TXI

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was hired by Tyson Foods 5 months ago to lead their innovation lab. I’m meant to transform the way they operate and ensure their innovation pipeline.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Table XI?

When I started, the first thing I wanted to do was introduce two different tools, design thinking and agile thinking. I have a lot of past experience leading a lab focused on design thinking. I also had my own company focused on agile. But when you’re running your own startup, there’s more independence. Now I’m in a corporate environment, trying to use agile in the company and change the culture through the innovation lab. I needed to take a more formalized approach that could help progress the designs and the process itself.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The role of Table XI is helping me to equip my team with all the tools and with an understanding of the process we’re going to kick off in January to launch something by June.

Our team was formed in October. We had October, November, and December to get ready. Table XI is providing facilitation of the training, built models, and coached us through the journey of discovery phase including design sprints. When we start the first project in January, my team only has a 6-month incubation period to get something to market. They helped us to design a direct communication and agile workshop. That's their core support. Table XI will continue coaching until May.

I would like to continue the partnership in the future if we need to. So far, it’s been about facilitation and workshops, more project- and software-based. They also have modules for non-software company which is unique.

What is the team composition?

We work with the CEO and others on the team.

How did you come to work with Table XI?

Through networks. When I was previously at SC Johnson, I had the same type of projects that needed to be launched within six months. At the time, I spoke with multiple firms from across the nation. We had liked Table XI but those projects were focused on e-commerce so we gave it to another company. The scope of the new work is all about building the soft skills to launch whatever we want to launch. It didn’t have the same limitations as the e-commerce work. That’s why I connected again with my network. I reached out to a couple of companies that I know in Chicago and also in some big US cities. I remembered their CEO so we talked.

One of the criteria I was looking at is whether the company itself is showing what they call agile during their interactions and through the bidding process. So many companies are not operationalizing the concept of agile and I can’t trust them to talk about agile with my team. Table XI demonstrated agility and independence.

My second criteria was from the perspective of tools. I wanted to know what they had in mind, what they would plan and focus on for the next 3 months to equip my team. What kind of training, what kinds of workshops, what kinds of coaching. The proposal from Table XI was the most concrete. It was different from the other proposals which, even though they were from top schools of design, were more academic. My team has basically no experience in agile or design thinking, so they needed to start with focusing on empathy and inspiration. My problem with the academic-centric proposals was that they were going to be boring. Table XI took it in a more experiential direction and I think that works well.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in October and they’ll work with us until May 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The deliverables for Table XI are all about how they facilitate the process and equip my team. They’ve been delivering all the tools to me and meeting our expectations. We’re on track to deliver even faster. We gained time in October and used it to practice the tools. Now we have concepts to present in January to make decisions on and define sprints and launch.

I’m getting positive feedback from my team and from leadership, who are watching the evolution and transformation of the team. My group’s president came to me recently to tell me he had a reframing about our team. He said, ‘I used to think this team was a group of creative people with a passion for doing things differently and that we’d have something quickly. Now I think that this is all about collecting great minds of people who want to transform the business and industry.’ For me that’s big, coming from the group president in front of the whole team.

We’ve hired Table XI for the changes they’re creating. We’ve seen changes in the innovation lab through the collaboration. And we’ve also seen changes in our leadership. They invited Table XI to help coach the leadership to see things differently. For me, that’s a big achievement. I’m so impressed with how they operate. They introduced agile and design thinking to a big cooperation like Tyson Foods.

How did Table XI perform from a project management standpoint?

Communications are impressive. They're very quick to respond. Our buildings are next to each other and we didn’t even know, which means it’s really easy to meet. We also email or pick up the phone to solve problems. The whole team is always available. Their CEO is also very hands-on, which for me represents the spirit that we would like to have.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think they have a unique model for approaching agile that differentiates them. I’m a person who is leading innovation with a more agile and intrapreneurship approach. If you’re looking for a company that operates holistically, in a hands-on way and to the point, it’s Table XI.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are times when we wait longer in between check-ins than we probably should. We should probably check in every day or every two days. That way it doesn’t seem like reporting. I hate the word reporting. I don’t want them to report to me and I don’t want to report to them. What I want is collaboration. I think they could take the initiative to check in with us more often.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m VP of digital product management for a medical society to publish journal information.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Table XI?

We wanted to develop a larger learning platform for physicians to earn continuing education credits. To do this, we needed an app that would provide information via podcasts and quizzes.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built the app with an interface that accommodates subscription services and SSO (single sign-on) usage. Users are able to listen to informative podcasts and then take quizzes, for which they can claim credit. The credit claiming process was complex to design because it needed to be robust and accessible. Consequently, the team connected the credit data to other vendor APIs; local storage on iOS eliminates the need for users to submit their credits manually. This technique allowed us to build a small app that generates PDF credit certificates.

The app also has a curation aspect that applies content tags to the podcasts. This feature allows users to select topics of interest and have files subsequently curated for them. Notifications subsequently alert users to new content in their specified interest groups.

Overall, numerous integrations with other vendor systems made development complex. The process between user stories and building out the app took 3 months. The team coordinated with an external design firm that we hired to make these processes simultaneous. They performed: UX testing, graphic design, and full-stack development. The app was released November 2017.

How did you come to work with Table XI?

