The Brick Factory

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Operations Director of a non-profit company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Non-profit organization spearheading research and advocacy with the objective of countering violent extremism. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire The Brick Factory to accomplish?

• Build an online knowledge hub for multi-national members of a professional network

SOLUTION

How did you find The Brick Factory?

Longtime Client

Why did you select The Brick Factory over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from The Brick Factory were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The Brick Factory developed and built out a website that is intended to be used as a knowledge hub for reports, videos, and other resources; as well as an online portal for members of a network we established of multi-national stakeholders and practitioners doing rehabilitation and reintegration work. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had nearly 150 network members from 70 different countries register on out website/portal.  

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

The Brick Factory provided a work plan up front that worked within our timeline, within our budget, and allowed for close collaboration with their team. It was important that we launched on a specific date, as we were on the timeline of a funder and other project partners--and we always felt that we were in good hands. 

The Brick Factory team was very thorough in their communications with us, helping those of us who weren't as well-versed understand technical concepts. Their response to urgent questions or asks was always swift, and they typically replied with 24 hours for anything non-urgent. 

What was your primary form of communication with The Brick Factory?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The Brick Factory team is one of the kindest teams we've worked with. Of course there is the superb technical expertise and knowledge they have, the great aesthetic sense, and everything they showed for in the project itself--but it's the people and work culture that were very apparent and make all the difference. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something The Brick Factory could have done differently?

We don't have much to say here! They covered all our/their bases. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

VP of Marketing for an online non-profit University based in California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Brick Factory, and what were your goals?

Following a merger of two institutions and a need to create a new representation of the combined entities we needed to overhaul our websites and create plans for retiring some websites. Additionally, we were faced with high turnover in our web development group and needed to kick the work off and complete the majority of it in essentially 6 months.

The Brick Factory made it possible for us to complete these goals as they provided both strategic, consultative direction relative to platform, content, and approach, as well as executional support in getting the web development work completed.

SOLUTION

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

In a previous organization I had worked with The Brick Factory and knew that their work and ability to seamlessly partner with an organization is outstanding. With the necessity to deliver results on a high-visibility, high-stakes project I knew The Brick Factory could deliver. They were able to step in wherever we had personnel gaps, and I felt incredibly fortunate this group was available to partner with us.

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

Scope of the work is both strategic and tactical, and we have many projects The Brick Factory has supported. Across all these projects The Brick Factory has been an invaluable partner in terms of creating an overall project plan with phases and milestones that could be shared with stakeholders as well as guide cross-functional teams.

1. Website Overhaul Project/s First assessing current technology stacks, website platforms (Drupal and Wordpress), content and helping us determine a path forward. It included maintaining current sites across both Drupal and Wordpress, created new templates, UX design for improved experiences and interactions with web visitors, and backend development. Scope of this project was extensive and included assessment of +8,000 pages, rebranding of over 4,000 pages, and creation of all new web templates.
2.  Application Updates Extensive work has been completed on our forms. This group worked to design an updated application experience and other forms. This has involved UX/UI work and design, middleware selection and setup, connection to backend development across both Salesforce, Peoplesoft, and multiple internal systems.
3. Website retirement planning Planning for the transition of product content from one organization website to the site that represents both organizations. Partnering with content, SEO, design, CRO, and paid advertising resources within our team. Creating task list of needed work as well as a timeline for completion.

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

6-8 people worked on our project. Principle (acting as IT subject-matter expert and project lead). Project Manager. Designer (UI/UX work, mockups, design). Developers (front-end and back-end working on Drupal, Wordpress, middleware, and system and analytic databases).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

These projects have been a huge success, we were able to get our main prospect website overhauled with updated content, templates, branding and experiences. It was completed in record time within basically 7 months and launched to coincide with a brand refresh and campaign launch. Additionally, the form updates

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

The Brick Factory feels more like an internal partner than an external vendor. They use slack to easily integrate into team with IM throughout the day and are great about joining any meetings we'd like them to attend.

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

I've worked with many 3rd-party teams across my career. The Brick Factory is one of the rare groups who actually care about my organization's success as much as I do. Often they're easier to contact, more readily available than some of my internal team. They have excellent IT and web expertise and an incredible ability to build trust and effective partnerships.

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

Invaluable partner for me and my organization. I can't imagine how they could be a better partner or how I'd have managed without them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the global communications director of the International Youth Foundation. We work to equip and support young people with training for job appliances and general life aspects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with The Brick Factory?

