Dizzain

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Middle Market Information, LLC is a financial information firm. We don’t handle anyone’s money. Rather, we publish news and put on conferences for Wall Street professionals and others in the financial sector. I’m the owner and CEO of the business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dizzain?

We’d bought the business out from a small division of a much larger company. In doing so, we needed to re-platform the business. It had no independent website; it was part of the company’s own infrastructure. We basically had to start from scratch in terms of building something new on our own servers. That’s what we retained Dizzain to help us with.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handled front- and backend development for the site. The starting point was a WordPress CMS. It’s the core of everything and the place where our content resides. Our customer database is on the same platform. From there, they built out the back end so our editors could publish content that included images, videos, and text. They also handled UI/UX design. I specified what I wanted things to look like and what functionalities I was seeking. They did a great job contributing ideas to the conversation and using our input to create a solid outcome.

They also implemented Restrict Content Pro as a paywall system. This software helps us maintain our user subscriptions, ensuring that the subscription-based content is only shown to users with active subscriptions to our service. Most of our content sits behind it, but we have some free articles.

The project included a significant migration exercise as well. The business we bought was started in 1965 and had many customers and a 20-year content repository that needed to be ported into our own database. That was a pretty hefty project on its own. They moved all the articles in this database to the new site so that current customers could still access articles from 20 years ago.

What is the team composition?

At first, we worked directly with the owner. He went through the initial spec and strategic overview with me. He then assigned a product manager as our day-to-day contact. The owner also has a partner, whom we dealt with for a small amount of time, during summer vacations. I'm not sure how many other people were working on the project behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Dizzain?

I found them on Clutch. I went through an RFP and interviewed 8–10 different firms. It was probably too many, but it was a good experience to talk to each one and hear what they thought about the project. Some were within my budget and some were well above.

How much have you invested with them?

Phase one of the project cost between $50,000–$100,000. This was to launch an MVP and migrate the content.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together since August 2020. We launched the site in November 2020, but we’ve added in some new functionality incrementally since then. We decided to launch the site when it was 80% complete to get off of the seller’s system. Now, we’re just finishing the remaining 20%.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

So far, we've been happy with the new site. Comparing it to the old site probably isn’t fair, though. It was a neglected asset run by one product manager in charge of 13 publications. Since this site was nowhere near the top of their portfolio in terms of revenue, the metrics reflect that it got very little attention from them. However, from the point where we took over the old site, page views have increased by 30–40% on the new site. Signups for our free news email have also increased by almost 30%, which is great. They helped us build an ecosystem, taking advantage of the WordPress platform. The site is connected to all our social media channels, so every headline that goes on the website is tweeted and posted on LinkedIn. This synchronization has helped us broaden our online presence.

How did Dizzain perform from a project management standpoint?

Due to a service transition agreement with the seller, we were under a tight timeline. They gave us 100 days of “free rent”, during which they would support us on their site while we got a website together. After that date, we could still retain their services but we’d have to start paying more. That was a major motivator for the project, and they handled it with great dexterity. They were focused on delivering the MVP so we could launch and get off the seller’s site.

Their developers were located in Belarus, the seller's developers were working from India, and our team was based in the US. This geographical spread created an interesting dynamic from a product management and support standpoint. Some things got lost in translation, leading to repetition and delays. They did a good job managing issues stemming from this though.

We used Asana for project management purposes and communicated via Slack, email, and phone calls. Our teams had weekly standups to catch everybody up on the progress and address questions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was really pleased with the attention we've received from the owner. I went through about 10 vendors in the RFP, and I removed about half of them immediately. These vendors had me speak with salespeople who wouldn't be involved in the project in the end, which I didn't like. On the other hand, Dizzain’s owner talked to me about similar projects they had completed in the past, which gave me confidence in their ability to meet our needs on this project. They also offer a very fair price. The higher-priced bids typically offered more documentation, though.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We haven't had any major problems with them, but having 24/7 support would be nice. Our time difference was often an issue. They are 7–8 hours ahead of us, which meant that if something went wrong in the middle to late afternoon we would be stuck with it until later that night or the next morning.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Going through the functional specificities necessary for your solution with them is really helpful. I made sure to ask questions frequently, put together a detailed statement of work, and spell out project requirements clearly for them. In the end, they delivered the site within the necessary timeframe and incorporated all the features we needed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Logiq is a global e-commerce and marketing solution provider. I am the Chief Product Officer and Head of Marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Dizzain to be our primary website developer. The first phase of our partnership with Dizzain was to upgrade our current website, which included an upgrade to our current branding.