The external design firm referred them to us.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work began June 2017 and ended November 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Internally, the app was well-received. The app was exceptionally well-built; they integrated its features strategically. It is too early to have data because we just released the app and haven’t initiated a marketing campaign yet. We plan to give the team more work based on their performance with this project.

How did Table XI perform from a project management standpoint?

Claire served as the primary product manager. She and her team exceled at coordinating between multiple vendors and groups. We communicated constantly with business print outs and Slack. They had exceptionally transparent communication on business print outs and Slack. Likewise, Developers from Claire’s team and ours communicated with each other on a regular basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re amazing collaborators. They worked tirelessly with each group connected to the project, often dealing with last-minute changes. Their organization had a great deal of integrity and we enjoyed working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are small things in our collaboration that we'll tweak, but overall we're very happy with the work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No, because the collaboration felt natural. We didn’t need a strategy with them.

Company Responses

This review was updated by the client on January 27, 2020. The original star ratings were: Overall – 5, Quality – 5, Schedule – 5, Cost – 5, NPS – 5. New content below:

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a medical association as the VP of digital product management and development. In my role, I’m specifically responsible for periodical publishing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Table XI?

We’ve worked with Table XI before over a period of years on multiple projects. This particular project involved building out a database to support the specific types of credentialing that occur on websites within the academic space. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Table XI helped us launch multiple related academic sites using only a single database. 

It was an iterative development process where they replaced a smaller, less scalable version of our database with an industry-standard unstructured one. This allowed for ingestion APIs into the database and API access out of the database.

To create the solution, they used a wide variety of technologies, including a standard Microsoft database backend and an AWS foundation. There was a lot of decision making that went into picking out the tech stack because we were building such a custom app.

What is the team composition? 

At this point, our team is about 5–6 strong members. I work with Mark (CEO, Table XI) in particular, Claire (Director of Staffing, Table XI), and some development leads who interface with us. 

How did you come to work with Table XI?

They responded to an RFP we put out for a different project four years ago and immediately stuck out to me above and beyond all of the other candidates.

It’s a different feel when you meet them. They’re a little bit more formal than some of the other local software developers and a lot more straightforward. I appreciated that they could answer my questions in a way other developers couldn’t—they don’t just stick to a script because they know their stuff.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from August 2018–August 2019, though we continue to add logic improvements and new functionality sets.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They launched everything seamlessly, even though we had a very aggressive timeline and a complicated set of requirements. They worked with us to mitigate all of the risks, following an iterative release cycle that eliminated issues from the live environment.

How did Table XI perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re good communicators and really strong partners. We shared development with them, so they worked closely with our lead systems architect and development team to make sure we had a plan for every scenario. It was a hand-in-hand experience.

Now, if I ever need to speak to anyone for any reason, I can get a call within the day and set up a meeting that week or use Slack to communicate. They’re very upfront about cost, timelines, and expectations, too. They’ll rework plans to eliminate hurdles that get in the way of budgets.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s really valuable to have a team that can handle both very straightforward technical development using clear requirements and more creative tasks around exploring a concept. They’re able to consult us on customer research, helpings us reach a new vision of where we want to go.

On top of that, they just have a culture in their company that’s addictive. It’s like a family. It starts with Mark and flows down to everyone else in the group. Even when the development gets tough and things fall out of alignment, they always work through the challenges in a clear, aboveboard way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One thing that they could work on is building out their maintenance support services. Currently, they don’t have a formalized, systematic way to support products that they’ve built, whether that’s thinking through hosting services or budgeting for operational concerns.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
 
Just look to Table XI first.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder and CEO of Landscape Hub, a digital marketplace connecting landscape contractors with growers, nurseries, and supply companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Table XI?

We founded Landscape Hub as a platform to support Fiori nursery, a 100-year-old legacy business. The platform gives visibility into the supply chain and streamlines the procurement process for buyers. The nursery and landscape supply industry is huge, and extremely fragmented. The procurement process is clunky and inefficient, and contractors waste a lot of time sourcing products. Since we’re dealing with living plants, the production cycle can vary wildly, which creates periods of shortage or excess. Knowing the available supply data is critical. We were looking for a technical partner that could build us a platform prototype and test its validity in the marketplace.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Ruby is the platform’s core language, but it also uses Java and Postgres. We started the process through a week-long discovery series. Through an intense week of Google sprints, our two teams integrated. They provided an MVP [Minimum Viable Product] and proved its usefulness in the industry. We had something for users to test in a matter of days, with assuring results. The platform aggregates local and national supply, and makes it easy for buyers to build orders through their chosen suppliers. It can coordinate shipping logistics—a major pain point in the industry—and mitigate suppliers’ credit risks. It can also facilitate payment and financing options, provide data insights, and forecast trends.

What is the team dynamic?

We work with Jess [Project Manager, Table XI], Josh Golden [Founder and Principal, Table XI], and other members of their team.

How did you come to work with Table XI?

We connected with a few companies in and around Chicago. A colleague recommended them, citing them as the best option in the area. We had two frontrunners to choose from, but after that week of sprints, we felt they had the edge over their competitors.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $600,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first got to know each other in February 2017. They now advise our in-house tech team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re still at a very early stage, so we haven’t settled into our stride enough to provide any quantitative metrics. Since we started the project, I have hired a well-connected CTO with a lot of experience in various consumer-related companies. He works inside the architecture they created, and needs to do very little to the existing structures. The tech team we have now can work quickly, thanks to the quality foundation Table XI provided. Our CTO thinks their work is exceptional.

