Old.St Labs

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of The Association of British Climbing Walls, the trade association for climbing walls in the UK.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Old.St Labs?

We hired Old.St Labs to develop an incident reporting database.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

There are several incidents or accidents related to indoor climbing. Old.St Labs has created a software interface where climbing walls can log information about the accident. We want to help climbing walls understand the causes of incidents in climbing walls and make the industry safer.

The team has understood the challenges we face with the current data, and they've structured a new database. Old.St Labs has designed a user-friendly interface and data visualization. The team has done pilot testing, debugging, and supporting us to release it. We've given them existing data, and they've built the interface and experience from scratch and used WordPress to develop our solution.

The database that Old.St Labs has created displays when and why accidents have happened, what kind of accidents, and the gender of people having injuries quickly and without extra information. The team also does the hosting.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with 6–8 teammates from Old.St Labs, including Robert, their founder.

How did you come to work with Old.St Labs?

Our colleague found Old.St Labs through a Google search. We chose the team through a competitive tender process.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent approximately £40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2024, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Old.St Labs' platform has led to improved functionality and navigation efficiency. Since our previous platform wasn't user-friendly or reliable, we couldn't promote it to our members. The team has created a system that has received a positive response from our primary members. There's been an excellent uptake of using the system, which has exceeded my expectations.

How did Old.St Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Old.St Labs has been beneficial, responsive, and professional. The team communicates well, addresses changes and feedback, and has stayed on budget. We use Slack, Google Meet, and email to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Old.St Labs is remarkably positive, collaborative, and easy to work with. It's a pleasure working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there's nothing Old.St Labs can improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear with Old.St Labs about your objectives, timelines, and budget. Additionally, have someone on your team who is more technical.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP of Operations of US Jetting

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We manufacture and sell high pressure water jetting units and their after market parts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Old.St Labs to accomplish?

• Completely redesign our website
• Create profiles for our customers
• Help create a system to guide our customers to purchase the correct products online for their machines.

SOLUTION

How did you find Old.St Labs?

Referral

Why did you select Old.St Labs over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Old.St Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Redesign our website entirely with these goals in mind. 

• Create a system where our customers could more easily understand what jetting machines they have and purchase the correct products for their unit.
• Make customer profiles where customers could log in, see their order history, see their machine model information, and easily purchase again
• Create a model capatability feature which would alert customers if they have purchased the wrong product
• Create a website that we could edit ourselves
• Continuous improvement of SEO

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have hit every target. Old St created customized profiles where we can enter our customers and their corresponding machine details. They established an easy system to alert our customers if they chose a product that wouldn't work with their machine. They provided easy tutorials so we could do most of our on-going edits ourselves, although will will still work with them on any higher level customizations. They continue to work with us to maintain strong customer engagement and constantly improving SEO. 

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

Yes, they were excellent with communication and providing regular updates regarding our timeline. They delivered on time and took care of all of our needs.

What was your primary form of communication with Old.St Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

It can be a daunting task picking a company to redesign your website. It's an investment that needs to last and you have to have complete trust that they will understand your mission and deliver it. Old St took care and time to understand exactly what we wanted and exceeded our expectations. They delivered great value for a very reasonable price. Their team was great at communicating with us through emails, virtual meetings, and shared google docs. Even though we were working on different continents (our company is a US based company), we knew Old St was right there with us throughout the project. Every team member brought a different speciality to the table, and we felt like we were all working towards the mission together. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something Old.St Labs could have done differently?

No, they were great.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Managing Partner of Mariana UFP LLP

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Financial services brokerage and asset management

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Old.St Labs to accomplish?

• Create market abuse monitoring tool
• Create communications monitoring tool

SOLUTION

How did you find Old.St Labs?

• Referral
• Personal acquaintances

Why did you select Old.St Labs over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fits our budget
• Good value for cost
• Proactive attitude

How many teammates from Old.St Labs were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

• Create a bespoke tool for monitoring trade data. 
• Analyse vs market data for suspicious activity. 
• Create monitoring rules and allow for calibration and updates. 
• Workflow management for escalation and review. 
• Secondary project to monitor communications (instant messenger, email, phone). 
• Keyword alerts, workflow management

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Delivered tool that is in use today

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

Regular calls with whole team as well as ad hoc meetings where required. Modules delivered on time,- initially working together to design the tool, once full scope agreed, targets hit and management kept fully updated. Changes in targets were incorporated without fuss

What was your primary form of communication with Old.St Labs?

