Chop-Chop

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for a company called Curaytor. We are in the real estate marketing, advertising, and technology space. Our mission is to connect and empower the best agents to dream bigger and accomplish more.

I am the Product Manager at Curaytor. I work closely with development and design to understand the problems our client base is experiencing and deliver solutions in the most seamless, beautiful, and simple way.

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

We have worked with Chop Chop front end developers for years! The most recent tool we worked with them on was our new Email Marketing Tool with the addition of a visual campaign builder that absolutely blew our customers away. Our old email marketing tool had become outdated, clunky, and quite difficult to maintain.

We decided to rebuild it from the ground up and revolutionize the entire experience. This was the first of our major tools that we "revamped" for our clients and it's safe to say we set the bar very high for our next few releases.

How did you select Chop-Chop and what were the deciding factors?

We've been impressed with Chop-Chop's work time and time again and the two developers that we work with have truly become an integral part of our team. I can't imagine embarking on a new project without them at this point.

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

We met with other departments at the beginning of the process to understand the flows and processes that we are not super close to. We asked both internal team members and clients what parts of the existing solution were the most frustrating so that we could be sure that the critical "must-have" elements were accomplished as a result of this re-build.

From there, the team put together a quick clickable prototype to ensure we were on the right path. Once designs were finalized, we established what was to be included in the MVP for user testing. Following user testing, we iterated on the existing solution to make it even easier and accommodate our clients' needs and workflows.

A few weeks leading up to the release, we "ate our own dog food" by giving the internal team members access to use our newest technology in an effort to have more eyes on it and catch any last-minute critical bugs. The release was a huge success and as I mentioned, has set the bar very high for future products. We used Gitlab, Buddy, JS (Typescript, React, Slate, Node.js, Puppeteer)

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

We had two front end engineers working with us full time for this project.

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

We sent out a CSAT survey following the release and had 93% positive feedback, with a majority of 5/5 stars. We have also seen an increase in product usage. In the first two days following the release, nearly 25% of our customer base had used the new feature already. Given our company's history with product updates and releases, this is notable and a huge win.

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

We talked daily and met formally via Zoom Video at least once every 10 days or so (sometimes more, depending on where we were in the process). We communicated through Slack and established tasks in Trello.

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

The level of skill the two developers we work with have is very impressive. They are excellent communicators, contribute meaningfully to our conversations, and have truly become a part of the team. Their attention to detail has been very impressive.

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

Not really. Like any new release, there were a few bugs that would pop up here and there, but the team was quick to fix them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a digital health B2B2C company based in germany, targeting the biggest german companies who are looking for a digital health solution for their employees. As the CMO I am responsible for all marketing activities.

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

Our website was outdated and we wanted to give it a fresh look and a new technical background. For the look we worked with a design agency, but since we don't have many developers for marketing, we approached Chop-Chop to handle the development work as our IT-team had already had a great experience with them in the past. The chop-chop team worked as an external development team that took over all tasks for the relaunch of the website.

How did you select Chop-Chop and what were the deciding factors?

We worked with them in the past, not me myself, but our development team worked with them and it always turned out to be successful.

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

Once we finished the work on the visual design, we were about to hand over the project to chop-chop. The designs that were made had to be implemented into a new wordpress and the wordpress backend needed to be setup for our marketers to work with it in daily life. They provided us a test-wordpress scenario and we tested and setup the whole website during the time period of may-september. all of the pages were designed by the marketers, chop-chop developed all components based on the designs as well as the backend.

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

one project manager and 2-3 developers

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

since launching September 9.9.2020 we are very happy with how we can work with the new website and the tools given with the wordpress that has been setup. it is easy to use for us and chop-chop developers were very hands-on when we wished to adapt a feature to be more practical for us. We have received good feedback about the website, most importantly have we tripled organic google traffic after the relaunch.

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

Since I handled the whole project, which included the design agency as well, I connected Chop-chop with the designers. we used the tool the designers proposed and chop-chop worked within that tool. I was able to check the status of the development process in the activecollab, while the actual developments could be used in the wordpress test-scenario. we had about 3-4 video calls to talk about the project, but most communication went via activecollab and email.

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

The developers we worked with were very hands-on and fast. They made suggestions for improvements and found solutions for us to solve bugs or things that weren't super handy. I felt like though this was a corona-project without personal meetings, all people involved gave their all.

