Human Made

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Technical Manager of a publishing company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Digital recipe publisher

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Human Made to accomplish?

• Key objectives for our WordPress website included redesigning and building the homepage and category pages, implementing visual regression testing, and introducing custom Gutenberg blocks to improve the editing experience.
• Enhancing our website through a seamless migration to Altis Cloud for improved scalability and performance with an enterprise cloud hosting solution.
• Ongoing performance optimisation and adherence to Google’s various standards such as Core Web Vitals to increase organic traffic

SOLUTION

How did you find Human Made?

• Online Search
• Referral
• Clutch Site

Why did you select Human Made over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Human Made were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Website Design
Human Made implemented & consulted on the redesign of the homepage and category pages to refresh the site’s appearance and functionality. The final design prioritised readability and intuitive navigation to create a cohesive experience for our audience.

Website Development
Human Made addressed technical challenges by refactoring the existing codebase and implementing a utility-first framework to support a flexible structure. Custom Gutenberg blocks were developed specifically for us to streamline content management. To maintain quality with each update, Cypress and Percy were integrated as part of a regression testing process.

Consultancy & Strategy
Human Made collaborated closely with us to understand its business goals, conducting impact analysis to align site improvements with these objectives. The team provided strategic guidance based on data-driven insights and feedback, ensuring that all decisions were in harmony with our brand vision. This approach facilitated effective alignment between the site’s functionality and our broader business needs.

Migration & Audit
The team planned and executed the migration from WordPress VIP to Altis, implementing parallel deployment environments to test and manage the transition smoothly. To ensure ongoing stability and performance, Human Made established a routine for Core Web Vitals monitoring and conducted regular performance audits post-migration.

Hosting
Altis hosting was set up to meet our traffic demands, with configurations for autoscaling, DDoS protection, and disaster recovery. This hosting infrastructure was built to reliably handle high traffic levels and ensure security, supporting our growth requirements.

Key Deliverables

• Redesigned homepage and category pages with a focus on readability and navigation
• Refactored codebase and utility-first framework for a flexible site structure
• Custom Gutenberg blocks tailored to our content management needs
• Migration from VIP to Altis with testing environments for a smooth transition
• Regression testing setup using Cypress and Percy
• Core Web Vitals monitoring and regular performance audits
• Altis hosting setup with autoscaling, DDoS protection, and disaster recovery

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Growing monthly average page views from 25 to 45 million

• The migration resulted in a 25% increase in Lighthouse-reported performance from day one.
• Site instability / downtime caused aggressive scrapers and bots overwhelming available infrastructure dropped to almost nil
• Growing monthly average page views from 25 to 45 million
• Peak in user engagement of 25,000 active users and notable growth of 10,000 users in just one week.
• Consistent Lighthouse audits ensure ongoing performance monitoring and optimisation, maintaining high standards for user engagement and site performance.

Peak in user engagement of 25,000 active users and notable growth of 10,000 users in just one week.

Consistent Lighthouse audits ensure ongoing performance monitoring and optimisation, maintaining high standards for user engagement and site performance.

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

While some aspects of the project management are still maturing and being refined, overall Human Made have proven highly capable, professional and reliable. Delivery of work is always on schedule and at the expected quality, if not beyond.

HM are highly attuned and responsive to customers' business requirements. They are highly flexible and accommodating in the face of unforeseen challenges, maintaining complete focus on customer success. This is one of their key strengths as an organisation.

What was your primary form of communication with Human Made?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Human Made are invested in their clients to a level that is uncommon is today's world. They believe in truly understanding and working in partnership with their clients to generate the greatest value possible through the engineering work and positive experiences they deliver.

They employ talented, people-oriented team members who are committed to this vision, these values and this way of working. I cannot think of a more appropriate name for their company than the one they've chosen.

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

As mentioned, there are occasionally some aspects of the project management which appear to be still maturing. I believe this is simply part of their journey as their presence in the region and experience across clients grows over time.

However this has never prevented HM from ultimately delivering the required work or projects from succeeding.

HM also show a strong commitment to listening to customer feedback and continuous service improvement, and I have every confidence that with time deficiencies will be appropriately addressed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Dawn Patrol LLC

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

SPorts Information

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Human Made to accomplish?

• Website Rebuild

SOLUTION

How did you find Human Made?

