Brew Interactive

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Decktopus, a SaaS solution provider.

What challenge were you trying to address with Brew Interactive?

I needed help with the design and development of our SaaS product because we didn’t have enough resources on our side. It’s software that we use to create presentations.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They took over the project management, design, and development of our SaaS solution. It’s similar to PowerPoint or Keynote, but different in a few ways. The first stage was completed in November 2019 and the second stage was completed in June 2020.

What is the team composition?

There were more than 10 people that worked with us.

How did you come to work with Brew Interactive?

I knew the co-founders, since I had worked with them during my previous enterprise in 2014. We had a very good partnership and I knew they were really experienced in their field, especially in frontend work. 

How much have you invested with them?

The amount is around $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March 2019-June 2020.

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

They completed the features that were listed at the kickoff phase. They completed everything within the time we had planned. They also kept everything within the budget. Everyone on our team was happy with the product. 

How did Brew Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

They are really experienced in project management. They mostly worked remotely within the team. They had a very organized and structured way of handling project management. They followed scrum techniques. They had daily standups with the team. Everything was clear. We could see the progress very well and we saw what was left to be completed. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I trusted them because of the previous work we had done with them. They were so successful that after I demonstrated it to my board, four of the board members also started to work with them and the team completed those projects as well. 

They’re very experienced with design and development and are very unique, technically-skilled people in terms of UI/UX and frontend development. Communication was also very good, and they worked like they were part of our company —  we even had celebration dinners together with the team. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Perhaps they could take on bigger projects or have some of their own solutions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend them for any project.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of FoodServiceDirect.com, a food e-commerce network.

What challenge were you trying to address with Brew Interactive?

We had an original, basic platform that was built over 10 years ago. We wanted someone to help us with a brand-new platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

As part of the technology investments, we worked with Brew Interactive to build a B2B and B2C focused e-commerce platform. After that, we then retired the original platform. Our base platform was Magento 2.

The team was responsible for everything, including project management, business analysis, and all of the UX/UI design and development work. They made the whole site, including the home page, product pages, and checkout pages. We approved the designs before they built those on Magento 2.

After the main store launched with 250,000 skills, we also launched a partner store for our franchisee customers.

What is the team composition?

During the core months, there were 8–12 people. When we moved onto the support months, it was around 4–5 people.

How did you come to work with Brew Interactive?

We interviewed 6–7 different agencies. We went with Brew Interactive because of their speed and flexibility. The owner worked with a bunch of different companies before he founded this company. I knew about his work, and I trusted him.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July 2018–August 2020.

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

After a few months, the site went live. The platform is a big complex. We have 250,000 skills on the platform. Since the launch, we built lots of additional requests and features.

The quality was 90%. There were certain cases, mostly from the business analysis side that we were missing. That was also our fault because we didn’t have a business analysis at that time. They took over that area to do the data cleaning and creating a data dictionary. That’s an area that both sides struggled with.

My primary ask was speed. We had to go to the market very quickly because we knew that there were a couple of other competitors moving in the same direction. They deliver on time.

We were the first ones moving in that direction. From that perspective, it had a huge impact. Our second competition was three months behind us. By that time, we learned a lot more stuff, and we were armed already when they launched their site.

How did Brew Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

They used Jira, so it was easy to track the tasks. We used Slack for any daily communication, which worked really well.

Since they’re based in Turkey, there was a time zone challenge but they worked during ours to accommodate us. They started later in the mornings until later in the night. They assigned a project manager to us, and the project manager stayed in our building during the core months.

It worked very well because the project manager was able to understand the business really well and support us from the business analysis perspective.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I really liked their speed and flexibility. They work really hard, making it happen for their clients. Their core expertise is mostly in UX/UI design, but they gained significant e-commerce experience with this project. I know they worked with a couple of other companies afterward on the e-commerce side.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When we first started, they didn’t have a lot of Magento 2 experience. I’m not sure where they are in that journey right now, but they learned a lot during the project working with us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Request a dedicated project manager. If it’s possible, have them make that person available in-house and being with the team all the time. They can translate those requests on an ongoing basis to the Brew Interactive team. It worked out so well.

It depends on the project size too. For a small project, it doesn’t make sense, but for the big projects, that’d be my biggest advice.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the general manager at United International Pictures (UIP). We distribute Universal and Paramount titles in Turkey and are responsible for both the distribution and marketing of these titles.

