New Normal

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the COO of Open On Sunday

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We finance & purchase music IP from music rights holders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire New Normal to accomplish?

• Build a music valuation engine with multiple dashboards
• Build a music catalog repository for the hundreds of catalogs we've purchased
• Build reporting infrastructure for our corporate finance needs
• Build a web presence/website for our company's branding and new customer acquisition

SOLUTION

How did you find New Normal?

Referral

Why did you select New Normal over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from New Normal were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

When we started Open On Sunday, we wanted to find a way for musical artists of all genres and catalog sizes to get cash when and how they need it through sales of their musical catalogs. We wanted to build a software product that would automate the valuation of those music catalogs because it's very expensive to do so manually, especially for smaller catalogs.  

We needed a soup-to-nuts solution. And we wanted to build it, but we also didn't want to hire an internal software team because it was so speculative. So we engaged New Normal because they already had the staff. And of course, now we're at five-plus years working with them.  High-level deliverables to date:

• Music catalog statement ingestion, normalization, and Excel model valuation creation engine
• (For purchased catalogs) a repository of earnings against forecast, normalized views of income types, and continuing portfolio valuation
• Reporting infrastruction for corporate reporting, pipeline management, and people performance

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• 1000s of music catalogs valued and offers sent by the pricing engine New Normal has built
• 100+ music catalogs purchased and earnings managed by the platform New Normal has developed

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

We use 2 week sprints, with a cadence of weekly meetings, bi-weekly demos, and a ticketing system to capture requirements. New Normal always delivers on time because they are clear in communicating and negotiating what they can and can't deliver in any given timeframe.

What was your primary form of communication with New Normal?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their flexibility is unmatched. Unbeknownst to me, New Normal was staffing appropriately "full stack" developers for our project once they understood the project and the demands of a start-up in the competitive space we find ourselves.  Anytime I have expressed a staffing 'issue' they resolve immediately by all means necessary. 

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

Not really. Perhaps in the early days back in 2018 and 2019 they could have "interrogated" us better to understand the breadth of use cases we needed to be supported.  There were a couple of fits and starts because of this, but we are all basically learning as we went along, and they have been an indispensable partner.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the director of creative services for AMP, a digital marketing agency in Seattle. We develop and execute experiential and digital campaigns for a wide range of clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire New Normal?

We needed to build a custom gamification platform and website from the ground up to allow our airline client to give away over 1,000,000 frequent flier points. The points would be given away online and onsite at pop-up style contests.

What were your goals for this project?

Our primary goal was to increase sign-ups to our client's frequent flier program through the airline industry’s largest ever contest giveaway of the airline's points.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We initially were using our internal team of developers, but we had an abundance of development work and needed a development partner. We had worked successfully with New Normal on a past Amazon Alexa website project, and so we were quick to choose New Normal as our partner again.

We were looking for a team that could collaborate with our in-house team, communicate directly with the airline team, architect the entire gaming platform (including win probability algorithms, statistics, customer service tools, tax documentation integration via DocuSign, and email integration with MailChimp). 

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

New Normal helped us design and build all the necessary user flows: registration, play, create and join teams, win, paperwork signage, and interaction on social media.

What was the team composition?

We interfaced daily with Yuri (CEO, New Normal) and Daniel (Managing Partner, New Normal) as they served as overall project managers and communicators with our team. We also spoke with design specialists, client when required, and DocuSign’s API integration team. 

In addition, we had access to the development team which consisted of three full-time developers, one half-time QA specialist, one full-time software project manager, and Yuri and Daniel.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With New Normal’s help, we were able to help the airlines get over 80,000 new sign-ups to its loyalty program in the month that contest ran. The success of this project allowed us to run two more similar campaigns for the client with New Normal as the software team.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

It was a 12-week sprint with lots of moving parts from ideation to pushing the contest live. Every two weeks, we had an on-site session with Yuri and Daniel to assess progress and plan for next steps in developing this platform.

