Clay

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of products for i360, a data analytics firm that also provides a wide array of software to search and act on the data we provide.

What challenge were you trying to address with Clay?

We wanted to completely overhaul our portal, which is our central product. It’s a query and action tool that our customers use.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us overhaul the usability and UI/UX for our web-based application. They used .NET Core, Angular, and various database technologies. We initially had a beta product, and we asked them to work on a specific area of the product which was limited in scope. We needed them to listen to our use cases that we had around that area and then help us within that limited realm, seen through the interactions that our customers have within that area, and identify which workflows could be re-envisioned and optimized. Then they translated not only workflow diagrams but some basic wireframes.

What is the team composition?

Our primary point of contact was a UX lead.

How did you come to work with Clay?

Our senior in-house UI designer was tasked with evaluating a number of firms. I gave him a specific criterion and he came up with a list of 15-20 firms for me to review. I narrowed that list to about six that I wanted to send a one-page RFP to, which laid out our beta product. We were willing to spend a little bit of money with various firms to see who would work. Clay was the first one we tried and we were very happy with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2018 until January 2019.

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

They were a good fit and they were able to understand our use cases and where our customers would be coming from. As a result, we scaled up to set the basis of our UX guide for a complete redesign and created workflows and wireframes for several of the major components. They’ve given us a backlog of hundreds of wireframes and a guide, and that’s going to be months of work for us to implement. We haven’t even begun to put the mockups they provided in front of beta testers or full customers. However, the reactions have been very positive from everyone that we’ve reviewed them with.

How did Clay perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was good. I think Clay is one of the better firms I’ve worked with because that understand that there’s a creative process that we need to be able to understand. They appreciate that the process has to be directed and lead to deliverables that we can act on. It was a really good balance. We had a weekly conference call and a shared Slack channel. We communicated either daily or every other day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We serve a unique nonprofit, so one of the challenges is understanding the use cases our customers have. There are applicable parallels in some commercial products out there. It’s not common for people to pick up on those parallels quickly, but Clay did. They simplified it from a UI perspective and they picked up on the use cases and the parallels to some of the commercial work they’ve done. It didn’t take them long to get there.

They also processed the volume of information we threw at them and turned it into quality deliverables quickly. There was clearly a creative process occurring. They’re a very bright team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Communication was sometimes a challenge. Around the holidays, we lost a little bit of productivity time. They went off in a direction that wasn’t as useful when we could have used that time in another direction. That was just a breakdown in communication that may not have occurred if it wasn’t the holiday period. We needed to maintain focus and have better communication during that time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communicate. Take the time to write out exactly what it is you’re looking for. It allows them to create some really good and precise workflows.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and creator of a product called Prism, which is a mobile bill pay experience for American consumers. It was acquired by a company called Handle Financial, where I am now the head of product for Prism.

What challenge were you trying to address with Clay?

We were looking to revamp our payment experience.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our payment experience is the core of what we do, so doing it really well is very important. We hadn’t really touched or iterated it for a while, and had since learned a lot, received customer feedback, and collected data from support cases.

They took the high-level problem statement we had, as well as some of the nuances of what we do, synthesized that information and worked on early iterations and mock-ups. They’re particularly good at iterating, listening, and taking our feedback along the way which is super helpful.

They excel at building a phone-based interface and are very up to date on the current trends and modern apps features. They helped us layer that angle into what we do. They helped us solve our problems, but also helped us to convey our functionality in a way that aligns with industry standards and user expectations.

What is the team composition?

We primarily interacted with the project manager and their director of design. I’m unsure of exactly how many designers contributed, but there were several.

How did you come to work with Clay?

We had worked with them when Prism was still independent after I’d been referred to them by a fellow iOS developer. We really liked their work so they helped us with several iterations of our app experience as well as our consumer-facing website. As we had worked with them before, there was a level of trust on our end that they could handle whatever we threw at them during this project.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them on this project from February to April 2018.

