YML

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are one of the top insurance companies in the industry. My role is leading vision & strategy efforts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Y Media Labs?

We hired YML for design, creative work, and vision & strategy ideation.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to create a forward-looking vision for our customers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have worked with YML in multiple projects, and they have been a great partner.

Describe the project in detail.

This project involved research as well as ideation, concepting, journey mapping and ultimately telling the story of forward-looking aspirational vision.

What was the team composition?

We built a team partnering with YML, in order to support all aspects of creative, design, and architecture work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our project established a north star to help align our internal efforts.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

YML is a great partner to work with. They are flexible and can work as an extension of our internal team, as well as working independently.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their creativity, knowledge, and hard work ethic.

Are there any areas for improvement?

During our project we did not encounter any significant alignment issues. Overall we are happy with YML.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Syncplicity is an enterprise file sharing and synchronization service that lets business users securely access content from any device. I was the Chief Product Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Y Media Labs?

We hired them to help us re-design and co-develop the Syncplicity mobile suite of apps for iPhone and iPad. We were looking to partner with an innovative firm that could create differentiated experiences for our enterprise customers.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to design and develop best-in-class digital experiences for our enterprise customers, drive higher user engagement, and improve customer retention. We wanted our customers to be able to access and share their data easily and securely at any time, from any device.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They came highly recommended to us through Apple as having a good track record designing and delivering great product experiences. Moreover, since they had worked with large brands, we knew they had the pedigree we were looking for. We also preferred a partner that was local and promoted deeper collaboration with our in-house engineering and product teams. They met all of these requirements.

Describe the project in detail.

Our first engagement entailed creating an iPhone app. They designed and developed the entire app experience from the ground up, starting with the information architecture, wireframing, visual designs, experience design, prototyping, and app development.

Our subsequent engagement involved a major refresh of our iPad app. They worked on the app’s experience re-design and supported our in-house engineering and product teams with mobile app development efforts.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a couple of UI/UX designers, a project manager, a technical PM, and lead engineers on a regular basis. Depending on the need, we also had access to other resources which made it easy for us to scale. In addition, their CEO was always approachable and kept a close eye on the work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They had a massive impact on the product’s success. In a short span of two and a half years, we grew revenues by more than 30 times for SaaS subscriptions and close to 100 times for SaaS and storage combined. Our brand has been recognized as a leader in the competitive and fast-paced enterprise file sync and share market (EFSS). In addition, their design thinking enabled us to file a design patent on a unique folder hierarchy and navigation design.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They were able to closely embed with our internal teams. The working relationship was both cordial and productive leading to timely, high-quality release that was loved by our customers.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their creative and technical talent, their deep commitment to client services, the highly collaborative way they work, and their ability to move fast. They worked as a true partner, instead of an external agency, which makes it easy for cross-functional teams to work together.

It was a pleasure to work with a partner who totally understood us and what we needed. Not only did they deploy the best strategy and technology on the project, they brought innovation and velocity to our products at the same time.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing significant that comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for Bill.com, which operates in the business payment space. We help businesses manage their payables and receivables. I am the director of user experience, and I’m the mobile product lead.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Y Media Labs?

There’s a need for our customers to manage their payables and receivables while on the go. Many businesses operate outside the office today, which means they need access to their payment information at all times. Having a good mobile solution to go together with our online offering, was critical to us. We engaged with Y Media Labs to help us build a portfolio of mobile applications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The engagement with Y Media Labs has been primarily around the development of our mobile offerings. From the strategy, product management, and user experience points of view, these are things that we handle at Bill.com. Y Media Labs handled the development and quality assurance of that effort. The mobile apps are currently available only for iOS and Android smartphones, and they are fully native applications.

How did you come to work with Y Media Labs?

We went through a process of vetting Y Media Labs against several other companies that operate in the same space. Y Media Labs clearly stood out for a few reasons. One was the team involved, from the CEO down to the project manager assigned to us, appeared to be extremely strong in experience and client references. One thing that stood out to me was that they made us feel very comfortable about working with them. The conversation was not about how good they are; it was about how we could solve the problem. They immediately had several ideas, and it seemed that they would be a good partner.

