Metacarbon

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the co-founder of Koia, an app to open up access to alternative assets (https://joinkoia.com). We enable anyone to buy fractions of assets such as fine wine, luxury watches and Pokémon Cards starting from just $50.

For what projects/services did your company hire Metacarbon?

Re-design of the mobile app

How did you select Metacarbon?

We searched online, but Metacarbon reached out on LinkedIn and we selected them based on their strong portfolio

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

Team clearly walked us through all the steps of the process and timelines. We then started with audit of the existing apps and suggestions for improvements in terms of UX / UI. Then started the re-designs which was an iterative process where we chatted every day for feedback. The last phase was putting together an extensive style guide and UI kit for developers to use and for internal designers to build on

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

Mostly with their product designer

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

They've finished the project in time, and we're happy with the results, and the deliverables have come in as expected New app screen designs + extensive UI kit.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very good communication on Slack and Google Meet, we didn't encounter any issues.

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

Good client relationship management and communication; we're very happy with the final designs and the team just has a great eye for design. It was also nice that the team members had an interest in and some experience either professionally or just as users with investment and trading apps as it helped build a better product.

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

Nothing in particular

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of a startup. We’re a team of 15 people located across the world, but our company is based in Germany. We’re currently building a headless content management platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Metacarbon?

We started out as an agency and then we wanted to develop the product that we’re working on right now. As a result, we hired Metacarbon to build our design system and UI since our in-house UI/UX designers are focused on our agency projects.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We already have 2,000 customers for our B2B product and our product's version two will have Metacarbon’s design. From creating our wireframes on Figma, their head of design is now finishing the second version of our product's design.

What is the team composition?

We work with Max (Founding Partner & Head of Design) who is their art director and Ivan (Product Designer) who is our regular designer.

How did you come to work with Metacarbon?

We felt pretty lucky that Metacarbon approached us on LinkedIn. We saw that they were a good fit for us so we worked with them.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent $43,200, and we spend $7,200 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in June 2021, and it’s ongoing. They have been working on this project for about six months, and we have no end date for this project yet.

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

From what I see, Metacarbon’s work is top-notch and everything's on point. Max is very talented, and he easily understood the concept of what we’re doing.

How did Metacarbon perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management process has been perfect, and they’ve met all of our deadlines. We use Slack and phone calls to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Max understands our product and is capable of executing what we need. He’s a skilled guy, which allows him to quickly turn over our required outputs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Max did the major part of the wireframing efforts, and Ivan also caught up pretty quickly and is doing a great job in assisting Max. Ivan is a really good designer, but not as skilled as Max. However, that’s only because Ivan is not the art director. Despite that, everything’s fine and I don’t think they can improve anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We told Metacarbon what we needed, and they’ve guided us through everything. We’ve also worked with a lot of other freelancers, but our experience with Metacarbon has been exceptional. If you have the opportunity to hire them, that’ll be perfect.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CTO & Lead Software Engineer @ Zen Walk. ZenWalk is a product company on a mission to engage low-active people into physical activities while making fitness walking more meaningful.

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

Metacarbon team helped us with MVP scoping, figuring out some major product strategy streams to focus on and then delivered the UI/UX design for the mobile app, along with the progressive design system we are currently using with our in-house team. Primary goal was to move from white paper stage to the clickable prototype. We needed to pack all the ideas and added value functionality into a laconic and intuitive product experience.

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

We had been working with the co-founders even before they launched Metacarbon, so when we needed the product design team again they were the obvious go-to destination for us.

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

ZenWalk gamifies your walking activities and therefore brings you everyday motivation to go for a fitness walk. At the very beginning we had well-prepared gamification scenarios, motivation system, achievements system, ideas on meditation functionality and much more, but haven’t had a clear vision on how we could pack it all together into the natural mobile experience.

Metacarbon proposed to start with the discovery phase which included the user interviews, product architecture workshop, user flows design and then the navigation wireframing to settle up some core UX framework. Afterwards, the guys have covered the wireframes for the whole product.

