Stellar Elements

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the managing director of The Escape Pod, a full-service advertising agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ORA?

We wanted to build a very modern, nontraditional website to showcase all the work we do for clients and make it easy for new clients to find out if we are a good fit for their needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They designed our website and all the UX. They did all the wireframing and created the backend system for us to keep the site updated and add new work as we complete it.

We wanted the site to look very alive and full of video. It’s broken up into three verticals we’re known for. The whole site has video-based case studies and a ton of movement. It doesn’t look like any other website.

What is the team composition?

I spoke directly with a project manager. They probably had four or five people on their team, including some designers and a coder.

How did you come to work with ORA?

Someone on our team met one of them and brought them in to show us their work. We looked at a bunch of companies, including some we had worked with before. We liked ORA’s design sensibility and felt they could make us something unique.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in January 2016 and they delivered the finished site about four months later.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site has done great things in terms of letting people know who we are. People use our site as a great example of an agency web presence. We’ve had no bugs or crashes since we launched.

How did ORA perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really good communicators. I’ve become good friends with them and really enjoyed working with them. I usually reached them through the project manager at the time, Andrew [Chief Strategy Officer, ORA]. We also used Basecamp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their design ability is impressive. If you look at our site, you will see how different and nontraditional it is. We think it’s really cool.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re looking for something different that really stands out and gets a lot of attention, hire them. It’s easy to find programmers to build you a backend, but it takes serious designers and artists to make you something truly unique. Everything they designed is special and really easy to use.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the technology director and head of IT for a company that outsources staffing to mailrooms and print centers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ORA?

We write our own custom software, but needed an outside company to help us develop an iPhone app to accompany what we could do in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The app was written from scratch, based upon web software we already had. It replaced an older app on a different device, and helps with our mailroom functions. We worked with them to scope out the work and identify best practices for iPhone. This was something we’d never done as a company, so they helped us release the app to the app store after following all the proper details and protocols for Apple development. They did a lot of QA work for us and transitioned control over to us once the contract was up. We staffed an internal developer during the process, so they sent us the codebase and trained him on it.

What is the team composition?

We interacted with the CTO and a project manager. There were also between three and five developers, a dedicated UI/UX person, and a team of QA testers.

How did you come to work with ORA?

I reviewed several development houses in Chicago and may have found ORA on Clutch. They had good talent and seemed like the best fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent somewhere between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2016, and they delivered the app at the beginning of February 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had a lot of feedback, all fairly unanimously agreeing that it’s much easier to use than the old system. It’s very straightforward and easy to learn, and it significantly helps people do their jobs faster.

After the initial delivery, they did a very good job crushing all the bugs, and we’ve had very few issues since we launched.

How did ORA perform from a project management standpoint?

They did very well. They kept us up to date on timelines and budgets, and we talked on a regular basis. We did have a project management system, and they were very responsive. I usually heard back from them within the same day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This was the easiest firm to work with. They were amicable and flexible, and sensitive to our needs. They didn’t put us in a box.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I don’t have any recommendations, but I really liked working with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the Director of Business Development for the National Safety Council (NSC), a 104-year old nonprofit and founding member of the safety movement in America. My role involves managing workplace training and education and growing the business. Our self-sustaining economic model involves selling safety training products and services, with the proceeds going towards funding advocacy initiatives.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ORA?

We were looking for a way to automate some of our lead generation and backend fulfillment by matching trainers with training opportunities. This is something our members—including a number of large corporations like Boeing, Caterpillar, American Airlines, and Disney—requested through surveys. We had been doing it manually for a while but weren't able to scale without a new software solution.

I came up with the plan, presented it to our executive team and board, got the funding, and then looked for a vendor to assist in launching the new product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ORA developed a web platform that matches buyers and sellers of safety training. The platform uses algorithms to automate the matching process through profiles created from both types of users.

The type of product does not lend itself well to mobile use, but we may explore the possibility of a mobile app version in the future.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two people on a daily basis, the project manager and the user experience contact. In initial project kickoff meetings, I met with a larger team of about six people.

