Create Ape

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a data collection company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Create Ape?

We hired them for UI/UX design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For the past two months, Create Ape has been analyzing everything on my current site, breaking down the data. They've sent 20-question surveys to researchers we work with in other countries and have conducted user interviews. The team has provided us with a 90-page report outlining where the strengths are. They're using Figma to show us mockups, and they've also used WordPress. The team will also be doing the website design and development. 

What is the team composition?

I've worked with Alessandro (Founder). 

How did you come to work with Create Ape?

I believe I found them on Clutch. We interviewed a few UI/UX designers. Right away, Create Ape seemed to get what we were doing, and Alessandro was on all the calls. Ours is a very international project, and they have folks in other countries, like Nigeria, the Philippines, and Venezuela, which was very helpful to what we're trying to do. 

As soon as I officially decided to move forward with the project, I re-engaged them. They offered us the option to sign up for the whole project off the bat or make a sprint to come up with a design plan and decide what we needed, and we went for the latter option.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we've spent $7,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Create Ape has really helped us hone our business model, which we appreciate. We were looking for folks with expertise, and Create Ape does a good job of combining their designers and the engineers with their marketing folks — they’re an all-in-one shop. This approach has saved us time. 

Moreover, the first phase was very helpful for us in terms of perfecting our plans for the website. There are things they understand and have suggested to us that my partner and I hadn’t factored in. Although the estimated budget has tripled, I’m okay with that because I feel like I have a much better plan, thanks to them. Overall, I have confidence in Create Ape. 

How did Create Ape perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great at meeting deadlines and staying within budget. We use Slack, Loom, phone calls, and many emails to communicate, which has been very effective. I’ve had no trouble communicating with them. They take feedback from our stakeholders very seriously; the surveys have been a good way to get information, and they’ve incorporated the feedback into their work. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with the internationalism of Create Ape’s team — it’s a very important tool for my project. There are significant differences in how the data we’re putting together is processed continent-by-continent. On every call I’ve had with Create Ape, 3–4 continents are represented, and they each give their point of view on the decision-making. I also appreciate how quickly they understood my idea. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve off the bat; I’ve been really pleased with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When we started, I was eager o sign the entire web design contract. However, it was very useful to take the sprint approach because it turned out my idea wasn’t as fleshed out as I thought it was. If we hadn’t gone for that, we would have found gaps. Instead, we delayed the process a bit, and now I feel we’re completely on the same page. Even though it increased my budget, it gave me a lot of faith in the project. Create Ape’s suggestion for the sprint option turned out to be time and money well spent, so I would advise that if they offer it to you, take them up on it, especially if your idea could use some honing.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the director of product marketing for Clarity Security, a SaaS cybersecurity platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our website was initially created on Wix and was lacking a lot of functionality and customer centric design. We are a tech startup and needed help developing a site that would help convert visitors into leads or customers. We wanted a unique site that made our branding (which Create Ape also worked on) stand out from competitors.

SOLUTION

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

We had previously worked with Create Ape on a software development project and enjoyed their design team and decided to work with them again for the site redesign.

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

The project started as a website redesign/development and evolved to include logo creation and an additional e-commerce portion of the site. We wanted a custom WordPress site that would be easy to manage and update afterwards that also include some animation, a chat feature, contact form, and a robust and interactive pricing page.

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

We worked primarily with Virginia and Guillermo who are both incredible. Guillermo did a great job as project manager and kept everything on track even when we gave rather confusing directions and tight deadlines. Virginia was the main designer we worked with and she did an excellent job, we approved the first design iteration she showed us. We also worked with a few members from the marketing and development team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our site has seen double the amount of traffic and we've seen inbound lead conversion in addition to increase in session time and decrease in bounce rate.

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

Excellent communication, the team was easy to reach through email and Slack. We saw design iterations and proof of concept via Figma which was really nice. We were provided with a weekly burn report that was very detailed and felt like they were very respectful and cognizant of timeline, budget, and other requests.

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

The transparency regarding time spent on project and were very organized., they were very flexible and accommodating when we had sudden changes or noticed issues. I also appreciated that when we would ask for changes, the team wasn't afraid to tell us our request was not best practices or would not have the intended effect. I liked that they always kept our goals top of mind even if it meant telling us "No" or "Let's try this instead".