We had a bunch of iterations there until we found the right solutions for all the details and the guys were pretty responsive and open-minded even despite a lot of comments and high-level suggestions from us. Then, we had the UI concept stage where Max (the Design Director) suggested a few different stylistic options to pick from.

One week was spent on tweaking the option we liked most and then we had the user testing session with 5 people they managed to invite. Once the UI concept was finalized and tweaked after the user interviews, we jumped into covering all the screens and flows with the final design based on the wireframes and the UI concept.

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

We had been working directly with Max, one of the co-founders of Metacarbon and one more product designer.

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

The main outcome we have is the progress from the concept white paper stage to the launched MVP product. Most of the users really adore the user interface of the app, so we are pretty sure we did a great job at picking the right design vendor.

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

Very good. The roadmap timeline was updated several times due to the additional complexity we faced, but that is the normal thing. The team is really responsive and agile and it looks like everyone really loves what they do. That is the perfect setup for a good quality.

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

The team is very proficient in structuring a lot of very raw information and building up some workable system to work with. It is crucially helpful at the early stages and we found it as a good bonus and additional value to the typical UI/UX services most companies offer.

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

Would be great if we could have on-site cooperation with them within the discovery phase, but Covid made it impossible.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO at Devlight, a product development house with a deep expertise in mobile app development and product strategy for startups and enterprises.

For what projects/services did your company hire Metacarbon?

We engaged the Metacarbon team in one of our client projects in the fintech industry. Metacarbon’s responsibility was product design and prototyping of the app MVP as well as some product strategy consultancy at the very beginning of the cooperation.

How did you select this vendor?

We know them for a couple of pretty successful projects in the area of fintech apps design

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

The app itself is a combination of new generation mobile banking and utility services marketplace. When we started, the client already had been providing the utility management services and decided to come up with a 360 mobile solution with a strong emphasis on providing financial services in the same app.

As soon as the client’s team needed support in product strategy, we engaged Metacarbon into the product ideation sessions from day one. Afterwards, the wireframing phase started, however Metacarbon guys also took part in the requirements documentation and user stories development. The wireframing session was iterative, and the Metacarbon team showed a fantastic flexibility and readiness to iterate as much as was needed.

Once the wireframes were approved, Metacarbon prepared the clickable prototype for the client's demo. The final phase was the UI concept development where we got 5 different options of how the potential UI could look like.

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

We had been working with Roman, Metacarbon’s founder and Oleh, the lead designer

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

Would be happy once the official release date comes!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Metacarbon is a really proactive team that perfectly drives the cooperation in typical startup uncertainty context. Roman has collaborated really well within all the onsite discovery activities with the client and Oleh has shown himself as a very experienced product designer with a perfect sense of user needs and style. Communication was great and smooth, no gaps, no delays.

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

Direct involvement of the company founders into the cooperation as well as a great and tested product design process approach from 0 to MVP. Very responsive and has great presentation skills. We feel they are relaxed and committed at the same time, which is really good.

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

The guys were really great and In this particular case, I have no suggestions.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder of Noah Media in London.

For what projects/services did your company hire Metacarbon?

We needed a great and flexible design team to work on the redesign of our mobile app and the design of our landing page and web application.

How did you select this vendor?

We interviewed 10 Design Studios in Europe and the US in all prices ranges. We did three, sometimes four rounds of interviews and selected Metacarbon, because we felt they are the best fit for us as a start-up. We did 3 background checks on them before we made our decision and everyone was very positive about Metacarbon. So we made our decision and so far have not been disappointed.

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

We had a very clear vision of our product, because we already built prototypes and had done a lot of user testing. We gave them all the info we had in several calls and through a shared product page on Notion. They then designed with us live on Figma and we discussed matters immediately. The flexibility and the process we used are what make the implementation extremely fast and joyful.

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

We worked with two founders and one of their lead designers. Their Lead designer did all the designs and from our side it was our founding team. Their founders got involved when we hit a design roadblock and needed some fresh ideas.

