Camber–The App Agency

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a wedding and lifestyle site that publishes content relating to beautiful homes and events specifically relating to weddings. The site has been up and running since 2007 and has collected a few million images and about 30,000 posts. There’s a relatively large corpus of content there.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Camber Creative?

We’ve used them for several different projects. Oftentimes, they support everything from design to project management to development for new products we’re trying to push out the door. Because we’ve been happy, we continue to use them. We started them off on smaller projects and slowly moved them on to larger ones.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They start with a sprint zero, which involves customer discovery, consumer interviews, and fleshing out general plans for the project. From there, they create thoughtful designs specific to our needs. Sometimes, we have existing art and content on the site that needs to be refreshed. Other times, our team only has a concept. When that’s the case, they talk with potential uses, figure out wireframes, and build high-fidelity mockups.

There’s also a technical piece to their work with us. In the past, they’ve helped us refactor our CI/CD pipelines and set up our Jenkins Pipeline on AWS. We really use them across all of the technical parts of the businesses.         

What is the team composition?

Depending on the scope of the work, we either work with two or four of their teammates. If a project is technical, we collaborate with a project manager, designer, and two developers. When there aren’t technical aspects to the work, we’re paired with a designer and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Camber Creative?

They were recommended to me by someone I respect. I saw their designs on one of his projects and thought they were great. He enjoyed working with them, so I reached out and ended up hiring them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $100,000–$250,000 on their services to this point.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2018, our teams still collaborate.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The UX designs are thought-through and well-reasoned. Their designs have been amazing and have done a tremendous job of understanding our brand. Through that understanding, they’re able to elevate and evolve our designs just enough to be refreshing, but not so much that they go against our branding requirements.

They’re the most effective when the stakes are highest or when I need a job done pretty quickly. Additionally, the ROI has consistently been great. That’s partially due to their willingness to tackle new problems with me. For instance, when we were considering the benefit of mobile compatibility, they did a ton of research into our website to discover what our users cared about. In the end, they were able to tell us what pages were and weren’t worth optimizing for mobile.  

How did Camber Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly calls that serve as progress updates. They’re an agile team, so they like to use burn down charts to indicate how much work is left to be done. There’s some overlap with in-house project management, so the focus is on them to allocate the right resources to benefit the effort and then tracking them to make sure they’re performing up to standard. In the beginning stages, we rely on them for product management. After things start moving, product management bleeds into project management as we decide what we’re going to build. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

It is very difficult to find trustworthy partners for UX design. They proved that they can produce something that aligns with our brand, resonates with our customers, and is generally optimal. I haven’t found another team that can deliver quite like them on the design side.

Additionally, they’re great with resource allocation. They have a loose set of skilled developers working in the United States. It’s a cost-effective network I can trust. Camber Creative can match our needs to a developer effectively and in a timely fashion.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing immediately comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice depends on where you are in your project’s ideation. If you’re unsure of what you want to build, let their team play around with the design. They’re very talented and will try to bring back ideas that will inform your thinking as you move forward. Giving them a few degrees of freedom to play is a really good start.

They’re also very successful with a more fleshed-out product. When you’re defining your budget and needs, trust them to pull the right resources to help you. If I were new to working with them, those are the two areas I’d focus on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the president and CEO of The Presbyterian Home for Children, a nonprofit organization that has been in existence for 150 years. We’re a residential therapeutic treatment facility for teenage girls who have experienced severe abuse and neglect. We also provide housing and wrap-around program support to homeless boys and girls, along with their female caregivers.

That same support is provided to homeless young women from ages 19 to 24. We offer private access to an AdvancED fully-accredited school and the Ascension Leadership Academy for all of our residential children and other children in the community. Lastly, we offer intensive in-home services through our Family Bridges program for both family preservation and reunification.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Camber Creative?

We hired them to build a completely new website for our life-changing programs that's inviting, informative, and comprehensive.

What were your goals for this project?

We mainly wanted a high-end website built at a reasonable price and completed in a short period.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Camber Creative was recommended to us by someone that we highly trusted from the web development world.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Camber Creative built the website from scratch, combining what used to be two different websites—the home and school. We gave them all the information on our programs and they provided the technical and creative expertise to make it into reality.

What was the team composition?

