Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?
Everything that Dom & Tom did went successfully. In the end, we couldn't support the product as a company, and we actually ended up having to shut it down, which was a real bummer. That was all on us and our business processes. It had nothing to do with the actual quality of their work. I can say our head of business development and sales hated working with the old vendor, but he loved working with Dom & Tom and repeatedly said, “Those people are really good.” He does not have anything to do with our website other than when we’re using this multi-lingual proprietary tool, but he liked the experience with Dom & Tom.
In the fall, we hired a new CMO who wanted to switch to a different vendor and work with folks that she had been working with before, and we actually are in the process of a complete rebranding, so new logo, website, value proposition, the whole nine. I did want to have Dom & Tom in the running, but she was pretty adamant about working with people that she had worked with before, and she’s the boss, so that’s the way it crumbles. I do have to say I was probably more upset with having that conversation with the Dom & Tom team than they were. They were like, “That happens. No big deal. We’re sad not to be working with you.” They were very understanding and it made for an easy conversation. It’s always crummy having to fire someone.
How did Dom & Tom perform from a project management standpoint?
Other than my account manager and a project manager, I think there were maybe three or four more people involved that I saw come up with either server-related work, development work, or user experience work. I interacted with the other people as needed, but I had those two main points of contact.
We didn't always meet in person. My company has a remote worker, but also I think we ended up switching to a project manager who was in Chicago, so we used Basecamp and Google Drive—Google Sheets and Google Docs almost exclusively—in addition to phone calls. Everything was in writing and any phone call we had would be typed up immediately by the project manager into Google Sheets, and then I could approve it and pull that over into Basecamp, which was really helpful. I think they used some other tool that I didn't use for more of the technical stuff. All of the tools that they had us use were useful and enhanced the experience rather than annoy, take away, add extra tasks, etc.
What did you find most impressive about Dom & Tom?
We really like to work with organizations that live our values, and I think Dom & Tom do that. Normally you have developers chained to a desk working 24/7. They clearly don't do that. Their developers are quite happy, and they’re happy to talk to you about any questions you have and will dumb it down for you, because God bless them, I don't understand anything that they do. They valued the camaraderie and the community and what we value, which is taking a step back and renewing. For their founder's day, they closed their office, which we loved. We thought that was just amazing, which sounds ridiculous. “Oh, you want your vendor to close for the day?” They live the values that we hold dear, and that was very important. Every person from Dom & Tom has been lovely to work with, even the two gents that I spoke to maybe three times total. They’re all really good people, which is nice. You don't always get that.
What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Dom & Tom?
I think if you have questions, ask them, and don't feel like it’s a silly question. No questions are silly. I think they are happy to answer questions you have and they will really try to help you understand their answers. Everyone’s probably worked with a vendor at some point and has felt that they’ve kind of made them feel crappy for not knowing everything, even though that’s why they hired them. Dom & Tom are experts in their space, and they let you kind of give them the reins so they can deal with everything.
Communication was seamless and reliable. Dom & Tom is more than willing to help clients fully understand each project element before proceeding. The resulting customer experience is less chaotic and more enjoyable.