How did you come to work with ORA?

I interviewed 14 different organizations from within the U.S. and abroad. I ultimately selected ORA, because they took the most consultative approach.

They were small and nimble enough to be able to do things quickly. Their team, including the CTO and CEO, took the time to sit down and meet with us and presented creative solutions. Competitors were less proactive in presenting new ideas.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent close to six figures.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship has lasted about a year and a half. The project launched in April, 2016, and we're in the process of marketing it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven't measured traffic or financial results yet, but the UX is very intuitive with a robust backend. As our minimal viable product (MVP), we plan to continue to build on this superstructure, adding features that weren't yet in the budget or that don't add value at this point in time. As is, the platform has the ability to take on several APIs and works smoothly.

I think it fits very well with our customers who are more utilitarian and need to have something that's minimalistic, functional, and easy to use.

How did ORA perform from a project management standpoint?

I liked that they used Basecamp for communication. They were meticulous in keeping notes and making sure that we kept on task, as well as the owners of individual tasks within their team. Occasionally, delays would occur on my end but ORA was patient and proactive in nudging us along in order to hit milestones on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

ORA's consultative approach makes them stand out from the crowd. They really listen, try to understand the business and end user, and offer solutions or alternatives. I've taken them up on many of their suggestions. While other vendors appeared to want to rush through the project, ORA's approach made it feel more like a partnership.

The platform turned out great and I hope to work with ORA again at some point. Others who've looked at the coding work have given positive feedback.

Their CTO is an MIT graduate, so I was also very impressed with him. He really rolled up his sleeves and gets involved with his team. They were great to work with—not too large or too small of an organization.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything that they could possibly do better.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of a platform for dry cleaning and laundry delivery services. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ORA?

We were looking for a company with expertise in app development to build the first iteration of our platform. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built the full first version of the product, including iOS, Android, and web applications. All of the apps were native and created the online experience for consumers and vendors. Our vendors and their drivers use the app on the road to execute the pickup and delivery, while consumers use it to schedule and manage the pickup. The apps have such features as map integration, smart notifications, and more. They also did the design and created the brand for the first version.

We worked closely with their team and gave them a wireframe, so it was a very collaborative process.  

What is the team composition? 

We had a primary design lead, an engineer, and an iPhone engineer.

How did you come to work with them?

We connected through a mutual contact. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent within the range of $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement? 

The project started in January 2013 and ended in July 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We processed hundreds of orders right after the launch. The product was very stable, had no security issues, and enabled us to take on enough capital to support our ongoing development.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

We had open communication, and they regularly asked for feedback. They did a lot of intermittent builds, so we could see the progress. They use Basecamp and other modern tools for project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very savvy and experienced in the changing world of mobile technology.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be good to have a deeper bench. They used to have a small team, but they grew substantially in the past year.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Look at their past projects and the real case studies.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of an equine management application for iOS. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Ora Interactive?

When we were ready to build our app, we didn’t want to hire in-house developers because the size of the project would require us to hire a very large staff. Instead, we reached out to Ora to assist us in developing our app from start to finish.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a very clear idea of what we wanted our app to look like. We came to Ora with a blueprint and from there, we worked closely with their designers to ensure our features and wireframes would translate to a positive user experience. Ora had everything we needed in-house, so they built us a team that developed the application using native software. 

We initially developed solely for iOS, but we’re now in the process of developing both an Android app and a web version.

How did you come to work with Ora Interactive?

One of our advisors had a list of companies he believed would be a great fit to develop our app. We spent a lot of time vetting companies, and we really liked Ora. They seemed to really understand our vision. We were very concerned with aesthetics and user experience, and although the companies we interviewed seemed more than capable of engineering a great product, Ora was really ahead of everyone else we spoke to as far as our biggest priorities.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested just over $1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in March 2016, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our app has been out for eight months, and we currently have 26,000 users who have created 42,000 horse profiles. Only three weeks after our launch, we were nominated by the most reputable equestrian magazine for building the best equine app on the market. 