SOLUTION

How did you select Dizzain and what were the deciding factors?

Based on prior relationship with Dizzain, and their dependable quality and expert-level of service, I reached out to them immediately.

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

All technologies needed to develop and manage our website. We use Word Press, WPEngine, Google Analytics ... among other 3rd party tools.

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

Dizzain staffed us with a dependable project manager who brought every resource needed to complete our project on time with quality.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had a very aggressive goal to launch our new site within 3 weeks of kicking off the project. Dizzain supported our goals and met our aggressive timeline on schedule!

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

We used Slack, GDrive and weekly calls to make sure we all stayed in alignment.

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

As always, I've come to expect Dizzain to care about our business, goals and always looking for ways to suggest the most optimal path to success. They were also sensitive to my budget and timing and worked hard to manage within those boundaries.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Math All Around is the first-of-its-kind math and vocabulary learning kit that brings together the best of hands-on and virtual learning for ages 6-10. The company is a start-up and focuses on children in grades 1-3. I am the founder and the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dizzain?

Dizzain helped me with two things:

• a) Getting this product featured and launched on Amazon. They hand-held us through the process from the very beginning to launch. We are now in the advertisement phase.
• b) Developed a simple e-commerce website for a start-up which included a section for registering the product. They informed our designers and built a design based on the initial illustrations and design.

What were your goals for this project?

• to have a presence on Amazon
• to have an e-commerce website that was simple, straightforward and positioned for growth
• to do this in a cost-effective and timely manner

SOLUTION

How did you select Dizzain?

I had used his team on a prior project and was very satisfied with the work.

Describe the project in detail.

We were fortunate enough to work with Alex (CEO) directly. He orchestrated his team of designers, developers, and illustrators to bring our website to life. My team wrote the copy and worked on the initial design. His team took it to completion.

Alex also has been very generous with his time on helping us get on Amazon, which involved understanding Seller Central, the components of shipping and tracking product, and advertising on the site. If you want to sell on Amazon, it is a process and you'll need help.

What was the team composition?

Alex (CEO) and his team of designers, illustrators, web developers, programmers, and project managers. He has a nice size team that can scale with the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We met our goals of getting the website completed and our product on Amazon. Now his team will help us sell on Amazon. I'm confident that will happen!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective! We had a single point of contact and he was very responsive to all of our questions and needs.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team was small enough so that you felt you had a personal relationship with them but large enough to accommodate the demands of the various components of a nice-sized project. They were there with you and understood your needs. They are very fair as well as flexible. They willingly helped with tasks that went above and beyond.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There were some silly things here and there that we had to fix but that is normal in a project that had some intensity.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and head of products for a proptech (property technology) startup. We focus on helping property managers curate services for their tenants.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dizzain?

After we built our MVP, we wanted to learn from our users’ patterns to start recommending when they would need service again. This would increase client engagement with the app. That’s why we reached out to Dizzain.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After we set up the MVP, we started to collect data from users. We basically wanted to use machine learning and AI to recommend when users would engage the service.

They used their own prediction algorithms. Their team essentially created a black box that sucks data into their module that produces predictions. Based on a prediction, we could show a pop-up message to the client and prompt them to start using the service again. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people from Dizzain. There was one project manager, two engineers, and one data visualization teammate. Alex (CEO) was involved but not in the day to day operations.

How did you come to work with Dizzain?