Virtual Meeting

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

Management team worked closely with Mariana to design product. Genuine input and understanding of what it was we were looking for, rather than simply building an off the shelf product or reacting solely to our requests. The team implemented changes based on our specific needs. When necessary Old St had multiple staff working, but when less needed, staff numbers were reduced to keep costs tightly managed.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Old.St Labs could have done differently?

Nothing material

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of a transportation company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company provides ground transport solutions for travel, mobility and transport companies

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Old.St Labs to accomplish?

• Build a mobile booking tool
• Support front end single sign on development

SOLUTION

How did you find Old.St Labs?

Referral

Why did you select Old.St Labs over others?

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

How many teammates from Old.St Labs were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Optimise the desktop booking tool for mobile usage. Redevelop the customer journey from scratch against provided designs. Integrate several APIs that allow the calling of data from the core platform as well as addressing and mapping APIs. Optimise for all mobile devices. Ensure solution can be whitelabelled for clients. Deliver solution to client for QA within 3 sprints.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Delivery on time and against budget. Successful integration of the APIs.

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

Old Street have exceptional project management. The team planned the project thoroughly, keen to identify all requirements and known unknowns ahead of project start to ensure success. During the project all meetings were attended and kept concise. All changes to the project were recorded and meeting notes sent out in a timely fashion. This ensured that the project run on time.

What was your primary form of communication with Old.St Labs?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Old Street have a great culture and develop a great understanding of the client's needs. Minor amends were not left to hold a project up and the development team would adapt to any situation quickly.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Old.St Labs could have done differently?

None they were amazing

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an Executive of East Care

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Improves outcomes for vulnerable adults by providing enhanced professional development for their carers

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Old.St Labs to accomplish?

• company and app brand
• clickable product prototype
• MVP for users to login
• company startup kit (ppt deck, pitch deck etc)

SOLUTION

How did you find Old.St Labs?

Referral

Why did you select Old.St Labs over others?

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

What was the size of Old.St Labs’s team?

2-5 Employees

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

From 'napkin to launch'. Old St provided design of company brand, and converted sketches in notepads to a clickable prototype and pitch deck, which allowed us to generate clients, and then worked with our CTO to create a live MVP on time and in budget

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• on time on budget and to standard.

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

all good. great balance of pragmatism and client focus. very collaborative but held us to account for progress

What was your primary form of communication with Old.St Labs?

• Virtual Meeting,
• Email or Messaging App

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

felt like an extension of our business not an agency. They were invested in the same outcomes as we were.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Old.St Labs could have done differently?

not so much- would happily go through the same process again and indeed am planning to.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder and managing partner of Balance Legal Capital. We are a litigation funder, helping businesses and individuals obtain access to justice by funding the costs of their legal claims.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Old.St Labs?

We hired Old.St Labs to help us overhaul and bring up to date our website. We needed to do a better job of telling the story of our solutions and better address our target personas. We also needed a more robust webpage design platform that would produce a better UX.

SOLUTION

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

We sought quotes from a number of web design agencies that had been recommended by word of mouth. Old.St Labs were stood out in terms of really taking the time to understand our business, competitors, and needs and were excellent on price.

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

OldSt were methodical and professional in their approach. They researched our competitors and industry area in order to get a feel for recurring themes/messages and elements we might want to emulate or avoid. Then they produced a number of style guides for us to choose from, and then set about taking our old content and breathing life into it with the new styles. They provided access to Figma and other tools so that we could easily see wireframes and mock ups of the site and give feedback along the way and iterate until we were 100% happy with the result. Then those designs and content were transferred to the web build team where it was built in full in a staging site on Webflow. Any bugs/issues were ironed out using ClickUp Feedback tool. Then the site was published live on our real corporate domain.

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

Rob Woodhead supervised the project and ensured smooth translation between our ideas and converting that into actionable specifications that his designers and coders could deliver. Joyce Albos provided fantastic designs in line with our instructions and showed great patience when I needed certain hero images for example to be iterated. Lui Seneca took Joyce's designs and lead on the web building in Webflow. Excellent work too. Others provided further back end technical support at the go-live stage.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've received excellent feedback about our website and our web traffic has increased hugely. My team is now proud of our website and think it does a great job of expressing our identity.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

OldSt.Labs were very effecient communicators and turned around work ideas and queries very quickly. They used collaboration tools very efficiently - such as Figma, ClickUp, and Webflow, so that we could communicate areas that needed to be changed and provided direct access for us to do our own drafting of text directly into the design platforms. They sped things up a lot, particularly toward the end.