How did Ora Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a really fantastic project manager, which is one of the most significant parts of our involvement with Ora. Our project manager handles all of the engineers and designers so we’re able to build out other parts of our business without worrying too much about the day-to-day application development.

We have five weekly check-ins with our project manager during periods where we are minimally involved with development, but they’re quick to respond to our immediate needs. We are able to set up more calls when we feel necessary, and our project manager will, at our request, give us updates on various parts of the project. If we need a comprehensive summary of everything that’s been done in the last month or so, they’ll provide us with that. We communicate primarily through Basecamp. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ora has blown us away in their efforts to bring our app to fruition. They work well with our vision and do their best to make things happen. 

Ora may make suggestions, but they will always respect our vision and knowledge of our market. At the beginning of our partnership, we emphasized that we wanted a heavy focus on the app’s design. They pushed back on us a bit, but we explained that well-done aesthetics will be a hit in the equestrian community. They were very receptive to that and had their designer focus heavily on the app’s look and its ability to provide users with customization options. When the app launched, we received an immense amount of positive feedback on those features, particularly on social media. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with Ora while they still have availability. They’re amazing, and I’m sure the demand for them will only get higher.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a senior communications officer in the central administration unit of a renowned university.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fresh Tilled Soil?

The IT group for the university was looking for an overarching digital content strategy. The challenge was to improve their digital presence by reorganizing their digital content. The intended audience for this content is the faculty and staff, students, and other affiliates such as alumni, retirees, and researchers. We initially reached out to Fresh Tilled Soil to conduct a research and discovery phase to interview our various end users for that project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fresh Tilled Soil designed the research and discovery approach and fully executed that plan. We had three members of the team working on this project. They conducted about 20 hours of interviews with a slice of our end user community. Faculty, faculty assistants, a few students, and some administrative staff were interviewed to better understand their pain points and how they wished to interact with the web content. Next, based on our current content and feedback from the interviews, Fresh Tilled Soil designed a moderated card sort and walked another 20 people through this exercise to understand how they would group the content. Then, Fresh Tilled Soil designed a non-moderated card sort that was sent out to about 300 people across the university along with the Treejack testing exercise. Finally, Fresh Tilled Soil created a report indicating recommendations for how we should group our content and how we should approach a digital content strategy project based on the information attained. They presented their findings and recommendations to our senior leadership team.

How did you come to work with Fresh Tilled Soil?

Fresh Tilled Soil had worked with the university before. In this project, we reached out to 3–4 vendors that had previously done work for the university with various clients. We chose Fresh Tilled Soil because they had the best understanding of the unique needs of higher education. We have some people here that have a very nuanced understanding of information architecture. I needed a vendor that also had that nuanced understanding and could really speak to our senior leadership team on the level that they are used to. Fresh Tilled Soil’s expertise was a good match for the level of expertise that was required for the IT group in particular.

How much have you invested in them?

We have invested $15,000—$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our three-month project with Fresh Tilled Soil began in July 2016, and we did some work with them into November 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Fresh Tilled Soil played a key role in shaping what will be a strategy to make using IT easier. Their work was critical in kicking off this larger project to make it easier for our community to use Information Technology.

How did Fresh Tilled Soil perform from a project management standpoint?

Fresh Tilled Soil was excellent and played a key role in keeping the project on track. We used Basecamp for communication.

What did you find the most impressive about them?

There was no concern putting Fresh Tilled Soil directly in touch with our faculty staff and students at the university. I had great confidence sending them out into our community representing my team. Fresh Tilled Soil is very professional. Their project management skills are excellent, and they delivered results. The team was a pleasure to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think this project went really smoothly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I’m the Founder of Skydeo, a mobile audience data and insights company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Fresh Tilled Soil?

We had a specific need in mind for a brand new frontend design and user experience, but we lacked the skill set internally to deliver what I wanted. We were looking for help and knew about Fresh Tilled Soil.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Our platform is a web-based app that targets mobile audiences for advertising. We outsourced the frontend user experience, look and feel and design. We gave Fresh Tilled Soil some rough Sketch mockups and they were able to produce really high fidelity designs. The second phase was to move those designs to frontend code.

