Thought&Function

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder of Study Planet

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We provide AI-powered feedback for 11 Plus English exam preparation, delivering tutor-level insights to help students improve their writing and comprehension skills. Our platform gives pupils personalised, detailed feedback on their exam responses — the kind of guidance traditionally only available through one-to-one tutoring.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Thought&Function to accomplish?

• Build a production-ready AI marking platform from scratch — enabling parents to submit their child's English work and receive instant, detailed feedback — complete with payments, admin tools, a marketing site, and reliable cloud infrastructure ready for market launch.
• AI Marking Engine — Build an intelligent grading system that lets parents upload their child's English work (photos, PDFs, or text) and receive detailed, structured feedback with scores, improvement areas, and practice questions — all within minutes.
• Admin & Operations Tools — Give the Study Planet team a comprehensive dashboard to manage users, monitor the marking pipeline, handle subscriptions, retry failed submissions, and troubleshoot issues — all without needing a developer.Marketing Site & CMS — Stand up a content-managed marketing website with landing pages, blog, FAQ, and SEO — enabling the founder and team to publish and update content independently, without developer involvement.
• Production Infrastructure — Set up reliable cloud hosting with automated deployments, multiple testing environments, health checks, and rollback safeguards — so the platform runs smoothly at launch and the team can ship updates with confidence.
• Revenue-Ready Payments — Implement a complete billing system with a free trial to demonstrate value, flexible paid subscription tiers, promotional codes, and the ability for the team to grant complimentary access — turning the platform into a real business from day one.
• Polished User Experience — Deliver a professional, intuitive web application covering the full user journey: account creation, work submission, results viewing, PDF report downloads, and subscription management — designed to inspire trust and compete with established edtech products.

SOLUTION

How did you find Thought&Function?

Online Search

Why did you select Thought&Function over others?

Company values aligned

How many teammates from Thought&Function were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The team built Study Planet's SaaS platform entirely from scratch — an AI-powered English marking tool for the 11 Plus, where parents can upload their child's work and receive instant, detailed feedback including scores, improvement areas, practice questions, and downloadable PDF reports. They delivered a full-stack web app with email and Google authentication, a flexible work submission system supporting photo, PDF, and text uploads, and an AI marking engine covering both comprehension and creative writing. On the commercial side, they integrated Stripe billing with a free trial and paid subscription tiers, and built an admin panel for managing users and operations day-to-day. Alongside the core product, they delivered a CMS-powered marketing site complete with blog and FAQ — allowing the team to manage content independently. All cloud infrastructure was provisioned as code across dev, preview, and production environments, with automated deployment pipelines, PR previews, health checks, and zero-downtime releases. The end result is a production-ready product that covers AI integration, payments, content management, infrastructure, and CI/CD — everything needed to go to market with confidence.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The primary outcome was a fully functional, production-ready platform. Parents can now sign up, submit their child's work and receive AI-generated feedback within minutes. The platform is live, accepting paying customers and operating well. 

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

The project management was excellent throughout. As a first-time founder with no technical background, I never once felt out of my depth or embarrassed asking questions. Everything was explained clearly and patiently, including honest guidance on where it made sense to invest and where costs could reasonably be saved.

The project did take longer than originally anticipated, but that was simply the nature of building something complex from scratch and it was never an issue. Timelines were managed openly and without pressure.

What stood out most was how well they adapted to working with a solo founder. They were consistently generous with their time, proactive in their communication and genuinely invested in the outcome, not just delivering a product but making sure I understood and felt confident in what was being built. Communication was consistently responsive, every message I sent was answered promptly and clearly, with any issues resolved quickly.

What was your primary form of communication with Thought&Function?

• In-Person Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Two things stood out above everything else. The first was their approach to scoping the project. Rather than encouraging unnecessary spending, they took the time to understand what the market actually needed and shaped the build around that. As a first-time founder, I never felt pushed towards more features or higher costs for the sake of it and that honesty was genuinely refreshing.

