Smart-UI

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Manager, Professional Services at a Talent Cloud Company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are the Talent Cloud company that empowers organizations to attract, engage, hire, and advance the talent that builds a winning workforce.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Smart-UI to accomplish?

• Build and update amazing career sites for our customer base.
• Work on multiple complex projects in a streamlined way using an agile scrum approach.
• Meet and exceed project timelines.

SOLUTION

How did you find Smart-UI?

Other

Why did you select Smart-UI over others?

Referred to me

What was the size of Smart-UI’s team?

2-5 Employees

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

Smart UI delivered excellent web development services to power the build of our customer's candidate experiences. They worked strategically with our internal Implementation Consultants as the development arm of our team, and coordinated, using prioritized JIRA tickets and two week sprints, the efforts to standup our career sties on time and with extremely high quality. They provided a team of high performing developers that were easy to work with and worked very efficiently.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• We were able to measure the sprint velocities to see the output of the team, and also the number of customer career sites they solely supported for development. They executed a large quantity of work.

What was your primary form of communication with Smart-UI?

Email or Messaging App

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

Yes, Smart UI was very strong from a project management perspective, and they were able to adhere to our two week sprints, to intake the appropriate amount of work and ensure it was completed with high quality prior to it being due.

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

They were so easy to work with, and a lot of our internal teammates developed great working relationships and even friendships with the members of Smart UI. Most importantly though the quality of their work was very high (and they used good judgement from a design standpoint when there was something that wasn't fully clear). They are a high-performing group.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Smart-UI could have done differently?

No, they communicated really strongly and they did excellent work. Our organizational strategy changed, otherwise we would have happily continued the partnership.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of engineering at a two-sided marketplace for clients, brands, and talent in our industry. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Smart-UI?

We were looking for a company to build out additional functionalities and revamp existing ones in our marketplace. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Smart-UI completed 3–4 projects for us and completely revamped our web platform. First, they rebuilt our static pages, utilizing the preexisting designs I provided in Figma and converting them into AngularJS for the development. They restructured and re-coded our user navigation for the site's homepage and changed how users interact with it.  

They then helped us create additional content and changed how our website pages function. The Smart-UI team worked directly with our developers and provided each deliverable for us to review and approve before the final implementation process. 

Now, Smart-UI is rebuilding our messenger functionality from scratch in AngularJS using the specifications I've provided. This is the most complex we've done with them. They're keeping some of the original design but changing the look slightly. The new messenger functionality is under integration and will go live shortly.  

What is the team composition?

We've worked with three developers throughout our partnership, including Alex (CEO) and another senior developer.

How did you come to work with Smart-UI?

I met Smart-UI through Upwork. I was looking for experts in frontend development and came across Alex. The first job they completed was very simple and they delivered it quickly, so I decided to continue working with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested $3,000 with Smart-UI so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership began in March 2021 and we'll continue to work with them on an as-need basis. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I am very happy with their deliverables. I am a developer and I can tell the quality of the code is high; they always follow our coding guidelines. The fact that I don't have a lot of feedback is good because that means they're delivering exactly what I want. We don't have any platform bugs, and most of our web pages are now live. 

How did Smart-UI perform from a project management standpoint?

I am not a part of the project management, so I'm not quite sure how they managed the web platform development. However, their team always delivers a high-quality product on time. 

We communicate with Smart-UI through Upwork. Whenever we send Smart-UI assets they need, we send them via email.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

I am very impressed that Smart-UI frontend development experts could deliver what we needed within a very short period of time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We've only been working with them for a few months, and I don't have anything for them to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Potential customers need to be very aware of the different time zones. Sometimes I have to chat with them after hours to communicate project requirements, which can be challenging if my schedule is tight. The issues with the timezone aren't as prevalent on smaller projects, but on larger projects where customers need to be more involved, the time difference can be a hassle.