Singlemind

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Project Manager of City of Portland

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Local city goverment agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Singlemind to accomplish?

UI/UX Discovery Engagement

SOLUTION

How did you find Singlemind?

Referral

Why did you select Singlemind over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Singlemind were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Discovery Sprint focused on getting to know our product vision, analyzing our target market and users, defining our initial release, and identifying requirements and objectives. Deliverables of business goals, features, and user stories with a buildable process that includes your plan for immediate design and development of a high-level future vision design to meet our longer-term goals.  Key activities: Innovation workshops, User Interviews, Experience Maps, and High fidelity prototypes. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Identified; Business Needs, Customer Needs, Business Goals, Existing Pain Points, What’s Working.
• User Profile and Journney map. 
• Comparative analysis
• Design concepts
• User stories
• High level future vision
• Metrics of success
• Implementation roadmap

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

Very responsive, collaborative and flexible with our request. Met established timelines. Gave time and cost estimate for additional work requsted. Stayed witin in scope and budget. 

What was your primary form of communication with Singlemind?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Singlemind had a good team culture and shared work seamlessly. Their approach to working as partners as our organization is going through some major organizational changes, we needed a project and tought partner that was flexible and patient.

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

I think having a visual of a schedule or timeline of acivites that we could see where we were and what was completed. For our project we had requested to add different in-person activities and it was great to have that flexibility and we should also see how adding those impact our timelines. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Former General Manager of MAK Grills

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

MAK Grills handcrafts premium pellet grills in the USA, with exceptional quality, performance and versatility.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Singlemind to accomplish?

• Develop a high quality mobile app
• Increase customer engagement
• Enhance customer support
• Gather customer data and insights

SOLUTION

How did you find Singlemind?

Online Search

Why did you select Singlemind over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Singlemind were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

SingleMind Consulting was tasked with developing a comprehensive mobile application solution for MAK Grills, aimed at enhancing the customer experience and providing a centralized platform for grill management, support, and engagement.

This involved:

Requirements Gathering and Analysis: Collaborating with MAK Grills to define the app's functionality, features, and support.
UX/UI Design: Designing an intuitive and user-friendly interface that aligns with MAK Grills' brand identity and provides a seamless user experience.
App Development: Developing the mobile app for iOS and Android platforms, including front-end and back-end development, ensuring compatibility with various MAK Grills models and controllers.
Quality Assurance Testing: Conducting rigorous testing to identify and resolve any bugs or performance issues before launch.
Deployment and Launch: Assisting with the app's deployment to the App Store and Google Play Store.
Ongoing Support and Maintenance: Providing ongoing support, maintenance, and regular updates to ensure the app remains secure, functional, and up-to-date.

Key Deliverables:

Fully functional mobile app for iOS and Android: A user-friendly app enabling customers to register their grills, access support resources, control their grills remotely, and engage with the MAK Grills community.
Back-end infrastructure: A robust and scalable back-end system to support the app's functionality and manage user data.
API integration: Seamless integration with MAK Grills' existing systems and databases.
Technical documentation: Comprehensive documentation outlining the app's architecture, functionality, and codebase.
Ongoing support and maintenance: A fixed-fee support agreement ensuring continuous app improvement, updates, and issue resolution.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

SingleMind's expertise extended beyond app development to encompass cloud infrastructure optimization. Over the past 12 months, they have dramatically reduced our AWS service costs by 93.6%. 

This was achieved through a combination of strategic improvements, including:

Removing redundant resources: SingleMind identified and eliminated unnecessary cloud resources, resulting in significant cost savings without compromising performance.
Optimizing database loads: They fine-tuned our database configuration to improve efficiency and reduce costs, notably decreasing DynamoDB costs by 89.5%.
Refining the data model: By optimizing the data model, SingleMind improved data storage and retrieval efficiency, further contributing to cost reduction.

These efforts have not only resulted in substantial cost savings but have also maintained high app performance and allowed us to seamlessly add security and monitoring features. This demonstrates SingleMind's commitment to delivering both technical excellence and cost-effectiveness.

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

SingleMind's project management was highly effective and contributed significantly to the success of our app development project. They consistently delivered items on time and were incredibly responsive to our needs throughout the process.

