DOOR3

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

Whatever designs we had, we presented to our clients, and everyone was excited and happy.

Long-term clients have been saying that the new design feels modern and fresh. Everyone’s really excited.

The design is beautiful and is as good as any other app our clients have been working with. Compared to where we started our platform, we’ve made a lot of progress. The style guides are much better as well.

We haven’t really finished the development and rolled it out to the full client base yet. We’ve only been able to show prototypes, PDFs, and teasers to get people excited.

It will take us another 2–3 months to finish the work, and another couple of months to test it and iron out any issues. Hopefully, we’ll start leveraging the new design fully by September or October 2020.

How did DOOR3 perform from a project management standpoint?

The style guides and different components were delivered through Zeplin, and the actual editable designs were made available in Sketch.

We’ve realized that this was one of our better consulting engagements. We knew what we wanted, and DOOR3 quickly understood what they had to give us. From a team perspective, it was one of our more successful consulting engagements.

It was a two-and-a-half-month engagement, and we had calls every second day with the team. There were five people from our side and 2–3 people from DOOR3 talking every other day, and we also used email, SharePoint, and OneDrive, to share documents and artefacts. We used Zeplin to do reviews of the style guides.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It was a very focused project, and we were in constant communication. We got what we wanted.

My CEO was very skeptical going into this, saying he’d never had a successful consulting engagement, but he was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. The teams gelled, and we got on the same page very quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everything worked out well for us, so there’s nothing I can think of.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

With any consulting engagement, it’ll help if you’re very clear on what we want. Any design agency can provide hundreds of ideas, but it just takes a lot of time if we don’t know what we want. If we know what we want, and just want someone to vet those ideas quickly and come up with a good proposal, then that’s what I’d suggest. Otherwise, these engagements get extended, and there’s nothing tangible coming out of them. My advice would be for the client to spend time getting to know what they want, and then start the engagement, not the other way around.

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

We were really impressed with the speed with which we could roll out new features using the shared backend through Xamarin. It was fantastic. When we needed to make a small change, we only had to make it in one place. Our vision really came to life. In addition, the uniformity of our apps made it easier for customers to use the system.

The shared platform also helped us track checkouts and delivery more efficient. DOOR3’s strategy optimized our efforts because we no longer had to make changes to five different apps, which would have been a strain on our resources. There was a case study written by Microsoft, which now owns Xamarin, and it talks about DOOR3’s involvement and influence.

How did DOOR3 perform from a project management standpoint?

They were on top of the project and understood what we needed. They listened very well, and John was great at pushing us and driving the business forward. We initially used DOOR3’s Jira for project management before transitioning onto our own Jira system.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their transition into a staff augmentation model was beneficial and made knowledge transfer easy because they were working hand-in-hand with us. They weren’t always on-site, but they still partnered with us completely.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It was hard to really understand exactly what people were doing each day when you're paying on a time and materials basis, but with the project manager’s help, they were able to rectify it and clarify it so it wasn't straightforward as giving us an invoice. We had to do a little due diligence and really understand what the different time tracking metrics meant. But they were very transparent with us and they worked with us completely. I don't know if we took full advantage of their testing capabilities, but we ended up handling all of the QA and testing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Integrate them right into your team. They want to learn and they want to help you. They don't want to take over and own it. They really want to partner with you and the more you allow them to partner and understand your business, the easier it will be for them to come up with solutions to whatever your biggest challenges are.

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

Our team is satisfied with DOOR3’s work. We should wrap up within a month or two, and then move onto a maintenance plan. Internal feedback has been positive. In August 2018, we turned the system on to do our data migration. The migration was smooth, and everyone transitioned well. There was some data cleanup from the old system, which we expected. Everything was mostly on schedule.

How did DOOR3 perform from a project management standpoint?

They worked well from a project management standpoint. We receive weekly updates and status reports that detail the allotted time for each particular sprint. Their team was responsive in that regard. We used a collaborative tool, and sometimes email and Skype for communication. There were a lot of phone conversations and face-to-face meetings with Bart.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our assigned business analyst was in tune with our business. The best part of the experience was how responsive and collaborative DOOR3 was during the process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Resources did lack on the project management side. I relied heavily on the business analyst we had versus the project manager we had during the process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communication is key to understanding different team member’s personalities. Since they’re located overseas and we have to work with different time frames, make sure you communicate about ongoing sprints to guarantee development work finishing in time. Testing was also crucial for us in understanding functionality and making sure team members were onboard.

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

We got some really good products out of the collaboration, and we wouldn’t have a business without them. Over a thousand companies use our platform, and that number is growing. We get a lot of good feedback from our users. The platform looks good and is easy to use. Everything they did for us contributes to our daily operations.

How did DOOR3 perform from a project management standpoint?

We were very involved in this process, and our primary communication was all in person. We were in their offices four to six hours a day during the development. Ultimately, we managed the project, but they brought a lot of expertise to the process. Their project management is fine, but this was an unusual type of engagement.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Everything they make is very modern and attractive. All their work looks current, and they understand marketing and UX very well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we're satisfied with everything they delivered.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I don’t have any recommendations specific to collaborations with DOOR3. With any project, it’s important to know what you want so your partners have a clear direction.