The second was the quality of the final product. I expected something professional, but what was delivered genuinely surpassed that. The design and functionality are excellent and the finished product looks and performs better than I had hoped.

I would also like to highlight how well they communicated the technical side of the project. Nothing was ever brushed over or oversimplified. Coming in with no technical knowledge whatsoever, I finished the project with a genuine understanding of what had been built and how it works, which I had never expected.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Thought&Function could have done differently?

No

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of Ted’s Health. We’re an online men’s digital healthcare platform that focuses on testosterone replacement therapy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Thought&Function?

We hired Thought&Function for their web development and product management services. We wanted to build a web-based product with the end goal of using clinically approved prescription medication drugs.

SOLUTION

What is the scope of their involvement?

Thought&Function provides us with web development support. They’ve helped us build a completely bespoke website with a patient management system from scratch. They’ve managed the whole process, including QA testing. Initially, we provided them with some information on what we needed. Key technologies used are Figma, Amplitude, React, Node.js, GraphQL, and PostgreSQL.

What is the team composition?

We work with seven people from their team, consisting of two tech leads, a product manager, and four developers. We also speak directly to their founder. 

What is the status of the engagement?

We began our partnership in August 2022, and it’s still ongoing.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we have spent about $140,000 on the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We track registered users, blood tests, and clinical approval processes. So far, we've had 200-plus registrations and 100-plus purchases, with 100% growth in the first two months.

How did Thought&Function perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very active and responsive. We communicate via Slack, email, and WhatsApp.

What did you find most impressive about Thought&Function?

They’re a one-stop shop for our web development needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had fewer developers to start with, but we sorted it out together and eventually figured out how many we would need for the speed that we required.

Any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear idea of what you want to achieve so that you enter contract negotiations without any uncertainties.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a platform devoted to creating meaningful life experiences.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Thought&Function?

We were building a social marketplace. Before engaging with Thought&Function, we had a very basic platform, so we brought them in to develop it further.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Thought&Function did some discovery work to assess the systems we already had in place from both a technical and a product perspective. Their team analyzed the processes involved in our platform, taking into account our company’s cultural values. Then, they made suggestions on how to improve our processes based on their experience but without disrupting what was already working for us.

After the discovery process, we agreed on how to move forward, and Thought&Function was able to start the development process very quickly. We had identified various functionalities we wanted to integrate into the platform, so we first prioritized them. Throughout the development process, their work was essentially building those features into the platform.

The platform uses JavaScript, mainly leveraging Node.js and React. Additionally, it uses Redux and a little bit of Next.js. It was built on Sharetribe to facilitate frontend and backend modifications. Still, we told Thought&Function that we wanted to move it out of Sharetribe in the future, so they redeveloped the backend and prepared the platform for that eventuality.

This platform is essentially a marketplace that allows couples who are planning a wedding to find and book suppliers. Therefore, Thought&Function had to develop various supply categories and various features on top of that. Additionally, they solved a lot of performance issues the platform had throughout the way.

Thought&Function worked alongside our in-house team, so while they were developing the features, they also mentored and developed our in-house team as well. One of our developers, in particular, was involved in everything they did, which helped her progress as an individual in her career.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Joel (Co-Founder), who acted as the technical lead, Zarah (Lead Product Manager), and a senior software developer. We also interacted with James (Co-Founder), who managed the contract and set everything up from the business perspective. At some point, we also worked with a UX designer.

How did you come to work with Thought&Function?

They came highly recommended by a couple of advisors whose judgment I trust. After communicating with them, we met for dinner to meet the team in person. Their approach was taking companies from idea to product market launch, which really resonated with me because that was what I wanted. Additionally, they were very passionate about what they were doing, and they seemed to be very interested in our product.

Thought&Function also seemed very data-driven, which caught our attention because, even though we were in the very early stages, we knew they would set up everything for us to collect data moving forward. They were very flexible and seemed to specialize in startups, so they felt like a good fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $90,000–$95,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2022, and our project ended in July 2022. It was a seven-month contract.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thought&Function took into account the fundraising strategy nature of our company, and they were very pragmatic where they needed to be pragmatic, but also pushed back when required. The equity they provided both in the strategy and execution was very much valued.

