Four Kitchens

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT director at a major research university with over $1 billion in research funding a year. We have our own in-house web development team, and we also source talent for large projects that our in-house team doesn’t have the time or ability to complete. For the last 12 years, we’ve been a Drupal community member.

What challenge were you trying to address with Four Kitchens?

Four Kitchens has been our go-to provider for web development and design for about eight years for our flagship web property.

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was a Drupal project. We had two legacy websites that were both huge, disorganized, and sprawling. Different groups owned them, and we needed to rearchitect, overhaul the IA (information architecture), and build a new website for research administration that was a very policy-heavy and technical domain.

I prepared documentation in the form of an expository sketch, which was a signature document superior to an RFP. We wrote the expository sketch to get things started. We did, in fact, pursue a discovery project, and there were two other companies involved. There was a discovery project by another third party that led up to the moment of bidding.

Four Kitchens led a multi-agency team on that redesign, including a theme layer build. They then did support with continuous enhancement of that web property for about eight years. There were user personas that were created in advance that were pretty spot on, and they went in on the project with another company who did content strategy with them. Most of the content was handled in-house.

The deliverables were a single, well-designed user experience that combined two vast and disorganized websites. It was a huge IA challenge. It was both visual design, user experience design, IA, and Drupal implementation. There was so much content strategy that went into that, and they were principally responsible for the agile project management practice that the whole team followed.

What is the team composition?

At any point in time, the team was around five people, but we could escalate issues up to the CEO or the head of engineering. Along with different sets of developers, we had a scrum master to provide all of the project management support because we didn’t have anyone trained on our side and the client-side.

How did you come to work with Four Kitchens?

We conducted an extensive search, and I was involved in vendor selection. Four Kitchens is probably one of the most skilled and creative Drupal shops on the planet. They’re in a class of their own. Their portfolio is impressive, and they have great technical chops.

At the time, the head of the theming practice was the global Drupal lead for Drupal 8. It was right when it was being invented. They’re usually on the early side of technology changes, and they’re very good at exploring emerging technology.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2012, and the engagement concluded in February 2020.

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

In the research and administration world, this website isn’t something that many people know about outside of that world. Within its specific domain, it was highly regarded as the best in the country. Other universities look to us because of this website build, and we received a lot of external validation. We’re extremely pleased with the ROI.

How did Four Kitchens perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, they’re amazing. I’ve learned a lot from the team.

The head of their scrum practice was the best by far. Normally, we have to teach the finer points of agile, whether it is how to estimate user stories or story points to hours, but Four Kitchens were far, and beyond any group, we’ve ever worked with in terms of project management.

When they’re allowed to work the way they want to work, they are highly precise in estimation and project management. They’re the best – no question.

For most of this project, I wasn’t the product owner, but their preferred communication method at the time was Basecamp. They also used Jira, email, and phone. We had an old-school product owner on our side, and she liked to call people.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with their creativity and team culture. They’re highly technical with the ability to execute at a high level. Overall, they’re a fun and awesome group that clients want to work with or wish they were on that team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m having a hard time coming up with something specific right now.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As a client, you’re probably comparing multiple competitive bids. Four Kitchens might quote high, and you might be on the fence as to whether or not to go with another company that came in less expensive. My advice is to not go with that option because it doesn’t save you money in the end.

It will help you a lot if you have an in-house person that’s trained in scrum. Four Kitchens practices scrum for their agile project management practice, and if you’re already up to speed in those methods and concepts, you’ll be able to go way faster.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO for Inveniem, which is a company that works with celebrities and entertainers on digitizing and monetizing their estates.

What challenge were you trying to address with Four Kitchens?

We have several internal database systems that are based on Drupal and needed some extra staffing to help get our new database version released. 

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Four Kitchens’ team augments our staff, supporting us on the front- and backend development for our database systems. Earlier in the project, we were working on a lot of integrations, so they provided backend developers who knew how to handle our data systems. They migrated our data, put everything together on Drupal, and reviewed the code.

Toward the end of the project, we transitioned Four Kitchens to support our frontend development. We were actually working with another firm to design the frontend but weren’t happy with their quality of work. Four Kitchens was doing so well on the backend side that we decided to have them take over the frontend, too.

We still collaborate with them on a daily basis. Their work gets incorporated into releases, which usually go out once or twice a month. 

What is the team composition? 

Four Kitchens provides a project manager who helps set the pace with clear blocks of work. However, for the most part, we directly interact with their two developers as if they were part of our own team.

How did you come to work with Four Kitchens?