How much have you invested with Y Media Labs?

We’ve invested about $2 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our engagement in October or November of 2014, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can’t share exact data. Given the context of how we promote our mobile offerings, and how our customers have access to use our mobile apps, we have seen a great deal of engagement with both applications. The iOS audience is larger than Android, so there’s more activity there.

The feedback from users is very positive. The usability is very high, especially for a business application. Over time, we’ve been able to improve that even further.

How did Y Media Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

The majority of the resources on the iOS team are in the U.S., and we have the same project manager for both the iOS and Android teams. However, the developers for Android are offshore. The iOS team has been excellent throughout our relationship. They’re responsive, and the team is on top of things. For Android, we had a few hiccups; however, the PM was strong in helping to resolve issues that came up due to the offshore nature of the development. We’ve reached a stage now that is much better. We typically use email for communication, and we use Slack for development tasks. We also have in-person sessions.

What did you find most impressive about Y Media Labs?

The main difference is their focus on building a great customer experience. It’s not just about developing or building an app; Y Media Labs really goes above and beyond to work with the client to ensure that the final user experience is great. To this end, they work with best practices and prior experience to improve our offering. We haven’t been able to leverage some of their units around more strategic planning and UX [user experience], but that’s an area where they are strong. In the future, we’ll be engaging more with them on those fronts.

Are there any areas Y Media Labs could improve?

Their model of offshore development is an area where Y Media Labs could improve. From our experience, there’s a clear distinction between how their U.S. operations work compared to their offshore operations.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a national bank in the business of issuing credit cards to US consumers.

I am the digital marketing manager of the bank. I focus on acquiring new customers through digital channels and managing their digital experience once they become members. I also manage the frontend development of our app and websites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Y Media Labs?

We did not have a mobile app nor the in-house expertise for developing one. We went through a process of finding the right partner for this task and landed on Y Media Labs.

We had heard a lot about soft business goals which a mobile app could solve, and also received a lot of feedback from card members who were requesting one for the convenience of being able to easily manage their accounts and make payments through smart devices. This will ultimately be reflected in general customer satisfaction, which we'll have to monitor over time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Y Media Labs solved the problem of delivering an iOS and Android app to our card members. They helped us launch the initial version of the app and have continued to deliver enhancements to it.

Y Media Labs is also delivering an easier-to-use site for people applying to our credit card program on the web.

How did you come to work with Y Media Labs?

We liked the fact that Y Media Labs seemed to be somewhat smaller and more focused on app development than other agencies. They seemed to be hungrier to engage in our business and give us additional attention and had developed mobile apps for a couple of players in the financial services space.

How much have you invested with Y Media Labs?

The cost of Y Media Labs' work has been above $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Y Media Labs a year-and-a-half ago. We continue to work with them on the development of our apps, as well as other projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The main thing Y Media Labs needed to deliver was a mobile app. It has been downloaded about one million times by our card members, and it's been well reviewed in the Apple Store, with the most recent version having a 4.6 rating. That is as good as or better than any other credit card app out there. On Google Play, we have a 4.5 rating, only being surpassed by one or two other credit card companies. We've been pleased with the reception from our members, and with the app's download and usage count.

How did Y Media Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Overall, Y Media Labs has been flexible in accommodating our struggles to develop APIs and engage with a new type of technology. They coached us in order to build a more onshore component of our team from Y Media Labs. There may be companies with offshore teams which are easier to engage with, but this is one thing that Y Media Labs is working on establishing. There have been some positive results.

What did you find most impressive about Y Media Labs?

Y Media Labs is flexible and customer oriented. They are good at listening and adjusting course based on our direction. They also have strong expertise in their specific space, delivering a simple and easy-to-use app, with some good design principles behind it. These are the key things that made Y Media Labs a successful partner.

Are there any areas Y Media Labs could improve?