What challenge were you trying to address with Brew Interactive?

We needed help with our digital marketing campaigns and hired Brew Interactive to be our social media and digital creative agency.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re responsible for both the localization of our creative assets, social media, corporate website management, and maintenance. 2–3 years ago, we started to make in-house social media management. Now they’re only responsible for our corporate website management, maintenance, and also the localization of the creative assets sourced by the global agency. However, we do ask them for localization of websites and new social media assets from time to time. 

They’re also in charge of preparing our digital marketing and social media campaigns on Facebook and Twitter. Our offices in L.A. are responsible for creating the assets, and Brew Interactive localizes them.

In the absence of an in-house digital marketing person, Brew Interactive provided the branding and formatting services we needed. During this transition period, they also managed our social media for a couple of months. There was one time when we needed a presentation and they did the formatting, branding, and all the other creative ideas that were needed.

What is the team composition?

There are 4–5 people depending on the number of titles being released. In terms of the customer relationship, we have a specific person dealing with us.

How did you come to work with Brew Interactive?

We met one of the owners at my previous company. The other co-owner used to work at our previous digital agency. We looked at five agencies in terms of cost efficiency and the ideas they generated. We picked them because they were more outstanding and won each of our annual reviews.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost was around $15,000–$20,000 in 2019.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2012 and the work is ongoing.

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

We’re very happy with them, they’re always acting in line with our briefs and they understand our business very well. We are always getting global guidelines from head offices and trying to adapt to local needs. They are like partners who are always available to us.

How did Brew Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

If there’s something we need to know, they always give us a heads up. They always give details and explanations about the projects or our requests. There are no communication issues as each party understands each other very well. It makes the job very fast and effective.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They work at a very fast pace, are responsible, proactive, and really good at adapting themselves to changes. They’re always available whenever we need something extra.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Within the services they are providing us with, I don’t have any note to be improved.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the head of product at a Customer Feedback Platform. We have developed and provide a customer feedback tool to businesses.

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

We needed to outsource our front end development as freelancer costs in the UK were not feasible for where we were at as a company. We required a team with good experience and skill sets to allow us to accomplish our development needs.

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

We shortlisted three potential agencies. Following final discussions Brew stood out to us as the agency that was most capable in providing us with the flexibility and support needed for us to launch our product.

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

Brew were able to pick up existing development and build on top of that based on our defined feature requirements. We ran two weeks sprints with the team and carried out a sprint planning exercise with the Brew project manager. We also received weekly budget reports which helped us in our financial planning.

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

Approximately 6-8 people from Brew works with us. These individuals ranged from developers, project managers and also QA. All members of the team were very helpful and great to work with.

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

With the help of Brew we have been able to iterate our products and ship out new features to our customer base. We have also been able to fix multiple existing bugs on the fly and send out speedy releases to patch these bugs. The team is very responsive and are willing to adapt to ensure their clients are satisfied.

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

Brew are organised and Are able to provide a strong project management structure. This was fantastic especially at a start-up as sometimes organisation is lacking. Also the utilisation of Jira and Trello were extremely helpful.

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

Their willingness to help and the quality of work they produce are impressive. Both of these items really allowed us to build the foundations of our start-up (i.e. being a lot more organised and having a centralised source of information)

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

None immediately come to mind.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO of a tech company developing multiple projects in a variety of areas closely related to web technologies, gaming and services. Our latest product is Latte Point an app centric coffee vending machine business.

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

We hired Brew Interactive to create a mobile app for maintaining our fleet of coffee vending machines and a web application for our warehouse operations.

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

We have worked with Brew in our previous projects before and they delivered high quality work and efficient execution.

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

We had a kick-off meeting to discuss our goals and objectives. From there, the team delivered designs through the invision app. We then had a few iterations to get everything right.

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

A project manager was in charge of the entire project and a team of UX designers, web developers, backend engineers, mobile app developers and QA engineers worked on our project.

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

After the project got delivered, we saw an immediate increase in efficiency within our warehouse management and the whole operation became a lot more transparent.

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

We had bi-weekly review meetings with their team and their project manager. For communication we used Teams, and for project management we used Jira.

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

They were happy to start work on a loosely laid out requirement list and update UX to our developing needs. As a startup ourselves this provided us with the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances over the course of the project.