I knew Alex as he and I went to business school together. As a startup, I needed a cost-effective solution and collected a few other quotes through my network. Alex basically gave us a good price.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $40,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in April and the solution was finished by July 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We saw an uptick in click-throughs from our beta users. The product also prompted a lot of conversations with property managers about bringing more AI activities to their portfolios.

We have the engine but COVID-19 impacted the real estate market. We’re not able to roll out it out on a big scale. However, the engine was verified through our beta testing. The more data collected the better these solutions become. Over time, we will test it more robustly and engage Dizzain as we scale.

How did Dizzain perform from a project management standpoint?

Dizzain set up a Slack channel for us, so communication was easy. We also used Asana for tracking purposes. There were daily scrum calls and biweekly demonstrations of the sprints. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Dizzain quickly understood our vision. Instead of staying in the technology world, they translated technological requirements into the product vision, which helped us solve the problem quicker. That also helped us define a product map with discussions and ideas.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything right now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The key to a successful partnership would be to discuss the business idea you want to solve. This allows them to give ideas and come up with a good solution. Engage them earlier in the process to improve your outcomes.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing partner of Bensirri PR. Our field of work is in financial, political, and corporate communication.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dizzain?

All of our web projects have been executed by Dizzain.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our partnership started with Dizzain building our company’s website, but since then a lot of our projects have been for our clients. As a PR firm, we create websites for clients as well as particular issues or products. Dizzain has handled web design and development as well as data visualization projects for our clients.

One of the projects was a website for a holding company. From there we worked on a couple of projects in the financial sector. We built annual report websites that made the reports interactive and engaging. They also handled a project for a food company.

Overall, all these websites always have targeted messaging for specialized audiences that contribute to business status and objectives within a short period of time. The content comes from us and the visuals come from both us and Dizzain. Most of the sites are on WordPress and others are custom-made.

What is the team composition?

There are about 4–5 people on their team.

How did you come to work with Dizzain?

I found them through a web search.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in January 2010. We’re working on three projects right now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ll highlight that the IPO websites they’ve created have raised millions and millions of dollars and have been oversubscribed many times. Our engagement has given them the opportunity to learn Arabic and work within Arab culture.

Dizzain adds value in execution as well as in action and advisory. It’s easy to work with them because they’re very responsive, fast, and efficient. They understand our specialized audiences.

How did Dizzain perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re timely, attentive, and always there. There are a lot of changes that happen during the development process that aren’t based on design but rather on content sections, and they always respond to those changes well. Their response time is what keeps us coming back.

What did you find most impressive about them?

If we have an issue, they drop everything to solve it for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, our expectations are always met.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about your requests. Take the time to explain what’s required and help them help you.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-owner and head of operations at The Vacationer. The Vacationer is a travel focused website that enhancesyour travel with reviews, guides and vacation tips. It also helps you learn the best travel credit cards and how to utilize points and miles.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dizzain?

We hired Dizzain to build the website on our domain TheVacationer.com.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a reliable website that could easily present long form content such as reviews and guides. Dizzain's suggestion of a custom Wordpress theme using the Gutenberg editor was a superb idea. The set up they gave us has streamlined our workflow which was an essential aspect of the project we needed as we hire more content writers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We worked with Dizzain in the past on another project. They were always extremely helpful, responsive and professional. Working on Dizzain with this project was a no brainer.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Dizzain designed and developed the TheVacationer.com domain. They provided branding suggestions as well as expert advice on streamlining our workflow. The custom Wordpress theme they created was built with scale in mind. As development progressed, they worked tirelessly to provide ideas to further enhance our website, even outside the scope of development.

What was the team composition?

