Lithios

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work as a technical program manager for a university. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lithios?

As a research organization, we didn’t have a lot of experience with UI design. We were interested in getting Lithios’ help to create the UI for one of our research projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

In the first half of the project, Lithios took us through a design exercise to help us develop what the UI would look like. Out of that experience, we got a branding package for our project. The other primary deliverable was the software code that Lithios developed for us. 

The team has recently finished our product about a month ago, but we still have some issues to work through to get it set up on our network.

What is the team composition? 

We worked with about 7–10 people.

How did you come to work with Lithios?

My friend ran a nonprofit that helped small startups, so I reached out to him to see if he had any recommendations for local companies that could help with our UI design. He mentioned a few, and we talked to all of them. In the end, Lithios was the one that we went with.

How much have you invested with them?

It’s been about $68,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked with them since June 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve just gotten to the point where we can put our product in front of analysts for feedback, so we don’t have any metrics yet. 

How did Lithios perform from a project management standpoint?

The communication is great. We connect with them periodically through virtual check-ins, and there’s also a collaborative Slack channel where we can reach out to them dynamically.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Overall, we’ve been very satisfied with Lithios’ services, and they’ve met the objectives that they’ve set out to do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The development work did take a little bit longer than we’d intended. However, that’s partly because one of the people on our team left to go to another company, and then one of the people on their team also left to go to another company. Those two disruptions made for an understandable delay.

Other than that, there’s not much I’d really recommend that they change. They’re a really great team to work with, and we were really pleased with the service we’ve received.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Keep in contact with them. Lithios has been good about getting back to us whenever we’ve had questions or issues. As long as you reach out with your concerns, they’ll be more than happy to get back to you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m starting my own company that’s focused on education.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lithios?

I needed help building a prototype.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lithios designed a prototype for my business. It’s a new website. The team helped me come up with my idea and vision.

How did you come to work with Lithios?

They’re located in the area that I’m interested in living. I liked that they were a small team with great reviews.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2021, and we wrapped up in May 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I needed my deliverables completed in a certain time frame, and they did an excellent job with the execution. I’m very happy with Lithios’ services.

How did Lithios perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great at meeting deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team was very professional and friendly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I found it to be a great experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to ask any questions you have.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Operations for RIoT. RIoT is a non-profit organization that focuses on economic development by capturing emerging markets and accelerating startups — creating IoT opportunities locally, nationally, and globally.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The RIoT website was created several years ago and had become outdated.

SOLUTION

How did you select Lithios and what were the deciding factors?

The RIoT Team knows the Lithios Team well, as we both work out of the Raleigh Founded co-working space in downtown Raleigh.

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

The Lithios Team helped upload the content that our team had created via the WordPress site. They helped update the content to reflect our company's services.

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

Our main points of contact for the project were DeShawn Brown and Kyle Linton. DeShawn and Kyle are extremely knowledgeable, helpful, and professional. We truly enjoy working with the entire Lithios Team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our Team and our partners love the new website design and are impressed with how easy it is to navigate all the services RIoT provides.

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

The Lithios Team always clearly communicated with our team. If there were any delays, they would let us know ahead of time so that we could prepare. The Lithios Team is outstanding to work with!

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

The Lithios Team is flexible, courteous, and knowledgeable. They are always upfront about meeting expectations and providing the best service possible at the lowest feasible cost.

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

n/a

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of TraKid. We’re building wearable tracking devices for children, marketing to amusement parks to rent to families. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lithios?

Building the mobile app for parents was the first stage.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lithios helped to design, brainstorm, and develop the app, which is native to Android and iOS. We started with the UI/UX and flow, going through the day-to-day options for parents and parks. They even drove down with us to Virginia to meet with a park client, where we got feedback to make changes before development. 

One of our requirements was that the app needed to communicate well with our backend servers and hardware. A lot of stuff went wrong on the hardware side; the coronavirus delayed delivery from China. Lithios was super flexible and worked really well with us to figure that part out.

What is the team composition?

We work with 6–7 people, including two designers, two developers — one for iOS, one for Android — and the management team. 

How did you come to work with Lithios?

We met a bunch of app companies and got a lot of quotes. I first heard about Lithios from a coworking space. They didn’t offer the cheapest quote, but I liked their personalities and all the questions they were asking. They felt like the right fit, which was very important to me.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $48,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in December 2019 and is ongoing. The app has been delivered, but we’re awaiting the hardware to test it fully.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app has been delivered, but we’re awaiting the hardware to test it fully. We plan to work on a bunch of other stuff in the future with Lithios.

The quality has been excellent. The design phase has been their strongest phase; we’re especially pleased with the look and feel. We have yet to fully test the development side, but everything’s perfect from what we’ve able to test. Lithios is good at taking feedback from us and clients. 

How did Lithios perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re on top of everything. When it comes to scheduling weekly calls, they’re flexible in working around my schedule. Our offices were next door, so it’s become really convenient. Lithios is great at managing all that. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication impresses me. I’d like to point to quality work, but I don’t know the quality of work for other people that well. For us, they’ve done a great job, though.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have no negative feedback. I would like if they were cheaper, but they charge industry-standard rates.

