Perpetual

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the head of product for a small educational technology company called Books That Grow.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

Perpetual helped us in a number of ways over a period of time. The company was building a multilevel digital reading product for school and home education. It was a somewhat complex product, spanning different device types.

We knew a fair amount about the space but not about digital product development, so we brought Perpetual in to help us with the design process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual provided full-stack services, from design to marketing and business strategy and pitching. 

They designed and developed some prototypes that helped us refine and plan out an agile development process. They brought in and oversaw a development team that implemented those designs.

Once we got to that level, Perpetual helped us integrate the platform with other services, including Google apps and an educational technology service called Edmodo. A bit later, Perpetual helped us build an internal team to maintain the architecture and allow us to make the tweaks we wanted to make on our own.

They helped us prepare for a number of funding opportunities, including one that was quite large for our small startup. The marketing support was mostly done through the internal team that Perpetual helped us bring together. 

Most of the marketing we did was directly approaching schools and districts. We also developed content for our website and social media, along with more traditional copy for conferences and other events.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Amish (CEO), and there was one designer from Perpetual who was embedded with us for a bit. We also worked with another teaamte to support our marketing efforts beyond what Amish was providing. 

The development was mainly managed by Amish in India, and I believe we had 3–4 developers dedicated to us at any one time. There was some rotation, so there were about 10 developers involved in total.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

One of our company’s founders had worked with Amish in a previous position and knew of his strength. The relationship grew because it became clear that Perpetual was able to exist across the spaces where we needed support. 

My strength was in user insights, and they really knew how to connect that to the work of the design and development teams. We saw that in their early work, so we brought them on to do more work.  

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work was around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Perpetual between January 2014–March 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We got our biggest single investment through Perpetual of $250,000. That was very exciting for us, and we definitely couldn’t have done it without them. They helped us win other investments as well. 

Amish was able to think from a business perspective in a way we wouldn’t necessarily have expected from someone providing those kinds of services. We literally brought them to the pitch, and it made a huge difference. 

The code they wrote continues to run years later, despite all the changes that have happened on the web. That’s pretty impressive. The team understood our cultural needs, both the company’s and those of our clients, and they translated those for the India team. 

I’ve worked with teams from other countries, and it tends to be hard to do and exhausting. There’s usually a lot of overhead for that, but Perpetual did a good job of making it a seamless experience.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They were engaged and willing to meet face-to-face with us. The designer they assigned us was embedded on our team for a period of time, and Amish came to our office to support the internal team we hired. This was a totally different experience than what working with a team abroad usually entails.

In terms of deadlines, we did a lot very quickly on a tight budget. There were a lot of pivots, so it’s remarkable that we were able to stay on track and accomplish as much as we did.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The way they grew with us was really helpful. We started small, putting together the early design, and Perpetual helped us build a team after we got some funding. There were a lot of pivots. 

We were only focused on an iPad app initially, and we expanded to web and Chromebooks. That required making a lot of changes, and Perpetual adapted to those quickly and supported us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It was a good experience overall. There were times when we needed a stronger hand and more guidance from them. There’s always an opportunity to do a better job of helping the stakeholders help themselves.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I’d definitely try to take advantage of Amish. He’s a great partner to work with, and he has a great network and a lot of knowledge across a series of related spaces.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of an agricultural commission.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We wanted to connect our audiences. More people want to know more about their food. Our opportunity was to provide consumers with information about the farms that grow their products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We asked Perpetual to showcase different sections of the agricultural supply chain. Their team built a platform that allows people to easily locate different groups within the chain and learn more about them.

Their team developed a completely new website with a database. They helped us to identify the best way to display our information to prevent confusion. Their team created navigations for users to engage different datasets. They used Webflow as the hosting system.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and a developer.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

We nitially worked with an individual who helped us find different firms. She found Perpetual through a designer website and found their previous projects impressive. She contacted them and discussed our goals. Their team was willing to work with our limited budget, unlike other agencies.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $12,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started this project in April 2020, and it was completed in September.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We did a soft launch, and the feedback was positive. We heard that the website’s easy to use and it’s easy to find information. Those were our goals. Most people experience the site as we intended. A majority of people positively rated the platform.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They constantly communicated and asked questions. Their team spent time trying to understand what we wanted, which was hard to understand because our industry's unique. hey were well organized and precisely followed the plan. I was also happy with their ability to work with our budget and deliver what we wanted within the timeline.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perpetual actually conducted research to understand our industry, which enabled them to help us much better. Their team understood that every industry’s different and didn’t try to give us a cookie-cutter solution. They also took feedback well. T

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to say because we had such a small budget. If we had a larger budget, we could’ve worked on the design more. However, they set those expectations upfront.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them background on your industry to help them learn and understand what you want to get out of the project. If you don’t communicate what you want, the result will be on you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of an SEO technology firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We were a startup and needed a team to help build our platform from the ground up. We needed end-to-end product development services including UI/UX design, front- and backend development, and DevOps, among other things.