Fresh Tilled Soil thought through the user experience without having any users to talk to and did a great job of that. We’ve been using the product for beta with real customers and it’s very intuitive. At its core, it helps people find and select beta building blocks to build custom audiences with. Alex [Co-founder, Fresh Tilled Soil] was the lead UX person and he had a couple people team members with him working day to day on it. Our project manager, Jayne, was very helpful.

How did you come to work with Fresh Tilled Soil?

We made a few attempts internally and then hired a contractor who failed to deliver. We were wasting time and money and potentially missing opportunity. I knew Fresh Tilled Soil and thought that they might be too expensive for us at our stage. FTS limited the scope of the project to fit our budget and we were able to deliver more than what we had imagined coming into the project. I’ve known the guys just from the Boston entrepreneur community for awhile and followed them on social media. I knew what Alex’s [Co-founder, Fresh Tilled Soil] work was like. I didn’t really look much further than them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them February 2017 until April 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

With the high fidelity mockups and very detailed frontend, we’ve been able to show the platform to potential partners, potential customers, potential investors. We've been able to really share the vision for what we’re doing, and help get those partners to want to contribute both financially as well as on a business development level. A picture paints a thousand words.

They've saved us a lot of time and it certainly has given a lot of people a unique and fresh approach to what we’re doing in the market. So far it’s been great and we’re going to keep adding to it as we go.

How did Fresh Tilled Soil perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. Communication was really timely and frequent. They used Basecamp so we could chat regularly; Q&A back and forth between multiple members of their team and ours and weekly check-ins and calls. They did a good job of keeping us on track with what we needed to deliver to them. They kind of shepherded us through some processes where we need to get some deliverables to them and their work was either on time or ahead of schedule with the project.

What distinguishes Fresh Tilled Soil from other providers?

I think their strengths are they’ve got a core capability that they focus on and stick to and are experts in the field. I don’t think there’s anybody in Silicon Valley or anywhere else in the world who can do better than what Fresh Tilled Soil is doing in user experience and frontend.

Is there anything Fresh Tilled Soil could have improved or done differently?

It would always be nice to spend less money, but I’m happy with the work they did. I plan on using them again.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a B2B company that provides IoT solutions for companies in the industrial and commercial spaces. I’m the director of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fresh Tilled Soil?

We were going through a process of substantial review of our brand and product line. We needed to refresh our brand, and our product line was evolving in a manner that was extremely substantial because we were moving from being primarily a hardware-focused company to software-focused. We needed a complete overhaul of the visual design of our website as well as the user experience, and also required a series of easily manageable page templates with which we could continue to build out the site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Fresh Tilled Soil owned everything in terms of conceptualization and design of the frontend of our website. We managed the backend work. When we first spoke with Fresh Tilled Soil, they presented us with a wide range of options of how they could be involved, which included everything from mapping out buyer journeys to creating the visual design, implementing backend technology, UX services, etc., but we chose to have them work on the frontend.

We had gone through a rebranding project right before hiring Fresh Tilled, so they spoke to the brand team and leveraged those materials in early design mocks. They engaged in discovery conversations with those of us who were managing the project and worked through a process that involved standard deliverables in terms of mapping out wireframes and presenting a series of visual concepts separately from the wireframes. They made sure that we were able to talk about the pros and cons of each, to end up with what we wanted to move forward with. They delivered a series of flat designs that combined everything we had agreed on. We reviewed those and made final changes before they moved into development.

Everything Fresh Tilled did was a tremendous improvement compared to where we were. We have a B2B audience in the industrial space so we needed to be careful to not get overly fancy. We needed the site to be compelling and engaging, but also straightforward. The team was fantastic. We were probably on the lower end in terms of client size for what Fresh Tilled is used to. But from the team that was assigned to us, you wouldn’t have known that. The total team consisted of six or seven people from Fresh Tilled Soil with other team members joining in as necessary. There was a project manager, 2 UX designers, 2 front-end designers, and 2 graphic designers.