We had identified a series of epics we wanted to deliver, but we thought that we wouldn’t be able to achieve all of them, so we decided to prioritize them. Ultimately, Thought&Function went beyond what we thought we could achieve and ended up reaching all the milestones we had listed.

The backend redevelopment is probably the best performing part of our site. It is now ready for a future migration without compromising the features we’ve already built. That was something we really liked; they thought strategically for the long term instead of building short-term solutions.

How did Thought&Function perform from a project management standpoint?

Thought&Function got accustomed to our product and its codebase very quickly, even quicker than both of us anticipated. We used Twist to communicate. They used Slack internally but agreed to accommodate us and use Twist instead.

For project management, we used Shortcut, GitHub, CircleCI, Sentry.io, and Optimizely. We already had all these tools in place to help us create an environment where we could deliver straight to the product’s lifecycle. Thought&Function understood that and gave us a bit of extra security around it by introducing Vercel to complement our existing stock. This tool was a game changer for us. Furthermore, they used Miro for process mapping and Figma for UX designs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Thought&Function truly cared about what we were doing. They demonstrated a genuine interest in our product and took the extra time to ensure they knew everything. Basically, they treated it as their own project and were very committed to its success.

Their team even did things with our team they didn’t have to do. For example, we once organized a game night with both teams and played all these games together. This approach made them feel like an extension of our team; they embraced our values and our culture.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very transparent and provide them with as much information as you can. They’ll take your input into account and help you build something in line with your priorities. You’ll get more out of them if you help them understand your business, strategies, and needs; it will help them make suggestions and take decisions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a digital health company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Thought&Function?

We initially hired them to develop the frontend of our mobile application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Thought&Function provides us with front- and backend development services. First, we had an onboarding workshop to align our goals. The team has been developing the frontend for our mobile app using React Native for iOS and Android. They’ve recently taken over the app’s backend development on AWS. The app is subscription-based, geared towards B2B clients, and its main purpose is for users to talk to ta doctor in a matter of minutes. Currently, Thought&Function is also working on our web application. 

What is the team composition?

My main points of contact are Joel (Co-Founder) and Zarah (Lead Product Manager), and I also have contact with the developers.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent €200,000–€500,000 (approximately $209,000–$523,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since Thought&Function took over the development, downloads have increased 1,000 times. We went from 5,000 downloads last year to more than 59,000. 

How did Thought&Function perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good at staying on budget. Although their compliance with the timeline depends a bit on the developers, they’ve been consistently good overall. Their communication has improved ever since they’ve taken over the backend development. We usually communicate through Slack and video meetings on Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Thought&Function’s team delivers everything we need, from the developer to the product manager to the designer. They try to get best practices in place to get solutions for any problem. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve at the moment. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend doing Thought&Function’s onboarding workshop. Give them the complete picture so they’re aware of your goals and can help you find a solution for the problem you’re trying to solve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a technology startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Thought&Function?

We hired them for their expertise in building complex platforms, especially in the space of machine learning and AI. They developed software and a platform engine that delivers services to our end users.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Thought&Function has done front- and backend development, UI/UX design, product management, research, and software development. They’ve worked together with our CTO to create a platform architecture from scratch. The platform is in the lifestyle and wellbeing environment.

We initially told them our idea and vision, and they were able to transform it. We didn’t want to create a throw-away code or build a prototype that we’d have to start from scratch for the next investment round. Therefore, all our frontend experience will be provided by the engine that Thought&Function has developed.

What is the team composition?

We work with around 2–5 people. Their positions are product management, project management, tech lead, senior developer, and developer.

We’re also in contact with James, the CEO. He drives the whole process and participates in milestones, giving direction to the entire project.

How did you come to work with Thought&Function?

