Five Pack

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of a dating app for the Coptic Orthodox community.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Five Pack Creative?

Five Pack Creative helped design, develop, and test our app, then deploy it to the Apple store.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to build a solid MVP so we could prove our concept in the market.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We researched many vendors, shortlisted a few, and asked them for a proposal. Five Pack Creative was the clear frontrunner in terms of experience and budget.

Describe the project in detail.

We started by developing wireframes for iOS. Then we began development and testing around those features. We went back to the drawing board a few times, but there were no major surprises. We also leveraged some of their in-house UI/UX design resources, but always came back to our style guide.

What was the team composition?

Our team has a project manager, a software developer, a QA tester, and a designer. These resources have stayed consistent throughout the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within one month of our app launching on the Apple Store, we have around 1000 users. It's great! This has definitely exceeded our expectations. Our users are generally pleased with the MVP and ready for us to take it to the next level.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our project manager is always easy to contact and responsive over email. When we need things from other members of the team, she can quickly loop them in. She also uses an internal ticketing tool to track development and testing progress.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

As a project manager, I appreciate their responsiveness and sense of urgency. They're app experts. They've guided me through many decisions and brought items to my attention that I wouldn't otherwise recognize. It feels more like a partnership than a vendor relationship, which is great.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We ran out of time to develop and think through some features. If we'd had a more extended timeline, we could have been more proactive in resolving items rather than working on them after release. That's on us, though, not Five Pack Creative.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior program manager for a credit monitoring company. We offer a direct-to-consumer credit monitoring product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Five Pack Creative?

We don’t have an in-house development team, so we hired Five Pack to develop our mobile app for iOS and Android.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The mobile app is an extension of our product’s web experience, so Five Pack’s task was to translate the essential features into a functioning mobile build. Our customers come to the web platform first, so cramming every functionality we possibly could into a mobile app wasn’t necessary. Five Pack worked with us to define the platform’s crucial features and deliver a product that aligned with our priorities and overall business philosophy. They also provide support, maintenance, and additional developments as needed.

What is the team composition?

An account manager is our primary point of contact. Beyond that, their team mostly consists of iOS and Android developers. We also utilize one of their designers to help with frontend work.

How did you come to work with Five Pack Creative?

I wasn’t a part of the initial committee that contracted Five Pack, but I know they were selected over several different firms. I’ve worked with a few mobile agencies in my career and Five Pack’s approach particularly benefits our product.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2016 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our most valuable customers are our app users because many of them log in to the platform daily. Therefore, creating and maintaining a high-quality app was integral to our success. Five Pack delivered that and continues to correct issues as they occur to minimize downtime for our users.

How did Five Pack Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

Five Pack has limited access to our Jira account where we manage the project on a Kanban board. We create user stories and Five Pack picks them up and gets them done. Most of our communication is done through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their flexibility and responsiveness are what I appreciate the most. They make us feel like a priority and act with an immediacy that I haven’t experienced with other vendors. I firmly believe that they are the right fit for our current needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’d like to see more transparency on their side in terms of how they track their hours and progress. Increased visibility in this area would ensure that both parties are working toward the same goals.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Five Pack might be best utilized as an extension of an existing development team. They offer development strategy services as well, but I haven’t used them in that capacity. Due to my lack of personal experience, I’d suggest that potential customers ask them more questions if they’re being considered for a full-service development role.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Our primary business is in-home health risk assessment. We have a network of doctors and work with major healthcare companies, sending their doctors to patients' homes. We work with people that don't normally get out and go to the doctor regularly. We perform home risk assessments via an iPad application that collects data and sends it back to our servers, where it's organized, coded, and sent back to the healthcare companies.

Previously to working here, I collaborated with Five Pack for a large dating site, where I was also the director of mobile technology, handling Android, iOS, and Windows Phone applications.

What is your position?

I am the director of mobile technology. We focus on iOS more than on Android and Windows products. We have a mobile team and many of the products that we build are mobile-based.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Five Pack?

When I came to my current company, there was an existing HTML5 web application that had a lot of issues. We quickly identified that we wanted to build a richer, native experience for the doctors. We chose to build an iOS application for which we needed help both from a development side and from a design and UX [user experience] standpoint. This is why we engaged Five Pack.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Early on, we wanted to evaluate and optimize how doctors go through their process. They have to address 700-plus questions and we needed to get them through those as efficiently as possible, making it easy for them to collect data, without losing any information along the way.