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

None. We had some issues with a previous project manager and they quickly brought in Guillermo to support our project and her did great. They're a very responsive company that cares about customer service.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Vice President of Marketing at a health technology company that empowers healthcare organizations to build, manage, and optimize provider networks, from inception through monitoring, across the entire US market, using industry-leading data and intelligent workflows.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our website needed to be evaluated from a user experience perspective. Create Ape provided much needed insight into what pages were performing best, time on each page, bounce rates, etc. Our goal was to ensure we were creating the best possible user experience on our site so that our key target audience understood who we are, what we do and why they should do business with us.

SOLUTION

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

I had worked with Alessandro, the CEO and Founder at Create Ape previously and knew that he and his agency were highly skilled and experienced in UX/UI. It was a no brainer to reach out to him when we decided to start doing this work.

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

We began with a meeting to discuss what our ultimate goal and objectives were. The Create Ape team then created a heat map of our website, using Hotjar, to see where we were getting the most traffic and where we weren't. We had limited budget and so decided to only focus on the top 3 pages that needed updating.

Once we determined that, the Create Ape team began the process of creating designs for each of the pages that we were going to update. We had a few meetings to make updates and changes and once that was complete, they began building the pages. Once all was finalized we launched the new pages.

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

We had a primary project manager, a designer and a developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Every design that Create Ape developed was infinitely better than what we had previously. Their thoughtfulness for the user's experience, their designers skill at laying out all of our key messages elevated the brand significantly.

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

We had weekly meetings with the Create Ape team so that we could review all of the projects, their status and discuss any new initiatives. We used a variety of communication tools; Slack, email and Basecamp. The Create Ape team was always incredibly responsive.

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

The team has an abundance of expertise and skill. It was so refreshing to be able to say, 'This is what we need' and for them to deliver it beyond our expectations.

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

There was a change over of a few of the project managers, which meant they needed time to ramp up on our business and projects. This is not so unusual for an agency, but at times caused some delays.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a Digital Marketing agency called Digital Position.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Create Ape?

We've vetted a variety of agencies that provide services that we don't. This way we can refer quality agencies to our clients based on needs as they arise. Despite reaching out to over 100 of these types of agencies, Create Ape is one of the very few that we ultimately recommend to clients.

SOLUTION

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

CreateApe has a great eye for design & motion in modern e-commerce. We chose them as a partner because they are able to move efficiently and ultimately end up creating really nice end products for websites that really convert. If the website converts better, Digital Position also is able to perform better!

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

First we talked about our goals with the website that we were trying to achieve. We were running PPC Ads and doing SEO, but we knew the website needed to be updated. However, we didn't want to lose the SEO traction that we had built over the first roughly 6 months with the client. CreateApe came in and put design concepts together and presented to the client for approval. We then all moved forward through development and they crushed it. We launched and worked out any kinks within days of launch. It was a nice, smooth experience. We've had many developers drop the ball on website launches, but CreateApe consistently worked out any kinks quickly.

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

We worked with Chelina and Ted as the points of contact, and Al (the CEO) jumped in to ensure the project was running smoothly. Communication was fantastic throughout.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

After launch the client's performance TOOK OFF. We finished 2021 up 133% (!) despite the new website launching in Q4. They had an incredible Q4 and then have followed that performance right into 2022. The conversion rates skyrocketed and the client has since e-mailed us talking about how much we've changed her life. It's a team effort, and those results don't come without an amazing website experience.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Super efficient, we talked on slack through any issues and make decisions collaboratively. As mentioned earlier, the CEO Al jumped in to check in to ensure everything was progressing smoothly.

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

Their designs are just really unique and cool. For the premium e-commerce brands we work with, this is really valued. They didn't just make the website "pretty", the website truly stands out among competitors with motion/unique usage of color. They really took the time to understand the heart of the brand and it comes across wonderfully in the design.

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

Nah, the experience was awesome. Any little kinks are expected when you launch a huge new website initiative. The key was that they acted on fixing any little things that came up quickly - they were available and responsive to any questions or concerns. Highly recommend working with Al & Create Ape!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Buildlane is how busy interior designers do custom furniture. I serve as the Head of Content & Community, working directly with the Executive team to manage all marketing campaigns and creative direction.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Create Ape?

I worked with the team on a quick redesign with a focus on better lead generation.

SOLUTION

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

We had some previous UX work done to the satisfaction of our Head of Product and so he recommended the team to the Marketing department.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We put together a project scope and outlined the wishlist first. CreateApe paired us up with a designer after reviewing the scope. We met to go through the scope and outline the necessary aspects of the project. The designer and I met over zoom at various touchpoints until we had revised through to final delivery.

At that point, the files were kicked over to the development team who coded the pages. Then they packaged them up for delivery so our product team could integrate within our existing site setup.