I was aware of them as far back as 2010 — I’d met them at DrupalCon, so I was familiar with their work. When this project came along, I’d actually reached out to a different company, but they didn’t have any resources available. They offered to make a warm referral to Four Kitchens, so I decided to go with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in August 2020 and expect to wrap up around the end of March 2021.

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

We’ve worked with a number of Drupal development firms in the past where we just wanted to get a specific deliverable done because we were eager to end the engagement. There would be issues with the code quality, and those teams often wouldn’t think about how the product would work a year from now. That’s been frustrating to deal with.

In contrast, Four Kitchens has been the first partner that we haven’t had an issue with in terms of code quality. It’s a different kind of relationship — we would love to continue the partnership beyond the contract if our budget allowed it. We’ve been very happy with the results they’ve produced. It’s not perfect, but it’s above and beyond any other vendor we’ve seen, especially given the time constraints we’ve placed on the project.

How did Four Kitchens perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is a little tricky to judge because they’re augmenting our team. That means they aren’t in control of all of the resources in the project and often defer to me a lot. That can be great if I’m on top of things, or it can be terrible if I’m not. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re willing to look at the problems that we bring to the table and then anticipate what our next steps should be even before we figure them out. 

For example, their frontend developer has been adding a lot of accessibility components to the UI, specifically for users who might need a screen reader or other assistive technologies. That way, the frontend will already have all of the necessary context to help them navigate the site. This wasn’t a stated requirement on our end, but it should’ve been. If we hadn’t realized that we needed site accessibility and a client couldn’t use our site, it would’ve hurt our reputation. Four Kitchen’s foresight helps us stay prepared for those sorts of conversations.  

Similarly, when they joined the project, they raised some concerns about some of the design decisions I’d made rather than ignoring them. They informed us of some of the issues that we might run into a year from now, making knowledgeable recommendations to ensure that we'd switch to the right path. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Going off of my earlier comments, I’d prefer them to be a bit more aggressive with project management, even though they’re working with us in a staff augmentation capacity. There are times when I don’t know where we are and look to them, only to see that they’re looking back at me for direction. Having said that, I get the impression that they’re much more on top of things when they’re in full control.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be prepared to set aside a budget to ensure that your project succeeds. They’ll demonstrate the value for your money, but these kinds of projects can still be very costly. Just because they’re Drupal experts, it doesn’t mean that they’re going to get everything done very quickly. Quality takes time.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Genome Web, an online publisher. We cover news in the genomics, genetics, and molecular diagnostics field. It’s a real-time, online-only service.

What challenge were you trying to address with Four Kitchens?

We previously worked with another Drupal developer to build and create the site. We were happy with them, but they were acquired by another company. Thus, we needed another developer to handle the maintenance and to further develop the site.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Four Kitchens developed a key project for us: the sponsored channel. They created a unique page layout and the developed a feature to enable a single advertiser to purchase all the ad space on the page. Then, their team linked the ads to download advertisers' white papers, resources, other materials to educate our readers about their products. We also worked with them to move our site to another platform to improve performance.

Their team is currently providing front- and backend maintenance for the site and developing other special projects.

What is the team composition?

We primarily work with two project managers and a lead developer. The team composition changes depending on who we need.

How did you come to work with Four Kitchens?

They were recommended to us by our previous developer. At the time, we were considering other vendors and diligently interviewing them. In the end, Four Kitchens was our best option.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the engagement in July 2015 and it is ongoing.

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

Their maintenance and platform migration significantly improved our site’s performance and speed. We used to have a lot of problems with our old platform and it's been a lot better since then.

How did Four Kitchens perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is great at staying organized and staying on top of what they need from us. Four Kitchens is always adjusting their resources and are flexible to any issues that might arise. They are very understanding to our alternating extremes—in terms of the amount of work we ask of them.

We communicate in real time as needed via Slack, Jira, and update each other through weekly calls. Our account manager also conducts a monthly call to receive a larger perspective on where things stand.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their project managers are excellent and always on-point. Our lead developer is very patient and technically skilled. We don't have anybody on in our company who has any familiarity with Drupal or programming. Thus, they are a great resource for translating what we require into technical features.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Figure out your requirements thoroughly and if it would be cheaper to have an internal developer before hiring them. This is nothing against Four Kitchens and only general advice to someone looking for a web developer.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We develop Drupal websites for the college and their grant-related activities. I’m the director of technology and client services.

What challenge were you trying to address with Four Kitchens?