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

project communication in the beginning could have been better, but also from our part. the project management from design to development was something that wasn't running smoothly and I would monitor and manage this more directly the next time. But this was handled professionally after all and the whole project turned out to be a success that I would repeat right away if necessary.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a bicycle company that provides and produces bicycles. For each product we sell, we donate one to a school in a developing country.

What challenge were you trying to address with Chop-Chop?

We needed to build a site that would be easy to navigate, find, and use. Ideally, their solution would be better than our previous site.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our team hired another partner to design the solution. Then, we handed the project over to them for the e-commerce site development. They built the platform and connected the Shopify e-commerce shop to the solution.

What is the team composition?

To begin the project, there were three teammates assigned to our account. After that, we mostly communicated with our project manager. 

How did you come to work with Chop-Chop?

Our CEO was introduced to them and decided to work with them almost immediately.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent roughly between €7,000–€9,000 (approximately $7,700–$9,900 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted for three months in the spring of 2019. However, they still provided updates to the site after that period. 

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

The delivered quality, and working with them is easy. They had worked out a system that allowed us to ask and recieve answers to questions we had about the development. Our users have commented that the site is clean and easy to navigate. They’ve also praised the site’s general appearance. 

How did Chop-Chop perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. We had weekly updates during which all three of them were always on the call. If there were any questions, we were able to log into their platform to ask questions. It was smooth and easy to work together.

Having a dedicated project manager to the account added significant value to the development. Through our weekly calls, it’s clear that he’s completed dedicate to our team. Even though he definitely has other responsibilities, we received a considerable amount of attention. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They provide personalized contact with our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been times where we’ve had questions about our contract and changes to it throughout the duration of the project. Sometimes it was difficult to reach them with those questions, so we would’ve liked a little more clarity in that area. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

This is a very good company that can build a good-looking site with a personal touch. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

Data Space provides IT infrastructure & administration services based on our own certified Data Center. Our main products are dedicated servers, private bare-metal cloud as well as DDoS & WAF protection.

I am mainly responsible for technical support as well as the creation and implementation of solutions that improve our customer experience.

For what projects/services did your company hire Chop-Chop?

Outsourcing frontend development due to insufficient numbers of qualified in-house staff.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed a brand new admin panel for our website and looked to handle it in the most efficient manner. The ultimate goal was to get a modular, hierarchic code that would be easy to integrate with our.

How did you select this vendor?

We worked with Chop-Chop on several occasions before. We had mostly needed simple WordPress websites before but their flawless execution assured us we didn't need to look any further. It is really hard to find true WordPress experts who actually specialize in this CMS.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We already had a solution for the backend but we needed expert frontend developers to provide HTML/CSS and JS. The project involved creating the admin panel for our website.

Apart from the coding, they provided assistance with creating responsive design and many small effects like hover effects and dropdowns to improve the customer experience.

What was the team composition?

The team was composed of two frontend developers and a project manager. The developers worked hand in hand to produce particular pages and fill them with JS functionality.

The project manager handled some of the communication and made sure all assets were in place. We were able to work within they project management tool and could track the progress easily.

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

Since the project involved creating an internal admin panel, we can't say it had a tremendous impact on our business. It definitely made it easier for us to manage our internal resources and we've been using it ever since, never finding any issues worth mentioning.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was very effective and transparent. The project has been broken down into tasks on day one and reliable milestones were set. We were given access to Chop-Chop's project management tool and could track the progress at all times, as well as directly communicate with the developers if needed. We also scheduled weekly Zoom meetings with the entire team to go through the essentials and possible blockers.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They put a lot of effort into understanding our needs thoroughly, offered their own point of view (based on tremendous experience in similar projects) and helped choose the best way to approach this project.

Are there any areas for improvement?

It sometimes happens we need to wait a bit longer for them to start working on a project due to not enough developers available at the current moment.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the owner of PULPA, a fashion brand offering simple, minimalistic, good quality clothing for women.

For what projects/services did your company hire Chop-Chop?

I hired them to develop my newly re-designed e-store. The design was slick and minimalistic and required a number of custom solutions that our WooCommerce package does not offer by default. I wanted to stick to WooCommerce, however, because I was familiar with the WordPress backend.

What were your goals for this project?

I wanted a smoothly running WooCommerce theme that would boost my business. It was also important for me to improve my website so that online visitors get a good first impression of my brand.

How did you select this vendor?