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

Lucho, Project Manger Keegan, Designer Developers on the backend, didn't work directly with them

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The scope of work was executed, we were happy with the expertise that the designer brought to our wishlist, we met our launch goal under budget.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Easy. We used Slack and it felt quite friendly.

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

Their friendly and enthusiastic team made the entire process fun and easy.

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

I can only think of areas where I could have been a better client to help the process along. They were always waiting on me and my feedback and often compensating for the lack of input and getting things right on their own.

I guess if I were really to pick, it would be cool if they had some sort of organization about the project process and costs etc as a single destination on the web, where I could log in and access relevant files, the project process (in terms of hours spent, etc.), messaging and naturally a checklist for necessary feedback,etc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of creative services at a fashion brand that sells women’s clothing in the US, Canada, and the UK. We work through a network of stylists that develop personal relationships with clients to help them with their style needs and ultimately sell clothes. We have an e-commerce website, but the majority of our sales come from our stylists. I lead the team in executing content for our marketing and branding efforts across the board. This allows me to work with both our internal team and outside agencies. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Create Ape?

We needed to perform an infrastructure review on all of our digital products. We had eight products, and our team wanted a partner with the right experience to review all of our UX designs, challenges, successes, and future needs. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Create Ape did a deep dive with our key stakeholders into the specifics of the digital products that we wanted to evaluate. They interviewed people within our business, including our stylists, to find the good, the bad, and the ugly in our processes. The team also did user testing and product analytics, adding quantitative data research to the process. Create Ape resources also conducted a survey with our stylists and consumer base. 

Moreover, Create Ape did user tests to determine hotspots or challenges in our UX designs. That way, they could provide recommendations in their final report. Then, they gave us the report; they presented us their findings and recommendations in detail, along with survey results. The team also provided recommendations for the implementation of the project. After that, we decided which findings to tackle first and started working on them. 

What is the team composition?

On average, 4–6 people were in our calls, including Create Ape's owner, project manager, strategists, and designers. 

How did you come to work with Create Ape?

We followed an RFP process with five vendors, including Create Ape. They bubbled to the top early in the process, and then we narrowed the list down to three providers. After that, Create Ape and the other vendors gave a full presentation of their expertise, showing us why they felt they were the best for the project. They walked us through their approach and gave us an estimate of the work’s cost. The teams also gave us a timeline of work and described the steps we’d follow within that timeline.

Around 10 of our internal team members participated in the vendor selection process. We went over each vendor presentation, following a matrix that listed our priorities and helped us decide which vendor would assist us best in achieving our objectives. Ultimately, we chose Create Ape. Most of our team members were highly impressed with their approach and thinking. At the same time, they were cost-effective; they weren’t significantly more expensive or cheaper than other vendors. Their timeline also seemed appropriate, so we ended up awarding them the project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from January–June 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Create Ape hasn't created anything new for us yet, and we haven’t implemented any changes. However, the process of the UI/UX review they conducted for our digital products went well.

How did Create Ape perform from a project management standpoint?

They were amazing. The Create Ape team handled everything well from start to finish, and the team was clear about their milestones and next steps. They were also honest about their asks for every meeting and their availability to attend them. 

Overall, we knew what we could and couldn’t expect from them. On top of that, the Create Ape team stuck with the schedule they established even though our team didn’t always deliver on time. 

We didn’t use any project management tool for this engagement since it was a one-off project. Our team simply gave them the information they needed, and then they evaluated our products. To communicate, we mainly used emails. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Create Ape took a more personalized approach to understand our business and needs. They didn’t treat us like any other companies in other industries. Our business valued our one-on-one relationships with our consumers, and the Create Ape team took that same approach with us. In other words, they understood who we were as a business and adjusted their approach, ensuring they aligned well with our bigger-picture goals. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. Create Ape met all of our expectations for this project. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have open and honest communication to effectively set up your future working relationship with Create Ape. Try to personally understand their agency and what they bring to the table. This will help you see if they’re the right fit for your project. If you can’t be on the same page, you won’t be able to cut through the muck and get to the heart of your challenges — you won’t have a successful working relationship. Sometimes, that takes six months to figure out, so you must spend a significant amount of time when having conversations with their members.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Honey Hole Collectibles is a sports card, gaming and memorabilia shop located in Escondido CA.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with the vendor?

We needed an impactful brand for our sporting and memorabilia shop as well as a digital presence that reflected the true nature of our brand. We also really wanted to find a vendor that could understand our customer base and what the card industry is today.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Create ape was involved in the strategy, planning, and execution of the brand vision, assets, and ecommerce website.

