of Google searches. We’ve also had users comment on how much better the website is. 

How did Kalamuna perform from a project management standpoint?

We meet bimonthly, and the team is very cautious about staying within budget. The team uses Jira for project management, and we communicate via Zoom and email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their staff is incredibly kind, and the team is very good with last-minute changes. They’re available when we need them, and their meetings are always effective. They work around our schedules, which has been very helpful as well. They’re very effective collaborators and make the most of our time together. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I can come up with at this point. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They work remotely very effectively, so that’s a great option. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Communications Director of Foodwise

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Foodwise is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that offers farmers markets, food access initiatives, and education programs to connect the San Francisco Bay Area community with local farms and fresh food, and inspire eaters of all ages to take part in a fair, regenerative, and delicious food future for all.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Kalamuna to accomplish?

• Website redesign

SOLUTION

How did you find Kalamuna?

• Referral
• Already working with them

Why did you select Kalamuna over others?

• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• Already working with them

How many teammates from Kalamuna were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Our organization undertook a full rebrand (including a new name and visual brand). We were already working with Kalamuna for website support, and we hired them to redesign our website based on the new brand. The scope of work included content strategy, UX research, design, and implementation. They also migrated our content from Drupal to the latest version of WordPress, and transitioned us to a new domain. 

Specific deliverables included: 

• Stakeholder Interview Analysis
• User Types & Goals 
• Analytics Analysis
• Competitive Analysis 
• Mini Content Audit 
• Content Map and/or Sitemap
• Wireframes
• Style Tiles and Page Mockups 
• Code and CMS configurations in WordPress
• Editorial control of metadata
• optimize SEO
• Basic setup of Google Analytics via Google Tag Manager 
• Launch of new foodwise.org site

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• The resulting website beautifully reflects our new brand, offers a much clearer and more accessible user experience in service of our organizational goals, and provides a better admin experience for our team to manage and maintain our site via WordPress. Kalamuna successfully migrated thousands of pages of content and set up the necessary redirections to our new domain in order limit the impact to SEO built up over years from our old site.

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

There were some delays due to some miscalculation in the initial estimate and staffing changes, but we were able to work with them to plan and stay within our budget.

What was your primary form of communication with Kalamuna?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Kalamuna has a talented and passionate team. We chose to work with them because of their care and values around supporting mission-driven nonprofit organizations like ours, and using technology in service of community and social impact. They did an impressive job streamlining and reorganizing our complex site, while transitioning to our new design and CMS. 

We especially enjoyed working together in the UX/UI discovery and design process, and how they were able to translate our new brand into a beautiful and modern site that communicates our mission an work, engages our community, and prioritizes accessibility. Post-launch, we have continued to work with them for support, updates, and refinements to the website. They have been collaborative and responsive to our needs!

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

As mentioned previously, there were delays, but we were able to work through them together.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Deputy Director of Curry International Tuberculosis Center, UCSF

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The Curry International Tuberculosis Center at UCSF is designated as a Tuberculosis Center of Excellence (TB COE) for Training, Education, and Medical Consultation via a funded cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Kalamuna to accomplish?

• Design and maintain a cutomized Drupal website and database
• Migrate our previous Drupal 7 website and database to Drupal 9
• Ongoing support, include website/database modifications and trouble shooting

SOLUTION

How did you find Kalamuna?

Referral

Why did you select Kalamuna over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit

What was the size of Kalamuna’s team?

6-10 Employees

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

Our team has partnered with Kalamuna for over 10 years on our website and database design, maintenance and, when required by Drupal 7 end of life, migration to a newer version of the platform. The diverse team at Kalamuna has worked with us through various project stages and has been responsive toour budget limitations, QA requirements, and functionality requests.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Our initial website launch with the backend database in 2013 was a major deliverable. Another major milestone was the launch of our migrated website and database in 2022. This multi-year project to move our system from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 was intensive and the launch went smoothly. We maintain an annual contract with Kalamuna for maintenance, and for additional work we request.

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

Kalamuna is very responsive to our needs and frequently offers us creative solutions to meet our budget. We are a public health-focused organization and rely on our website to deliver information and manage training registration and product orders. 

Our budget is very limited, and Kalamuna always finds a way to ensure we have the essential functionality we need for our website and database. Occasionally the timeline and budget expand during the scope of the project, always in close communication with our team.

What was your primary form of communication with Kalamuna?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They are creative and highly skilled, and we value our long term working relationship with Kalamuna.

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

Not at this time

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the FasTrak Website and Outreach Officer of Metropolitan Transportation Commission

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Kalamuna to accomplish?

