Merge Development

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a technology startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with Merge Development?

We didn’t have any in-house design resources, so we hired Merge Development for their design capabilities.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have an ongoing consulting engagement with Merge Development. We mainly use them as a design shop, though they’ve done a bit of web development for us. So far, we’ve done 4–5 projects with them, including designing the early UI/UX of our marketing website and our product. 

For the website, we had already developed our identity, so we had a logo and color scheme. Merge Development gave us a series of layout proposals. We iterated on the layouts, providing feedback for them to make changes. Once the mock-ups looked good on Figma, we had them build the first version of the website. Their engineering team took over and helped implement the design using Next.js, DatoCMS, and React. 

What is the team composition?

Pavel (CEO) has acted as the lead in our projects and introduced us to Elisabeth (Head of Design), our main point of contact and project manager for most projects. We’ve worked with different designers and occasionally developers from their team. For the marketing website, we worked with three people, including Elisabeth and Taisiia (Lead UI/UX Designer).

How did you come to work with Merge Development?

I found them through LinkedIn and looked at their portfolio. Merge Development had some previous works that I liked the look of and were in a similar domain to my project. I contacted them through LinkedIn, we set up a phone call, and we began our partnership from there.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent on the lower end of $25,000–$50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

We’ve had a lot of positive feedback on our website’s design, which has successfully conveyed our brand’s message. Therefore, we’re pretty pleased with Merge Development’s design work. Because we’re a brand new company, we don’t have metrics yet. 

All of the team’s proposals for the website layout were visually interesting and gave us varied options. Moreover, the iterations with the team felt natural; they honored our feedback every time, showing they heard us. Overall, the website’s design was a smooth and pleasant process. 

How did Merge Development perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is good. Elisabeth is a clear communicator; if we ever have a question, she’s always on top of it and has a great answer. She also reacts to feedback quickly. We always feel confident that we know what’s going on when talking to her. Merge Development coordinates the project through Slack, and we occasionally share Notion documents. We also have weekly check-ins with the team through Zoom. 

The only complication we’ve had has been our different time zones. We’ve often had to wait for an overnight turnaround because the team is asleep when we’re awake. As a result, iteration times sometimes take longer than we’d ideally like. However, most of that is because of time zone issues and not their responsiveness. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Merge Development’s flexibility is really valuable for an early-stage company like us. Some vendors do good work but want to scope the whole project before committing to anything. When we started working with Merge Development, we didn’t know what we needed yet, and they were flexible. 

The team is used to working with startups, so they’re willing to get started and work with us until we get to what we’re looking for. We appreciate having a partner that knows our world and is willing to have an open-ended engagement. If we change our minds two weeks into a project because our priorities shift, Merge Development is completely okay with that and changes their priorities, too. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be a little more engaged in asynchronous communication. There have been times when issues come up, and we don’t realize we’re out of alignment until our weekly meeting through Zoom. We sometimes Slack them, but they don’t reply consistently enough. If we relied less on face-to-face work on Zoom and talked to each other offline, we could react to miscommunication quicker, and we would both save time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re an early startup, I highly encourage you to work with Merge Development. My advice is to put as much in your specification early on. Although Merge Development is willing to start working with a limited spec, that might sometimes mean they make something that isn’t quite right if you haven’t given them enough information yet. You’ll save them and yourself some time if you put more work upfront into your requirements. 

The team is good at turning around work quickly, meaning you get a great project in a week instead of four weeks. However, if you’re a US client, they won’t be as good at adjusting in six hours due to the time difference. We sync with them less often than with other vendors, so if you need a lot of adjustments, it’s challenging to work that way with them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and Co-Founder of Block Earner, a next generation Fintech that makes DeFi accessible to the masses.

For what projects/services did your company hire Merge Development?

We started working with Merge Development at the redesign stage. They were given a new brand identity and completely redesigned the application based on the new brand. So they made a mobile application design and development, as well as web design. Their team was also involved in the work on marketing design.

How did you select this vendor?

We've been working with Merge on other projects before and have been satisfied with their approach to design and development so far. So we picked them for this project as well.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

There are several parts of the project that Merge has been helping us with. They designed a web app, they also designed and developed a mobile app as well. Other than that they have been working on some of the marketing collaterals as well.

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

A design team, Head of Design and mobile developers

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

The design is now implemented, but we are still working on some parts of the project.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was effective, all the deadlines were met. We were always informed regarding the stage of the project.

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

We find their approach to working processes, design, and development very satisfying and that usually only top agencies can provide.

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

UI/UX design and implementation of UI/UX on the actual mobile app were a bit off, they can improve internal communication between their design team and developer teams.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Product Owner in Brytlyt - company providing the fastest in the world GPU accelerated database (brytlytDB), together with BI platform for visualizing the data (SpotLyt) and deep learning available from the SQL (BrytMind). All of our products are connected together in the serverless platform - brytlyt.io.

For what projects/services did your company hire Merge Development?

We have hired Merge for designing user interface of SpotLyt, our data visualization platform running on top of GPU accelerated brytlytDB.