Our development director worked with two of their team members.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We now have a robust website that we’re proud of and which matches the quality of the services we provide every single day to children, adults, and families. This is important for so many of our stakeholders, including current and potential donors as well as the organizations providing grants that we are applying for. I’m extremely pleased with Camber's approach and our end product.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was arranged in sprints, and it was very effective. Any delays were a direct result of competing priorities on our end. They worked seamlessly with our development director in a true team effort and responded to any concerns or problems along the way in an expedited manner with exceptional customer service.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The speed at which they were able to move to produce a website exactly the way wanted it was exceptional. Camber significantly raised the bar of excellence for our online presence, which is such an important part of any organization's perception in the community and its ability to make lasting connections for great results down the road.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, I was extremely pleased and would recommend them to my network.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a mindfulness app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Camber Creative?

I needed a team to help with design, coding, and uploading to the App Store.

What were your goals for this project?

I wanted an MVP of my app.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I selected them based on reviews on Clutch and developer websites. Before I hired them, I gave them some broad story epics, which they organized and discussed with me on an introductory call.

Describe the project in detail.

I initially spoke with the programmer and designer who ended up writing the code and designing the UI. They built and launched the MVP within their estimate and on budget.

What was the team composition?

I worked with a project manager, a coder, and a developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work on the MVP was so good, that we're now working on the second version of the app. Their development capacity from day one was unparalleled—they demonstrated that even before I hired them. They always do what they say they're going to do. I've commissioned them for hundreds of hours of work and will continue to work with them in the future.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They were incredibly accommodating post MVP, and have continued to develop my app on an accelerated schedule. Their workflow has been smooth, collaborative, and timely. They use solid systems for prototyping and systems management, and they're not trying to use free trials of collaboration apps or things that won’t work.

Once I hired them, they immediately plugged me into their agile network and we got to work. They know agile inside and out. I really don't think I could have found a more reliable development partner. They've never given me an excuse for anything because they've never missed a deadline nor a deliverable.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They’ve provided top line design and programming without the overhead that bigger shops have.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, I’m completely satisfied.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-founder and the CTO of InvestorFuse. We are an application for real estate investors to help manage their leads.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Camber Creative?

We built the first version of our application on a different piece of software so that it acted as an overlay or extension of that piece. We later decided that we wanted to branch off on our own and build our own software, so we reached out to Camber Creative to help us do that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We approached Camber Creative with guidelines of what we wanted and how we thought it should function, but they took it upon themselves to do much of the design. My business partner and I are not coders or developers, so we also relied on them to help us determine the right stack based on what we wanted our users to be able to accomplish. Ultimately, we selected React for the frontend and Laravel for the backend. It also utilizes Firebase and is hosted on AWS.

Our platform is a web application that serves as a lead management system. It collects leads from any source using Webhooks Integrations. Every lead has an action as it progresses through its life cycle until our users close the deal. The follow-up sequence is the app’s most significant feature—users add a lead to the follow-up sequence, and it will send out emails and texts on an automated schedule.

What is the team composition?

Brice (Founder/CEO, Camber Creative) handled much of the UI/UX design. Once we transitioned into development, we worked more with a project manager and four main developers, though others were available as necessary.

How did you come to work with Camber Creative?

Brice and I went to college together, so I’ve known him since long before he started Camber Creative.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent at least $250,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked together since June 2017. We recently launched, but Camber Creative is still actively performing maintenance, fixing some bugs, and adding features.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app is reliable, and we’ve experienced no downtime. Our user feedback has been very promising—they’re finding it practical and intuitive.

How did Camber Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ll have weekly meetings with the project manager to go over the two-week sprint cycles. Otherwise, we’ll communicate via Slack and Jira. They’ve always been very responsive and able to resolve issues on the same day they occur.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They built a fantastic team. Camber Creative has a wealth of experience in building what we needed. We look forward to engaging their mobile application development team in the future.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing stands out as needing improvement. When we first started, we wanted to ramp up and go faster, but they had issues finding good talent. That’s since been resolved, of course, and they’re growing and adding people to their team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend coming prepared with the ability to describe what you want because Camber Creative can definitely fill in the gaps. The more information you provide, the more the product will turn out how you envision. It’s also vital for you to be a responsive client, just as you’d want them to be a responsive vendor.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of FitFlo. It’s an active lifestyle app that aggregates fitness content from various online sources.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Camber Creative?