There were at least five people working on Dizzain's team specific to the The Vacationer project. In addition to a designer and developers we worked one on one with our main contact Yegor who was excellent with communication. We also had regular emails and weekly calls with both Yegor and Dizzain's CEO Alex. Alex's hands on approach is one we really thought was beneficial to our project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The quick turn around designing and developing TheVacationer.com allowed us to write content specific to COVID-19 that was referenced by many highly popular news organizations such as Consumer Affairs, Radio.com and Clark.com. Dizzain expedited the timeline in order for us to launch as soon as possible.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our project manager, Yegor, handled everything and worked tirelessly with Dizzain's team. We also had hands on discussions, weekly phone calls and idea brainstorms with Dizzain's CEO Alex. The process was highly effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Dizzain's attention to detail and communication from the top all the way down was extremely impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, Dizzain has been an incredible company to worth with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The company is a high-end luxury interior design company, and we are the co-founders.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dizzain?

We wanted to revamp our entire website presence to include e-commerce and provide direct-to-consumer sales. The project started out with another developer, but we didn’t have the support we needed there so we decided to switch to Dizzain.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a website that was more information-driven and displayed our portfolio of work, but we wanted to be able to sell products such as home furnishings and accessories as well. Their team helped us redesign the site concept and page organization as well as build out our e-commerce capabilities on WordPress using WooCommerce from there.

They also helped us to understand and develop a plan for marketing the site in the long-term. It wasn’t just providing a few options and having us choose one; they really took our small, medium, and big picture goals into account and coordinated everything from logistics and payment processing to backend organization and ability to add new products.

What was the team composition?

There were four members of their team involved in the project, including a designer, a developer, a project manager, and the CEO.

How did you come to work with Dizzain?

We were referred to them by one of our contacts in the industry, and we reached out to them as well as two other firms. Based on their technical expertise and the personal relationship that we developed with them in our initial meetings, we decided to move forward with them.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we’ve spent around $80,000–$100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project kicked off around October 2018. We launched in May 2019 and have continued to work with them to manage and provide maintenance on the site since then.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had people on our team helping to assess the quality of the product and the metrics that we were seeing from their work, but for the most part, we were focused on reaching the final product. We had increases in everything from traffic and click-through rates, to time spent on site, and we haven’t had any problems or bugs with the site at all.

It was a real team effort and involved a lot of feedback in both directions and from our board, so we were always happy with the progress that was being made. Their team was completely transparent throughout the process and even called out the issues that they encountered instead of waiting for us to bring them up. They made a point of calling out any problems and explaining what they did to address the issue right away.

How did Dizzain perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication skills were great. We never had to ask them twice about anything, and often times they would bring up things before we even remembered to ask them about it. We used Asana to keep track of all the project milestones, and they hit or surpassed all of the deadlines that we established for the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They asked a lot of great questions at the start of the process, basically challenging our assumptions and giving us a different perspective into UX and what best-in-class really means in an interior design website context.

On top of that, they were always on top of our weekly meetings and checking in with us outside of those to make sure that they had all the resources they needed to make sure that we stayed on top of the deadlines while also maintaining our budget.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I really don’t have any improvements that come to mind, it was a very positive experience.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the chief product officer at Legends of Learning. We are a platform for educational games for 1st – 8th grade.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dizzain?

We were trying to address a couple of challenges. The main one was marketing — utilizing them for work on email campaigns and planning pages and optimizations around that. Also, they worked on a website and kept our website marketing up to date.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Any updates to our websites they handle. They built custom pages to create our marketing site. They created new web pages for us, and maintained our existing site on WordPress.

They also worked on design. This included the design to create the game-based learning website, the design to create the email marketing materials, and the design to our landing pages to get people to sign up. We have our own brand guidelines, but they did design work and ideation on their end based off of that.

What is the team composition?

There is a rotating staff. There are probably 2–3 devs and a designer on each project. As they work out of Belarus, we don’t interact with them in person so I don’t know the specifics.

How did you come to work with Dizzain?

I found them when I worked with a previous company. As I had a good experience with them as mobile app developers before, I trusted that they could hit the ground running on this job.

When I switched to this company, I noticed our developers were working on a marketing site. I thought that that was way too expensive and takes valuable resources. I reached out to Dizzan to help, and they’ve done a great job.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend roughly $2500 a month with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began work in March 2018, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of work is very high. They produce very solid work for the price. An anecdote is that they successfully created the site and marketing materials for the game-based learning conference, resulting in over 400 attendees which we found very successful given the timeframe.

