RewiSoft

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Head of Digitalization of a full-cycle real estate company. Our company specializes in various construction projects

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Northell, and what were your goals?

We hired a dedicated software development team to help us achieve our core business objectives. Basically, we needed to set up the ERP application development process, ensuring the system handles management of all business activities for different departments.

First of all, we were looking for software engineers who could develop a customized solution for our construction company for a fixed period of time. Our next goal was to implement a robust architecture that ensures the scalability, reliability, and high performance of the ERP application. Also, we wanted to create different modules for various departments in our company, ensuring all employees can assess the information easily and securely.

SOLUTION

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

First, we decided to build an ERP platform to solve common pitfalls that exist in the real estate industry. Our company decided to hire software professionals with a solid portfolio and industry-specific expertise. In addition, one of our partners recommended the Northell team as excellent specialists in the construction niche who can help us deliver our product of the required quality on time.

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

Firstly, we asked the team to make not only a functional application, but a full-fledged ERP product. For this reason, Northell experts suggested that we start by creating an MVP version to check how well the product meets our requirements. This turned out to be a great idea that revealed the need for technical improvements.

With a solid technology stack chosen by the development team, we agreed to start working on building the front-end and back-end of the application. Also, the team came up with a great idea to develop a secure and scalable cloud infrastructure to extend the platform's capabilities.

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

The team consists of:

• a project manager
• business analyst
• 3 UI/UX designers
• 2 backend developers
• 3 frontend developers
• 3 QA engineers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Northell team was able to release a fully customizable and scalable solution that fully met our needs. Frankly, we worried about few moments like APIs integrations to display the information in the ERP system. This often seems like a complex problem leading to potential system errors. But, I’d like to admit the API’s integration was implemented and tested thoroughly. Today, this customized system functions better than we could imagine.

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

The communication and project management model was transparent, so we communicated whenever we needed to. The team always took into account our requirements and still managed to complete the project on time. If there were any issues with development, the team consistently fixed them. We are completely satisfied with Northell's effective partnership.

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

Personal thanks for bringing our most ambitious ideas to life. They provided us with a custom ERP system that was perfectly integrated into our business routine. I also appreciate the variety of solutions they offered on a daily basis. These guys are absolutely professional in providing software development services.

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

To be honest, I can hardly say anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm an entrepreneur and the CEO and founder of Jump. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Northell?

We were trying to design a platform and wireframes in a short time frame.

SOLUTION

Describe the scope of work in detail.

Northell helped us create eh design of our cross-platform mobile application. Their team worked on the back- and frontend UX/UI design. Northell did everything from scratch — we didn't even have a logo. We just gave Northell our platform concept. My team collaborated closely with Northell on the entire design. 

Northell's team also helped us monetize the platform. Together, we laid out how to price the app and how it would generate revenue. However, they didn't do anything on the business side; it was all conceptual. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with five teammates from Northell, including designers and project managers. 

How did you come to work with Northell?

I put out a request on Upwork, and Northell applied. We interviewed their team and some other designers, but I decided to hire Northell. Their pricing was competitive, and I liked their portfolio. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $10,000–$15,000 with Northell. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with Northell was from June 2021–April 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were focused on Northell's delivery times — they quickly delivered good quality products. There were very few times we had to submit change requests. 

How did Northell perform from a project management standpoint?

Northell followed through on our meetings and was prompt in their scheduling. I never had to chase them down for deliverables. The project manager was very organized and responsive. Typically, we communicated through Slack, and Northell sent me weekly project updates. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Northell's smaller, young team made them very agile and responsive. When we were thinking about utilizing their other services, I liked that Northell's CEO engaged with us and presented services to us. Northell's additional support features made them stand out. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Something I noticed about growing companies, and Northell in particular, was that they added costs halfway through the project. Northell should've managed their costs better. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I'd advise customers looking to do similar projects to ours to go into the partnership with Northell with some ideas for their team to build upon. Northell isn't really in the conceptualization space; I'm not sure how creative their team is.  

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a product manager for a startup company working on a property management mobile application

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Northell?

Although we had a basic design for the app we are developing, we were missing many basic flows, and the design was not coherent throughout the whole app.

SOLUTION

How did you select this Northell?

We searched on UpWork form the best UX/UI designers, focusing on teams that had experience in real estate platforms and good English for optimal communication. We interviewed a few teams and designers and chose Northell based on their past projects, easy communication and clear expectations that we defined between us.

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

In the beginning we had a lengthy call to discuss the project in general, and then broke it into work sections. We have weekly calls to discuss sprints and different sections for each one and expectations for the redesign of the whole app, including time estimates and ongoing questions through a Slack channel.