We needed a development firm to create our iOS app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Camber developed our app from scratch. It’s essentially a media platform built in Swift that curates fitness-related content from websites, YouTube vlogs, and popular Instagram influencers. They integrated a web automation service called Zapier into the Contentful-based CMS. This system is what allows to us to edit, categorize, tag, and publish content directly to the app. We can also archive content or delete things if we need too. Once all that was developed, they used Buddybuild for testing.

What is the team composition?

They have a variety of people who work in different aspects, so they pair you with a team depending on the project’s requirements. I worked directly with a backend developer, but there was also a frontend developer and a graphic designer.

How did you come to work with Camber Creative?

We initially intended to outsource the work but were concerned that a low asking price would yield a low-quality product. A colleague recommended Camber after they successfully built a website for his non-profit website. I was very new to app development at the time, so we didn’t engage with them solely based on the referral. I continued to speak with them over the next year and researched other options as well. I concluded that there wasn’t another vendor that could match up to Camber.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $23,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place April 2017­–October 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We just launched the app in January, but I’m happy with everything and we haven’t needed to issue maintenance. They did a great job.

How did Camber Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

We had one disagreement over a difference in what was promised and what they delivered. That call was relatively simple as they did an excellent job of emailing and categorizing everything in JIRA. Once I pointed out the issue, they agreed and started working on it within the hour. This small deviation was caused by a number of things that they didn’t have too much control over, but they took responsibility and communicated a precise method of resolution. We used Branch and Fabric for data analytics throughout the engagement. Additionally, we communicated mostly through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They worked within the budget and it ended up being cheaper than the original estimate. I never felt like they were charging us for anything unnecessary. I was impressed with how they recognized a mistake and fixed the problem for free. Other companies might not have done that considering we already paid them. They didn't have a financial incentive to fix the issue.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any significant criticism.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a contingency plan and be flexible because no developer can completely predict how a process will go. Communicate what you want to have done in the form of a contract or email to protect yourself because projects like this are risks. It’s vital to have a clear scope of work written down and agreed upon. However, the developers of Camber Creative are really good about honesty and integrity.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the president and co-founder of the Unmanned Safety Institute. We provide training and certification services for those seeking to become professional drone pilots for major corporations. Fields include the oil and gas sector, electric utilities, telecommunications, public safety, and others.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Camber Creative?

Initially, we sought out Camber Creative to help us clean up some of our user-facing and marketing pages on our website. We relied on them to complete some of the design and to develop and implement the functionality. After they demonstrated their expertise in specific aspects, we grew from there, and moved them on to more complex assignments.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Camber uses Agile and Scrum methodology. Their team wrote code and script for more in-depth webpage functionality and implemented subdomains and membership sites. They created a Google Maps and search feature so our customers can find our locations around the world.

On a basic level, they have expertise in creating and writing code for WordPress sites, which has been helpful. But they also are experts at organic coding—I believe using PHP—and that’s helped us scale up our web presence.

What is the team dynamic?

We have at least three resources from Camber Creative’s team working on our project, but possibly more. For the most part, the project manager has been our single point of contact, and he has been great. We’ve had weekly touch point calls, which have been really helpful. At times, some technical developers have also contacted me for clarification on issues.

How did you come to work with Camber Creative?

A personal reference introduced us to them. They demonstrated professionalism during my initial outreach, and they did everything methodically. That stood out to me, in comparison to all the other developers we’d used in the past, whether freelancers or small firms providing the same services.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent approximately $25,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2017, and the work is currently ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I have shared their work with some of our partners in the drone industry. We partner with DJI in China, a billion-dollar company and a leader in consumer drones. Camber helped us create a dedicated webpage for this partnership, and DJI responded very favorably to the design treatment and functionality.

Over time, we hope to have more examples to draw from—we’ve launched some new products that will be a direct result of Camber’s work.

How did Camber Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

Camber has been by far the most professional I’ve worked with. They are very detail-oriented at documenting their work—in their work proposals and specific backlog task tracking, etc. They brought not only the developer expertise that we expected, but also project management expertise.

