Aubergine Solutions | UX + AI + Product Development Consulting

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the CEO of a software company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

An IP management platform that leverages generative AI to identify, augment, and protect a company's IP.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Aubergine Solutions to accomplish?

• Design and develop software to support intellectual property development
• Design and design a website for our company

SOLUTION

How did you find Aubergine Solutions?

Referral

Why did you select Aubergine Solutions over others?

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

How many teammates from Aubergine Solutions were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Aubergine was given loose guidelines and acted as our software development team through the process.  We began development of a platform to support a suite of software.  At some point we pivoted and began focus on a particular software tool.  Later in the project we began designing and developing a website.  The initial requirements of these deliverables have been met at this time.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Aubergine's team brought exceptional product design and company branding to our team.  Multiple demos have been produced from Aubergine that were of high quality and demonstrated key milestones of our company's development.  Our tester clients have been impressed with the quality of work brought by the team.

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

Aubergine have been working on cutting-edge LLM work with our team along with standard software development.  Their standard development has been delivered in a timely fashion.  They are learning the newer tech alongside our team (not to their fault, these are packages weeks-old with edgecase bugs sometimes).  Their engineers are earnest and helpful.

What was your primary form of communication with Aubergine Solutions?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Aubergine offers to support their clients in many ways I woudn't necessarily expect, and it's been all high quality so far.  

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

They're always willing to accept criticism and try to find a productive way forward.  Any minor miscommunications or difference in expectations have been addressed proactively.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Sr. Director of product of Ivanti

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

In today’s work environment, employees use a myriad of devices to access IT applications and data over multiple networks to stay productive, wherever and however they work. Ivanti elevates and secures Everywhere Work so that people and organizations can thrive.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Aubergine Solutions to accomplish?

• Accessibility Assessment
• UX design audit

SOLUTION

How did you find Aubergine Solutions?

Referral

Why did you select Aubergine Solutions over others?

• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Aubergine Solutions were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Aubergine team helped with accessibility assessment for one of our Security suite of products. They reviewed various products that work in an ecosystem of product portfolio and did thorough accessibility analysis screen by screen. Not only they listed any accessibility issues found, they also provided reference from WCAG guidelines to help fix those. 
The products include web application, descktop client app, and mobile apps for both iOS and Android. The deliverables included a list of accessibility issues ranked by severity, VPAT document and Figma five with visual references and screenshots.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Accessibility assessment documentation and VPAT.

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

The team has been great with timeline and project management. The deliverables were always on time and team reached out for timely feedback. They are very responsive and we received replies almost immediately.

What was your primary form of communication with Aubergine Solutions?

Virtual Meeting

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

Aubergine solutions has a unique mix of designers and developers, making them a full spectrum design service partner. The team is young, yet experts in their fields carry a positive attitude throughout the projects.

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

Nothing that they are not already working on

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder and CEO of an online marketplace for headphones replacement pieces, focused on selling individual pieces to customers who lose or misplace one side of their headphones. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aubergine Solutions?

We contacted Aubergine Solutions to support our rebranding project. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Aubergine Solutions has helped us rebrand our company name and assisted with logo design, brand guidelines, and branding documentation. The team is also responsible for our website redesign and has handed their work to engineers to build our vision, but we haven't launched it yet. Aubergine Solutions has implemented our new branding and completed the overhaul of our website. We have reimagined our website, and Aubergine Solutions is responsible for the design.

We work remotely, and Aubergine Solutions leverages Figma for all design work and documentation. I've worked with the same team of designers for the rebranding and web design project. Our website design is still in development and has been handed off to engineers to build our vision, but we haven't launched it yet.
What is the team composition?

I work with a core team of three members, including Purnima (Senior UX Designer) and Anjali (UX Designer). I know they bounce ideas with other teammates from Aubergine Solutions, specifically when I have questions about how the implemented changes would impact other aspects of my website, like SEO. Purnima, Anali, and Deval. 

How did you come to work with Aubergine Solutions?

My wife referred Aubergine Solutions to me because she had previously worked with one of the head designers at a different company.
How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $10,000–$20,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Aubergine Solutions in August 2023, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Transitioning to a new company name has helped us establish an identity and separate us from our competitors. The rebranding created by Aubergine Solutions emphasizes our focus and mission and expands our reach to other areas besides a singular product. The team's work quality is thorough. An important thing to note about Aubergine Solutions is that they're always available to help if I have questions after they've delivered work, no matter if it's 2–3 months after delivery. 

