Infinum

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of automation development at a company that manufactures machinery for the chemical industry. We support our customers’ processes in the pharmaceutical and food industries, supplying them with several components.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

We wanted to increase our company’s presence in the digital realm. We hired Infinum to support us with IoT development, front- and backend development, scrum master activities, and DevOps tasks.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a lasting relationship with Infinum. Initially, we had a software solution that needed updates, and Infinum helped us generate the required changes. Infinum has added resources and competencies to our team that have helped us stabilize and develop a new solution. 

Infinum provides support and resources for IoT and DevOps work. We have some architects within our team, and as the project has evolved, Infinum has provided architecture design resources to work on our solution’s architecture. The team uses Microsoft Azure to code our backend and .NET to a large extent. Infinum uses Angular for frontend development.  

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with around 15–20 teammates from Infinum. About 40% of the team are backend developers, 30% are frontend developers, and the rest of the team are DevOps designers, Agile coaches, and product owners.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

We found Infinum through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent just below $1 million with Infinum.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Infinum in January 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I appreciate that our team and Infinum’s team are looking at the problem from the same side. Infinum has been really supportive through the project’s ups and downs since our requirements have changed. We’ve been able to upsize and downsize the provided resources as needed when we need different competencies, and Infinum has been helpful in finding the correct teammates. 

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?

We have clear agreements on costs, deliveries, and expectations. We have quarterly planning meetings, and the core team has daily stand-up meetings. We aren’t in the same physical location, but we’ve had physical meetings where relevant.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Infinum’s passion for solving problems is what I appreciate most about them. Although we’re different companies, we’re trying to solve the same issues.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’d appreciate it if Infinum could tell us when we’re doing something wrong. I know it’s tough to be a supplier and tell the customer they’re wrong, but Infinum could be stronger in telling us when we need to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend potential customers be sure about what they want when engaging with Infinum and have a face-to-face meeting to have a good team setup. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of Porsche Digital Croatia, a strategic partner for Porsche working on digital products for the company. We’re involved in software development projects and products connected to vehicles, services, and digital goods.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

We collaborated with a product team that worked closely with Porsche’s software development and other agencies. The goal of hiring Infinum was to set up a structure in our location and create a stable and productive environment so that we could take responsibility for full software products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Infinum provides us with contractors and temporary team setups. We use their resources as a temporary solution until we have our complete internal team. Whenever we engage them, they provide a placeholder setup; these engagements last 3–6 months. 

For our current project, we started by making agreements with our German branch to transfer a software product's responsibilities to us. After that, we set up a product team with roles such as product owner, Scrum master, QA leads, and three developers. 

Infinum provides development resources that work with Java for the backend and Angular for the frontend. They also use native iOS and Android software development kits (SDKs). Our requirements included having senior developers due to the complex challenges of the product. We shared the scope, including the Agile mindset, sprints, and budgeting. Our German branch started managing the project, slowly transferring the responsibility to us. We'll transfer development from Infinum to our internal team as we build it.

Additionally, they've worked on other projects with us where they've provided project management. In those projects, they've managed the resources and budget. We also collaborate on a recent project where they provide a product owner who works with our internal resources and teammates from our German branch.  

What is the team composition?

On our current project, we work with three developers from Infinum. Over the past two years, we've worked with 15–20 teammates. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around €1 million (approximately $1 million USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around June 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re satisfied with Infinum’s work; they’re really skillful at what they do. Whenever we’ve had to remove their resources from a project, we always double-check to ensure it’s the best move. Since we only have one strategic partner, Infinum’s goodwill and professionalism have enabled us to pull more products into our fold. 

The fact that we can work with a product owner from Infinum is the peak of their competence. It’s hard to have external teammates working on product owners in our environment, so it’s excellent that we’ve managed to get that from Infinum. 

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?

Although project management is hard to measure inside an Agile environment, the team has used the budgets allocated to them correctly, which our product management teams have recognized.

Their communication is top of the class. I’ve worked with contractors and agencies that don’t reply to emails that aren’t positive. Meanwhile, Infinum is responsive to both good and bad feedback. We use our internal team channels with them, including Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

What I most like about our collaboration with Infinum is their transparency. They immediately communicate with us when we have an issue, miscommunicate, or misimplement something. As a result, we’re always on the same ship, which is why I like working with them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could cut down their lead times. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust Infinum. Although it can be hard to give them trust right off the bat, once you do, they do what you ask them to do in the best possible way.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior project manager in the traffic management division of my government.  

