Altalogy

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Draftboard, a technology startup in the talent space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Altalogy?

We required UI/UX design services. I started my company in October 2022, but I didn’t have a designer, so I needed someone to help me with everything related to my product, from the initial prototyping to getting the actual key visual elements of the project in place.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Altalogy created UI/UX designs for us; they were responsible for designing the core UX for my product almost from scratch. I initially provided them with hand-drawn sketches of wireframes, and they took that to create full-fledged designs; it was a collaborative process. My product is mainly a web app, but Altalogy created designs for both desktop and mobile devices.

Before the project started, we already had a good idea of what we wanted for the project structure and who our users were. Still, Altalogy helped us refine the details and how to present the product to the users based on the use cases.

What is the team composition?

Most of the time, we worked with two designers and a project manager from Altalogy.

How did you come to work with Altalogy?

They were recommended by one of my investors; Altalogy had already worked with my investor’s other portfolio companies. When I looked into them, it seemed like they had a strong portfolio and that their work was good. As I was looking to optimize resources and find a designer quickly, working with Altalogy worked out well.

How much have you invested with them?

I paid Altalogy around $18,000 per month from the start to around May 2023. After that, I only required one designer, so I paid $9,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2022. Our engagement ended in August 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Overall, I was extremely satisfied with Altalogy; they were a great partner, so I felt very lucky that I got introduced to them. They really helped us develop a great product.

How did Altalogy perform from a project management standpoint?

Our goal was to launch the alpha version of our product in April 2023, so Altalogy only had four months of actual work to complete the project. Nonetheless, they were able to achieve that goal.

Their team was on top of everything we were doing; they were timely and dedicated to thinking through every challenge, bringing things we hadn’t thought of. Additionally, Altalogy was very good at keeping us on schedule and on target. 

As for collaboration tools, we used Slack for communication, where we kept our high-level conversations around the project’s specifics. Additionally, we used Figma to leave comments on their designs and discuss ideas.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Altalogy truly understood what I was looking for. Initially, I told them about other designs from other companies that inspired me, and they really nailed it when they came back with the preliminary design for my product. They listened to me and turned my input into a functional and beautiful design.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing Altalogy could have done differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very vocal about what you expect from their work. Design work is more subjective than objective, so what one person thinks looks good, another person might not like it. Still, Altalogy is very good at taking your feedback. Moreover, remember that design is an iterative process, and Altalogy is very good at it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of a venture capital (VC) firm called Hustle Fund. We invest capital, knowledge, and connection in very early-stage companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Altalogy?

In the VC industry, there is an industry-wide weakness when it comes to branding and differentiating venture capital firms among startup founders who we’re trying to invest in. We wanted to work with a design agency that would understand where we were coming from and showcase our quirkiness and authenticity to startup founders.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Altalogy has rebranded our company and redesigned our entire website. The website was built using Webflow, and the designs were done in Figma. We wrote a long brief outlining our goals, including long mission and vision statements about our business, its future, and the infrastructure we need to get there. We discussed the nuances of this brief with Altalogy, and they started putting together mood boards and sketches. 

Early on, Altalogy asked how project success would be determined. We emphasized that a high volume of applications for capital was an important metric. We also explained that we needed a place on the site to host blogs, podcasts, videos, and newsletters; we didn’t have any of these on the previous site, and we wanted to be known as an education business in addition to a VC fund. Altalogy created the infrastructure to showcase these content areas we’re developing across our website. They were also heavily involved in testing and polishing the site before it was published.

Our website is the way that startup founders engage with us when they’re seeking capital. They visit our website, click on a button that asks what they are hustling, and fill out a simple application form. This is our most important call to action so it’s important to create a fast funnel that directs founders seeking capital to that form. We continue to work with Altalogy to make incremental changes to the website.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with Marta (Project Manager), Marta O. (Head of Design), Zuza (UX/UI Designer), and an engineer. During the first part of the project, I also worked with Wojciech (UX/UI Designer).

How did you come to work with Altalogy?

Altalogy was referred to us, and they seemed like a great fit. Most top agencies are charging double or triple what they charge. Another factor was that Dawid (Co-Founder & Managing Partner) had worked in Silicon Valley; our shared experience made it easier for our teams to understand each other and collaborate.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the project in July 2022, and the final version of the website was completed by October 2022. We refresh their retainer on a quarterly basis.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We receive well over 1,000 applications per month through the website Altalogy designed; this is an increase from 600–700 per month before the project started. Our newsletter list size has grown 10% since working with Altalogy. This is a massive project that Altalogy has executed successfully.