• Website Design
• User Experience Consulting
• Project Management

SOLUTION

How did you find Kalamuna?

Other

Why did you select Kalamuna over others?

• Company values aligned
• Other

What was the size of Kalamuna’s team?

6-10 Employees

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

Kalamuna was contracted to revisit the work that they had done several years ago when electronic payments on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge became the norm. Their work on bayareafastrak.org helped Bay Area drivers learn about using the FasTrak toll system in a clear manner as conventional cash payments progressively were phased out, and required them to sign up for online accounts.

They analyzed what customers liked about the site and what frustrated them, and created a new design for the site based on the learnings from users to improve their experiences.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Still pending, however, user testing of the current site compared to the redesign prototype shows a very positive response from both longtime users and newer users.

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

Their project management has been organized, principled, and responsive.

What was your primary form of communication with Kalamuna?

Virtual Meeting

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

I feel like Kalamuna respects us as a client who does not need to be educated about our business, but helps us zoom out and understand the needs of our customers—that is, anyone who is a driver in the San Francisco Bay Area—and provide solutions on how best to communicate a complicated regional toll payment system on our website.

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

I came onto the project to take over management at a late stage, and I think I would have liked a little more briefing about the relationships between the agency and the other vendors, and reviewing the work from earlier in the contract.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Communications Director of Build It Green

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Network convener of cross-sectoral housing solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Kalamuna to accomplish?

• Migrate our certification content from our main website to its own website

SOLUTION

How did you find Kalamuna?

Other

Why did you select Kalamuna over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

What was the size of Kalamuna’s team?

2-5 Employees

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

• Technical assessment
• Clone www.builditgreen.org and remove non-GPR content, assets, and users
• Remove GPR content and assets (the Green Product Directory and Certified Professionals Directory) from builditgreen.org
• Remove all references to the GreenPoint Rated program on builditgreen.org
• Updates to site navigation
• Create a new homepage for the staged content that includes GPR content, the green product directory, and certified professionals directory
• Develop a redirect strategy
• Coordinate required domain, dns, and hosting operations
• Documentation and training

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Certification content successfully migrated to its own website.

What was your primary form of communication with Kalamuna?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They delivered items ahead of schedule, were incredibly helpful with training and support, and some of the friendliest people I've ever met--fantastic customer service!

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

They were local, values-aligned, and were willing to work with us within our budget.

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

N/A

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the manager for an international consortium that produces clinical trials for kids.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Kalamuna?

We wanted to refresh and modernize our website, as well as provide some additional mechanisms and areas to better serve our broad audience. We wanted to keep things simpler and streamlined, and ensure it was easy to navigate and update.

SOLUTION

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

We had been working with Kalamuna for a couple years, and their staff really understood who we are and what we wanted to do with this redesign. They thought through the possibilities and thoroughly explained why they considered the choices and changes they were proposing. They also worked within our budget, which was crucial as a non-profit.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We had several discovery meetings with myself and my boss, who had the main vision for what 'modern' meant for our website. We went through possible iterations, what features to keep and which new ones to introduce, how to ensure accessibility, and how I would be able to maintain the site once completed. I met weekly with the project manager and other key members, with good communication about timelines and what needed review.

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

We worked primarily with two project managers, and a UX/UI designer, with input throughout from the director of design.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We were able to achieve all of our design and content goals, with added accessibility and flow provided by the Kalamuna experts.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Workflow was very effective, as we utilized regular weekly meetings to check in, and common cloud spaces to document ongoing processes. They were communicative about deadlines, if there were any changes that were anticipated or needed, and worked within my time constraints as they came up.

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

I am most impressed by Kalamuna's team friendliness and genuine passion for our work and our mission. The entire Kalamuna team made efforts to get to know us, our goals, our audience, our needs, in order to create the best space for us.

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

Working with a smaller team, we understood that some conflicts or delays might occur. Some items could have been addressed sooner, but overall no great concerns.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the interim director of communications at CITRIS, and I led our website redesign project.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kalamuna?

Our old website was clunky and hard to use, and it was difficult to update and edit its pages. We needed a new website that would be easy to maintain for our website managers and content specialists. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kalamuna redesigned our WordPress website. They improved our site’s UX/UI, layout, and usability. For the site’s visual assets, they used our extensive library of photos and videos. Additionally, they developed and managed the site’s landing pages.   

They handled all the tasks related to the website’s launch. In addition, they provided a two-week warranty — I bring it up to their team whenever I notice any issue or concern. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, an account manager, a program manager, two UX developers, and two coders. Throughout the different stages of the project, we interacted with 5–10 different people. Whenever we needed anything, we talked with the project and account managers.   