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

Infinum was the subcontractor of the contractor developing our European electronic reporting platform. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project started with a kick-off meeting where we discussed the documentation we provided. Then, Infinum developed the initial system concepts. After the concept development, Infinum provided mock-ups and developed the platform using Ruby on Rails; they then ran implementation testing. Once that testing was complete, Infinum ran user and factory acceptance tests.

The electronic reporting system Infinum developed is for inland navigation. It is interconnected with another European inland waterway platform; the platform takes data from that platform. The system is a web-based platform where authorities can retrieve reports and users can send electronic reports. 

There is also a dashboard where users navigating the Danube River can input data using several user-friendly features. Then, authorities are responsible for verifying the data and approving reports; authorities also inspect the river vessels. 

What is the team composition?

During the kickoff meetings, we met with five teammates from Infinum, but during the main development phase, we were only in contact with 3–4 of Infinum’s teammates. 

How did you come to work with Infinum?

Infinum was a subcontractor for another company we were working with. 

How much have you invested with them?

I don’t have specific investment information on how much of our total development investment went to Infinum, but in total, we invested around €500,000 (approximately $525,000 USD) in this project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

This project was from August 2020–December 2021. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform Infinum helped develop is operational, and our main contractor has retained Infinum’s team to provide maintenance services. 

We’ve gotten very good feedback on the quality of the technology Infinum helped create. Our first users have been very happy with the platform and have conveyed their satisfaction with our innovative, up-to-date system. 

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?

We had to align our timelines once, but our contract handled the entire engagement with Infinum since they were subcontractors. However, everything was eventually delivered on time and within budget despite some delays. 

We didn’t directly communicate with them; we primarily interacted with Infinum’s team through virtual meetings and presentations where Infinum, our contract, and our team were present. However, all of the change requests we submitted to our contractor were sent to Infinum as well. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Infinum’s team was young and dynamic, which gave us the feeling that they were interested in what we were doing. It was clear that they were trying to achieve the best outcome possible and create software that was helpful for users. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Infinum could expand their pool of experienced developers — it was hard to get experienced teammates. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Infinum is a good choice if customers are looking for up-to-date development. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a company that offers a software as a service solution for midsize and enterprise clients for inventory management. There are about 30–35 applications inside of our solution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

We’ve constantly added new features over the years to create new possibilities for our end users, but we didn’t use a unified design language in terms of its UI and UX. Our goal with this project was to redesign the entire solution, ensuring that the UI/UX of each application is the same across the entire solution. We were also trying to improve the speed of some of our users most-utilized functionalities.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Infinum began the project by putting on a 4-day workshop to determine our user personas. We did a mix of design and strategy work based on information that we provided to them about our users. In the end, we created five user personas to focus on.

They designed the new UI/UX in Figma, integrating user stories and executing user testing in an A/B format. Data analytics have also been heavily involved. One of the more unique steps they’ve taken is live user testing through Zoom. Our clients often have large groups of users, so we needed to make sure it worked for all of them.

Our main optimization goal in revising the UI/UX was to improve the efficiency and flow of user actions. For example, if a specific action took a user 3–4 clicks, we wanted to see a 30% reduction in the number of clicks across all actions, like purchasing, finalizing documents, and more. Our secondary goal was to increase speed across the app in general. Infinum was able to do this by reducing the amount of data that the user receives when they start the application. We realized there was a significant amount of information that the user didn’t need but was being given anyway.

Infinum’s team did provide the additional service of briefly investigating the solution’s technical environment. They have an extensive engineer team, but we also have an in-house development team, so Infinum only did a brief code review.

What is the team composition?

We’ve mainly worked with three designers: one lead and two base resources. The design lead also led our initial strategy workshop. During the initial workshop phase, we also interacted with a strategy consultant and other people that were more on the business side, rather than the design side. Finally, there was a single data analytics resource, a lead engineer, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

It was very difficult to differentiate between different vendors, but I chose Infinum mostly because of their workshop approach. Rather than building an estimate at the very beginning, they provided a detailed and accurate estimate of the UI/UX redesign after the workshop phase.

Infinum displayed great expertise throughout the workshop stage. Because of this interaction, I was much more confident in my decision to work with them on the full redesign.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost is around $150,000 currently. By the end of 2022, the total will probably be up around $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our speed has increased by 25% thanks to Infinum’s work. They’ve delivered the first version of the redesign, but they’re going to make some additional updates after we’ve taken a few months to gather feedback.

One of the best results is that there haven’t been too many changes for the users. It’s always difficult for users to switch from one design flow to the other, but their feedback has been that, while the refresh is powerful, the solution still feels familiar to them. Additionally, Infinum definitely reduced the number clicks needed for our users to take actions. They’ve hit all our metrics.

