Lift Agency

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and manager of Skapa Tech LLC, a software development and integration firm.

What challenge were you trying to address with Lift Agency?

We needed Lift Agency to help us design web applications and pages.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lift Agency has collaborated with us for some time. We do web development, and they take care of the graphic design. They essentially develop the look and feel for the websites we create. They use tools like InVision and Figma.

The workflow process we follow includes mutual clients who need web development and web design, so we contact each other to complement our services. Lift works on the graphic design requirements and hands it over to implement these designs.

One of the projects we’ve collaborated on was a real estate website. We came up with the client, the staff, and the web page requirements, and we gave them the PDF documentation on what we needed the website to look like. We wanted a search page, a listing page, and a detailed page. We needed each one of these fields. Lift came up with a draft of the design, to which we gave feedback. After some revisions, we took it to the client. Depending on the project, there can be 2-4 revisions. After receiving the client’s feedback, we had one last set of changes to go through, and then they turned over the design file for us. We use printable PDFs for the design files, including images, style settings, and everything we need for the development. After the design is complete, Lift rolls off the product.

The design files are printable PDF documents with the images, style settings, and everything we need for the development, and Lift rolls off the product.

What is the team composition?

We’ve mainly worked with Jean (Design Director). We’ve also received feedback from their UI/UX designer, but we don’t really interact with anyone else apart from our main contact. 

How did you come to work with Lift Agency?

We had a mutual client working with them, which is how we met. We’ve continued working with them over their competitors, but we mostly like working with Lift for bigger projects because they have a team of people. They’re able to produce a number of web pages and designs in a week or two, which could take an individual designer a month. I think they do really good work. I like their work, and we’re able to receive high quality in our mutual collaboration, have it done quickly and reasonably.

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started September 2018 on the real estate project, and it was wrapped up by the end of October 2018. 

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

One of the most important metrics for us is to make the client happy, and even though the real estate project was done a year and a half ago, our client is still very happy about it. Our second most important metric is how they are hitting the timelines we gave them, which they did. Lift has never been late. Moreover, the timeline equals budgets, and they always came on budget.

How did Lift Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Lift Agency performs with good communication. They’ve always hit deadlines, and they’ve responded quickly to any change requests. Their billings and costs are reasonable and within expectations. 

We’re geographically distributed, so we’ve never actually met in person, but we’ve worked remotely through virtual meetings. Usually, we’ve had kickoff meetings, then our design tool feedback, and finally, other 2–3 follow-up Zoom meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Lift Agency’s designs are really clean, high quality, and modern.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes, with other projects, we’d have some pages where we don’t have as much design flexibility on the engineering constraints, which they didn’t take into consideration when they’ve worked on their design. Despite this, they’ve been quick to respond to our feedback. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you want to hire them and trust their design impressions or design work. Give the process some time because you may not like the first option, but you might like the second one. It’s a refinement process, and as you iterate and work through it, you’ll be happy with the results. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the manager of product innovation for a company called Clinical Ink and we’ve been in the industry for about 15 years now. We facilitate the collection of data from subjects and clinicians who are taking part in clinical trials. Through our mobile and web apps, patients fill out questionnaires, do various types of activities, and watch educational videos while clinicians enter electronic data surrounding encounters with patients.

We’re all about the engagement of users and increasing the likelihood of someone giving us high-quality data because that ultimately helps with the outcome of the trial. The better the quality of the data collected, the better the insights that can be driven to determine if the drug being tested is safe and effective. We’re a small step in the whole clinical trial puzzle.

What challenge were you trying to address with Lift Agency?

We are building the next generation of applications and need a fresh look for our interfaces. Clinical Ink wanted users to have access to tasks they needed to do as well as the data they were generating through a convenient, responsive, and mixed modality setup. We engaged with Lift Agency to build our clinician-facing and patient-facing workflows.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lift Agency has been there with us from beginning to end. We work with them to build wireframes and prototypes that allow us to get feedback from end-users and internal stakeholders.

Once we rapidly iterate on ideas and improvements, we do several more rounds of feedback and user sessions, which Lift Agency sits in on to help us get to a final design that the software engineers can execute. They also create high-resolution images that showcase the tools and user interactions we’re building for sales enablement.

We use Figma for designing, prototyping, and handing off to engineers. It acts as the backbone for 75% of our design work. We also utilize InVision to showcase our prototypes and allow people to click through the product for the internal and external takeover. 

What is the team composition?

We work with 2–3 representatives but our main liaison is John (Founder). When we have something to do, he delegates it to other team members who are principal designers.

How did you come to work with Lift Agency?