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

So far we are extremely pleased with the sheer speed and quality delivered. These designs will serve as the backbone of our product for the next months and hopefully years to come.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was seamless. We used Figma and it was as if we sat in the same room.

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

Their speed and the quality of the output is impressive, while maintaining extreme flexibility in working hours and responsiveness is impressive. It was like we hired a full-time team that was sitting in our office.

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

So far we have not had an issue that we could not solve together.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and co-founder of Glorify, My role is really team wide with a focus on product and company vision.

For what projects/services did your company hire Saga Design Team?

We hired Saga Design Team as a key design fiduciary in our very ambitious SaaS-based design tool called Glorify. Their role covers the entire UI/UX process. - Scalable UI design system - Design system translated into our UI for our entire platform - UX Strategy - Prototyping

What were your goals for this project?

The overall goal was to find a team that we could offload our entire vision for our product and 100% rely on them to execute an entire UI system with complete user flows and no stone un-turned, super fast and collaboratively with us. We were lucky to find Saga as it's so refreshing to see people that care about the details as the product owner and primary stakeholders of the company would. Goal 1 - Fix our Design System and make it Scalable Goal 2 - UX Strategy for new features Goal 3 - Executing the design and prototype

How did you select Saga Design Team?

We put the word out on different channels that we were hiring, and they approached us via email. I reviewed their portfolio and deck and scheduled the first meeting.

Describe the project in detail.

Here are the Goals broken down in more detail. First goal, Fix our Design System and make it Scalable. I wanted someone to fix the spaghetti like mess left by our previous designer, who was great at conceptualising, but terrible at organising a scalable UI structure for an ambitious and growing company like ours. UI design systems must be bulletproof for current and future goals and should be easily changed globally across all our screens from a single source of truth. This goal was overdelivered and we now have a robust design system that can live for years to come.

Second goal, X Strategy for new features Entails bringing strategic UX and business analyst thinking with us in live meetings and align with our product vision so we can brain dump ideas and organize them for execution. Third goal, Executing the design and prototype Turning strategy, discussions, and backlogs into live design. We work with them during iteration process until we come to a final version. This live version will sometimes be produced into a live prototype that we can use to run tests with our users.

What was the team composition?

Max - Creative Director Roman - Project Manager Oleh - Senior Designer

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

The biggest outcome as mentioned is the fact we have a super bullet proof, super robust design system. The success that is has brought us is the following. We will never have to worry about design inconsistencies through our entire application ever. Changing 1 thing, like a color or button shape is going to take seconds. 

Design to Developer Handoff is seamless and easy, no more crazy documentation as all the states and interactions are done. UI design done with solid UX philosophy and 10x faster Overall this has allowed us to consider faster development sprints as new features are designed much quicker by Saga, and peace of mind knowing our design files are super organized and accessible.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Smooth, smooth, smooth. Everyday I login in to Slack, they drop their goals. I then see them live working away on the Figma files. End of the day they always drop an update. Any comment and feedback I drop is replied to almost instantly, and with a lot of thought. I love engaging in deep UX discussions with them before we settle on a solution.

They are super humble and give us space to articulate our thinking and consider the direction we propose but at the same time they are always ready to challenge our thought process to keep us on our toes and keep us open to consider other options too. This culture of discussion and transparency is very much built into our workflow.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I am very impressed with the level of work ethic and authenticity they have. This is hard to find in the UI/UX tech space as there are many early "experts" in this field that have faked their way through. They are hard working, never egotistical, they give accurate timelines (super refreshing in this space), they are honest and transparent and their communication is second to none.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I honestly can't think of any at all.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CTO at Plaace. We make a data-driven platform that finds the optimal match between tenants and property owners.

What challenge were you trying to address with Saga Design Team?

Figuring out how we could start building a technical platform to help property owners of commercial property in finding and matching with the right tenant using a data-driven process.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us with making prototypes and talking with the property owners. Then, we tested out the design with them in several iterations. They made a final design for the whole MVP we’re building.

