Yalla

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Shannon Trust, an organization that educates people in prison and those leaving prison. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yalla?

We needed website design, development, and mobile app development services. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked on two projects with Yalla. They’ve redesigned and rebuilt our company’s website. At present, they serve as our digital partner as we design and develop the mobile app version of our learning materials. 

The mobile app will be available for both iOS and Android devices. The design and development process is focused heavily on user research and testing. That’s because our learners have many barriers to engaging in education. We want to ensure that end users can use everything we build. 

How did you come to work with Yalla?

I found Yalla through a referral and worked with them at another organization. For this project, we also ran a tender, and the team was successful in bidding for it. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around £60,000 (approximately $70,000 USD) of our own money. We’ve also won a competition, which allowed us to get some funds from the UK government. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Yalla in May 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website has gotten highly positive feedback from end users. It’s much more engaging now and much easier to navigate. From a content management perspective, it’s easier to update. In other words, we’ve got a better product that more people use more effectively. 

Meanwhile, we’re still developing the mobile app. However, Yalla has been an excellent organization. They’re responsive and provide great value for our money. 

How did Yalla perform from a project management standpoint?

We have clear deadlines for design and development sprints. Our staff and their team collaborate to meet these deadlines. We have regular standups and receive regular written reports. To communicate, we use Teams, Notion, and emails.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

We enjoy working with Yalla — it’s almost like having our own team. We have a close working relationship with them, and they put a lot of effort into it. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear brief of what you want. This is challenging when you have digital development projects since you don’t always know where you want to end up. 

With that in mind, give Yalla the space to deploy their expertise, and listen to what they’re telling you. Enter into the engagement in that spirit. Let the team explore your problems and test prototypes and solutions. This allows them to meet your business challenges instead of just imposing a fixed idea of what you want. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an online historical research and education resource, run by a collective, and I am member of the collective who was lead on the development of the app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had a private spreadsheet containing all of our historical stories, which was only accessible to members of our collective. We wanted to use the data to build a powerful, interactive web app which could be viewed by everyone, and which would take public submissions.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We looked for vendors online, and were impressed by Yalla's collective structure and positive social mission. We contacted them, got a quote which was within our budget and so decided to proceed with them.

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

We held a kick-off meeting to discuss goals and objectives for the app. Yalla then came back with wireframe mockups with multiple design options. We narrowed in on one design, and they proceeded to set up the database which would hold all of the data, and the web app which would display it to users. They then uploaded a test set of data for testing. We then tested it in detail, identified some bugs and small changes to request. Yalla then made all of these changes, and uploaded the complete dataset to the final database/web app. The database was set up in baserow, and the web app code is in github.

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

Three people worked with us: two developers and one designer. One developer worked as our main point of contact, who supported us throughout the entire process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While the web app has been completed, at the moment we have not publicly launched it as we are doing promotional work on it behind the scenes. However, everyone we have shown it to so far has been very impressed. We are extremely excited about the app, and anticipate it getting a large amount of traffic once we have done our public launch.

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

We used Notion and Github to communicate, as well as email. Our key point of contact was constantly available for us to check in with, and kept us regularly informed. We held regular video catch ups as well.

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

Their collective nature and social mission was what first caught our attention. But we were also extremely impressed with their excellent design skills, delivering us a very professional -looking final product with loads of unique, customised design elements. We were grateful that they consistently went above and beyond in terms of making tweaks and changes when requested. These includes some things which we had not considered when initially explaining what we wanted from the app.

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

To be honest I can't think of anything which could have gone better.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the National Officer - Technology at Communication Workers Union of United Tech and Allied Workers (UTAW)

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

A trade union for tech workers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Building a new fresh website with an easy to use content management system
• A website that nice and reflect the values that UTAW wanted to show

SOLUTION

How did you find Yalla?

Referral

Why did you select Yalla over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Yalla were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Design
• Testing
• Build 
• Launch of new CMS for UTAW.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Succesful user testing
• Improved conversion rates
• Higher organic SEO rating

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

Very open, great communications and at no point were my expectations unmet. Also at no point were there any 'nasty surprises' nor unexpected delays.

What was your primary form of communication with Yalla?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

To say 'the culture' underestimates the professionalism of Yalla - they've a strong worker-led culture and every team member I met is an expert in their field. I've worked on dozens of CMS projects, and this was the painless and best value-for-money project I can recall.

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

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Regional MECC and Connect 5 Lead of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

NHS

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• To create a training app to make it easier to manage data and information

SOLUTION

How did you find Yalla?

• Online Search
• Other

Why did you select Yalla over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Yalla were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

To create a training app to support the workforce to access health inequalities and health promotion information.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The completion of the training app and ongoing support. The continual development of the platform to grow.

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

Yes they have delivered on time and very proficient on responding.

What was your primary form of communication with Yalla?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their way of working has led to positive outcomes for both organizations.

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

It is great to learn as we go, but as we have done this on reflection having a log book from the start would have been useful and something they could introduce - however when creating something from scratch this would be a lesson learned.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Website Build of Break the Class Ceiling

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Provides a reading and mentoring service to promote social mobility for TV comedy writers

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Build the website

SOLUTION

How did you find Yalla?

Referral

Why did you select Yalla over others?

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

How many teammates from Yalla were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

To develop a rough existing blueprint into a fully functioning well designed, interactive website. We wanted it to be eye catching and easy to use. It now has many pages, in about 7 different sections, each of which contains text and graphics. There are also "master classes" - ie filmed interviews with experts in the field. And the ability to submit scripts

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

1. A functioning website, which we now have. However, due to delays with funding, and no fault of Yalla, we have not launched this yet, so we cannot comment on it's success yet

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

Yalla was great. They were clear about job delineation and each of them contributed their part well. They delivered on time and were good at listening to what I wanted.

What was your primary form of communication with Yalla?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I do like their links with Gaza and the ethos of their company

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

I was expecting a few more design ideas to be offered as we went along, but I am pleased with where we got to in the end.