What is the team composition? 

The company itself is a little larger than I thought, but our core team was about five people.

How did you come to work with the vendor?

Through a referral

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested over $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Ongoing

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Check out our website.

How did the vendor perform from a project management standpoint?

They were amazing! I truly appreciated Guillermo’s attention to detail as the lead project manager as well as the team's overall ability to adapt to changes in pivots during the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing about Create Ape is how they truly embrace the idea of partnership with their clients. They understand that when their clients are successful they will be successful as well. We plan on growing with them over the next several years and are so appreciative to have found such a good partner in the digital space.

I also would love to call out Alessandro, the founder, as he was personally involved in our project and every time we hopped on a zoom meeting you could see how much he was invested in the positive outcome of the project as well as being able to marshal the team to accomplish our goals. He even drove out to our shop to have a better understanding of the customers that came in and the quality of our merchandise.

Are there any areas they could improve?

You know, they honestly really nailed it for our company. The only thing that really slowed the process down was my inability to get Create Ape the deliverables they needed to do their job.  I am sure there are things that could be improved but I really have no complaints on my end.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of festivalPass. We’re a subscription live events marketplace. Our customers pay a monthly subscription fee and receive credits that they can use to attend thousands of live events.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Create Ape?

We needed additional assistance to expand our UI/UX for our web and mobile applications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve used Create Ape for multiple projects. The process usually entails having a discovery call with a few people from the team, including project managers and designers. We lay out the project, and they listen, talk through it, and come up with ideas along the way. Then, Create Ape goes away for 1–2 days and comes back with a project estimate.

If we agree with the estimate, they get to work. After a bit of research and discovery, they deliver the wireframes first. Then, we get on a call to review them and make adjustments if necessary. Once we approve the wireframes, they move towards high-fidelity designs. Those usually come with the ability to click through them so we can see the user flow.

What is the team composition?

We have 6–7 people on our team in total. Initially, we conversed with Alessandro (Founder & Creative Director). We’ve worked with a few designers and a project manager in charge of the overall strategic perspective.

How did you come to work with Create Ape?

I’m part of an organization of entrepreneurs in multiple cities across the country. One colleague in Atlanta used Create Ape in a previous project, and they recommended reaching out to Alessandro.

When I did, he wanted to understand what we were looking for and was super accommodating. We started with a small project, and once it was done, we continued with other projects.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent from $15,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them about two years ago, and our relationship is ongoing. We recently approved another project for additional functionality within our mobile app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their work is more related to user flow and engagement than performance. However, we’ve been happy with Create Ape. They’ve evolved the overall UI in all our products, even our CRM and email designs.

How did Create Ape perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very responsive. When we want changes, we go right into the Sigma file and make comments in there. Within a couple of days, Create Ape comes back with a new version that’s fully completed with our feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re accommodating and willing to understand what we’re trying to achieve. The team usually comes back with great designs and ideas we didn’t even think of. Most of the time, the work only needs minor tweaks. On the other hand, we’ve worked with designers that continuously miss the brand, so we have to give them multiple examples.

However, Create Ape almost always gets very close to what we want the first time around. They use our library of fonts and colors, so we never have to go back and tell them they’re not on brand. They’re very professional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing substantial in the big picture. However, we’re a bit nitpicky, and we’d like to adjust the time estimates. Working with them, we’ve aligned the expectations of the workflow, but we prefer to know if it’s going to take 70 hours instead of getting an estimate of 50–100 hours.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just go into the conversation and be very specific. They’re open to listening and understanding what outcome you want. Also, having multiple people in the discovery calls has helped tremendously to formulate what we’re looking for.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director of It’s Just Lunch, a matchmaking service designed for busy professionals, so I oversee all of our marketing initiatives. We’re an international company serving the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Create Ape?

We recently celebrated our 30th anniversary, so we decided that a new website design, branding, and improved UX would serve us well to mark the occasion.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

While our in-house developer was in charge of the development portion, Create Ape helped us with everything else for the project. At the very beginning, they researched our competitors to understand our industry and who we were competing against.

Then, they presented new branding opportunities for us, and we spent a lot of time defining the image we wanted to portray to attract potential clients and modernize our brand. They also worked very closely with our developer discussing how we would get the designs translated into code. Additionally, they helped us with UX copywriting to define the content for the site.

Create Ape basically stayed with us throughout the entire project, from prelaunch to launch and postlaunch, to make sure that everything looked good and worked as we had intended.

