Moonfarmer

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Want The Recipe, an app that makes it easier and more efficient to organize and save recipes from websites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Moonfarmer?

We had started the idea with another development firm, and it just wasn’t working out for us. They weren’t communicating the way we wanted, so we ended up moving on from them and researching a different company.

We were looking for someone that not only had the development expertise, but also came with vision and ideas, and could marry the business side with the development side of the project. From that standpoint, Moonfarmer was the perfect fit for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The goal for this project was just to create an iOS based app. We started with the base that we had, but we basically had to redo everything because it was written in a way that wasn’t scalable. With Moonfarmer’s expertise and vision, we redeveloped the app from scratch, especially the UX and how to save recipes.

They’ve also created some graphics on our onboarding slides and placeholder photographs for recipes, doing them all from scratch.

What is the team composition?

There have been a couple of people in and out throughout the project. In total, we’ve worked with probably five people, but we ended up scaling down to our main developer.

We’ve worked mainly with Peter (Project Manager), but they would bring in Dan (Principal & Senior Creative Technologist) for conversations of different kinds of expertise because he has a lot of knowledge of the technology and its current environment.

Overall, Zack (Director of Business Development) has been our main point of contact from a contract standpoint. He’s there if we need to chat or ask any questions.

How did you come to work with Moonfarmer?

I don’t know the exact relationship; I think it was a friend of a friend who recommended Moonfarmer to my co-founder, Caitlin (Founder), and connected us with Zack.

We had an initial consultation with them, and they told us where we were at that point in time and where they saw things going. They pulled together a nice presentation, and that made us feel that they knew the direction we wanted to go in.

We’re not experts on development, so when we were looking for a company to work with, we were looking for people that understood how to put into place our ideas and concepts from a technological standpoint. We really needed someone who could understand us, since a previous firm had been very technical and hadn’t really focused on the business side.

Moonfamer was great at pulling that all together, and they were really respectful of what we wanted. They didn’t turn us down if we had huge ideas, and they were great at having conversations so we could put something together that was good for the user and our company, but also worked from a technology standpoint.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent above $10,000 and less than $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re still in the early stages, so we don’t have metrics to share. However, one thing I will say is that since we’ve launched in the App Store and up until now, we’ve learned a lot about our different users and how we were accommodating two sets of users — the person who saves recipes and the person who creates them. Moonfarmer was amazing at supporting us and turning around the app to make sure the functionality served for both users.

How did Moonfarmer perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re good at communication and quick to answer if we ever need something. We have a Slack channel, so whenever we have a bug, question, or anything, they answer us within five minutes and get right on it. Every so often, we have some calls, whether it’s just to check in or give updates. We primarily do that through the project manager, and he brings it back to the team and then back to us.

Additionally, not only have they been great technically, but they’ve also come in with an opinion and vision. They act as part of our team, rather than just doing what we requested, which is the kind of relationship we needed. Therefore, from the experience perspective, they’ve been very team-oriented and collaborative, even from a design standpoint.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What has made Moonfarmer stand out from other companies that I’ve worked with is their relationship-building and caring. At least from what I’ve experienced, you can go to a company and say you want something developed, and they’ll do it from a technical standpoint, but they aren’t seeing the vision that you’re seeing.

On the other hand, I feel like Moonfarmer really buys into the vision that we have, and it feels like they’re working at our own company instead of being a third-party contracted relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re not technical people at all, so they’ve done a really nice job trying to educate us along the way. The way they’ve presented the updates every few weeks has been helpful. However, it would’ve helped if we knew a little bit more going into the project so we’d be able to keep track of their project plans.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re very organized, so you can lose track of features and things if you don’t come prepared to the project. Having a way to document your updates and track the things that you’ve talked about without relying on Moonfarmer will help you have a very successful relationship.