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

My team worked directly with Northell's UX/UI designers, and team lead who checked their work, and the team's project manager. When necessary upon request, we also had calls with Northell's business manager who was in charge of our company's communication.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are satisfied with the team's deliverables and flexibility with client requests. All feedback was promptly taken care of in a professional fashion and we are pleased with the ongoing communication with the team.

The app has not yet been deployed to potential customers, however we see a significant difference in the app in terms of cleanliness, efficiency and easier user navigation.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team was very easy to communicate with, any questions and updates were received through our Slack channel, as well as weekly and monthly time reports through e-mail. Our weekly calls helped us create a simple workflow that allowed to clear and definitive tasks per sprint and any new requests were always given an estimate within the same day.

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

Communication is always excellent, with questions and requests being answered promptly. With ongoing requests and changes from the client, flexibility also plays a major role in working with the team. The UX process is always very well thought out throughout working on the project.

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

When reviewing each sprint upon completion, it might be better for Northell to have a set template for comments and revisions that would be comfortable for both sides to fill out

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner/founder of a B2B SaaS company based out of Maryland in the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Northell?

I'm starting my next SaaS company and needed a go-to company for a ton of design-related work. I needed them to create the wireframes for the entire front end of the site, followed by the UI and the UX.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I put a test project for $500 on upwork and found 5 companies which I thought would be a fit based on their profiles. They all had the exact same spec and at the end, it was fairly easy for me to choose Northell since they proactively interacted with me during the project and didn't take everything i said at face value, they often made suggestions for alternative paths which i often took.

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

I had previously conducted the research and I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted. I pointed them to other, similar sites and asked them for suggestions and feedback. They they worked with me to produce the wireframes and then presented mood boards to help them understand what my preferences were as relates to the UI/UX etc.

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

There were 3 or 4 people. I had my main point of contact and the owner was always in the background, overseeing things. My main POC was great and helped refine the requirements. Then I worked with a designer who iterated on the UI and UX etc.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I've been very pleased with the results and would highly recommend them. I have more than what I had originally anticipated.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Great, then provide regular updates and/or ask questions before committing a lot of effort etc.

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

They made the whole experience pretty seamless and it was like working with my own team of employees.

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

I can't think of any at the moment.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a small agency located in Ukraine, and we’re helping socially impactful AI projects. I’m the founder of the company and we mainly work with NGOs, helping them with media monitoring and building the right tools for various socially impactful purposes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Northell?

We specialize in AI and machine learning (ML), but we didn’t have in-house software development or design capabilities. In this project, we had to build a dashboard as a result of our AI work and we needed someone to do the design and development. I was able to find freelance engineers to do the development, but I had no luck in finding freelancers for the design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started by doing a small discovery session with them so that they could understand what we were trying to build. After that, they gave us estimates for the design cost, and they gave us an impressive proposal.

We were building a tool that allows an analyst to collect information from social media and analyze information and make a decision from fake news and propaganda. We wanted to have a backend system that would collect information from various publications such as news outlets, social media, and websites. The information would be posted by several ML models.

The part that we were designing with Northell was a public dashboard that users could access to see insights into the system. There was no login system because it was simply a page that showed the graphical representations that we had and it would constantly update as we would get new data.

During the project, they helped us define a few personas since we didn’t have a clear user persona at the beginning and we weren’t sure who we could engage in the advanced stage. We did have a core group of people, but beyond the core group, we had other potential users.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people from Northell. Two designers worked hand in hand with two project managers.

How did you come to work with Northell?

I posted my request on Upwork describing what I wanted and their team came back to me with a design proposal. Their portfolio was quite nice, so I decided to hire them as a subcontractor for the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent roughly $7,000–$8,000 on the project. 

What is the status of the engagement?

We worked with them from December 2021–February 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were not for profit, so it would be quite hard for us to tell the metrics. Anecdotally, we received much better feedback from the design we had with them compared to the output we had with a freelance designer. Overall, Northell did a better job although their cost was more expensive.

How did Northell perform from a project management standpoint?

One of the project managers was great but the other one was always a bit lost. In their billing model, they were charging us for the designers and project managers separately. They charged for the project manager to join the meetings and maybe write some follow-ups. If we had to rate them on a scale of ten, I’d give them seven for their project management and nine for their design skills.