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

Every project sees set backs occasionally especially in a startup environment. Their project manager's experience helped steer the project through many obstacles to reach a successful end.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Hasbro is a branded play company. I'm a senior brand manager and I'm working for Hasbro Turkey since 2011.

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

For the creation of an online product catalog. Our aim was to create a dynamic channel between us and our business partners to share the updated product updates and marketing activities.

How did you select Brew Interactive and what were the deciding factors?

Brew Interactive is the contract digital agency of Hasbro Turkey for 6 years.

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

Brew Interactive team has developed an online catalog that includes all Hasbro products we offer for sale in Turkey. The platform is a closed system that we open only to our business partners and can be accessed through membership.

Our business partners can access critical information, visuals, and marketing materials about the product range they are interested in. Users can download high-quality product images or videos and they also can create their own product brochure thanks to the "create pdf" feature.

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

One project manager, one designer, one frontend developer, and one backend developer.

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

With the tool Brew produced for us, our retailers are able to download product assets and information very effectively. We faced no technical issues. Our retailers also gave positive feedback about the tool.

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

We were able to work as if we were one team. Thanks to open communication, good project management skills of Brew, and hard work we were able to implement the project in a very short time.

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

Open communication, "can-do-spirit", quick on tasks.

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

They are already doing their best and deserve a big "thanks" from our side!

Please describe your company and your position there.

Currently, I am working as a Marketing Manager for a vehicle dealership. When I was working with Brew Interactive, I was the Marketing Unit Manager at a Used Car dealership.

For what projects/services did your company hire Brew Interactive?

We worked with Brew team for UX/UI renewal and frontend development of our mobile application projects.

What were your goals for this project?

We were targeting applications that better meet our current needs, are compatible with our business priorities and have a better user experience.

How did you select Brew Interactive?

Brew was already working with other companies. Their references were good. We invited them and two other alternative companies for a bid. Out of the three, the Brew team was the best fit for our criteria.

Describe the project in detail.

We held analysis meetings with the Brew team, where we first discussed the project in detail. In these meetings, we conveyed our needs and goals in detail. After a month, they made a concept presentation to us.

First, we made evaluations and revisions on the concept. After our concept approval, the sub-screen designs and concurrently the front end development phase started. The Brew team worked closely with this team from the production process.

What was the team composition?

One project manager, two UX designers, two frontend developers.

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

After the launch of the web site we got much better scores from SEO analysis, our mobile application got 5 star from many users in terms of usability.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our work flow was quite efficient thanks to the tools used by the Brew team. We evaluated the designs as prototypes on Invision. For the codes, a stream was created over Bitbucket. In addition, two teams came together and held one-to-one sessions in tight spots.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The behaviour of the brew team was always positive. When we have difficulties they always try to find a solution that makes us happy. They do not avoid solitions that increases their workflow.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They did a great job for us.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the marketing director of a technology vendor in the customer service software vertical.

For what projects/services did your company hire Brew Interactive?

Our company website was 20 yrs old and outdated. We developed all-new products and planned to launch this new product line on a new landing page.

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

Based on price, experience and their previous projects, we gathered bids from 3 different providers and compared. Brew stood out with their expertise, technical capabilities and their close customer relations during the process.

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

Agile methodology. We briefed , they designed, we tested and they executed in phases.

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

Team of 3. Designer, account manager and founder.

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

In a relatively short period of time, the outcome exceeded the expectation in design, practicality and UX.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Account management was high-level in multiple dimensions incl. business units, developers and top management.

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

We were impressed with their boutique approach and delivery. We needed a customized solution and they delivered.

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

None.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Mobilet is a ticketing company and I act as a head of product

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

we choose Brew for web and app development. our goal was to successfully revamp and launch our channels.

How did you select Brew Interactive and what were the deciding factors?

technical expertise, open communication skills,

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

we had scope definition meeting. after that they presented analysis reports. we planned our sprints and started development.

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

we worked with 8 people. 2 backend dev. 1 mobile dev. 2 qa engineer, 1 project manager and 1 solution architect

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

brew delivered project on time. their code quality was so perfect we didnt need any rollbacks.

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

we had weekly meetings, sprnt plannings and team were available on slack.

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

technical expertise was at utmost level.

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

I wish they were my in-house team!