We needed a company for ongoing Drupal development. We’ve worked with other Drupal companies before, but we wanted to have someone who was a leader in the market, and could give us best practices and the most modern execution.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They created a mobile theme and then built the entire suite. We had an original site on Drupal, but we got rid of it and started over completely. We went from Drupal 6 to 8, and they built the frontend for that. They also created modules and created a developmental workflow for that website, and helped us build another custom website as well. They developed our faculty import tool, and helped us make a publication import tool which allows us to automate and import publications for each faculty member. Additionally, they created a component-based theme on our website.

What is the team dynamic?

There were 6 people on the team. They started with their project manager and lead developer to put together the scope and then started bringing in a frontend developer, a backend developer, a site builder, who were all on an as-needed basis. We also partner with Four Kitchens, and we had both of our teams working on features. We were able to work together to come up with a final product that met our needs, and we operated as a blended team throughout.

My developers would approve all coding and code requests, and then after we wrote all of the code, one of the team members would approve it before merging it to production. Now that we know the team, we can request certain people on an as-needed basis. They try to accommodate our needs.

How did you come to work with Four Kitchens?

We’d considered other companies we found through online research and at DrupalCon, which is where we met Four Kitchens. They gave a truly impressive presentation, and they were the best in their field. We hired them because they are experts in frontend development.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together 4–5 years ago, and the relationship is ongoing.

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

The websites were completed by deadline and according to budget. We met every requirement that was planned, and our website works really well. The website has changed often, but it was made in such a way that we can make adjustments and move forward with development without having to spend a lot of money. We’re able to achieve more with less money now that we’re using Four Kitchens.

How did Four Kitchens perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great. I haven’t had to work with a different vendor for Drupal development because they meet all of our needs. We always offer bids to other vendors, but Four Kitchens usually has the lowest price. The communication is fantastic, and we have Scrum meetings every day. The expectations are usually very clear. We use Jira, Zoom, and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re an awesome team that’s great to work with.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ll definitely work with them again.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the audience development director for a B2B publisher, and I oversee the digital infrastructures for our websites and magazines. This includes site development, advertising strategy, and alignment between the user experience and advertising opportunities.

What challenge were you trying to address with Four Kitchens?

We required an external development team that could serve as a one-stop shop, from planning and design to development and QA. Additionally, we were looking for a partner that could provide ongoing maintenance and support. Four Kitchens was challenged to move two websites from two different, outdated CMS’s to Drupal, using a common distribution and headless Drupal.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Four Kitchens was the lead for project planning, design, development, testing, and ongoing support.

We needed to mitigate discrepancies on the ad side, solve viewability issues, and simultaneously increase traffic. On the user side, we needed a complete reorganization of content; to think beyond the historical channel and subchannel classification of content and about more flexibility instead.

Today, we are working on a web VR project with Four Kitchens as well. They’re doing some very cool things with ReactJS that allow us to quickly spin up proofs of concept and get pilot programs ready to show our clients.

What is the team dynamic?

For ongoing support, Four Kitchens supplies one dedicated project manager and one product owner. There are 3-5 additional team members than are allocated to projects as needed, whether it’s for the frontend, backend, or UX. We were a slightly different model than Four Kitchens was accustomed to, but they’ve been very willing to work with us for the best outcome. Four Kitchens is a fully distributed team, but that has had no negative impact on their strong team dynamic.

In addition to monthly maintenance, Four Kitchens will estimate and complete unique projects in which our PM and PO are actively involved. This ensures the common distro remains effective. Four Kitchens’ willingness to work with us to figure out this model is one of the primary reasons we continue to stay with them.

How did you come to work with Four Kitchens?

Two years ago, we started our search knowing we wanted to transition to Drupal and that we needed a full-service shop. A lot of shops were very well known for Drupal development, and others were more known for strategy and content classification. A bulk of our corporation’s flagship sites had or are in the process of moving to Drupal, so we wanted to realize some of the synergies there. We realized the Open Source concept would benefit us more than the proprietary CMS in terms of flexibility, which is why we decided to transition.

We looked at three different vendors, all of which we found through Drupal.org and were highly recommended. We selected Four Kitchens because they were willing to engage in conversations about more than just website development. They asked us tough questions about our long-term goals, and brought everything to the table while challenging us in ways the other groups didn’t. They helped us expand our thinking in ways we hadn’t done before.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2015, and the relationship is ongoing.

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

Our page speed has improved by 16 seconds, and the site-wide viewability averages 90%, which means discrepancies and wasted impressions, i.e. lost revenue, have decreased almost 60%. From a monetary standpoint, that was critical for us. We’ve continued to see increased engagement, number of unique visitors, and session times. We no longer look at page views as a strong performance indicator, but we’ve seen positive movement in all of the other baseline metrics. Digital revenue has continued to improve due to the flexibility and responsiveness of the Four Kitchens team, and their willingness to understand our business model.

