Equal

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO and Founder of BluBinder, a hybrid FinTech/LegalTech focused on protecting elders from financial exploitation and taking the headaches out of estate resolution.

For what projects/services did your company hire Equal?

We hired Equal to collaborate with us on rapid-cycle prototyping, user research and UX/UI design of the first version of our mobile app.

How did you select this vendor?

We searched online (Upwork) for vendors, selected a shortlist based on prior expertise in both fintech and LegalTech space. We decided on Equal based on their combination of talented staff, collaborative style and willingness to be flexible in taking a design approach that was new for them.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We did 6-7 design sprints. Our goal was not to design a full app, but rather to prototype potential app features so we could gather feedback users in order to narrow down for MVP. The Equal team designed each set of features according to our research script, we did an interactive interview with 5-6 users, then refined their feedback for the next sprint. With very little advanced warning, Equal also designed a great short video for our application to several accelerator programs.

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

We worked with 4 people over the summer. An overall account manager, Val. Then 3 other UX/UI designers at different times.

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

The outcomes were great, though not in the way you might expect. After spending the summer prototyping, we learned invaluable insights from our users that caused us to change our business focus and approach. This ultimately will end up having saved an enormous amount of money had we gone, without prototyping or validation research, into build without that stage. Equal was an incredible partner with us along this journey.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We quickly got into a good rhythm of daily standups, Slack channel communications, and design reviews. I would say the only challenge we had was related to the language difficulties. Our particular business relates to some very arcane areas (estate law) in the US, with lots of concepts and words not only highly specific to the US but also requiring the understanding of many words that even native English speakers might not know.

This made things complicated sometimes. And also because it was difficult for some Equal staff to understand things when we met on Zoom and spoke at a native-speaker speed, we had to put lots of things in writing in detail to clarify things. Probably a good practice anyway, but given the short time we had and how small our own team was, it added a bit to our workload in the early going.

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

Their UX/UI skills, flexibility in taking feedback, and quick project turnaround time were impressive.

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

See above on language skills (spoken/comprehension of native-speed English speakers).

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the project manager at Gardenvity, an e-commerce company. We work with different brands, helping them be successful in various markets.

What challenge were you trying to address with Equal?

Our main goal was to increase sales in the UK and reenter the German market. We wanted to research the user market and apply that knowledge to improve the site’s UI/UX.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted Equal to do market research for the UK. We had some of it done before, but we wanted them to do the market research, and find out who our customers are, our metrics on Google Trends, and our competitors. Then, they would propose improvements for the website, and they would do the same for the German market. They also did competitor research to determine our main customer personas. That was the first stage of the study. After that, we went on to the main work, applying the knowledge from the analysis.

They also worked on our website and made wireframes, prototypes of the new layouts, UI concepts, and mockups for our website's mobile and desktop versions. We gave them access to our Hotjar and Google Analytics, and they worked based on our current metrics. They also went through the main competitor websites and benchmarked that — they used data from our website and competitor websites and did market research based on some reports they found.

The features of the German market were based on a JP Morgan report; they used various sources to collect data about the market in general and the specific hot tubs market, and they used their expertise to curate the customer profiles. They reviewed competitors based on what they could find about them online. So, their websites and their reviews are in places like Trustpilot and Amazon. They would usually provide a summary and a video presentation, delving into different areas. For us, it was important to get the data necessary to know our customers, and Equal helped with that.

They started with wireframes for the new version of the website. Then, they did UI concepts of how the design should change. After we approved the UI concept, they went through the site page by page, suggesting new desktop and mobile versions methods.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two people from Equal. Valentina (Project Manager) and Max (Designer). We spent most of the time consulting and exchanging iterations with their UX designer, who was doing the research, presenting it, and doing the designs.

How did you come to work with Equal?

Originally, we found them through Upwork; we posted a job post, and there were a lot of responses. We selected several options based on their cover letters and Upwork feedback, and we chose Equal because they had the experience we needed. They were in our price range, and they were communicative.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $10,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2021–January 2022.

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

We’ve started implementing their work bit by bit. For example, we took part in the design of the mobile header of the website. We saw increases in sales in the UK and Germany due to these changes. We also saw some increased sales just by doing these incremental updates and applying the market research they did and key personas in defining our customers. That was also very insightful for us to target the ads, prepare assets for the ads, etc.

How did Equal perform from a project management standpoint?

They were always on top of the deadlines and asked what the next plan was — In terms of project management, I have only good feedback.