I had worked with Lift Agency before for a year and a half in my former company. I thought highly of their ability to cater to the needs of rapid iteration, which takes a lot of patience, and their nimbleness and flexibility to partner with a startup. When we had a need at my new company, Clinical Ink, they were the first and only people I reached out to.

What is the status of this engagement?

We formalized the engagement in April 2020 and it’s still an ongoing partnership.

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

We measure the success of a project through the finished deliverables and customer satisfaction. Since the project is ongoing, we measure how many of the deliverables are being finished within the timeframe through a specific set of KPIs. Going forward, we will be measuring user feedback and a user analytics platform that we’ve implemented.

They are also really good at thinking about the app’s globalization and responsiveness, creating interactions that will work across multiple languages, which is very important for us. Our buttons were designed to be large enough to display words in English and in their lengthier Russian equivalents. They cover a lot of what slips by the wayside, which we’re very thankful for. 

Lift Agency has also streamlined the experience between our mobile and web apps, making sure that we’re sharing a lot of the same components to minimize the duplication of efforts on the engineering side. It’s important that if a patient logs into mobile, they see a similar interface to the web app so that they don’t feel like they're on an entirely different platform. 

How did Lift Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They're good at joint project planning and as long as we're clear with them about all the steps in the process, they're great at being on top of it. They are very timely in turning things around according to the project plan that we’ve set for each of the deliverables.

From an outside perspective looking in, they delegate tasks well. If there are escalations or breakdowns in communication, John usually works with me to fix those. They’re always very flexible and can correct anything that gets escalated. 

There has also never been a problem with Lift regarding timeliness, as our internal product team members are also accountable for it. They’re often waiting on us to get through the motions. 

We communicate with them through Slack as if they’re our own team. They have access to our internal wikis where we hold our detailed project plans. We collaborate within all the Clinical Ink tools and use the messaging and collaboration components of Figma.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I can't say enough how rapidly they interact with us. They're always open to feedback and to working through fast turnaround times to help us with rapid iteration.

They do a good job of catering to an agile startup mindset. A lot of companies I have signed up with made us define the scope of the work in a waterfall structure. However, we don’t know exactly what we’ll be doing 12 months from now and can’t lay it out in a series of bullet points. 

Lift Agency does a really good job of partnering with startups that are trying to be agile in software development, landing a specific model that works for both of us. They are one of the only companies that I’ve come across that has really helped us out tremendously.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, no, I don’t think there are any specific areas of improvement. There are escalations and miscommunications that we have to work through but it’s all part of a normal process. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They do a really good job of trying to learn the market and the industry. There is a benefit to Lift Agency taking the time early on to study up on spaces and industries that they'll be designing for. John did that so I shared my resources with him when he first came on board. My advice is to let them continue doing that along with a periodic refresher. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of Bozo Ventures. We’re an innovation and invention company. We design, build, and develop professional sporting events.

What challenge were you trying to address with Lift Agency?

We created an annual multi-sports festival event as a charity event, and we needed help building a website for it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lift Agency designed and built our website for the event. We provided them with a list of what we needed and an explanation of what we were doing, and they gave us a timeline and worked through it until the website was complete. 

Along the way, they consulted on our payment process. The team also did all of the design work for the site as well as the layouts and keyword research. There’s an informational and registration component, so we needed a multi-page site that ties together in a backend sales system.

What is the team composition?

I was connected with one project manager, who worked directly with the Lift Team herself. We really only had one person to talk to, and she did the rest for us behind closed doors.

How did you come to work with Lift Agency?

We operate in Vietnam, and we’ve built multiple websites in the past for various other sports events. I have a mutual friend whose brother owns Lift, and so I got connected with him and started talking about our previous mistakes with websites. They assured us they would be able to get the job done, so we went with them.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent between $7,000–$8,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from April–October 2019.

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

The website itself serves to help us not be tied to third-party ticket sales agents and other advertising platforms. It was immediately obvious that sales were going directly through our own website now instead of going through a third-party platform. 

Being able to control our own content easily inhouse without having to have staff communications across multiple ticket sales suppliers just makes everything so much easier.

How did Lift Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We used an online communication app to stay in touch throughout the project. I expressed to them my lack of experience with general workflow apps, and Lift Agency provided one that was very intuitive. I could go online and see the comments and updates they posted. It helped us push through the process and make sure everything was getting done on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Lift Agency took their time to really understand what we were trying to do. It’s a very complicated festival we’re putting on, and there’s a lot of different mechanics to it, from different sports events and ages. The team spent a significant time to actually understand it to the point where they probably could have been an inhouse part of the project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that comes to mind. They were gentle about their communications while making sure they stayed on us to get the job done. If it wasn’t for them being so attentive to us, we wouldn’t have made our deadlines. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to overload them with information about what you’re trying to achieve.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Prestalo, a lending company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Lift Agency?