Five Pack was engaged from a UX standpoint first of all. We sat down with them and went through the entire existing mobile web app. We thought about how we could make an improvement and iterated with them for several months on the UX aspects alone. There were no design elements or architecture discussions at this point; the sole focus was to make the app better and more optimized, from a UX perspective.

After finishing this stage, we worked with them from a design standpoint. We started figuring out how we could use colors in order to convey messages, making a rich experience for our providers. Once we completed this stage, we started the development process.

We work with three in-house engineers, and we also use one from Five Pack in order to offset the work, which was significant.

At my previous company, we used significantly more of their resources. We used them for design work but, more importantly, we needed a lot of help from a development standpoint. We employed anywhere from three to five engineers who helped us build our features and improve the application.

My former dating company was an early adopter of iOS apps. We were banned from the store when Apple enforced its in-app purchase policy. My company didn't want to share profits with Apple, so we were forced out of the store. Eventually, we realized that we wanted to get back in. When this happened, we were left with having to build the whole application, from top to bottom. Five Pack was engaged in order to bring out its resources and expertise in the mobile field, helping us built the app within a quick timeline. We were able to build five of their engineers and three of our local developers, building the app in approximately four months. Everything was made from the ground up and, after launch, it became one of the top in-app purchase apps, outside of gaming ones. It's still in the top five in terms of profit. We were able to leverage their resources and our in-house talent, getting the app out of the door quickly.

How did you come to work with Five Pack?

We considered a couple of other options. At my previous company, there was a thorough process for evaluating different vendors. We looked at multiple avenues, from cost to location and interviewed different candidates from each company. Five Pack brought in the best talent. We didn't care whether they'd be able to come to our office. There was a tight window for getting the work done, so we were looking for the best possible talent with which we could work quickly. At the end of the day, they had the best talent and were able to ramp up quick.

One of their founders had helped us with our very first iPad app. At that point, the company was still early to the game and the iPad had just been launched. We were also building a Windows Phone app when that operating system was new. There was a need for making a quick app, so we brought him in as a contractor. He worked with us for a bit more than a year. As we started to ramp up the app, we started looking at avenues for getting resources and wanted to bring him in as a contractor again. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our app has been launched. At the moment, we're not using any of their resources. We're in maintenance mode, but we have a couple of other upcoming projects. When they reach the point of UX/UI [user interface] design and actual development, we will consider offsetting some of our resources and will determine whether we will use Five Pack again. We would prefer using their company, given that we've been pleased with our past experiences in terms of professionalism and quality provided.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The big success point for us, and the reason we've spent so much time focusing on UX elements at my current company, was reducing the amount of time that a physician has to spend with a member. We noticed that our doctors tend to do a lot of tedious work. They look at members' medication, type it in, and so on. This does not equate to quality time spent with patients. We've been able to optimize that. Before, it would take anywhere between an hour and an hour and a half for a provider to get through the flow of questions. Most of our physicians can now get through it in under an hour. There's been a good optimization and gain in the quality of time given by doctors to our members. They're getting through tedious tasks quicker so, even though the total time spend with a person has remained the same, it's a higher-quality experience.

We now have an automated tool for scanning medication and lab work, minimizing what the physicians actually have to do. This is part of the optimizations at a UX and design level that we've achieved with the help of Five Pack.

Another goal was architecting a solution that allowed the app to be a bit more durable. Right now, the iPads used by our doctors have cell chips, but they're not connectable in all locations. We've leveraged an architecture that allows a lot of their data to be stored locally. Five Pack has worked out some of those details in order to make sure that, overall, we would have some resilience. Whether a doctor has connectivity or not, they can still proceed with the evaluation and can still collect data. Everything gets stored locally and, once connectivity is available, it's sent back to our server and any schedule changes are also re-synced.

How did Five Pack perform from a project management standpoint?

Five Pack Creative does an excellent job in terms of sticking to their schedule. As with any business, once we've given out a task, we will come back to it, deciding that we want something changed. We have a good iterative process with Five Pack. In-house, we use scrum, and they work well within that environment of quick, short iterations. We can give them some ideas quickly and have a fast result through which we can iterate and iterate, flushing it to the point of being good enough. This has allowed us to go from UX to design faster. We will have many UX iterations before even considering colors and other such elements. We incorporate engineering into the upfront process in order to make sure that as we're handling UX and design, our engineers on both sides can have a voice and tell us if we're going on a much too difficult path, from a technical standpoint.

We interact with both their account managers and developers, as needed. We tend to communicate more with the engineers, designers and UX people, because those are the more day-to-day conversations.

