Materialize Labs

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Dendri, a workflow management software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Materialize?

We needed to get our MVP off the ground from concept to working product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Materialized has worked on software development, project management, and QA testing. We started with wireframes and the overall concept for the application. We did the proposal with them, and they came back with a great proposal and an incredible plan to implement the application. They did a thorough outline of the steps they’d take. Initially, we contacted them to build the MVP, get it off the ground, and set up the environment. We worked with Materialize to source developers and specialists to build the stack and launch the application. They made everything from scratch; we only gave them wireframes and technical documentation.

The application has a couple of features, including some that are protected by patent, which are unique in the task and workflow management industry. For example, any task can be in an unlimited number of boards, lists, and organizational systems so different users can organize their work independently but still collaborate on the same tasks and keep each other up to date on their progress. That was one of the most instrumental challenges because a single task or element inventory could appear in hundreds of ways. 

Materialize also helped build a robust automation engine with a lot of logic in the backend so that people could trigger specific actions based on events. Finally, they helped us integrate one of the larger applications in the legal practice industry and get a robust bilateral synchronization so we could open our market to a broader legal client base.

Over the last year, the founder of Materialize decided to invest back in Dendri, so our relationship changed from our strictly contractual relationship. The maintenance agreement has been modified based on their founder’s involvement in our company. However, they continue to provide maintenance support, bug fixing, and user testing.

What is the team composition?

We’ve primarily worked with the founder as our main point of contact. Also, we’ve had 2–3 full-time developers in regular contact with us.

How did you come to work with Materialize?

One thing that was important to us regarding soliciting bids and interviewing potential contractors was the project timeline. When Materialize returned to us, they had a detailed plan of the stages and milestones they’d hit.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $125,000–$150,000 during the contracting period.

What is the status of this engagement?

We kicked the project off in March 2019, and it lasted 18 months. We’re still working together, but not in a contractual relationship.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There weren’t business metrics for the project since it was an unproven product. Therefore, our metrics were the scope of the project and timeline. Materialize met those goals.

How did Materialize perform from a project management standpoint?

Over the 18-month initial build time, they met all the milestones. They never missed a deadline, slipped behind, or asked for an additional investment beyond what was initially quoted.

We primarily used Jira for the first phase. Towards the end, we started using Dendri to test it internally. We had weekly stand-up video calls. Additionally, we communicated on the Slack channel and commented on Jira on specific tickets.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their strengths were accuracy and scope management. I’m technically conversant, but many people aren’t able or don’t have the time to do that, so they bring vague projects or generalized ideas. Materialize’s biggest strength was that they were able to understand non-technical users, communicate adequately to get the idea out, and put it back in technical terms that established milestones, goals, and deliverables that made sense for everyone. Then, they were able to execute them within time and budget.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be hard for me to say. The first 18 months were on the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. They had some difficulties sourcing developers, but they were still able to meet the deadlines and goals. It was a flawless project; I have no critiques.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The most important thing is to spend time upfront to understand the plan, even when comparing offers. You don’t want the cheapest or fastest plan; you want the one that explains how you’ll do it, why certain things cost what they do, and how they’ll accomplish it on time. When you’re working with a company, particularly Materialize, having communication upfront is vital. You have to ensure that the plan is mutable, and they excel at that.

Often, people look for help with software development on Upwork or other sites, and they just accept the cheapest bid. More likely than not, the offer is so cheap because the company hasn’t taken the time to understand the scope. When you start communicating your scope, they claim that it’s outside it rather than taking the time to ensure an alignment. If you take the time, Materialize will give you the time and use it to make sure you have a plan that both of you are ready to execute.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a campaign technology platform that helps grassroots organizations qualify citizen-initiated ballot measures.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Materialize?

We wanted to address several inefficiencies in the operational requirements of our ballot measure campaigns. That involved tracking team members’ productivity, statuses, and assignments and recruiting new people to the operations. All of these were manually handled in the past, so we needed a unified platform that would help us do them in an integrated manner. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we started the engagement with Materialize, the project was in its conceptual phase. My co-founder and I defined the problem and came up with the tools that we wanted to build. No code had been written at this point. 

Then, Materialize helped us turn the concept into specifications. They also made proposals for the technological approaches we could use to solve the problems, including the coding languages we wanted to use. After that, they built the actual software. 