How did you come to work with Fresh Tilled Soil?

We went through a rigorous process because it was a big project for us. We have a lean team and a lean budget. We spoke with five partners that we narrowed down from a larger list. The conversations with Fresh Tilled were pretty rewarding and compelling. Their approach around the structure of the project was especially appealing. Compared to some of the other design firms we spoke to, they seemed to have a very well-structured and reliable process that they followed for implementing projects like this. Other agencies were looser in what they said they could do for us. Fresh Tilled was more process-oriented and specific about deliverables, timelines and what would be required of us. They delivered a series of four proposals to us that each addressed various degrees of what we wanted to accomplish. We came up with a final proposal from those four.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2016, and their deliverables were completed by December 2016. They stayed on after the project in an advisory capacity to continue to make adjustments to the site while we were developing the site in-house. We have ongoing communication with them around new options.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

One of the purposes of our site is to drive online web leads. We get a meaningful amount of organic traffic and have paid initiatives that are driving traffic to the website. Those visitors have the opportunity to convert into a marketing qualified lead for us. Improving that with our relaunch was probably our number two goal. We saw the percent of visitors that converted to web leads increase by 35%. We have a direct business and we also have partners and value-added resellers who sell our brand on our behalf. Feedback about the website from both of those groups has been extremely positive. Internally, the feedback and enthusiasm has been extremely positive. People who are not involved in the backend, those who don’t understand lead conversion and are concerned only with what the site looks like, all had extremely positive feedback from our C-suite on down.

How did Fresh Tilled Soil perform from a project management standpoint?

They were exceptional. We had a single project lead that everything funneled through. We did have communication with other team members. We had an option to use a variety of project management tools. The showed us how they operate but wanted to do what worked best for our team. We managed most everything through Basecamp and Google Docs.

What did you find most impressive about Fresh Tilled Soil?

I’ve managed five website launches or redesigns over the course of my career. This has easily been the smoothest and most successful. I would attribute a good portion of that to Fresh Tilled Soil. Once we kicked the project off, I was really impressed with the initial scoping meeting. Everyone from their direct team as well as some other people who had experience in our industry were involved in a four-hour meeting. We talked about our creative briefs and requests. They asked a lot of great questions that helped them understand what we were trying to achieve and who our customer was. I believe that set us up for a successful project. Those were things that weren’t discussed with other agencies that we talked to. Other companies were only concerned with what our thoughts were instead of thinking about the customer.

Are there any areas Fresh Tilled Soil could improve?

There isn’t anything. I would partner with them in a minute. There were things about the process that could’ve been smoother but most of that was because of our team. Fresh Tilled was extremely transparent and helpful.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director of a small B2B market research company that publishes forecasting and analysis. We’ve been in business for about 45 years. We work in a variety of sectors, ranging from chemicals and plastics to biotech and pharma—about 19 categories in all.

Even though we’re a B2B, we’re built like a B2C model online. Our customers include major companies, investment banks, manufacturers, universities, and libraries. The primary reason people go to our website is that they are searching for something specific that we happen to sell. They might also know our name and just search on the site for the topic that’s of interest to them. We do have an e-commerce site. People can buy an individual report or subscribe and get access to our entire library. Subscribers are our ultimate goal.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fresh Tilled Soil?

I was part of a turnaround effort for our branding and our website. We have a well-known and established brand, but the way our website looked was getting in the way of attracting new customers. It was urgent that we fix this problem. I needed to swiftly modernize our public face—the website—while making it easier for people to find what it is they were looking for. We needed design expertise; however, we didn’t have anybody in-house who really knew much about website design or best practices.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

There were many parts to the project, and the website was only a part of it. We ended up going with 2 different agencies. We picked Fresh Tilled for the website, and we picked someone else for the digital email help that we needed. We didn’t move to a new content management system since the project was just a redesign of the site. The project lasted for 6–7 weeks. Initially, our designs went through several iterations. When we didn’t like a design, they would quickly change things. They put the final designs into a form that my dev team could work with.