Communication was seamless, thanks to their use of tools like Slack and a schedule of regular meetings. This ensured we were always on the same page, could address any questions or concerns promptly, and maintain momentum throughout the project.

Their proactive communication and collaborative approach fostered a strong sense of partnership and trust, making the entire development journey smooth and efficient.

What was your primary form of communication with Singlemind?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What impressed us most about SingleMind was their genuine commitment to partnership. They went above and beyond to understand our business, our customers, and our vision for the app. This collaborative approach fostered a strong sense of trust and ensured the project's success.

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

While the overall project management was excellent, there was a slight learning curve at the beginning as we adapted to SingleMind's project management tools and communication style. A more comprehensive onboarding process might have helped streamline the initial stages of the project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP of Operations of Telltale

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Video game publishing and development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Singlemind to accomplish?

• Address all bugs and layout issues on website.
• Revamp backend system to successfully deploy website to staging and live environments.
• Determine and implement new CDN system for hosting of content.

SOLUTION

How did you find Singlemind?

Referral

Why did you select Singlemind over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Singlemind were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Singlemind was engaged to revamp our website, which has three distinctive backend systems driving it. These systems had become out of date, resulting in numerous visual and other issues. Further the Wordpress portions of the site suffered from deployment issues.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Review of existing issues
• Analysis of current system with recommendations for updates, fixes and maintenance
• Full rebuild of major portion of site in Wordpress
• Deployment of revised website

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

Our contacts at Singlemind were very communicative about every stage of the project, including when work was ready for our review, when to schedule major rollouts, and when any obstacles were hit (be it technical, or work that was subjective and required more guidance from us).

They demonstrated patience when dependencies on our team slowed them down. While most of the communication took place through a digital task list and via Slack, Singlemind was superb about initiating video calls at key points during the project to discuss major items and next steps. This coordination, responsiveness and transparency between our companies resulted in a successful relaunch of our website.

What was your primary form of communication with Singlemind?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

It's impressive how easy they were to work with and how quickly they felt like part of our team.

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

None.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of PrivateCall LLC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Singlemind?

We engaged Singlemind to develop our website, which was a platform for content creators to offer private video calls to their fan base.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially went through a discovery process. Singlemind and I had several meetings via video call, during which they explained their workflow and asked me about my goals. From there, Singlemind designed the platform’s architecture so its pieces fit together. They handled all the software needed to make the platform work. Their key technologies included WordPress, Stripe, WooCommerce, Elementor, and DropBox.

What is the team composition?

Graham (Business Development Manager) introduced me to their company during the discovery process. He explained how the company worked. Meanwhile, the platform was designed and built by Richie (CTO), Gary (Senior Software Developer), and another teammate. We spoke most often with Chris (Customer Success Director), who walked me through everything as we made changes. We also engaged with Cort (President & Founder). 

How did you come to work with Singlemind?

I found Singlemind through Google. I spoke with them and a couple of other teams, but I chose them after we went through the discovery process. I chose them over others because of their experience in developing relatively complicated websites and functionalities. I wanted to ensure this product worked and was stable, so my main decision driver was that they’d done this before.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested a little under $200,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement was from February 2023–May 2024. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Shortly after the website’s launch, we gained around 100 users. Overall, Singlemind absolutely exceeded my expectations. 

How did Singlemind perform from a project management standpoint?

They completed the project on time and budget. Additionally, the support they provided was great. They facilitated monthly support meetings to go over any changes I wanted to implement. Their constant support was absolutely amazing. For tools, we used email, Google Documents, Slack, and Google Meet. Chris also allowed me to call or text him at any time, which was truly helpful.

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Chris was extraordinarily responsive and easy to communicate with — he got things done on time. He thought outside the box and deeply about how my product would function. He would get back to me even on nights and weekends to suggest things. He was truly an amazing person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their communication and happy with the product’s quality and stability. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give Singlemind as much information as possible, and completely trust them — don’t hold anything back. The more information you give, the better. They’ll think more deeply about the problem and come up with solutions. Moreover, remain flexible. Listen to them; you don’t necessarily have to stick with your first idea. Consider everything they say. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Marketing and Social Media Manager of a gaming company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Video game development

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Singlemind to accomplish?

• Rebrand, update, and relaunch the studio's website
• Create, launch and update a webpage dedicated to our video game
• Create and launch hidden webpages for an ARG program related to the game

SOLUTION

How did you find Singlemind?

