Marzee

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Created in 1967 we are a renowed University in Portugal with four campuses in Lisbon, Porto, Braga and Viseu. Providing training to about 18,400 students. I am a Senior System Analyts at Lisbon Headquarters.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Marzee Labs?

Marzee Labs was hired to create a website for a specific new project based in Drupal technology. At the project start-up, specifications were not yet fully closed. Marzee Labs came up with the option of splitting the project into two phases, to speed up the delivery of the project.

What were your goals for this project?

Marzee Labs designed and developed a website to meet two goals:

1. Act as the public website for the project
2. Act as a collaborative work platform within a restricted user community

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended to us by another agency. There were three vendors, all of them selected because of proven experience in deploying Drupal CMS. Marzee Labs excel in several items, such as:

• Involvement in proposal production
• Proposal submission time
• Total cost estimative

From the first moment until the project delivery, we always felt confident in the vision and deliverability from Marzee Labs

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Designing, developing and customizing a Drupal CMS platform to provide not only front desk website features but also a collaborative environment where users can produce and share information.

What was the team composition?

It is clear that Marzee Labs has a very flexible structure regarding the resources allocated to each project. From the beginning, we had a project manager constantly engaged with the project. Apart from the PM the project team was composed of 2 Drupal developers and one designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This project enabled the possibility to provide a website where information could be gathered in a controlled sharing environment.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was conducted from a SCRUM perspective, with the implementation of several sprints. A key aspect was enabling end-users to do compliance monitoring and follow-up for each sprint. The tools used for project communication were Skype and GitHub.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

With scarce guidelines, Marzee Labs delivered a robust and well-planned system. Meeting the requirement to use Drupal, Marzee Labs not only authored all the design components but also streamlined the production infrastructure to meet the continual development that the project required.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The conduction of this project had few areas for improvement. The production of documentation may be a factor to improve.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Porto i/o is the leading coworking space in Porto, Portugal, since 2014. I am the founder and currently the project lead.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Marzee Labs?

Marzee Labs provided us with a new platform to power our sites (the main one and spin-off projects). Part of Marzee Labs team is also using one of our coworking spaces, and they continuously provide ad-hoc consulting on technical topics.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals were to migrate all our websites, refreshing their look and feel, as well as making them mobile-friendly.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were very much impressed by Besugo, Marzee Lab's state-of-the-art piece of technology that uses a static site generator approach for institutional sites. It suited our needs, budget and vision for what we want to achieve. Moreover, they are part of the open-source community and it matches our values.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

In a nutshell, here are the phases of the project:

1. Current site analysis and re-structure proposal.
2. Product revamp and evolution.
3. Design (low and hi-fi mockups) including style tiles.
4. Study and iteration on mobile-first approach.
5. Implementation and content migration.
6. Project management, tests, documentation and training.

What was the team composition?

Marzee Labs team was composed by:

• 1 PM
• 1 Product specialist
• 1 Lead developer
• 1 Designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The thin tech layer and simplified editorial platform that powers our websites were a drastic improvement so any one of our team can now contribute to our several websites. Right now we are finishing the content production and the release is going to be a massive step forward for our business since we'll be able to communicate well and beautifully our values and what we have to offer.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was divided by sprints and several demos were being done as the project went forward. The communication was really clear and transparent. What we enjoyed the most was probably the fact that we always felt secure and in control of what was happening from a timeframe and budget perspective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their culture. Not only their structure is flat, but it is clear that everyone in the team (and even in the project) feels equally important. There was never any typical "us against them" situation, and we could feel like we were part of their team, even though we were the client.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Since Marzee Labs is small at the core, and their work in a very non-traditional way, they have challenges with resources stacking. Again - they were very transparent about this at the beginning and we clearly knew that there will be some parts of the project where their team will be less available, as they would be in a more critical phase of another project. This, for us, was never an issue, because our critical phases of the projects were always well treated.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Product Manager of a gaming company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are an American interactive entertainment company and mobile-first video game developer and publisher.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Improve website appearance
• Increase user engagement
• Improve new user conversion

SOLUTION

How did you find Marzee?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select Marzee over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from Marzee were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Marzee helped us revamp our official website, which now has a high-quality design and advanced features, such as a fan art corner, education hub, and community content center. They also improved our SEO practices. As a result, we achieved a 3x rise in homepage traffic and a 5x rise in average time on site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

3x website traffic and 5x average time spent on the site

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

They always deliver on time and listen to our needs attentively to propose solutions.

What was your primary form of communication with Marzee?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Marzee's collaborative mentality was impressive.

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

More creative ideas can be proposed for better marketing results.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing Digital of CIP - Confederação Empresarial de Portugal

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Non-profit organisation 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• creation of a new website

SOLUTION

How did you find Marzee?

Other

Why did you select Marzee over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Marzee were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Creation of a digital platform

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

 The measurable results of the CIP Data project include:

• Document Centralization: All documents are organized and accessible on a single platform.
• Regular Updates: Data is updated weekly, ensuring relevance and accuracy.
• Reduced Requests: Fewer additional requests due to improved access and completeness of information.
• These results demonstrate enhanced efficiency and data management within the project.

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

Marzee's project management was efficient, ensuring the delivery of items within the established deadlines. They demonstrated flexibility and responsiveness to our needs, quickly adapting to adjustments and providing continuous support throughout the project.

What was your primary form of communication with Marzee?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Marzee's understanding of our needs and practical solutions with efficient and attentive service are impressive.

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

-

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the marketing manager at Siesta Campers, the leading company for campervan hire in Portugal, offering new & classic VW campers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We transitioned to a new website prior to onboarding Marzee Labs. We had an urgent need for continued development and needed a company that could get up to speed quickly and effectively.

SOLUTION

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

Marzee Labs came highly recommended form trusted sources.

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

Essentially we needed Marzee to go through all of the code, to increase the speed and reliability of our newly launched website, to provide additional functionality that was unavailable to us due to time constraints and technical limitations of the previous dev company.

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

We've got a project manager and two senior developers providing ongoing support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Improvements are massive across the board. Zero downtime, increased traffic, aggressive jumps in google rankings and overall seo, better UI resulting in less customer service involvement. The list goes on.

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

We're able to manage communications very effectively with the help of github and slack.

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

We ask for things that others said were not possible. Marzee makes it happen.

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

Quite satisfied.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Community and Coliving for Digital Nomads. I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Marzee Labs?

Develop a niche web site

What were your goals for this project?

Build digital presence

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Found them on our travels

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They provided:

• Web development
• Social media
• Advertising
• Copywriting
• Strategy

What was the team composition?

Tech, Account Management, Copywriter

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They created an incredible, niche site that produces traffic and compliments the brand.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Excellent

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Dedication

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Parli is a media platform building an encyclopaedia of opinion. I am the Founder / CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Marzee Labs?

Front-end design UX consulting Architecture

What were your goals for this project?

Optimise site design for multiple forms of user behaviour, while keeping close eye on SEO and on the underlying architecture.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Marzee Labs came highly recommended from two highly respected contacts for their initiative, commitment, design smarts and speed.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Marzee Labs has worked on all aspects of our site: architecture, front end development, design, UI and UX consulting.

What was the team composition?

The team consists of 5 people - all with expertise in a particular sector but a generalist's comfort across the whole project. The team was project managed brilliantly too.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Increased PVs, increased time on site, reduced bounce rate. All within 3 months.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Marzee Labs uses a dedicated project manager who was exceptional.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their initiative. Far from purely delivering the work we asked for, they kept coming back with new ideas and suggestions for optimising our design and approach, almost all of which we took on board and implemented.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No!