We usually communicated through Slack; they had their channel for us, where they posted questions, updates, and videos. They also used ClickUp as a project management tool and provided basic project plans there. We didn't use it regularly, but it was a good tool to evaluate the project schedule and hours estimates. Also, they used the Upwork messenger if they couldn’t reach us through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ease of communication and flexibility was outstanding, which was important for me. Also, I was impressed by the insights they provided; from the first presentation on market research in the UK, we saw that they knew what they were doing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They provided everything we needed, so it’s difficult for me to say at the moment. They could improve their English level, but that was minor because I could understand everything they said.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be clear and concise about what they want. — the better we provide input for them, the more focused they can be. The specs and communication are important for every detail, which was a part of our success working with them. Also, keeping them informed about the next steps helps them plan and perform better.

Introduce your business and what you do there

I’m the CEO of a CD keys e-commerce company.

What challenges were you trying to address with Equal?

I hired them to create my e-commerce website. I needed the site to be responsive on different devices and allow my clients to buy prepaid cards to access video games and other services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Equal built my e-commerce website in Opencart. I initially provided them with my requirements. After that, they started working on it, and I was able to see all the project progress through Figma.

What was the team composition?

I worked directly with one person; I don’t know if more people were involved. 

How did you come to work with Equal?

I researched online and came up with their website. I really liked their designs, so I contacted them. We started working together right away.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent €1,000 (approximately $1,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with them from December 2019–January 2020.

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

I haven’t launched the project, so I don’t have any clients’ feedback yet. However, I’m happy with the design. What I liked the most was they adapted to all of my needs and requests and provided excellent guidance. The design ended up being more effective and overall better than what I originally thought.

How did Equal perform from a project management standpoint?

We worked online, and it worked perfectly. We communicated mostly using Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their design skills were fantastic, and their work was impeccable and creative. Equal wanted our site to be original; they stood out because they took care of every detail to make it possible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The project lasted a little bit longer than I’d planned, but it was also because I requested changes. Besides that, I honestly didn’t have any complaints.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you aren’t sure about something, just ask them. You’ll get better results if you take their guidance to find solutions.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of enterpriseCX. We’re a company located in Silicon Valley; we help large enterprises with their customer experience, solutions strategy, and implementation.

What challenge were you trying to address with Equal?

We created a platform to help our customers get more value from their staff investments and analytics on how their stakeholders behave online. For this platform, we turned to Equal to get help on UX/UI design.

The main challenge was to show data meaningfully so customers could take action. We needed to keep it simple and make it interactive.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, we created a storyboard description of what we were looking for. It showed the high-level items we needed, the number of screens, and the basic level of customer interactions we expected on the application. We went with those storyboards to Equal, and they went through a discovery session with us. They came up with a strawman of a UX outline.

Based on that discovery session, we went ahead with the project. There were three design sprints. On the first one, we saw the overall screens, navigation, and how the user would get the information on the least number of clicks. The second sprint involved getting into the screens and looking at customer interactions to see the areas to hone in terms of information, display, and so on. Equal helped us with the information hierarchy, which was important.

Lastly, we looked at how we could further improve the design in the third sprint. They identified some areas on white labeling, which helped us get a strong handle on the UX/UI design so our developers could take that and start running the engineering side. The design was done on Figma, and we continue to get some services, whether it’s small designs for the app or design reviews for us.

What is the team composition?

We work with Sergey (Founder & Art Director). He’s the lead designer and the only person we’ve interacted with.

How did you come to work with Equal?

We found them on Upwork.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $2,500.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2021, and our relationship is ongoing.

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

Our customers are satisfied with what they see on the application screens. Before, we sent them PDFs on the data, and it wasn’t usable. Customers are now showing more interest in the analytics, which tells us that the investment has worked.

How did Equal perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great at project management throughout the discovery and three design phases. Equal’s team was proactive — whenever there was a change in the schedule, they came out and sent us a message on what we should expect. Also, they were good at managing scope and documenting what needed to be done. In that way, they were really easy to work with.

We communicated via messaging and Zoom calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their responsiveness to feedback is outstanding. We went through many comments on our Figma files and worked asynchronously due to the time zone difference. They made sure they resolved our questions and feedback before marking the designer’s final version.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have any constructive feedback for them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

First, make sure they’re aligned on why you’re doing the project. It’ll help Equal to understand why the application is important. Secondly, be clear about your expectations in terms of timelines. If you spell that out, their team will be on the same page.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a former innovation consultant at 1030 Innovation Consulting. I led multiple projects, most of them dealing with innovation management; our clients hired us to develop new products or services for them.

