Grenade Castle

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an e-health startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Grenade Castle?

We were looking for a cost-effective solution to develop our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I initially built my website using WordPress, but it was really basic so I came to Grenade Castle to rebrand my website. They use Figma as their main tool to come up with wireframes and designs, which will then be reviewed by me.

We do a lot of marketing campaigns, so one of the features that we implemented is a tracking solution to make it easier for users to do bookings.

What is the team composition?

I work with Matous (Creative Director & Co-Founder), Tomas (Full Stack Developer), and Tom (Product Designer).

How did you come to work with Grenade Castle?

I already had a working relationship with Grenade Castle from my previous company, and one of the reasons we hired them was because of their personal approach — it’s something I haven’t found in other development companies.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested somewhere between €15,000–€20,000 (approximately $12,900–$17,200).

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing partnership is started in February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When we launched our new website last August, they were able to increase our conversion rate and decrease our cost per lead from €60–€15.

How did Grenade Castle perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re really good from a project management standpoint, and I mainly communicate with Matous through WhatsApp, Slack, and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve seen quite a few design and development companies in my time, and what really stands out from Grenade Castle is their way of communicating the solutions to our needs. They have a broad knowledge of what solutions are available in the market, and a personal approach to delivering those solutions to us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything to share.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To get the most out of the engagement, I suggest booking some hours at the beginning of the project to brainstorm ideas and think of the infrastructure together.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder and CEO of supertalent. We have developed a platform that connects talents with startups primarily on their culture fit. Supertalent provides startups and talents with a future-looking fit based on their shared values (culture fit) instead of just a backward-looking match between a job description and talent’s past experiences.

We use behavioral psychology and advanced data modeling built on more than 350 data points to predict whether the talent fits the given startup’s culture.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Grenade Castle, and what were your goals?

We’ve hired Grenade Castle to help us with both the product design as well as graphic design. We collaborated with them from the very beginning of our foundation, and our goal was to design a product that would make supertalent an innovator in our industry.

SOLUTION

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

I was working with Grenade Castle when I was building a different startup, and I knew their whole team consists of senior talent that delivers top-notch work.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The scope for this project was simple. We needed to research the latest user experience (UX) trends in the space. Once we’ve done this initial step, we started working on our visual identity. This step included key deliverables such as defining our logo, fonts, colors, images, etc.

Once we had our visual identity ready, the last step was to design a product that would be at the forefront of innovation, intuitive, and loved by our customers. And based on the feedback from our customers, we’ve accomplished just that! 

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

There were three key people from Grenade Castle who were directly involved in the project. One head of design/project manager whose role was not just to ensure the quality of work, but he also personally contributed to the project as a UI/UX designer.

Then there was a dedicated UX designer, and last but not least, there was a graphic designer. Additionally, we also leveraged one of their developers and a PPC marketing expert. All people we had from Grenade Castle were senior experts in their fields.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

As mentioned above, with the great help of Grenade Castle, we were able to develop a product that has incredibly positive feedback from our customers. And not just a product, but also our visual identity. Thanks to Grenade Castle’s graphic designer, we have great conversion rates on social media because our posts are super appealing to the users.

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

I have no complaints about their project management style. Everything was delivered in a timely manner, and communication was clear. In the beginning, we set up daily standup calls and weekly design reviews, and I can’t remember a day when people from Grenade Castle came late to the meeting. We were using tools such as slack, email, and the whole google workplace suite for communication.

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

The most impressive is definitely the quality of their work. Over my career, I have worked with many designers, and none of them had the quality of people from Grenade Castle. What is also great about Grenade Castle is simply the people. All of them are simply great human beings, and it’s great to work with them. They are humble, yet they deliver superb quality.

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

I can’t say I would have it done differently because I’m an endless perfectionist, and I care about every pixel, but sometimes they were missing tiny details. But to be honest, the vast majority of users would not even notice. It’s just my obsession with detail.