How did Table XI perform from a project management standpoint?

They are outstanding. We still work with them on this project, even though we now have a team of five engineers and a CTO. We want our team to adopt the way they manage the project. Their protocols are solid, their methods work, and they have a clear playbook that delivers good results.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m a big fan of theirs. They’re brilliant people at all levels, and they provide solid quality. My entire team was blown away by how well they performed.

They’re very communicative. Managing customer expectations, specs, and projects is an important part of software development. They are immediately trustworthy and transparent, and they communicate positively and without disagreements. We feel very good about the final product.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Find out if there are any options to provide equity stakes as part of the compensation package. Everything worked out well for us, but in retrospect, we wish we had been able to further incentivize them and align our two companies by working that into the structure.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

IDC Financial Publishing Inc. is located in Hartland, Wisconsin, and we evaluate all financial institutions in the country. Our subscribers primarily use our information for safety and due diligence to check what financial institutions are investing in and who they are doing business with. I’m the controller of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Table XI?

We obtain regulatory reports from governmental agencies to evaluate financial institutions. We run these through a proprietary program, and then come up with a rank which has ratios that go along with it. For 30 years, we were doing this process in paper format or a book-type process.

We wanted to bring the company up to date by transforming this process into an electronic format through the use of a website that would be subscription based and require log-in. Users would need to pay subscribers to obtain or view the information we create. We needed someone to work on the development of that project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Table XI visited us a few times to learn about our business and the direction we wanted to take it in, and since this project was a first for them, it was an exciting process for both parties. They used their experience in website development to create a schematic of our goals which incorporated our priorities and non-vital tasks. We wanted to wait until our customers used it so we could receive feedback and make changes moving forward. The product is always evolving, which helps keep it fresh and also helps us keep our customers happy.

They redesigned our complete website, and also took care of the marketing for both the website and the portal, which is the subscription-based area of our site. They integrated it with our proprietary systems, including Stripe for payments, and a mixed panel for user analytics. The payment portion is seamless, so it makes it a lot easier for customers to order on their own terms because they can do so outside of business hours or in different locations. The mixed panel was also a great integration because it gives us a lot more insight as to what our subscribers may be doing or what institutions they’re looking up.

One of the main features is the ability for users to be able to search for any institution and see if we’ve evaluated them before they actually pay for a subscription with us. They’ve incorporated some features into the website that are very beneficial to our customers. We also had them create a watch list, which stemmed from customer feedback. Users can create a list of institutions in their account that they can monitor on a regular basis. It provides easier access in finding these institutions and also allows users to simply come to the portal instead of having to look them up every time.

How did you come to work with Table XI?

Kevin: We interviewed a couple of local companies when we were looking to go electronic, but they didn’t really understand what we wanted to do. One of Table XI’s employees is a relative of the owner of our company, and they suggested we give them a chance. They did a great presentation, and overall, they knew exactly what we wanted. We’re a small company, and we all feel very comfortable with them. They are straightforward and provide transparency into their development process.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in Fall 2014, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We primarily receive feedback from our customers through phone calls or emails. They’ve expressed that they’re happy with the design and layout, as well as how easy it is to obtain information. We have a very high percentage of satisfied customers.

How did Table XI perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management has been excellent. During very heavy development, we’d have weekly calls and updates with them. We probably spent a minimum of 1 hour per week going over progress, updates, and concerns. This would be the time when we could address different aspects, and they would present various scenarios of how we could go about incorporating something into the website. We’d take a couple of days for review, and sometimes, they’d set up a small test stage site where we could explore the 3 different options. They helped us make decisions based on what would be best for our customers, our knowledge, and their information.

We’re continuing to work with them to develop the website going forward. They’re very accommodating, and they know that we’re a small company that gets into heavy production every quarter. We are able to put things on hold for a couple of weeks or a month until we finish our cycle, and then pick it up right where we left out. They’re very understanding, and it works out really well for both of us.

We were in communication with multiple people over the course of the project. Our project managers would either be Mark [CEO, Table XI] or Judith [Delivery Principal, Table XI]. It’s always clear who is doing what, and they’ve always been available to us anytime we have questions or concerns in order to address or resolve them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re responsive to questions or concerns, and quickly gained an understanding of how our business works.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I can think of that they need to improve upon.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients should be open-minded, because Table XI has some great ideas. We had some of our own ideas, so when we had brainstorming sessions, we experienced a few struggles because we didn’t understand the intricacies of a website or e-commerce site. Once we discussed some of those issues, they reassured us that the idea would work very well. It wasn’t their way or no way, but instead, we were able to work through and discuss things openly in order to propose better solutions. Overall, their recommendations were great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We haven’t started the company yet, but it will be a home care company in Melbourne. We will provide home care and the technology associated with it that allows communication with families and amongst caregivers to give a better experience through the use of the application.

The end client, the person that’s actually receiving the care, doesn’t necessarily have to use the app if they don’t want to, but everyone else in the process will be able to utilize it. I’m the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Table XI?