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

Our engineering team is starting to work on actually implementing the design, but in the user testing that we have done, everyone has been thrilled with it. Their cost is high, but we’ve continued to find that the value they provide is worth it. I’m keen on using them again in the future as new and different needs arise.

How did Clay perform from a project management standpoint?

We interacted with them once or twice a week, depending on where we were within the project, as well as via a private Slack channel. Having the time to chat live was really helpful in walking through their latest iterations and giving immediate feedback.

We didn’t have strict deadlines. There were a few situations where we weren’t quite satisfied with what they had done, but they were more than happy to go back to the drawing board and iterate. Similarly, there was another point where they wanted to spend a little more time on a specific area to iterate and work on it. As we weren't schedule driven, we were flexible and taking an extra two or three days was not critical. We were more focused on the overall quality of it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Overall, I am extremely satisfied. They helped us arrive at a solution and an interface that we are extremely proud of and are very much looking forward to getting into our customer’s hands.

We continue to be impressed by their ability to dive into a problem area or space that they may or may not be familiar with and pull out the essence of what our challenges are, or what we are struggling with, then really help us map out what needs to be done.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re very receptive to feedback. If they deliver something that you are not happy with or you feel it isn’t solving one or more of your requirements, be willing to communicate that with them. They hold themselves to a very high standard.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We build software to facilitate the execution of different phases of clinical trials. We focus on randomization and trial supply technologies, which deal with patient data capture and shipping logistics. I'm a principal architect responsible for building the product roadmap as well as product and process management.

What challenge were you trying to address with Clay?

We wanted to upgrade our user experience and aspects of our technology stack. We were implementing some new products into our overall ecosystem. We wanted a partner to help us survey our users and help us make sure everything works well from a user experience perspective.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Clay started off by surveying our product documentation and demos. We walked them through the actual application portfolio and our products. Together we created a project plan for the whole user experience initiative. They identified a list of internal and external stakeholders to interview for feedback on our existing products. They conducted around 15 internal and 15 external interviews and then we took all of that information and put together a design plan. Based on our information architecture, they went through a process to plan out a series of product releases. They also put together a project plan and then we started spec to look at the functionality. Currently they’re taking the solution through the actual design process and implementation.

What is the team composition?

We mostly work with a project manager, art director, and creative director but we also interact with their frontend developers.

How did you come to work with Clay?

We started looking at about 10 design companies. It was initially a global search that we wound up focusing us on San Francisco because our office is based there. Clay has a location in San Francisco so we brought them in for an interview. They showed us a lot of good product designs and gave us some good examples. When we put out our request for information (RFI), they came in with a bid that fit our price range and also seemed reasonable. A lot of other vendors were either outlandishly expensive or completely under-scoped the project. Clay came in with a pretty good target rate for the size of the initiative. We liked their people and what they brought to the table.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project kickoff was in April 2017 and the engagement is ongoing.

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

We haven't gone live yet but we did present the designs and mock-ups at user group meetings. The users were definitely impressed with the direction and the new look and feel.

How did Clay perform from a project management standpoint?

We integrated their developers into our agile process in Jira so we're working with them every day. The project managers also work with our systems to track all of the project elements. They're very responsive and proactive. I really like that they’ll push back when they really feel something will improve the user experience. They have great experience and are very intelligent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their creative direction is really good. Their design team is able to start from a limited set of requirements and provide very robust designs. Our product and subject matter is quite complicated. Clay takes complex concepts and translates them into a good user interface and user experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be a little bit better with project planning and scoping. To be fair, we made it difficult for them to accurately scope because we made so many changes. Redoing enterprise software is a large project and we completely changed the game plan several times, so I give them credit for being pretty flexible.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have a strong process. Define your stakeholder list, project plan and roadmap. Before you start programming, make sure you have enough functionality for them to work on. We had a lot of stuff ready for them to program at the beginning, but then they caught up and had to wait on us.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a mobile app prototyping platform. We help users formalize their ideas so they can go to market quickly.