Online Search

Why did you select Human Made over others?

Great culture fit

How many teammates from Human Made were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

We Hired Human Made to rebuild our website. We were extremely specific as to the requirements, time frames The contract was for two standard wordress sites as well as a more rubust E-commerce section

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This project wa to be completed and fully functioming by July 13, 2024. We were ssured several times by several people that there was plenty of time and "room" in the budget to complete this project which they called a basic build.

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

It is almonst November and our project has still not been deleivered. We have been villlified for asking them to meet what they presented they would do in their agreement and being disappointed that we have paid them 100's of thousands of dollars and have not received one but of work that is usaable as we approach 4 months past due on the work. We feel we were lied to and conned by our salesperson, we feel were were bullied by several higher ups at Human made, and the President, has taken the tact that their failure to complete the project is our fault because we trsuted them to follow through on what they promised when we agreed to give them the project. Keep in mind we had ZERO change orders and we soent countless hours walking Human Made employees through our current website and procedires. 

What was your primary form of communication with Human Made?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

This company is trained in lying and spinning the truth. They love to spin a web of denial and passing the buck when it is really their own inner lack of management and overall inpetitude. THey seem to think that over runs caused by them needing to correct work that they didn't complete correctly, as in didn't function at all, is somehow the client's fault. Because of inadequte testing enviroments in over 4 months of them actually saying they worked on our project, we signed off on ZERO sprints as completed to specs. 

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

Human Made needs to own their faults in this project, acknolwlege the continuing damage and losses their failures have caused, and do whatever is in their power to make it right. Human Made continues to feel there is some kind of shared balme when there is zero to be shared. Our company did everything Human Made asked, Paid promptly, never missed or even rescheduled a meeting, we had zero change orders or requirements and spent may hours explaing and them walking through exactly how our company works and why we had the pecific needs we explained to them befire they ever took on the project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product Owner of a nonprofit company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

This nonprofit provides free access to knowledge.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Human Made to accomplish?

• Optimize and modernize digital infrastructure
• Enhance user experience and accessibility
• Implement continuous technical support and innovation

SOLUTION

How did you find Human Made?

Referral

Why did you select Human Made over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Human Made were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Enhance our digital infrastructure, improve user experience, and provide continuous technical support. This partnership aims to ensure our platform remains scalable, secure, and aligned with the latest industry standards.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our website is performing optimally, with improved capabilities for integrating new code and blocks that significantly enhance user experience. As a partner, Human Made consistently demonstrates their reliability and expertise, readily addressing any challenges that arise and providing effective solutions.

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

The team is not only highly skilled but also a pleasure to work with. Their collaborative spirit, responsiveness, and commitment to quality make them feel like an extension of our own team. We can always rely on Human Made to deliver on time, maintain transparent communication, and be attentive to our goals. They truly care about the success of our projects, and it shows in every interaction.

What was your primary form of communication with Human Made?

Virtual Meeting

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

The team brings a remarkable level of expertise and in-depth knowledge of the WordPress environment. No challenge has been too complex for them—they consistently find solutions and go above and beyond to meet our needs.

One of the standout qualities of Human Made is their proactive approach. They don’t just solve problems; they also guide us with best practices and keep us updated on the latest technologies and trends, enabling us to modernize our infrastructure effectively. This has been invaluable in ensuring our systems remain robust, efficient, and aligned with current standards.

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

Not that we can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Digital Marketing Manager of SEON

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

SEON is the leading global fraud prevention solution that stops fraud before it happens, at every point in the customer journey.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Human Made to accomplish?

• Create a highly performant web experience
• Elevate the brand image
• Build an enterprise-level website

SOLUTION

How did you find Human Made?

Online Search

Why did you select Human Made over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit

How many teammates from Human Made were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Human Made (HM) was selected to build the new SEON website from the ground up on WP Engine, delivering an enterprise-level WordPress solution.

Development Timeline:
HM completed the project in 3 months, from initial planning to final delivery. The timeline was crucial, as the SEON website required a rapid turnaround for a full redesign and development.