I was looking more for an app with similar features to Uber, but it ended up morphing into more of a communication tool because I realized home care is more about personal service and having trust, transparency, and quality of service.

Table XI performed research to ultimately help me transform my original app idea into something I liked much better.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were instrumental in the research and also gave advice, including a lot of feedback regarding features, which I really liked. It wasn’t just me directing them, but rather them telling me what they thought would be a better product for customers according to their research.

I went to Chicago in March to sit down with them for 5 days and discuss my vision, as well as the product. It was a very intense week, and they informed me that they liked what I’d done and had researched what other companies were doing. They mentioned several U.S. companies that were offering similar services, and suggested that I do something different.

We started on the project, and every 2 weeks, we had a discussion regarding decisions regarding product development. I really liked working with the product, and the process was incremental.

Many of our competitors have caregivers who work by themselves. Table XI was adamant about there being more communication amongst caregivers in order to offer better consistency of care. They also created a timeline feature so that the person receiving care can communicate with friends and family. People they know can log on and update or upload photos from events, which allows for a better personal connection. Table XI really recommended this feature, which is not only easy to use, but the main element which evolved the product from a scheduling to communication tool.

The scheduling part has become the least important part of the project, and we’re now finishing with our new focus on communication. Our company is more concerned on the connection, which will be our strength and what differentiates us from the competition. Table XI suggested many of these changes, and they built the platform for both iOS and Android.

What is the team dynamic?

They had one project manager, Claire, who worked very closely with me and was in touch every day. There were also 3 programmers working on development, 2 of which were full-time, and the other came in and out as needed. Rex [Director of Digital Strategy, Table XI] worked on the design. They’re very responsive to any changes, and make recommendations often. We also worked with an outside design company that Table XI recommended, and they were very good as well.

How did you come to work with Table XI?

When I first started looking at developers, it was very difficult. I looked up the best available in San Francisco, along with other places, but it was hard to choose. I emailed several people, and also received calls from India, but I wanted the development to take place in the U.S. I needed the vendor to have a more Western way of thinking, so I went to a friend in Japan who had worked with Table XI, and he recommended them. I got in contact with them from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We will have spent U.S. $475,000 when the project is completed.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in March of this year, and the project will be completed in the next couple of weeks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Compared to other companies, they’re clearly one of the best. I’ve looked at other companies even throughout this particular project, and Table XI’s quality of work, service, and responsiveness are all first class. I don’t have any consumer feedback yet.

We’ve had some crashes, and I’ve had some issues in terms of photo speeds, but every time that’s happened, they’ve fixed the problem within 1–2 days. We just launched on Apple today, and although users can’t download it unless they’re invited to it, I’m very proud of the product.

How did Table XI perform from a project management standpoint?

The person I talked with every day, Claire [Project Manager, Table XI] was fantastic. I rate that as the best experience of the whole project in terms of responsiveness. I’d send her an email at any time of day, and she’d respond with suggestions or ideas. Their project management was the highlight of the experience. I met the whole team at the start of the project in Chicago, but after that, we used Slack and conference calls to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The best thing about them was the collaboration. They weren’t just trying to make what I wanted, but were trying to make a product they thought would work in the market. They’re very strong with doing research as well. What I find great about the experience is that the product I initially wanted is quite different to the product that I’ve received, which is all due to the collaboration and their research. They made a great effort in making a difference, and that’s why they’re a great company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing I had an issue with was the cost. They were a bit expensive, but this is my first experience with something like this, so I don’t have many comparisons. I’ve tried to research to see if I’ve paid too much, but I’m still not sure. However, I’m happy with the quality of the product, so I’m satisfied.

Do you have any advice for potential clients?

Give them a call, and try to develop a relationship with them. They’re good in terms of not just developing what you want, but also have a good understanding of what would be better. They’ll try to make a product that will work, as well as stand apart from what other companies are doing. They’ll put the research in and make a team effort, and they want their clients to succeed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Vibes is a mobile marketing engagement software as a service [SaaS] company. Our software platform is widely used by marketers, retailers, service companies, financial services, and insurance or healthcare companies.

Through our platform, those marketers engage their customers in one-to-one direct marketing tactics over mobile channels. Mobile channels would include SMS and MMS messaging, mobile web, mobile wallet (not the payment part of wallet, but offers, coupons, tickets, and loyalty cards that you can put into your Apple wallet or Android Pay Wallet), as well as Push notifications and now some other emerging channels like Facebook Messenger.

We built the technology platform and we fully support it. We also have a customer success side of our business, and we help some of our bigger customers with their execution and strategy as well. I’m the VP of technology. I have oversight of all our technology teams and products. I’ve been here about 6 ½ years and in this specific role for the last two years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Table XI?

We’ve done all our development in-house. We needed to extend our existing staff in order to accelerate the development effort. We wanted to bring in specific expertise. We might have been able to do this project internally, but we thought we would decrease risk by bringing in a third party that had some deeper expertise in that specific area.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vibes had taken on a $40 million investment in July 2016 from a company called Syniverse, which is a global telecommunications messaging company. The investment was tied to a partnership with Syniverse to take our platform and services international. Considering that investment, we were looking for the extra support, especially in terms of accelerating some of the work and bringing in specific domain expertise.