We needed a partner for the design of our website and application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lift Agency provides UI/UX designed for our application. They also delivered the design and development of our website. The team built the site from scratch using Webflow.

What is the team composition?

I work with 3-4 members of the Lift Agency team. I was mainly in contact with the founder and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Lift Agency?

They were recommended to me. I worked with them at a previous company and brought them with me to this company.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested about $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2016 and the work is ongoing.

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

We’re very happy with the website. They implemented the designs according to specs and provided meaningful suggestions, such as using Webflow. We have a much faster website now that performs very well with SEO. They definitely improved our metrics on visitors and conversions.

How did Lift Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management skills are very good. They listen to our feedback and ideas and always try to accommodate our needs. There’s a lot of back and forth with this kind of product with reviews and they were diligent with those. Our teams communicate via Slack and they're always quick to respond.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re committed to customer success and satisfaction. Lift Agency really listens to input from us. They don’t try to enforce designs that weren’t approved by us. They really focus on delivering a ready product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They might be optimistic in the time frames sometimes. They should know these things take longer than they might think in the beginning. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear with the scope ahead of time. Work it out with them in the design phase of the project and supervise it.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Community manager and website project manager of a software design company. We develop a vector-based design software called Vectornator for iOS and macOS systems. Our company works worldwide and Vectornator has over 3.5 million downloads. Our website offers a design blog and all the important learning support for our users and designers.

What challenge were you trying to address with Lift Agency?

We want to improve the way we communicate with our users and teach them how to use the tools we develop. We also want to share some of our design knowledge with people who are interested in learning.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lift Agency developed and designed our website and provided custom coding using HTML and JavaScript.

Initially, we started out with a WordPress website but switched to Webflow because we wanted to contribute more openly to the design. We used custom coding to build specific pages that weren’t possible using Webflow templates. Lift usually create the designs on Figma, and import them into Webflow. Additionally, they coded custom forms into the comparison pages, the blog and the Learning Hub.

What is the team composition?

I work mostly with Silvia (Lift Product Manager). We have weekly calls to update each other. She personally reviews the progress and syncs it with her team according to my team's requests.

How did you come to work with Lift Agency?

The CEO and the design team of my company were looking for other agencies to work remotely. From the 10 different agencies we looked at, we decided that Lift Agency was the best option for us. As a startup, we didn’t have a lot of money to invest in a big company. Lift is more cost-efficient than most European agencies — the quality of their work and values also make them a good fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

To develop and maintain the website, we pay around €4,000–€6,000 (about $4,800–$7,200) per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started in June 2019 and we’re still working together.

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

I’m quite happy collaborating with them. We are constantly improving and redesigning the site because we’re trying to fix its consistency. Since we’re both a design company, we impart knowledge and information to each other, which is then reflected on the website.

Apart from that, the most important thing for us is the site’s efficiency. We use Google Analytics to determine the site’s performance, and we discovered that the time people spend on our website has improved. 

They are really good designers who are always open to listen to what our company has to say.

How did Lift Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a shared board in Asana and communicate mostly through Slack. I really like Silvia’s way of communicating. She's available at any time and always open to listen and change the design according to my requests.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think the collaboration with Lift really helped us establish a good quality service to our users. They’re first really good at designing and I also like the way they manage the huge amount of work especially when we have tight deadlines. 
Collaborate with our team requires patience and confidence with the tools we use and the continuous feedback, and Lift is handling this in a very well form.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I'm very happy with Lift's work and collaborate with Silvia is a great pleasure.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to be consistent and always be clear with what you want.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Marketing Director of a global apparel sourcing house. We work as an extension of North American buyers to source, develop and manufacture apparel in various countries.

Our organization works closely with design teams of retail companies in North America and sources and oversees manufacturing in countries with a competitive advantage in apparel manufacturing. I am responsible for marketing the organization, bring on-board new clients, and growing our product manufacturing portfolio.

For what projects/services did your company hire Lift Agency?

Our website had not been updated in years, and was originally not to the standards required. As the organization is growing, we required our online presence to reflect accurately the statistics, portfolio, brand image we were building, and to support the emphasis we were placing on being globally placed and well-suited to handling communications with all brands and retailers.