What challenge were you trying to address with Clay?

We wanted to create a new product without sacrificing any internal resources, so we decided to outsource design work to a third-party agency.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We described the concept and handed wireframes to Clay. We gave them some data, and they also conducted their own research with our customers. From here, they designed the information architecture and visual interface of our product.

The initial deliverable was a full mockup of the tool’s user flow. After that, they worked on a high-fidelity visual design.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three or four people from their team, including the CEO, the creative director, and two visual designers.

How did you come to work with Clay?

We found them through online research, though it’s possible they were recommended to us. We interviewed three or four agencies before narrowing the list to two and conducting trial engagements.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between January–April 2017. After hiring additional staff, we decided to complete the design and development in-house.

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

Clay was very helpful. We worked collaboratively on UI and they set the initial groundwork, proposing a number of ideas for the application. While we ended up going with a different solution, our final product was heavily informed by Clay’s thinking and findings.

How did Clay perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication was very efficient while I was working near Clay’s San Francisco office. After returning to Europe, however, the time zone difference added complications. Still, they were willing to work with us and communicated outside their normal office hours.

Despite Clay’s efforts, working with remote teams can be difficult. The project wasn’t moving as quickly as we hoped, so we shifted the project to our in-house team to improve efficiency.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very proactive designers who conducted thorough research and contributed a number of innovative ideas. Their team is tech-savvy and familiar with market trends, so they offered valuable insights. We communicated clearly and they had an intuitive understanding of our goals. They felt like members of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their creative director became less involved as we moved into the design phase, which caused some communication issues. If their ideas had been presented directly by the creative lead, it may have led to a better solution.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients shouldn’t interfere with the design process too much. Clay knows what they’re doing and should be given room for creative freedom.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Mercari is a Japanese mobile application that hired me as their first product lead to help with their expansion into the U.S. market.

What challenge were you trying to address with Clay?

We were looking to redesign the app and customize it for the U.S. market. We didn’t have in-house design talent and needed a design agency to help us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started out with a discovery phase where they talked to the product team and executives to understand the project’s key roles, visions, and what we were looking for the product to drive. They came back with a couple different design directions for us to choose between and then created designs and screens for our mobile app.

We sat down with some of their people on site to do mock ups and go over designs of specific screens and flows. It was an iterative process where they went back and forth in order to come up with what we wanted to build.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with Anton (CEO, Clay) and a lead designer who both met with us in person. We communicated with the other designers via email.

How did you come to work with Clay?

I searched online for agencies in the San Francisco area that had good reviews and also looked at portfolios. We talked to a couple design agencies to get information and do an initial vetting. We decided to go with Clay because of the price and process they introduced, as well as for how aligned they were with what we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $20,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2016 for a month-long engagement.

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

We definitely liked the direction they went in. They gave us available options, which was nice for us because we were able to look at different ways to think about the flows and design. We eventually hired an in-house lead designer who used Clay’s design templates as a baseline to start work on the app. We definitely used the work they provided.

How did Clay perform from a project management standpoint?

They did pretty well. Anton was very participative in the project and came to the office if they had to discuss something. They would come in and present designs to us rather than over the phone, which was good. We did a lot of the work over email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a very solid design team. They came up with some interesting design angles and had some very creative flows. They work with a lot of different clients. They take the best of best practices from different places in order to see how they can apply them to a new domain.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I didn’t have any issues with them. It’s great to have a design firm that’s engaged, but for companies our size, you want to have someone in-house all the time because of the workload. I enjoyed my work with Clay.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re exceptional in terms of planning the engagement. They’re pretty proactive as well.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the vice president of a venture fund. We are a regular venture fund for investing in small stakes and startups, but we’re also an incubator that develops companies from scratch.

What challenge were you trying to address with Clay?