How did you select this vendor?

We googled several UX companies and decided to go with Merge short trial period when they proved their skills.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The biggest challenge in the project was to make user interface intuitive, and at the same time providing outstanding aesthetics. SpotLyt project can be split into 3 phases:

1. Designing basic components
2. Designing charts editor
3. Designing charts as they will render in our BI platform Phase 2 and 3 are obviously the most challenging, as it requires some in deep understanding of the platform. Merge did a great job in this area.

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

We introduced the project to the CEO of Merge, who has build a team of designer and frontend developer (working on components). What is great that we've been working with the same designer for a while, which is crucial for the stability of the project.

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

Project is still ongoing, but our entire platform has been designed by Merge and we are extremely pleased with the outcome.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We decided to go for the 2 Zoom meeting a week, and teams + mail communication on top. Merge is always responsive.

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

Their high responsiveness and outstanding aesthetics of their work are impressive.

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

Nothing comes to my mind.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a logistical SaaS company in Rotterdam focusing on the last-mile industry. The solution is creating huge savings and transparency for the e-commerce world.

For what projects/services did your company hire Merge Development?

We wanted to bring our solution to the next level by improving the UX/UI and branding of our solution. We hired Merge to take care of our look and feel, UX/UI and are now hiring them on a weekly basis for extra features, new projects and the like.

How did you select this vendor?

We were looking for a partner that was reliable, had experience in SaaS and was able to commit on a short notice. Merge Development was exactly that.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We shared very limited information due to the confidential nature of our software. Additionally, as we were just start-ing out as a start-up we had very little information at hand to share. With the very limited information, Merge was able to provide at a very fast pace mock-ups.

The mock-ups were amazing and from there the complete tooling got designed and delivered by Merge. With each phase of the project they are delivering the near perfect outcome in one-go, which saves us a lot of time in iterations.

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

My team worked directly with the UX/UI designers, the CEO and developers.

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

We have developed all the projects that Merge has delivered and our current clients are extremely pleased with the final result. We drastically lowered our churn rate by 90%.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication between both parties was extremely efficient and effective. With just a few calls for each project, Merge is able to deliver the needed result. Additionally, they keep all stake holders updated frequently on the current progress. Finally, they are always on time and never miss a deadline.

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

The combination of their UX/UI skills, their fast pace of delivering projects and the limited information needed to deliver.

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

Perhaps a better understanding of how many more projects they can take on simultanously :)

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a company that builds cryptocurrency tax software.

What challenge were you trying to address with Merge Development?

We hired Merge Development to design our tax calculation software.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Merge Development created initial mockups for which our team provided feedback. After changing certain elements of the design, they forwarded the final versions to our engineering team for implementation. They used Figma for the designs. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with six folks in total. 

How did you come to work with Merge Development?

Their CEO was the one who reached out to me. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve paid around $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020, and our partnership is ongoing.

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

The Merge Development team is very good at what they do. It’s why we’ve continued to use their services even after a year. We plan to work with them for the rest of our business’s life. 

How did Merge Development perform from a project management standpoint?

Their ability to communicate, stay within budget, and meet deadlines is very strong. We typically correspond via Slack and video calls. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re just very good designers. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about how you want your product to be built and be prepared to provide feedback to their team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of a smart satellite manufacturer.

What challenge were you trying to address with Merge Development?

We needed a new website to pool in more investors and customers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve initially launched a scoping and discovery phase to highlight our needs, present sample websites, and provide site information to Merge Development’s team. They’ve relied on those to craft the initial design solutions via Figma. Apart from our website's core features and functionalities, Merge Development has devised animations to promote our offerings. They’ve also incorporated a CMS into the website, which enables us to make basic updates and changes on our own.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with between 5–6 resources from their team.

How did you come to work with Merge Development?

I reached out to different teams with our project brief. We ultimately decided to onboard Merge Development because one of our lead investors recommended them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership with Merge Development started in June 2021.

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

We haven’t launched the website yet, so there are no quantifiable metrics to share at this point. From our perspective, Merge Development has built a rave-worthy and functional platform that meets our quality and animation requirements. We’ve given them concrete feedback, and they’ve taken that into account to ensure the website’s efficacy and user-friendliness.

How did Merge Development perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via Google Hangouts. Merge Development is a solution-oriented partner that effectively addresses our queries and concerns.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re most impressed with their wide area of expertise — while most development agencies focus on just UI/UX design and development, Merge Development also offers animation and production services on top of their core offerings.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can strengthen their testing skills — performing fewer bug fixes will help us save time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be keen on giving specific feedback to help them work towards meeting your exact goals.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the VP of marketing for a data company. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Merge Development?

We hired Merge Development to help us design part of the platform we’re building. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Merge Development created the starting point for our MVP — they served as the design team in our larger platform development project. We had already completed a rebrand with another agency, and Merge Development’s team was able to come in and use it as a baseline to design from. We also provided Merge Development with user experience, onboarding, and optimization requirements. Using all of those materials, Merge Development completed several iterations of the UX/UI design in Figma for our mobile and web applications. 

