Aspirity

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a fully managed vector database that makes it easy to add vector search to production applications. I'm Head of Product at the company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Aspirity?

We launched our first Console in Oct 2021. The Console is a web application that allows users to configure, use, and monitor their databases. The first console was very much an MVP. We hired Aspirity to work to help us design the next iteration of the console including a total redesign and much more functionality.

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

We were referred to Aspirity by another SaaS company. We reviewed a number of vendors. What we liked most about Aspirity was

1. their prior work on cloud consoles and dashboards,
2. Aspirity has developers who can weigh in on designs, and
3. we appreciate that they sell their own console product and have thought about dashboards from this perspective as well.

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

We drafted a Statement of Work together that covered 2 months. We had a kickoff meeting. We worked in 1-week sprints. Each week we reviewed the work completed in the prior week and planned for the work to come in the next week.

During the week, we'd communicate with a shared slack channel. We'd look at ideas and answer questions. The console design was ready in 2 months. We then repeated the whole process for another 2 months to add more functionality and refinements to the Pinecone Console.

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

1 project manager. 2 designers. Periodic support and input from internal developers at Aspirity.

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

Earlier indicators are very positive.

1. We're very happy with the new design.
2. Anecdotally users tell us they love it.
3. Data suggests users are spending more time using it.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Good. The 1-week sprints with slack discussion between worked well.

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

They came with excellent knowledge and experience in cloud console and dashboard design. They reviewed our UX data and metrics. And they pushed back when they felt we were making a mistake. All of which we appreciated.

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

Sometimes scheduling the weekly meeting could be challenging given timezones.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm Alistair, the CEO of Timbre Media House - a video and photography production company. I'm also co-founder of a startup that is aiming to launch in 2022.

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

I hired Aspirity for custom software design which led to the creation of our startup's landing page and first clickable prototype. I then hired a front end developer who we're still working with on a regular basis as we progress towards finalisation of our MVP.

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

Aspirity responded to a job that I posted on Upwork where I was looking for a software designer. I had several video calls with different software designers and Aspirity was my favourite. They were fluent in english, enthusiastic about my project themselves, and priced within my budget.

I also liked how they were part of a larger agency who could help me with software development in the future.

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

They designed a clickable prototype for my software idea on figma that was not only functional but also had a fresh and modern design which matched our branding. The project started with a video call, I then gave them a detailed brief, and we communicated through slack and zoom throughout the design process.

We also worked together to conduct user testing to inform design decisions.

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

There are 3 people at Aspirity who we work with on a regular basis. We started with a software designer and project manager, and then later hired a front end developer.

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

Our startup is still a few months away from launching but we have made enormous progress over the last 6 months which wouldn't have been possible without Aspirity. We didn't have anything when we first started working together but now we have our complete software design and development of our MVP is roughly 80% complete.

Both me and my business partner are absolutely thrilled with the quality of work, adherence to deadlines, and communication throughout our time working together so far.

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

It's been really easy and comfortable. The project manager at Aspirity has really helped the communication between all team members and ensures that our meetings over Zoom are efficient and effective. We communicated through Slack, Zoom, and Figma.

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

Access to the whole Aspirity team has been great especially because we have needed to hire different services over the period of building our software.

For instance, the front end developer we hired were able to easily consult with their colleague (our software designer) when needed which improved efficiency and prevented important information from being lost in translation.

Having a project manager on our zoom calls has also been really helpful.  The people we worked with at Aspirity were simply awesome and I was really grateful to have found them.

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

No, not that I can think of.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

At that time, I was a project manager working at Krasnoyarsk Animal Organization.

What challenge were you trying to address with Aspirity?

We were considering developing web and mobile applications to gain and process data about animals. We hired Aspirity to make the app’s design.

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, we collected data, did interviews, and made a mood board for the concept design. Then, Aspirity presented their design to us.

The main target was to work with huge amounts of table data, which wasn't easy because big tables don’t fit easily on small screens. However, it was wide and turned out pretty good. The result was a designed concept, not a wireframe. We used it in the application without any changes — it was a ready design solution.

There were two variants for the product. The first was a classic version for the browser, and the second was an application for Android. They used a Sigma prototype to create the designs for the application, and it was developed for a tablet PC.

The application and website were a hub of information about animals and animal products in the Krasnoyarsk region. We had several types of users. Some types were inspectors who work in the government, veterinary doctors, website administrators, and people in different grocery stores. They could all get data from the app and publish it.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people from their company. One was the director of the company; he was a very nice guy. The others were a project manager and a web and app designer.

How did you come to work with Aspirity?