Aubergine Solutions' post-delivery support has been very valuable for me because I've run into a couple of scenarios where I was having issues formatting my email signature. A few months later, I reached out to the team, and they were happy to help me fix the issue and get it working on my side. All the resources Aubergine Solutions creates are well-documented upon delivery. 

Additionally, I like that we work collaboratively with Aubergine Solutions. The team is always available and very supportive of any feedback, ideas, or questions I've had throughout the process. We've had a hands-on journey from the onset of our rebranding project, and the team is detailed. Aubergine Solutions' work has helped me learn more about what I was trying to accomplish with my project through the questions and exercises they asked, which were very helpful. 

Aubergine Solutions has opened my eyes to new strategies. I've also found it very valuable that Aubergine Solutions paired with the same design team on both projects.

How did Aubergine Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Aubergine Solutions delivers work on time and on budget. The team is true to their word and accurate in terms of how long work takes to be completed. With our website redesign, we had an aggressive timeline and was also pretty down to the wire at the end. The team has worked on many changes simultaneously but definitely pushed through, being good at communicating how they were doing.

In the website redesign, Aubergine Solutions needed an extra day or two, but that isn't a problem because I've seen how hard the team has worked throughout the process. I appreciate all the effort and energy the team puts into the project. Aubergine Solutions is accommodating to our time zone differences, and we meet weekly or twice a week through Google Meet. We also communicate via Slack and email, and Aubergine Solutions shares their work through Figma.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

Purnima is the driving force behind the project and is very efficient.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm impressed by how quickly Aubergine Solutions has caught on to my goal. I thought explaining my vision would take longer since my business is unique. I'm also impressed that the team has gone above and beyond for things they didn’t have to do. Aubergine Solutions has pushed the envelope to create additional features that were a bit outside of the scope. Still, the team has understood the importance of those features and was good at adding them without changing the project cost.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything Aubergine Solutions can improve.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

The first step is to have a clear idea of what you want and come prepared when engaging with Aubergine Solutions. If you come in thinking the team will do all the work, you're incorrect. The project requires your effort, too, and that is what makes a successful partnership. All partnerships are a two-way street, and as the client, you have to prioritize the project and put in your time and energy. Your project will be Aubergine Solutions' top focus, and you have to make it your top focus, too. 

My biggest advice for clients is to be prepared to stretch their abilities and understand that it'll be a good thing. Other companies or freelancers will only follow your instructions but won't ask you questions, and for me, the real value in design and any collaborative project requires questions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I work in Engineering for a Financial services company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

FinTech solution for HealthCare

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Aubergine Solutions to accomplish?

• Web Application

SOLUTION

How did you find Aubergine Solutions?

• Online Search
• Clutch Site

Why did you select Aubergine Solutions over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fits our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

What was the size of Aubergine Solutions’s team?

2-5 Employees

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

Develop a web application for the consumer for fin tech domain ensuring security and privacy.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• The Application went live in per schedule
• PenTest report was good implying good security practices in place

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

Management was very understanding and cooperative. They sought timely feedback on the team and help address any concerns as and when raised.

What was your primary form of communication with Aubergine Solutions?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The skills and knowledge of the developers were highly commendable. The ownership they exhibited toward the delivery of the milestones was impressive. Besides, the team went above and beyond by agreeing to work on off days to compensate for the personal time off they had to take during critical delivery periods so that the deadlines remained intact. Aubergine Solutions was easy to work with, and they coordinated well with other team members across different functions within our organization.

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

Not really

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am working as VP, Software Engineering at Serrala, responsible for Serrala's SAAS cloud product suite development and delivery. Serrala is a global financial automation and B2B payments software company creating more secure payment capabilities worldwide for enterprises of all sizes.

We are a leading fintech pushing the boundaries of finance software by integrating finance and treasury into one central ecosystem for corporate payments. Serrala is a fast-growing innovator with more than 2,800 global customers including more than 100 of the S&P500 companies and more than 700 employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Aubergine Solutions ?

At Serrala we were at the start of our journey towards building our new age cloud native products for the Fintech B2B space and wanted a fresh, modern, intuitive and new age User experience for our product suite covering payments, cash, collections, accounts payable etc.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

After carefully looking into the market and talking to multiple specialist UX design companies, we eventually zeroed down on Aubergine. We in the management including our CPO were very impressed by the reference work presented, though process of the team and command on the subject displayed during the evaluation meetings.