HM followed strict guidelines based on SEON's extensive Figma designs, ensuring that the final product adhered precisely to the approved UI/UX designs. This included a pixel-perfect translation of the designs into a fully responsive website.
Hosting Platform:
The site was built using WordPress on the WP Engine hosting platform, ensuring robust performance, security, and scalability for an enterprise-level site.
Key Deliverables:

• Full Site Editing: Implemented WordPress's Full Site Editing (FSE), allowing modular, block-based control over every part of the website. This ensured flexibility and ease of future updates.
• Gutenberg Blocks: Built custom Gutenberg blocks to allow the marketing and content teams to manage content effortlessly. The custom blocks were designed to fit the specific needs of SEON's content strategy.
• Performance: HM Integrated tools and practices to enhance website SEO and performance, following modern best practices.

Multilingual Multisite Setup:
Given SEON's global presence, a multilingual multisite setup was crucial. HM implemented a network of WordPress sites within the WP Engine environment to manage the Spanish version of the website under a single platform. This approach allows seamless management of regional content while maintaining consistent branding and design across all language sites.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Rapid Launch (3 Months):
Human Made (HM) delivered the entire project within 3 months, meeting tight deadlines for a complete website redesign and development. This rapid turnaround was essential for ensuring SEON's new online presence was ready to support their evolving business needs.

Highly Performant Site:

• Page Load Time: Faster load times across all pages.
• Core Web Vitals: The site now scores highly on Core Web Vitals metrics such as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

Full Site Editing Capabilities: 

The implementation of WordPress Full Site Editing empowered the marketing and content teams to make on-the-fly updates without the need for developer intervention. This significantly improved content agility and reduced the time-to-market for new content, such as blog posts, case studies, or new landing pages.

Elevated Brand Presence:

The new design and structure provided a fresh, modern look that aligned with SEON’s brand values, enhancing customer perception and engagement. 

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

Human Made's project management was efficient and highly responsive, which played a key role in the project's success. They delivered all milestones on time, sticking to the 3-month timeline and ensuring the new website launched as scheduled.

Their agile approach allowed for flexibility, accommodating changes and feedback without delay. Communication was seamless, with the team being very responsive via Slack. This allowed for real-time updates and quick resolution of any issues or requests we had, making the collaboration smooth and effective.

They were proactive in identifying and solving potential problems before they could impact the project, always keeping our priorities in focus. This client-centered approach ensured that the final product was in line with our vision and needs, making them a reliable partner throughout the project.

What was your primary form of communication with Human Made?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What stood out most about Human Made was their deep connection to the WordPress ecosystem. They have a remarkable number of WordPress core contributors on their team, including the founder of WordPress himself, which brought a level of expertise that few companies can match. This direct involvement in shaping WordPress gave us confidence that we were working with true leaders in the platform, ensuring that our website was built using cutting-edge practices and technology.

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

One area for potential improvement could have been spending more time on the scoping of the Figma designs before the project kicked off. This would have allowed for a deeper exploration of certain design and functionality nuances before development started. However, this was also partly due to the tight timelines we had set for the project, which didn’t leave much room for extended planning.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Digital Product Lead of an education company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Provides pathways into Higher Education for international students

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Human Made to accomplish?

• 2 x Website rebuilds on Gutenberg
• Efficiencies in development and design ways of working

SOLUTION

How did you find Human Made?

• Online Search
• Referral

Why did you select Human Made over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Human Made were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We engaged with Human Made to migrate two tired sites to a brand new instance of Wordpress, including hosting with their Altis platform.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Success for us was multifaceted as this was not just about delivering websites. Moreover, a move from project methodology into Agile has allowed us to continue to drive growth and a more flexible approach to managing requirements, budgets and timelines. The sites themselves make the most of a shared library of components, each with theming to allow the sites to have a consistent look and feel but with some personality. Finally, we now have a trusted partnership to build on going forwards.

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

Moving teams from a waterfall mindset into Agile delivery requires careful management of multiple stakeholders. Human Made were able to help us make this shift by repeatedly demonstrating the value of MVP and user-focussed stories/deliverables. This was challenging at times because our stakeholders expected delivery to look exactly like the designs, but together, and through close collaboration, we were able to bridge the gaps in understanding and deliver effectively.

What was your primary form of communication with Human Made?

Virtual Meeting

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

The people - can-do attitude and wanting to help, no matter the situation

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Digital Marketing of Orgvue Limited

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

SaaS organizational design and workforce planning platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Human Made to accomplish?

• Total technical ownership of orgvue.com
• Help us to improve conversion rates through development updates
• Help us to scale as a growing SaaS business

SOLUTION

How did you find Human Made?