Their communication is excellent. I can communicate with them in real time through Slack and get a response almost immediately, even if it is late in the day. I can also access our sprints and backlog via JIRA, which they maintain daily. I can see what is in the pipeline, what is being worked on now, and what has been completed or flagged for review. The whole project management process has been stellar.

I can confidently offload a task to them, knowing that their team will see it through to completion. This has been a much different experience from other developers we have worked with, where we had to hold their hand through the process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I am a big fan of everything they do. I’ve really appreciated their communication, including their response to my urgent requests outside of business hours. Their organization and project management are the most impressive I’ve ever seen.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind. We have used them for a few small projects so far, and are looking to award them with a contract for a much larger project.

Do you have advice for potential customers?

As far as advice for someone considering working with Camber: As with any developer, I would urge them to get at least one reference of past completed work. I would also talk with the project manager to understand their approach and the plan to accomplish the task, especially timelines and cost.

We have never had any cost overruns, but Camber mostly works on a time and materials basis; they don’t do a firm fixed price. It’s hard to judge the total cost of a project up front. We have had them build based on estimates, which helped us determine our budget and our confidence level for launching the product. That way we avoided needing to obtain more money for the project later on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a company called BackStory. We're a crowdfunding platform for non-profits. We bring the stories of social causes to life and then we empower the community to give them the more positive endings they deserve. We’re not a non-profit, but we serve non-profits and we serve corporate partners as well. We incentivize corporate partners to underwrite the campaigns for non-profits by giving them positive branding experiences and then poling engagement experiences.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Camber Creative?

Essentially, I had all the concepts and everything in place but had no way to build anything. I had a very primitive WordPress site and it was awful and I knew it. So, I had the basic WordPress website already but I wanted to build something custom from the ground up. I needed a web application that acts as a crowd funding platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I just needed him to build my web app. I needed it to play video. It had to be dynamic so I could add things to it, like new pages. I need it to be beautifully designed. It needed to be able to accept money from multiple people. Specifically, it had to work with the Stripe Beneficiary API, which allows for money to go straight from the donor to the intended non-profit. Finally, I needed it be super responsive and look beautiful at all times, across all platforms. I’m pleased to say that it is just that.

I’m pretty sure the web app is mainly built with Ruby. I should also mention it allows users to create accounts that they can customize and allows them to customize pages of their own as well. The payment gateway has security around it, too. It’s brilliant.

What is the team dynamic?

Kyle [Kirkland] was the project manager at the time. Later, I was transitioned to Jonah, another project manager. I also interacted directly with other developers. Jonah [Katz] was the main builder of the site and there are a couple of other people. I didn't know them that well but we would chat briefly on Slack.

How did you come to work with Camber Creative?

Brice Gramm [founder, Camber Creative] was a fraternity brother of mine and he also built another app for one of our other close friends called Party Tutor that’s just beautiful, elegant, and works great. I fully trusted him based on his previous work but also more on his character as a fraternity brother.

I looked at using another development team, I forget their name. They gave me a design mockup, but it just wasn’t up to the standards that Brice has so it was easy to make the choice.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent around $40,000 to $45,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in September last year and we basically finished everything in early June. The timeline for the project went longer than originally projected but that was because I didn't understand the scope of what I wanted and I changed it a few times. I ended up spending more money and a little more time than I should have but that is on me, not them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In the six weeks since we launched, we’ve had 183 donors, or “story heroes” as we like to call them who have successfully backed “stories” with donations ranging from $25 all the way up to $1,500. We raised over $20,000 on the platform for our first campaign. Everything went seamless with our launch. There were a few bugs along the way, but they picked them up and that's to be expected.

How did Camber Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

I think they're caring. They're always available so I can ask a question on the fly and they're pretty much always available. We do weekly calls on Monday's to catch up and get on the same page. Another cool thing they do is lay out the whole spread for the week. They prepare the plan and we have this dynamic Scrum board that we both can look at. I can test things live and it's constantly a very transparent experience.

They delivered the project on time for our launch event. You should have seen them the day before the launch. They were on all cylinders working night shifts getting this thing ready, so I was impressed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What’s most impressive is their responsiveness and transparency. If I ever have a question about anything under the sun, they’re available to me. I could just reach out to them and they'll pretty much always have an answer for me. I also like how everything related to the project is on a Scrum board and I see what's going on in real-time. I never feel like I'm really in the dark. Those are probably my two favorite things.