We wanted it to have a very intuitive UX, and we wanted to be able to process large, diverse data sets, and be flexible to integrate third-party applications like Google Search Console and Google Analytics. We also needed to advertise great security because we’re targeting other companies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual developed our platform from scratch. They built the UI/UX and wireframing in Figma, and used some big data technologies like Snowflake. On the analytics side, they used Python and Node.js. 

The team also used business intelligence and visualization tools like Highcharts and Next.js and made sure they were all mobile responsive. In terms of the domain and SEO, they made sure it was relevant to that particular space and across industries to grow their audience. 

On the security side, Perpetual integrated with Okta and AWS Security Hub. We also want to apply continuous integrations with delivery processes and technologies like AWS Lambda and on a performance front, and we’re trying to implement different kinds of caching like Redis cache. 

They do our scaling to make sure that we can handle our final load. We had our MVP scheduled to launch in April or May. We still continue to expand our relationship with Perpetual, and we’re hiring more engineers with them.

What is the team composition?

We have a main point of contact who is a technical project manager. We also had a tech lead on the team, a UX designer, a couple of frontend engineers, some full-stack engineers, and 4–5 data scientists.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

We did an extensive evaluation across five different vendors. Perpetual had prior experience working with our company, was the cross-functional team that we were looking for, and was much faster than any other vendors.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Perpetual was able to finish our MVP within a three-month timeframe. It’s been a phenomenal commitment to make this happen on time. They came up to speed with the technology stack that we had in mind. 

Additionally, we were able to sign up prospective customers. The quality, performance, and infrastructure are great. When we got stuck along the way in some areas, the team was able to bring us the help we needed. 

For example, there was an integration we were doing and someone within Perpetual was able to work with the team member and unblock the issues. This meant that we were able to deliver that integration on time.  

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management has been effective for us. We run in an agile and iterative product development cycle using Jira. We conduct our daily meetings over Google Hangouts and use Slack for active conversations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perpetual has a partnership attitude and the ability to recruit highly skilled resources in a timely manner. They are also flexible. The other thing that sets them apart is that they have people in New York City which allowed us to work with their UX designer who did a fantastic job. 

Having a touchpoint in the US was a win for us and having a full-service offering that covered design, development, data services, DevOps was definitely important for us. They ramp up on new skills and technologies, and they go above and beyond.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Perpetual could have a greater focus on AI as there’s a lot of momentum there. It’s challenging to hire AI talent, so it would be good if they focused on that area.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In terms of resourcing and changing priorities, there can sometimes be a gap in finding the talent we’re looking for. Ultimately, the team regards all the talent gaps and maintains the momentum on the project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of product management at Star2Star Communications, a B2B communications company focused on software development for midmarket and enterprise customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We were looking for a new product in a newer product category that does video conferencing and working collaboration. And we also needed a redesign effort across all of our apps, as well as customer-facing administration services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided them with requirements and reference applications. Perpetual then did end-to-end UI/UX design, UX validation, and Figma design all based on requirements. The team also did UX acceptance and development cycles.

Most of the apps they built were web-based solutions for which they used JavaScript. On the portal side, the programming language they used was PHP. Additionally, they do reskinning work on mobile and desktop applications 

What is the team composition?

We have a main point of contact, and we also work with 3–5 designers or creative directors. 

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

We did an RFP process. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in February 2020, and we’re still working with Perpetual.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

At this point in time, we’re just getting into the development cycle. Anecdotally, the team was quick to understand our product, market, competition, and underlying value proposition.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

Perpetual has been able to adapt to our needs from a process standpoint and in terms of how we prefer certain deliverables. The team is actually ahead of schedule, and they’ve done a great job of managing the budget thus far.

They provide us with a line of sight in terms of the progress, which allows us to easily communicate that to the executive suite. We communicate via Slack and have daily meetings. We use a scrum model, so we have staff meetings on a daily basis.

The team also manages resources well and is able to target particular UX design resources for each category of effort. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perpetual has a good familiarity with communication technology.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Early on, I would’ve liked more inquiry-driven early strategies. The team could’ve also encouraged the target customer and provided quicker access to subject matter experts and then ensured faster knowledge transfer. This would’ve enhanced the experience for us.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Project Manager at Flatrate Moving, New York’s largest moving company. We have been in operation since 1991.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Perpetual?