How did you come to work with Kalamuna?

We did an RFP, and Kalamuna submitted a proposal. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from October 2019–October 2020. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website managers became more comfortable going into the site and updating our pages. As a result, our content became fresher. 

We were also able to install Google Analytics and Siteimprove, which allowed us to study how users interact with our website. I do the SEO myself, and it was helpful that I can see our Google rankings score. 

How did Kalamuna perform from a project management standpoint?

Kalamuna did a great job at project management; they were organized and professional. Sometimes, because I’m not a web expert, I found it difficult to follow our conversations — they could be a bit technical. Other than that, they were helpful and responsive.

We had a Slack channel, but I didn’t use that often. We mostly communicated through emails and Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We had another web developer, but they did not seem to care about the engagement, nor did they help us envision the project. However, with Kalamuna, everything that they had said and done felt intentional. There was a reason behind their actions, and it felt like we could trust their expertise and ability to deliver. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes, our conversations get a little technical, and I find it difficult to follow. They used specialized language and programs that required some learning curve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If this is your first time doing content migration, you should definitely ask and learn more about it. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the digital operations team lead at a 50-year-old educational documentary film distribution cooperative. We deal exclusively in documentaries, and a few fiction films, that we distribute to colleges, nonprofits, and libraries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kalamuna?

Our marketplace is entirely on our website. We’re currently on Drupal 7 and have to upgrade to Drupal 8 or 9 so as not to lose our business. We were also not 508 compliant and needed to be accessible by its standards.

Our website itself was looking a bit old and stodgy and didn’t have a very good UI, so we needed to make it fresh, sleek, and responsive to help bring in new customers and keep the old ones. We’re working with Kalamuna to achieve these objectives.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our cooperative has been able to do its own discovery on different aspects of the website, but none of us are professionals in the areas of customer preferences and website experience. We do have a collection of stakeholder interviews that we’ve conducted over the years as well as feedback from our own members, which we handed to Kalamuna as part of their discovery process.

Their team is a third of the way through the redesign and redevelopment project. We haven’t touched on UI and functionalities, but will definitely take on it later on.

What is the team composition?

We’re working closely with Andrew (CEO & Co-Founder), a project manager, and a strategic accounts manager. We’ve also had tons of direct interactions with developers, coders, and designers. All in all, there are around 6–7 people on this project.

How did you come to work with Kalamuna?

Our independent contractor, who is a website developer and does fixes for us, one day told us that we needed to upgrade to Drupal 8. He also happened to an employee of Kalamuna and mentioned that his employers were great and could help us out.

We looked into their work and were pleased with the caliber of it. We did seek bids from other companies but stuck with Kalamuna because they’re so thorough and their bid, though more expensive, was more realistic. These factors, and the fact that they’re so professional, made us trust them more.

The other reason why we chose to work with them is that we already had a good relationship with one of their employees, the contractor, and wanted to keep that going. We knew that he would be on the design team and that his presence there would save us from having to do lots of back and forths.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, I believe we’ve invested around $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first met with Kalamuna in June 2019 to get the bid and talk about the project. We signed the contract in November 2019 and go to work in January 2020.

The project is still ongoing because we need to do our own fundraising and invite thoughtful input from our 200 members. We’re a democratically run cooperative so everything is extremely slow and none of it has been on Kalamuna’s part.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is still unfinished, so we can’t present anything quantitive. However, our members were able to give feedback on the work, saying that it looked carefully considered and that Kalamuna seemed to understand the unconventional nature of our organization. People liked the thoroughness of their discovery results and found it interesting and dynamic.

Kalamuna communicates with us very well and took a lot of care in trying to perform that made sense to us. So far, they are off to a good start with the design ideas for the next phase of the project.

How did Kalamuna perform from a project management standpoint?

They track everything using Jira and conduct weekly meetings with us. A lot of communication was initially done through Slack, but not many people in our cooperative liked using it, so Kalamuna accommodated us and started using regular email instead. 

We did have some glitches in the timing, and we felt like we don’t get enough lead time for certain tasks that we’re supposed to do. We felt a bit rushed and a little under capacitated. Adding to that, our cooperative makes decisions very slowly, and Kalamuna couldn’t move forward without our feedback. However, their project management, overall, was really exceptional and very streamlined. They’re pros.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s hard to narrow a whole year of work down to one thing, but the most impressive aspect of their service is their endless patience. If we don’t understand the presentation they’re giving, they will rewrite it and deliver it again with more clarity. It’s also worth considering that they’re not being paid yet to do this since we’re still in the bidding process for the next phase of the project.