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

Aubergine followed a very methodical approach divided into 4 parts as follows:

• Discover - During this phase Aubergine team had intensive meetings with our product engineering and management teams to understand the domain and the Serrala product lines. This was followed up with more meetings where multiple demos were done with respective Serrala product teams demoing the same legacy products from on-premise side, helping the team to go deeper in the domain and products. Based on the above knowledge and after conducting intensive research and relevant information on Serrala's competitors
• Define - In this phase Aubergine team started worked on the Concept Diagram, Information architecture, Scalable Design system and framework for entire product suite which basically explored the visual language based on initial key wireframes. This was intensively involved phase as well between Aubergine and Serrala project teams.
• Design - In this phase we started seeing the delivery of workflows, wireframes, visuals, interactions, specifications and responsive views.
• Test - Final phase where quality and usability of the designs were verified and accepted by Serrala.

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

We were working directly with UX design head, a senior UX designer and UX designer. So basically a team of 3 people.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're pleased with deliverables from their team and outcome was bang on of what we expected to acheive. The designs were immediately taken up for development by our teams and the first demos of our products in our annual user conference that year created a huge positive impact of our upcoming cloud products.

Customer feedback was highly encouraging and allowed Serrala to create the desired big impact. Since then the design has been incorporated and implemented for multiple products in the suite and the feedbacks have been consistently great from customer community.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective, the communication was super easy and the Serrala project team never felt like they were working with an outside vendor. They took continuous feedback and were very patient to hear even the minutest of our concerns over the multiple design iterations. It showed how invested they were into getting us what we wanted from the outcome.

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

Aubergine teams product design thinking was exemplary and highly appreciated by one and all in Serrala teams. Also the process flow and deliverables were very professional and world class.

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

Dont have any actually, we just loved the team and the overall collaboration.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the SVP of Product of Cubii, a wellness and fitness company. We have mobile apps that connect to physical exercise equipment via Bluetooth.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Aubergine Solutions?

We needed a dedicated software engineering provider.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Aubergine Solutions has been our software partner since our company started; they’ve managed our software environment, built our mobile apps, designed our platforms, and maintained our products. 

Regarding the process, they provide visual mock-ups and wireframes for the UX to start every development sprint — their team has robust design support through Figma to ensure that it is safe to invest in the development of each product. In terms of technologies, they’ve used the RDF database, Redshift, Kotlin, Swift, Sentry, PagerDuty, and AWS.

About features on the app, the product allows users to track their historical progress, search for friends, message them directly, have groups to chat and rank workout performance in a leaderboard, watch videos, and try out new wellness habits challenges we post.

What was the team composition? 

We’ve worked with around 15 members of Aubergine Solutions’ team, but they’re flexible on adapting their crew depending on our needs. Nonetheless, their engineering manager is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Aubergine Solutions?

They were already working with us when I took my current position, but I know that our company’s founder got connected to Aubergine Solutions’ founder.

How much have you invested in them?

So far, we’ve spent $1 million–$5 million with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Aubergine Solutions’ work has been instrumental in helping us reach about 130,000 app downloads between iOS and Android, along with 25,000 monthly active users. These metrics are great results for a company our size. Moreover, our apps work well and have features that our competitors don’t offer, distinguishing our products from others in the market.

How did Aubergine Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is great; we use Scrum, and Aubergine Solutions is always transparent, collaborative, understanding of our needs, flexible, and good at speaking English. Regarding tools and communication, we use Jira, Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Google Suite.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Aubergine Solutions has been supportive and understanding of our challenges as a small company. They adjust the team to our budget whenever we need to and always have our back from a business perspective.

From a technical standpoint, we’re delighted with our proprietary content platform — it's a great product to have among our offerings.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m delighted with them as a partner, but they could ensure that some junior team members are more proactive, vocal, and confident in sharing their ideas.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat them like members of your team rather than an outside partner — that is very important. Moreover, do your roadmap planning and scrum with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Vice President of Products at Raapid.ai, a Healthcare Technology Company powered by AI/ML/NLP technologies, based in Kentucky, USA and Ahmedabad, India.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Aubergine Solutions ?

