Clever Samurai

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the global marketing manager at a legal services company. We provide technology to the legal, government, and financial sector in Canada, the UK, and Australia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Clever Samurai?

We needed someone to develop our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Clever Samurai developed our WordPress website. It was built with the incentive that we were going public. The team provided the entire website rebrand in a short time. On top of that, they provided imagery and content for our platform.

We provided them with documentation at the start of the project as well as the content we wanted to be included on our investor-focused website. Overall, it was quite a basic build with a bit of design work. Afterwards, they provided ad hoc services.

What is the team composition?

A project manager and two developers worked on the project. My main point of contact was the project manager.

How did you come to work with Clever Samurai?

A previous marketing VP had worked with them at another business.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $200,000 CAD (approximately $160,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2019–January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Asking for a complete overhaul in four weeks was very difficult because we needed to plan a lot. It was also a double-edged sword since Clever Samurai was given a difficult brief. In the end, the quality wasn't where I would've liked it to be. However, it wasn't terrible either.

Through conversations I had with other people, our website wasn't where it should be for a legal technology company. Overall, we just didn't get the best time frames because we had the Initial Public Offering (IPO) coming up.

How did Clever Samurai perform from a project management standpoint?

They were responsive and they stuck to the time frames. I wouldn’t say they did it within budget but that could be because of the goal post changing in some instances. We communicated via Zoom and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I didn’t work close enough with them to answer that, and nothing stood out to me. They didn't deliver bad service or anything, but I couldn’t confidently say what distinguishes them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve the quality of their work and consistency. I would have liked their standards to be a tad bit higher.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If I was to work with them again, I’d want a really clear brief, an outlined timeline, and cost. I’d want to get into the nitty-gritty of exactly what it is they’re delivering and the quality and standard of what they’re delivering.