I found them through a recommendation. We compared them with competitors in terms of the range of services they could provide, speed, how ready the product would be in the end, and price. Their offer was the best on the table.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly $80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2021. They’re still providing some support, so our partnership is still ongoing. We’re actually in the phase of scaling up our collaboration with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This solution is purely dependent on very early end users’ impressions. We would not accept bad experiences for our users. We did a test user group two weeks ago and received superb feedback. Thanks to that user feedback, we unlocked the next funding.

They’ve really done the job, and we’re 100% satisfied with Thought&Function. Overall, they’re good client whisperers and listeners. 

How did Thought&Function perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done great; they commit to realistic timelines. Sometimes they go too fast for us, but that’s nice because they’re requesting you to speed up a little bit. Also, they’re great at informing us upfront what they think is possible or over-ambitious, which brings everybody on the same page so we can have shared expectations.

We have lots of digital tools where we collaborate directly. They use all the state-of-the-art project management tools. For example, they use Jira for the development process, as well as Miro and Trello boards. Additionally, we’ve integrated them into our Slack channel.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their honesty and transparency are outstanding. The team is super transparent — they share the progress with us, so we have the feeling that this is a super trustful relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a young organization, so maybe they could improve in the area of commercial operations. With more customers, they’ll grow and become more mature. That way, they’ll have better legal processes and background in terms of contract templates and so on. Also, I think it’s very important for them to scale up their management capabilities.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be very open. Don’t try to put yourself into too many frames with contracts or organize every single detail. It's a young team, so you can motivate them to do remarkable things for you. Don't treat them like a faraway third-party provider, but rather like a partner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Sustainable Legacy, and it is a conscious tech firm that helps people make sustainable decisions when they shop online.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Thought&Function?

We needed someone to create an MVP for our product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Thought&Function built out a backend database management system and a frontend user interface. The technologies they used to develop this project were React and Node.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact was James (Co-Founder).

How did you come to work with Thought&Function?

I used Clutch to help me shortlist a number of service providers. I did a lot of vendor selection from my old job, and used my experience to select the best candidate. I asked a lot of questions, put them through a test to give a presentation, and just checked to see how I got along with them. Thought&Function were the most successful out of all the candidates.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested £60,000 (Approximately $82,600 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May 2020–January 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They delivered the requirements that we set out, which was good.

How did Thought&Function perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well from a project management perspective. I gave them feedback on some items they can improve on. They were good, but there’s still a little bit of room for improvement. We used Google Hangouts for face-to-face meetings, and typically communicated through phone calls for quick questions, and Slack for more specific questions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed by how they didn't just focus on building the technology as they were told. They took the time to challenge and build something in a way that they’ll try other ways if they felt like we were going to run into some problems. They had a bird’s eye view of the development and they not only challenged us on the type of tech stack we wanted, but also from a business perspective as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Like I stated before, they need improvement on the project management aspect of their services. However, they’ve recently hired a specific project manager going forward so I think that issue should be resolved by now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re looking to build an MVP, just make sure to manage your expectations in terms of what you have envisioned, and what can actually be done realistically with time and budget.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I am the founder of Zedosh. We are a startup, and we are building a mobile application for financial well-being with a spicy advertising model. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Thought&Function? 

I hired Thought&Function because I was looking for a partner to provide technical expertise on how to transform an idea and slides into a prototype to further validate the content. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?  

They took care of it from scratch. They did everything, from wireframes to building a React Native application for Android and iOS. They also used a few other open-source components that they plugged into, one being a cloud stream service. 

What is the team composition? 

I interacted with four people from their team: the co-founders on their side, a UX person, as well as developers. 

How did you come to work with Thought&Function? 

They were recommended to me through someone that I was receiving advice from on my business. I made the decision based on a number of meetings with them. They were very collaborative and put in a fair bit of time and effort, and really helped to shape the thinking about the approach. 

How much have you invested in them? 

We spent about £25,000 ($32,200 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working together in March 2020, and we wrapped up the first phase in June 2020. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ultimately, we ended up with an early release app in the Google Play Store and it is still there now. We had a number of challenges with Apple that we didn’t foresee. Thought&Function helped to clarify the objectives that we were receiving from Apple. 

