Creole Studios

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Education Marketing Agency

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Marketing services and tools for universities and colleges.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Creole Studios to accomplish?

• Create a software that will be able to analyse course website pages for universities and education institutions and provide feedback and a report to the user.

SOLUTION

How did you find Creole Studios?

Online Search

Why did you select Creole Studios over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Creole Studios were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The team was hired to create the software but went beyond the scope of the initial planned deliverables. In addition to creating the software they also helped us with the design and UX of the software and helped us to get the software on the Google Chrome Store.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• A functional software to carry out the function set from the initial project scope. The function being to analyse course website pages for universities, colleges and other education institutions and analyse the content of the page to provide suggestions to improve conversions.

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

Every deadline and milestone was achieved on time often earlier than expected. They were very responsive, often replying the same day or within hours to my emails.

What was your primary form of communication with Creole Studios?

Virtual Meeting

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

The attention to detail is quite unique, as well as the additional support they can offer, not only was the software created and delivered but the additional team brought in to improve the initial design did fantastic work.

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

No I cannot think of anything they could have done differently or better.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Editor-in-Chief at The Business Year, a global media group that conducts hundreds of interviews a week with top decision makers in the Middle East, Latin America, Central and Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe. Our content is available in printed reports and across an array of digital platforms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Creole Studios, and what were your goals?

We hired Creole Studios to transition our existing website into the WordPress architecture. We also undertook an extensive UI/UX overhaul.

SOLUTION

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

An IT professional at the company had worked with Creole Studios on another project.

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

We initially requested a simple WordPress transition using the design of our existing website. However, Creole were very accommodating in the early stages as we began to consider some UI changes, and presented us with a brand-new UI. design, which we fell in love with. Once all of the designs were complete, they began the WordPress transition. It was a fast, headache-free experience.

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

We had a highly responsive Project Manager, as well as a series of talented developers. We also had the input of the Director of Web & Cloud Technologies.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The result was the efficient transition to WordPress and the relaunch of our site with a new UI/UX, including the addition of WooCommerce. In addition to the benefits brought by WordPress, the development helped us overcome legacy SEO challenges and begin to drive an increase in user numbers.

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

Creole Studios is the most professional development studio I have worked with. Their responsiveness and communications are absolutely top notch and is the main reason I would recommend them. They have a very positive attitude, even when requirements not originally discussed emerged.

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

As well as their communications, I would have to say their full range of technical know-how. All problems were solved quickly and without fuss. They clearly work well as a team.

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

N/A.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of a sales company specializing in products for the construction industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Creole Studios?

We needed to redevelop two sites, one of which had an online store.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Creole Studios helped us build two new websites to replace the ones we already had. They built the one with the e-commerce store on WooCommerce and integrated it with Stripe to process payments. On the other site, they designed and implemented an animated banner.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 3–4 people from Creole Studios.

How did you come to work with Creole Studios?

I found them on Upwork. After interviewing a number of vendors, I hired Creole Studios because they seemed to be very responsive.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $12,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2021–May 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I had very positive feedback from customers on the sites built by Creole Studios.

How did Creole Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Creole Studios was great at meeting deadlines and staying within the budget. We communicated through Upwork.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Creole Studios offered very good communication, which distinguished them from other providers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have clear and well-defined goals and objectives.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a web design and development firm in California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Creole Studios, and what were your goals?

We wanted to develop a mobile app for the mortgage industry that would allow our mortgage broker clients to market themselves to their end users via a mortgage calculator while simultaneously gaining a perspective into what the end user is interested in.

SOLUTION

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

We were referred by a colleague and after discussing the project scope and budget with Creole, they seemed reasonable.

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

We developed a scope of work and provided renderings, and other examples. Creole developed detailed wireframes and later designs. They setup the AWS infrastructure and provided TestFlight access for testing.

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

We worked with a project manager and had various meetings with the development team whenever necessary.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Mortgage brokers we work with have had positive feedback about the app and our ability to deliver the customizations they requested.

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

Overall the team was easy to communicate with. There were some miscommunications and issues where our team had to get involved to find a solution, but for the most part, they delivered what they promised. The project took longer than expected, in part due to Covid, some misunderstandings, and delays in providing feedback on our part.

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

They were patient and worked diligently on the project even when certain features required more work than anticipated.

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

Some security issues and concerns that were raised from our side early on were not addressed and lingered throughout the project, still, they have not been resolved.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a company that produces a tool for automated, recurring payment processing.
 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Creole Studios?