Currently, we use Microsoft Team Foundation Service. We create all our tasks, from UX to design on it. We've given Five Pack access to our network via VPN [virtual private network].

Is there anything Five Pack could have improved or done differently?

I'm sure that there were times at which we could have iterated quicker, but there was nothing that ever had a significant impact on any of our projects.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

I work for American Airlines.

What is your position?

I'm the mobile app and wearable director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Five Pack Creative?

Five Pack was initially brought on to do some major project work when we redesigned the iPad application about three years ago. Their specialty is finding talented niche mobile developers and project management. We didn't have the resources internally to take on this extra project where we had to redesign the iPad app. We did have design work that was done elsewhere, but they did all the development and much of the QA [quality assurance] of that application. That was the original reason we teamed up with Five Pack.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Every year, we've probably doubled the amount of work that we've sent them. Currently, they provide us niche mobile developers that work on our project as part of the team. They can either be onsite, remote, or a combination of both. I would say a good third of our team comes from Five Pack.

How did you come to work with Five Pack Creative?

Their founder was working at American Airlines four and a half years ago, and he had a desire to go start his own company and do what he's doing now. I didn't want to lose him as a partner and team member, so we've had a working relationship from the first day that he started Five Pack.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It's cost more than $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did Five Pack Creative perform from a project management standpoint?

They do an awesome job. Five Pack Creative are engaged constantly and know the business. If they add new talent, they're pretty good at getting them up to speed on our specific vertical. The airlines space is a unique animal, so there's a lot of nuances about what we do, not only customer-wise, but programmatically within our enterprise.

What distinguishes Five Pack Creative from other providers?

Five Pack Creative delivers great work – really fast. Their talent is outstanding. If you analyze the entire cost proposal, you're looking at different numbers. Cost-per-hour is not one. Overall, it's how fast can you deliver a feature for me. A new feature has revenue tied to it, so if his team can deliver it three months faster, then they're actually saving me money.

Is there anything Five Pack Creative could have improved or done differently?

They're very ethical and very straightforward. If there's an issue, they resolve it. They're good at the customer service side of it, not just a technical company. As they get bigger, it's harder to continue that, but I'm confident they'll do that.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company name is Kevin W. McClain Investigations Limited.

What is your position?

I am the president of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Five Pack Creative?

I have been trying to develop a mobile app for the investigative industry for some time. There is nothing like this in our market. I have tried working with several other app developers and had reached a dead end. No one understood my vision and what I was trying to accomplish.

When I found Five Pack Creative, I contacted their main principal, Jeremy Stroud, and explained to him what I was looking for. They were able to meet with me via Google Hangouts, and I explained to them exactly what I was looking to do. Their team was able to visualize what I was trying to achieve and was able to put together the concept, proposal, and wireframes, then take off and run with the project.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Because of patent pending issues, I can't go into many specifics here, but an important part of the app has to do with geo-fencing. One of the most important components of the entire app development was going to be accurate GPS location services to be able to determine specific locations. Five Pack Creative was able to understand exactly what I was looking for.

The other component of the app was to create a report, literally, from the scene of the location, where we were going to respond to an incident. They were able to visualize that and even offer some suggestions that I had not even thought about. These suggestions were very helpful and will be put into the MVP [minimum viable product] we're currently developing. Right now, we're in the process of building the iPhone version. Once we get that up and out for proof of concept, we'll be working on the Android version.

How did you come to work with Five Pack Creative?

Ironically, one of their principals used to be my financial advisor. We'd found out that connection because we're affiliated through church, and his cousin [Jerry Beers] was the president of Five Pack Creative. I did not know that he was a software developer. When I found this out, I started doing more research about Five Pack Creative and realized that they had worked with some major companies, including American Airlines and Match.com. When I saw their work product and the professionalism that product demonstrated, I knew they were the right company for this project. I reached out to them, shared my vision, and decided to work with them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We are going to come in at somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000. They're coming under budget from their original estimate, which in this day and age is unheard of.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics, metrics or other feedback from this engagement?

I see things a certain way, but I'm new to this industry. I don't know anything about the technology or how app development works. I just assumed that the way one of the companies I was working with previously did things was how things worked in the industry. However, when Five Pack Creative started doing their workup for me, I realized that was not the case and became heavily engaged in the entire process.

As we've been going along, they'll send me buildups, there's communication, there's conversations, there's all these what-ifs and, if you've got questions, please reach out and contact us. They keep showing me what things look like and what their progress has been. I didn't know these things were what I was supposed to get when I'm investing all this money into this kind of thing. That's a refreshing approach.