What challenge were you trying to address with Equal?

We were working with a global pharma company on developing a new service. One of the pillars of this service was the website, and we needed someone to help us with the site design, including UI/UX design and the overall setup.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Equal started by creating wireframes for the website. They built three versions of the wireframes because the design needed to be optimized for mobile, desktop, and tablet. We already had the features we wanted on the site, and they added ideas of their own.

After that, they worked in Figma to create a responsive UI design for desktop, mobile, and tablet. We’d already had branding developed, so we had basic guidelines for the site, including colors, icons, and font, and we gave Equal freedom within those guidelines. Because we were working with a pharmaceutical company and the industry is very regulated, we had many rounds of feedback. The team integrated our input into each new version.

Our client’s service was international, so we had to make sure the site’s imagery resonated with international crowds, and Equal took care of diversity in the imagery. The website was aimed at patients with chronic disease, so the team also focused on making it clean, clear, easy to navigate, visually appealing, and not overwhelming. Additionally, Equal handed over all the materials to our developers and answered their questions.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact was Sergey (Founder & Art Director), and we met two more people from Equal. Although Sergey wasn’t implementing the changes, he was responsible for the art direction and had people under him incorporating our feedback.

How did you come to work with Equal?

I searched online for freelancers or agencies comprised of freelancers, and I found Equal on Upwork.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between €5,000–€6000 (approximately $5,500–$6,500 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together roughly from May 2019–May 2020.

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

Equal’s design was really good. Visually, the site was beautiful, and the end client’s team was very happy when we presented it to them. The Equal team followed the brief, understood the brand guidelines, and translated them into their website design. We didn’t have any major notes for improving what they proposed in terms of design. Additionally, they came up with very good suggestions of features to add. I was overall satisfied with Equal.

How did Equal perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t have any issues with deadlines; they always followed them and never delivered late. The project was challenging because it was during the COVID-19 pandemic, so our deadlines were changing, and Equal adapted to us.

We used email and Skype to communicate. I also had access to their Figma, where I would leave comments on their work. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed by how proactive Equal was. When we started the project, I was quite convinced we knew all the site’s features, and there was nothing to add. However, they looked at our initial suggestions and came up with additional features even though it wasn’t part of their job and we didn’t pay them for it. 

When working with designers or developers, they often just do their job and don’t offer anything extra, so we were surprised when Equal took this initiative. Our end client was also very happy with the new features. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I didn’t have any issues with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Anyone who hires a creative agency needs to have a project brief prepared with their requirements, limitations, and design needs.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a UK-based organization that’s building a global small-volume payment network. We expect payments below £20 (approximately $27 USD) to be made via Web 3.0 next-generation services. Our team also plans to help small content creators develop their content and sell it globally. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Equal? 

We want to provide our users with the capability to make and receive payments. As a result, we’ve hired Equal to develop a mobile app. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Equal has designed the app’s logic and flow; they’ve provided us with clickable prototypes along with the visual design of the product’s MVP. Our team has a clear idea of the conditional elements and underlying architecture of the product, and Equal has handled the complete layout of the product and put it together for us. 

To elaborate, the team has synthesized the users’ needs and brought logic into them. They’ve produced the prototype and taken care of all the visual designs necessary, which the developers will implement.

In addition to that, we continue to work with Equal to get additional services, such as developing the Chrome browser plug-in and designing an administrative dashboard. We also plan to integrate the app with an e-wallet service provider. This is a separate part of our work, and it will utilize a non-custodial wallet solution. 

Overall, the Equal team has predominantly helped us in mobile app design; we’re now moving into the web development stage. We hope the interfaces of the mobile and web apps will be as similar as possible, but we also have to differentiate them across different environments. 

What is the team composition?

We work with two people from Equal on a daily basis, but four people are working on this project in total. 

How did you come to work with Equal?

We put up a tender on Upwork and conducted a series of interviews with 4–5 teams. However, we shortlisted six companies and ultimately chose Equal out of them because of their professionalism and responsiveness. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $15,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September 2021, and the engagement is ongoing. 

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

Even if we’re still developing the app, we’ve shared it with user groups, and they’re all excited. Our team is also pleased with it since it has a clean design. 

I have a background in major banking organizations — I have a reasonably good understanding of this field, and what Equal has produced is good and of high quality. 