At present, we’re working with them on the post-launch phase of the project as we receive feedback and improvement requests from end users. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with a few different people from their team. Alex (Founder) is our main point of contact for design specifications, scope, and budget. He’s also in charge of determining the development resources that are necessary to deliver our requirements. He fully manages that workflow as part of Materialize’s services. 

How did you come to work with Materialize?

We found Materialize on UpWork, where we searched for vendors with full stack development capabilities. We also interviewed a number of companies. In the end, Alex’s team rose on top of the stack in terms of their experience in working with web applications. They also had available resources for front- and backend development at a price that was reasonable.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent between $250,000–$500,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2020, and our partnership is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

So far, all of our users and customers have been happy with the platform. The team is great at responding to feedback from end users and implementing new features to make the product more useful. I’ve been impressed by their ability to stay on top of both the planned features that we implement and the issues or improvements requested by users. They do a good job of balancing those things and driving the project forward. 

How did Materialize perform from a project management standpoint?

Alex has been incredibly responsive and is always on top of the communication modes we use, such as emails and texts. He’s great at keeping us informed of developments. In terms of timelines, they’d been good at estimating deadlines for a given scope of work. We have regular communications to check in on our progress and evaluate the deliverables. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Alex has a can-do attitude and flexibility in the face of shifting priorities and requirements. This isn’t my first tech project, and I know that it’s common to deal with push backs from developers, especially if something takes longer than anticipated. In this engagement, we’ve brought a number of challenging problems for the Materialize team to solve. Given that, I’ve been impressed with their ability to roll up their sleeves, dig in, and figure out a way to get things done in a timely manner. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our product is a complex platform that has many moving pieces. As a result, they should stay on top of the QA tests as new features are rolled out. They must ensure that every new feature links seamlessly with existing ones. This is one of the central challenges in any effective product development. It’s never the most exciting thing; it’s also labor-intensive. As a result, this is an area where our project and collaboration can improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a defined and fully contextualized set of requirements when you engage with Materialize — or any developer, for that matter. Doing that will make for a smoother process, and expectations will be clear. On top of that, they can truly focus on building your product rather than defining and designing it. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of an online media company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Materialize?

We had a team of about 30 engineers doing our projects, and we wanted to build new things. As a result, we decided to partner with Materialize. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve engaged Materialize on a custom platform development project using React, AWS services, and plenty of other tech stacks. The deliverable is a social media platform that’s similar to Instagram. It has a paywall for subscribers to see the content. The product also has unique features, which users can access by subscribing to the platform. 

The app is live now, and we’re working with Materialize to build up its user base.  At present, we have 1,500 users, and we’re taking it slowly; we don’t want to make big announcements and suddenly get huge traffic. Rather, we want the user base to grow naturally. Meanwhile, Materialize and our team are doing more product iterations and building features while improving different parts of the platform. 

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with Alex (Founder) and one of his engineers. 

How did you come to work with Materialize?

We were looking for a small company somewhere in Los Angeles, California, and we found Materialize. I also contacted a lot of people and searched in different areas, including Clutch. When I reached out to them, they were working on a project that was similar to what we were building. Then, we had a good conversation with them and felt that we’d work well together. 

After having good technical conversations with Alex, we had a good feel for their work. The CEO of our company — a well-respected engineer — and I felt that it’d be a good decision to work with Alex because of his technical experience. On top of that, he was a good person. In the end, we decided to partner with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $500,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our partnership in July 2020, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve done a couple of interviews with the platform’s sellers, and feedback has been positive. The platform works and functions well. Users are requesting to add more features, but that’s less a reflection of Materialize’s work and more of the product team’s job. Moreover, the platform can handle traffic; we haven’t had any downtime. We’ve had to fix a couple of things here and there, but that’s quite normal in projects like ours. 

How did Materialize perform from a project management standpoint?

To communicate, we mostly use Slack. The Materialize team uses Jira for ticket tracking, while I focus on bigger things to push forward for the product. Moreover, Alex gives us good updates several times throughout the week. We communicate every other day, if not daily.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our communication has been great. Materialize understands and builds what we ask for not only on the surface level; we can also have a conversation to ensure that we’re working on the right things. Overall, the feedback loop and communication have been great throughout the whole process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To get the most out of working with Materialize, have a clear vision for the project. Tell them exactly what you want to build.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and founder of Driven by Safety, a remote alcohol-monitoring system. We have over a thousand drivers who utilize our system to test for alcohol levels remotely.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Materialize Labs?

