Cantilever Web Design & Development

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the Director of Marketing at the Flatiron School. We are a coding school and have both online and in-person classes to teach people how to learn to code.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cantilever?

Our website is quite complex in that we are directing people from our site to our products so that they are able to get started with a coding course. We have an engineering team on staff, but they are more focused on building out our product.

We were looking to outsource a reliable company to help us maintain and build a new version of our site. As we launched new courses, we needed to build it again from the ground up. Diverting the in-house engineering resources to take on this task would have slowed down the process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In terms of our website, Cantilever actually came in and did a series of interviews with the staff to understand our needs. Then we started to build things out. They did the original design and thought about the architecture of the site, working in collaboration with marketing. They also worked with our product team to think about all the complexities of how the site interacts with our products.

After we rolled that project out, it was still a static site. They used JavaScript, HTML and CSS. We ended up switching the design aesthetic of the site and did a design overhaul, which they helped to implement.

With the CMS aspect of the project, Ty [President, Cantilever] took a similar approach and asked us about things we needed out of the CMS. It became clear that we needed a lot of flexibility. They ended up building quite a robust CMS in WordPress that would make us really self-sufficient. There were hiccups along the way, some back and forth, but we ended up being really pleased with it. This has been a really great project for us, and as a marketing team, we are able to update the site ourselves. Andrew, one of the WordPress engineers they have on staff, was our point person there.

I really like the CMS because we are a school and have really intense programs with a lot of information to display. Our pages were becoming really long, un-wieldy scrolls, and Cantilever developed some dynamic units that allow the user to toggle between two things. The interactions were quite complex, designed by our in-house designer, but they implemented them and made sure it was flexible. The units they developed could be used across different programs and use cases. I thought they did a great job of building the flexibility into the CMS with some of these dynamic complex layers.

Overall, we have ramped up and down with Cantilever when we have bigger needs, page rollouts, and site redos. We have had them on a larger retainer, and now we are in more of a bug fixes and maintenance mode. They recently moved us over to WP Engine for our server. It has been helpful to have them managing and keeping things up to date.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with Ty as well as Andrew. I have also had interaction with people from the accounting department.

How did you come to work with Cantilever?

Our co-founder had worked with Ty before and trusted him and Cantilever. We recognized they were on the more expensive side, and a more premium service, but given the complexity of our project, we didn’t want to risk going to a cheaper and less reliable solution.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent at least $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I personally started working with them in June 2016, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our first version that launched added a lot of new features to our site. The site was more robust as we added so many new courses and more things to do. We saw our conversion rate increase. Moving into the second version, it had a new sleeker design, and again, we saw the conversion rate increase. We have been excited about that.

With the CMS, we have been able to continue to increase our optimizations of the site, as we have the flexibility to run tests on our own in addition to making changes. The CMS functionality has been a real win in allowing us to be more agile, a little bit smarter, and to optimize on our own time. It has been good.

How did Cantilever perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication has been really good. They are very responsive and it has been awesome for us. They are very easy to work with and keep us in the loop, jumping on calls when we need. We have refined our process overtime working with them. We used to do a lot over Slack, but they recently moved to using Basecamp, allowing things to be more trackable. It has been a learning process, but overall it has been good.

We had a couple hiccups with one of our larger projects which was poorly scoped, as we didn’t have some of the right stakeholders in the early conversations. The fault was really on both sides. They definitely followed through to the scope, but it was just off.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are really nice to work with. Ty and his team are awesome and they are great communicators. Sometimes when you work with a contractor there is tough communication, but their team is positive, fast to respond, pleasant and easy to work with. It has been a win overall.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We encountered some of the same challenges anyone would with any contractor, occasionally not knowing the right stakeholder for what, or not looping in the right people into the conversation. Sometimes things get lost in translation when you are working with an outside party and there have been times we have had to clarify things by jumping on a call.

One of the main challenges, which is probably a bit of a fault on our side as well, has been figuring out the right relationship between marketing, the engineering and product team and the Cantilever team. It is more of making things clearer on who to go to for what on our end, and better stakeholder management on their end.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Marketing Consultant of BillionToOne

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

BillionToOne is a precision diagnostics company that quantifies biology to create powerful molecular diagnostics. We are currently applying our proprietary technology to non-invasive prenatal screening and liquid biopsy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Cantilever Web Design & Development to accomplish?