I knew that the tool I was creating would need a lot of third-party connections, and I wanted to work with a team that could build out from my wireframe and logic map. 
 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I created the logic mapping and UI design for the app, and then Creole Studios built out the functionality. The app is a simple way to set up recurring payments for rental collection, and they developed the app for both iOS and Android. They are currently helping me with debugging, as well, and we are planning to update the UI together soon. 

What is the team composition?

I have worked with around nine people. Their team included a senior developer, web developer, frontend team, backend team, and graphic designer. 

How did you come to work with Creole Studios?

When looking for app developers, I came into contact with someone who had previously outsourced work to Creole Studios. I shared my logic map with them and a few other companies, and they were the team that impressed me the most with their previous projects. I didn’t go with them based on price — unlike the other companies I spoke with, they had impressive work to show me.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, I have invested about $50,000 with Creole Studios. 

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Creole Studios around May 2020, and we are still working together. 
 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve already launched the app to a few beta testers, and their feedback is informing our UI/UX update. We have not started seriously marketing the app yet, but we have around 100 downloads. 

How did Creole Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

There were some slight communication issues from time to time, but that’s not uncommon when working with overseas teams. They’ve been able to deliver on most of the things that I have asked for. 

I communicated with Creole Studios using Skype and Trello. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their price range and attitude are perfect. In general, they have good integrity. When they say that they are going to complete a project, they do — even if it costs them more money.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve by managing their personnel resources a little bit better. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that communication is clear and tell their team in advance when there’s a project for them. 
 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We sell electronics accessories and apparel directly to consumers thru our website. I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Creole Studios, and what were your goals?

We needed to implement a complex inventory feature by which customers could choose their country, and the inventory would accurately reflect the inventory available to them in that country. There is no out-of-the-box solution available for this functionality, which is why we contracted custom development.

SOLUTION

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

We vetted Creole on smaller website development work for a few months. They demonstrated their capabilities.

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

WooCommerce, Skubana, Cartrover.

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

We worked with 2 key team members. A senior engineer and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have just launched the feature, and are not yet able to measure outcomes. The feature does exactly what we envisioned and requested. And they addressed all feedback in a timely manner.

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

The project manager we worked with is very responsive and responsible.

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

Both the project manager and the senior engineer understood our requirements and frequently suggested intelligent solutions that reflected their understanding, as well as their acumen to translate our requirements into cost-effective solutions.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a household services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Creole Studios?

We hired Creole Studios to do custom development for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

A different developer was working on our site, and our platform had bugs on it. The Creole Studios team was then assigned to trace the bugs down with minimal information while making sure they resolved them. Creole Studios also redesigned our website and provided frontend development services in order to make our site look better. 

Their work heavily focuses on custom development. So far, they’ve created custom plugins and fixed glitches existing on the site. They’re currently working on a Jobs Module that will work with a payment system that can process splitting payments. 

What is the team composition?

I only work with Creole Studios’ project manager. That person lists down all the project's details and is aware of the best person to process our tasks. Every once in a while, I also work with their software engineer.

How did you come to work with Creole Studios?

I looked online and I researched for companies with good reviews. However, I found that a lot of websites had fake reviews where some statements sounded too good to be true. Moreover, when I reached out to other companies, they were only trying to upsell me. Since I did a lot of programming and development work before, I was knowledgeable about the cost of the project I wanted to do. I also knew how to ballpark the timeframe. In the end, I found Creole Studios on Clutch, and they had pretty honest ratings.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing work began in December 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their business model allows them to produce high-quality work. Whenever we want them to create scripts, the team is also capable of testing them to find the imperfections in their work. Overall, they just do everything.

How did Creole Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Their software engineer and project manager communicate with us face-to-face or through Zoom calls. Their communication skills are good, and we appreciate that they get back to us daily. In addition, whenever we need them to pull an all-nighter to expedite a project, they’re usually within the hour.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They take every detail down so that their internal developers have the ability to go and read our messages with each other. On top of that, they clarify all the project's details, and they don’t move forward unless they completely understand their tasks.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, Creole Studios have been great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re in another timezone and want to get your project done quickly, you need to be able to pull an all-nighter in order to keep things flowing. Creole Studios sends messages daily, and you need to respond so that they can move forward. If not, you can turn a two-week project into a month and a half if you’re not keeping up on it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an assistant manager at Esquel Group, a leading textile and apparel manufacturer based in China.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Creole Studios?

Creole Studios had created a website for us to manage and monitor all of our sustainable data and performance, but we needed to update it and add some features to it. We invited them again to help us with that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Creole Studios detected some immediate bugs and issues with our website and fixed them. After that, they investigated other problems that we might have overlooked and upgraded our system.