We were previously relying on an offshore provider, who had developed our website and database. We were experiencing a host of issues, like bad code and unneeded features. We relied on Materialize Labs, a local provider, to resolve all of these bugs and problems. This was critical because our users rely on our service to stay out of jail—especially if they’re on probation for a DUI.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They configured our AWS and database. Our previous database wasn’t saving information; the previous team had dealt poorly with portal scripts and cron jobs, which were misfiring as a result.

Materialize Labs quickly identified the issue and upped our server capacity, which solved the problem immediately. Then, the team replaced our badly-written scripts. Everything started saving after that, and the system ran even faster.  

What is the team composition?

We worked with two teammates.

How did you come to work with Materialize Labs?

I was looking for a local provider. I met up with Alex (Founder & Principal Engineer) in person, and he was able to identify precisely what the issues were.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $53,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February, and it’s an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re very thorough in their delivery. They can do it fast, but they’ll also do it right. They met all of our deadlines. Everything works like it’s supposed to, now.

How did Materialize Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They kept me informed on everything. They updated me through JIRA, Slack, and Google Docs, all of which they leveraged very skillfully. There was also an email trail for everything they did. I was kept in the loop at all times.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Both their quality and speed are phenomenal. When an app developer appraised their code, they saw that it was very good quality. I also never had to micromanage them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. They did everything that I asked.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just be honest. Transparency will get you very far.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a railroad contracting business. We provide various services to the railroads in the United States. My role is director of technology and innovation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Materialize?

We needed to create a technology that would catch any mistakes before they impacted railroad operations.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I brought them an existing concept and told them what it was for. With them, we finished the system and made improvements to the concept I had in mind. They were involved every step of the way from design concepts to database optimizations.

What is the team composition?

I had one main point of contact. I also spoke to one of the engineers briefly.

How did you come to work with Materialize?

I found them on UpWork. They were able to understand the concepts that I was presenting very quickly.

How much have you invested with them?    

We've invested $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in January 2020 and wrapped up in March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've seen a huge surge of downloads for our app and we're getting a lot of useful data from our users. It'll eventually turn into a new revenue stream for us, so it's extremely valuable.

How did Materialize perform from a project management standpoint?

I like to have an end of week review, a beginning of week outlook, in addition to regular calls. They were happy to do all of that.  I have no complaints about them at all, I'm extremely happy.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Communication is one of their strong points. I run a very strict project and I like to touch base numerous times weekly. For certain sections, they told me they could have it implemented within three days and they never missed a deadline.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could benefit greatly from an in-house designer. For these projects, the design wasn't critical, but we’ll have to get that squared away for future projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Co-founder of a PE firm focused on eCommerce/DTC brands.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Materialize?

Ongoing eCommerce development including but not limited to retheme(s), solving complex technical bugs other developers could not, site speed improvement, CRO tweaks, app development, etc...

What were your goals for this project?

Increase CR across our portfolio of sites.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Referral

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Extensive amount of work was done by Alex and his firm to improve conversion rates across our portfolio of companies including but not limited to:

-Cleaning up messy spaghetti code.

-Executing rethemes while maintaining similar aesthetics.

-Increasing site speed.

-App development used for enhanced merchandising.

What was the team composition?

We deal with Alex directly, who then coordinates with his team. Alex doesn't appear to sleep, as he has replied to both myself and my team members late at night about last minute requests.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We saw a notable increase in conversion rates across the board.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Nordlinger jumped into our slack channels and BaseCamp/Asana to work with us directly. Flexible with work flow!

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Speed and quality of execution.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the VP of marketing at a smart food company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Materialize?

We needed a partner to help us with our web development needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Materialize developed our website through Shopify. We had an initial codebase, but Materialize did a decent amount of work on the front- and backend. The site has a consumer-facing frontend, and they changed many elements on the backend. They continue to implement regular updates to bring our website to the next level. 

What is the team composition? 

We mostly work with Alex, who is our project manager. 

How did you come to work with Materialize?

I found them on Upwork

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent between $15,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working with them in March 2019 and the relationship is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Materialize understands our needs, so they’ve been able to handle all the changes and updates that we wanted to make on a weekly basis. We wouldn't be able to grow nearly as fast if Materialize hasn't been making regular changes and optimizations to our website. 

How did Materialize perform from a project management standpoint? 