With regard to our budget and our objectives and the output, I would say I was satisfied. It would have been better for the app to be available in the App Store rather than through TestFlight, but that did highlight some challenges we had. You want to sail fast, and in that respect, I am pleased that those things came out early. 

How did Thought&Function perform from a project management standpoint? 

They have been okay. We had weekly updates and they kept me very abreast of the progress. I am non-technical, and probably not the easiest to manage in terms of my expectations and understanding of how these things actually get delivered, but it was well managed. I’m sure they used tools internally, but I didn’t request or require visibility of those things. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

For me, what sets them apart is the relationship. James, who is one of the co-founders, really went the extra mile to understand what we are trying to achieve and challenge it in some respects. We went to meetings together to meet people that we were looking to integrate with. They went the extra mile without necessarily billing me for every single piece of advice.  

Are there any areas they could improve? 

I would have hoped that some of the challenges we encountered with Apple would have been obvious ones that we might have known before spending any money, rather than discovering them at the end of the project. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

They are a small but nimble partner. Depending on the size and scale of the project, you might want to consider them if it is a startup type ideation, as they are a great team. If you are looking to build something larger, I would say it might be better to go with another enterprise company. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a London-based private equity investment firm that focuses on energy and infrastructure investments. My role is the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Thought&Function?

We were looking for a company that could help us undertake a rebranding initiative. That included designing a website and all of the associated presentation materials.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Thought&Function is creating a website and additional materials to support our rebrand. 

So far, we completed the first phase, which focused on developing a landing page that clearly conveyed what we did, how we did it, and how we offered value to our investors. The site also included our team bios and contact details.

Other materials they worked on included slide decks, business cards, letterheads, and key documentation templates. In the future, we plan to expand our website’s functionality in the second and third phases.

What is the team composition? 

Our main leads were James (Co-Founder) and Matt (Design Lead). We had efficient, in-depth conversations with Matt who led the branding process. He was really aiming to benchmark what was out there in the industry as well as determining how we wanted to position ourselves. 

Once he generated those key themes, James came in with the rest of the development team to execute. He oversaw the whole operation, managing the different iterations until we got an excellent end result.

How did you come to work with Thought&Function?

A long-time business associate of mine had strongly recommended Thought&Function to me. Now that I’ve worked with them, I would certainly return the favor without reservation.

How much have you invested with them?

It was about £10,000 (approximately $13,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We first engaged them in December 2019, but the bulk of the work was done in March–April 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thought&Function’s professionalism definitely came through in the quality of the website. They really went beyond our expectations, despite the fact that this probably wasn’t the most straightforward engagement. We had three loud voices weighing in with their own ideas, so their team had to be effective in incorporating that input into a solid product.

How did Thought&Function perform from a project management standpoint?

They consistently under-promised while over-delivering. If we asked for three options, they would come with 4–5. Likewise, they got things done well within our requested timelines.

The communication was mostly through email and high-quality PDFs of their designs. Toward the end of the project, they provided an offline site to test before it went live on their domain.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’d say it’s the integrated expertise. They’re a one-stop-shop with a strong, verified portfolio of work. That gave us a lot of confidence when started collaborating with them. As we were going through the initial phase, it became clear that they had the right capabilities to execute on what we wanted in Phase 2 and 3. They knew what they were doing and did what they promised.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we were happy with the service.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more you can do internally to get a clear direction ahead of time, the more effective they’ll be. We spent a lot of time with different opinions before deciding on our path. That allowed us to just give them what they needed to get the project delivered.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of portfolio services at an early-stage venture capital fund.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Thought&Function?

We needed to update our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us through the whole process. We weren’t rebranding, we were just trying to modernize the site. They looked at our existing brand materials and created a new design. They switched us over from HTML to a CMS as well. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with three people including James (Co-Founder) and Leo (Senior Software Engineer). 

How did you come to work with Thought&Function?