I collected information about different software companies in Krasnoyarsk City, and Aspirity looked like an advanced company. They had a vast project portfolio with different apps for US and European users.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent approximately €8,000 (approximately $9,000 USD) on that project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership in October 2018, and they completed the project in December 2018.

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

All the goals were achieved, but the scheduling wasn't perfect. Moreover, the people who created the project were satisfied with the results.

How did Aspirity perform from a project management standpoint?

They managed the project very well. We had an issue with them sticking to the agreed schedule and timeline; there was a slight delay in delivering the project. However, in terms of sticking to the budget, they were very cost-effective.

We used Bitrix24 because it's a widespread project management tool in Russia.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing was that the designer recognized our core needs. Their work fulfilled us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only thing they need to improve on is scheduling and sticking to time. The time measures of this project were not adhered to. We estimated to get the results earlier, but it was delayed.

Any advice for potential customers?

If a person needs to make an MVP of any application, Aspirity is your trusted partner. The company is skilled at creating fast solutions for applications, startups, and MVPs. However, if you need massive systems with terabytes of data, they might not be your choice.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of an app marketplace with dog owners on one end and businesses on the other. Those businesses are dog-friendly hotels, restaurants, stores, and online services. They create profiles that become visible to dog owners. We have an app product and a SaaS product.

What challenge were you trying to address with Aspirity?

We needed to refactor the MVP app we’d built, so we hired Aspirity.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Aspirity made a refactoring of our existing app. Because they were fast and efficient, we decided to take them on board to actually rebuild the app from scratch.

We ran a discovery phase, with various people from Aspirity’s team jumping on calls to truly understand the scope of the project. They had experience with the refactoring of the app, so they knew quite a bit about the project already.

Aspirity then helped build different sections of our app and SaaS product. They developed a signup and login process and an internal dashboard for the app. The team also created a function that could allow dog owners to create their own profiles. They built the app for Android and iOS. It’s a hybrid and it’s based on Flutter.

What is the team composition?

Aspirity has a dedicated Flutter specialist, a developer for the SaaS part, and a QA person helping us on this. They also brought in a UX designer to guide us on how to rethink the user experience.

How did you come to work with Aspirity?

We found them on Upwork.

How much have you invested with them?

We’re a startup, and we’re built in terms of phases. We’ve spent $15,000 so far, and we expect to increase our investment in Aspirity over the coming months, so they can further develop the app.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Aspirity in July 2021, and it’s an ongoing engagement. 

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

We’re looking at how well Aspirity is hitting development targets in terms of quality, timing, and budget. Thus far, they’ve hit all the metrics, and they’ve finished one week early at times. Aspirity has also pushed everything they’ve built through their QA services, ensuring that the bugs are eliminated.

How did Aspirity perform from a project management standpoint?

They notify us via our sprint-planning tool, and we test the deliverable ourselves. The QA has is accurate 90% of the time, and Aspirity fixes things before we need to check anything. When we do find a couple of bugs that passed by QA, and we create new tasks for those in Jira.

Their team is based in another country, so we were initially reluctant about the time difference based on our experience with other companies. Aspirity, however, adjusts their schedules to meet our project demands.

We have Zoom calls to dive deeper into particular questions, and we try to be agile by using Slack. We have channels there for the app and for the SaaS parts, and we have a channel just for the project managers.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have many things to say, but one, in particular, is how agile Aspirity is, not just in terms of communication, but in the way they work. That enables us to activate specific resources, such that we’re never really in trouble. For example, if we have a bug on the app, we can notify Aspirity, and they will make themselves agile and fix it relatively quickly so that the impact isn’t as big. Their efficiency and speed are key for us, as a startup.

Another one is the quality of the people they have. Even though I’ve seen bigger, more structured teams, Aspirity has the expertise in terms of both development and managing a project. The developer working on the SaaS part is very analytical. She thinks about whether something makes sense before she starts coding. They go a step further, and that’s something I really appreciate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything we could improve at this stage. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clear-cut communication is really important, and it’s something we thrive on. In order to get the best out of any tech team, clients need to be as transparent as possible, and not waste their time on meetings. Aspirity appreciates it when we just get to the point, and that’s how we’ve made a lot of things move a lot faster than usual.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive at Helthjem. We’re a distribution network based in Norway that delivers parcels from e-commerce businesses to their consumers.

What challenge were you trying to address with Aspirity?

We needed someone to design and develop a web application for us. Our goal was to give e-commerce retailers the ability to create ads that would show up in the order status notifications that we provide to their customers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Aspirity developed a web platform for us. We had a good idea of what we wanted to do, so after a few discussions with the team, they quickly created an MVP for us. The team then tested it until we ended up with a final product for us to go live with.

