Crafted

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the SVP of product and design for an applicant tracking system.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Crafted?

We needed someone to kickstart and consult us on our transformation and re-platforming project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Crafted essentially helped us build and design a flexible configurable app. We identified areas of improvement through app research within our space to produce the best product in our industry.

We utilized React and Java on the front- and backend, and implemented Agile Scrum methodology. Apart from that, they taught us a lot about how we can streamline and add efficiencies to the development process.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with Adam (Founder & CEO) and his team.

How did you come to work with Crafted?

They previously worked with our CEO’s last company, so we brought them in to see what they could give us from a value perspective.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July 2020–March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Upon our first release, we saw a 300% increase in applicant flow for some of our customers and we’re now processing about 12–15 million applications a year — which is a vast improvement compared to what we were garnering before this app.

Other than that, our call center call volume has tripled in customer concerns, specifically with applicants attempting to reset their passwords.

How did Crafted perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed excellently from a project management perspective — their product manager was very skilled and did a great job of ensuring that the project was consistently on track to completion.

We use JIRA and Confluence to manage the project and typically communicated through Zoom and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with their well-established process and they also worked well with our company’s infrastructure — they embedded themselves within the company to drive process improvement. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our partnership was a huge success so nothing comes to mind. I just wish we kept them around longer but unfortunately, it didn’t fit our budget.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise you to be open to Crafted’s process and model. They have a lot of experience in developing balanced teams and the sooner you embrace that, the more streamlined the process will be.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CPO of a company that provides corporations and insurance carriers with software services and solutions for mobility risk management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Crafted?

We wanted two things out of the engagement: to extend our new product's functionality and sharpen product and engineering skills internally. 

We had just released a new product and needed Crafted to help build new features. We had also just hired new product managers, and I wanted Crafted to jumpstart our product development by introducing the concept of a balanced team that works on continuous integration and deployment. I needed them to accelerate our engineering and development skills and reinforce product development principles with some of my new hires.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We reached out to them and had an initial discussion surrounding what we were looking to accomplish from a technology and internal skills development standpoint. We already had a framework and infrastructure that they plugged into and built on top of. 

They primarily focused on expanding our application to allow customers to import and upload insurance loss data and integrate it into the app. They also built data reporting and visualizations alongside the system’s pre-existing data. They used tools such as React for UI, and Java for development, and deployed on top of a cloud boundary. 

As for skills development, Crafted started the project and ran a workstream with their balanced team for a while, and then we assigned some of our engineers to the project so they could learn and develop additional skills. Once we wrapped the engagement, our internal team took over from a maintenance standpoint.

The main project has wrapped, but we continue to engage their services for more minor things. 

What is the team composition?

We work with a balanced full stack team, including two developers, a product manager, and a UI/UX designer.

How did you come to work with Crafted?

They were a referral from mutual contacts who introduced us.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent around $300,000–$500,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2019, and the primary engagement wrapped in January 2020. Since then, we’ve interacted with them on smaller projects to glean their advice.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They are responsible for building something that has become the cornerstone of one of our enhanced product offerings. Their contributions have significantly impacted the growth of our upsell and cross-sell velocity in the product set. Their efforts have also been essential to a couple of our strategic accounts.

How did Crafted perform from a project management standpoint?

Their philosophy around project management very much aligns with ours. They have a highly iterative process that includes daily and weekly checkpoints, so there’s minimal opportunity for drift. 

We brought them on initially because we saw an opportunity for them to help us reinforce their lean principles within our organization. We did not follow the traditional project management trajectory with Gantt charts and project plans. Instead, we set goals and anti-goals early on, and we measured our attainment of those goals on a weekly basis. As a result, the scope was delivered on time and within the agreed-upon budget. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I am most impressed with their approach. I appreciate that they don’t necessarily come in and generate consulting revenue through development for hire. What attracts us to Crafted is their strategy of embedding themselves in the teams within our organization. Due to their expertise in their field, they have the ability to implement the best practices they’ve cultivated over time, and that’s why I would consider using them again.

If I was looking to add 15 engineers to a project, I might not use Crafted to do so; but if I was looking to implement best practices, accelerate a project, or introduce new skills or tools to the team, they’re probably at the top of my list of vendors to call. 

I am more inclined to use Crafted for a project that I’m taking on from ground zero, that I want to accelerate and get some fresh thinking on instead of using them to add resources to a project that is already behind schedule. In my toolbox of vendors, that’s how I view them. We needed them from inception to delivery, so the engagement worked for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I am pretty thrilled with the engagement. The only thing I’d say is that they’re more comfortable taking a project from inception to delivery than coming into a project that is already underway. I’m not sure if that’s a fair criticism because I think that is the main focus of their business.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Digital & eCommerce of Tribute Technology

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Power the funeral home industry with management software, websites and other technology solutions

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Crafted to accomplish?

• Scale up product, design & engineering talent for Tribute Technology
• Improve iterative and delivery processes
• Deliver new product launches & tangible revenue impact

SOLUTION

How did you find Crafted?

• Referral
• Other

Why did you select Crafted over others?

• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Crafted were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Crafted led product, design & development end-to-end from ideation to code deployment for cutting-edge new products as well as optimizing high-trafficked eCommerce experiences across multiple platforms.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Revenue growth for areas of scope

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

They worked iteratively in a highly changing environment and were fantastic at communicating trade-offs and keeping stakeholders updated on progress. They delivered code with high quality and high impact in the communicated timeline.

What was your primary form of communication with Crafted?

Virtual Meeting

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

They were a joy to work with as they were knowledgeable, talented, creative, and extremely collaborative.

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

Given our environment, they navigated things impressively. We could have experienced more joy with Crafted had we given them full control of a single project, but we needed them to work with our internal teams to deliver cross-domain products.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Senior Vice President, Software Engineering of DISH

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Telecommunications provider offering mobile network, satellite television, streaming video and in home services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Crafted to accomplish?

• Design partner interfaces for our OnTech business
• Easy to use APIs
• Self Service user interfaces

SOLUTION

How did you find Crafted?

Previously worked with founder on projects

Why did you select Crafted over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• Excellent Product Design Methodology

How many teammates from Crafted were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Crafted helped us create a designed experience for managing partner relationships and APIs to allow them to integrate our services into their sites.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Time to onboard a new partner, the level of effort of internal staff, satisfaction of partners

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

They were part of an overall larger effort. They managed their tasks well and provided clear updates and worked with the program management to ensure their timelines were aligned to the overall program.

What was your primary form of communication with Crafted?

• In-Person Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Strong product design led focus. Starting with the experience for both UI and APIs before moving into the build of the software helped us have the kind of experience we wanted to offer the major companies that are our partners.

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

Nothing comes to mind