Recommended in 2008

Why did you select Human Made over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• The very best WordPress developers

How many teammates from Human Made were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

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

Initially full re-platform to migrate from old Drupal sites to Wordpress multi-site platform + hosting. This involved full technical audit, all development and hosting migration including custom block and theme development. 

From then we have managed monthly sprints to deliver increments of value to the website's ongoing roadmap with other major projects being full rebrand 2020, company restructure and name change including sunsetting old legacy domain with the whole SEO redirection that involved, and another brand refresh including full website UI update. Human Made have been our strategic website partner from Jan '19 to current and ongoing (now June '23).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In 2018-early 2019 we had a website which drove zero leads. The old site had not been updated in years and was in a mess. Since we replatformed with Human Made the site has contributed a major share of Marketing-sourced revenue, which has been growing year-on-year.

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

"Project management" is the wrong way to describe working with Human Made. They lead agile development, so they coach clients in this way of working, which is to deliver more value faster to customers (website users/ our business).

They run everything through the agile methodology so requirements are documented and understood in a product backlog, are discussed in sprint refinements and planning, and the whole process ensures a highly collaborative team are empowered to deliver - and they always, always have delivered, consistently and always adding more value. 

Time and budget become 'hygiene' factors with these guys - the extra value delivered every time comes through better quality product, better performing product, and a team who are continuously improving.

What was your primary form of communication with Human Made?

Virtual Meeting

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

The humans working at Human Made. I've worked with them since 2008 and there has never ever been a poor Human. I consider the people I've worked with to be absolute top talent at the top of their game, thoroughly lovely to work with. 

Human Made have created a culture where they can remotely recruit the very best in the world and then make sure whatever your timezone you get the best. I couldn't recommend them more highly for the quality and value they deliver matched with the hugely enjoyable experience of working with them where every project is a positive learning experience.

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

They are very focused on the Scrum team and agile ethos so can forget there are other stakeholders in the client's business, it's not just their 'Product Owner' they need to influence.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Product Officer of AGBI

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Headquartered in London and with a newsroom in Dubai, AGBI is a business news platform that serves the Middle East and Gulf region, delivering insightful analysis at the intersection of regional economies and global markets.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Human Made to accomplish?

• Create an enterprise-grade, WordPress-based business news publishing platform
• Build a custom front-end with world-class UX and UI constant with our brand architecture
• Participate in the iterative development of the platform as a long-term development partner

SOLUTION

How did you find Human Made?

• Referral
• Clutch Site

Why did you select Human Made over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Human Made were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Scope of work:

• Build a custom WordPress site with integrated automated content feeds from Reuters.
• Orchestrate a discovery phase to establish the feature set of the MVP via 2 x discovery workshops
• Develop and build the MVP via three 2-week sprints involving 3 x engineers and 1 x project manager
• Run an exhaustive UAT process then delploy the platform in a live production environment

Deliverables:

• Technical discovery for AGBI.com and all preparation of all associated documentation
• Definition of the product backlog for AGBI.com, inc sizing and prioritisation of features
• Design, build testing and deployment of the AGBI.com Minimum Viable Product

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• The AGBI.com website was built to the correct specification and level of polish, then deployed on time and delivered within the overall budgetary envelope.
• The product exceeded stakeholder expectations and has been well received by the market as well as by users. It is highly performant from a technical perspective (on both mobile and desktop) as well as being straightforward to operate for production staff and easy to navigate for users. It has now set a new benchmark for digital business news publications within it's category in the MENA region and continues to go from strength to strength.

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

They were highly professional and responsive to our needs. Estimates were accurate and delivery milestones were met. Over and above that, the Human Made PM and engineers were thorough and imagnative in their approach, solving problems and offering creative solutions where appropriate, always backed by compelling arguments and/or solid research.

What was your primary form of communication with Human Made?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The quality of engineering and creativity were equally impressive. Beyond that, the team felt genuinely invested in the project on a personal and professional level. As a result this felt like a genuine partnership rather than a regular client/supplier relationship. This is uncommon, to say the least.

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

This project was as close to running on rails as is possible. Communication could always be marginally better if meetings are held in person, but that is hard with a distributed model. Overall, I have no complaints and would not change a thing. When marks are handed out, an A is an A, end of story.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a publicist at a Fortune 100 media and entertainment company. I work on a series of websites from which news media can get assets from, like photos, videos, and press releases.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Human Made?