We hired Aubergine Solutions for UX/UI Design projects for our web-based software focused on Healthcare Risk Adjustment Coding & Auditing Solutions.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We know Aubergine Solutions for many years. We worked together in the past as well for a few projects. Still we have started with a fresh & open minded perspective when we were searching for UX/UI design partner for our new project, we have considered the healthcare domain understanding, grasping the product requirements, cost and timeline, flexibility, deliverables in mind, and finally selected this vendor.

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

The web-based software is for Medical Coders to process the medical documents to identify the chronic conditions of the patient based on evidence, and it will help the Medical Coders & Auditors to find the Risk Adjustment Factor Score of the patient efficiently, accurately, and quickly. The vendor team had requirement understanding sessions with us, gathered input from actual users within our team, relevant information for general functions.

They broke down into different phases for deliverables, which are aligned with our development plan. Came up with information architecture, preliminary design, discussions & feedback sessions, deliverables, review sessions, actual deliverables, review after implementation, etc.

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

3. Lead designer, senior designer, junior designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were pleased with their UI/UX design output for three phases, which aligned with our development plan. We were able to run the design of next phase, and the development of current phase in parallel (after initial design phase), which aligned for our overall product deliverables. We were able to show some of the static screens while we were developing with potential users (internal & external), consultants to get their feedback and input.

We planned this project to build more features on top of the basic features, so that we could reuse a lot of previous phase features, which helped them for design as well as us for development.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was very effective. The lead designer was very easy to communicate with. They used to send a weekly status update, and we also used to have a two scheduled meetings per week and adhoc meetings as needed with the entire team. We also established a Google Chat communication platform to exchange information, Q&A, clarification, in addition to emails, meetings, Figma tool, etc.

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

Their understanding of Healthcare domain, grasping requirements & approaching from user personas perspective, reuse components as much as possible, flexible & open for comments & feedback, following design principles.

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

Nothing much, but as a team both sides need to improve the team communication & addressing the review findings.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My company focuses on automating and easing burden of managing short term rentals through a software automation suite. I am the CTO and Cofounder of the company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had an existing mobile apps for iOS and Android that simply weren't aligned correctly. The previous developers we used to create these apps unfortunately didn't live up to our expectations. We were looking to consolidate our mobile app into a single solution to ease changes and updates. We were open to using either Flutter or React as the solution.

SOLUTION

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

We interviewed 6-7 different development firms. We were most impressed with how Aubergine handled the interview process and followed up with a detailed solution on how they would solve our problem

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

Rewriting an existing app is never easy. I was really impressed with how the team handled exploring all of the APIs the app used, carefully documenting things end-to-end. Demonstrating progress along the way and quickly incorporating feedback provided into the design.

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

We had a scrum master and several developers assigned to the project. The scrum master also really acted as the project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are closing in on full app delivery. Again, I have to iterate how impressed I have been with the team meeting milestones, tracking progress, and displaying and releasing test builds to measure success and provide feedback.

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

Originally, I had thought there would too many Scrum based meetings involved in the scope of the project. After about a month of seeing how the team communicates, I realized how well groomed and focused they were by having these meetings. The team adapted to a tool I liked to use and provided constant and consistent updates. In previous experiences, lack of communication has been a problem for me.

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

Attention to detail. I am incredibly impressed with the organization of the team and how they flow together to get the job complete. I would 100% recommend them to anyone.

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

It is extremely hard to nitpick Aubergine. Compared to teams I have used in the past, I have only been impressed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a company called Atheer, a B2B software company that focuses on delivering software solutions to large industries and enterprises.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aubergine Solutions?

We were looking to elevate our customers’ experience, so we needed someone to provide us with UI/UX design and development. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Aubergine Solutions provided us with in-depth UI/UX design and technical support to improve the users’ capabilities to write their own applications.

They utilized Figma as their primary design tool and other collaboration software such as Zoom and Google Meet.

What is the team composition?

We mostly collaborated with a senior product designer and two other product designers.

How did you come to work with Aubergine Solutions?

I’ve already established a previous working relationship with Aubergine Solutions from past projects.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February–July 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m quite satisfied with our partnership with Aubergine Solutions and the products they delivered. They were patient, listened to our challenges, and were very productive and open when it came to discussing the project.

How did Aubergine Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They exceeded our expectations regarding their approach to project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with their development expertise and design principles.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve on since I was quite happy with our engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise you to be clear with your vision so they can fully focus on identifying solutions for your problems.