Referral

Why did you select Singlemind over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Singlemind were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Rebrand and relaunch the studio's website, which Singlemind previously created. This included redesigning the site template, publishing new pages to expand on what it's like to work at the studio, career opportunities, and establish a blog. Design and launch a webpage for the studio's first video game. This involved designing a secondary template based on the game's design system and completing updates and design changes to the page throughout the launch campaign. 

Design and launch hidden webpages as part of a mini AR game based on our video game. This included creating a password protected landing page where participants would need to enter the correct code to gain access to the ARG rewards - a hidden page with an exclusive new soundtrack and artbook from the game.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• We have a gorgeous new studio website, game webpage, and ARG page.

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

Everything was completed in a timely manner and within budget. Our Singlemind point of contact also worked closely with us to ensure our vision aligned with our available budget, and was able to offer excellent solutions and alternatives to make our website vision possible.

What was your primary form of communication with Singlemind?

Email or Messaging App

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

I was impressed with their high-quality work. Friendly, understanding, and collaborative teammates.

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

Not at this time.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was published on Mon, 11/02/2020

Darya Makarava
Producer, Ascendant Studios
Gaming
11-50 Employees
San Rafael, California
$10,000 to $49,999
Jun 2020 - Oct 2020

Project summary

SingleMind was hired to overhaul a video game startup's WordPress platform, improving it in order to attract suitable candidates on their posted job listings. The team developed numerous mockups for the client.

Feedback summary

The team was able to grasp the requirements of the client and produce a platform that resonates with the company's brand and identity. SingleMind was also instrumental in making the platform fast and accessible. They were communicative, meticulous, and helpful. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company, Ascendant Studios, is a video game startup in the San Francisco Bay Area, working on our first big title. I am a Producer (project manager), though I also handle auxiliary tasks that the development team does not have time for, such as social media and recruiting.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Single Mind to overhaul our website to better represent the company and attract top tier talent.

SOLUTION

How did you select SingleMind and what were the deciding factors?

Single Mind was recommended by a partner of ours. After speaking with several potential web developers, we chose SingleMind because they were both responsive to our needs and concerns and also had a good price point.

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

The ask was to create a website with three distinct pages. Our chief requirements were a clean, modern look that was on part with other companies in our industry, as well as a job listings section and a section about our team. SingleMind was able to accomplish all this through the use of Wordpress. We begun with a couple of meetings to nail down our requirements for the website and have SingleMind learn more about us as a company.

During this step, I appreciated SingleMind asking questions and diving into what was important to us as a company beyond the brief we were able to give them. Next, they presented us with a series of Wordpress themes to begin the website, as well as branding choices around colors and fonts. Once the selections were made, they created tons of mockups for us to review and revise until we settled on something that we all liked.

At that point, they promptly implemented it on a staging server and were able to revise new feedback that came up from seeing everything live online. Finally, they were able to handle everything about the website launch themselves, despite that not being part of the original contract. This last bit was very appreciated!

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

Their project manager was our chief contact, though we were also regularly in touch with their developer and designer throughout various stages of the process. I am unsure of how many folks were involved behind the scenes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don't heavily track things like click throughs or engagement, but our new website is much better at explaining who we are and what we do than our old site. It is much easier to update and automatically syncs with our job platform to ensure that everything is accurate and saves me a lot of work.

Everything scales beautifully regardless of what device it is viewed on, and SingleMind was great about keeping technological considerations (like load times or small phone screens) in mind at all times. Everyone on the team is very happy with the new site, and as its administrator I am too.

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

In addition to video calls at every major milestone, SingleMind and Ascendant shared a slack channel and private messages wherein SingleMind would share links to their progress and we could all ask and answer questions. We communicated multiple times a week, near daily when it came to the final stretch and launching the site.

All the materials and notes from our meetings were stored in a shared GoogleDrive location. I was the primary stakeholder on my side, and I communicated with our CEO and Director of Operations to make major decisions.

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

SingleMind did not just execute on the requirements that they were given and call it a day (as was the case with many companies I've worked with in the past). Instead of just asking for a checklist and getting our brand guide, they took the time to dive into what sort of company we were, what sort of people we wanted to attract, and what we wanted to say about ourselves in our digital presence.

