Knüt Studio

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a SaaS company that we’ve been developing for two years. It’s a team collaboration software for the hospitality industry that’s custom-built for hotels.

What challenge were you trying to address with Knüt Studio?

We had never had any UX designer in-house. However, when we started the development process, we had a designer who wasn’t working at all, and it was a failure. As a result, we decided to handle the software by ourselves with the same ideas, but we reached a level where we needed professional help because our design wasn’t working for our clients anymore. We tried to develop new features based on our thoughts, but we realized that we needed to make a huge change in order our customers can use the software.

We decided to hire Knüt Studio to prove that the product could improve a lot by designing the new version of the software. In addition, we could convince our future clients and in-house investors how the software would look like if we raised money for it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Knüt Studio designed our UX for our software. They studied the market, including the existing systems that were solving challenges in terms of internal collaboration. They also studied our competitors and took their time to understand what we wanted to do.

Knüt Studio went through our software, got a username and password, and asked all the questions they had based on things that weren’t clear for them regarding our software and the hospitality industry. After the research, Knüt Studio came back with their ideas.

 What is the team composition?

Isaura (Founder) was our main point of contact and account manager.

How did you come to work with Knüt Studio?

When we started our company, we did an acceleration program for startups. The manager of that program worked with Knüt Studio and recommended them to me. I met Isaura and the conversation was fluid because we were in the same time zone — we weren’t in the same city but were an hour away. It was cool and easy to catch up before signing a contract. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from October 2020–March 2021.

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

In terms of improvement, Knüt Studio created what we have today. We haven’t deployed their entire design and haven’t implemented it yet into our system, but we might have some metrics. We’re still working on the new design with developers, and we can’t provide any feedback this early.

How did Knüt Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

I told Isaura to switch to Slack for direct messaging and share videos. We also used FreeCAD, which is a software for project management. 

We had delays, but it wasn’t Isaura’s fault, it was us. We could’ve completed the project 1–3 months earlier, but we were busy. Knüt Studio’s productivity, in terms of work and efficiency, saved us more than six months. Working with Isaura and her ability to communicate with us through Slack and Teamwork collaboration tools made it easy to come up with better ideas instead of having to research or wait for our clients to give us feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive aspect about Knüt Studio was the personalization of the service and price. We asked Knüt Studio for a few more proposals, but they were more expensive. We told them that our budget was limited, and they adjusted the whole project to the money we had instead of pushing us to pay more. They understood our position and knew we could bring a long-term collaboration. 

Knüt Studio’s service was very personalized, as well. We spoke with other companies, but they had a lot of managers, and they assigned a different person to be in touch with us. As the companies grew and became independent, they lost contact with their clients. In the case of Knüt Studio, they were a small company, and that was something I really appreciated because the owners of the firm could still deliver quality services and take care of their customers. I felt Knüt Studio was the best company in the world.

Knüt Studio also saw an opportunity to get into the software industry because they weren’t experts on software. In the beginning, they highlighted and said that to us, and we understood. They had never worked with hotels before. However, Küt Studio did research to understand our product. We knew that it was very challenging to work in this industry, but they made an effort and understood the industry.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think I could ask Isaura for more. She did a great job.

 Any advice for potential customers?

If people are looking for someone who will learn and understand what they do before jumping in, this company will help them. Knüt Studio will study the market and industry before they start coming up with answers.

If I saw Isaura automatically start work without any analysis in advance, I’d be worried. I’ve worked with companies, and I’ve learned that they need to understand what you do before starting making proposals. That’s what Isaura does— she puts on our shoes to have a better perspective of what we want to achieve in the short-term and long-term.