They were recommended to me by a friend. They’re based in the same city as me, so I could personally visit their office and discuss particular issues. That’s important to me because I'm not a tech-savvy person.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Once our designs were ready, we held a meeting and discussed site functionalities. They developed a first version of the solution and I reviewed it and reported all issues in Active Collab. They then addressed the issues in a reasonable time frame.

What was the team composition?

There were two developers in total that worked on my site, along with a few managers. At first, they all communicated with me at different times, but after a while, a single project manager was assigned. I think they had an internal process alteration.

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

I don't have any firm data yet, but the feedback I'm getting from my customers is very positive.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Once they assigned a single project manager, the communication was smooth and clear. At first, we communicated through email, but afterward, they introduced Active Collab, their preferred project management tool. That made management much easier. I was informed regularly about project progress and the obstacles they faced. They also provided previews quite regularly.

They were always quick to answer, and they agreed to meet me in person a few times, which showed me that they cared about the project.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They’re willing to adjust and suggest what could be done better. They were really patient in handling my requests, but they also firmly suggested against some of them. I really appreciated it.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Sometimes they’re busy and they take a long time to look at an issue, but they always communicate those delays.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a digital agency that designs and develops websites and other online projects for customers, including handling their marketing. I am the CEO of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Chop-Chop?

We want to work with good developers who have high standards. We were looking to scale our client projects, make better estimates, and deliver them in a faster manner, so we partnered with Chop-Chop. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our internal staff is in charge of conceptualization and client communication. Chop-Chop has handled full development scopes for us.

We’ve worked on a number of projects with them, including a special effort for an online school. Chop-Chop provided custom frontend and backend development, working with WooCommerce and WordPress. These are the typical platforms we use, and our coding languages include HTML, CSS, and PHP.

We’ve used a lot of developers from Chop-Chop—usually 2–3 per project, depending on the scope. We’ve kept in touch with 3 lead developers—1 for each project.

How did you come to work with Chop-Chop?

We looked at a lot of companies when trying to find the right partner. I found Chop-Chop online and reviewed their services. I needed a partner who could scale according to our needs. I also liked Chop-Chop’s approach to estimates. The other companies we looked at only worked on an hourly basis, which was a problem for me since I didn’t know how they worked or what the quality of their deliverables would be. Their team was personable, and we could talk to them in a direct manner. We had some face-to-face meetings, which we hadn’t been able to do with other companies.

How much have you invested with Chop-Chop?

The cost of their work has been $30,000 or more.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Chop-Chop in June 2015, and the work is ongoing. They are the only partner we’re currently using for development projects. 

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

Since we’ve started working with Chop-Chop, we’ve been able to take on more projects, work faster, and scale our knowledgebase. They have broad skills in their area. Comparing our numbers, we’ve worked on 4-times as many projects in 2016 compared to 2015.

How did Chop-Chop perform from a project management standpoint? 

We’ve become accustomed to their team, and they’ve changed some internal processes in order to work with our customers better. Chop-Chop has a dedicated communications manager who is familiar with our projects. We have open and direct communication, and it’s easy to work with them and coordinate project management.

We have given Chop-Chop up to 15 tasks at a time on certain projects, and they handled all of them with no problems. If an issue comes up, we discuss it over Skype. Whenever Chop-Chop’s team couldn’t deliver by a certain deadline, they informed me ahead of time.  

What did you find most impressive about Chop-Chop?

I appreciate their way of working. Chop-Chop sees us as a partner and anticipates our customers’ needs. We’re not a number to them. I know their team, from the CEO to the marketing people. It’s been great to have a partner who can change processes in order to make my own work better.

Are there any areas Chop-Chop could improve?

We have identified some improvement points and are in the process of making those changes, so there’s nothing missing. For example, we wanted to have an environment in place where clients could see demos of the work and that Chop-Chop’s developers also could access. We’ve adopted GitHub in order to solve the problem and work faster. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our organization is called Better Collected. We're located in Copenhagen, Denmark, and we do online gaming including sports betting and online casinos. We're an affiliate, so we create websites that enhance the players’ experience when playing online. Then we collaborate with various betting companies. We try to give the users the best possible experience when betting online.

I am the head of the pilot plant. We do pilot projects and test out new ideas. If our small prototypes work, we then try and scale them.

What challenge were you trying to address with Chop-Chop?

Chop-Chop helped us update our concept site called dailyaccas.com.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had this concept site called dailyaccas.com that we had run for some time, and we started to see some good traffic on the site, but it was old school. We needed something new and nice. Luckily we have some nice designers in-house. One of them designed a nice new layout for the site on PhotoShop, but we needed Chop-Chop to convert that into HTML and Javascript.