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve had very good communication with their project manager and haven’t experienced any major issues. Specifically, the project manager has done a great job coordinating between her team and our internal team. Everyone has been totally synchronized: timelines and budgets are accurate, and transparency is high. We’re able to see exactly how many daily hours we’ve used and how that relates to our monthly budget. There has been a bit of a downturn when some of their resources are on vacation, but they still manage those situations well.

We collaborate over Figma, as well as an internal tool that Infinum has.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The lead designer knew all the adjustments we needed to make to the design, as well as all the business effects those changes would. Rather than solely focusing on creating a beautiful UI/UX, Infinum considered what would make the best enterprise application.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s not much they could have improved about the services we’ve engaged them for. Perhaps they could offer additional services, but their design team has been very good and understood us fully. We haven’t experienced any problems, like having to replace a designer, either.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s important to be responsive to Infinum’s team. The more engaged the client is, the less the vendor will have to push the project forward themselves. Additionally, every client should invest in the initial workshop phase. It was very beneficial for us, and the collaboration would have been very different without it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder of a sound design and music software company based in the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to create a standalone solution that delivered a better and more streamlined experience for our diverse, existing user base. Since our customers count on our products for performing music live on stage we needed to ensure that the resulting product was incredibly reliable and solid. We decided to partner with Infinum to achieve this goal.

SOLUTION

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

We interviewed numerous App developers during our search and received drastically different estimates. Every other vendor we interviewed didn't seem to understand our customer's core needs nor the complexity of what we were setting out to do. In contrast

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

We needed an App built for iPadOS that was capable of handling complex MIDI and Audio signal paths in realtime, synced to our website storefront for accounts and purchase verification. We also needed a way for our team of sound designers and musicians to add to and manage libraries via a custom, web-based CMS.

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

Our project started with a project manager, two graphic designers, and one front end developer. From there we scaled up to two full-time iOS developers and two full-time back-end Rails devs, along with a full-time QA role for the back half of the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within a few weeks of the App's beta release 33% of our existing user base had downloaded and accessed the beta. During the beta period we've received fantastic feedback on the App's performance, design, and feel and have had very few bugs that weren't already addressed before the beta. We're planning to move from TestFlight beta to public release after just a couple months in beta, which is fantastic.

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

Infinum had a well-realized way of work that we were able to onboard and blend with our existing tools. Slack for simple communication, Figma for design, and Productive for task/ticket and sprint planning. We've met weekly for a quick sync with a sprint review every other week where each member of the team demonstrates what has been accomplished and the next sprint is planned.

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

Some of the goals we thought would be most challenging, such as the custom MIDI and audio engines we knew we'd need, were realized incredibly quickly by Infinum's iOS developers. We ended up getting so far ahead during the first 3 months that our team had to work hard to catch up! During the first year of our collaboration a couple member's of Infinum's team have received promotions that necessitated them to offboard from our project.

We anticipated these transitions being a bit of a setback but found the opposite. Infinum did a fantastic job of replacing personnel and ensuring they were incredibly well prepared before they jumped in. The project didn't skip a beat, even when we transitioned on a new project manager.

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

One area where we ran into trouble was actually because of a positive. We made the conscious decision to start front-end development first to get the App's engines working and then start bringing back-end devs in later. But because the iOS devs on the front-end got so much done so fast, we ended up needing to regroup a bit to make sure that the back-end was able to catch up to the front end team.

Thankfully we were able to ensure all the needed connections happened and we worked with Infinum to adjust our staffing so that back-end could work at the required speed.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Modra zavarovalnica create accessible insurance and other financial solutions aimed at increasing an individual’s social security in all stages of life. Position: Member of the Management Board

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Design and development of mobile application and API backend environment. Goal: Provide digital financial and supplementary social security services to the members of Modra zavarovalnica.

SOLUTION

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

The vendor was selected in a two-phase process. In phase 1 interviews were conducted. In phase 2, multi-criteria evaluation was performed. Deciding factors: size and organisation of bidder, reference projects, competencies, methodology of work, price of services,....

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

• Workstream 1: research and product strategy
• Workstream 2: ETP release Technology : Vendor use Flutter framework, which allows one programming language and one codebase to create two different apps (for iOS and Android).

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

The vendos has provided more than 10 different professionals with different competencies: UX/UI designer, Backend web developer, Flutter developer, Project manager, .NET developer and others

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are not yet in the phase of mass use of the application.

