BetaPeak

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the principal of a digital agency that focuses on corporate identity. Our services include digital marketing, strategy, branding, and corporate visuals. We’ve worked on different sized projects with clients nationwide across many industries, from local startups to Fortune 500 companies. We liaise with their marketing teams to design strategies and implement the solutions they need to succeed. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with BetaPeak?

Our agency was overwhelmed by pending tasks, from establishing our website and online presence to deploying internal tools. We didn’t have the bandwidth to attend to this volume of work ourselves. After searching for a software studio that could provide both internal tools and external resources, we hired BetaPeak.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We contracted BetaPeak as an extension of our team. At the time, we were working for three clients simultaneously and needed them to work with little management or guidance. We gave them full access to our materials along with a brief of our desired final results along with timelines and a budget. We were there to help if they had any questions, but they worked entirely autonomously.

BetaPeak provided web development services on WordPress. We submitted a creative brief on how the website should look, but didn’t detail every single piece. Instead, we welcomed their input at various stages. They often found better, cleaner ways to create the design.

The site is relatively simple. One important functionality piece is our ability to show and hide different components whenever we need to. For example, we have an elaborate blog that’s currently hidden, but we can reveal it with the flip of a switch. BetaPeak built different dials to control the content quickly and easily.

What is the team composition? 

I don’t know how many developers worked on our project since I didn’t interact with them individually. BetaPeak assigned us a single point of contact in the form of a project manager, which simplified communication. It’s always harder to include five people on a message thread than just one.

How did you come to work with BetaPeak?

We didn’t have the time to do proper research on each company in our search. Ideally, we wanted a team that could work independently and produce clean results within our budget. 

We found BetaPeak through word-of-mouth. I trusted the person who gave me the recommendation enough to set up an initial conversation. We interviewed them to see if they could deliver. After a 45-minute phone call, I liked our dialogue and decided to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

The budget we set for our work was around $20,000 or slightly less.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with BetaPeak between August–November 2017.
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

BetaPeak was amazing. We were absolutely happy with them. They created stunning products, documentation, and training materials. We’re delighted with the quality of their work. They delivered everything we wanted earlier than we even agreed. The backend was clean and nicely done. 

BetaPeak found an effective way to achieve results with web development. If we found something off, like a software bug, they had a useful testing method and were quick to respond. We could flag issues as a ticket, and they’d fix it within a turnaround of fewer than 24 hours.

How did BetaPeak perform from a project management standpoint?

Jira was our main tracking platform and accounted for 85% of our communication. It was really useful to keep track of and synthesize topics. We also talked over email, but things can get lost in a long thread. Using a Kanban dashboard, we could follow the development and testing processes every step of the way. I got the impression they used an Agile approach, but I can’t give a definite answer.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality was excellent, and BetaPeak delivered ahead of schedule.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t name anything that stands out as a problem. We might have had a couple of misunderstandings about bugs, but it was nothing major. I’m thrilled with BetaPeak and can’t think of anything they should change.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

After working with multiple contractors, I’ve learned to provide as much context and detail as possible upfront. Doing so really helps down the line. It eliminates the ambiguity inherent to a poorly defined project.