Neuron

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product Lead of LifeBell AI

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

AI desease detection and prevention.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Create a user interface to communicate patient acuity.

SOLUTION

How did you find Neuron?

• Clutch Site

Why did you select Neuron over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Neuron were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Neuron worked with the product, engineering and DS teams on a 0-1 product for the Emergency Department. We worked to create an initial user interface that monitors 10's of sick patients in the emergency department. This had a large focus on surfacing important patient insights in a data rich environment, while giving full visibility and control to the clinical staff.

We worked in a fast pace Agile environment with quick customer feedback loops with weekly designs deployed to prod.

Major Deliverables

1. They owned creation and management of all design files
2. Creation of initial MVP design
3. Iterative UI development ready for a design freeze for FDA approval.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

No metrics. They created initial product that met both customer requirements and regulatory requirements.

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

Very responsive and work delivered on time. Very responsive to changes and very easy to grab zoom time for ad-hoc changes or improvements.

What was your primary form of communication with Neuron?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting

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

Attention to the mission. They understood the customer and the goals extremely well. They knew when to use existing design patterns and when to user novel solutions to problems.

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

Not much I can think of. Very minor but better figma file management and communicating the design files, however we did work in a fast environment.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Co-Founder of CoachEm

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

CoachEm™ is the first Coaching Execution Platform that integrates deep learning technology to proactively identify patterns of great behavior, determine opportunities for improvement and serve up practical recommendations for managers to help their teams drive more deals, bigger deals, faster deals and loyal customers.

Built with decades of go-to-market experience, world-renowned data scientists and advanced AI/ML technology, CoachEm™ leverages your existing tech stack to increase rep productivity, increase retention and replicate best practices across your team(s).

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Reimagine our product design

SOLUTION

How did you find Neuron?

• Referral

Why did you select Neuron over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Other

What was the size of Neuron’s team?

>10

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

UX/UI design strategy for our web application. The Project began with Neuron's SPARC phase (Discovery, Strategy & Prioritization) to understand and define priorities, features, and user stories for the Design phase that follows. SPARC - Discovery, Strategy & Prioritization (abbreviated)

1. Stakeholder workshops to define product vision, objectives, and requirements
2. Technology review with engineers to identify design constraints
3. UX/UI assessment of existing product (if desired)
4. Identification of opportunities and features (if desired)
5. Feature scoping and prioritization (if desired) 
6. Product design roadmapping (if desired)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Weekly meetings with clearly defined goals and outcomes
• Timeline that we jointly established at the beginning of the engagement

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

Neuron has been fantastic to work with which is why we've continued working with them beyond our initial scope of work. They come to every meeting prepared with what they want to cover, roles and responsibilities on their end and what they need from us to be successful and keep us all on track.We have of course thrown a few curveballs their way and they've responded appropriately and reasonably because they want the project to be a success!

What was your primary form of communication with Neuron?

• Virtual Meeting

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

They work very well as a team and that was clear in our very first meeting. They've worked together for quite a while and build off of each other nicely to get us all to better outcome.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product for Geojam, a creator economy startup. We’re building a mobile app to connect fans and creators better.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neuron?

We had an existing wireless platform, but it wasn’t up to par with our standards.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Neuron came in to redesign our application. They’ve rebuilt everything from the ground up. We started with UX research and moved to UX/UI design on Figma.

The product is a community-based app for creators. Fans and users have access to exciting features, almost like a subscription-based app or gated community where users can have unique interactions with creators. Each community has the potential to have a shop for its own merchandise experience and NFTs. We’re building it on React Native.

Additionally, Neuron will provide maintenance.

What is the team composition?

Mark (Director of Strategy) is our main point of contact. We have 4–5 people on the team at any time, including 2–3 UI designers, UX/UI design lead, and a UX strategist. 

How did you come to work with Neuron?

We researched the best firms and cross-checked them with platforms like Clutch.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $150,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2021, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new design system is fully fleshed out. We’ve implemented the screens and designs, and they’ve definitely exceeded expectations.

