Blott.io

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a software company that helps businesses reduce their carbon emissions and footprint.

What challenge were you trying to address with Blott.io?

We were looking for experts to provide us with a scalable website, UI/UX design, and software development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Blott.io was essentially our design and development partner that helped us come up with various solutions through Figma.

They utilized their expertise to execute our ideas and implement tools so we can scale their involvement depending on the project.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a range of people, including a product designer, director, branding specialist, engineer, head of architecture, and project manager.

How did you come to work with Blott.io?

We came across their company through the Google Workspace Slack channel. We spoke to them there and they ended up moving into the office next to ours, so we established a really good relationship with their team.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested somewhere between $75,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July 2021–April 2022.

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

Blott.io was able to help us build our products and sell £100,000 (approximately$125,300 USD) worth of revenue in 2022 alone. Anecdotally speaking, their service felt quite personable while remaining professional, so our overall experience was great.

How did Blott.io perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform well from a project management standpoint as they were always willing to admit when they don’t know how to accomplish a certain task, so they consistently brought in the right people to overcome any challenges.

We used JIRA as our primary management tool and we typically communicated through Slack and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with their cost-effective solutions, as well as the quality of their deliverables.

They didn’t have the product knowledge for our specific industry, but they were very adaptive and willing to learn as much as they could.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they could improve on, as they were very receptive from a communication standpoint.

They always checked in on us to ensure everything was okay and resolve any issues before they became a problem.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director and sponsorship manager for G&G Productions, an entertainment provider.

What challenge were you trying to address with Blott.io?

We were looking for an innovative and ambitious company to help us develop our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Blott.io provides us with web development and mobile app development services. They’ve built five websites for us using custom WordPress and Webflow. Our company has a main website, and we run four music festivals with different target demographics, and they designed and developed a website for each. 

We left a lot of the creative direction to them. The team came up with the concept for each festival with a unique look and feel and customer journey flow for each site. They had a lot of freedom to present their ideas, and as a result, each festival has its own distinct design and identity. For example, some of them have festival guides while others don’t, and some sites call admission passes tickets, while others call them passports. From there, they also designed and developed an app for each festival using React Native. Each app has its own design, and they’re all available for iOS and Android. 

Additionally, Blott.io has worked with brands to integrate sponsored partnerships within our apps and websites. They’ve also provided design work, including social media, generic, campaign, print design, and a complete portfolio for marketing focused on the website’s design. Each year, the festivals have a new style and a new look and feel, so Blott.io revamps the websites and the apps every year. 

What is the team composition?

We work with Ben (Senior UX Designer) and Scott (Co-Founder & Product Designer). Additionally, we’ve worked with Shane (Co-Founder). 

How did you come to work with Blott.io?

I found them through a friend who worked at a music corporation and was dealing with Blott.io. They recommended that I get in touch with Scott. We hired them based on their portfolio and their passion for what they did. At the time, they were a very young team, and we found their level of skill impressive for their age, so it made sense for us to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about 75,000 South African Rand (approximately $5,000 USD) a month with them, which amounts to about 1 million South African Rand (approximately  $64,000 USD) a year. 

What is the status of this engagement?

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

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

Blott.io always does great work and puts 100% effort into everything. Deadlines are always met, even if they have to work nights. Moreover, their attitude is always positive, and they’re always finding solutions to any problems we have. They also have a quick turnaround time. 

When we started working with them, they helped us give each festival identity for the first time, including unique cultures, designs, and looks. Our previous websites were done with Wix templates and weren’t user-friendly or customizable. Blott.io has helped us take our business to the next level in an age where things are very digital. 

How did Blott.io perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great at project management, and they always go above and beyond to meet deadlines. We use Monday.com for task management, and we’ve also used Trello and Asana. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with Blott.io’s passion, problem-solving skills, and ability to meet deadlines. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There isn’t anything they need to improve; they’re great. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to work with Blott.io as a team. Instead of isolating them, collaborate with the team so they can understand what you need.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Co-Founder, CEO and head up product direction.

For what projects/services did your company hire Blott.io, and what were your goals?

We required a trusted, passionate team of software developers to partner with us building a banking app for the creator economy in Africa. More than the skills we required a team that has local market context and that leads product development on a first principles design thinking basis.