• Manage BabyPeek website
• Launch new UNITY Complete website
• Manage UNITY Complete website

SOLUTION

How did you find Cantilever Web Design & Development?

I worked with Cantilever at a prior company.

Why did you select Cantilever Web Design & Development over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Extremely reliable and high quality of work

How many teammates from Cantilever Web Design & Development were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We initially engaged with Cantilever to help us develop and launch babypeek.com. We continue to work with them in an ongoing capacity to help us manage and optimize that website. We've also added unityscreen.com to their scope of work. They helped us rebrand, develop, and launch the website, taking it over from another agency. 
They've stayed on to continue managing and optimizing this site. In addition, Cantilever supports various marketing initiatives related to Google Tag Manager and our CRM. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've seen lifts in conversion rate, time on site, and other key KPIs for both websites Cantilever has been tasked with. 

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

Cantilever is a very responsive team. We primarily communicate over Slack, but it feels like they are part of the internal team vs. an external agency. Additionally, they're very flexible when our plans shift or something urgent is needed.

What was your primary form of communication with Cantilever Web Design & Development?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The team at Cantilever quickly understands our goals and proposes ways to achieve them. I've worked with similar agencies in the past, and communication or workflow has never been as seamless as it is with Cantilever. 

Are there any areas for improvement or something Cantilever Web Design & Development could have done differently?

No, I really don't think so. When a mistake is made, their team readily takes accountability and practices finding a solution to fix the problem.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Digital Marketing Manager. My company builds data solutions for companies across different industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Cantilever to consult on and develop a duplicate microsite of one of our tools for a client. The client's version of the microsite required some enhanced features for its staff to use as a prospecting and marketing tool across different regions and markets.

SOLUTION

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

We previously worked with Cantilever to build the original microsite for our company. Based on their in-house expertise, knowledge of our business, and support in maintaining the microsite to-date, we decided to hire them for this client project.

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

We had a kick-off meeting to discuss the client's needs. After that, we were provided documentation on the technical specs and requirements, estimates, and a mock-up design. The first phase of the project was to deliver an MVP of the microsite for the client's internal training event with login capabilities (the microsite was only for internal staff use). The second phase was to build Google Analytics dashboards to track microsite usage. The third phase was to create a user admin dashboard for the client to control and administer staff login credentials.

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

We worked with the following personnel from Cantilever: - Partner - Lead Developer - Project Manager - Creative Technologist

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The client was impressed with the microsite and how much it had been customized for their business. This led to exploring more possible enhancements guided by Cantilever.

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

Cantilever provides weekly round-up updates about the project via email. We've been able to schedule meetings with them in short order and receive responses in a timely manner.

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

Cantilever has been able to deliver great progress on the project within each two-week sprint. They were very accommodating of our needs and requests.

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

When the client microsite launched, an issue happened during deployment which affected our company's version. Once we notified Cantilever, they were able to resolve the issue within an hour. They provided a full report of what happened as well as a plan to prevent the issue from happening again.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

When I worked with Cantilever, I was a program manager at American Bible Society. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cantilever?

We wanted a consultant for an app we were developing at the time. We didn't have in-house developers, so we were looking for someone with tech expertise to guide us. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cantilever provided an extended discovery process for the concept of the app. They helped us work through the first phase and figure out how to push the app ahead to see what we could do with it. They laid out a business structure, how to make it work for our audience and provided advice on how we could monetize it. 

They didn't do the actual development work for the app; it was more of a strategic partnership. They gave us a large, well-thought-out document, presenting the next generation interfaces and designs, which helped us strategically outline how the app will fit within the current organizational space (there was a lot transition going on in our organization).

What is the team dynamic?

Most of the time, we worked with 2 people. 

How did you come to work with them?

I met Ty [President, Cantilever] through networking.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent within the range of $10,000–$50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

The project happened in September 2014 and finished December of that same year, but we still interact with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everyone on our team appreciated the unique business perspectives that Ty brought. He was, and still is, a valuable part of the process; he helps energize our team.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint? 

They're very competent and always on time, delivering when they said they would. They even over delivered. We had our own team for the project, so there was a lot of interaction between us and them. We primarily used email and phone to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were personally invested and connected strongly to the concept. Ty and his team really poured themselves into it. They're well-connected and very aware of the market trends.