New Normal processed client's feedback on the design, messaging, layout, and functionality. Yuri and Daniel kept in constant contact with our team to keep us updated on development progress.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

New Normal was able to handle everything we threw at them. They were able to deliver every kind of functionality we wanted to bring into the platform. Daniel and Yuri were also great at consulting with us about how to get to the result the airlines wanted, given the tight turnaround. They never refused an outlandish request!

Are there any areas for improvement?

In an ideal world, we would have had six months to deliver this project. The three-month schedule forced everyone to work nights and weekends—this resulted in some limited communication between teams and fear of whether we’d pull it off. Thankfully, we were successful.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

At the time of the engagement, I was a partner and the creative director at THANK YOU, a Danish-based digital design and 3D motion company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire New Normal?

We hired New Normal to execute the software development work on a series of design explorations we prepared for a global automobile company. These explorations looked at the in-dash experience of all of the company’s cars in the coming 5–10 years. We created a series of explorations, then brought New Normal in to advise on a plan for implementing the designs as a working prototype in an iPad mini view that was then temporarily installed inside test vehicles at specific offices around the world.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to dive deep on the in-dash experience, an area where the car company realized it lagged behind existing offerings, and set aspirational goals for the client to steer its in-dash experience. On a software level, the goal was to create MVP software that could ultimately be used as a foundation for their reboot of the in-dash experience. The car company was clear that they did not want throw-away code—they wanted these first software steps to become their code foundation.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We first looked to our internal development resources at THANK YOU but realized we would need more expertise and a larger team than we had in-house. We interviewed two Danish software agencies and one San Francisco-based software team, ultimately settling on New Normal based on their full knowledge of HTML5, Javascript, and iOS app development. They also demonstrated a general willingness to work in short, loosely-defined sprints. In addition, New Normal was available and excited to travel as our design partner to the car company’s offices for brainstorming sessions with the client. It was important to our automobile client and THANK YOU to use a stand-alone, reliable development partner.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

New Normal took the time to understand the intention and innovation behind the designs that THANK YOU created. We explored several technologies to understand what would work the best with the client’s existing technology stack. New Normal then used our design guidelines to build out a fully functional prototype that could be tested in the field by the car company’s engineers. New Normal provided us with a staging environment where we could check on progress and understand how the product was coming together.

What was the team composition?

I served as the main point of contact between New Normal and the client. I interacted primarily with a project manager from New Normal.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The first phase of the in-dash project was successful, landing us a second round of work with the client on the in-dash experience. This caliber of work helped us pitch similar design study work with other large companies.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Yuri (CEO, New Normal) was our main point of contact. He was easy to reach and available for multiple client meetings with the client in Seattle and Los Angeles. New Normal also provided direct access to Alex (CTO, New Normal), who was able to respond to questions quickly. Apart from daily communication, the team presented their progress weekly and worked well with our feedback.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

New Normal was able to plug-in into our already-in-progress UX design explorations and methodically turn our mock-ups into a working prototype. They gave us confidence in bringing our experimental design to a tangible reality.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Our team was using GitHub, and New Normal was using Bitbucket. There was a disconnect when New Normal handed off the code simply because our client was expecting a GitHub repository. This was easily solved by New Normal creating a GitHub account, transferring the work from Bitbucket, and then transferring permissions. It was a minor hiccup, but it’s the one area of improvement for the project that comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the Founder of a retail tech company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Analytics software for the commercial real estate and retail industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire New Normal to accomplish?

• Develop the MVP
• Ongoing development and product advisory

SOLUTION

How did you find New Normal?

Referral

Why did you select New Normal over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from New Normal were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

New Normal was tasked with developing the MVP of my software solution. They helped build the initial frames and UX, and then developed it to perfection through multiple iterations. I look forward to continue working with them as we have now brought the product to life.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Fully functioning MVP and related infrastructure & back end processes to ensure non-technical person can use with ease.

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

They a oustanding on project management. They could not have been more responsive or detailed in their descriptions of situations and tasks. They are particularly strong at project management.

What was your primary form of communication with New Normal?

Virtual Meeting

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

We were thrilled with their professionalism, quality communication, and development abilities.

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

There are no meaningful areas that come to mind.