Any advice for potential customers?

Go ahead and work with them. I’ve recommended a lot of people to them. I would gladly put myself as a reference for them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the software development manager for Cree Lighting, a lighting manufacturer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lithios?

We needed a tablet application to control a lighting product. Tablet software is not our expertise, so we found that expertise in Lithios.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We selected a particular Samsung tablet, and Lithios built an app for that tablet that sends messages over Wi-Fi to control a lighting system built by us. 

The control surface allows users to select various lighting features in a room. It can control individual lights or multiple lights and provide a dynamic lighting profile.

We gave Lithios initial screenshots to inform what kind of screens we wanted, but they also offered their ideas for how to implement the solution. 

What is the team composition?

We work with 2–5 people at any one time.

How did you come to work with Lithios?

We found them through word-of-mouth, but I didn’t select them personally: my boss had known from some other place. Plus, we had a connection in our roots: their office is a think-tank for NC State graduates, and it was an NC State graduate that founded our company.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in October 2018 and is almost done; Lithios is doing one last detail. We may come back and add more functionality, but the original scope is complete.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had our marketing guys use the new app, and we tweaked a lot based on their input. About 25 of our sales kits have the app and are showing it to customers across the country. We had some stability issues and crashing problems at first, but those are largely resolved now. With everything else, Lithios has made it look easy.

How did Lithios perform from a project management standpoint?
They’ve done very well. We use Slack for communication. Everyone down to an individual worker is highly responsive. Almost always, I get a reply to a question within half an hour if not immediately.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We invited them to our campus to do integration testing – we were unable to provide them with the amount of hardware that they needed to conduct the tests. Those visits were amazing; we fixed an astonishing number of bugs together, and Lithios would often leave after an afternoon with the fixed code in hand. 

I also appreciate the personable nature of everyone I’ve worked with from Lithios. Whether it’s over email, Slack, the phone, or in-person, they’re professional and proactive. When we point a problem or ask for a change, Lithios is always very willing to make it happen. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They lost one key team member during the process through no fault of their own, and they recovered from that very well. They also have continued to work during the coronavirus and made significant changes to the code while working from home. So, I have nothing negative to say at all.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be willing to listen to their suggestions as they implement your designs. They have ideas that you won’t think of and that will make the product even better.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of operations at a digital media company. We own and operate several websites for different categories of celebrity news, auto, sports, movies, television shows, and more. We have over 30 million monthly readers and almost 200 million page views per month, so we have a large following.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Lithios?

As our company has grown, we’ve developed new websites, which have established our parent company as important for new employees, advertising partners, and industry partners. We needed to create a brand and a website for that parent company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

There were two main things. The first was a branding exercise around what’s important to our brand. It wasn’t about logos or colors, but about our tone. They asked us who we wanted to be and how we wanted to depict ourselves in the industry. It was a small-time commitment.

The major process was going page-by-page through our website, about 12 pages, including the home page, brand page, team page, benefits, and culture. They helped with the layout, design, flow, and imagery of those pages. We were going to use stock images but they pushed us to hire a photographer. We had a company retreat where we captured images of the team in a professional manner.

Overall, they helped us create a genuine look and feel. They gave the code to our developers, because our developers built the side.

What is the team composition?

Tim (Director, Lithios) was my main point of contact. I also met and interacted with Kassidy (Business Development Analyst, Lithios) and Kyle (Consultant, Lithios). There was also a design resource that worked with Tim.

How did you come to work with Lithios?

Our company is completely remote—all 70 of our employees. I work in a coworking space where Lithios also works. I met them three years ago at happy hours and around the office. I also reached out to four or five other design firms all over the country. I decided to go with Lithios because I liked the examples on their website and the simple yet thoughtful storytelling in their design work. Some of the other companies were more about finding a good outsourced resource than being end-to-end.

How much have you invested with them?

The agreed contract is $14,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our contract had two pieces. The first was the website, and that ran from August 2019—December 2019. The other half is to redesign our home page, and that’s ongoing; it started in January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s only been live for a week and a half, but everyone on my team loves the site. Our writers believe that they really captured our goals for the site. Early readers have also commented that they like the clean, modern design.

How did Lithios perform from a project management standpoint?

They used InVision as the core design tool. We normally use PhotoShop in-house, so this was a great learning experience for us. They set clear turnaround times so we knew if it would take one, two, or three weeks. This way, we were never sitting around and waiting for them. We were able to align our sprint planning with his turnaround time pretty easily. It was all pretty seamless.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re really easy to work with and schedule with. They also took feedback easily as well. Tim and the entire team have been very engaging and nice to work with. They listened to our needs and understood our desire to make our writers the forefront of the website. We delivered about three principles we wanted to follow, including who our audience was. They took them into account for all their decisions.