There have been times when communication was not perfect. It was difficult to understand the back-and-forth exchange with Y Media Labs' more junior management team, and it was also difficult at times to get in touch with the team as frequently as we'd have wanted to. This was a result of us primarily engaging with Y Media Labs' offshore team, so we're working on putting a bigger onshore component in place. These were either misunderstandings or the result of an inability to engage in communication as frequently as we wanted to.

We struggled with being in a different time zone. The overlap was only a couple of hours per day, which slowed us down at times. Y Media Labs' offshore teams work hard, but they're also conscious of not working over weekends. This is good for the morale of the developers, but we mainly want results most of the time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

First Republic Bank is a private organization. I am the VP of mobile. I run mobile banking and payments, including the design, roadmapping, and execution of those projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Y Media Labs?

We were looking for great design and development for our mobile banking apps. We had a solution in place which had been built by another vendor and wanted to migrate away from those apps.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Y Media Labs initially helped our bank with some visioning and strategy services. Since I came to the position I’m in, we've built a more defined roadmap, and we're executing against it.

Banking apps, particularly for mid-sized organizations like ours, are typically off-the-shelf software. Everyone will get the same white label solution, with not a lot of flexibility. By moving to a custom solution, we took complete control of every single pixel on our app, and have been able to differentiate our services, deliver them faster, and optimize user experience based on our customers' needs.

How did you come to work with Y Media Labs?

The bank made a very unorthodox choice with Y Media Labs. Most companies like ours go with banking vendors, while Y Media Labs works within a number of verticals. That was a novel choice, and it was made specifically because Y Media Labs had worked for some large enterprises like PayPal, Tesla, and Apple. They were confident that Y Media Labs knew how to work with a big company, which can be a painful process compared to working with a small, nimble startup. My group also liked the quality seen on Y Media Labs' side, so they made the choice.

How much have you invested with Y Media Labs?

The cost of Y Media Labs' work has been above $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Y Media Labs around two years ago.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we've launched the app, of the people we surveyed, 70% said that it's either better or much better than the previous version. We've launched some new innovative features which no bank has ever launched to the market before. We came up with those, but Y Media Labs executed them. This has been well received, and it's an innovation point for a bank which typically doesn't have a lot of information.

How did Y Media Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

I have been working in this space for a while, and many vendors can be challenging to deal with. There are Mickey Mouse contractual and revenue games involved, but Y Media Labs never did this. The collaboration was always straight up and simple. When we have to have a difficult conversation, we do it and move on.

What did you find most impressive about Y Media Labs?

Y Media Labs wants to do the right thing, and they're willing to push hard to get the job done, which is what we look for in a partner.

Are there any areas Y Media Labs could improve?

I've been a vendor working with banks, and know that they're usually the biggest reason for delays and inefficiency, so it would be no small thing to ask Y Media Labs to improve our processes. They could make some of their technical decisions around development more transparent to the client, rather than make them on our behalf.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company builds and commercializes medical devices that serve 41 medical specialties. Our manufacturing operations are all over the world and we have a presence in 135 countries.

I am the Global Digital Product Manager responsible for developing enterprise solutions that can support our global sales teams. My work with leadership is to identify business opportunities that will translate into digital services and platforms that will support our global sales and marketing operations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Y Media Labs?

We as a company are evolving our internal IT organization, moving from building in-house to partnering with vendors to bring solutions that fit our organization. Y Media brings talent, knowledge, experience and quality of work to our digital solutions.

Our sales representatives are expected to master complex and technical medical data for an extensive product portfolio and present this information in a consistent and impactful way to our customers in a very limited schedule. Digital platforms allow us to deliver the right content at the right time to the right audience.

Our collaboration with Y media has helped us concentrate our efforts in identifying what stories we want to tell, while they take care of the UI/UX [user interface/user experience] as well as the development of the system in a timely manner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Y Media Labs helped us create, develop and implement powerful and intuitive user experiences for iOS.

How did you come to work with Y Media Labs?

We needed a partner with experience in mobile solutions and chose Y Media Labs because they had the right talent, people, knowledge, and experience. We were looking for the right cultural fit and needed to find an organization that not only understood what we care about but also was flexible in working within our timelines.