They continued with this thorough and holistic approach throughout the process, making sure that they created not just what we asked for but what we actually intended with the product. They were not afraid to raise concerns with our proposed vision and work with us to arrive at a final execution that both met our needs, the tech requirements, and our budget. They were not opposed to changing requirements from us, while remaining cognizant of the budget. We came in right on target!

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

None. We felt like they were wonderful partners throughout this whole process.

RATINGS

Overall rating: 5

Quality: 5

Cost: 5

Schedule: 5

Willing to refer: 5

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Powell's Bookstore is the world’s largest independent bookstore, with a reputation for offering a wide selection of books and a unique in-store experience since 1971.

Despite its size, Powell's remains a family-owned and operated business, with a focus on curating a diverse collection of books and fostering a community of avid readers. Through Powells.com and our expansive online community, we also serve people around the world who are as excited about books as we are.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with the vendor?

At a high level, we were initially looking to address a myriad of legacy technical and software development process issues that stemmed from aging systems and technical debt, with the goal of getting new/improved customer experiences to market. 

As the relationship evolved, we turned Singlemind’s attention to accelerating our time to market by directly designing and developing our bespoke online book-buying tool as well as rebuilding the front-end of our ecommerce platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The initial engagement with Singlemind started as a technical and software process Discovery designed to evaluate and make process improvement recommendations.

Over the course of the engagement, Singlemind helped implement those recommendations, implement Agile and Scrum best practices, provided 3rd party vendor selection guidance, implemented modern toolchain, DevOps and CI/CD processes, provided product and project management, as well as UI/UX design and software engineering services.

Their scope was quite broad, including leadership coverage for our CTO while they were on sabbatical

What is the team composition?

The Singlemind team has provided direct services and staff coverage in a variety of roles; Interim CTO and Interim Director of Product, Senior Solutions Architect, Program Management, DevOps, QA, UI/UX Design Leadership, and Full Stack Development.

How did you come to work with the vendor?

We were introduced to Singlemind through a referral by one of our Senior Engineers on staff.  After evaluating several firms, we determined that they had the right mix of breadth in their service offerings and depth of senior level experience to meet our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

>$1.5M

What is the status of this engagement?

The primary work has begun to wind down, but we continue to leverage some software engineering services.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Singlemind provided project management and led the development work for Powell’s Books Online Buy Back (OBB) tool, one of our primary channels for acquiring used books.

In the first two weeks after go-live our OBB volume had more than doubled while also improving the quality of incoming inventory through a smarter buying algorithm. The new tool also provided intuitive levers we could easily adjust to control the volume of inventory based on our needs and capacity to process.

the OBB tool has transformed our ability to control incoming inventory. The new app has eliminated surges in workload drastically improving the experience of our employees. Several technical advisors have commented on the quality of front-end design and development work.

How did the vendor perform from a project management standpoint?

The Singlemind team worked closely with our IT leadership as well as subject matter experts from across the company. The communication was clear and timely and the project was completed on time and on budget.

I would have liked a clearer understanding along the way of exactly where we stood. As I elaborate on below, the environment we were starting from was extremely challenging to unwind. The deliverables were at a very high standard.

The huge caveat here is that Powell’s suffered from extensive and pervasive technical debt. Legacy systems were poorly documented making accurate scheduling challenging and deadlines nearly impossible to determine with any confidence.

The bespoke OBB app was completed on time and on budget. The front-end work on our website was incredibly challenging. The work with Singlemind represented our third attempt at replacing the eCommerce platform and this time we are going to be successful!

What did you find most impressive about them?

During the time that Powell’s was engaged with Singlemind, Powell’s IT team experienced significant resource turnover. Singlemind was able to augment staffing as well as step into critical leadership roles.

Powell’s IT staff came to rely heavily on the project leadership team for management and mentorship. The Singlemind team was proactive and responsive to our evolving needs.

Powell’s has a number of additional projects we are looking to do in the next few years and I will certainly be including Singlemind in any future vendor selection process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

While communication lines were always open and the entire team was responsive, I would have liked clearer documentation of project status.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I lead product management and marketing efforts for a manufacturing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SingleMind?