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

Clearly defined roles and responsibilities, communication is clearly and respectfully, very effective project methodology, trying to understand every time how their activities fits into mission of Modra zavarovalnica, respect each member of team, etc.

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

The continuity of project activities is ensured despite changes in their team structure., High level of efficiency of work methodology

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

no suggestions

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
Hrvatska poštanska banka is a bank in Croatia. I’m the head of the direct channels division, which includes digital channels.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?
They’re our mobile app developer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?
Infinum developed our Android and iOS banking app from scratch. They handle the ongoing, day-to-day activities regarding the app, including solving any issues.

The app interfaces with other internal systems. It has all the modern features of a banking app, like making transfers and payments, checking services, and using our e-branch. The app is in line with other banking apps on the market.

What is the team composition?
I don’t have insights into what the team size was during the initial development. Currently, we have 3–5 dedicated resources, depending on our budget and project plan. Their relationship manager is our main contact. He relays all our requirements to the developers and analysts.

How did you come to work with Infinum?
Infinum was working with the bank before I came onboard. The app was up and running when I started.

How much have you invested with them?
The cost so far this year is up to $200,000. The total since the bank signed the contract till now is more than $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?
Infinum had an ongoing contract when I started working at the bank in December 2019. The collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Things are going quite well. We’re happy with the relationship and with the day-to-day operational matters. The app has good ratings in both stores.

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?
My team has daily communication with them. We use standard communication and documentation tools as well as create change requests and test scenarios. There’s nothing too advanced.

What did you find most impressive about them?
Infinum has a young responsive team that’s well-equipped for what it does.

Are there any areas they could improve?
There’s always room for improvement, but there’s nothing significant. We can always ask for more developers, lower prices, and better delivery but we’re definitely satisfied with the overall services Infinum provides.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
They’re a serious company, well-recognized in the Croatian market and outside of it. This is a nice thing for any company that started from scratch. Infinum provides a wide range of services in banking and other industries. As a company, they definitely had a positive trend from the beginning, and they provide high-quality services.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a fashion technology startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

I believe that the future of fashion is made to measure, and with the help of technology, we’ll be able to fit garment patterns automatically for customers. Infinum is helping me develop a manufacturing system that draws custom clothing patterns based on each individual customer’s measurements.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the beginning of the project, I explained how I envisioned the site and provided written requirements while my partner oversaw the project. From there, Infinum provided product development and code writing services. Based on my specifications, they developed the platform in Python.

What is the team composition?

They had a project manager, one frontend, and one backend developer assigned to my project. I met around five people from their team in total.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

A friend of mine who had worked with Infinum recommended them to me. I considered a few other companies, but they had the best price.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost was around €25,000 (approximately $30,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Infinum in March 2020, and they wrapped up the project in July. Now they continue to provide maintenance and updates.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The work is still in progress, but I’m happy with the results so far. There hasn’t been anything they can’t do. I’ve tested the system and have been able to fit several women because it works. At the moment, I’m only using it only internally.

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re quick and they communicate well. They’re using Slack and their own project management system, along with email, phone calls, and video meetings to keep in touch with us. Overall, they’re really nice and I enjoy working with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re more expensive than other providers, but they’re very professional. I’m happy with Infinum and would recommend them to others.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They’re quick with everything I need, and

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They should be very specific in terms of what they want to get in the end. The more specific the client is, the better the quality of the result will be.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a creative film technology company. We focus on improving the creative workflows in film, television, and theatre.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

We brought them on to develop our web app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve done all of the design for the web application. Infinum implements it and builds the solution. Our team works with them on a constant basis for the web app and continual improvements to the product. Their team also built our marketing site and helps with its web design from time to time. They’re handling everything from concept to build. The site is on WordPress.

What is the team composition?

For the web app, we have three individuals working on it. On the marketing site side, there are an additional three people.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

Infinum is based in Croatia. I have a friend who lives there and recommended Infinum and a couple of other agencies. We interviewed all of them, and they created proposals. Ultimately, we went with Infinum.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested somewhere between $200,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around April 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Without the web app they’ve created, we couldn’t have a viable product. We’ve seen usage grow from zero to lots because of Infinum’s work. They’ve developed a beautiful and functional website. That has allowed us to explain our product better and get more leads.

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?

They have their own in-house development tool. We also have a dedicated project manager who we talk to weekly. They help with the weekly sprints.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Infinum is very attentive. Their team gets the job done and is collaborative throughout the entire process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes, it takes a little while to find the right people for their team. Infinum would find developers, and I had to be more diligent about communicating when somebody wasn’t quite working so we could form the team that was appropriate for us.