We needed help with web design and development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Brick Factory provides web development services. In addition, they've assisted us with moving our platform to Drupal, publishing our annual digital impact reports, and other iterations to make our site more user-friendly.

For the reports, we provide them with the content we want on them, and then they send us a link where we can review how everything looks before going live.

In terms of the web development part, they've added an informational page with our organization's story, who our teams are, and who's on our board of directors. In addition, it has a drop-down menu, a map with our locations worldwide, a section that talks about our organization's work, and it also allows visitors to donate to our cause or join it.

What was the team composition? 

I've been mainly working with Maylene (Project Manager), but Todd and Jerry are also involved in the process.

How did you come to work with The Brick Factory?

We found them online.

How much have you invested in them?

We pay them a monthly retainer, and so far, we've spent around $35,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website they created for us is our main form of communication with our audience and potential donors — the site has become an instrumental tool for our organization. Overall, they’re easy to work with, and their customer service is amazing, making us feel like we’re their only client.

How did The Brick Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team delivers on time, stays within budget, is responsive, and is personable. In terms of tools and communication, we use email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their level of responsiveness and ability to address our problems are their best attributes. Moreover,  they focus on being cost-effective to avoid charging us extra if we need additional work hours to get something done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think they can improve anything — I’ve been happy with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The Brick Factory is the best choice if you’re looking for a responsive and timely partner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Gabby Bernstein, Inc, a wellness organization focused on best-selling motivational books.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brick Factory?

We wanted to migrate our database from our CRM to a new system, but we decided to expand the project’s scope to rebuilding a completely new website and putting together our tech stack.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Brick Factory is helping us develop our WordPress site from scratch, migrate all of our data to the new platform, and integrate our app’s interface to the system’s backend. They’ve guided us throughout the process and recommended what we should incorporate into our tech stack. 

Regarding technologies, they’re managing WooCommerce, Stripe, Apple Pay, PayPal, and Mixpanel.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with around seven members of their team, including Todd (CEO), Chris (Lead Architect), and Morgan (Client Services).

How did you come to work with The Brick Factory?

Our CEO found them.

How much money have you invested in this partnership?

So far, we’ve spent around $500,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2019, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They've developed a deep understanding of our business. They've also been able to support us in decision-making around our development needs, which has helped us scale our business considerably to increase sales.

How did The Brick Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is fantastic. Regarding communication and tools, we use spreadsheets, Slack, email, InVision, and weekly meetings to track the process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their approach to finding the right solution is outstanding because they're very dedicated to understanding our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't think there's anything they can improve on because they're a fantastic team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make the most of their expertise and share your objectives as much as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior communications manager of a nonprofit organization serving Japanese and Japanese-American older adults in Southern California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brick Factory?

Our organization was undergoing a lot of changes, so we needed someone to revamp our site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Brick Factory rebuilt our website. They used our existing platform, which was WordPress, and designed an entirely new look for it. 

We asked for a modern interface that was easily navigable for our core audience, so the team reorganized the whole website to be American Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant. They also gave us a few design options to choose from.

We’ve since gone through a minor revamp using the same process. The Brick Factory continues to maintain and improve our site.

What is the team composition?

We primarily work with Katie (Director of Account Management & Marketing), but 2–3 teammates are assigned to the project.

How did you come to work with The Brick Factory?

Our former CEO referred them to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $40,000 on the major revamp. Afterward, our monthly retainer has been $1,500.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in January 2018 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The revamp has gone well. We’re impressed with The Brick Factory’s ability to work remotely with us. Furthermore, they’ve done a great job of ensuring that their work is modern yet navigable and ADA compliant.

Our partnership has been ongoing for four years, and we see a lot of significant benefits to working with them.

How did The Brick Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done an excellent job of keeping the project on track and working within our budget. If we ask The Brick Factory to deliver earlier than usual, they always accommodate us and adjust the timeline accordingly. We use Basecamp to manage the project.

In terms of communication, they’re always communicative and readily available despite the time zone difference. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Brick Factory produces high-quality work, and we’ve had a great experience with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The timeline hasn’t been as clear-cut recently, and we’ve experienced some minor delays. However, they’ve done a very good job overall.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set clear expectations — they’re very good at working around a limited budget as long as you communicate that early on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of a new international relations nonprofit.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brick Factory?

We needed their team’s expertise in website development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Brick Factory developed our WordPress website from scratch. We specifically needed its UX to be straightforward and professional to align with our nonprofit’s mission and vision, so their team took that into consideration during the planning stage.