We had designed a new product we wanted to bring to the market quickly, so we engaged SingleMind to augment our development resources. We aimed to streamline the development process and promptly release the product to market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SingleMind essentially advised us through the development process to ensure we made the right decisions for our product. SingleMind was involved in all aspects of the design process. They helped us develop a strategy to achieve our end goal and devised a plan for how we could bring our vision to fruition and meet our go-to-market deliverables.

We wanted to integrate our new product with a legacy system without disrupting our customer experience. We were experiencing challenges while trying to marry the new designs with the legacy product without completely departing from our original UX and the features our users were accustomed to. 

Our first initiative was to validate whether our design and architecture ideas were structurally sound from a product design perspective. SingleMind reviewed our product architecture plans and presented alternative solutions. Then, they shared their expertise in development languages and made recommendations to help us achieve our desired architecture dynamics. 

Once we considered SingleMind’s advice, we identified a knowledge gap within our development team and realized we needed to onboard a principal architect. Then, SingleMind provided us with a senior architect and other development resources to work alongside our team to do some of the coding.

The SingleMind team helped us understand how our new and legacy systems could be tied together and guided us to make informed, effective development decisions. They also designed the UI/UX and followed a rigorous QA and validation process before delivering the result. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with about five team members from SingleMind, including developers, a UI/UX expert, and a project manager. The project manager also acted as a senior architect and lead developer.

How did you come to work with SingleMind?

We found SingleMind through a referral. When we met them, they asked great questions about our goals and the challenges we faced. They grasped our problem quickly and proposed practical solutions right off the bat, so we decided to move forward. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested roughly $500,000 in the project with SingleMind. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with SingleMind between January 2019–March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

SingleMind gave us great UI plans that ranked highly during our initial market feedback sessions. They came up with innovative methods to get us from point A to point B without derailing the UX, and we’re pleased with the final designs and architecture. 

Before working together, we had designs in mind. Still, SingleMind sought to understand our goals for the product and identified design constraints that might have held us back from achieving our future vision. SingleMind did an excellent job understanding how our users interacted with our product and designed a modern, intuitive UX. 

How did SingleMind perform from a project management standpoint?

SingleMind managed the project well and addressed problems as soon as they arose. They made several suggestions that improved our team communication and worked alongside us to integrate the project into Jira. 

We changed the project scope many times throughout the development process, and SingleMind was very flexible with us. The project manager always helped us redefine the scope and ensured our respective teams provided the required workflows on time.

SingleMind also did a great job communicating progress and setting clear expectations. They were realistic when committing to deliverables, especially as the project scope changed. They also integrated their QA and validation process into our workflow, which has benefited our internal team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

SingleMind was a very confident, technically skilled development partner. I was particularly impressed by their comprehensive, consultative approach; they provided us with several options to achieve our goals. They always outlined each potential development decision's pros, cons, and trade-offs. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have nothing SingleMind could improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very transparent about your project goals, objectives, and constraints. Being transparent will enable SingleMind to guide your development decisions and deliver the best possible outcome, rather than just executing what you ask for.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

BeyondHQ is a software platform that powers interactive location analytics for geographically distributed organizations. I am the Head of Product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Initially we were in search of help augmenting our development resources to help get our product to market more quickly. That engagement quickly turned into a more strategic relationship that addressed needs on the product design and architecture fronts.

SOLUTION

How did you select SingleMind and what were the deciding factors?

We looked into over 20 development firms based in the United States and Canada. Out of these, we selected 5 firms to contact based on their previous work and online reviews. After speaking with SingleMind and learning about their product development process as well as meeting with their team members on design and technology architecture, they seemed like the perfect partner for us.

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

Project Manager Defining and triaging backlog in 2-week sprints. Tracking budgets and sprint commitments, and working with the team to ensure a successful outcome (or manage expectations accordingly). Technical (architect / senior developer) Defining technical approach based on requested features, additions, and other changes.

Worked collaboratively with the developer to define, estimate, and document various technical requirements or limitations. Provided code review and implemented improvements to Continuous Integration model as well as inter-sprint team process. Creative / Design We had an existing design.

Thankfully, they were able to pick it up and run with it, making more changes as new features were envisioned, designed, and built. We think they understand our brand - everything they've designed has been incorporated in a way that enhances the existing design, without introducing complexity to the end user.