We also wanted to find a company that was able to deliver great results and Y Media Labs' work is innovative and intuitive. We needed an actual partner, not just a vendor. Y Media Labs knows how to build strong partnerships, they are able to translate our needs into clear ideas and concepts since day one.

How much have you invested with Y Media Labs?

The investment in Y Media Labs' work has been in the upper 6 digits

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Y Media Labs over a year ago and today it is an ongoing partnership. My expectation is that we will be moving into other services beyond mobile.  Currently, we are aligning our resources to support our critical organizational priorities, and most likely Y Media Labs will be one of the main partners to help us accomplish them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have developed mobile solutions that have helped our sales teams to double their efficiency around product handling operations. We also revamped our internal CRM system, allowing us to increase by 30% the quality of content on the platform.

How did Y Media Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Y Media Labs allocated the right resources to work with our internal teams, managing effectively our times. They listened to our challenges, proposed ideas, received feedback, and made thought-out plans to move forward.

The project manager that Y Media Labs assigned to our platforms has helped maintain consistency across our operations. They also assigned a product manager who helped me curate the product backlog and roadmap from a strategic perspective. Y Media Labs is flexible about the tools and systems we can use, like Confluence and Basecamp, or even Google Docs at times.

Y Media Labs builds drafts for our UX designs using InVision, which is helpful for presenting enhanced working prototypes. I can present those concepts to upper management and actual users to collect feedback in an agile way.

What did you find most impressive about Y Media Labs?

We have a good cultural fit with Y Media Labs' team. They have experience in their field, but they also come to the table willing to learn from our business.

Are there any areas Y Media Labs could improve?

This is a difficult question since I've been happy working with the Y Media team. Most of the collaboration was with the team in California, and we could have used more face to face time, but they are expanding their operations and they are planning to add more staff to their office in Indianapolis to offer more support to their accounts in the Midwest. That is a good move.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization. What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm the CEO of Montessorium. We're taking a 100-year-old way of learning and applying it to a new generation of learners on iPhones and iPads.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Y Media Labs?

We were dinosaurs in the industry. We've been doing this for a long time – five years now. When we first got started, everything was brand new and fresh. Y Media is so intuitive in how they help us. We knew the design and concept that we wanted. We were looking for a development partner that could realize our ideas. 

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Y Media Labs?

The CEO of Y Media Labs [Ashish Toshniwal] reached out to us, we were previously working with another app company. He said he loved our apps, but he could make them way better. We took him at his word, and we strongly believe that he's delivered on that statement.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

Our partnership has run $200,000-plus.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

We have high user engagement. We're about five minutes per user session, which is high in the field of education. We're about to cross 1 million downloads.

What differentiates Y Media Labs from other partners?

Y Media Labs has an intuitive sense about things and a bravado spirit that they can do it better than anybody. They consistently prove it.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

No. Y Media Labs continues to iterate and grow. When new things pop up, they're always looking for new ways to improve.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I'm the co-founder of a story sharing utility mobile app. We allow users to narrate an experience a better than a single picture. Users can compile a bunch of pictures and videos into a single post. When someone clicks on the post it will auto play through the day. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Y Media Labs?

I went to school as a business major. I had no technology background. I created the concept VigorWay. I put together the whole idea and knew if I wanted to deliver a product I needed the proper partner to develop it. 

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Y Media Labs?

I interviewed with a lot of companies and Y Media Labs stood out from everyone. They handle everything from organizing the app into design and actually implementing it into an iOS product. I looked at a handful of companies. You can get lost in this process. We wanted someone who was backed up with previous work so we could trust them. They stood out because of their previous design work. It really stands out to other products. After comparing Y Media Labs with other companies, it was a perfect fit.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

Our partnership falls in the bucket $100,000 to $200,000. Y Media Labs stayed on budget.

When was the work completed?

We've been working with Y Media Labs for two years. We began with an app with a few functionalities, and we released a couple rough products and got market feedback. We are working on polishing it up now. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

We have gotten some good feedback on the app so far.