We have multiple components, multiple applications in our application suite, and our technology stack is complicated. One significant component is a little bit more legacy in terms of the code base, and it was running on some outdated versions of Ruby on Rails. Part of the effort with Syniverse was we wanted to be able to internationalize that platform. To do that, we wanted to leverage features and capabilities that were built into newer versions of Ruby on Rails. Given the degree of legacy code and how old the versions were that we were on, we knew that was going to be a challenging effort and we didn’t necessarily have people in-house that had done that kind of work before. That would slow us down from some other things we were trying to get done in parallel. That’s where we looked at Table XI to come in and help.

We wound up that effort, and meanwhile, Vibes was starting to build out more internal domain expertise. We wanted to do our own hiring and get our own engineers to expand our products, focusing more on Push notifications and other in-app-type SDK [Software Development Kit] work.

We had some time to think about what we wanted to be able to bring to market with that new product offering. Having had a good experience with Table XI, we engaged them again to talk about their expertise in the app space. We felt good about that as well, and continued to use them to jumpstart and accelerate the development of our Push SDK, as well as a demo app for that. We have since wound them down and internalized that effort as we built up the internal team to support them.

For the versions of Ruby on Rails that we were trying to upgrade from, on such a large code base as ours, there’s a lot of risk of breaking something or getting into an integration nightmare. We didn’t want to risk getting stuck on something for a long time. Title XI had a very collaborative approach and we worked out a good strategy for how we could merge their changes with other changes we were making at the same time in the code base. We developed a good approach in how to mitigate risk associated with that kind of upgrade. They brought good technical and architectural expertise to what we were doing.

What is the team dynamic?

We had three to four team members from Table XI. We embedded one of our mid-level engineers to work with them day-to-day, full-time. We also had one of our senior team lead engineers act as the acceptor of their work and their changes. He acted as our product owner to guide and direct them on priorities, scope, and what was ultimately acceptable. He provided oversight. We do two-week iterations in our Agile process here. We kept them working with us at the same iteration pace and approach.

How did you come to work with Table XI?

The original way I found Table XI was through a referral. I asked our team who they knew in the Chicago area. Someone knew an engineer at Table XI. After engaging them, I realized there was an engineer there that I knew. The “known entity” aspect was an additional factor in their favor. I did a bunch of other independent research, and checked out companies local, regional, national, and even offshore. I decided I wanted to go with a local Chicago company that had strong Ruby on Rails expertise and had the deeper technical chops to be able to handle this kind of upgrade work.

As far as evaluation, I looked for supporting information, including what I found on Clutch. I had several vendors that seemed to have the right expertise. I narrowed it down to a shortlist of three. I met with each of them a couple of times and dove deep with them. I spent some face time with the specific engineers that would potentially work on the project. Under NDA [non-disclosure agreement], I shared our codebase with them and explained the potential scope. We had them come back with a more detailed estimate, along with a plan of how they would approach this type of an upgrade, and how they could help mitigate some of the risks associated with it. We really liked the story that Table XI came back with.

How much have you invested with them?

[Confidential]

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2016 until August 2017. If something new popped up where I needed to accelerate something or needed some additional support, they would immediately be the vendor I would look to.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We engaged them on a time and materials basis, but they provided good estimates about what they thought it would take. I appreciated that they provided a range. “On the low end, it’s going to take at least this and at the high end, we can’t see it going over this.” With time and budget, they came in close to that middle range of the estimate. Given the size of the projects we were working on, that’s impressive. They weren’t in a T&M [time and materials] type contract. They weren’t blowing smoke to try to win the deal and then take twice as long or twice the effort to get it done. There was no arguing about scope creep or anything. They had a good, solid understanding of what it was going to take, and they had a pretty accurate estimate and could deliver within that. We were monitoring quality on a week-in/week-out basis.

How did Table XI perform from a project management standpoint?

We had constant, daily communication. We’re on Slack with them. Our engineer is sometimes working in their office. Their engineer is sometimes working in our office. There are code reviews by our more senior person before stuff is merged into our codebase.

The code quality was generally very high. If at any point we had a merge request or a code that they were submitting that we didn’t feel great about, and we provided feedback, they addressed any concerns that we raised. I wasn’t involved in the day-to-day, but I was getting good communication from their project manager about progress and status and how much budget we’ve used and whether we’re on track. Their invoices had a nice level of detail, broken down to where the hours had been spent, by whom, doing what.

There was very good synergy at every level in the organization, even from me at the VP level working with the BusAd [Business Administration] on their end. I was working with Mark [Rickmeier, CEO, Table XI], who was the COO at the time, just to get the contract underway; everything has been very organized even since then.

The engineers work together well. The project manager communicated well with me. At every level, we had good communication and collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I don’t have a lot of points of comparison; up until this project, I’d only worked within companies that have leveraged outsource providers. I had never before worked this directly with a vendor, like providing oversights and having it be a project that was under my team.

But, compared to what I have seen, Table XI had a greater quality of communication, code quality, and consistency of delivering what’s expected than other vendors I’ve worked with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I asked some of the folks on our team that worked with them. We very occasionally had an issue with some of the code commits, where it wasn’t exactly aligned to our technology standards or approach, or something about the way they were trying to merge without as much transparency than we would normally want.