They were involved quite early on. We had verified with the property owners and tenants their interest in increasing the data-driven process and having a two-sided market platform. Sage Design Team helped in the beginning of that process where we talked with property owners and tenants. We had workshops with them and they were interviewing directly one-to-one. They were trying to understand the problem in their everyday life and how we could simplify that. We continue to work with them on new engagements.

What is the team composition?

I originally worked with Roman (Head of Strategy) and Max (Head of Design). We also started working with Daniil (Designer), who is helping with UX and design.

How did you come to work with Saga Design Team?

We did a sourcing process where we were looking at some different design companies. Saga Design Team was recommended by people I know who were using them. We gave them some initial tasks to see how they’d solve the case and they came back with what kind of process they’d use, this helped them stand out compared to their competitors. They had a really good understanding of the market and put more effort in than their competitors did.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $25,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2020 and the work is ongoing.

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

They’re really good at catching what we need. They’re also good at engaging our customers and coming up with design proposals to solve their issues. They’re super good. I’m really impressed with what they’ve done. They really understand what’s needed.

How did Saga Design Team perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is good. They keep deadlines when we have them. The project manager follows up with us. We use Slack and have video meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They manage to take something complex and present it in a simplified way that’s well understood by users.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re really good on the UX side. When it comes to design, they come with different examples and we test it out with friends and partners. We don’t always like all of the designs but we always end up finding the right option.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re really brilliant with product design. You should focus on involving your partners in the design process as well.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a company that works with dental offices to provide them with all their necessary supplies to operate their business.

For what projects/services did your company hire Saga - Experience Design Boutique?

The entire dental industry supply chain and purchasing are very outdated, so we wanted to give it an upgrade while changing the underlying business model.

What were your goals for this project?

We were interested in working with a team who can lead us through the product design and understand our business so well that we could trust them to give us product ideas.

How did you select this vendor?

We vetted over 25 different firms and most seem to want to get us the quote and move forward. Saga took the time to really understand our problems, discuss it with various people that knew the industry well then come to us with solutions as to how to best approach. I really appreciated the time they put in to understand what we do and how to best solve it.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we got started, we had a discovery phase that enables us to dive deep into the problem and come up with the best strategy. From there Saga designed the UX for Desktop while looping us in daily about updates. Simultaneously, they were helping us design product packaging for our supplies.

After the UX Desktop phase, they continued to design for all screen sizes. Once it was done, we received the final product which included UX/UI Kit, Brand Book, a Digital Catalog, and our Product Packaging.

What was the team composition?

We worked with the two founders and an additional senior designer.

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

We have been able to develop our online product and all of our supplies.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was amazing. We trusted them to lead the way, and they trusted us to leave feedback in a timely manner so that the project doesn't fall behind.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Absolutely blown away by their problem-solving skills, communication speed, agility to change the direction of the project, and the overall project result.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Although Saga made efforts to overlap as much time as possible with us (given that we were in different timezones), we only had a few hours a day to chat.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Gigmit is a platform that helps music artists be present where organizers and labels are looking for acts. I’m the product manager here, leading all the product efforts and continuous features development.

For what projects/services did your company hire Saga - Experience Design Boutique?

We were planning to develop new Artist Search functionality with some updated data visualization approaches and to update the general UI a little bit. Saga team covered the UX strategy and UI design for this product stream.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to come up with the well crafted UI and native UX, while not stepping too far aside the existing style. Also, some new product ideas within Artist Search were welcome too.

How did you select this vendor?

We have reviewed several applications from different companies and freelancers. Saga team decided to come up with a clickable prototype showcasing their ideas in advance and that was exactly what we were looking for.

Describe the project in detail.

We have started from the rapid prototype that was created in order to narrow down all the good ideas and understand scope better. Then, started to cover all the user stories we needed with the high fidelity wireframes. After that, we had several iterations and came up with the very first UI concept. Several iterations there as well and then the team just kept delivering the designs for all flows and screens we needed. In the end, Saga delivered the UI kit (design library) in order to keep the design language consistent.

What was the team composition?

We had Roman (Product Strategy and Communication), Max (Design Director) and Tania (Product Designer).

