Oak City Labs

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an executive of Jigsawdio

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Jigsawdio is an audio visual Alzheimer’s therapy product. It’s a platform for people with Alzheimer’s to engage with personal aspects of their life through personalized photo jigsaw puzzles narrated by them and their families played in a displayable frame.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Oak City Labs to accomplish?

• Help me create an Apple app so I can build the puzzles and match the images and sounds appropriately.
• Make it easy for customers to be able to create puzzles in their own and submit me their projects.

SOLUTION

How did you find Oak City Labs?

Referral

Why did you select Oak City Labs over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

What was the size of Oak City Labs’s team?

2-5 Employees

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

Oak City created a unique Apple app from scratch for me and customers to be able to create the audio visual puzzles and demonstrate them before they are physically created.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• That it worked and accomplished the goals of building the audio visual puzzles
• Was simple to use
• It could help me on my end do what I needed with the puzzles created on the app to be physically created and simply my work.

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

Yes, they were excellent in all regards

What was your primary form of communication with Oak City Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

That the whole team was always in communication with me. It was a personal touch but very professional and high quality.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Oak City Labs could have done differently?

No I don’t think so

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization and position.

I’m the CEO and founder of Teen Health Research, a woman- and faculty member-owned business focused on improving adolescent sexual health.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire [company] to accomplish?

We needed help with web development, content strategy, and design.

SOLUTION

Describe the scope of work in detail.

Carol (Co-Founder & CEO) helps me design and develop the content for the app. Over the summer, we interviewed 100 potential customers to give us feedback on how the project was going going. We collaborated with them on a teamwork effort where I brought new ideas to the table, and they helped refine them. In addition to that, they’ve also created some formative customer discovery interviews over the course of our engagement — those were completely provided by Carol, not me. Even thinking through the flow of the program, it was a collaborative effort that saw me bring some ideas and concepts into the

How did you find & come to work with this vendor?

I interviewed several companies to see who would be a good fit. In the end, we chose Oak City because they were clear in their vision and they brought great ideas to the table.

How much money have you spent/invested in this partnership?

We spent around $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2021, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

 We’ve only recently launched the app, so there are no quantitative metrics to share yet. However, I could confirm that Oak City Design was a great team that came up with great ideas and structure, which were really helpful to us

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

They’re fantastic to work with and very organized. We meet with them weekly just to give feedback and see how things are going. In terms of tools, we use Zoom and email. 

What distinguishes (company name) from other providers?

They’re extremely creative and bring ideas to the table. Carol is especially good at working with designers and engineers who really understand how to make a good design and are willing to bring in new ideas and ideas.

In what ways could they have improved or done something differently?

I didn’t think there was anything they could improve on — we had great ideas thrown around in the discovery phase. 

What advice would you give to someone else considering working with [company} on how to get the most out of the engagement?

Be open-minded and think about what you want. Oak City Design Associates is a communicative team, so you can match that energy to make the most of your collaboration.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a laboratory network with locations in Colorado, California and Oregon.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Oak City Labs, and what were your goals?

We are a network of industrial hemp and cannabis testing laboratories. Without federal legislation, the requirements for testing in every state are unique. We asked Oak City to build us a flexible system whereby our customers could see their test results rendered specific to a set of state regulations, thereby making the customer job of compliance much more simple.

SOLUTION

How did you select Oak City Labs and what were the deciding factors?

I have worked with Oak City previously. Their solutions are always simple yet effective. I trust them to tell me if the project is not a fit, but if it is I know they will do a great job.

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

Sorry, I am the CEO and the project steps for me included weekly status updates. The key steps and deliverables I left to the It teams.

How many people from the Oak City Labs team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Carol (the Owner) was always close to the project in addition to her team which included 4-5 others depending on the deliverables.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The phases of the project we completed on-time.

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

Written weekly updates as well as agenda for every meeting. very thorough.

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

Very accessible and willing to problem solve as part of my team. They worked and played well with others.

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

NO

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CFO and COO of a small 'lifestyle' company providing specialized educational services to a particular profession.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Oak City Labs, and what were your goals?

We had an existing website that was not functioning well. We approached Oak City upon referral of a friend with a related business. Our goals were to make our existing website functional and expand its capabilities.

SOLUTION

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

We selected Oak City based on a personal referral from a friend in a related business

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

Oak City conducted several planning meetings in order to best understand our goals and to present their potential solutions in terms of developing a new website. We abandoned the site we came with and went with an entirely new site. The new site included a searchable global directory of our customers, ability to enroll customers in courses, ability to support customers with critical pieces of information and apps, ability to track customer status and update as needed, and more.

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

At various points along this project we have worked with every member of the Oak City team. They function as a team and this was to our benefit.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our new website does exactly what Oak City promised it would do. We are still adding new features but when finished it will be absolutely wonderful. Our business is nearly 'turn key' will most aspects of the business operated directly from this new website.

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

Management was excellent. Regular meetings were scheduled via Zoom with the entire team that was working on our project including management. Oak City was highly responsive and delivered on time.

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

The fact that they delivered exactly what was promised. Our prior experience with vendors in this sector was that once a project started, the excuses followed as to why they could not do this or that. Oak City Labs finds ways to get things done exactly how they promised.

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

None