I hand off the projects to Alex, and he passes them on to his team. They’re very clear about how long the project will take, and they let us know immediately if there is a delay. It's never taken them more than a week to finish a project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We appreciate their personable approach and their responsiveness. They're real experts in what they do, so they’ve been able to meet all of our needs. Also, they're always willing to provide feedback and give advice.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We're satisfied with everything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have an idea of what you want your website to look like and share your vision with them. Tell them about your brand and your company's goals. Materialize will do their best to bring your vision to life. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a product manager at LF Stores, a women's clothing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Materialize?

Materialize had been hired in the past to improve the functionality of three of our websites that were built by other developers and not performing well. We more recently hired them to develop and launch a fourth site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Materialize developed an e-commerce website on Shopify from scratch, working with mostly provided designs. They built in features that allow for toggling between product swatches, corrected any bugs, and implemented custom code to ensure all the menus and other features worked properly. 

What is the team composition? 

We work with two main developers.

How did you come to work with Materialize?

They were recommended to our e-commerce director, and then I started working with them directly. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since March 2018 and launched the most recent website in May 2019, but they continue to work with us to add new features and improve the overall customer experience. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new website Materialize built is now our top-performing site across the company. Compared to previous developers we've worked with on our other sites, Materialize's quality of work is exponentially better. They've improved the shopability and user experience of all our existing sites, which has helped increase leads by 10–15 times. 

How did Materialize perform from a project management standpoint?

They're fantastic to work with all-around–very responsive and communicative. They're quick to work on any roadblocks that come up and transparent about what they're working on. Their processes are simple and they've made us feel like we're all on the same team throughout the engagement. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their level of communication and transparency is unlike anything I've ever experienced. As stressful and daunting of a task as building a website can be, they made the whole process relatively seamless. In addition to bringing our ideas to life, they also built a site that's helped us attract new customers and been very responsive throughout the engagement.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Keep all lines of communication open and be as transparent as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief marketing officer of Silicon Beach, which is a substance abuse and mental health treatment facility. We supply 24-hour staffing to house clients, provide clinical care, and offer psychiatric intervention. Our goal is to help clients recover from whatever ailments they’re dealing with.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Materialize?

We wanted to redesign our previous website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We originally expected them to redesign our existing site, but their developers observed that it was built from a low-quality template and would be challenging to update. They ended up creating the new site from scratch instead. In terms of design, our team looked at some of our competitors’ sites for ideas and then Materialize gave us additional suggestions on what might look good or offer the best functionality.

The site is structured similarly to our old one, with a top menu that leads users to different services. The developer also added insurance verification buttons that allow users to upload photos of their insurance IDs. On top of that, the site allows users to contact our organization directly, and those messages will route directly to my account.

The site is mostly developed now, but the project’s still ongoing because it’s been hard to find a content writer to get the pages ready for publication, so they’re waiting on us for that.

What is the team composition?

There was one developer who worked on our project.

How did you come to work with Materialize?

I’ve known the developer for a while, so we decided to try their services. They’ve delivered on everything they promised.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent somewhere between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in January 2019 and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our site isn’t live yet, but we’ve been able to beta test it. Everything looks good so far and the load speed is noticeably improved over our old site. They’ve also worked with our SEO manager to ensure that all the necessary information is set up correctly.

How did Materialize perform from a project management standpoint?

Despite the initial challenge with our old code, they delivered the new site slightly ahead of schedule and were easy to communicate with by phone and text. The developer was highly responsive whenever we needed to discuss the site or make changes, and they deployed Google Drive well in order to collaborate with us throughout the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re friendly and communicate well, and the work is top-notch.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything about the process that I’d want to change.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go in with a sense of what you want to accomplish. They’re good at guiding you toward your goals and will ensure that you get everything done, but it will help if you already have a general vision for your final product or goal.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of New Media of Explore.org

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Explore.org is the worlds largest live nature cam network.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Design and build a new comment system for our website
• Update our mobile app
• Integrate website features into our mobile app

SOLUTION

How did you find Materialize?

Referral

Why did you select Materialize over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Materialize were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

• Design a new comment system for explore.org 
• Update our mobile app 
• Integrate website features into our mobile app

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• A stable system that had fewer issues than our previous comment platform. 
• Staying within budget. 
• Accessible design that fits all website users.

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

Their team was very proactive about updates. Any issues or out-of-scope requirements were addressed early so we could adjust as needed. They were responsive to any questions we had.

What was your primary form of communication with Materialize?

Virtual Meeting

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

They often delivered features faster than initially estimated.

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

I cant think of anything. We are very happy with their service.