Apart from the design, The Brick Factory also integrated a few interactive and clickable features into the platform, including a news page that they constantly updated. Upon completing the product, we continued to rely on their team for our site’s maintenance and management.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of five resources, including the CEO, developers, and account managers.

How did you come to work with The Brick Factory?

Our CEO already worked with The Brick Factory on a similar project, and they were highly recommended to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project ran from February–June 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Brick Factory developed a sophisticated website that easily gathered affirmations from users and the members of our advisory board. Apart from its appearance, we were also impressed with the overall quality and responsiveness of the website, which endured a cyber attack that occurred 24 hours after our go-live. Their team generated a high-quality and reliable website based on our requirements and their innovative ideas.

How did The Brick Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly communicated via email and phone calls. The Brick Factory was an accommodating and cooperative team— they were simply on top of their project management game. They helped us overcome technical issues and were always prepared to lay out multiple options for us to choose from. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Brick Factory was a knowledgeable team — they anticipated our needs and generated spot-on solutions to address these.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would’ve appreciated a more complex website, but I’m well aware that The Brick Factory wasn’t in the position to decide on that since they were just implementing what we stated in the project brief.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re an experienced team with valuable insights, so you must have enough room for communication.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Communications at Marketing at the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN). BCAN is is a community of patients, caregivers, survivors, advocates, medical and research professionals united in support of people touched by bladder cancer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Brick Factory, and what were your goals?

We hired the Brick Factory to help us completely redo our web site. They did UX work, graphic design and well as web development work. Our goals were to have a better storytelling experience on our web site, help with SEO, and reach more people touched by bladder cancer.

SOLUTION

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

We put out the RFP to nine firms, three of which responded. The deciding factor was the RFP pitch meeting. It was apparent both in the RFP response as well as the video pitch meeting that the Brick Factory truly understood what we were trying to accomplish and could deliver what we were looking for.

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

We wanted to stay on the WordPress platform, so all of our content could be easily migrated. The Brick Factory helped us improve our UX by reorganizing our content and presenting it differently. The next step was graphic design. They presented a series of visual representations of what the site would look like. Finally, they gave us a test site that we could look at and even make changes to.

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

I worked with three people. The CEO, the Chief Creative Officer and a programmer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It's too early for measurable outcomes.

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

The project management style was almost informal. Most edits and feedback took place via email.

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

The Brick Factory had a clear understanding of what we wanted to accomplish, had worked with others in the nonprofit space, and made a host of recommendations that helped us communicate better via our web site.

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

One of the deadlines slipped a bit, but that was likely due to a very aggressive timeline for design, development and launch.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

African Parks is a non-profit conservation organization that takes on the complete responsibility for the long-term management of national parks in partnership with governments and local communities. I'm the Digital Manager for the organization and am based at the head office in Johannesburg, South Africa.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brick Factory?

African Parks initially hired The Brick Factory to develop our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Brick Factory developed our website from scratch using Drupal. We provided them with a basic wireframe, and they handled the entire development process and ensured the website was GDPR and SEO compliant. 

Currently, we manage the content, and they handle all of the web development and updates. If we want to develop or make adjustments to the site, we work with The Brick Factory to deploy these changes. 

In addition to the website, The Brick Factory assists us with our Google Ads and from time to time our online campaigns and social media.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is Katie Fulton (Director of Account Management & Marketing). We also work with Todd (CEO) occasionally when we have a slightly larger project on the go.

How did you come to work with The Brick Factory?

Our CMO used to work with Todd at another company. She brought The Brick Factory to our organization, and it’s been a really successful partnership.      

How much have you invested with them?

The Brick Factory started developing the website in 2016, and it took about six months to complete. A lot of that time was just us writing the content, but they were amazing and guided us through the process very well. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve spent around $30,000 for the whole project, but we have a monthly retainer with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Brick Factory has been absolutely fantastic at managing the website. They’ve always been available whenever we need them and always come to the table with fantastic ideas. 

I work with a very small team on a day-to-day basis and so having The Brick Factory to help me maintain and keep the website running smoothly is a great help. The time difference between Africa and the US hasn’t affected our work at all. I would highly recommend them to anyone to anyone who is thinking about using their services.

How did The Brick Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Basecamp to run our projects and make sure everything is updated regularly according to the right timelines and deadlines. This has been really helpful, especially because of the time difference between our teams. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Brick Factory is great with communication and very responsive to any queries or issues we might have. They make us feel supported no matter what, which is the best part of working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re really wonderful. I don’t have anything negative to say about them, nor any improvement suggestions.