Five Pack Creative is working at lightning speed, which is quite a contrast with another company, which was saying that maybe they'd get it done in eight to 12 weeks – and then after six months, I still did not have a finished viable product that I could take to market. Five Pack Creative has been at it less than two months, and they've almost got my iPhone version ready to go to market. It's just unbelievable.

What distinguishes Five Pack Creative from other providers?

Where do I start? Five Pack Creative's customer service is outstanding, and their ability to engage with the visionary and understand exactly what the vision is, what I am trying to bring to life, is amazing. They've taken a very professional approach to everything. 

Each member of their team brings different skill sets to the table, so I'm getting this whole team working on my project and trying to make the best viable product for me to get to market. Add to this their insight, experience, and different knowledge bases. They have been giving me ideas and things to think about that I had not even considered – things about visualizing the app and how it's going to work.

Is there anything Five Pack Creative could have improved or done differently?

I have no concerns whatsoever about what they're doing. They run a very professional operation. They understand what the customer's needs are and try to fulfill those needs – and they're willing to listen.

Even if I were to have any constructive criticism, they would listen to that and adapt to it. They would not get resentful or defensive about negative feedback. Their goal is to satisfy their client by whatever means necessary. I don't have any constructive criticism for them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Owner of a software company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Developing a web-based app for users to store, sort, and search their collection of digitized media.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Five Pack to accomplish?

• Develop a prototype of the product that could be used in product validation interviews.

SOLUTION

How did you find Five Pack?

Clutch Site

Why did you select Five Pack over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Five Pack were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

I went through their Launch Lab program with the goal of having a prototype of the product to use in product validation interviews. We did a full-day Zoom call that went through all the details of the app based on the wireframes I had put together on my own. They asked a lot of great questions and I felt that they were invested in bringing my idea to life.

After the Zoom call, they worked on some research and the prototype for a few weeks. I wanted to make a few changes after they presented the prototype to me. They were responsive and made the changes quickly so I could jump into my interviews.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Using the prototype I was able to get valuable feedback from prospective clients on if they would use the product and learned pain points for users that we had not fully considered before. This feedback resulted in us taking a step back to re-evaluate the product and overall business strategy before moving forward.

I believe having this feedback helped us save a lot of time and resources from further developing a product that may not have been as effective in entering the market and for customers as we originally thought.

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

They were very responsive and delivered all project items on time.

What was your primary form of communication with Five Pack?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I liked their communication and support for the project; they were personable along with having the knowledge and expertise to meet our project needs. This type of endeavor is new for us and I felt that their team was patient and willing to ask clarifying questions if our use of industry jargon was skewed or answer our questions that may have seemed rudimentary to people who have done this type of work for years.

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

For the goals of our Launch Lab, I think it would benefit from one check-in meeting about halfway through the process. The changes we wanted made at the end could possibly have been identified and adjusted earlier on, saving time and effort for their team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Owner of Safe Routes

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We sell an app to school districts to provide bus drivers mapping guidance and a student roster so bus drivers know where to go and what students get on/off at each bus stop along with parent notifications of when I child enters/exits the bus.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Five Pack to accomplish?

• Build the App
• Make the app functional
• Make the app marketable

SOLUTION

How did you find Five Pack?

Online Search

Why did you select Five Pack over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned
• Customer Service

How many teammates from Five Pack were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Five Pack listened to my idea for the app and then took the idea and made it come to fruition by creating a demo app through their Launch Lab deliveries process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app was shown in a modified version which demonstrated they could build it according to how it needed to function for school districts.

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

They have gone above and beyond to provide me with checkpoints along the way, product questions, added dimensions to the product, etc. They have always delivered on time and have kept my satisfaction at the forefront of the design process. They are in constant communication and provide time at each meeting for me to give feedback.

What was your primary form of communication with Five Pack?

Virtual Meeting

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

They really pay attention to me. They've built the app that I want, not something similar or close enough.

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

Not that I am aware of at this time.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner of a custom home building company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Wanting to build a custom tool that would help customers build/design their new home.

SOLUTION

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

Five Pack had good systems and follow up - they understand the value of time and structure. With a busy schedule that was important to me and spoke volumes about their company.

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

I must have met with over 10-15 people. Each one had a role that was unique to them, and each brought value in that role.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They have amazing follow up and communication - part of the reason why I chose them.

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

They cared about giving me the product I wanted and took the time upfront to understand it.

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

Not that I could think of. They were awsome!