The app allows our users to display offers to entice their customers to buy more products from their store. Although the bulk of the project is finished, they continue to provide minor tweaks and maintenance.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 1–2 teammates, including a project manager.

How did you come to work with Aspirity?

We had done some work with them prior to the project and decided to hire them again because of their skills and cost-effectiveness.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $10,000–$25,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from November 2019–May 2020. We still have ongoing work with Aspirity, but they are unrelated to this project.

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

It was a straightforward, smooth process. The Aspirity team understood our needs and was pretty quick to make adjustments and fixes. Overall, they did a great job of providing a good UX design for our customers.

How did Aspirity perform from a project management standpoint?

They were always on point, which was great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with their professionalism and the cost of their services. Some low-cost agencies can be hard to work with, but Aspirity was reliable and understood our business needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing they could’ve done better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Focus less on what you’re trying to solve and put more time into working with consumers to get their feedback on what they need from you.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of OdeCloud which is a freelancer marketplace for IT freelancers based out of San Francisco, California.

What challenge were you trying to address with Aspirity?

We were trying to build a task management tool for our freelancers and project managers. We wanted something that was similar to Asana or Jira but built specifically on our own platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

My co-founder built most of the backend, but we didn't have any UX/UI expertise. We worked with Aspirity to help us build UX/UI. They made a prototype in Sigma just to give us a better idea of what it would look like since their designer was really talented. We decided to work with them because they also had expertise in frontend development.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people, including the UX/UI designer and two frontend engineers.

How did you come to work with Aspirity?

I met the founder and CEO of Aspirity two years ago when he came to San Francisco in our quality space. We spoke about my startup and we connected a year and a half later on this topic.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested somewhere between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in November 2020, and we launched the task management tool in January 2021.

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

The work that Aspirity did was great. One of the designers I worked with was awesome. Just by looking at our drawings on PowerPoint and hearing what we needed, he came back to us with a very good prototype that was very specific in just one week. 

We did have a bit of miscommunication in the beginning because of the language barrier and the difference in time zones, but once we got into our system, everything was super fast and without any major bugs. Overall, they did amazing work.

How did Aspirity perform from a project management standpoint?

In the beginning, we were using Slack but we were also building our own task management platform. We started to use our own platform to track the tasks and that way they saw firsthand what was working and what wasn't.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I liked the engagement of the CEO of Aspirity. He came in very early on to the project to ask me what I considered a success for this project. Their team was very hands-on and made sure the communication was right, and they also were very quick in handling the project.

We only had good feedback overall, and we decided to keep them on the project as our developers, so they could work with us while we went through some user requests and added more features.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, there's not much I can think of, but one area I could point out for them is, if they are trying to get into a long-term partnership with their clients, it's good for them to have those developers available for the clients.

Once you've learned how to work with someone remotely and overcome the language barrier and accents, you start to understand their workflow, and changing developers with every project can be a little time-consuming. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Think of Aspirity as a long-term provider. For one project, they're great, but if you have a small budget, I would recommend trying to get a bigger budget so you can work with them longer. They tend to be very effective once you start working with them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founding PM of a DevOps startup.

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

We need an engineering partner to build our application.

How did you select Aspirity and what were the deciding factors?

We considered the technical capability, experience, cost, and agility of the team to finalize Aspirity.

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

It is an ongoing project using React and TypeScript. We use many libraries, tools, and technologies in addition to the React and TypeScript. Aspirity is responsible for the complete dev work. They are pretty much my team.

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

Aspirity is my Frontend team. Generally, I have about 11 people working on my team.

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

Aspirity team has been fantastic and has delivered on our milestones.

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

As I mentioned, they are an extension of my inhouse team. There is no difference in how I communicate with Aspirity vs. my internal teams. We use the same tools and processes. Email, Slack, Jira, Video calls....

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

Passion. A great positive attitude from EVERYONE on the team that I have worked with so far including the team members who rotated through our project. They always have a constructive discussion around finding solutions to the problems.

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

Can't think of much. We have had a very successful relationship so far.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm Project Manager at iTraq, Inc.

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

We were looking for a high-quality code service for our new web-app. Our goal was to have a convenient service for our clients. So we needed a UX oriented frontend team.

How did you select Aspirity and what were the deciding factors?

We had worked with them before and were happy about our collaboration, so when we clarified our goals and preferences we knew that Aspirity would be a good fit for such a scope of work.