They sort of went off on a silo for a week and came back with one big, long commit that makes it hard to dig into the details as effectively. When we provided the feedback, we saw improvement from them in those things. It wasn’t a consistent thing. It’s more like this one engineer, who is not full-time on our project. Maybe he was not as in-tune with how to work with us or something.

I wouldn’t overemphasize those things because they weren’t, in general, a problem. As we worked through everything with them, they addressed any issues.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-creator and board member of Wabash Lights nonprofit. We are a public art group in Chicago. The project has two parts. One is the installation of interactive LED lights on the L tracks on Wabash. The other part of it is our mission statement which is to put the public back in public arts. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Table XI?

We’re creating an app where people can interact with the lights. When my partner, Seth Unger, and I, had this idea, he worked at Gensler and then Herman Miller and I’m a filmmaker, and we didn’t know anything about public art, app development, or the lights. We needed someone to help us think through the app development and the interactivity for local people to control the lights. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Table XI helped us come up with an initial strategy for how the app would look. We had a dream of an idea and we came at it from an artist standpoint. We didn’t know if it was possible, and that’s where Table XI came in. They helped us think of things we hadn’t thought about. They helped us guide us. They helped us make it so anyone in the world could interact with the lights using their cell phones. As we started to get funding, we got a tech spike and created a way to text the lights and play a game with them. Table XI also created that functionality.

We started by explaining what we wanted in detail to them. We had visuals and ideas, and we met once and walked through all the user groups and what we wanted it to do. They came up with different websites that we could pull inspiration from to help us define the attitude and the user experience for the app. Since we’re a nonprofit and therefore dependent on when we can get funding, they came up with a plan of what we could do when the funds become available; laying out a strategy for the future. Their deliverables have guided us through the rest of the process.

With the tech spike, we got a grant and we were able to execute level one that they gave us after inception with the specific goal of trying to figure out if we could actually communicate via cell phone with the technology that runs the lights. Within that idea, there were two ways we wanted functionality. One was through texting the lights to change colors and the other was playing a game on the lights. Table XI created a game like Simon to play with the lights. It was very scientific.

The inception took maybe a month or less. The tech spike lasted several months. Because we’re a nonprofit, they were trying to fit us in where they could which sometimes took longer. So far, we’ve created a web-based application but haven’t started on iOS or Android yet.

What is the team dynamic? 

We communicated regularly with John [Senior Software Developer, Table XI] and Dan [Director of Operations, Table XI].

How did you come to work with Table XI?

I knew someone through my filmmaking who does websites for documentaries, and he’s friends with one of the developers at Table XI. He referred them to a couple of places, and we interviewed a total of eight companies in Chicago. We narrowed our choices to three and then chose Table XI because they seemed like they had experience and they also had the interest. The arts are important to them, so it seemed like a natural connection.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $10,000 and $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them summer 2016. We go back and forth as we get funds. We’re going to be doing some more work soon.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were thrilled with their quality of work. They made the coding process clear to us. They communicated what was happening at every stage. I feel like I’m a mini-expert myself because of their communication and patience. We tested what they did at some events and there were things that didn’t work, but they fixed them quickly. They’re very proactive in a good and reactive way.

The project itself has had amazing feedback. People are blown away. When you can text a public art piece and it responds, that’s pretty cool. They succeeded at taking our artistic vision and turning it into a reality.

How did Table XI perform from a project management standpoint?

They were fantastic. There was never a time we needed something and they didn’t respond. If they couldn’t take care of the issue immediately, it was done quickly. We communicate mostly through phone and email. We also met in person a few times.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We came to them with an art project and they understood what we wanted. They didn’t say they couldn’t do it. They recognized it as a cool problem they wanted to solve. Their guidance was great for us and is why we chose them. Sometimes it’s hard to work when you’re doing a job that doesn’t have a clearly defined goal. They’ve been good at creating deliverables in a project that has no boundaries. In that sense, they balance the art and creativity side of their business well with IT competence. I feel like sometimes those two don’t go together. Sometimes people are super creative, but not reliable. I thought they were very creative, open and excited about the task, while also being super reliable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I was happy. Because this is such a crazy project, I can’t think of anything we could’ve done differently.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of PechaKucha, a global events company operating in 113 countries. PechaKucha means ‘the sound of chitchat’ in Japanese.

We have five full-time people on staff in Tokyo, and we’re now in 1,015 cities around the world, including Chicago and New York City. It’s a massive global events company operated by organizers in different cities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Table XI?

We'd outgrown our previous website because we’d gone from one event in Tokyo, to 200 events around the world. Our previous site was beginning to operate poorly due to this high volume, so we realized we had to do something a bit more industrial. We decided to go with Ruby on Rails because it is able to handle our global expansion. Table XI developed the application for us, and we are now on our third stage of development for a new platform for education and enterprise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We came to Table XI with an existing website of about 200 cities needing to be incorporated again into the newer version. There was a huge amount of transitioning from our old site because of this, and we also needed to incorporate 50 additional cities. We couldn’t have any downtime, so this all had to happen while both sites were live. The old site would crash due to the high volume, so we had to find a way to seamlessly move from the old site to the new. Table XI did this extremely well and with much efficiency.

