Emilia Digital

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of Jewish Cultural Center

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

The Centro Cultural Judaico Rua da Judiaria & JCC Lisboa is an institution based in the old Jewish Quarter of Alfama, in Lisbon, dedicated to preserving, researching, and promoting Portuguese Jewish heritage. Since 2019, it has developed cultural, educational, and memorial projects that bring Jewish history into dialogue with the city’s contemporary life, including cultural tours, public memory initiatives such as Stolpersteine Portugal, exhibitions, international partnerships, and the digital platform Jew Where, created to map and share places connected to Jewish history, culture, memory, and Jewish life in Portugal and around the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Emilia Digital to accomplish?

• Develop and deliver the Jew Where website as a final, functional, properly tested, and ready-to-use digital platform dedicated to Jewish heritage, historical places, cultural memory, and interactive mapping.

SOLUTION

How did you find Emilia Digital?

Referral

Why did you select Emilia Digital over others?

Referred to me

How many teammates from Emilia Digital were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The scope of work was to design and develop the Jew Where website as a functional digital platform focused on Jewish heritage, historical locations, cultural memory, and interactive mapping. The key deliverables included the website structure, the visual interface, the interactive map-related features, and the technical implementation needed for the platform to be used and managed by our institution. Our expectation was to receive a final, stable, properly tested, and ready-to-use website, without major errors or unresolved functionality issues.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The measurable outcomes were limited. There was progress in the design and development of the website; however, the work was not delivered to the professional standard we expected. The platform continued to present errors, unresolved functionality issues, and the lack of a stable final version. During the process, several issues were treated as outside the scope, even when we understood them to be part of the paid work, which also led to additional charges for matters that were within the contract and had already been paid for. For these reasons, we do not consider that the project produced a satisfactory final result.

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

Project management was not satisfactory. Items were presented to us as functional or ready, but in practice the website still had errors and unresolved functionality issues. When we requested corrections, many of these points were repeatedly treated as outside the scope, even when we understood them to be part of the paid work and necessary for the agreed platform to function properly. This created the impression that scope discussions were being used to justify additional charges rather than to complete the project as originally expected. Overall, their response to our needs was frustrating, and we did not feel that the project was managed in a clear, professional, or reliable way.

What was your primary form of communication with Emilia Digital?

Email or Messaging App

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

Initially, what stood out was that Emilia Digital was an Israeli company, which seemed relevant for a Jewish heritage project with an international cultural purpose. However, this expectation did not translate into a satisfactory final delivery.

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

Emilia Digital could have managed the project with more professionalism, clearer communication, and greater responsibility for the final delivery. They should have delivered a stable and properly tested platform, corrected errors without repeatedly treating expected functionality as outside the scope, and provided clearer documentation and handover. In our view, the project caused financial loss and forced us to seek other solutions in order to build a functional website through a new development process. The outcome would have been much better if there had been more transparency, better quality control, and a stronger commitment to completing what had already been agreed and paid for.