We hired Perpetual in 2019 to redesign and rebuild our main website, www.flatrate.com. The old website design was outdated, had several technical and SEO issues.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals for the project were to

1. Create a modern, user friendly, and helpful website for people who are looking to move
2. Ensure the new website improved our booking rate
3. Keep the existing website running, while updating to a brand new website
4. Maintain and improve search engine optimization on the project
5. Maintain a technically stable and reliable website, easy to maintain in the future.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had worked with their founder on a previous project.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They redesigned over 50 pages on our website, for desktop and mobile form factors. On the design side, they provided user experience research, interaction design, graphic design, web design and mobile design services.

Their design team also worked closely with their development team team to ensure what was being developed maintained high fidelity with the original design. On the development side, they provided front-end development for web and mobile, along with some back end development.

They also managed delivering code to our test website, and to our live website. They provide QA services to ensure the quality of what was delivered was maintained. They monitored search engine optimization performance and ensured results were equal to or better than competitors.

What was the team composition?

1 User Experience Designer 1 Front-End Engineer 1 Project Manager 1 Associate Designer 1 Product Architect

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new website Perpetual built has helped our SEO performance . Pages load fast and work great on desktop and mobile.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was very efficient, we had daily catchup meetings where the Perpetual team shared latest designs, got inputs from us, got approvals and direction on next set of pages and priorities. They had a dedicated project manager, George, on the project who maintained a central project tracker, and what designs or other items were needed from our team. They delivered efficiently and on time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to take our ideas and translate them into beautiful designs and functioning pages. They are a cross-functional team who is up for different challenges that we bring to them, they take a very practical approach and they get things done for us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head, new platform capability management for the editorial department of a news and information services firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

Initially, it was to fill in a gap surrounding UX. They’ve worked on a significant number of projects over the years. In addition to design, they’ve also done some development work and implementation for us as well.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done a lot of different stuff for us. One of the first projects the did for us was mapping user journeys across all of our multimedia editorial tools. We were looking to bring a significant number of our tools together and create a new, combined workflow. We didn’t understand how people were using our services, so Perpetual interviewed users, documented workflows, and create a user journey. Then they put together prototypes and recommendations for a dashboard that would bring it all together. For the UX stuff, they used InVision.

Subsequently, they worked on a live video platform, processing and managing live video streams.

They also created wireframes, design, and clickable prototypes for the UI.

They determined specs for an automated text generation service that effectively takes structured data and outputs it in a text format. They also did the UI for that to simplify editorial content creation and streamline all of our legacy products as well.

Recently, they built a new online cloud text-editing tool. They’ve looked into integrating legal analytics into the automated templating service as well.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with Amish (CEO) and 3–4 different UX designers over the years. In our most recent project, there were two developers and two business analysts.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

Amish used to be a contractor for our company. He was a product manager then. He came recommended, so we brought him back on as a contractor.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2016 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We keep working with them. From my perspective, they understand our business and can jump in quickly. They can hit the ground running, which is very valuable for us. The speed in turnaround is fantastic and they understand our limited budget. The team is responsive and dynamic. The quality is always very good.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s excellent. Their communication is always really clear. I get regular reports on what’s happening. I don’t know what tools they use specifically on project management, but the information they provide is easily consumable. I look at spreadsheets of finance breakdowns and timelines. They’re also flexible and have used Jira when we request.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their dynamic nature and how responsive they are truly sets them apart. They have a range of different strengths. Their UX is great, and I understand from my development colleagues that they’re reliable there as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Any feedback I’d give him would be on communication when pitching the company and isn’t a reflection of the quality of their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be really clear about your requirements. They will give you the best quote they can, but the more information you can give them, the more accurate it will be.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of product for Coleman Research, a primary research firm and expert network. We help investment management firms, consulting firms, and other companies with their primary research by putting them in touch with industry professionals, mainly as part of a one-on-one phone conversation.

We’ve recently begun offering a SaaS product that takes our expert relationship management (ERM) system and allows our clients or other institutions that are managing networks of people to use the same technology that we use.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We hired them to do design work for our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual took some very crude, basic streams that I had put together and turned them into a true product. They helped us through the different iterations of our ERM platform. Additionally, we also have different portals that customers of our SaaS platform use as well. 

They added functionality that allows experts, compliance officers, and analysts to interact with the platform. The team also revamped and redesigned our own internal applications that are used by clients. Perpetual did all of this UI design work using Sketch and Figma. 

What is the team composition?

Initially, we worked with two designers. When one of them left the company, we only worked with one designer. Amish (CEO) also served as the project manager, checking in from time to time. 

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

Our former CTO, who had worked with Amish in the past, came across them. Amish then came in and gave us a tour of the work that they had done. We liked their experience working with other financial institutions, the mockups that they had done for others, and their overall approach.

How much have you invested with them?