We used Figma and Figma Mirror for the project’s sketches. We also used Google Docs heavily to collect and share feedback. Then, they shared the time they spent in a Google Sheet and sent the invoice on a weekly basis. We communicated through text messages 99% of the time. We also had meetings every two weeks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were able to start very quickly, and they had very good design capabilities. I liked their designers, too.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve their project management and estimation process because they didn't do a very good job of understanding the scale of the design work that needs to be done in our project. As a result, we spent twice the budget we originally anticipated. Although it wasn’t their fault, they could’ve invested more time to understand the code and retrieve information from us so that they could’ve come up with better estimates.

Any advice for potential customers?

Try to clearly communicate the scope of responsibilities and the involvement of the project manager to Northell.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the D2C program director for a company that sells gift vouchers. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Northell? 

We hired Northell to help us open a new D2C channel, which was an e-commerce website. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Northell’s work has been limited to UX design. During the discovery phase, the team gathered our requirements. Then, they came back to us with a proposal and some design samples. 

So far, we’ve done iterations on their designs. Our teams have also done user tests on both desktop and mobile designs. Our goal is to provide our customers with a quick, frictionless experience; we want to get as many things out of the way as possible. The website should be clean and efficient, and there should also be a payment feature. It should also display products prominently. 

The Northell team has offered their development services, but we have an in-house web development team. We also have an existing B2B channel, and we want to leverage all of our existing technology. In other words, we only truly need their help in terms of UI/UX design. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with two designers, one project manager, one operations manager, and their CEO. Overall, we collaborate with five people from their team. 

How did you come to work with Northell?

I got in touch with Northell through Upwork. Vasyl (CEO) responded and outlined their exact process. He gave me a clear description of their proposal — it was perfect for what we wanted, so we hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’re quoted for $18,000, but we’ll probably invest a total of $20,000–$22,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of Northell’s work is great. Their designs are excellent. The team understands the concept of what we do, and what they’ve delivered so far is exactly what we want. 

English is obviously not their first language, so there have been some issues with the site’s copy. However, that doesn’t matter because we’re going to change its copy in any case. 

How did Northell perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is great. There have been some back-and-forth discussions, but these are expected in such projects. They’re completely within limits, and we have contingencies. In terms of tools, we use Figma and Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Northell’s bravery is impressive. They continue to work in spite of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, so I’m truly impressed by them. Their professionalism has been great throughout the engagement. In fact, when they lost a person to another company, they’ve quickly replaced her with another specialist who’s been great at their job. Overall, we’re truly happy with their service. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We have to make sure that the deliverables are agreed upon — we’ve had a slight misunderstanding about whether or not they should be delivering us an HTML/CSS package on top of the Figma designs. It’s crucial for us that everybody knows what they’re delivering and in what format. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what you want to receive from Northell by the end of the engagement. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the product manager of a credit broker in Romania.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Northell?

We wanted a fresh design for an online digital mortgage platform.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We chose Northell after many discussions with many design teams, as their portfolio and work style suited our project.

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

The team started on the web version with functional decomposition, mood boards, wireframing and the final design. After completing this the responsive design was implemented.

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

We worked with the UI/UX designers and the project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was successfully completed with a very nice outcome. We are very happy with the final design with all the details ready for implementation.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Northell team where very easy to work with and collaborated well with our team throughout the entire project.

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

They were very persistent at moving the project forward and ensuring a positive result at every stage.

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

Possibly made the responsive design first. It took some effort to get a great outcome for web and mobile.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a founding member of a fintech startup called HelpPays. We’re a peer-to-peer lending application.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Northell?

We needed UI/UX design services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Northell did a complete redesign of our application, including the UI/UX redesign using Figma. They initially worked with us to determine what should be included, taken away, and improved in our existing design. We provided them with documentation and the bigger picture of our project, but they also brought their expertise to the table.

Since then, we’ve moved into the next phase of our project. Northell is making animated videos for us, and they’re helping us with the setup of some emails that we’re going to send out.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with their CEO and a project manager, but Northell has a decent-sized team working on our project. I’ve known of around eight more individuals in our shared Slack channel.

How did you come to work with Northell?

I found them on Clutch. I conducted about a dozen interviews with different vendors, and Northell was the most professional and quickest-to-provide-feedback company. Additionally, they offered the best approach, and their price was startup-friendly.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2021, and our engagement is ongoing. The redesign has been completed, but we haven’t gone live yet because we need to do the actual development. Although Northell does that as well, we want to do it internally.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The feedback has been amazing. At every step of the way, we’ve gone to other people for feedback, and it has been overwhelming to the point that we feel comfortable investing more money into the platform.

How did Northell perform from a project management standpoint?

Northell has kept us up to speed, and they work really fast. We have to approve everything before it is completed, and they’ve followed up really well.