We were developing our idea for a communication platform. We wanted a distinct and unique design for the app, and needed a provider who could design our product’s appearance and user experience.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have in-house development resources, but Clay designed the app’s overall look and user experience. They helped us with both the iOS application and the desktop version.

Another company had created an initial version of the app, but we weren’t happy with it and wanted to pivot away from it. There are a lot of other communication platforms out there. We showed Clay what the app should look like, explained the problems that existing apps have, and had asked them to address all of that. They gave us a lot of new ideas about how we could differentiate ourselves.

Someone else handled the creation of the Android version, but our designers used the iOS version that Clay developed to create the Android app.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Anton Zykin [CEO, Clay] and two other people who took care of the design.

How did you come to work with Clay?

We found them through Behance. We also looked at another two providers, but their designs looked too much like other market players’ work. Clay had won a contest. We chose them because they had shown us something completely different, which was what we wanted.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in September of 2016, and the project was completed in January of 2017.

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

We launched it in the App Store a few months ago, but we haven’t started a marketing push yet. It is a business messenger with a very distinct color palette and interface. Everyone within our company has been using it for all internal communication.

Although it is accessible to the outside, it is still in its beta stage. We still want to work on a few other features before launching it to a wider market.

How did Clay perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was great. They always kept in touch with us and tried to understand what we wanted. They were creating a new product, which isn’t an easy thing to do. We have an unusual approach to task management and communication, so they had to spend a lot of time with us to understand our revisions and give us their perspective. It was a long process, but it was structured well.

They made an InVision prototype, which helped us see how the app would work before we began programming it. After that, we changed a lot of the features in the InVision prototype. They were a few weeks late on a couple of milestones, but that was normal. We’ve worked with a lot of designers who were late by several months, so two weeks is nothing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their understanding of interfaces was great, and their work with color palettes and user preferences was impressive. The app had a lot of complicated features, but they somehow made it work in an accessible way.

It took a lot of time, but they were professional. Both the UI and UX are very high-quality in comparison with other apps. When you work with designers and UX people, they usually look at other apps in the industry and create a hodgepodge of features. Instead, Clay tried to invent something new. A lot of our ideas came from them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so. They gave us a lot of ideas; some were not completely relevant, but they always tried to be helpful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They are very open and smart. Give them as much information as you can, and they will process it in the right way. Don’t expect them to understand your business. Be open about what you want to do and be as detailed as you can about your product and what you want to build.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Former Co-Founder of Chronotrack, a tech company operating in the athletic endurance events space. We build race timing hardware for marathons and triathlons, as well as software to manage and score those events.

During my time with the company, we timed, scored and collected data from majority of marathons, triathlons, and cycling events in the United States, as well as a large share of global events.

What challenge were you trying to address with Clay?

While we had engineering expertise in-house, we initially hired Clay to provide UX design for an application that allows users to register for endurance events.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Clay provided the UI/UX design for the application based on our requirements, but we ended up relying on their development expertise, as well. This allowed us to streamline the project and avoid any communication issues between their design team and our in-house developers.

We described the features we wanted and they created a browser-based HTML5 platform that we integrated with our backend systems. The platform works in conjunction with a native application built by our in-house team.

What is the team composition?

I worked directly with their CEO.

How did you come to work with Clay?

They came highly recommended by a friend who hired Clay to create an online map application. I reached out to them and flew to meet the CEO at their New York office. I was very impressed by him and his team, and while I didn’t have a project in mind at the time, I knew I wanted to work with them in some capacity.

We wanted to test the full range of their design capabilities by giving them a brand new project. When we solidified plans to create the registration application, I contacted Clay right away.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between January 2015–April 2015.

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

We’d worked with a number of UI designers, but the application Clay provided was the best. Anyone can create an attractive design, but their team took user experience into consideration and provided recommendations for improving navigation.

The platform averaged 500,000 views per month, which was fairly successful given that we were a specialized business. We timed roughly 18 million runners in the United States alone, so a sizeable portion of our audience utilized the application.