They also developed our video player software, which houses over 10,000 searchable and viewable online presentations. Each presentation consists of 20 images shown for 20 seconds each, so they’re basically a cross between a video and a podcast.

Table XI also built an app which acts as an extension of the video player they’d built. We now curate one presentation daily, and the app is called PechaKucha of the Day. They were fantastic in streamlining and simplifying the app, and it’s also very succinct.

The app is currently only available for iOS due to financial issues. PechaKucha is a nonprofit organization, so Table XI is also helping us build a new web-based education and enterprise presentation platform.

What is the team dynamic?

I’m working with about 30–40 people from their staff.

How did you come to work with Table XI?

We did a global search around the world, including Tokyo, the US, and the UK. Table XI stood out compared to other companies by a wide margin because they weren’t trying to tell us what to do with our product. They also analyzed the project in order to give us a notion of how the website build would eventually work.

They were the only company out of seven different ones we interviewed that offered a reasonable cost. None of the other companies could justify their prices, whereas Table XI built a fantastic spreadsheet detailing the cost for 149 stories. They had a really practical nature about them, and their Agile setup made all the spending extremely clear.

I recommended them to a friend in Japan, and they’ve also had a positive experience due to Table XI’s clarity when it comes to cost and timeframes.

How much have you invested with them?

The total expense for the website was between $100,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2013, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our users around the world still look at the website today and think it’s incredibly fresh. It hasn’t dated over the past 4 years, and we’ve have very little downtime. Even when we had some issues that caused the site to do down temporarily, it was rectified within hours. Table XI’s staff is so dedicated that they even took the time on Thanksgiving Day to find a solution for an abrupt issue.

I still see people in their office today who built the website. They are very conscientious, and they really believe in our product as well as what we’re trying to accomplish. It’s not just work for them. They really believe in what they do, and we’re always impressed their perspective.

We’re currently looking to them for the next revamp of the entire site because their quality and execution are both fantastic.

How did Table XI perform from a project management standpoint?

We start any job here with a 2-day inception where I fly to Chicago to meet with their developers, programmers, and project manager. After that, I only communicate with the project manager, and they operate through a very simple traffic light rating system (green, amber, red) that displays project status.

The project manager can help translate what I’m saying in English into more technical jargon for the developers. We generally have a call every week with the project manager, but we can also see the project status online through the Agile spreadsheet. We’ve had no problems, even though we are working in different timezones.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Table XI’s depth of knowledge is impressive, and they always have an expert within the company who knows how to solve a problem. With smaller firms, our site would go down for 2-3 days, and nobody seemed to know what the problem was.

They’ve also been incredibly accommodating with our funding as a nonprofit, and they give us preferential rates, which is fantastic. They’ve also been lenient with payment schedules.

They do have a design component, but it’s focused on engineering, which makes a big difference. Many web companies begin as graphic companies, then become web designers or firms, so they’re coming from a non-technical perspective. However, with Table XI, it’s very evident that they come from a highly technical background.

They are really a close, sociable team, and they care about us and our product. It’s not just a job to them, which is the reason we’re still working with them 4–5 years later. Right now, we have 100 events that are operated by local volunteers all over the world, and we’re looking to increase our online presence. Table XI has been a key component in our growth, and without them, we couldn’t move forward. We could go to another provider, but we don’t because we really see them as a partner. It’s all quite exciting.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve had a few discussions concerning budget, because some things have ended up being more complicated than they originally thought. However, we’ve resolved this amicably, and there hasn’t been any issues.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m Drew McKenzie, director of product for Everything but the House, a premier online estate sale marketplace. We have taken classic estate auctions at someone’s property and turned them into an online auction. We have bidders all around the globe. We have over 900 employees. Our headquarters is in Cincinnati, Ohio.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Table XI?

Like any company that is scaling fast, we needed additional resources for a key initiative. At the time, this happened to be an iOS application that we wanted to get out into the app store. We leveraged them to augment our existing staff to help with that project. This was our first go at creating a native, iOS application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They take all of their clients through an inception process that really helped us scope out the project, understand its complexity, and plan out the project over a period of weeks so that together we could achieve it. The deliverable was releasing a working app into the app store. Auctions typically run 5–7 days. The functionality is centered on finding different sales and items and placing bids. It’s pretty simple. Both sides had responsibilities on the executional front.

We continue to build on the app. Since working with them, we’ve hired more resources internally, but we have stayed in touch. We keep them apprised of what’s going on. If we have the need, we will give them a call.

What is the team dynamic?

We had a mobile developer on our team and we engaged with a product lead and two developers on Table XI’s side. They were an extension of our team as we built the app.

How did you come to work with Table XI?

We met Table XI through an introduction from a trusted colleague at another development firm very similar to Table XI. We don’t outsource projects often, but this was a critical need. We received a strong recommendation and we knew of them; they’ve been around awhile and have a great reputation.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together June or July of 2016. It was a 4–5 month engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re a very fast growing company. The traffic that is coming to the iOS app with people downloading and using the app is growing by double digits every month. It’s a key piece of how our users engage with us. The functionality, stability, and quality of the app have met our expectations.

What we really enjoyed about working with them was they weren’t just coders. It wasn’t a “throw it over the fence and do the work” mentality. Table XI has a ton of experience. Our end product was better because of their collaboration and the ideas that they brought forward. We’re really happy with the end product.

