Flatirons

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the co-founder of Helmm, a modern grooming brand for men that’s well-known for our debut refillable antiperspirant and deodorant product. Along with my business partner, we handle almost all aspects of the business, from web design to marketing, customer experience, and product development. We were heavily involved in the initial web design and development, however, we don’t have the coding or development expertise for proper execution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Flatirons Development?

We initially hired Flatirons Development to assist with our holiday season demand surge. We had Mike (Founder, Flatirons Development) implement a gifting flow on our website as well as install several banners and pop-ups that helped with holiday messaging. We viewed this as an opportunity to capitalize on holiday sales but also recognized that our initial build from a previous developer was lacking, which presented several challenges for us. Since we liked Flatirons’ work so much, we had them help with ongoing refinements to our website as well.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal for this project was to increase our e-commerce capabilities.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We found Flatirons Development through AngelList. We interviewed approximately five different agencies but felt the most comfortable with Flatirons Development because they gave us an outline and strategy that was easy to understand. They were also completely upfront about costs from the very beginning.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Flatirons Development started by helping us implement new gifting flows into our website, but it quickly turned into an ongoing consultation/retainer role since we were extremely pleased with the initial work they did. Their team first had to get an understanding of the specific tech language, processes and flows that our initial developer built. We didn’t have proper documentation to share with Flatirons Development, but they were easily able to understand everything within the first couple hours and even gave us advice on where we could improve things on our website.

It was clear that we had a lot of tech debt from our previous development team, though Flatirons Development went above and beyond in helping address it. They also helped implement reviews, press and other features that have dramatically improved our business.

The coding languages and custom integrations include but are not limited to: Ruby on Rails, React, HTML/CSS, Postgres, and Stripe. Flatiron Development helped walk us through our current build and made things extremely easy for us to understand. Additionally, they now help us with ongoing refinements that increase our conversion rate and customer experience throughout the website.

What was the team composition?

Our primary point of contact is Mike. We also work with a developer and have experienced no drop-off in performance, speed, or quality of work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Flatiron Development's work on our gifting flow helped us increase sales by over 37% during the holiday season. Additionally, they included reviews and press features, which boosted sales by over 40% once these were implemented. Their team is currently working on automating our backend, and we expect that our customer service and backend duties will become more efficient by almost 300%.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management is clear and helpful. Flatiron Development estimated specific deadlines and did not miss a date. We like how flexible they are, especially given that we often ask for small additions after the project has started.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Flatiron is a unique development company that feels much more like a partner rather than a separate third-party developer. We have access to our specific developer whenever we want to run something by him, as well as full transparency into the cost and timeline of our projects. We also appreciate engaging with Flatiron Development on a per-project basis, so we aren’t paying for the time that isn’t used.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is very little that Flatirons Development could improve, as we’ve been extremely happy with the results. One small suggestion could be keeping clients aware of how many hours each project is likely going to take as. However, we understand that it is pretty difficult to estimate how much time a project will take without first digging into it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm one of the cofounders of KoaWare. We have an automated real estate marketing platform. Our products aim to simplify digital marketing for real estate agents and brokers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Flatirons Development?

We needed someone to help bring one of our products to market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Flatirons Development oversaw the development strategy and execution for our product. We already had the product, which is a web-based platform, and they basically gave it a facelift. They were brought on to our development team to provide insight into the most necessary workflows. They served as the lead developer and oversaw product management. Our product is full WYSIWYG and directly editable. They simplified the UX so that a lot of the process is automated.

What is the team composition?

I only interact with Michael (CEO, Flatirons Development), but he had a couple of junior developers working under him.

How did you come to work with Flatirons Development?

I’d worked with Michael in the past. He has a lot of experience in the startup and tech communities, so they’re a natural fit for us.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started working on this project in October 2017, and wrapped up in 4–5 months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve really cleaned up our code. It's night and day from what it was. We're now able to put together integrations and affiliate partnerships because of the simplicity of their APIs. Michael is actually working on a second project for us now.

How did Flatirons Development perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is really good. We primarily used Slack and Trello to communicate, and Michael was available all the time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re extremely professional. Michael has so much experience. Not only is he able to execute on the development side, but he can really speak to the UX/UI experience on the product side. We trust that he knows what users are going to respond to.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have the best understanding of your customer and audience as possible. Understand the market and the product that you're trying to build. If you’re able to effectively communicate that, then they will be able to bring it to life.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of an information technology company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We help enterprise businesses with cloud migration, strategy and implementation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Flatirons to accomplish?