What recommendations would you make to someone considering hiring Camber Creative?

I would say, “do it.” Brice is an elegant designer and he's all about simplicity and not overdoing it. He also comes with a very mindful approach. He doesn't just create stuff. He always has a really deep, powerful explanation for why he's doing what he's doing. Plus, I find them to be generally good people. If you want to be around good people, choose Camber.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Party Tutor helps students discover local events and deals around college campuses. Our other mobile app is called ‎Zupp, which is an event-discovery app for big cities.

What is your position?

I am the founder and chief executive officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Camber Creative?

We were looking to build out our mobile apps for iOS in particular. 

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

Camber Creative developed the backend and frontend of our apps, as well as designing their user-interfaces.

Party Tutor was developed exclusively for iOS. Camber Creative created a CMS [content management system] through which we could input information to the database. The app pulled that info through an API. Everything was done from scratch, from designs to the code. Camber Creative also worked on creating the overall story points and coming up with a project estimate.

How did you come to work with Camber Creative?

I knew one of Camber Creative's employees from college. I was looking for a developer when he was joining the company, and I decided to hire Camber Creative. I trusted my friend, but I also based my decision on the upfront design which Camber Creative supplied.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The cost of Camber Creative's work has been around $70,000 for both apps.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Camber Creative in July 2016. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Camber Creative's work is high-quality, and I am satisfied with the communication. Zupp has been downloaded around 6,000 times since its launch.

I first launched Party Tutor 6 years ago but didn't start work on it again until I started the collaboration with Camber Creative in September 2016. Since then, it's gained 6,000 additional downloads. It has a daily usage of 1,400 users.

How did Camber Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

We have worked in 2-week sprints. I have calls with Camber Creative's team every Monday and also on Fridays, on occasion, in order to have an event recap. We plan for the next sprint and make an estimation of story points. We communicate through Slack, and Camber Creative's members have made themselves available around the clock in order to handle my concerns in a professional manner. I am billed bi-weekly.

What distinguishes Camber Creative from other providers?

Camber Creative has gone above and beyond in creating user interfaces and user experiences which are on par with some of the most popular apps on the App Store at the moment. They're able to create outstanding mobile experiences which can put an app on par with others.

Is there anything Camber Creative could have improved or done differently?

Nothing comes to mind. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a restaurant discovery app. We help people discover restaurants through their friends and the people that they trust the most. It’s based on friends’ favorites around different cities and states. Right now, I’m the only person employed. I’ll be gaining some team members over the next few months.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Camber Creative?

We had a lot of the app created from a design standpoint but I needed someone to do the mobile and website development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I provided the visual assets and then Camber Creative brought everything over to iOS and the web. The main requirement was to create the social network around restaurant discovery on the iOS app. The web side of things was made in order to be able to use portions of the application and benefit people who may not be on the app, yet. You can share some factors with people outside the app and be able to provide them value through SMS messaging and restaurant recommendations. People can still utilize portions of the app without needing the app. To do this, we’re tying portions of the iOS app into the website.

I worked directly with the developers on the project. There was a regular developer and an iOS developer. They used the Agile method and they did two-week sprints. We would have conversations about what we wanted to do in the next two weeks and then we would work on those specific actionable items.

How did you come to work with Camber Creative?

We’re all from the same state so I was able to find them through connections in Orlando. I decided to use them because of the way they do business. They’re able to provide things at a lower cost than a larger agency would. I have past experience with the owner, so I had some trust there already.

How much have you invested with Camber Creative?

The total cost has been approximately $35,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in November 2015 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We have over 100 people signed up for the beta testing. There are 20–25 active beta users currently. We have a Facebook group for the users that are testing it in order to create an open dialogue for who’s experiencing what and who’s loving what. We encourage them to post any issues they’re experiencing as well. Feature requests have been added to the app through the testing. We have 29 active monthly users, 19 weekly users, and 10 daily users. The overall crash rate is 18 incidents and seven users impacted overall. A lot of those crashes were from two specific users who had signed up early on and didn’t have usernames.

What did you find most impressive about Camber Creative?

They are very flexible. We pivoted a few times because of what I wanted to do, and they were able to make the proper adjustments. They provided feedback if they thought that where I was going wasn’t a good idea.

Are there any areas Camber Creative could improve?