How did Neuron perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is excellent. We use Slack, Monday, Figma, texts, and calls to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their strong points are their personability and rigor in their implementation.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve done a great job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s simple — the more you put in, the more you get out.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the COO of a mortgage company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neuron?

Like many mortgage companies, we have many employees working on various interfaces and software to process underwrites and deliver loans. It was incredibly inefficient and we wanted to develop a system that could host all of our functionalities and be more user-friendly. At the same time, we wanted to have software with more automation. So, we hired Neuron to help us with the system design. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Neuron is designing our software interface in Figma. We’ve provided their team with our employee workflows and how we interacted with the existing software. Neuron has then used that information to better understand what we need them to design. Neuron’s team has just finished working on the workflows and wireframes that will lay a solid foundation before we delve into the visuals and specific content. 

What is the team composition?

We regularly work with five teammates from Neuron, including two partners and three designers. 

How did you come to work with Neuron?

We knew we needed a design company to help us develop the software, so we asked for references and did some research on Google. We found several recommendations for Neuron during that process, claiming they were one of the top design firms. We talked to several other vendors, but Neuron had the capacity and was the best fit.  

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Neuron was from September 2021–January 2022.  However, we’ve only paused the project for now, so we will pick it back up soon. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we’re still in the initial stages of wireframing, we don’t have anything that can be put into production or bring immediate value to our company. However, Neuron’s work has been an excellent start to our next development steps. They’ve fully understood what we need and have presented us with a complete structure with every functionality we need. Neuron has found a way to merge different aspects of our previous softwares to create a new, user-friendly system to replace our old one. Neuron has done a great job. 

How did Neuron perform from a project management standpoint?

Neuron delivered on schedule — our initial two phases were set to last 3–4 months, and they followed that timeline. We communicated frequently, meeting twice a week to discuss designs and answer questions. I was personally involved in all the project management in Figma, so there weren’t any gaps between our companies. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Neuron’s ability to understand our business model and needs is impressive. They obviously don’t have experience in every industry they’re going to work in, but Neuron can quickly understand our detailed processes and daily business operations. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would like to see more out of the box, creative ideas from the Neuron team. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would let future customers know that they need to know what they want from a partnership. If both parties know the goal and the path forward, a collaboration with Neuron will be successful. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the R&D manager for a marine tech company. We develop high-tech systems for the marina industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neuron?

We’re revamping a system that has been in place for a long time. It had an old UI, so we wanted to update it and substantially extend its flexibility.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve engaged Neuron to help us with UX and UI. The project is essentially a desktop application that runs on PC hardware. However, the system is dedicated to this particular app; it’s not general-purpose.

We had an initial phase where we talked about the requirements. Then, they used Figma to capture the designs. Right now, the bulk of work is essentially finished, and they’re currently just providing support. We’ll occasionally be talking to Neuron for the next few months because we want to run certain things by them.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with about five people during the project, but we mostly interact with one person. For the first couple of months, there was a second person, and then other people helped finish it as well.

How did you come to work with Neuron?

It was a Google search. We compared different options, and we liked Neuron because they were a team and could bring a range of skills as needed.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership began in May 2021, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have any formal metrics. All the people in the company have seen their work, which ranges from the marketing team and CEO to all the developers. Overall, the informal feedback we’ve received has been extremely good.

How did Neuron perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been good; they’re pretty open about their project management. Initially, the team indicated the risks and had a schedule. They updated us on where we were in the process, and we felt everything was pretty well handled. Essentially, they worked with an Agile methodology, which fitted very well as we were also using an Agile approach.