How did Clay perform from a project management standpoint?

One of our biggest priorities was to work with a vendor that could operate without day-to-day oversight. Clay’s independence allowed them to get the job done without a lot of handholding. They worked in two-week sprints and I only spoke with them twice during each sprint to give feedback and make any necessary adjustments. Their self-reliance was one of the key reasons we decided to let them to build the product in addition to design.

They were easy to work with, responsive to feedback, and met every deadline.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were a small company, and even though Clay has worked with some of the biggest tech companies in the country, their CEO still took time to get to know our brand. They were engaged, down-to-earth, and had strong communication skills.

I also appreciated their focus on both UI and UX. Lots of vendors say they focus on user experience, but ultimately rely on the client to provide rote design instructions. Clay helped us fine-tune a UX strategy and pushed back against any flawed ideas. That’s what we wanted, a partner to think deeply about the problem and provide an effective solution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It was sometimes difficult to communicate with their overseas developers, but their CEO always stepped in to provide translations whenever necessary. Their developers were highly skilled, so I was happy to work through these very minor communication issues.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It can be difficult to describe design ideas over the phone, so I recommend starting any project with a face-to-face meeting to go over the initial details. I met with Clay in-person at the beginning and the rest of the project was done remotely, which worked very well for us. This is a strategy I use in my current position when working with remote employees.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I lead the R&D and mobile app engineering teams at Identity Guard. We were one of the pioneers of identity protection in the 1990s. We provided identity protection services, we monitored credit reports and our customer’s information on the dark web, and we provided a lot of other ancillary features and tools. The company is based out of Virginia, but we have a satellite team in Silicon Valley. Our team focuses on R&D into emerging technologies and mobile app development. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Clay?
We needed help on the UI/UX side for our mobile apps, and our company didn't have expertise in-house for how to develop UI/UX in the mobile ecosystem.

What was the scope of their involvement?
Clay has worked with us on a couple of projects. One of the projects was an app that delivered anti-phishing features on both iOS and Android. The app basically uses mechanisms in the operating system to block malicious and phishing sites. It’s actually the only app of its kind in both stores where the app provides that protection in the default browser as opposed to forcing the user to use a custom browser. So on iOS you can continue using Safari and our app will help protect your browser, and on Android you can use Chrome or Samsung Internet and stay protected. We wanted the app to be simple on the UI side, but complicated on the internal side to keep everything protected within the default browser. For that project, Clay helped us design a user experience and an onboarding process where Clay created a video that told the user about the app. They helped us establish what the different onboarding screens and main screens of the app should be and how to make it simple for the user. They covered everything from the high level down to the low level, including where the buttons would be positioned. 

The other project we worked on with Clay was an Android and iOS app for a new service called Identity Guard with Watson. The new service is a different flavor from the classic service. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to help predict when identity theft might occur and apply those technologies toward the problem of identity protection. Clay did the same thing with us. We just didn't have the resources internally to go through and develop the full design and UX. We sent Clay the designs that our UX lead came up with for the web side, and then Clay worked with us to import those designs over to the mobile platform. We wanted to follow the same kind of rough styles and general UI look and feel, but we wanted to make sure it was mobile friendly. In general, Clay would start coming up with an initial set of wireframes, they’d send us the wireframes, we’d get on a call with our whole mobile team, we’d have the UX lead on the call, and we’d walk through every screen. We provided comments and feedback on what worked and what we wanted to change, and then Clay would take all of that feedback, make changes, we’d set up a call a week later, and we’d go through the latest designs. We went through that two to four times until everybody was happy with the finalized designs, and then our team proceeded to build out the features. That’s kind of the process in a nutshell. 

After having worked with Clay for some time, we do trust them and defer to them when it comes to mobile UX/UI design choices. We know they have a lot of breadth and depth in the industry, and they understand the mobile ecosystem. We trust them to steer our projects in the right direction without necessarily doing any user testing on the forefront. I think the user testing portion of it is more up to us to get feedback from our customers once the apps go live. 