They’ve just been completely patient and continue to shift the information until we get it since we’re not website designers. I’m very impressed at how relentless they are at answering every question we have, however many times we ask it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve told Kalamuna about this, but it’s about their delegation. They would have all seven of their people in our weekly meetings, and we’d have to pay all of them for their time when we don’t really need all of them there. I feel like there could be better delegation to have only 1–2 people sit with us weekly.

There’s also the matter of us not having enough lead time, which I’ve mentioned about their project management.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be an open book with Kalamuna. Tell them everything you want, good or bad, and ask them every question that’s on your mind. They are sure to address anything that you bring up.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the program analyst of a community college research project that is part of a program called ‘’Beyond the Pill’’ at UC San Francisco.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kalamuna?

The research and training groups in our team need technical support with our several websites.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us with our main project website’s design and development using Drupal; we told them what we wanted and they executed it. That included font, the pages, and the overall site structure. Throughout the last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to make changes to accommodate for telehealth and they created banners and additions that we asked for in a timely manner.

Currently, they update the website with things we request. Additionally, they’re assisting us with the creation of websites for our community college health study.

What is the team composition?

We communicate directly with Lily (Strategic Account Manager). Whenever we need help with anything related to the website, she connects us to a developer who can do the modifications.

How did you come to work with Kalamuna?

They have reasonable prices and they’re located in our same city.

How much have you invested with them?

We invest around $5,000 a year. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in July 2015 and the engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measure the success by their ability to produce what we envision and their compliance to deadlines. We’re very happy with that.

How did Kalamuna perform from a project management standpoint?

I love working with Lily — she’s very communicative and great at meeting deadlines. If we have last-minute changes, cancelations, or meetings, she’s always on board. Additionally, she’s extremely knowledgeable, productive, and she makes me feel welcomed. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re great at sharing; I’m interested in how they do web design and they’re kind enough to teach me how to do things. Also, since they’re not a big company, they’re diverse and focused on allowing people to work with them with high productivity; we’ve never had complaints.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Maybe that would be more complicated, but instead of talking to Lily, we would like to talk directly with a developer and not a middleman all the time.

Any advice for potential customers?

Have monthly or biweekly meetings and ask them beforehand if they’ll be able to deliver in their expected amount of time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior web developer in an art museum in San Francisco.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kalamuna?

We were working on a project to create a platform for digital storytelling. A design agency created the UI. Then, we turned to Kalamuna to deploy it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Kalamuna deployed the entire platform. They implemented the UI designs made by the agency and developed from scratch the code for the backend.

At first, we wanted to implement Drupal or another open-source CMS behind our platform. However, given the schedule and budget constraints we had, that solution ended up being too costly. Kalamuna used their own static site generator called Kalastatic, and a service called GatherContent for the CMS. This service works with their API and allows us to create or add content to our platform.

What is the team composition?

We worked with six people on this project. We had a project manager, a designer, a software architect, two developers, and the CEO who checked on the project occasionally.

How did you come to work with Kalamuna?

Kalamuna is a local firm, and we always try to do business with locals. They responded to a couple of RFPs years ago and approached us showing interest in working with us. We noticed that they had knowledge of Drupal, our museum’s website CMS, so we chose them.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent approximately $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together on this project in November 2018, and the platform was launched in June 2019. They currently offer ongoing support to the platform and help us add new features when needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The assessment performed on the project by Kalamuna helped them work around our budget limitations and created something that really met our needs.

We’ve had really great feedback for the platform. Our curatorial staff and other stakeholders in the museum are now looking forward to using it to get their content out there to tell stories about the objects in our collection.

We uploaded a recent story on this project, and it had a large number of page views on it — that was a validation that people were interested. This platform changed the dynamic of how we work these projects online. We deem it a success.

How did Kalamuna perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Jira and Slack to communicate, and we had regular updates and meetings scheduled by Kalamuna’s project manager to go over the project’s progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Kalamuna’s most impressive quality was their innovation and their capacity of being realistic. They were honest about the very few things that would have taken way too much time and money to deploy.

The project was designed by a different agency and, in certain circumstances, you can design something without knowing how much work it is going to take behind the scenes to actually get it to work.

They worked very hard to get as many of the designed components done as possible. They also were great at problem-solving. Overall, Kalamuna did a good job.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The project management communication could have been a little bit better. I personally was pretty happy with it, but some people on our team thought that they could have communicated more clearly on some of the parts of the project. I was a little closer to it because I was doing some of the development work with them as well.