We use GitHub internally, but they aren’t really exposed to it. Overall, we use Slack for communication and a bit of Microsoft Teams. We also meet over Zoom about once a week, and there are some telephone conversations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They quickly came up to speed on a very complex and unfamiliar system. It wasn’t a website, and there were a lot of complex technical aspects. However, Neuron’s team got to grips with the key concerns, which was very impressive and appreciated by all those who worked with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were cheaper options, and we knew that they would be expensive, but it went with the territory. Also, there was a bit of concern upfront about minor admin issues in talking to our financial people, but that was minor. Overall, it’s been a great working relationship. They’re respectful, polite, and responsive — they’re everything that we could’ve wanted.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open with them. One of the things we ran into was that it was difficult for us to enunciate our goals very precisely but we feel that they came to understand well what we were looking for through their approach to the project and the constant interaction we had with them. Initially, they seemed to require a clear vision from us and wanted to speak to our direct customers. It was understandable, but it had some practical issues. It took a little while for them to get to grips with that. 

Nonetheless, they were just trying to ensure we’d meet our expectations. They were very keen to make sure that we got what we were looking for from the project but our requirements of them were not rigidly defined. I think it took a little time for them to get used to that.

Most important was that we wanted to improve the user experience for our customers. We wanted Neuron to use their skill set, experience and creativity to come up with a much better user interface that were capable of producing ourselves. The close working relationship that ensued though worked out very well and we got exactly what we wanted from the project. In the end, we don’t have any concerns coming out of it. Neuron did precisely what we wanted on that front, and everyone internally has been happy with their work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of an enterprise software startup selling CRM to MedTech companies

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Neuron?

We were trying to launch a mobile app, but didn't want a separate code base and UX from our web experience. Our existing web app was built by the founding team with no design experience and also needed some love. Neuron helped redesign both our desktop experience and mobile.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We conducted several interviews (a mini-RFP) and ultimately selected Neuron because of their embedded design philosophy. We really wanted a partner who would work closely with our engineering and product team from day 1 and didn't treat our work like an outside consulting engagement.

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

Their team gathered and synthesized existing user feedback as well as our product roadmap. Then, they deep dived the existing app and played around with it to understand the current state functionality. From there, they built out a work plan and iterated on it with us to ensure they were focused on the highest priority issues.

Finally, they engaged in weekly design sprints where they would pull together updated designs each week and incorporate our feedback and direction during weekly 1:1s.

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

We worked with 2 people from Neuron.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have since built and launched our mobile app and have proceeded to rebuild our desktop experience. Neuron's work on our IA was instrumental in helping us reframe our app and leaving space for future modules and features to build.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The embedded structure allowed for close feedback loops between design, product, and engineering.

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

We got to work closely with the founding team. Our company is also a founder led startup so it was nice empathizing with a fellow founder through this process. It is clear their work is not just a day job for Neuron.

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

N/A. Ultimately their design got too far in front of what we were able to build so we needed some time for our engineers to catch up!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a private airport terminal.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neuron?

We initially hired Neuron to review the UI/UX of our inward-facing operating system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, we collaborated with Neuron on a scoping exercise. As I mentioned, the requirement was to review the UI/UX of our operating system. From this exercise, they came up with a timeline and a budget for our project.

Halfway through our initial engagement, we realized that they were very talented, and we worked well together. They understood our customers, internal processes, and stakeholders very well, so we expanded their scope. We asked them to also review the UI/UX of our website and user-facing reservation systems.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two people from Neuron.

How did you come to work with Neuron?

We interviewed around 10 firms, each one coming either from our own discovery or from asking our referrals. I don’t remember how we found Neuron exactly, but it was probably through referrals.

We have a very unique business and a very discerning luxury customer. During the interview process, Neuron stood out because we felt that they understood our business and customers very well.

Additionally, they proved to be very responsive, thoughtful, and thorough, and they offered great customer service. We felt that they cared deeply about us and wanted to work with us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $100,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March–September 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

What I loved about Neuron was that nothing was too big or too small for them. The project ended up having life on its own, and they never said that something was beneath them or that it required a lot of minacious work for them to handle. They were equally dedicated to all parts of the project, whether they were minor or major.

Additionally, Neuron very quickly understood our business and the customers that we served, which made our engagement better.