How did Four Kitchens perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very flexible and willing to help us understand in layman’s terms. We have a vision, and we know where we want to go, but often times lack a clear path to get there. Our PO and PM are patient and walk us through every step involved. If we have an idea, they’ll sit down and talk about it with us as well. Their estimation process has evolved and improved, leading to minimal surprises as development commences.

We use Slack and JIRA as our primary communication tools.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Most impressive is their project flexibility. They’ve become our sole digital resource, and if we have a problem on the ad side or with an engagement piece, we can have in-depth, holistic conversations with them to fix the issue and better our business.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We are always asking them to improve and they always ask the same of us. Their acknowledgment of that, along with their flexibility, is why we continue to work with them. For example, they help us figure out maintenance models and whether or not we should be doing Sprints if we need a PO [Product Owner], and how we should separate tasks with actual project work. We’re in a very good place now, and as new ideas and concepts come through, we will continue to evolve.

Could you briefly describe your organization?

I work for one of the top-tier research universities in the world. I represent the vice provost and dean of research. As such, we represent the research enterprise at the university, which brings in more than $1 billion in annual funding through sponsorships. The research funds go to the faculty in support of their research endeavors; research on cancer, research on the environment, sustainability, etc.

What is your position?

I'm the director of training. 

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you began the relationship with Four Kitchens?

We had multiple websites with the same types of information, just written differently and updated at different times. It was very confusing to a learner or to anybody wanting to come to our website, such as what information is accurate, is any of it accurate, and where to go. In addition, through the years as people who manage websites know, there was a huge mass of information available to the user. Again, the quality and accuracy of the information varied quite heavily.

We needed our website to be more simplistic and user friendly. We had to make it easy to edit for anybody, not only those who had computer expertise or programming expertise. It would have to come through a review process, multiple stage review process before it went to the publisher for publishing. We wanted to streamline the whole publishing process on the backend.

Could you describe the scope of this project?

We had a content strategist and an art director. They were responsible for the complete website redesign. They worked closely with the content strategist and the art director to architect the backend and the frontend. They had to add documents to it in our repository, to tokenize content into small, granular chunks, smaller than the notes for a page so that we can repurpose the content in other areas.

In addition, they developed a content system that was exclusively for contacts. We have about 350 contacts in our website. Those contacts are pulled from what we call LDAP [lightweight directory access protocol], which is our online registry for all of our employees. They were able to automate our on- and off-boarding procedures, which was fantastic.

Could you describe the rationale behind your selection of Drupal as your preferred content management system?

As you can tell, I’m not a technical person. Our university administration was really leaning towards Drupal. Our technical staff felt confident that Drupal would be the best platform for our ongoing needs.

How did you select Four Kitchens as your solution partner for this endeavor?

We wrote an expository sketch outlining the elements that we needed in our website or wanted in our website. We then sent it to four different vendors for competitive bidding. We received and evaluated their proposals. We had a panel of senior staff that prioritized the proposals and made the final decision.

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

It was between $500,000 and $1 million.

When was this project completed?

February of 2013.

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or anecdotal feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?

For me, the publisher, it’s been phenomenal because it makes it easy for me to get information into the website. As soon as I completed this website with my team, I got drawn into another very large project. As the sole publisher for the website, I had very little time to care and feed content to the new site. We all know that it’s incredibly important to maintain your website once it’s up and running. I’ve been very involved in this other project, which went live last week. But, I was able to maintain the website and keep it going at a strong clip during this time when I was very much distracted by these other events. I think that’s a real claim to success.

The neatest thing about Four Kitchens is that we’ve been iterating since we went live, and they’re very much a part of my team. They really are. Whatever I need, they’re there for me. That’s something that is so important because you can develop something, and then you’ve got to maintain it.

We’ve had some major IT breaches here at the university. As a result, our IT department has been forced to make on the fly modifications to our backend system, which has resulted in glitches and random malfunctions or defects. The Four Kitchens team is extremely responsive and attentive to those issues as they emerge. Their support has been invaluable to us.

When working with Four Kitchens, is there anything you would consider unique or special about them compared to other vendors you’ve worked with in the past?

I don’t have a lot of experience with other IT vendors, but I believe they’ve been an integral part of my team. They have a can-do attitude and a fantastic work ethic. They’re willing to tackle problems and then talk about the cost of doing that later. At the end of the day, they’re really about client satisfaction.

That’s all I can really say because I don’t understand fully the technical side of what they’ve done. We have technicians on campus that interface with them on a case-by-case basis.