What is the team composition?

We worked with five individuals from Create Ape. Virginia (Product Designer) was our main point of contact and the creative person behind the project, and we also worked with Chelina (Project Manager).

Early on in the process, we worked with Andrew (UX Writer) to refresh our communication. Additionally, Ted (Director) was on most of our calls, and Alessandro (Founder & Creative Director) was also very involved.

How did you come to work with Create Ape?

We launched an RFP to find a company that could help us. Create Ape was recommended by another company that we have close ties with through our private equity firm, and they completed the RFP process.

We evaluated four companies, Create Ape being the very last one. Thanks to their experience and the examples and ideas that they showed us for how they would approach the project, they were selected to handle the design.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $37,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working in February 2021, and we launched the site in June 2021. However, they stayed with us until August 2021 as we continued pushing updates and refining the design.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Create Ape looked beyond the design and found opportunities for us to succeed further. One of their recommendations outside of their scope was to pursue a domain rollout. Before our engagement, we had about 157 local city domains, but we now exist under the single domain itsjustlunch.com.

As that was a complex part of the project, they recommended us a partner to guide us through that SEO implementation, and we’re now seeing that it came to fruition. Comparing prelaunch data from May 2021 to postlaunch data from July 2021, we saw an 80% increase in our organic searches impressions, a 63% increase in organic search clicks, a 16% increase in average search positioning, and an overall 16% increase in visit-to-lead conversions.

The new website design and domain consolidation proved that we were providing a better experience for our customers. Our site allowed customers a more streamlined way to get to our lead form, which was the ultimate goal for this project. Additionally, everybody was very comfortable with the new design’s integrity and how it was portrayed in a live environment.

How did Create Ape perform from a project management standpoint?

Create Ape was great. Chelina was very thorough at taking notes, sending out calendar invites and reminders, and following up on pending items. They also clearly understood when I told them that we couldn’t go over our budget, and they made sure to check in with me where we were in terms of hours.

They were also very organized and offered clear communication. We had weekly meetings and used Sigma to review the concepts and designs; that was our main communication channel, and through where Create Ape delivered the visual assets. Aside from that, we used email to communicate and Google Drive to share images and status updates.

Additionally, Create Ape was very patient. Some of the project areas, like the branding, took a little bit longer than expected. However, they were able to meet the deadlines and did a beautiful job keeping things moving forward.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Create Ape was a true partner. They really understood our company’s vision and where we wanted to take our brand. They also championed us throughout the project and looked for new ways to succeed outside of their scope.

Additionally, they looked for potential roadblocks and guided us in areas where they thought a challenge could present itself. Not being a developer myself, they coached me on having those conversations and understanding our end goal. Overall, they were a great partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Create Ape was great at planning out the UX of our website design — it was where they shined. However, it would be good if they continued improving on the branding side. We spent a lot of time ensuring that what we communicated to their designer came through the deliverables.

The branding wasn’t bad by any means; we just had to work thoroughly to get the product piece where it needed to be.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re looking to work with Create Ape, be clear about your business goals. They’re more than a UX team; they’re looking for you to be successful and meet your goals. If you’re very clear with them about your goals and you’re open to being creative, they’ll come to the table with great ideas for you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a third-party logistics company that helps e-commerce companies store and ship their goods to the end consumer or their wholesale distribution partner.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Create Ape?

We needed help with web design and implementation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The initial call with them was to understand our scope and vision based on our branding experience with another company. From there, they took our branding collateral and came back to pitch us some ideas on overall layout, functionality, and UX/UI. The final deliverable was a Splash Page website that lists the services we provide.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one lead, 2–3 support folks, and their principal.

How did you come to work with Create Ape?

They were referred to a business colleague of mine that used them for her website for a larger e-commerce site. When she found out that I needed web design.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent just south of $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?          

We started working together in August 2019, and we wrapped up in October 2019. They still offer tweaks as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The business that was generated via inbound leads increased by 2,000%.

How did Create Ape perform from a project management standpoint?

The team performed very well. The project management team communicates in a timely and concise fashion. We had very few follow-up questions for them, which is rare. I allocated 1–2 hours per week for calls. We communicated via email and Zoom calls to review wireframes and some of the design elements.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their attention to detail and their overall demeanor stand out. They approach projects from a partnership standpoint instead of just treating them like another sale.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve by providing less solutions to issues. If they limited the options, they provided the clients, it would expedite the process in certain situations.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to make sure you have a rough understanding of your vision and what they want their site to look like. Show up with as much of a framework as possible.