How did Altalogy perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been able to execute our ideas and turn deliverables around with 1–2 days to move the project forward. They are so fast and responsive; working with them is delightful. We mostly communicate with them via Slack; we have a dedicated Slack channel for our teams. We also meet on Zoom monthly. We also emailed them and provided feedback via Figma comments.

At times, I’ve had concerns that feedback might get lost through the various feedback channels. One of the reasons the project has been successful is that I’ve used Google Docs to diligently organize all the feedback into one document; we’re able to reference this to determine next steps. I’ve driven this process, and it’s worked well. I’m not sure how successful the project would’ve been if we had let Altalogy drive this process.

For most of the project, my Altalogy team has been 100% comprised of women. It’s cool to see a women-led team in Silicon Valley since that’s, unfortunately, still rare.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I feel we have a true partnership. I appreciate that I can share my frustrations with them if the project is moving too slowly and vice versa. We’ve established a good social contract of blunt, direct communication with each other. They don’t have big egos; we approach each conversation as a problem-solving activity, and we have a healthy dynamic around overcoming friction.

Altalogy’s ability to push back also impressed me. If we have an idea that they see potential problems with, they let us know; sometimes, we continue to disagree, and they abide by our request, and other times I accept their feedback. I think a great design partner and branding agency shares their own opinions and educates the client in addition to accepting feedback from them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Altalogy was late in meeting our original timeline of delivering the website in September; this was unrealistic, so we pushed the deadline back to October. The project would have been better if we had set expectations that it was to be a six-month project rather than a three-month project. They need to buffer extra time when it comes to the branding work because that can’t be rushed; the worst thing is to rush a decision that could have a years-long impact on your company. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients should take the lead in documenting feedback, action items, meeting notes, and key design decisions and follow up on these. This is a great way to hold Altalogy or any design partner accountable.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a co-founder of Neurosity, a neurotechnology startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Altalogy?

We needed someone to develop and design our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Altalogy did a complete redesign of our marketing website and developed new pages for it. They implemented e-commerce functions such as a cart feature and coded the entire platform’s structure through HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

They essentially led the design aspect of the project and create new assets to elevate our website further.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two designers and a developer.

How did you come to work with Altalogy?

Altalogy was recommended to me by multiple people on Twitter.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $65,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2021–April 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have any measurable metrics we want to share publicly, but we were extremely happy with our partnership with Altalogy and we’re definitely interested in working with them again in the future.

How did Altalogy perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well from a project management standpoint. We mainly communicated through Slack and managed the project on Figma and JIRA.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We liked that they had a good understanding of each of our requests and how they were able to execute the project perfectly.

Their process didn’t have too many revisions to identify solutions, which was quite impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve on because they were quite flexible to accommodate our requirements.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise you to go ahead and partner with them because their design and engineering skills are excellent. They deliver exceptional work and they communicate consistently.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an investor for a venture capital firm that primarily focuses on investing in pre-seed and seed fintech companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Altalogy?

We needed someone to develop our website because none of us in our team have the capacity or expertise to build one.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked alongside Altalogy as an easy solution to develop and design our website. We provided them with basic content and brand guidelines such as the logo and general photos, which they utilized for the build.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact was the founder.

How did you come to work with Altalogy?

Our founder actually reached out to Altalogy’s founder on Twitter to design a mock-up for the website. The end result was so good that it became an easy decision to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–October 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We receive positive feedback on a weekly basis about our website from different channels, including Twitter. We’re really happy with the work and we continue to refer Altalogy to any company interested in web development.

How did Altalogy perform from a project management standpoint?

They went above and beyond in terms of project management as they were able to work with our schedules despite the massive time zone differences.

They hit every deadline, they never went over the budget, and they were very clear with the process throughout the partnership.

We mainly communicate through Slack and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with their ability to understand our vision with minimal resources. We didn’t have a lot to work with, but the team still delivered an incredible product.

Moreover, they communicated clearly so they were very easy to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

There isn’t anyone who could do web development better, so it should be an easy decision to hire Altalogy. The team is great to work with and I believe you’ll be pleased with the results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of digital transformation at Founder Sport Group, a manufacturer and supplier of apparel for sports and organizations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Altalogy?

We needed a company that could help us revamp the look and functionality of our digital tools and ecosystem.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Altalogy handled the overhaul and transformation of the technical infrastructure of our digital tools and ecosystem, including our marketing tools and some of our key platforms. They were tasked with elevating these tools’ UI/UX design and coming up with better ways for these tools to function.

We broke the project down into a couple of phases. We already had a good background of our persona as well as the initial wireframes and the old UI/UX design of our tools, and so their first task was to come in, learn who this was for, and what the personas were.