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

The project was started with an interview. We described in detail our needs and preferences. They started by creating a prototype in Figma. We were highly involved in the process and could control and correct immediately if it was needed. The next step was coding the system. Aspirity had to create the whole frontend and connect it to our backend. Our preferred technological stack was React+NodeJs. We had time limits, so they had to finish the system within a month. So we planned two 2-weeks sprints. We were in touch on slack and had every week calls to synchronize the work process. The first release was done on time, and then we had feedback from our users and decided to add a few features within an additional sprint.

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

We have worked with: Four-five developers One quality assurance UI/UX designer Project manager

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

Our users are happy with a product and give us positive feedback. We reached our business and technical goals.

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

We were added to their slack workplace and could be in touch with any team member at any time. Most of the time we had communication with the tech lead and project manager so any problems were quickly solved. We had planned calls every week and demos after each sprint. The project manager from our side was added to the Jira workspace. So communication was clear and fast. Our 12 hours time difference was not so big of a problem as we expected.

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

Their agility and ready to make changes in the project in no time. Convenient communication. Impressive quality of UX/UI and frontend. We could talk directly with the tech lead, designer, or project manager so any questions could be solved without any delays and misunderstandings.

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

Within our work, I couldn't notice any specific problems. We got what we wanted to for the price and time we expected. If we have any projects in the future we will definitely collaborate with Aspirity again.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of Sitepod, a revolutionary software for service based industries to better manage their business processes.

For what projects/services did your company hire Aspirity?

We hired Aspirity for a face lift and a more intuitive interface, both for the web app as well as the mobile app, as there are many dozens of different screens, and hundreds of features, within the software.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to have quick turnaround and professional results, in order to revamp the design and usability of the software.

How did you select Aspirity?

We connected via LinkedIn, and being that we had worked with other UI/UX companies prior to Aspirity, we were able to see the difference in their professionalism, fairness, and quality results.

Describe the project in detail.

Our software has many screens geared towards different personnel within an organization. There are hundreds of features, focused on all departments of a well structured company, such as HR, AR/AP, Sales, Purchasing, Production, etc.

Being that we aim to cover so many different functionalities, there are many different screens and capabilities for each user within the organization, and they need to be intuitive and modern. The aim was to revamp all the screens within web and mobile, as well as planning a proper design layout for new features that haven't yet been developed.

What was the team composition?

Aspirity provided us with a project manager, as well as a designer, for day to day communication. We were also in touch with their CEO and some other personnel as well. All are highly professional and a pleasure to deal with.

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

As mentioned, there are many screens within our software, and to indicate their incredible speed, all were professionally revamped within weeks.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have a call every week or two, however the main daily method of communication is done via Figma commenting and Slack messaging.

To be honest, if there was a breakdown in communication, it was from our side being too busy to respond quickly enough, however from their side the communication was quick and thorough.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The quality of their design is very high, and yet the turnaround time is faster than expected and competitively priced.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The only area of potential improvement if we had to pick one, is the time difference. Being that we are based in New York, and they are based in Russia, it would be nice in theory if there would be an option for quicker collaboration during our work hours.

There is a couple of hours during the morning where we overlap, however for the majority of the day we are working different time zone shifts.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a portfolio manager, working primarily with syndications and alternative investment funds within the Nordic real estate market.

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

We hired Aspirity to develop a modern in-house platform whose goal is to store information from users and APIs and prompt the users whenever action is required. Specifically we had the need to store key information regarding lease contracts, company and tenant specifics and loan and financing terms in one interface.

How did you select Aspirity and what were the deciding factors?

We searched for developers locally and internationally and had online meetings with a few of them. Aspirity understood our needs and also suggested alternatives that would be less costly. Further, they made an offer to prototype some parts of the platform at a discount to test the collaboration. Our major concern when entering into an agreement with international developers were the language barriers. However, the concern proved to be misplaced.

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

The process started with us explaining our needs and preferences in detail regards to the features of the application, scope of work and preferred development frameworks. Aspirity begun prototyping the platform. We always had access to the prototype and could guide them or correct them in real time using instant messaging systems like Telegram or Slack.

After the prototyping work started developing the system. We already had a Headless CMS back-end which Aspirity would connect the front end to, while also making improvements on the back end. The work has since been conducted in sprints with biweekly evaluations.

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

Project manager

• UI/UX designer
• Two developers
• Quality assurance

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

The project is ongoing

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

In the prototyping phase and before, we had frequent meetings to discuss possible solutions to the problems we faced. In the development phase, we communicate on the go using Slack and Github in addition to biweekly meetings with the full team.

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

Positive and service-minded people with good knowledge within their field. Aspirity has on several occasions suggested solutions that were superior to our own suggestions while giving us the full control over the decisions.

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

In retrospect it would be great with a budget that was linked to the different stages so we could track progress in more detail. This was not suggested by us, and I’m sure Aspirity would have no problems with this.