With the media being our primary audience, we want to deliver the best user experience possible. We brought on Human Made to ensure we remain at the cutting edge of technology, so that the media can get access to our assets in a timely manner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Human Made develops six of our websites using WordPress VIP. They work on the front and backends. The team also designs the sites, as each one has a customized theme. They maintain the themes and make any design changes that we request.

Human Made developed a shopping cart feature, which we call the media folder. This is where we put photos, videos, and other assets. They also created a light room feature. When we wanted to switch video hosting vendors, Human Made did a substantial amount of research and ultimately recommended a vendor.

In terms of content, my team often articulates what we’re hoping to achieve, and Human Made comes back to us with some starting point ideas.

What is the team composition?

My team works with Jen (Senior Project Manager, Human Made). We primarily work with three developers, including Kevin and Chris (Senior WordPress Engineers, Human Made), although we rotate developers and designers based on what projects they’re allocated to. Our account managers are Lonnie and Sam (Directors of Client Services, Americas, Human Made).

How did you come to work with Human Made?

Jen was our project manager at a previous vendor we worked with, and she was one of the primary reasons we moved to Human Made. As a big company, we needed to do an RFP and assess a couple of vendors. Human Made let us do a trial period, during which we met everyone, ran through our projects, and discussed where we were and what we wanted to do in the future. This was a helpful opportunity that you don’t get with a lot of companies. The other two vendors we considered didn’t offer the value or quality people that Human Made did. They also had the latest tools to help us remain technologically advanced.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spends about $100,000 each year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in May 2018, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In the news industry, speed is key, and Human Made is critical in enabling us to deliver assets much more quickly to the media that we service. Switching from our last vendor to Human Made has incurred at least 30% cost savings. Although it didn’t impact them, their work researching video hosting vendors saved my team a lot of time. They went above and beyond to help us get through those changes. Also, the switch to the vendor that they recommended saved 60% on our annual spend.

We constantly receive positive feedback from users regarding the media folder. It’s user-friendly and more efficient; internally, it makes pulling together multiple assets at once much easier. Also, the light room feature, which is helpful for our photo assets, has a fresh design that fits into the news industry.

How did Human Made perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re constantly innovating, and we meet with Human Made biweekly to discuss new ideas and go through our backlogged tasks. We mostly communicate via Slack, email, and Zoom, which allows us to have face-to-face meetings even though we’re not close to each other. Human Made is always available on Slack. We work in scrum using GitHub.  

Jen is so talented and has a positive outlook. She’s able to stay organized and get everything done, which is fantastic, since this is one of many projects that I manage. Lonnie and Sam been phenomenal through some challenging legal and contract processes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They add a human element to our partnership. Human Made cares about their team and ours. They’re extremely talented, particularly in WordPress, and their work is consistently excellent. If my team goes to them with a problem, an opportunity to do something, or something that needs to be turned around quickly, we don’t have to worry about anything, because they’re always there to help. Money can’t buy the peace of mind that we get from working with them. They make the whole process easy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think I have anything.

Any advice for potential customers?

They can take you from an okay to a great project. If you’re hesitant to work on something or think it’s too big of a challenge for them, they will take on anything, big or small.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of a popular fact-checking website that sees about 25 million visitors each month.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Human Made?

We had to find a new vendor for our hosting and infrastructure who would be technically capable of both migrating our site and customizing our product as much as we needed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially hired them to help us with site migration, but over time Human Made’s become our CTO-in-a-box. They handle all of our code review, making sure that everything we write and push into production is both secure and performant. They also answer any questions throughout our product development journey. On the backend, they maintain our website in a scalable, cloud-hosted configuration.

In terms of WordPress development, they’ve helped us improve and implement better code standards, establish good DevOps procedures, and help us improve our site security. In addition, they handle all of our posting and we even pull them in periodically to supplement our in-house development efforts through SRWs.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact has varied throughout the length of the project. We have a rep who handles our contracts and resource allocations. Day to day, I work with one of the systems engineers, but we also consult regularly with their co-founder and CTO.

How did you come to work with Human Made?