There could be more communication about issues that might come up in the future. We had everything on Parse and then they said that they were shutting down, so we discussed transferring to Firebase but didn’t want to lose any data. Then, we found out that we would lose data by switching over. There could have been more communication on that. We did address this later on so the issue was fixed in the end.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was updated by the client on May 19, 2020. The original star ratings were: Overall - 4, Quality - 4, Schedule - 5, Cost - 5, NPS - 5. New content is below:

SOLUTION

What is the team dynamic?

The team dynamic is flexible and straightforward. They act like they are part of your team. You aren’t just another product. They put effort on the product as if it was their own and worked me with as if I was part of their team. 

How much have you invested with them?

$50K+ 

What is the status of this engagement?

The app is launched, and I utilize the team for ongoing support and updates. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

Due to a previous working relationship, I was made known of the company through an old colleague.  

How did Camber Creative address the challenges that arose?

They worked with me to find the best possible solution whenever a challenge came up, which with this product was often due to the nature of how things change in the technology sphere.  

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

It’s allowed my product to come to life. I have a working app that is currently being used by users all over the nation and have potential opportunities to see it grow in other ways as well. 

How was project management handled?

It was internal, but they allowed me to work along side them to prioritize what I wanted. 

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

Flat out honesty. I knew what I was in for and there were not any surprises. 

In what specific areas can they improve?

Sometimes we learned together on why something did or didn’t work for us. While I wish they used a crystal ball to know outcomes previously, we both strategize and do our due diligence prior to making significant changes. 

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

When it comes to API’s read the fine print, and don’t expect them to be around forever. Know your backup plans and have someone who knows what they hell they are doing by your side. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the chief technology officer of JOOX Music, a social music promotion company. We provide a frequent-flier system allowing fans to connect with artists.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Camber Creative?

We needed help with developing our iOS and Android apps, along with a backend infrastructure supporting them.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Camber Creative took control of the development for our apps, reproducing them and reuploading them to the stores. We also started an initiative to rebrand the apps and refresh their UI/UX. This was first done for the iOS version, while the Android work took a bit longer. During this process, we've added a number of outstanding features to enhance the product.

How did you come to work with Camber Creative?

They came as a referral from a colleague who knew their principal personally. We hit it off well at our first meetings, in terms of identifying a common vision. Previously, we had been working with an offshore Russian company and were unhappy with the quality of their product. We expedited the process of phasing out that existing contract so we could work with Camber Creative.

How much have you invested with Camber Creative?

The cost of Camber Creative's services has been around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Camber Creative in January 2016 and the work was concluded in July. At that time, we felt that we needed to bring in some in-house talent to take over development. We hired 3 developers over the course of 6 weeks and migrated the work to them. It would be the most cost-effective option for us, given that we knew where we should take the 3rd version of our apps. We were satisfied with the work done by Camber Creative, but we always intended to use them as a short-term solution for getting our product on track in a quick fashion.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I've enjoyed working with Camber Creative. Their team is talented from a UI/UX perspective. The Android developer we've worked with wasn't quite as good as the iOS one, but they got the job done. The features developed by Camber Creative are in use to this day.

From the start of our work with Camber Creative until the end, our user base grew from 30,000 to around 200,000. We wouldn't have been able to accomplish this without Camber Creative's efforts, both from a UI/UX perspective and an app development one. Camber Creative has made our product more stable and added features which enticed users to stay on the app and return to it.

How did Camber Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

Camber Creative is an Agile shop, which is what we're used to as well. They use Jira and other Atlassian products, which fits well into our framework. We've generally had a minimum of 1 standup meeting per week, with the usual being 2. Camber Creative did a great job in communicating where they were and what the goals were for each week and sprint. We communicated well and had a smooth process. This is definitely one of Camber Creative's strong suits.

What did you find most impressive about Camber Creative?

I've been involved in software development for 30 years. Camber Creative's president is one of the best designers I've seen, from a UI/UX perspective. I wouldn't hesitate to work with him again if I had the opportunity.

Are there any areas Camber Creative could improve?

At one point, Camber Creative was providing some .NET development. The person they brought on wasn't as strong as we required. One of the first things we did was to phase that person out. Overall, we had a very good working relationship with Camber Creative, so we were able to bring the issue to their attention and receive some discounted hours.