How did Dizzain perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great. They have a project management staff who are very capable. We use Asana, Trello, Google Docs, Slack, and email to communicate. Communication is great.

They’re very collaborative — we do a weekly roundup meeting. Their organization excels as well, as they’re incredibly timely and quick at producing things. They’re flexible, accommodating small requests within a day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication is excellent — which is always difficult working with someone offshore. Also, they have an amazing attention to detail, understanding of design, and marketing capabilities. They’re above average when compared to other services. The value that they provide is way above what you pay.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I haven’t had an issue with them, so I can’t answer this.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Talk with them and make sure that you have a full understanding of their capabilities. They can probably do more than you think.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Modus Cooperandi. We are authors and business consultants.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dizzain?

We wanted to build a system to allow distributed people to make complex decisions together. The system needed to allow 6-600 people to come together and understand everything they needed to make a decision about (e.g. all of the filters and perspectives necessary to make the decision). Then, they needed to actually make the decision.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The entire basis of my business is creating easy systems for people in response to complex challenges. Dizzain helped to transfer our concept into the technical realm of an app. 

What is the team composition?
 
The bulk of their developers were in Belarus. Alex (Founder & CEO) is in the Bay Area, Natalia (Project Manager) is in Belarus. 

How did you come to work with Dizzain?

My director of the product had worked directly with the team several times in previous incarnations of his career. So, when I said I wanted to do this weird, esoteric, difficult-to-understand project, he suggested calling them. 

How much have you invested with them?
 
We’ve invested about $77,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?
 
We started working with them in November of 2018, and the first Alpha version of it wrapped up in July of 2019. Since then, we’ve made minor revisions. We’re about to go back to do an Alpha to Beta jump.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For our cash outlay, we’ve received a tremendous amount of value that far outstrips the amount we’ve paid. 

We formed a partnership with PSU that has already started, and they’re writing grants. So, we’ve been able to use the product to form strategic partnerships with major institutions.

Also, the alpha testing round led to some greater income on my side because some of our larger consulting clients saw what we were trying to do. We used the system to plan out the decision making for the largest construction company in the US. It helped plan how they would handle the height of the construction season. 

Now, we’re using the beginnings of the beta solution to plan what we’ll do now that all the construction sites have been shut down. We’re also using it to plan what will happen when everyone starts to trickle back to work. It’s been really helpful for that.

How did Dizzain perform from a project management standpoint?

It was ridiculously effective. Natalia and Alex are excellent communicators. They are clear and creative at the same time. They could have just been hired to be developers. But, they cared enough about us and what we were building to make sure they were providing good input. When we had conversations as a team, they would always participate, even if we weren’t talking about development.

During the project, we used Asana tickets and Slack to communicate directly with our developers. We used voice and video chat to communicate with Alex, Matt, and Natalia.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Right from the beginning, the team was interested in the scope of work that we’d given them. They went away, talked about it, and they read up on psychology. They came back with enhancements to what we had already discussed that were deeply thoughtful, attentive, and strangely beautiful.

I care deeply about quality work. I take great delight in quality work when it’s done, and I get testy when it isn’t done. Working with them has been a delight. I’ve never had to worry about the quality of their work. They’ve never signed themselves up for an overly aggressive timeline that would compromise quality. 

When we suggested we’d like a certain delivery by a certain date, they always figured out what the highest quality deliverable would be by that date instead of trying to do everything and disappointing everyone. That is the hallmark of a professional organization, and I wouldn’t say these things lightly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I could have been less busy and more attentive to when they needed things. They were actually going faster than I was. Their production was outstripping my ability to support that production.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Always be willing to have a detailed conversation about what you want to have built. Then, take their recommendations seriously. Also, when I give someone a task, I typically build out a plan for that task. I appreciated that they would tell me, “this is going to take a little bit longer, or you’ve put too much time over here.” So, treat them like a partner and not a handyman.