We hired Lift Agency to take care of the branding and the web design of the new website. As we harnessed long-term relationships with clients, and often get referred due to our ability to handle manufacturing for the client with a global approach and seamless communications, we needed branding and website to align with this.

For clients who have had us referred to them, they needed an easy way to review our product portfolio, client base, and general projection of branding and appeal. Lift Agency was given this challenge to help us achieve the desired outcome.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to achieve a website that was aligned with the branding requirements highlighted above, a web design to be proud of that indicates our global position. We were focused on making our presence in the manufacturing/b2b industry more present in the digital world, in the same way b2c is.

As often, manufacturers don't prioritize digital presence, our goal was to showcase that we are indeed modern, sophisticated, digitally present, reliable, professional and as digitally inclined as other organizations in today's world.

With a professional website, an established website, our goal was to instill further faith and comfort with clients who were keen to see our established digital presence that reflected data they required, as well as showcase our professionalism and aesthetic sense.

How did you select Lift Agency?

We selected Lift Agency based on their previous portfolio of clients they had worked with, it was ranging and skilled.

Following the initial discovery session with Lift Agency, their confidence in being able to take minimal art direction from us and actualize it into exactly what we wanted, really cemented our decision.

We found them to be able to understand the brief, the requirement and our needs with ease, and they were not afraid to take on the challenge but still fall in line with the aesthetic that we were really focused on achieving.

Describe the project in detail.

The web design needed to be created from scratch, the aesthetics, the landing page, and the following branches of the website: client base, history, product portfolio, etc. After just one discovery meeting,

Lift Agency was able to discern the aesthetic we required and what was required of the brief. An initial template was made, and a few colorway changes were suggested and we proceeded with the development. Changes were made promptly and with clear direction.

Our strategy was to present ourselves on a global platform, and one of key components that Lift Agency instilled was a seamless transition from the top of the page to the bottom, followed by a beautiful global mapping indicating our office locations.

The remaining web design development is sophisticated, professional, seamless and uniquely uniform, with a charm and character to it. The web design was completed to perfection, from the landing pace down to the contact us page. Within a short frame of time, the design and implementation was complete and we were ready to roll out.

My primary role was in the form of feedback and guidelines, as most of the design work was suggested and handled by the team, my role was to approve the creations, which was done rather swiftly.

What was the team composition?

Lift Agency's team was comprised of one team member followed by their supervisor who personally reviewed the progress with me and was present during the first discovery meeting.

The personnel or number of personnel did not change during this time and had remained consistent. I was the sole person collaborating with their team during the engagement of this project.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

As b2b manufacturing rarely receives direct inquiries from digital researching and more from word of mouth, the website served as a way to ensure inquiring clients had the brand image in mind of a professional company when they were keen to proceed with quotation exercises.

The website allows us to receive a lot of positive feedback in the form of our projected professionalism and reliability in the industry, and also allows us to be approached 75% more by vendors and raw material providers who found us online and wish to collaborate, which has certainly augmented our raw material supply base.

We are now proudly able to showcase our digital presence and also have a medium through which we can share our product portfolio via email when doing outreach as it is all on the website.

Overall feedback has been phenomenal on the aesthetic of the website and the reliability and professionalism it indicates of our organization. Usability and flow, along with aesthetic, colorways and navigation have been consistently applauded.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We initially used slack, skype and email to coordinate, scheduling, and management of expectations was phenomenal. Requests were duly noted and applied within required and swift timeframes. All in all, the team is praised for their celerity.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I found this collaboration to be particularly positive not just due to the teams celerity and deep knowledge of web design, but rather the patience and confidence with which each feedback was handled.

At each stage, starting with the discovery session, I was at ease learning that I could rely on the team to actualize the vision we had, even if we were not able to properly and adequately elucidate what it was we were looking for - we had a brand vision and image.

Lift Agency was able to provide suggestions and clarity and navigation in order for us to come closer to the vision required and put it into place.

They were quick, receptive, and adaptable, they were able to fashion suggestions we found to be more aligned with what we wanted, and they had a strong sense of communication to better explain processes that may not be clear to those outside the industry.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We were very happy with the services and look forward to continued working with them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

When you’re in the business of caring for people, it’s essential to stay focused on the quality of care you provide. Relias identifies opportunities for improvement and equips your organization with real solutions, whether it’s hiring and retaining your nurses, reducing variation in care, or improving patient experience and physician engagement at every level.

We help you meet your goals. As a Product Manager overseeing 1 of 2 core platforms for Relias, I manage a variety of product lines and a platform serving thousands of Relias customers every year.

For what projects/services did your company hire Lift Agency?