• Create a web platform and infrastructure in the enterprise healthcare space.

SOLUTION

How did you find Flatirons?

• Online Search
• Other

Why did you select Flatirons over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Flatirons were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Flatirons helped us build a reusable and scalable architecture for a cloud-native enterprise healthcare platform. Deliverables included UI/UX design and code.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had three major milestones setup for delivery of different functionality within our platform (an MVP, a partial application, and a full-featured application). Flatirons met all of the milestones on time.

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

They used Jira and delivered frequent reports on work accomplished and project status. All work was delivered on time.

What was your primary form of communication with Flatirons?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

I feel that Flatirons is very dedicated to making my project a success.

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

Not that I can think of currently.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of a healthcare company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a digital health platform that empowers patients by providing transparent access to digital health records.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Flatirons to accomplish?

• Custom Development
• Product Design
• Customer Acquisition

SOLUTION

How did you find Flatirons?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Flatirons over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Flatirons were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Flatirons built a digital healthcare platform that enables patients to have control and visibility into their digital health records. Key Deliverables:

• UX/UI Design
• Custom Development
• QA Testing

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Ultimately the success of the platform is measured in revenue and customer happiness. We have achieved stable growth and are very happy with the end user experience.

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

Project management is done in two week sprints. Each sprint we discussed the goals, and each daily standup we discussed the progress towards those goals.They stayed on time and were flexible enough with details that arose.

What was your primary form of communication with Flatirons?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

• I felt the team was very interested in the success of my business. 
• UX/UI Design

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

Not really.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of (a/an) Healthcare

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We simplify medical documentation processes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Flatirons to accomplish?

• Create a B2B, HIPAA-compliant medical documentation system

SOLUTION

How did you find Flatirons?

Referral

Why did you select Flatirons over others?

Referred to me

What was the size of Flatirons’s team?

2-5 Employees

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

Flatirons has helped us create a B2B healthcare platform aimed at simplifying medical documentation processes. This includes web design, development, project management, and quality assurance testing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Adherance to timeline
• Initial product release

What was your primary form of communication with Flatirons?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Yes, they have met the project timelines to date. In general, we communicate frequently over progress and project status. Admittedly I have added scope throughout development but there haven't been any issues with doing so.

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

Flatirons feels like a real partner in developing my business.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Manager of Sales & Service of an online-only boating/aquatics retailer

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Flatirons Development?

Similar to the pre-written example prompt, our website was incredibly outdated both functionally and visually. Sales had plateaued considerably and it was obvious that major changes were long overdue. Flatirons was hired to implement a more "modern" look and experience from beginning to end of the sales/purchasing process, also fix and improve general functionality, more attractive banners, fix a broken reviewing system and add a classifieds/mechanic section.

SOLUTION

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

We considered a few different firms, Flatirons came into the picture through a word of mouth recommendation from a former colleague. Their ideas and presentation were refreshing and they were friendly, approachable and always willing and ready to answer questions or put our doubts to rest.

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

We started off with a couple of brief calls. I was really impressed with how quickly Flatirons grasped what we do, what was wrong, and what needed to be improved. This was one of the reasons we chose them. When we viewed their designs along side with our current ones, we were blown away. They proposed ideas that we hadn't even considered and delivered software and a shopping experience that increased web traffic and sales by a considerable margin. We had always wanted to implement a classified section for marine mechanics (customer recommendation) but never had the capability to put the pen to paper and they helped immensely with that task and it's benefitted us greatly.

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

Mike was our main point of contact and handled most, if not all of our questions and feedback.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have seen an 11% increase YoY in sales, also far fewer suggestions from customers for improvement, complaints about lack of functionality/"broken" pages/error messages are nonexistent. Classifieds/mechanics page is thriving. Once dormant/non functional reviews page is up to date and they've helped to drive sales as well.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We were very impressed with the level of communication we received.

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

Quick and outstanding communication. This was obviously extremely important because it was somewhat of a large project with a lot of moving parts and changes we wanted made. Every question was answered in a thorough and timely manner and Mike was incredibly personable and easy to work with throughout the whole process.

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

After spelling out our exact needs, Mike & co. were exceptionally great to work with and would recommend them to anyone looking for an improvement to the look and functionality of their retail website.