The design side was just the surface of what Fresh Tilled did for us. They made a point of inserting a thoughtful foundation into every conversation we had. They asked all the right questions. When we talked about making our website “look prettier,” they helped us realize what we wanted our users to experience. For example, search is one of our key features. That existed before, but Fresh Tilled made it function better. It is now easier for people to see if we have what they need.

The scope widened beyond personas and buyers on the marketing side to include some consultation for the development side. We had a team of developers, but they were on the other side of the world. That meant we sometimes experienced cultural, language, geographical, and time barriers. Fresh Tilled helped us figure out what our development team was capable of.

For a while, Fresh Tilled was out of the process while my dev team built the site. We then asked Fresh Tilled to do a QA check to see if we kept the integrity of their design. They caught a few things that we were able to fix. A few weeks ago, I needed to redo a few pages. Those changes were beyond the abilities of my internal team, so I re-engaged Fresh Tilled for additional work which they had done in 48 hours.

We worked with a project manager and 2 designers from Fresh Tilled, both of whom had coding experience. They didn’t need to do any of the development, but having people with coding experience was extremely helpful. I’m non-technical, so having them speak directly with our developers was immensely helpful. Fresh Tilled’s team had the skill sets needed for the project. When a person couldn’t make it to the call, someone else did.

How did you come to work with Fresh Tilled Soil?

We met with about 4 different agencies that were personal recommendations to our CEO. Some of the meetings were in person. We pitched what we were looking for, and the companies came back to us with proposals. There were some agencies that did both design and digital campaign management, but we decided to go with people who were really experts in one thing instead of generalists in several things. The shortlisted companies came back to us with proposals that helped us refine our scope based on the budget we had to work with. It came down to choosing between Fresh Tilled and another agency. We ended up selecting Fresh Tilled. They had come highly recommended. My CEO might have been inclined towards them as a result of that. He knew their work and thought very highly of it.

How much have you invested with Fresh Tilled Soil?

We spent approximately $40,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2016, and the site went live in December 2016. Since then, we’ve kept in touch with Fresh Tilled. They’ve answered our questions about how some things should work versus how it actually works. They’ve also given input about best practices.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Fresh Tilled made the site look more modern and credible. It’s important to note that in the first quarter of 2017, nothing else changed about our business except for our website. After Fresh Tilled redesigned our website, we saw a year over year increase of more than 25% in our incoming leads. We’re owned by a parent company who had sort of given up on this company’s marketing prowess, so that impact has been noticed by people high above my level.

I could not speak highly enough about the entire experience with Fresh Tilled. They had an ability to keep things simple. They were not trying to dazzle us. Fresh Tilled was instrumental in making this project successful. They wanted to do things the right way, but we were eager to get things done quickly. They met us halfway and helped us to do it quickly yet thoughtfully. Their temperament is a good fit for folks like us who did not have the clearest plan but needed something quickly. I would pick them again in a heartbeat.

How did Fresh Tilled Soil perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management impressed me more than anything else. It was tightly organized and well done. We had some very strict deadlines that we needed to meet internally. Chris was our project manager, and he was reliable and efficient. He was organized in a way that I’ve seen rarely. I was really more impressed with that than I was with the design. I think that’s a real skill. Even in a roundtable session with people talking about 20 different things, he always managed to capture and distil what the takeaways were and who would follow up on what. I never left a meeting wondering what the takeaway was or what would happen next. Things were always very clear.

We used Basecamp for communication. It worked very well as a communication tool between teams that are not in the same place at the same time.

What did you find most impressive about Fresh Tilled Soil?

Fresh Tilled’s designs are clean, restrained, and sophisticated. I knew their design would be simple and effective because their proposal was. I looked at 4 different company’s proposals, and Fresh Tilled’s was the only one where I understood clearly what was going to happen. The other proposals had so much clutter—extra words and market speak.

Are there any areas Fresh Tilled Soil could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of the practice group named government solutions for Colliers International. Our company is a multinational real estate services firm. We focus on representing property owners and investors in government transactions. For example, if you want to lease your building to the government, you would engage a group like us. We’re a niche specialist entity within this much larger company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fresh Tilled Soil?