Moreover, the methodology that they’ve used in terms of building the app’s logic and UI has been complete and thorough. Overall, I expect customers to like the app.  

How did Equal perform from a project management standpoint?

Equal’s project management is great. They meet deadlines and manage things in advance. Our teams work through our plans so we’re clear on deliverables, and their resources are also forthcoming. 

On top of that, we’ve had to make changes, and their team has handled such changes well. They’ve stayed within our timelines while also incorporating additional feedback. The team has taken on extra work, and they’ve managed everything professionally. Apart from that, their resources have kept us and other stakeholders informed about where they are in the project, what they’re doing, and how they’re going to hit our timelines. 

In terms of communication, we use Telegram. They’ve been keen to use Slack, but we prefer Telegram. We also have two regular calls per week to discuss our progress and outstanding tasks. Meanwhile, we’re not so keen on using project management tools, but they use Figma, where we can see all of their work. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Equal challenges our thinking. They make sure that their opinions are heard. In other words, they’re strong customer advocates, which we truly appreciate. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let Equal lead the way using their methodology. It’s easy to tell a team what you want them to do, but you must ask them how they want to do the project. Allow them to show you their structured methodology, which helps them deliver a high-quality piece of work. If you bring something else into the project, they have the flexibility to accommodate it. They have the expertise to do that. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a tech entrepreneur at Newmira Digital, and I’ve developed several e-commerce websites using different design contractors. Every few years, I get ideas for new businesses and websites. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Equal?

I hired Equal to serve as our design partner. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

I initially hired Serge (Founder & Art Director) and his team to create a finance and stock trading website. Such websites were usually bland, so I asked their team to redesign the site in a way that could increase my revenue. This was a relatively small project. 

Ten months later, I created a new tech startup and needed a design agency that shared my preference for clean and intuitive yet functional websites. The new startup’s site design needed to grab people’s attention, so I hired Equal again to work on that. 

At present, I contact Equal when I want to update the new website, such as when I need new pages on its front- and backend. Moreover, I’ve also talked to them about a new project for a company I bought a year ago. That company is a perfect synergistic addition to the projects we’ve handled. We’re building it as its own separate entity, but we’re going to integrate it with the larger website in a few months. 

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Serge and a project manager. Serge has been involved at the start and led the discussion. Three other people have also been involved in our brainstorming process. 

How did you come to work with Equal?

I originally found them on Upwork. I didn’t look at the price — you get what you pay for — but I looked at their portfolio and design aesthetics. I liked what I saw on their past projects, what they said about themselves, and how they worked with clients, so I hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $25,000–$30,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in April 2019 on the first project. We started working on our second project in September 2020, and the partnership is ongoing. 

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

The way Equal works has absolutely saved us time in the long run; they make us more efficient as we work on projects. 

How did Equal perform from a project management standpoint?

Equal’s project management is seamless; I can’t ask for anything better. They deliver everything we ask them to deliver, and when I don’t give them feedback, they reach out to me without waiting too long. This helps them meet our deadlines. Moreover, they have a lot of design clients, so I’m always apprehensive when I give them something more to do. However, whenever I ask them to do something, they jump in right away and deliver. Overall, their project management and design work are unbelievable. 

To communicate, we’ve done video calls and chats. They’re in Ukraine while I’m in California, and I’m a huge proponent of written communication; I talk to them in writing as much as possible. Given that, my morning scrum meetings with the development team and engineers are all in writing. That way, we create no confusion over who’s said what. We have back-and-forth conversations on Skype, and when we’re deep into a project with the engineers, we use Slack. Overall, 99.9% of our communication is in writing, and I find it truly efficient. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their project management style makes them different from their competition. Equal communicates and lays out all project requirements before they start designing a single pixel. As an entrepreneur with a business idea, I usually want to launch things quickly; I want the designers to layout everything and be done with it. However, that’s not efficient, and we usually end up redesigning everything. 

With that in mind, Equal does market research and takes time to know everything about the business, our customers, and the website. This slows our processes down in a good way; the team helps us take a step back and digest all information so that the designers can work properly. Simply put, no other design team has asked for this much information about our work from the beginning.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Equal doesn’t offer multiple iterations in the beginning. The team gives me a couple of designs and asks me which one I like. From there, they iterate the design with all the information and requirements we’ve given them. While this process works, it can also be a little shocking. On top of that, the designs sometimes don’t match what I’m thinking when I want to go in a different direction. When I say that, there’s a bit of pushback. 