We initially only hired Merge Development for product design, but later expanded the team to help us further our brand. Merge Development provided us with some animations and illustrations for our website. They also designed social media posts to add to our marketing efforts. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with six teammates, and Pavel (CEO) was my main point of contact. 

How did you come to work with Merge Development?

I was referred to Merge Development by someone I know. We ultimately hired Merge Development because they were able to scale up with us quickly and provide access to a variety of resources for a reasonable price. We were moving very quickly in our platform development and could integrate into our team and keep pace with us. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $100,000–$200,000 with Merge Development. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Merge Development from October–December 2021.  

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

Our platform is still in the beta version, so I don’t have any specific metrics. However, Merge Development’s testing and iterating helped us get to a solid spot in our development process — we’ll push out our MVP very soon. 

How did Merge Development perform from a project management standpoint?

Merge Development was great at project management — they were super responsive and kept track of what needed to be done. We had daily calls with Merge Development over Zoom and usually communicated via Slack and email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Merge Development provided resources we could scale up and down for an affordable price. Merge Development quickly became an extension of our internal team — they were exactly what we needed as a startup.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There wasn’t anything for them to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise clients to work closely with Pavel to ensure the right teammates are working with them — develop an understanding of the resources they have available. They have a network of teammates with different skill sets, which is very valuable for clients. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and Co-founder of Evello. Evello is a no-code revenue management platform.

For what projects/services did your company hire Merge Development?

We are a startup and hired Merge to design our UI, website, and marketing material.

How did you selectMerge Development and what were the deciding factors?

I've worked with many designers in the past and I was in need of a new designer that fit my style. We chose them because of their affordable price, design skill, and design style. They have a very clean design.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We first had a series of discovery meetings to discuss our goals. We then gave them a Pinterest board with UI inspiration. We then gave them our product requirement documents and they grabbed the idea and ran with it. They created the UX, UI, and design library.

How many resources from the Merge Development team worked with you, and what were their positions?

In total, we worked with 6 people. UX and design positions.

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

We're a startup that is just launching so we don't have any other KPIs to point to except for the feedback from our advisors and prospective clients. Everyone shares the beauty of the platform.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow is outstanding. We communicate via a modern communication stack: Figma, Slack, Zoom

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

Design is a very personal thing. Merge's style fits my personal style exactly. I don't have to communicate the idea over and over again to the team, they just instinctually get it. They also specialize in SaaS platforms so they are easy to talk to. Their designs speak for themselves.

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

Not that I can think of.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the COO of Cloud Computing & Software Development Company, based in Cyprus.

For what projects/services did your company hire Merge Development?

We hired Merge to make the desing and development of our hosting managment platform.

How did you select this vendor?

They reach out to us, showed some of their expertise in designing and developing products similar to ours.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The project was quite complex. But with their professionality and hard work they managed to complete all the stages without any problems.

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

Design Team with a design lead and also a couple front-end developers.

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

The project was evaluated for big sofware companies, and was considered as a next generation hi-end SaaS.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Merge team was very easy to work with this project. The communication as well as the managment were very professional. The meeting, the feedback sessions were always productive.

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

The fact that they do really a world-class design for a very reasonable cost is quite impressive.And the fact that all the aspects of the project, starting from UX Research and ending with website improvements we done very well.

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

Nothing more to share here. They understood the projects goals and did a really great job.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a company developing a food order application & payment plattform

For what projects/services did your company hire Merge Development?

Our current design was mostly from templates or not keeping up with the quality we wished for. For this we contacted Merge Development to help us up the UI/UX of our product.

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

I stumbled across their design online in different platforms and i enjoyed their way of designing & bringing the product to life.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

After going through their portfolio we had a set-up call with Merge Developments respective people. We had a great feeling about them and I decided to ask them for the first task which was a 3 week long task. This was supposed to be it, at least for the first phase. But we really enjoyed the changes they made for our platform so we came back with even more tasks and it is still ongoing.

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

We have had two point of contacts with at least one designer always available for our needs.

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

Both me and our investors have been really happy with the work they provided. During exhibition of the product we received a lots of great feedback from potential clients about the simpleness and great User Experience the application provides.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective actually. What i enjoy the most is their flexibility and readiness. If i have a task today, they quickly set up a call or understand by just me commenting our needs and they get quickly on to working with it.

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

3 things:

1. They have a great sense for quality. I am a very picky when it comes to the UI/UX of our product as the UI/UX is of one of our products unique value propositions yet I have very rarely found myself having to ask them to redo parts, although they would be happy to do it, as they get it right immediately.
2. Easy & flexible communication. They are always ready and there with available high-quality designers when we need which is very much appreciated.
3. Their staff ask questions & show great care for the project and understanding the project. They give tips & advices and are not afraid to challenge your initial ideas for the greater good of the project which is something we highly appreciate.

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

So far, there is nothing to point out. We have had a good experience in all regards.