Altalogy did a really great job of gathering the insights that we had and, about a week later, they had already started putting together some designs based on our input.

What is the team composition?

I worked with four UI/UX designers from Altalogy.

How did you come to work with Altalogy?

I’m always on the lookout for good vendors, so I just came across some of Altalogy’s designs on Twitter, I decided to check out their portfolio and reach out to them. After the project got approved, they assembled a team of UI/UX designers and we started working together on this project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $60,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June-December 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re still in the process of rolling out some of these tools internally, so we still don’t have a quantitative metric of the project’s success. But performance-wise, I think Altalogy did a really great job. They were always on top of their tasks and requests and were very receptive to feedback.

How did Altalogy perform from a project management standpoint?

Altalogy performed incredibly well in terms of project management. They moved incredibly fast — there was never a time when we had to wait around for a design or a screen from them. We were following a very tight timeline, and it was really great to have an agile design partner that enabled us to get moving as fast as we had to.

They also worked really well independently — we did not have to check on them all the time. With just a little bit of feedback and insight from us, they were able to just run with it and make something great.

They used Figma as a central place where I could review their work and leave feedback. They were always quick to implement feedback our suggest alternative designs. The hand-off at the end of the project was also particularly helpful. They gave me ownership of the Figma files once the project was finished and left me with great moving parts. Having the Figma files allowed me to be able to manipulate the designs or make some small adjustments myself as needed, which is really helpful.

We primarily communicated through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with how Altalogy interpreted our vision and transformed it into clean, modern designs. They didn’t just produce visually-pleasing designs — they were focused on creating functional designs that made sense in our user journey. They really delved deeply into how our users had to flow through all the different parts of our platform, gathering those insights and putting their design skills to deliver what we needed for this project. Overall, this was a very refreshing experience for me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would say that there's nothing different Altalogy could have done to be a better partner for us — I honestly think that they were the perfect fit for this project. They were ready to move fast when we were working on an aggressive deadline, but they were also willing to just hang back and support us when we needed them to. I really can’t recommend them enough.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of product at Morning Brew, a digital media company. We have several business brands, such as Morning Brew, Retail Brew, Marketing Brew, Money Scoop, and other social media and podcasting video platforms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Altalogy?

We previously had a single product website that we used from a content perspective and as an inspiration for how we spoke about the products. However, we wanted to relaunch our web presence to properly market our multiple suites of products and create a great visual representation. We had internal engineering resources, but our design resources were limited, and we needed to do it in eight weeks.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We partnered with Altalogy to rebuild and expand our website presence for our learning and education product at Morning Brew. They basically created an entirely new education website for all sorts of marketing, acquisition, and brand awareness purposes.

We initially had a style guide, goals, and an information architecture set in mind. When we started working with Altalogy, we shared what we were thinking, and they did an exploration and deep dive into our previous work. They quickly put together some concepts on how we might approach the project both from UX/UI and rebranding standpoints. Then, they put together the materials for us to review so our engineering team could begin to build the scaffolding of what would later become the full-fledged education site.

They didn’t work on any content; we got that covered. The previous Squarespace page inspired them, and we redirected that experience to an entirely new one. Altalogy rebuilt it on our tech stack, so they had to start from scratch but with a lot of the former content.

They used Figma for the design and gave us a proposal that outlined the multiple phases they’d take on, including discovery, architecture, style, mood boards, and UI. However, since we had a tight timeline, they collapsed those exploratory phases to arrive at the desired UX/UI experience, and our team could use it as a blueprint to bring the designs to life. The project was an MVP, so we’ll probably expand the footprint using the style they created.

What is the team composition?

We had 2–3 primary people regularly interfacing with our team, but another 3–4 people were helping on the project.

How did you come to work with Altalogy?

Our CEO put a call out on Twitter for designers because we needed to get started quickly. We looked at a handful of responses, and someone recommended them. We spoke with two companies, but Altalogy was far above the most visually attractive ones. Also, they were the most knowledgeable about the process and what we were trying to achieve. From the first meeting, they used the same tools, understood our tech stack, and spoke the same language as us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $24,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November–December 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website has only been live for a week, but our experience has been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve promoted it a lot on Twitter, and it has driven people to the page to apply to our programs. Also, our CEO and senior leadership team are thrilled and in love with it. On my part, I’m really excited to use the visual elements they’ve created to infuse them in all of our work — they’re very inspirational.

Additionally, our application rate has gone through the roof, which is terrific. All in all, Altalogy exceeded our expectations.

How did Altalogy perform from a project management standpoint?

They did exceptionally well. We had a challenging prospect for them, and they were able to mold their workflow and schedule to align with our needs.