Beyond the app itself, we wanted a team of people that understood the urgency of our requirement and the very high benchmark set for the banking industry in South Africa. Being a bootstrapped fintech, seed funded with limited runway in a very challenging space, we needed a Team with resilience, that shared in-part the risk, but also the challenge which makes the project fun and inspiring at the same time.

How did you select Blott.io and what were the deciding factors?

Prior to Blott, we have engaged with 8 other local software development companies. Whilst we have great skills locally in South Africa and also at a good rate, we chose Blott for their leadership and team culture. They are self-starters, the journey led, super responsive, and passionate about solving problems

Blott is culture first company, no matter the strategy, they were the real bet that have landed our launch and recent funding achievements.

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

UX/UI Product & App Design Figma, Sketch, Zeplin Design Tools Customer Interviews & User Journeys Mobile Banking App Architecture React Native V64 for Android and IOS Mobile Banking Security Infrastructure Mobile API development via Graph QL AWS Cloud, Serverless Lambda Jira Project Management Google Docs Instabug MixPanel Google Analytics Firebase And many many more....

How many resources from the Blott.io team worked with you, and what were their positions?

1 Lead Mobile Architect (Security Expertise) 1 Product Owner 1 UX/UI Designer 1 Project Manager 2 Senior React Native Devs 2 Mid Weight React Native Devs 1 Jnr React Native Devs

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

Not all MVP Ver 1.0 Launches are smooth. Critical for startups is to get something out just good enough to obtain user feedback on what matters most. This feedback, closely paired with the design thinking outcomes (job's to be done) were more accurate than what we wanted to believe.

Again this created more trust in the Blott team. Our app launch was successful, we have achieved over 1000 out of a capped 5000 beta users (as per our plan). Most of the issues were backend performance related whilst the app and website received a-lot of compliments and awesome new feature suggestions.

Key lessons learned, the customer is the actual product owner. Dont over engineer, validate every step of the way and trust the Team, dont over micro-manage. Follow their framework, if they fault, allow them to correct and perfect over time. The 6 month mark is where the real magic happens, if your project is shorter than this, think again.

Get engaged for a minimum of 6 months with an option to renew for another 6 months. Tech dev can happen fast, user feedback cycle and the intricacies that comes with that often requires more time.

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

Mondays: Weekly overview of backlog Daily: Standup's reviewing work done/to-do of previous Friday's: Demo days and sprint review Weekends: Testing, Testing, Testing Tuesdays: Mega releases (30 Tickets) Repeat.... Monthly Project Reviews Monthly Feature Planning Monthly Feature Scoping Slack Primary Tool Zoom or Google Hangouts for calls.

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

I think all of the above - South African's building global FinTech products with Team culture at their core.

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

They require a-lot of talk time, intricate issues needs deeper conversations. I wish we listened more in the beginning vs fearing that we're running billable hours not executing. Reality is, listening and talking is 50% of the work and makes the execution of easier with more solid outcomes.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a financial services company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Blott.io?

We engaged Blott.io to help us design the UI/UX of our merchant payments application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had already internally defined the user stories and our overall UX scheme based on the market trends and customer feedback. We provided that to Blott.io, and their team worked off of those requirements. They used Figma for the UI/UX design.

What is the team composition?

There were two people working with us.

How did you come to work with Blott.io?

We found them through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost about $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together for a six-month period, from June–December 2020.

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

Blott.io’s UI/UX designs met our quality standards. They executed our requirements well.

How did Blott.io perform from a project management standpoint?

Jira and Confluence were our main project management tools. We also communicated via Slack and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Blott.io team is an innovative, hard-working group of people. I think they are a great asset to any company that decides to work with them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Enjoy the process.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Co-founder & CEO of Shepherd, an Oslo-based interactive canvas that allows remote teams to collaborate on their work using Shepherd as well as embedded applications (like Notion, Google Slides and Miro) within the Shepherd canvas in a multiplayer format.

For what projects/services did your company hire Blott.io?

We hired Blott to create our entire Design System, brand pack, ongoing product mock-ups and user testing. We have essentially brought on one of their Product Designers as our in-house designer and pay Blott each month. It works really well this way.

How did you select this vendor?

We hired individual product designers to hire them in-house, but then came across Ben & Pam at Blott and decided we were willing to bring in a consultancy since we liked them so much from a skills and a culture-fit point of view.