How did Neuron perform from a project management standpoint?

Neuron was on time and on budget, which usually never happens.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It was impressive how nimble and dedicated Neuron was. We almost felt that they were part of our company. They were always available and dedicated to us, and they had an intimate understanding of our business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We basically want to continue working with them forever.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend a lot of time upfront to get them up to speed and having them understand your business. I felt that they were very valuable to us because of that understanding.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of an action sports-targeted mobile and web app that empowers skill-based competitors from around the world. Our product allows users from different countries to connect and make money by competing in virtual, peer-judged challenges.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Neuron?

We wanted to bring our vision of these skill-based competitions to the masses and democratize action sports. Our original MVP was built too quickly and many of its features were poorly thought out, so we brought in Neuron to rebuild it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Neuron fully immersed themselves into the sports world to really get a grasp of what we're trying to create and for what purpose.  Since we're more sports-oriented, we let them take the ropes when it comes to the technical aspects of the project. 

Neuron was tasked with rebuilding the mobile app, redoing its branding and design. The team went into developing versions of it for the web as well as for Android and iOS devices, all the while coordinating with our third-party development team. 

We continue to work with some on iterating and releasing new features. 

What is the team composition?

There are a few people working on this project, but our main contact and point person is Matt (Creative Director).

How did you come to work with Neuron?

A colleague of mine had worked with Neuron on a web app that I was thoroughly impressed with. They were the perfect fit, so I brought them over. 

How much have you invested with them?

I believe we've spent $650,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2019, and it’s an ongoing partnership. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our product is still young, but our user base is now growing In terms of buys per month. Neuron has really helped us overcome a lot of strategic design decisions, saving us a lot of time and money through their foresight. They’ve helped us redesign from start to finish, and I couldn't have done it without them. 

How did Neuron perform from a project management standpoint?

I would rate them very highly for project management. It’s just incredible. They’ve worked with us for months after the product was launched to make sure that we were capturing ideas and feedback from our users and making iterations accordingly. I can't say enough nice things about these guys because they've given us exactly what we needed. 

We communicate via Slack and email. They provide frequent updates and constantly let us know what’s going on.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a team that can troubleshoot and think ahead of us. Even though all we've given them is our tacit industry knowledge, they were able to produce a wonderful product. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Neuron continuously surprises and excites us, so I don’t think there’s anything for them to improve. They've worked above and beyond the call of duty. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Allow Neuron to exercise their creative freedom. Value their advice because they know exactly how to build a complicated app while making it function well and look nice.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are manufacturing audio device and selling both to B and C. Website is playing very important role for both branding and retailing. I'm GM of the company, who is in charge of overall operation improvement.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Neuron?

Website new design including visual design and UX design. The service is including sort of consluting to let us know what is working and what is not working on our curretn website.

SOLUTION

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

We made first selection based on overall cost and pricing to complete the project. Many companiees charge much higher prices before we feel comfortable with expected output result.

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

We had 3 steps process which we was presented in their first presentation package. Consulting, Conceptual designing and actual designing phases. They manage all tasks by hour. We had a change to make a decision if we want to extend the contract with them before we move to phase 3, which we did. It was not because we expired planned budget, but we could set up this "check point by setting hours prior to our start" so that we all were comfortable about the process.

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

2 mainly, and 1 backend web designer. Our primary contact was their UX Lead position.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Actual design template and design format for us to start with our own web programmer.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We set up weekly call. 1 hour each time, and they always deliver expected and/or promised progress. In our meetings, participants joined from U.S., Europe and Japan. They were very flexible for meeting time set up, that helpsed us a lot.

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

Not just designing the visual design, but they are good at considering UX first. And they listed to our desire and priority carefully to pull maximum output from the project. First consulting section was very helpful for us to learn "what is missing" before we start the designing process.

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

I think thye delivered more than we expected. We will not know the real result until we unveil our new webiste to public, but so far I'm satisfied the process, the level of their professional service and the relationship we had during the project.