In the early stages, we had a couple of live kickoff calls and review meetings. Then, we used Slack throughout the entire engagement.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility was amazing — they worked quickly and within our constraints. We're all blown away by the caliber of work produced and the efficient timeline in which it was produced.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wouldn’t say anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with them. They were accommodating to our needs and specific to the nuances of our project, so I’d highly encourage people to be transparent about their constraints. Altalogy will work with them and make everything work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder and CTO of a fintech company in Canada. We offer cards, payments and capital to ecommerce businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Altalogy?

We hired Altalogy to design an onboarding process that would allow our customers to access our products quickly and with minimal friction. We also had them design the UI of our mobile and web customer-facing dashboards.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We compared them against other design agencies on Dribble that had experience in fintech and crypto. We found their specific focus on fintech dashboards to be a perfect fit for our project.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Their team gathered general requirements. Then they reviewed our current product. From there they made detailed user personas and user stories to ensure we were all on the same page about what the app should do. They designed the mobile and web onboarding pages and dashboards based off of the user stories, persons and our feedback.

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

They had 5 resources work on this project throughout the course of the engagement. They ranged from the founder of Altalogy to senior and intermediate designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are very happy with the deliverables they gave to us. The figma files are high quality and laid out in a very clean way. Our frontend team has had a very easy time implementing them into our web application. Additionally, ancillary deliverables like animations and illustrations were high quality and were delivered in multiple formats.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective and asynchronous which allowed us to give them feedback on our own time and for them to implement feedback on their schedule. Complex items were discussed on video calls while simple questions/ideas were discussed over Slack and Figma comments.

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

They clearly had very high quality design skills. Their desire to understand the product and customer's pain point was the most impressive part of working with them. Their team pushed us to improve and think outside of the box on many UI elements.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder and CTO

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted a completely new platform and designs. Our goal was to go live with this new platform and expected quite a bit of traffic from the get-go.

SOLUTION

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

We found them through one of their blogs, and were impressed with how they were able to act very agile, whilst still remaining very professional. Also their focus on clean design was something that drew me to them over other software development agencies.

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

We started off with a kickoff to discuss the scope, costs and timeline. Then we proceeded with the design phase. Because of time restraints, as soon as some designs were finished, the frontend development team started creating the components. I was able to oversee everything and there was a constant back-and-forth in terms of communication.

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

We worked with the CEO to discuss the deliverables beforehand, furthermore there was a dedicated designer, the CTO and a full-stack developer. Them not being too big, was definitely a plus in the sense that we got to work with their top talent.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They had a very difficult task ahead of them, in terms of what needed to be delivered in the given timeframe and with the results we expected. They truly went above and beyond to deliver. They were very collaborative when some issues arose to work through everything together.

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

Very hands-on and quick to respond through Slack. Weekly online meet-ups through Google Meet. Code collaboration through Github.

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

The code quality was very good, the hands-on mentality and the way they go above and beyond to deliver and make sure you leave a happy customer.

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

Both them as well as us might have been a bit overly optimistic in what was possible in terms of final deliverables in the timeframe that we had.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a startup Fintech company working to build a platform to improve customer experience in the equipment finance industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Altalogy was commissions to help me explore a customer process, build a UI/UX and also to formulate a potential backend format for the offering.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I noticed some of Altalogy's posts on Twitter; the company's offering and strategy really grabbed my attention. I connected with Dawid and found that he was really easy to speak to. He was very knowledgable and interested to better understand my needs. While some companies focus on a specific offering, Altalogy focused on the four services that were of interest to me; Front end web development, back end web development, mobile app development, and UX/UI development. It was a great fit for my needs at the time and I though a unique meeting of the for corners in one place.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

While I had spoken with Dawid at length about building a webpage & mobile app with a backend...We agreed on a project to help outline the user experience and flow, as well as UX/UI design to match these needs. Dawid spoke with me at length about my needs and interests before we began the process. I spoke with his team several times through development. The final product was excellent and has had great feedback.

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

I worked with Dawid and two other resources that worked in design capacities. I know behind the scenes a few more people on his team were involved and also provided support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was provided with various wire frames of the process and with Mocks of a mobile and web based product. These mocks were excellent. They looked great, illustrated the process and met my needs. Feedback from my partners on the mocks were excellent and we were very pleased with the final product.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The process was smooth and informative at every step.

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

Dawid has a great company that I feel is in the right space at the right time. While some companies focus on web development, or mobile app development, or backend... Altalogy focuses on where these meet. It is very powerful from my viewpoint and is one reason they are pointed to be so impactful for Fintech and e-commerces companies.

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

They did an all-around great job throughout the entire process.