Their team also did animations for our website. Since they don’t have a design team, we provided them with design ideas, and they did the coding.

What is the team composition?

I worked with three people: the co-owner and two IT engineers.

How did you come to work with Creole Studios?

Creole Studios were the original developers for our website. After a year, we discovered some issues that needed to be addressed, and we asked them to come back and do maintenance work.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $2,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We had a four-month contract, so we worked from January–April 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Creole Studios were very responsive and responsible. They did well and met all of our expectations.

How did Creole Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

We used DevOps to manage our IT-related projects. We also used email and had a biweekly call to catch up on things and see where we were on the scope.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the most impressive things was that Creole Studios was exceedingly responsive. Even when I didn’t reply to them, they didn’t just sit back and waited for an order to keep chasing after results. They were very passionate about the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One thing that could’ve been better was the time difference. That was an inevitable issue, but it made it difficult to react immediately to any urgent issues we had. We also had a little bit of a language barrier, but their communication skills were very good, and we solved that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Creole Studios’ strength is their execution skills. They don’t do designing, but they’re the best option if you need responsible execution on IT.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Blak Branding & Design is a full-service branding and design agency transforming the digital and marketing ecosystem of visionary companies. With a complete range of creative capabilities, we use research, Lean and Agile UX principles and design thinking to help clients problem-find and problem-solve based on empathy. My name is Gino Morrow and I am the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Creole Studios, and what were your goals?

The project is Blakbad.com and we hired Creole to do the front-end development in addition to animation design and html.

• Expected to follow the brand guideline (as demonstrated through existing designs)
• Current designs are constructed in Adobe Illustrator. All supporting files e.g. fonts, images are also made accessible for the designer selected to do this work
• Relevant experience e.g. mid to senior level of expertise, knowledge of UX/UI, software design is necessary to be considered

SOLUTION

How did you select Creole Studios and what were the deciding factors?

I selected Creole through a selection process on the Upwork platform. I decided to go with Creole because of their portfolio.

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

• Provide development for 14 unique web pages
• Provide development for animations, micro-interactions and entire website
• Follow the brand guideline (as demonstrated through existing designs)
• Experience with Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Sketch, XD or anything comparable is a must.
• Relevant experience e.g. mid to senior level of expertise, knowledge of UX/UI, software design is necessary also.

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

3 people;

• Account Manager
• Project Manager
• UX Designer/Developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Creole went above and beyond to satisfy us. As a branding and design agency, I am extremely critical about how our designs look and function. We have a very high standard for design and development.

Over the course of working on the Blakbad.com website with Creole, we developed an efficient and effective rapport, that's reflected in the final product. I enjoyed working with the Creole and I really have fun working through solutions. I look forward to a long, prosperous relationship with the Creole team.

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

Over the course of four months, I met with the Creole Team on average 3-4 times a week. In the final 2 months, we met once or twice a week. We used Zoom to conduct our meetings.

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

Their customer service is impeccable. Their talent is undeniable but even in instances when the project initially appeared to challenge the team, they would work until they provided a solution that met my expectations.

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

There are always areas of improvement for any company however, Creole delivered all they promised and more.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the lead designer for a financial services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Creole Studios?

We wanted to create a marketing mobile app for our financial advisors and hired Creole Studios for the task.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Creole Studios developed an app for browsing document libraries. It allows our financial advisors to access them on the go.

What is the team composition?

I’m not sure how many people were on the team. My main contact is in Hong Kong and he communicated with the team in India.

How did you come to work with Creole Studios?

I found them while searching for app developers. They have a presence in Hong Kong, which is where I’m located, so I got in touch with them. I went through the portfolios and websites of several app developers but felt that Creole Studios matched what we were looking for.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $25,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Creole Studios in April or May 2019, and the collaboration is ongoing for fixing issues on the system.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve tracked the usage of the app and we haven’t encountered any user issues so far.

How did Creole Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

My Hong Kong contact is really good and has helped me a lot. He’s available 24 hours a day and is always on top of things. This is why I’m working with Creole Studios—they do what they promise and that’s why I like them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What I like the most about them is their customer service. The contact person in Hong Kong has helped me go through issues and always addresses what I want.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They deliver on their promises, but they don’t work with short timeframes. They require 4–5 months to complete a project. Other than that, I think Creole Studios is good.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

The only advice I’d give is to set aside time to go through all the details and work with them. I wouldn’t recommend them for urgent tasks, though.