Overall, while they communicate well, we need to have more discussions over initial designs before they get too far into a project. That way, they can give me more design choices as the project starts. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be prepared to have a long interview process about your business, customers, and competition. This process is going to help both you and the Equal team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Normod, a direct-to-consumer furniture brand located in Turkey. We design, produce, and sell in Turkey.

What challenge were you trying to address with Equal?

We needed someone to redesign our website. It had a basic template and needed a completely new UI to keep up with our growing company and processes. That is why we hired Equal.

What was the scope of their involvement?

As a growing online business, we were beginning to encounter certain problems. We had ideas on how we could leverage the web experience to better communicate our products, and Equal listened to our general brief. They also provided us with their own suggestions using samples of their previous work.

Equal then went into redesigning our Shopify website. It was a frontend design project where they reworked the whole UI page by page. 

What is the team composition?

We were in contact with the founder and a designer. The founder was very engaged in the project.

How did you come to work with Equal?

We found them through Upwork. We spoke to several designers, but Equal was the best match for us because of their experience with other direct-to-consumer businesses.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from June–August 2021.

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

Equal was very proficient at redesigning our website. They helped us double our sales across our online channel and two experience centers in Istanbul. Working with them immensely improved our business.

How did Equal perform from a project management standpoint?

Though I wasn’t personally engaged during the project, we had one product manager who said that Equal was very specific when it came to defining tasks, giving feedback, and setting up meetings. They managed the whole process, making it super easy to work with them. They delivered on time and within budget. 

We communicated through email and shared a Google Drive. We also used Figma for reviewing the designs, taking notes, and making improvements.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very professional. They made things very easy for us to understand.

Are there any areas they could improve?

At certain times, I felt that they could be more creative.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you want things to happen faster, be very clear and detailed with your brief. Equal is a professional team, so you have nothing to be afraid of when working with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Chloe Padfield: I’m the head of marketing and sales for Brevio, a UK-based tech company that aims to match charitable organizations with funding organizations through mutual criteria.

Victoria Gregory: My role is product lead and I deal with the development team that builds our products.

What challenge were you trying to address with Equal?

CP: At the time of engaging with Equal, we had a very basic website that was loaded with too much information, so we wanted to create a funnel that would allow us to start executing leads and engaging with people.

VG: That meant making large changes to the website because it wasn’t providing what we needed in terms of drawing in leads. It was built in WordPress, so it was very restrictive and it only gave us control of the content.

What was the scope of their involvement?

VG: We decided to do a rebuild into a technology that allowed us more flexibility CMS-wise, so Equal helped us build a new website in Webflow from scratch. Some of the deliverables were a complete set of Figma website designs, new logo branding, and a basic style guide.

They developed a basic brochure-style website that acts as a funnel to push users to register with our platform — its key purpose is providing information and converting users through registration.

CP: The rebranding aspect of the partnership wasn’t intentional, but since Equal had a good UX team, we decided to have a complete refresh of the site’s look and feel at the last stage. We worked with them to determine how people would navigate through the site, create logos, and simplify other design elements such as fonts and color schemes.

What is the team composition?

CP: Valentyna (Business Sales Manager) was our main account manager, and she was the one who brought together our basic requirements, project timelines, and budgets. We were then introduced to Sergey (Founder & Art Director) and had a conversation about our main vision — he was more focused on technology, so he was able to brief his developers and designers.

We also worked with Maxim (UI/UX Designer) who put together all the designs, wireframes, and logos.

VG: Additionally, we had developers that Maxim and Valentyna managed. They filtered through our requests and requirements as the website was getting built.

How did you come to work with Equal?

CP: We posted an initial briefing on Upwork and engaged with a few vendors. Equal had great reviews, a good website, and we liked how engaged they were when we first communicated.

They quickly understood the brief and were able to put something together in terms of how it would work.

How much have you invested with them?

CP: We tallied the costs at about $14,000 USD across the project mapping, development, and design work.

What is the status of this engagement?

CP: We worked with Equal from April–July 2021. There were a couple of amendments and changes postlaunch, which were included in the budget. Equal built the platform in a way that we can handle all the small amendments ourselves, and also provided us with decent information and training around it.

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

CP: We had a little look at our average signups and in the four months since we launched the website, we’ve seen a 107% increase in registration compared to the performance of our old website in 2020 — the platform did its job tenfold in terms of bringing us new customers. 

We also found that people are more engaged and understand the navigation better, so the drop-off rate is significantly lower. 