It’s important to keep in mind that Clay didn't do any specific engineering or development for us. We only needed their help on the UI/UX side. Our team has engineers, and we built things based on Clay’s designs. 

How did you come to work with Clay?
To find Clay, we went online and just started Googling and made informed decisions from there. I don't think we had any company in mind. We may have had three or four candidates, and we followed them around and spoke with them. I think we were generally just impressed with Clay’s website and their portfolio. We had a general sense of comfort about working with them after speaking with Clay’s lead.

How much have you invested with Clay?
I think we’ve spent $60,000 or $70,000 between the two projects, maybe a little bit more. 

What is the status of this engagement?
That first project dates back to probably the beginning of 2016. We always keep an open purchase order on our side, and they’re always on standby if we need their help. If we need an asset or something, we’ll make a request, and then they’ll send them our way. We finished this latest project with them about three or four weeks ago, but it’s going to be an ongoing project. We’re going to be adding new features to it and expanding it. 

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

We never did a lot of marketing around the phishing apps, the first project that we worked on with Clay. We developed the apps around certain core features and our company kind of SDKed those features. Now we’re looking at offering them to other businesses so they can integrate them into their own apps. We also want to integrate these anti-phishing features into Identity Guard with Watson Mobile Apps, the second project that we built. The first apps we built were free because we wanted to offer protection at no cost to users. We didn't do a lot of marketing, so we never saw a lot of downloads. If we had done the marketing, we probably would have seen the downloads. 

The project we finished 3 or 4 weeks ago hasn’t seen a lot of enrollments yet, but we’re still doing active development on it and adding features. They’re doing the same thing on the web side. In fact, enrollment is going to be done in the next couple of weeks. You can't even enroll in the product online right at the moment. We haven't had the opportunity to push this app, get users engaged, and drive adoption. I think that’s going to happen over the coming year. As far as metrics go, I don't think there’s much we can show at the moment.

For the first apps we put out, we didn't do a lot of marketing and we weren’t charging anything for the apps, so I don't think there was a lot of drive on our side to get user feedback. For this new project, we haven't had the opportunity yet to enroll a lot of users to be able to get feedback. To be completely honest, I think it’s a little premature to get feedback. The apps were literally released 1.5 to 2 weeks ago. 

I can tell you that on the anecdotal side, our team is happy with the UI for both projects. I think the UI was a little bit simpler on the first project, so I think our focus should probably be on the second one. I can say with confidence everybody at our company who has seen the app is happy with it. It’s a clean and simple design. I don't think we would have been able to achieve the elegant user experience that we have if Clay wasn’t helping us with the project. 

How did Clay perform from a project management standpoint?

Clay performed very well from a project management standpoint. We used them for that first project more than a year ago, and when it came time to do this new project about 5 months ago, there was no question in our mind that we wanted to work with the same group and the same team. They’re very responsive; their team lead responds right away. They’re connected to Slack, so whenever we need something, it’s easy to get ahold of them. We’re typically communicating with three or four people at Clay. The project worked out great, and I can't think of any other issues or red flags that came up during our time working together. They always delivered whenever on whatever they had committed to. They were always there as a group on all of the calls that we had set up. They usually had at least two or three people participating and taking notes. I don't recall anything ever slipping by. If our team mentioned something offhand like, “Hey, let’s make sure we change that color,” or “Let’s change that text there,” they seemed to be on top of things and noting down even the little things that we had discussed on calls. 

What did you find most impressive about Clay?
I guess it’s hard for me to say. To be honest, they’re the only company in their line of work that I’ve worked with. I’ve never had the need to work with a design company on mobile projects before. I can say that if I ever have to work with another company in the future, I certainly hope that I have the same positive experience that I have had working with Clay. They’re professional, they understand the mobile ecosystem, and they understand what a good user experience is like on both iOS and Android. And for a company like ours where we had our own engineering team and we were only using Clay for UX/UI, it was just a very clean working experience, in the way that they provided us fact sets, flows, etc. They crossed their T’s and dotted their I's. It was a great experience for our entire team. 