Last year, we decided that we needed to refresh the blog. We wanted to improve the look and feel of it while adding a little more functionality. I wouldn’t categorize it as a huge project, but I would categorize it as a refresh, a facelift, if you will, for our blog.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We first approached FTS [Freshly Tilled Soil] in 2011 to build a website that would feature our blog, CapitalMarkets.com. We’ve used that blog platform for the past few years and they helped us with small tweaks along the way. To be honest, I don’t recall the specific process they implemented on that original website work in 2011 or how long it took. FTS provided the full suite of services needed to construct the blog and establish it on the web. In addition, they’re sorting out small tweaks and improvements as we go.

They’ve also just refreshed our blog. After focusing on it deeply, there are a few things we’re continuing to tweak. Once we get beyond that point, we’ll probably fall back into the rhythm we had previously. They take a pretty full-service approach, taking care of what needs to be taken care of. We would ask them to troubleshoot, add a widget somewhere, touch base about security upgrades, and so forth.

How did you come to work with Fresh Tilled Soil?

We just googled for groups that appeared capable and met whatever criteria we established at the time. It wasn’t a very formal process. After interviewing several groups, we decided on Fresh Tilled Soil to help us build that initial blog site.

The way we think is like this: We’re a small firm, so we’re not going to be a huge customer to anybody. But although we’re a small customer, we still want good results. That’s why we were looking for a company that we felt was small enough that we would get some attention among their customers. We didn’t want to go to a huge firm and just be an insignificant customer of theirs. However, we were wary of going to a single freelancer. We wanted a firm that was professional but was oriented to small companies like us. At the time, we felt like Fresh Tilled Soil fit the bill on that. The other thing we looked at was their web presence because it was an indicator of their skill and experience. They clearly had a presence that was in line with the kind of image that we wanted to project.

How much have you invested with Fresh Tilled Soil?

I'd estimate we've spent a little under $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in 2011 and the blog launched on the first business day of January 2012. We continue to work with them now, and they’ve just been the perfect fit for us. We have this relationship where they’re available even when we’re not working on big projects. They’ve been on call, if you will, to help us with assignments here and there.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

One of the things I like about working with FTS, aside from the fact that they’re good and talented people, is that you’ve got a shop that has design as well as backend development. You feel like you get the best of both worlds. They’re just big enough that they have people focused on customer relationships as well. In terms of hard evidence, at this point, I have not perceived any data that would demonstrate the impact of FTS’ work. I think that’s less having to do with the blog itself and more to do with the rate at which I post on it. But we’re happy with the platform.

How did Fresh Tilled Soil perform from a project management standpoint?

What I like about working with them is that they have a simple process to take care of business. We do everything through Basecamp. If I want something from them, I just log the request in Basecamp, they respond, and it’s done. It’s a pretty clean mode of communication. I feel like nothing ever slips through the cracks.

I thought they were very well organized with larger projects like this blog redesign, which required specific schedules and milestones. They have a battle-tested way of leading their clients through the project—from scoping through design, testing the user interface, and ultimately, to deployment. For groups like ours who don’t do this stuff every day, it’s very useful to have someone be your Sherpa. They made us confident that we were being efficient and we were driving toward a good result.

What did you find most impressive about Fresh Tilled Soil?

It comes back to their size and structure. They have all the capabilities that we’re looking for, so in terms of scope and scalability, they’re great for us. We get everything we want under one roof. Their customer service has been fantastic, which is very important to us. Their responsiveness is terrific. I know that if I ask for something, I can forget about it once I’ve asked for it because it’s going to get done. They’ve proven that they’re reliable in that way, and they’ve got skilled people. We’ve been pleased with the relationship that we have with them. We made a good decision at the outset.

Are there any areas Fresh Tilled Soil could improve?

No, not really. We may get to the point one day where we test them a bit more, where we really stretch their capabilities, but we haven’t found that point yet.