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

Pam designed and built our entire design system in Figma, which allowed us to scalably create new features and product designs quickly and consistently. Pam also conducts user interviews and tests variations of different features. Pam also helps create marketing materials and video/GIFs that we use in our marketing campaigns.

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

We work with Pam, a Senior Product Designer. She has been with us since early 2020.

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

We've managed to raise capital from designs, mock-ups, prototypes and our MVP which was created off the back of their designs.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was seamless. It was as if they were part of our internal team. Pam joined for the social events, standups and every other meeting that involved design or the entire team at Shepherd. We used Slack Connect to ensure we had clear comms with the rest of the Blott management team,

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

Culture-fit was a huge one for us. And also the design processthey use - using Figma as a means for our dev team to work was intuitive and allowed us to build the momentum we needed.

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

No, they've been great!

Please describe your company and your position there.

Howler is an event technology business, providing online payments, cashless onsite payments and streaming. I and the COO

For what projects/services did your company hire Blott.io, and what were your goals?

Covid hit Al all our events were cancelled so we pivoted into providing streaming services to clients. Blott were brought in to to build our streaming site. This site was used to attract clients and allow them to view our new streaming product.

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

They are young and dynamic and the quality of their work impressed us massively. We were in a tight spot and needed a company who was willing to dive right in and turn it around in a very short space of time.

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

We needed to build a new website displaying our services to potintual customers. Together with our team of developers Blott provided the following expertise:

• UX design
• User interface design
• Web development

All of which was done exceptionally and in good time.

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

The team was about 4 or 5 but I’m not sure if the exact rolles within their business. We presented them with the problem and the brief and they took it on and delivered the project. There was some reverts and tweaks along the way but they really were great to work with.

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

We needed a website that we could use to sell our new services and then offer the product to customers ASAP. Covid crippled our business and this was our new pivot. It was all hands on deck and Blott were critical in the shiv was of this new service offering.

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

They were exceptionally professional. We were also kept up to date with the progress of the work done and there was an easy approval process in place. I think we used Trello to track the items and their status but other tools were use like Slack, WhatsApp and google meets for our meetings.

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

Their ability to take the brief and understand what we were looking for, then to just run with the project and make it happen. It really was a dream working with Blott.io's team.

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

None.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm one of the owners/directors at Function Six. We provide consulting services to the finance function within an organisation.

For what projects/services did your company hire Blott.io, and what were your goals?

Blott developed our Function Six branding and built two websites for us

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

We

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

Wordpress with custom php, and javascript

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

A designer and a two backend developers

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

We have two excellent sites and branding that represent what we do

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

We had a number of remote workshops via MS Teams

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

Their flexibility and ability to turn our ideas into a reality impressed us.

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

Delays to interim deadlines throughout the project weren't always communicated very well. However, the end product was delivered on time, so it wasn't a major issue.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Uplinq is a fintech startup that delivers credit as a service technology to small business lenders. I am the founder & CEO.

For what projects/services did your company hire Blott.io, and what were your goals?

Brand development including logo, style guide, website development and overall tone and feel for the company.

How did you select this vendor?

Interviewed a number of potential vendors.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

Blott developed: - logo - brand style guide including fonts, colors and tone of brand - website design including HTML development

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

2 including one of the partners and general designer.

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

They developed a very professional and modern look and feel, which we love. We use the style guide at all times when working with other vendors and/or customers.

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

We used Slack, email and Figma to communicate with one another. We set timelines and goals to be met.

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

They were very talented in product design. They were a very creative shop.

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

Communication protocols at times could have been better but nothing that created a threat to the project's overall success.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of a construction payments platorm.

For what projects/services did your company hire Blott.io, and what were your goals?

Blott created an informational website and plaform complete with partner API integrations

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

I interviewed many vendors and found Blott to stand out in their abilities and professionalism, while keeping the project within the bounds of a reasonable budget

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

Blott created an informational website and plaform complete with partner API integrations

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

There were ~10 people who worked on the project through it's full lifecycle.

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

The project was completed at a level above my expectations and ahead of schedule.

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

Blott shared a slack channel which allowed for ideal communication in addition to using traditional channels such as email and phone. They also organized weekly meetings to keep everyone focused and on track.

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

Blott.io's extensive experience and business-oriented nature have made them an ideal partner to launch my platform.

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

I was very impressed by Blott and would absolutely look to use them again.