It’d be great if they had come up with that on their own. That happened long ago in the past. We’ve had a great number of years with Infinum now. There are natural growing pains in the beginning.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be diligent about making sure you have the team that’s going to get it done for you. Do this within the first couple of months and be open about communicating with Infinum when you feel there are issues. Their team is very receptive to that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product for Repsly. We’re a software company that provides a retail execution platform. Retail execution is essentially merchandizing and field sales. Large food and consume products brands use us when they send their teams into retail stores to merchandize their products. We’re the platform that they run on — a mobile app and a web app that they use to execute these field programs. We have about 800 customers around the world in 80 different countries using our product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Infinum?

We were looking for a partner to run our UX design process and wanted someone that was experienced working with our kind of applications.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Infinum offers many design services, but we’re a product company, so they’re providing us with access to UX design leaders and designers to join our team and build our product.
We’re going through a design update for our web application, and they led the whole workshop and kickoff of that project. They’ve been working with us directly on the design and implementation for a year now.
The project started with rethinking the product. We last did a redesign 4–5 years ago, and the website was great for the time, but our business transformed, and we went from serving very small customers with 5–10 users to large, global teams with hundreds or even thousands of people in the field. That level of business application requires a different UX, and its users expect different things out of their applications. Infinum’s team led the process of rethinking our application in light of our larger corporate clients.
Specifically, they helped us prioritize our personas and home in on who we were designing for. Then, they helped us workshop how we prioritize the roadmap on design, and worked with us through the design process, from concept to wireframe to actual UX design. They also interacted directly with our development teams to implement and deploy.
In this case, they designed for iOS and web, using a lot of core support technology. They had a project management system, Productive, that we found to be very useful. They work a lot with some good design collaboration tools. For example, we’re working with both Figma and Miro — we’re doing workshops on these platforms. We can whiteboard designs and concepts and work through different exercises to extract requirements and priorities, and then share them with the developers.

What was the team composition?

We’ve worked with 5–6 people at Infinum over the years, including project managers, senior designers, mobile designers, web designers, etc.

How did you come to work with Infinum?

We connected with Infinum, because we were founded in Zagreb, which is where they’re located. They had the capacity to bring multiple different skill sets into the UX design process, and they were located close to our development team, which is also in Zagreb. They didn’t just have the technical skills of mobile and web apps, but they knew how to run the design process. We interviewed multiple firms and felt that Infinum was the right choice for us.

We had a set of objectives in mind and set that up against potential firms in the region. We interviewed each company for their proposal, and Infinum stood out in several ways. First, this is the type of project they normally do. They have a number of other clients that look like us. Additionally, the type of people they hire suited us. They have teams of designers that collaborate with each other, so we weren’t just getting the people on our team, but we were also going to benefit from the whole company. That was a big differentiator.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent less than $200,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re about to launch our new UX, and that’s where the proof will come into play. We’re instrumenting our system to detect usability patterns with the new designs, and once I have those statistics, we’ll be able to compare user behavior between the new system and the old one.

How did Infinum perform from a project management standpoint?

They use a project management tool called Productive, which has been super helpful. We use it as a scrum system — there is a backlog and then things that are active in the current sprint. They also use it for their billing system.

The most important thing was the cadence Infinum set up with us on weekly synchronization with me. This lets me know what’s happening on the ground level of each project. We meet weekly to do a recap and some reprioritization on the plan. They’re very agile and able to respond to changing needs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

First, speaking as a software company, Infinum understands the software business, whereas other providers we talked to had marketing-type design skills. Infinum knows how to make products. Second, their breadth of experience stands out. They have a great team of in-house designers. We don’t just have one designer. Third, they’re a great cultural fit with us. Because we’re embedding them with our team, they understand agile systems and they share our values in terms of creating greater customer experiences and adopting best practices. The transition to start working with them was very smooth.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing immediately comes to mind. We hired them specifically because they’re based in Zagreb, like our development office. This was intentional, as we wanted them to be in the same time zone as the team doing the implementation work. Selfishly, I’d love to have more time overlap to spend with them, but because they’re six hours ahead of me, there’s no way for me to be more available to them. That’s not their fault, however.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Look to align with them on your project and their experience. Can they show you examples that relate to your work? Ask them how they’ll find out what your design objectives are. Learn about their process to extract user requirements and design requirements. They did a great job of articulating their process to us.

Additionally, look for a cultural fit between how you and they think about products. Early on, we had them do an evaluation about what they thought about our initial product. They found all the items we’d highlighted to address, in addition to a bunch of other issues that totally made sense.