How did Equal perform from a project management standpoint?

CP: They invited us to their Slack workspace and set up a channel where we had constant conversations with the team. Rather than having to ask for updates, we were kept in the loop and had micro-conversations to move the project along. We also managed the work through Figma and made our comments there. Our requests were accomplished instantaneously, so we never had to chase them.

The way Equal structured our interaction was to have a go-to person, as well as direct communications with the design team. The process was brilliant from that perspective, as we didn’t have any issues because we were doing it all through messaging and visual updates.

What did you find most impressive about them?

CP: We were impressed with their ability to quickly understand what we wanted. Equal started the project from scratch and created something bespoke that suited us as an organization, for a fraction of the price.

Are there any areas they could improve?

CP: There’s isn’t anything significant they could change, but they could’ve had a few more video calls right at the beginning for gathering requirements.

VG: Using Slack worked really well for us, but I can see how other organizations would prefer something else. Having worked in digital agencies, we always get clients that prefer face-to-face and video meetings.

Nonetheless, they were always good in terms of responsiveness, interpreting our feedback, and asking sensible questions. They were really interested in our organization and wanted to make sure they understood what we were trying to achieve. Equal did a really good job and we’re really happy with the output.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

CP: My advice is to be clear about what they’re trying to create to avoid wasting time. A half-baked idea isn’t useful when working with a design agency and at the end of the day, they’re only there to put the designs in place. It’s best to have a clear picture of what the requirements are going to look like before engaging with Equal.

VG: That applies to providing feedback as well. My advice is to work out specifically what you like whenever they send you a design — provide them with clear directions.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am one of the founders of a product for customers that provide proactive data privacy.

For what projects/services did your company hire Equal?

This team was hired to help with designing our product and performed an assessment which helped shape the likelihood of our typical user. This was extremely helpful in defining the platform as a whole since this information was leveraged to develop the UX/UI for the web platform, mobile responsive, and administrative panels. This team was critical in developing the overall branding and positioning for our product.

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

Although our team visualized what our product was, and we came into candidate team interviews without any technical or design solutions in mind, this was the first team that was able to visualize our product and the functionality we were looking for.

We interviewed easily 10 teams and it was clear with this team that they weren’t just agreeing with us to be agreeable, they understood what our desired outcome is and immediately started to pose probing questions which aligned with our end goal. We were looking for design competency and studied their portfolio – Their elegant, intuitive, and graceful content sealed the deal for us.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The initial work focused on market research, competitor analysis, and target audience. The result was an output displaying likely click patterns for hypothetical users, and highlighted focus areas. A user flow was designed which led to wireframes. The team was patient and accommodating as we came to decisions.

They wanted to get this critical phase right – and continued to probe our assumed logic, expectations, vision, and end goals. Each portion of the wireframe was tested. As we moved into clickable prototypes we began to see the design come alive.

Each phase of the product continued to gel with the prior and the seamless screenflow was intuitive, easy to navigate, and inviting. At the tail-end of the engagement, the team helped integrating with the backend development team.

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

Valentyna - Business manager and Sales representative: Gathering requirements, compiling a statement of work, account management. Dmitry - Product designer and Art-director: Direct cooperation with a full-time devoted product designer, a designer was offered upon relevant experience in business analysis, legaltech sphere, and ability to join weekly meetings via video calls.

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

Each milestone was appropriately phased to display progress, and wasn’t closed until the agreed-upon deliverables were met. At the end of the project we had the product that we visualized so that is a complete success. The Equal team carefully made sure that we were satisfied with each goal as the project progressed for each phase of the project.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The collaboration was smoother than many domestic projects, despite our teams being on different continents. The Equal team was very good at managing expectations and letting us know what they were working on so we always knew what to expect with each meeting. They were also very accommodating to our time zones and worked hard to meet when it was convenient for us on a recurring schedule.

The Equal team heard and incorporated each requirement over the duration of the project, and added value in areas that we didn’t foresee. Overall, the product that was built would not have been built without the Equal team’s professionalism, experience, expertise, patience, understanding the vision, and driving the whole project to completion.

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

Mostly, that their services encompassed the entirety of the project and fulfilled the product’s requirement to create a product that was user-centric, had an interactive and intuitive interface, was carefully executed paying attention to the intricacies of the industry, and had a UX focused product design.

This team had great high fidelity prototypes, micro-animations, and built us a product that considered future scalability when it comes time for growth.

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

Nothing comes to mind – This is a very professional team that is up to any challenge!