How did you come to work with Chop-Chop?

My colleague used Chop-Chop for a few previous projects. He was extremely satisfied with their performance, so that's why he recommended to use them for this specific project.  I believe it was Thursday that I got the recommendation from my colleague and I immediately went to the Chop-Chop website. There was this nice form that I could fill out with all the details about the website, how it should be set up, what kind of fonts to use, and what kind of frameworks are included. I could see the price for the project, how it would increase if I added certain features and decreased if I decided to make it more simple. In the end, I submitted the project. About an hour later, I got an email back from one of the guys at Chop-Chop saying that everything looked straightforward and they would have the project ready by the following Tuesday. As promised, on Tuesday I got an email from Chop-Chop to see the web page, how it looked fully developed and a link to download all the files. It was a perfect experience. Nothing needed to be done.

How much have you invested with Chop-Chop?

We spent about $240.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was completed in three weeks from the initial point of contact.

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

I’m fully satisfied with this specific project which is why I decided to take over some of the more advanced dynamic stuff that we needed for the site. Their task was just to set up the simple static website which I think for both parties made the whole thing easier.

How did Chop-Chop perform from a project management standpoint?

Perfect. There were no real issues, nothing we had to tackle. I would say that the communication was super friendly and super fast.

What did you find most impressive about Chop-Chop?

I haven't tried many similar companies, but from my experience, I can say that they were very fast and delivered a high-quality product exactly as promised.

Are there any areas Chop-Chop could improve?

On this specific project, no.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide data protection to businesses. I am the Chief Revenue Officer.

What challenge were you trying to address with Chop-Chop?

We were making a new website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had some previous experience because we employ quite a few programmers and web developers on our own. We were trying to develop our website on our own, but it was very time-consuming and not very effective. One of our project managers for the new website found Chop-Chop and convinced us it might be a good idea to outsource the project. We all agreed to smooth things out and give Chop-Chop the responsibility of making the whole project from end to end. We have our designers, so we already had the copy and pictures of what we were trying to achieve and a description of what should be the outcome of the project. We sent all of it to Chop-Chop, and they gave an estimate of time and money. We agreed, and they just did the project.

How much have you invested with Chop-Chop?

It was close to $3,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Chop-Chop at the beginning of February/March 2016. The website has been running for six or seven months now.

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

The main thing I have noted is that before, when we were trying to develop the website on our own, there were constant crashes and it was a never-ending project. Since we outsourced it to Chop-Chop, the website has been working for more than six months. My only feedback statistic is that it wasn’t working before when we tried to do it on our own, and now it is working.

How did Chop-Chop perform from a project management standpoint?

There was just one person from our side who did most of the project management. We would make remarks and notes about the website, and she would relay that information to Chop-Chop. The changes would be implemented on either the same day or the next day.

What did you find most impressive about Chop-Chop?

What I know and have gathered from my friends involved in this project is that the estimate was very fair, it was just right. Chop-Chop determined the amount of money and time the project would take, and they did it within the budget and time.

Are there any areas Chop-Chop could improve?

I'm not sure they could have done anything differently because they were doing everything we asked them to do. All the changes implemented later on were our decision. The changes were not caused by any mistakes on their side.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the social media manager of Santa Monica Studio, a subsidiary of Sony PlayStation. We are a game developer. I look after all the social media and content strategy, including our websites and social media channels.

What challenge were you trying to address with Chop-Chop?

I was trying to design a website and was having difficulty doing it on my own. Chop-Chop seemed like a really good solution.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Everything they’ve done to date involved taking a Photoshop file that I had created and turning it into a website. Our first project was for a game called The Order: 1886. We were doing a contest on our website and we needed to build a unique contest page. I designed the page in Photoshop, but I didn’t have the coding skills to turn it into a full website page. That’s where Chop-Chop came in. I tried them out, sent them our Photoshop file, and they nailed it. They produced an exact replica of the Photoshop file and turned it into a web page. It looked as good as anything anybody else could’ve done. A year after that, we worked on promotion for a game called Journey. Recently, they helped design a 1-page website for our video series, Santa Monica Studio Creatives.  

How did you come to work with Chop-Chop?

I’d come across Chop-Chop’s website in a Google search. They were also mentioned in other recommendation sites and I was really impressed with their work. Their pricing was rock bottom cost-effective.

How much have you invested with Chop-Chop?