Are there any areas Clay could improve?
Honestly, nothing comes to mind. We simply didn't have any issues working with Clay as a team. I’m sure they’ll say the same thing about us, despite the fact that they’re our vendor. Their communication was great. I think they’re a great team to use across the board. For a company in our position where we just need help with design and user experience, they did a fantastic job. We didn't have them write any code for us or do any kind of engineering, so I have no idea how they perform on that front. Just from the perspective of UI/UX design, I can't think of anything they would need to improve on. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an Internet company that runs a teenage social media platform. I’m the co-founder and CEO.

What challenge were you trying to address with Clay?

We wanted to get wireframes and a first design done for a mobile app that we wanted to launch.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Clay dug pretty deep in the design process both in UX and UI of our iOS app. They helped guide us day-to-day with what design changes should be made, what we should keep in mind for future design tweaks.

How did you come to work with Clay?

We reached out to four or five agencies online. One of them was Clay. We really liked the way they were thinking about working with our project and we liked their previous work as well.

How much have you invested with them?

I’d prefer to keep the cost of the project confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started in mid-July of this year [2015] and ended in August.

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

It was a good public perception that we gave off. We didn’t end up going with that app then. We discontinued it in mid-September. The majority of the value we got out of it was the perception it gave to our stakeholders. We were pleased with the image we were able to create, and a lot of it was because of Clay's work.

How did Clay perform from a project management standpoint?

Clay had great project management and their quality of work was exceptional. They kept good tabs on the day-to-day pipeline and backlog that they had in terms of what they had to execute. They did a good job communicating those results to us. The end design from an outside perspective was really high quality.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their availability and attention to client detail are great relative to other vendors.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I prefer not to answer that.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is a social media network—an app available for iPhone and Android. We let users introduce anticipation into their media posts. I'm the co-founder and CTO.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Clay?

There was one main goal we had in mind when we were looking for a development shop. We wanted a company that could create an intuitive user interface with a great design. The user had to feel that they were in familiar waters beside the new features we were introducing.

What was the scope of their involvement?

When we met the Clay team, we presented our nearly finished app. It was functional, but the interface had to be reworked—that’s where they stepped in. We showed them the app and we told them where we wanted to go with it.

Clay brought a fresh look into the app and presented us the concept of how to redo the entire user experience. At that point, their designers started to draft exact screens and flows and walk through it all with our engineers, and at some point delivering assets to the engineers so they could implement the process.

 How did you come to work with Clay?

My team and I were searching for mobile development shops in New York that specialize in user interface design. We went over websites like Github to look at their portfolio. We invested two weeks just reviewing all kinds of works that you can find on those sites trying to find out what is relevant to what we do, what we like and don’t like. We quickly had no more than three or four finalists. We met with them, and we ended up with Clay. 

When we met, we clicked together. We saw that they understood what we wanted to achieve, and what our challenges were.

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The bulk of the work has been completed. Now and then we introduce new functionalities and features, and we have asked Clay to work with us on that. 

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

I can share that our average session duration on the app is high for this industry standard. It’s more than 18 minutes. That was achieved gradually by improving it over time and Clay was a part of that. It started at 6 minutes, and we tripled it.

How did Clay perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m very pleased with the quality of their work. It’s outstanding. That’s why we keep working with them. They understand tech and the startup mentality where everything is done very rapidly. Everything is agile. We share documents and other files using tools like DropBox, Basecamp, and Google Docs. Everything moves very quickly with them without sacrificing the quality of the work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Clay is a top-notch design shop. They really understood what we were trying to do, and executed well based on those ideas. They’re not the cheapest shop in town, but we definitely got good work for our dollar. It was an investment that was well worth it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.