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

Genuine care and desire to do a good job. Patience in allowing us work out what we wanted.

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

We both expected the project to be quicker but probably both suffered from optimism bias on duration.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Peace Direct is a non-profit based in the UK and US that supports the work of peacebuilders around the world

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Old.St Labs, and what were your goals?

Old St Labs were hired to redevelop the frontend of one of our more complex web-based projects, Platform4Dialogue. After speaking to users we had identified a need to make it more intuitive and user-friendly.

SOLUTION

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

We selected them after an online search and speaking with agencies we've used in the past. After some discussions we chose Old St based on there experience and professionalism.

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

After a series of initial discussions where we explored requirements and needs, we agreed on the scope of the project. During the design phase Old St interated on a series of lo-fi, then hi-fi designs based on our feedback. During the development phase, we had weekly checkins on the progress. The main technologies used were Django and React.

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

There was a project manager, two developers and a someone in a quality assurance role.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have yet to fully launch the project. Initial feedback has ben positive.

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

The project management was very professional, with regular, clear communication.

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

The development work was fantastic and the communication was clear and professional.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the operations manager of a branding agency. We offer strategic advice to a wide range of international clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Old.St Labs, and what were your goals?

We revamped our website a year ago and wanted to add a page to showcase a new product offering, as well as make several navigational updates. Unfortunately our original developer was no longer around and we needed a developer that could understand the way it had originally been built.

SOLUTION

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

We had reached out to a few recommended developers to get their costs and approach on making the changes required. Old St Labs seemed confident in taking on the challenge of learning a new platform, vs other developers who pushed us to rebuild the whole site. Their price was competitive and their approach was solid.

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

We had a kick off call to go through our changes and new design, and meet the team. They followed up with mockups to ensure they had understood brief and we shared all our assets with the developer. The website was built in Netlify with content managed on Prismic.

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

A project manager oversaw the process while a developer/designer worked to build the site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The build of the site was quick and required minimal input from our side. We found the communication of the team to be excellent, and they provided us regular progress updates.

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

We communicated with the team over WhatsApp which was a really efficient way to fire fast questions. Timelines were shared early on and we were really pleased with the pace of the work.

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

Old.St Labs were very flexible in taking our designs (from Illustrator!) and developing them without the additional cost of using a digital designer. They were flexible and professional, giving us advice on how we could efficiently manage our site in the future.

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

No we found it incredibly easy to work with Old.St Labs and will definitely be recommending them to others.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO at Sul Pont - the first professional platform for classical musicians.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Old.St Labs?

The requirement was to design a clickable prototype of the future mobile app prior the actual development. We needed a comprehensive prototype of the future app to showcase to potential investors. Also, we needed it to test and collect feedback from potential users.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We searched online for the best UI/UX developers in London and shortlisted 5. After interviewing them, we chose this vendor based on their professionalism, experience, and exceptionally supportive and helpful communication. They were willing to offer us a couple of workshops free of charge, where we got convinced that this is a very dedicated company that cares about its clients and the quality of the services they offer.

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

The project was to create a design of a mobile app for classical musicians. Sul Pont is the platform that offers a unique way to connect musicians, industry professionals, and music lovers. Our innovative social platform bridges the gap between musicians, using advanced technology - our CUI tool (Comprehensive Utility-tool for Interconnection). Old St helped us to work through all stages of the application. They guided us in the correct direction when it came to choosing the first features and functionality of the app and gave invaluable advice.

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

As this was a relatively small project, we were working with a project leader and a designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're pleased with the deliverables from Old St team. The UX/UI serves as the foundation for the app we're going to develop in the nearest future. Their work perfectly reflects our vision we had at the start, helping us create a user-friendly and easy-to-navigate mobile app. We are exceptionally happy with the outcomes of our work together. The design is immaculate and very thought through. We are grateful to the team for their hard and dedicated work.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team members were easy to communicate and very responsive, they also provided us with frequent updates. We had google meets meetings that worked out very well. Everything was delivered on time.

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

The team members were very creative and gave us very good suggestions on how to improve on our existing ideas. They were patient and willing to apply constant amendments that we were requiring. We are grateful.

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

Everything was great and we are hoping to work with Old St again in the future.