They've been involved at all aspects of design, from high-level strategy (who/what/why/how), to user experience design (user interactions), to visual design (polish). Embedded developer We needed a talented developer. They were able to quickly source an ideal candidate, and I'm happy to say that they plugged seamlessly into our team. They attend our daily standup meetings, and we communicate primarily through Slack and video call on a regular basis.

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

3 - technical architecture, software developer, design

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to spin out another version of our product within 3 months. This was crucial in our sales timeline. Our original engagement with them was supposed to be just the 3 months, but due to the quality and how quickly they work, we have stayed on with them and this is now an ongoing engagement.

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

Singlemind team is incredibly responsive. I always hear back from them We mostly communicate through Slack and track our work in JIRA on a day to day basis.

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

Singlemind is incredibly flexible, both in finding time for us and in supplementing our needs. They have been able to provide a cost-effective solution for us that we could not find with any other partner we spoke with.

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

We also needed help in marketing, but Singlemind doesn't do marketing! They are focused on providing the best product development solution.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chairman & CEO of Origins FTD Inc., a for-profit company, and a sister organization is Origins FTD Foundation, a non-profit public charity. We’re focused on maternal and child health and we’re developing a mobile health educational platform to address the four million live births every year in the United States to men and women that are conceiving.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SingleMind?

The educational platform that we are developing is focused on fetal origins of disease and the epigenetics behind fetal origins and how they are biologically programmed between the mother and the fetus during gestation and postnatally between the mother, father and support group, up to baby’s age 2. We have a huge medical library that includes outcome studies, articles on gestational, gestational diabetes, various complications the family might encounter during the nine months of pregnancy and also postnatally the problems that they might encounter or questions they might like answers to as it regards parenting.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We contracted with them to integrate our various partners’ software into a mobile health platform that will exist in the cloud and be available to pregnant women and their husbands or partners and families on a smartphone. It would also be available on a laptop or a tablet.

They’re developing a downloadable application. It’s an interactive, educational platform that we’re building. We’ve developed an Avatar who does weigh management, yoga, and is our primary interface between our medical library and the pregnant woman and her support group.

SingleMind’s job is to make sure that the gamification that is exhibited is integrated into other software languages that are available from our marketing group. They deal in Java, JavaScript, Drupal, and a variety of languages.

Once we launch the product, SingleMind will then move into an operating mode where they move from software development into digital marketing along with one of our other digital marketing partners.

What is the team composition?

They have a wonderful group of professionals that deal in the world of digitization and digital media. The main person I interact with is Cort (President/Founder, SingleMind). We’ve had as many as eight people working on the project. A core group of four has worked on the initial prototype of the Avatar. Peripherally, there were another 3-4 people who would be called in to do various bits and pieces of the contract.

How did you come to work with SingleMind?

I did an extensive analysis of people that SingleMind competes with. I found them to have the broadest base of talent. They were better able to handle the complexity of the software project all under one good manager, Cort. He has a number of directors in his group that have also been around the block and have done some serious work for very large companies.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2017 and the work is ongoing.

We contracted with them to integrate our various partners’ software into a mobile health platform that will exist in the cloud and be available to pregnant women and their husbands or partners and families on a smartphone.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s a huge project. Cort has made the comment that this is like trying to boil the ocean. I have an app with an Avatar on my phone that I have been able to show to OBGYNs, to the National Institute of Health, to the National Institute of Child Health and Development, to a variety of other people in the maternal and child health area. Then, I can weave my own narrative around showing somebody the icon on my phone.

 We’ve got four pieces of content. When I or somebody else pokes on the app on my phone, they could see a little video on gestational diabetes. They could see a little video on breast feeding. That is a measurable piece of content that gets somebody’s attention immediately.

How did SingleMind perform from a project management standpoint?

There’s a lot of flexibility that exists within their group. They’ve been very easy to deal with. They’re incredibly smart people. From my standpoint and the due diligence I did on over a dozen different software integrators, their competence is extraordinary. They’re very professional.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The biggest thing I’d give them credit for is their heart. This is a project all about doing good in the world and their team get it. If you were a fly on the wall in one of our meetings, your mouth would drop open with awe over the level of compassion and empathy and heart that this team has shared with me. They’ve been extraordinary listeners.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing they can improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re very open. Cort and the team have integrity. They have goodwill in how they’re dealing with me.