What differentiates Y Media Labs from other partners?

I've only worked with Y Media Labs as a development partner but, at least every other week, I connect with the CEO [Ashish Toshniwal] and CTO [Sumit Mehra] of the company. They check to see how our progress is going and how working with their team is going. They make you feel like an important client of theirs.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

There were little things on our end where we had some design changes. Y Media Labs made the process easy and made sure that things were being handled properly.

BACKGROUND

Could you provide a brief description of your company?

We’re one of the largest payment providers in the United States. We do online as well as offline payments. I work in product management. We test new ideas, especially in the field of mobile.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

Could you describe the business challenges you were trying to address when you approached Y Media Labs?

We were trying to build a personal financial management mobile app to test with our own employees. We wanted the app to not only have a very delightful front-end user experience, but also have a robust backend piped to the respective APIs [application programming interfaces].

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of their work?

They completed the entire development in iOS, but not the design. We had our own internal design resources.

How long did this project take?

The development of it took approximately eight weeks. That was Y Media Labs’ involvement primarily.

When did the project take place?

We did the beta toward the end of April [of 2014]. Fairly recent.

Why did you select them to work with?

They were close to the contractor that we had a relationship with. Y Media Labs has a reputation of having really skilled engineers to help build a great product in a short period of time. Lastly, a lot of their engineers have very strong mobile skills.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in monetary terms or a work-hour figure?

Less than five contractors from Y Media worked on the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?

The app was very well-received internally, both by employees and the execs. It’s a very delightful app. It terms of actually tracking if the consumers are delighted by it, it’s too soon. We’re waiting and we’re tracking the results.

How would you describe their performance?

Exceptionally good.

When working with them, is there anything you’d consider unique or special about them that distinguishes them from other vendors you’ve used?

Very skilled talent, meaning they are very skilled in the iOS platform that I worked on. The second piece is very innovative, so when we had a constraint, which a lot of large corporations and initiatives do, the engineering talent from Y Media helps brainstorm along with you to come up with options or alternatives, instead of stopping work.

Is there any area that they could improve on or that you would do differently?

No, I don’t think so.

BACKGROUND

Could you provide a brief description of your company?

I’m not working for them anymore, I’m just consulting for them, but the purpose of Avero is to create a piece of software that helps the restaurant industry to make intelligent decisions on their finances, service teams, and so on.

What was your former role at the company?

I was the UI/UX [user interface/user experience] lead and the project management for the product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was the business challenge you were trying to address when you approached Y Media Labs?

We’ve had browser-based tools since the early 2000s. We were trying get into the mobile industry and we needed to find the right partner to do it for us.

SOLUTION

Could you describe the scope of their work?

I was the one who leading the project. I’m the one who provided the entire spec for the UI/UX. Their job was to implement my designs and my product spec in doing that. They took care of creating the APIs [application programming interfaces], the backend and converting my UI/UX, all of that.

How long did the project take?

[The initial project] took us between six to eight months. This was between 2012 and 2013.

Y Media Labs is still their partner, and now, they’re doing the Android version of the app. They are the partner that’s been doing mobile for Avero and we’ve been working with them for about two years now.

The initial app was in iOS, then we did an update for iOS 7, and now, we’re doing Android. We keep adding new features.

How did you select Y Media Labs as your solution partner?

They had excellent references. They had a good portfolio. I actually like the CEO a lot, so this was also sort of a personal preference.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in monetary terms or a work-hour figure?

Personnel work hours would be about 3,000 to 4,000 hours.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?

They were great. They were always on time. The product code worked really well. Their iOS architect was very professional. It was a great experience.

When working with Y Media Labs, is there anything you’d consider unique or special about them that distinguishes them from other vendors you’ve used?

Their specialty is they really understand how to convert complex graphing tools into something a lot more viable for mobile. That’s an extremely tricky thing to do.

Is there any area that they could improve on or that you would do differently?

I think they could a better job at project management. They have to make sure that their developers are on task and they’re communicating well.