We worked together from November 2018–January 2020. There were a few months where, as our business priorities changed, we didn’t engage with them as much. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We spent approximately $150,000.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of innovation for a media organization. We produce news content that gets consumed by publishers and broadcasters.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We hired them to develop an internal tool for us. It will streamline the process of extracting information from our database to serve our clients faster and better.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It’s a web-based application. They worked with Node.js and worked on the frontend development. They also used AWS for the content repository. They also provided UX design support and product management support. Then we did a little debugging for deployment.

What is the team composition?

There were six people on their side who worked on our project.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

We’ve worked with them on a few other projects within our broader organization.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2019 and development lasted from January–April 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We did our own testing and validation, and we’re pleased with the outcome Overall, they were really good.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They stayed on track in terms of budget and timelines. They were really responsive as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very professional and quick to respond. They’re also very agile in their development approach, so when requirements changed, they were flexible and accommodating. They’re also very good at hitting target estimates.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any comments on that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear strategy on the things you’re trying to achieve. Be able to communicate your user-persona and user requirements well. Especially, if there are any changes, communicate early and often.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior director in the editorial news technology department for Thomson Reuters, a news company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We hired them to do build a bigger platform. There were a few pieces that were needed within the scope of the work. They built our initial platform previously.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

This project involved adding extensions to the platform, expanding it. They onboarded content in a way to become part of the overall platform. Once the content was there, they put together our automation platform. To do that, they took our natural language templates and allowed the content to be bound so news articles could be rated automatically. 

They also worked with many technologies including AWS, Node.js, Java, and React. Their team also supplied full-stack work, coding, testing, and coordinating with users to get requirements from them. They were involved in every step of the process.

What is the team composition?

There were three or four people that we interacted with.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

The company initially began working with them before I was here. They've done many projects with us.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2019 to March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We tracked progress through weekly calls. With regard to end-to-end delivery, they onboarded the content and pulled together some automation storage examples. We were happy with what they delivered.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a great job. They’re dependable and able to work independently. Being familiar with our company and our platform reduced the amount of input from our IT team. We used Jira and had weekly calls to discuss progress and what should be changed before the next call.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re able to translate user requirements into software requirements, and they understand our platform well. They never made money the focus of our discussions. Overall, they bring in technically talented people and upscale as needed to deliver.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They know what they’re doing and you can trust them. Give them space to be creative and bring back solutions to you. Look beyond the cost because they do good work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder of DogStays, a marketplace for dog parents and dog sitters. We are based in Luxembourg (EU) and provide a platform to ensure high-quality dog-sitting/ boarding services for dog parents.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Perpetual?

I hired Perpetual in Feb 2019 to provide Product and Technology Advisory services for my team. This was a 12 month engagement to help me plan and build out the Dogstays Marketplace platform from ground up (current MVP is live at https://www.dogstays.lu/, marketplace platform due to launch in Summer 2020).

What were your goals for this project?

I was seeking Product and Technology advisory and guidance on building out an MVP version of our marketplace platform. We needed someone to help define our technology roadmap, figure out the best process and team to implement the project efficiently and fit within our limited budget. Our main goal was to put a solid technical foundation in place to build out our platform. I also needed hands on support on my current site (dogstays.lu) to help optimize my daily tasks in running the business. One of the key items we needed support in the new platform was to conduct tech discovery on a third party scheduling/booking tool to allow Dog Owners to be able to easily book their Dog Sitter based on their location + available time slots vs manually performing these tasks on a daily basis.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I was referred to Perpetual by a common friend who had worked with them before.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

- They helped carve out a Technology Roadmap for my product building and scaling the platform. - They provided me information on “the how” to implement features, what open source tools we could leverage/ reuse, provide high level estimation/tech complexity against each feature. - Technical Discovery of booking/scheduling tools, open source e-commerce and CMS packages for the platform. Defining architecture, technical stack and appropriate cloud hosting. - Contribute towards budget planning for platform build and selection of third party vendor.

What was the team composition?

1 Tech Advisor available part time for 6 months. 1 Product Manager part time for 2 months

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Perpetual team helped me understand the cost and effort of building the marketplace platform and were able to identify the technology challenges and risks which have been invaluable to me in implementation of the platform. They were able to define the technology roadmap to align with my business priorities which was great! The technical recommendations they made have positioned us well to build out the next set of features on our platform.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Very efficient, we had regular meetings - status was discussed in the meeting along with blockers/priorities. They provided me detailed information on the status of items and any blockers that arose during the project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Perpetual team has provided me the guidance and engineering best practices across people, process and tech - helping me find the right team, setup a lean/agile process and building our platform on a modern technology stack. The team has been very diligent and thorough through the project timeline. They know technology really well and seem to quickly understand my pain points in running the business to provide appropriate solutions and industry standard tools. They seem to always ask the right questions and challenged my assumptions at times (patient enough to educate me on the tech when needed!) I would highly recommend this team to any other startups.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None