In retrospect, are there areas you think they could improve upon, or are there things you’d do differently as the client before initiating this type of project?

No. I have complete trust in them now. I don’t think there’s anything I would have done differently. I’m very pleased with the outcome of our project.

Do you remain confident that the Drupal CMS will continue to meet your business needs in the foreseeable future?

Yes, I do, because I know that Drupal’s morphing as well and changing and evolving. It’s been able to do everything that I’ve wanted and needed it to, without exception. Drupal is a robust platform with some serious customizability.

Could you briefly describe your company?

We are a nonprofit organization. We operate Full Plate Living. We provide sustainable weight-loss education and programming. 

What is your position?

My role is Internet marketing manager.

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with Four Kitchens?

We were establishing an online presence with a completely new direction. We were pivoting as business and as an organization. They helped us launch a completely new Web presence. We gave them our goals and specifications and they build and deployed that vision. 

On what platform did they create your new Web presence?

Drupal.

Could you describe the scope of the project? For example, did it involve custom design, backend development, training, or support?

It involved significant discovery as well as everything from establishing hosting, building a theme, preparing all of our data and documentation, integrating our backend systems, and the site building itself. They also provide training and support. 

How did you select Four Kitchens as your solution partner?

I’ve been in the Drupal space for a while and had some contact with them via workshops in DrupalCon. We contacted a few large Drupal hosting providers and described our problem. Four Kitchens was always on the list of people that were well suited for us, and were recommended for us. We narrowed it down through a process that also involved their location.

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

I cannot disclose that information.

When did your site go live?

December 10 of last year [2013], I believe.

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they've delivered?

We don't have any data or figures to compare. Our previous site wasn't set up to monitor metrics or provide any form of analytics. I can tell you, however, that our staff spends less time on administrative tasks than they did before. That has been extremely useful from a productivity perspective. 

When working with Four Kitchens, is there anything you would consider unique or special about them compared to other vendors with which you’ve worked?

Compared to other vendors, as a whole team and as individual units, go the extra mile to get our business, to understand it. When we’re fully engaged with them, they feel like an integral part of our team.

Do you remain confident that the Drupal content management system will continue to satisfy your business needs into the foreseeable future?

Yes. I believe so.

In retrospect, are there areas that you think they could improve upon, or are there things you'd do differently as the client before approaching this type of project?

There have been challenges with maintenance, but those are very well underway of being resolved. So, I’m not sure that’s an issue worth bringing up.

Could you briefly describe your company?

It’s a nonprofit corporation that coordinates the Internet’s unique identifiers and protocols.

What is your position?

I am the manager of Web development.

Could you describe the business challenges you were attempting to address when you initiated the relationship with Four Kitchens?

We needed to redesign and relaunch our primary website. Our previous site was obsolete and didn’t offer the functional capabilities we desired moving forward.

Could you describe the scope of the project? For example, did it involve custom design, backend development, training, and ongoing support?

It was taking a static site of approximately 36,000 files, and a roughly nine- to 10-month project to migrate the contents or otherwise archive it, database it, do design work, set up hosting, engagement testing, load balance testing, etc.

How did you select Four Kitchens as your solution partner?

We distributed an RFP [request for proposal] to them and they responded with a reasonable statement. They had also been recommended by word of mouth from another developer within the Drupal community. We were impressed with their Drupal capabilities and their development methodology.

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

It cost $300,000. The number of hours was in the hundreds, if not thousands.

When was the project completed?

February of 2012.

In terms of results, could you share any statistics, metrics, or user feedback that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work they’ve delivered?

The universal feedback was that the information architecture was highly improved, and that things were findable. In terms of performance, we’re a nonprofit, but the site was responsive for mobile devices, which we haven’t had before. The site also supported by growth in the hundreds of thousands, if not a million, page views. Altogether, the results have been extremely promising.

When working with Four Kitchens, is there anything you would consider unique or special about them compared to other service providers with which you’ve worked?

They function extremely efficiently, which is fantastic. It kept the project very disciplined. They were always able to provide feedback on the alignment and timeline of project tasks. They were able to delegate multiple resources to different issues, or if needed, multiple resources to the same issue in the backlog. We were very impressed by their work ethic and their ability to balance competing priorities without sacrificing quality or timeframe.

In retrospect, are there any areas that you think Four Kitchens could improve upon, or are there things you’d do differently as the client before approaching this type of project?

I have no major objections or concerns. My only observation was from a project perspective is there are just certain things that can always be more unified in the database, such as cutting down on siloing. That’s not a criticism of Four Kitchens; it’s just something that exposed itself in the development process.