Any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to have a plan and a budget in mind. The Brick Factory will adjust to your budget and timelines and will provide you with wonderful ideas and support.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a communications manager for IPA (Innovations for Poverty Action) and we’re a research and policy nonprofit. What we do is work with researchers to generate evidence on the effectiveness of programs targeted towards poverty alleviation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Brick Factory?

We don’t have any in-house web developers or anyone who has more than rudimentary web development experience. We had a relationship with another web agency, but our engagement was ending so I was looking for an agency that can replace them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a monthly retainer with them, so our engagement is not solely for one project — they help us whenever we need web developer support. The things that they usually do are in two buckets. The first is routine maintenance where every quarter they implement security updates for us — we use Drupal as our CMS and Acquia as the hosting provider.

The other one is we’ll send them a one-off request for specific things that someone asks us to do. We usually receive requests from other teams at IPA, and then we’ll try to do it ourselves. If we can't, and we run into something that we don’t have the development expertise to do on our own, we’ll go to The Brick Factory. They’ll give us an estimate, we’ll approve it out of our retainer, and then we’ll go back and forth.

They also provide us with their web design services in addition to the development. One time, we were requested to add several other teams at our organization, and a research initiative section of the main navigation menu on our website. We tried to do it ourselves, but kept running into issues so we asked them to help us design the additional section of the menu.

Now it looks great and it links to all the things that it’s supposed to.

What is the team composition?

I only work directly with two people. Katie (Director of Account Management & Marketing) who is my main point of contact, and Ron (Vice President & Technical Services). Whenever we have anything we need to do on a website, I email Katie and Ron, and they will then assign the tasks to the developers on their team.

It helps us because we don’t have to worry about who to ask. They can just funnel the request to their team, or whoever needs to be working on it.

How did you come to work with The Brick Factory?

I was looking for web development agencies that were based in DC because at the time, before the COVID-19 pandemic, I thought that would make things easier. I just did a Google search and they were one of the agencies that came up on the list. I liked that they had a bunch of case studies and testimonials from other non-profits — their experience working with non-profits was important to us.

I really liked them when I talked to them, I thought they sounded competent, organized, and they gave us a retainer rate that was within our budget — and cheaper than a lot of other agencies that we talked to. They fit everything that we needed, even though it was kind of a cold call, it ended up working pretty well.

How much have you invested with them?

We invest about $15,000 a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since October 2018 and it’s still ongoing. Every year we renew our retainer with them, and they let us carry over unused hours to the next month, which is also something that’s really important to us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For the qualitative feedback, The Brick Factory is super responsive and they’re great at project management. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why we decided to end our engagement with our previous web development agency. 

The Brick Factory is super proactive. They reach out to us whenever our website needs to be fixed or updated, which we might not be aware of — this is also something the previous agency didn’t do. It’s just been helpful how responsive and organized they are and as I said, they not only fulfill our requests, but they are also active in sending us notices in advance.

Additionally, they’ve been thoughtful about proposing other options whenever a request isn’t possible to accomplish. They would base their options on what they know about our website and branding scheme.

For the quantitative feedback, since we’re a nonprofit, we are always trying to be cognizant of how we spend our money, especially on overhead. We do have a full communications team, but we don’t have the budget to hire a full-time web developer. Therefore, it’s been really great to outsource that role at a fraction of the cost of hiring someone full-time.

We’ve worked with them long enough that they understand our needs and who we are as a brand.

How did The Brick Factory perform from a project management standpoint?

They use Basecamp, which is really helpful in terms of project management and tracking tasks. If I send them a request through there, they’ll respond within a day or two at most. One time, our website was down for a really long time so I sent them an email and they got back to me within five minutes. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by the fact that they’re just so good at what they do, that I never have to worry. We’ve never had any problems, and they’re able to do everything we ask. Moreover, they’re really helpful in terms of being realistic about the deliverables. For example, whenever they have a bunch of requests from clients, they’ll put them in a queue, and tell us the exact date of when they'll submit the deliverables.

Just the specificity of how they operate and how organized they are, have really been the biggest things out of all the things they’re good at.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve never had any complaints about their work. I don’t think they could be any faster than they already are, considering the things that they do for us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say that since The Brick Factory is so good at project management, that you should also try to be good at managing the project on your end. It helps in terms of the back and forth, and the process will go smoother if you’re organized on your end.