Lift has been the primary design team supporting the Relias Live Platform for over 4 years. All features have been designed by Lift who provides designs for new features as well as ongoing support for platform updates.

Lift has been instrumental in the growth of the Relias Live Platform from a small start-up to a rapidly expanding company.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal has always been to develop a user-friendly platform with a clean, easy to understand UI. We have taken content that has traditionally been delivered in a written format and moved it into a highly engaging, interactive online formal. The impact is that we are able to deliver content at scale with high engagement.

How did you select Lift Agency?

Lift was originally chosen by Mike Mutka, (current CPO) in 2016, Lift continues to be a partner because of their skills, quick response to feedback, iterative processes, and keen eye for what creates a good user experience.

That is even more true today as we have grown together over the last 4 years. Lift has always aligned with the spirit of innovation at Relias and continues to take on more projects based on excellent feedback.

Describe the project in detail.

Current projects include the Relias Learner Native App, Relias Live Learner Native App, and many Desktop features for the Relias Live Platform for Learner, Instructor, and other roles.

What was the team composition?

Our primary contact is Jean Massad and the lead designer is Hoang. They have consistently been my main point of contact over the years.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

All projects have been well received and continue to be used. We have grown from a startup platform with just a few customers to a platform with over $30M ARR and thousands of customers per year. The feedback on Lift's design is always great and the customer growth supports this even more.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very, we have a weekly design meeting, work collaboratively in Invision, and use email for design requests. Jean does a great job of setting reasonable timelines for initial designs to manage expectations and is very responsive to all communications.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Lift has an incredibly fast turn around for projects and 90% of the time, their first design suggestion is what we end up using. We make changes as needed but Lift is great at presenting innovative solutions that align with other progressive features in the market. Lift design is fresh and clean which drives great user feedback.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We work in different timezone so on occasion, meeting times don't align but it's been super rare. Jean is incredibly responsive and has worked all hours of the night to reach product goals.

Please describe your company and your position there.

marketplace offering services using time as a payment method. CEO & Founder

For what projects/services did your company hire Lift Agency?

UI & UX Design from scratch

What were your goals for this project?

Come up with a newly build platform

How did you select Lift Agency?

Expertise within the startup industry. UX expertise & really good comunication.

Describe the project in detail.

We closely worked with them to establish and design the correct requirements in order to make the platform work and a perfect launched version for our investors

What was the team composition?

1 UX designer 1 UI Designer 1 Product manager

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The project remains in stealth status

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Really effective working as one team using various tools to facilitate comunication

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Desgin skills and Management comunication

Are there any areas for improvement?

Project documentation could have been better

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our firm provides data analytics services. I founded the company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Lift Agency?

We hired lift to design an enterprise level dashboard and product.

What were your goals for this project?

Since the client was not heavily technical, we needed a UI that was very simple to use, to provide visibility across various product lines.

How did you select Lift Agency?

We were referred by our network and they had the right expertise.

Describe the project in detail.

The project involved:

• An analysis of sensor data for 5 different locations.
• Visualization of the analysed information and design of the UI.

We were able to do the analytics and then handed over the work to Lift for the design. They essentially:

• Defined the correct visualizations for the purpose.
• Designed a UI around the visualizations for maximum effectiveness.

What was the team composition?

We worked directly with their design lead (Jean) who handled everything on Lift's end.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We are aware, from our interaction with the end client, that they regularly use the dashboard for their internal purposes and are even considering adding new dashboards for other teams.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Jean was available at short notice and we did not have any problems communicating with him.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The quick turnaround time and the team's attention to detail are very impressive.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Given the small-scale nature of the project, we did not have any complaints.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a natural wine import and wholesale distribution business based in Charlottesville, Virginia USA.

For what projects/services did your company hire Lift Agency?

Lift Agency helped us update our website and enhance functionality.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to create a consumer facing website with added functionality to provide sales resources to our clients.

How did you select Lift Agency?

I have worked with Lift on a number of other projects and felt comfortable that they could meet the standards and requirements we had envisioned.

Describe the project in detail.

I met with Jean at the beginning of each week for the first month or so to review designs and narrow the options. I would generally receive updates midweek and have time to provide feedback in advance of our calls. Once the design aspects were largely mapped out, we had weekly calls to discuss additional site capabilities and sales tools. Design of these items followed a similar weekly schedule.

What was the team composition?

I worked directly with Jean who managed our project from beginning to end.

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We haven't gone live with the new site just yet. We have a lot of content to create and load.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was seamless and easy. Straightforward process - the team was quick to incorporate feedback.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Lift provides a consistently high-level design.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can't think of any.