Lithois felt like an internal team, rather than an outsourced design team. It felt similar to when I worked with an in-house designer. They asked about how our business ran and how we made money. Those up-front, strategic questions informed their design, which helped them deliver on both aesthetic and business concepts.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were surprised when they sent us InVision files at the end, rather than Photoshop or illustrator. I would suggest more clarity upfront about the deliverable format. It only took one email to clarify though, so it didn’t slow us down.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would consider that Lithios both designs and builds apps. Our was just straight branding and design.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Since 1983, the North Carolina Business Committee for Education has operated out of the Office of the Governor as a business-led, education-focused non-profit. NCBCE partners with statewide education departments and organizations to implement experiential projects that create a contextual fabric of understanding of the critical link between the classroom and workforce talent needs. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lithios?

Lithios was hired to develop the second version of the Navigator platform.

What were your goals for this project?

To improve the visual look of the site, to make the site more user-friendly, to add data tracking capabilities.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed several software developers and found Lithios to best meet our needs.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The platform is designed to connect educators to businesses for work-based learning opportunities. The platform was working but needed a face lift as well as additional features and data tracking capabilities. We also added a data collection component which will be able to capture more data needed for the educators.

What was the team composition?

I am not sure how many people have had their hand in our project. Our lead person is Tim and he has been our main contact person. At different stages of the project we have had weekly or bi-weekly meetings to discuss development needs and make tweaks on the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Essentially, we had a bicycle, added a jet pack and we were flying it as a plane. Lithios has helped us make the platform visually more aesthetically pleasing by changing the overall look and more user friendly by reviewing and tweaking the process in how the user engages.

We are almost to relaunch with version 2.0. We'll know more in a few months as to the difference the second version is making. The data collection piece will be critical to the success of the platform.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was effective. We had open lines of communication. Tim was excellent at explaining the development process and software capabilities to our office as we are accidental software developers.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Lithios has been flexible, patient, and easy to work with during out process. We have brought in various other organizations who they had to work with on this project in order to make the platform perform as needed and they have been able to work with everyone involved.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing comes to mind at the moment.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Fintech company opening the door for opportunity & experience.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lithios?

Lithios assisted us in research, discovery, and prototyping. Lithios was given a broad concept/idea which needed to be explored further to help develop a clear MVP.

What were your goals for this project?

Project goals were to explore the pain points of a user's financial life and to determine if a product could be built to address these pain points.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I selected this vendor after previously working with another vendor who was not able to efficiently complete the project.

Describe the project in detail.

• Create a product strategy
• Identify possible target markets
• Identify Product features
• Identify Product roadmap
• Interview users
• Create a product hypothesis
• Create interview questions
• Schedule interview meetings and record sessions
• Explore interview findings
• Design MVP

What was the team composition?

Worked closely with Tim and Kassidy. Tim assisted with the user experience, design, and product strategy. Kassidy assisted with business development, user research, and product validation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Lithios provided excellent flexibility and communication throughout the entire project. They were able to accommodate my irregular schedule while sticking to deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was blown away by how Tim and Kassidy were able to think past the users wants to discover their needs.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder & CEO of NextPlay, a startup that provides career development services to athletics departments. We are a small team of two looking to grow. We are hoping to build a software platform that will make our services scalable and more efficient.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Lithios?

We hired Lithios to create the initial design prototype for our software platform, which will be the backbone of the company moving forward. The prototype will allow us to share our vision with customers and investors as we look to sell more programming and raise money to grow.

What were your goals for this project?

Create a clickable prototype that allows us to more clearly communicate our value and our vision to clients and investors. Ultimately, our software tool will be the most valuable asset of the business, so getting the design right is absolutely critical.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We spoke with a number of different tech dev shops in the Triangle and received quotes from five different companies to build the prototype. Ultimately, Lithios' price was reasonable enough that it neither felt too expensive or questionably low. While many of the other tech dev shops has negative things to say about each other, they all had positive things to say about Lithios. Furthermore, we spoke to some clients of the various tech dev shops and they all felt strongly about Lithios' superior design abilities, which was a key factor in our decision.

Describe the project in detail.

As a non-technical founder, I needed someone to walk me through the entire process of building an InVision prototype. From start to finish, Lithios helped to guide me through exercises that I had never done before from building out user flows to making decisions about specific UI/UX aspects of the prototype. They did a great job of asking the right questions to learn what I wanted to build and to clarify what was possible. When necessary, they suggested possible adjustments or changes to the idea that would make it more feasible from a technical standpoint.

What was the team composition?

I primarily interfaced with two people- a business development employee who was my primary point of contact and then a lead UI/UX designer who would guide me through the actual development of the project. I know that there was also another designer who worked behind the scenes, but he and I did not have much communication during the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The prototype was completed much to my satisfaction. It has gotten strong early reviews from potential clients. It is too early to really know what the long-term impact will be, but I am pleased with the output.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project management was largely done via email and got better as the project went on. It was a little bit rocky in the early going, but I chalk that up to some personnel changes that happened at Lithios as my project came online. Once we got used to working together and they got more comfortable in their roles, things settled into place.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The feedback that I got about Lithios in advance of working with them was that their design skills are strong, and they lived up to that reputation.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I do think that having some sort of tool for project management might have been a good idea. At the very least, more consistent and expected communication might be beneficial- for example, a quick email at the end of the week to lay out what was accomplished that week and what will be happening in the upcoming week.