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

We have just started developing this functionality, but I think we will have something to show quite soon!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was quite dynamic and the team was really responsive. The timeline was met without any significant delays. We have mostly collaborated in the Figma file, leaving comments and discussing latest updates. When needed, we had sync meetings and standups to discuss more complex things.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

First of all, their responsiveness, quality of work, and transparent and fast communication were most impressive. We had been working mostly with freelancers before, and sometimes it was quite hard to manage them. Saga delivered in time, responded honestly and fast, and managed themselves on a good level.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Hard to say. Maybe it would be interesting to see a few more UI concept variations, just for a little bit wider picture. However, we are really happy with the quality of work and would definitely recommend these guys to other product teams.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Bookis is a social marketplace for new and used books. Founded in Aug 2016. We enable our users to ship books directly from their homes via pickup from people's doormats (literally). Currently in Norway and Sweden. I am the co-founder and CEO of the company.

For what projects/services did your company hire Saga - Experience Design Boutique?

Our mobile app (v.1) was scheduled for a refactor with React Native and a redesign. Up until Nov 2019, most design work had been performed in-house. Now was the time to get some talent to put their touch on it.

What were your goals for this project?

Objective: Redesign all screens of the current mobile app. • App should be more feminine (but not girly), fun/playful, spacious & modern. Target audience females 20-35y We expanded on the scope of the project after successful completion of the mobile app objective by adding a redesign of our current web app.

How did you select this vendor?

We defined selection criteria, process and posted a job on Upwork. After getting proposal submissions we started interviewing potential talent, and also contacted a few agencies with proven track record. Saga went above and beyond the process, and cleverly contacted me via Linkedin with their personal touch. Based on our selection criteria, we were left with two very talented agencies to choose from. The scale tipped in Saga's favor because of: 1) Quality of design concepts 2) Design system know-how 3) Professional process and high-Q presentation materials 4) Chemistry with team (key point: ACTUAL team, not just sellers) 5) Alignment/Understanding of our business and goals 6) Sensible price and estimates

Describe the project in detail.

First weeks was discovery. A lot of iterations of key screens to get to a final UX concept/design system. After this we worked flow-by-flow to finish the key screens based on the new concept. Effective coordination with designer and our product owner via Figma comments and longer conversations in Slack/video calls.

What was the team composition?

Max: UX designer Roman: Project manager

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

The project has been very successful so far. We don't have any product metrics to support this yet, as the product is still in development. My measure of success is judged based on our objective and goals for the collaboration. We have successfully redesigned the mobile app, with a design concept that encapsulates the personality traits we set as criteria. As the partnership has progressed, we have broadened the scope of Saga's services to also include our web app. It is progressing in a similar manner - looks great, and the quality of work is pristine.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very effective. As I am the former UX designer of the product, it was a natural to communicate directly with Max, UX designer, from Saga. We have an effective iterative workflow with frequent syncs and discussions (when needed). Max is skilled and confident about his work. We have come to know each other well through this project, and that eases the coordination and I think we have clear expectations. Roman keeps track of our milestones and project goals, and does a great job with that. He is also making himself available for workshops around product development, which we also highly appreciate.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Very seldom do I find that my expectations about talent is exceeded, because I keep a high bar. In my experience, most of the time expectations are not even met. But Saga has successfully blown the bar! Max is an extreme UX design talent. You don't find this kind of talent these days. There is a jungle of mediocracy to navigate (and fend off) before finding the needle in the hay stack. His level (and diversity) of design skill, effectiveness, communication/collaboration skill, smooth developer hand-off, and a pleasant personality. Hands down best designer we have worked with. We haven't had the chance to work closely with Roman, but the few sessions we have had has been great. He keeps the project running smoothly and effectively. No unnecessary meetings or sync-ups.

Are there any areas for improvement?

For Saga: Not at this time. For the workflow: As a product owner, I could have been more attentive to their calls for review and feedback. But as a founder/CEO, CFO, CPO and HR-manager, there is limited time in my schedule. In other words, I am the bottleneck most of the time.