They were recommended to me by one of my peers who had recently worked with them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about £8,000 (approximately $10,325 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May–September 2020. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Generally, we’re really happy with the outcome. They presented us with multiple design options, and I think we landed in a good place. Our site is more modern, but it still fits in with our brand. In addition, our website has more functions which makes it easier for users to find the information they need.

How did Thought&Function perform from a project management standpoint?

The process was very easy from my perspective. The team is friendly, laidback, and collaborative. They provided updates every couple of weeks. I felt like the project was always moving forward. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They did a lot of work upfront to understand our company. The website seems really high quality. They also listened carefully and were receptive to feedback. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

Some other companies might want a more rigid project management structure. However, I was happy with the relaxed pace of the project. I think if you needed something to be delivered on a strict schedule, they would be able to do so, you just need to be clear about that. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Know what your non-negotiables are and how creative you want to go. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a small startup that aims to demystify technology for children. Our system used to be based on a Raspberry Pi computer, but now we’ve moved on to a Windows PC that children built themselves and learned how to code on. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Thought&Function?

As part of our retail strategy, we sell a number of our products in retails shops around the world. We needed a smaller version of our app to act as a retail demo within stores. Customers would ideally be able to use the app to demonstrate and sell the products in any one of our global stores.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided them with our existing app and a project brief. It was their job to use those resources to create a smaller app that could be useful for people in-store to demonstrate the full functionality of the product in a small window of time. Between 30–120 seconds, the app had to showcase the full capabilities of the product while inticing users to purchase it. 

After they developed the solution, we had to work with the stores that would host the demonstrations across a range of platforms. Their team was also in charge of liaising with those stores to ensure that the app met their requirements. We went through all the formal processes with their team. In the end, they delivered the app across three platforms: Windows, iOS, and Android. 

What is the team composition?

During our early meetings, I spoke with a co-founder and project manager. Once they understood the brief, we were assigned an engineer that served as our point of contact from then on. He worked both on- and offsite, depending on our troubleshooting needs. Every once in a while, the co-founder would check in to make sure the engineer was a good fit for the project. 

How did you come to work with Thought&Function?

We’d worked with the company before, delivering different software engineering projects. They worked with us across similar products and larger projects. So, we hired them again because of that existing relationship. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about £20,000 (approximately $262,000 USD) on their services. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from August–October 2019. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had zero requests for changes and adjustments to the demo from the stores we were targetting to sell in. I hear that it is pretty rare. In addition, the project itself was technically challenging because we were developing our main app simultaneously. 

Essentially, since we were developing in parallel, we had an unfinished code base that they needed to update frequently to match the changes we were making to the main app. They were able to manage that across three different platforms with an ever-changing codebase. It was a really strong ability for them. They were even able to take the stress off my shoulders by taking care of the store approvals. 

They also adapted very quickly to our delivery priorities. For instance, the order in which we needed each completed app changed throughout the development process. They were very accommodating and willing to shift their priorities and absorbed that change.  

How did Thought&Function perform from a project management standpoint?

We gave them a very small window of time to complete the project, and they were able to deliver everything in our ever-changing scope on time. Because we had to adjust our development to meet the timelines of other stores, we were in a pretty high-pressure situation to meet our deadlines. If we failed, we’d miss our chance to sell in that store. Despite all this, they were still able to meet all of our demands.

Our team was in constant communication with the engineer working on the project. Often, he would troubleshoot issues in our office alongside our development team. We used Slack to maintain frequent communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a design vision as well as the technical experience they need to be successful in software developments. When you present them with a brief, they’re able to quickly figure out how they will deliver and adapt the project plan as a team. That kept everyone on the same page. They could foresee issues and discuss them early, which helped us avoid issues. The team guided when needed, using their industry experience. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. They answered all of our questions, and communication was quick. Everything was on time, transparent, and casual, which is how we like to work. I don’t have anything constructive to say. The project has been very successful in-store as well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

 Be open-minded about the breadth of their skills. A prospective client could really benefit from opening their ideas to the team because they have a lot of design skills and technical delivery expertise.