Each project cost around $500.

What is the status of this engagement?

I first worked with Chop-Chop a couple of years ago, in November 2014. Since then, I’ve gone back to them a couple of times for similar projects, in October 2015 and March 2016.

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

Anecdotally, I can tell you that throughout the 3 projects we’ve done with them, the website quality has been applauded by our fans and our team. We appreciate having a high-quality web page experience, particularly when we’re trying to recruit employees for our company. Having a company like Chop-Chop to help us execute that vision was tremendous. As far as statistics go, I don’t think the Google analytics or the visits really matter. Their job was to do the creative; our job is to get the traffic there.

How did Chop-Chop perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re flawless. The fact is, I live in California; they’re in Poland. They’re half a world away, 10 hours ahead of us, but they were still good at communicating. It was like being on a next-day type service. They didn’t respond when it was their night time, but they were really diligent with their communication. Chop-Chop was not charging a lot. However, their team still provided high-quality service and communication. That’s why it’s tough to complain about anything.

What did you find most impressive about Chop-Chop?

The biggest thing that distinguishes them is their cost. There’s really no one else who can take a Photoshop file and convert it into a high-quality HTML, mobile-compliant, and responsive website. It would look exactly as you envisioned. You get that level of quality and professional service for the cost that they’re offering. I think that their price is unbeatable.

Are there any areas Chop-Chop could improve?

If I’m being constructive, when they would give us the work back, there was a 10% or 15% room for error. There were definitely a few back and forth exchanges that needed to happen to get something exactly the way we wanted it. But that’s being super nitpicky. I can’t expect it to be 100% on a first delivery, especially in this kind of creative partnership. But if I had to nitpick, that would be it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Stun Design & Interactive does small to medium-sized marketing-style websites. We also do other things that aren’t related to websites such as print work, but that’s our main demographic. I’m an Interactive Director.

What challenge were you trying to address with Chop-Chop?

We do a lot of frontend work here, so we’ve tried to hire people to do backend WordPress-type stuff. We were unsuccessful with finding somebody with the quality of work that we needed, so that’s why we contacted Chop-Chop, to do some backend work with WordPress.

What was the scope of their involvement?

While working with Chop-Chop, we would go through all the design work and provide them with a final design file. Once we’d give them something to look at, we would open up a dialogue with them about what we can use to make our site the best that it can be with the technology that’s out there. We would lean on Chop-Chop to say, “Hey, do we need some JavaScript here? Do we need to integrate this into WordPress and use a plugin?” They were very good at recommending and walking us through that process.

How did you come to work with Chop-Chop?

I found them through an ad on a design showcase site. We’d looked through several different companies and I contacted a few. Chop-Chop was quick to answer, and their price was reasonable.

How much have you invested with Chop-Chop?

We’ve done some smaller things that would be worth a couple of hundred dollars, but we’ve also done some pretty complicated stuff. I think the highest would be around $1,700 to $2,000. The average cost estimate would be $1,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve done several projects with Chop-Chop. We started our last project with them in late July, and we finished it in mid to late August. The project took about a month once we got our designs to them because there was a lot of going back and forth to tighten things up.

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

All of our clients have been completely satisfied with the work that has been provided. We’ve worked with Chop-Chop probably over a year, and within that year, we haven’t seen any problems with their work.

How did Chop-Chop perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great at project management. When we first started working with Chop-Chop, there were more people that were involved with the project. I’d get an answer from a different person every time, but it wasn’t a problem for me. It’s never been a problem communicating; it would just be more than one person getting back to me. Now within the last six months, they’ve assigned three people to our account, and we only hear from those three people. They know our projects a little bit more intimately than before. They are very good at communicating even though we’re in a way different time zone. They’re in Europe and we’re in the southern United States, but I haven’t had any problems getting in touch with them or getting anything done.

What did you find most impressive about Chop-Chop?

Their communication skills are top-notch. They know how to ask the right questions. They’re very thorough, and they won’t let things slip by. That’s one thing that’s been very beneficial to us because we want to focus on the design and do the best design that we can possibly do. When we show them our designs, they are able to say, “Hey, look, this isn’t going to work responsively or we can make it work, but it’s going to cause a slower loading time.” They catch all the details as far as the development end goes.

Are there any areas Chop-Chop could improve?

It would be nitpicky, but Chop-Chop gives you a range for a completion date. I’ve never really had any problem with that, but I would like for them to be more specific about when the project will be completed.