How did Table XI perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. We used Slack, and we had very fluid communication. We had real time communication all day, every day as we worked on the project. We went to their offices a few times in Chicago, and they came to our office a few times as well. They are top notch from that perspective.

We collaborated a lot on the design. We came together every week and said, “Okay, here’s what we like and here’s what we don’t like. I think we could do this a little bit better.” If we had just dumped our vision on them, it probably wouldn’t have been as successful.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve developed a great culture. When organizations like Table XI do that, they’re able to retain great talent. That’s what we were looking for. They had several iOS developers that had a lot of experience. You might think iOS has been around forever because we’re on iPhone 7, but it’s still a new platform in regards to software development. Having a lot of experience building different apps is critical. Their culture allows them to have experience on their bench that you wouldn’t find at many shops of their size.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. They’ve been great and we’ve stayed in touch with them since the engagement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I am the Director of Marketing and Media of Chicago Ideas. We produce Chicago Ideas Week, which is the world’s largest ideas festival at the accessible price point of $15 a ticket. Our business is partly a live event, but we’re also a year round media platform publishing digital content all year round. We offer ticketing staff for the events, promotion for both the events and speakers, and we’re also hosting a video library.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Table XI?

One of our challenges was getting the audience to really understand our core differentiator, which was that we are democratizing ideas festivals and communicating the breadth of Chicago Ideas and the people behind it. The second challenge was pivoting between selling tickets to Chicago Ideas Week one part of the year, then getting people to watch our videos for the other part. So, we had a twofold objective in place that needed to be marketed differently on the website. Being able to merge these two things seamlessly and build a system that allowed us to pivot based on where we are in the year was really important.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

They inherited our old website built by a previous developer, as well as a lot of code and then merged the CMS and backend systems. We knew we wanted a complete website overhaul, so we met with them to go through it and used Table XI’s Google Venture Design Sprint Process. We both interviewed members and stakeholders of our team to understand overall goals and objectives, and then I synthesized that into a brand briefing for them. We collaborated together and decided on everything from brand to website goals.

Along with working on the backend that we’d already built out, we asked questions like, “What flow did people need to follow?” and “What ticketing system does it need to integrate with?”. Our prior infrastructure made for a very complicated process. After we aligned on those objectives, we did a week long Sprint with a number of their developers and designers and quickly prototyped the website. The final day of that week, we did some quick usability testing, and then ended up with a final design after the Sprint process.

We had a very tight timeline, so we spent the next 4-6 weeks with their design team and developers building out this brand new website. We decided the best way to go about it would be for them to build us 26 customizable CMS blocks. All of them followed a flexible, easy to use design that allowed us to promote events, speakers, or videos depending on what we had or what time of year it was. The overall system, based on the versatility of needs we had, was one of Table XI’s ideas which ended up being a critical piece. We, along with our leadership, loved a couple of custom pages that came out of the Design Sprint, so we didn’t get rid of them. They figured out a way for us to highlight the people who work for Chicago Ideas, which is important to us when organizing funding and booking speakers.

The “About Page” they built for us was really smart and helped us achieve the goal of differentiating all the points of Chicago Ideas. They did a really excellent job with that. Table XI also found a way to put our “Schedule” on our “Attend” page, allowing visitors to sift through 150 events with no issue. Everyone loves it and it’s worked well for us this past year. They also built a mobile compatible site, which was such a blur to us because we developed the website so fast, but we did do a good amount of testing towards the end to make sure everything worked properly and how we wanted it to. The team was really diligent in making sure any minute detail was rectified. Aside from maintenance, they are now currently working with us on integrating all of our data from our website into SalesForce, which is incredible.

How did you come to work with Table XI?

I was not a part of that process because I came on board last year.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them April 2016, and have been working together since, but the organization's relationship dates back further than that.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our time on site has doubled since we’ve had the new redesign, our ticket sales rate has gone up 10%, and we were close to selling out all of our programs last year. None of this has ever really happened, and I attribute that to the fact we were able to creatively showcase all of the programs based on what the topics were really about, instead of just a big name.

Table XI built a website that allows us to showcase the topics divorced from whether or not we have a big name attached to it. I think that was highly attributable to why we moved tickets in all of our programs across the board. I wish I had someone who I could dedicate to only updating the website, because I think they did such a beautiful job, and we now have so many options with how to use it. It certainly made things so much easier. We have so little reliance on a designer to build custom graphics, and it’s just much more user and mobile friendly.

How did Table XI perform from a project management standpoint?

I would say Judith, [Project Manager, Table XI] was the best I’ve ever worked with. She was incredibly diligent. They knew what they were talking about, and were timely in terms of responses as well as thorough. They give us a lot of time to make sure everything's running smoothly and exactly how we want. Most of our communication is via email, and we also have a weekly video check in.

What distinguishes Table XI from other providers?

I think the quality of the staff is really great, because everybody is super smart and good at their job. Every team member I worked with was one of the best in their role. It’s nice to have the type of partnership where they are invested in the success of the business. They really felt like partners in the project instead of just a company we hired.

Is there anything Table XI could have improved or done differently?

For us, it was really just figuring out the kinks in our partnership. It’s hard when you have Agile design, where there’s supposed to be a set budget and everything is fluid.