We needed to replace our existing contractor and we were considering several options, including using WordPres.com VIP, as well as hiring additional developers and trying to handle the work in-house. During our search, we reached out to people who’d worked with some of the open-source tools we used for our codebase. A member of our current Human Made team contacted us and said they’d been referred through the Roots.io development community.

Right away, they stood out because they not only offered to help us meet our goals but also recommended several other firms to us, rather than trying to sell us on their business straight away. After evaluating several other leads, we ended up speaking to Joe, the co-founder of Human Made. We were impressed by their personal touch and WordPress expertise. They said they could handle the scale of our project and also offered an affordable price.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started discussing the project in the summer of 2017 and officially migrated the website in October 2017. They now provide ongoing hosting and development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Despite our extremely high traffic, we haven’t had any outages. In one case, we had an article go viral in India and our visitor stream shot up from 5,000–6,000 to 27,000 within in a few minutes. Traffic stayed that high for a couple of hours but we had no hiccups or downtime. It’s a testament to the kind of infrastructure and performance tools Human Made has built for us.

From an internal standpoint, they’ve also sped up our production process. We’re able to respond to changing consumer needs, convert ideas into product development, and push code out much more quickly than in the past. Human Made’s created an environment that’s empowered us to set our own pace and it’s allowed us to broaden our vision for future development.

How did Human Made perform from a project management standpoint?

Typically, we’ll hand them pieces of work on a project we’re managing in-house. We have a private Slack channel that we use to communicate with them regarding our product development roadmap; it’s also how we send code for review. They always exceed our expectations, even if we haven’t given the clearest instruction at the outset of a task.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re at the cutting edge of WordPress development. Whenever we want answers, solutions, or new build ideas, they know how to provide them. Their team are active participants at WordCamp and they’ve led the charge on helping Automattic roll out their WordPress API. They have the deep technical understanding of the platform that we need in order to keep innovating and elevating our business.

As one example, there was a point when we were kicking around an idea we wanted to implement and we spoke to Joe, their CTO, about whether or not it was possible and how difficult it might be. He emailed me 150 lines of PHP the next day, saying we could use that as a base and that the problem wouldn’t be that hard to solve. Our internal team picked up the code and we eventually pinged one of his developers to finish up the project. We really appreciate how often they over-deliver.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Since we’re so big, they’re actively working on implementing tools for managing our account. These aren’t must-haves or failings. As their business grows and they become more sophisticated, I hope they’ll give us better tools and insights into the performance of our stack, among other things.

Their other issue is learning to balance our expectations with what a typical client needs. There are some really advanced tools and resources we’ve asked for, that they just didn’t have readily available, although they helped us obtain them from elsewhere. I expect that this is on their roadmap and will change as they get additional large enterprise clients.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Respect their expertise, but also make an effort to learn more about the WordPress platform and how it’s meant to be used. We found many things that hadn’t been implemented correctly in the past and, while Human Made has fixed some of them, it was too costly upfront to address them all.

Looking back at our own migration, we should’ve been more aware of the information architecture for our existing site, as well as what our future ambitions were. We didn’t communicate that to Human Made as effectively as we could have in advance. Any client migrating their website should make sure to be transparent with Human Made about where they want the information to be migrated and what they want the future of their content management to be. This might avoid our problem of inheriting or carrying over technical debt.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I run a media company’s product and technology team. We focus on startups and technology.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Human Made?

We worked with them on a redesign of a third-party website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project was WordPress-based and moved to a headless set up with a React frontend. The team only did development as we had another partner that completed the design aspect.

What is the team composition?

We had up to four people working on the project at any given time.

How did you come to work with Human Made?

I talked with other people in the WordPress community and decided that Human Made would be a great partner. They had expertise in WordPress’ rest API and prior experience using that in decoupled solutions.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2017 and launched the WordPress site in March 2018. The team continues to work on smaller things with us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Human Made leveraged their considerable expertise in the space to solve numerous tricky problems. We felt fortunate to have a fantastic experience with Human Made. My team learned a lot about React and the WordPress API; we came out stronger. Since we embedded Human Made, the teams grew close and my developers appreciated the project’s collaborative nature.

How did Human Made perform from a project management standpoint?

They were communicative throughout the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They solved tough challenges by understanding them and then coming up with effective solutions. The team was also flexible and things changed over the course of the project. We appreciated the ease of working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They were very good at their jobs.