We communicate via email, Google Chat, and Slack. The latter is where we keep in constant touch; they’re very available through that channel.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Northell is the best in their class, and they know the best practices. Overall, they’ve done a great job.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Northell has done a really good job. Although it took them a little bit of time to get up to speed on our app, I think that would have been the case with anyone. Now, they know it like the back of their hand.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Working with the best in their class, like Northell, is very important and necessary for your UI/UX projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Referrizer, a marketing firm for local businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Northell?

We needed help with UI/UX design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Northell provides UI/UX design upgrades for an existing product of ours. They started by asking what we wanted to accomplish as well as a list of the clients who’d be served. Additionally, they talk to our users and clients to get their feedback.

From there, we meet on a weekly basis to talk about deliverables, starting with simple mockups. They take our feedback and implement it very quickly. Once we agreed to mockup designs, they’d then proceed into designing the full user interface version of the product. They got really detailed about every possible variation and every element of the user journey.

When I used to work with a designer, I’d receive maybe one or two screenshots. Northell sends 20-50 screenshots with every interaction, every click, every possible scenario. It’s one of the most detailed designs that’s been done. My team learned from them as well. They’re a very valuable partner.

We had some conversations about doing some frontend and backend coding and they were willing to do that as well. My team wasn’t ready to manage one more team yet so we decided against that.

What is the team composition?

We work directly with Virliana (Design Team Lead) who also works with Olya (UX/UI Designer).

How did you come to work with Northell?

Northell reached out to me through email and offered some services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2020 and it's ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I like the way that they’re structured. Since we’re a startup, we didn’t have much structuring in the process. They came at the exact moment I lost my in-house designer. Northell also educated us on design topics.

I measure success by seeing how many designs I have, what’s being done, and how many screens are completed. Northell is doing what they’re supposed to. Every week, there are new deliveries that we’re reviewing. They’re the best company I’ve ever worked with.

How did Northell perform from a project management standpoint?

Northell doesn't require heavy management from our side. They don’t need more than an hour a week and they’re very self-organized. The best-managed team is the one that you don’t have to manage.

They write down the notes or record my calls and get the job done. I’ve never had a situation where I had to remind them or ask them what happened.  We use Slack, email, and a weekly call via Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re creative. Northell goes above and beyond. I suggested a book for them to read and they read it in order to learn about a viral strategy we needed implemented.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I’d have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Get estimates for the budget and timeline. That’s been hard for us to do because we’re consistently changing our approach and adding things.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder of Actualized a startup in the Future of Work space. Actualized is building a talent marketplace for senior executives.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Northell?

As we are an early stage startup we plan to raise venture capital to build out our company. We wanted to develop a clickable prototype of our product that we could show investors in addition to our business case and pitch deck.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals were to have a polished and professional prototype that we could showcase to investors so that they could get a clear idea of how both executives and enterprises would interact via an engaging dashboard with our product.

SOLUTION

How did you select Northell?

We placed an ad on Upwork and also talked to various UX/UI firms that we found on line and also that people we knew introduced us to. We shortlisted Northell because we liked the look of the clean designs they had created for Referr ,Tui and Handshake.

After we spoke to them we felt we could work with them on the project. Also they provided a very detailed estimate of the cost of the project.

Describe the project in detail.

The scope of the project was to design a professional and sophisticated prototype of our product based on the vision we provided them. The prototype had 4 sections as below:

1. Homepage: An attractive and engaging home page with 5 sections that communicated the idea of Actualized, how it worked and who it was for.
2. Executive section: Accessed from the Homepage the Executive section began with a landing page that described the value prop for Executives. It had 4 different scenarios that showed how different responses to a set of questions related to a CFOs job would lead to different scores in an executives dashboard.
3. Enterprise section: started with a landing page and then had 3 scenarios that dealt with Hiring an executive and 2 scenarios that showed the kind of talent analytics a company using Actualized's product could get.
4. Investor: the last section was for Investors and showed the type of analytics that an Investors could get. The prototype from end to end had 340 screens with a lot of interlinks, hovers and hotspots

What was the team composition?

There were two people who led business development, one of who worked with us all through the project to make sure the work was timely and also any issues that arose were solved in a timely manner. One project manager One person who worked on the wireframes One person who did the design work after the wireframes were completed

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are very happy with the end outcome which is a very well designed clickable prototype of our product that shows clearly how the 3 different personas would interact with our product. We have just started socializing it with a few people and feel confident that it adds to our overall pitch.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was very effective. On the few occasions that there were any issues it was quickly sorted out.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I really like their professionalism and the quality of the work they produced. They were also open to making changes when we iterated on the design.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Perhaps a bit more speed towards the end of the project so it could have finished a couple of weeks earlier than it did