NOVVUM

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a cofounder of JAXXON (jaxxon.com) a luxury jewelry brand primarily for men.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired NOVVUM, led by Trevor Heath, to turn our website into a customizable, controllable rocket-ship.

SOLUTION

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

Their pristine reputation, consistent of their customer care and work-ethic made it an easy decision.

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

Trevor and his team led us down a path of a headless website, taking us out of a soon-to-be archaic, one-platform Shopify website and into a world of customizable, multi-tool performance. They held our hand through a complex process and performed daily. We went from a single platform that held our checkout, customer info imagery, content, data, into, essentially a custom car, with the best kind of engine, best kind of tires, best kind of body kit, if you will. What I mean to say is, they enabled us to use best in class tools, from hosting, to content management and deployment, to Google Sheet data hosting.

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

Trevor, lead developer, brought an account manager, junior developer, and C-level oversight to our project, in essence a full 360 approach to the project that let us feel at ease.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our conversion rate, or in my eyes the most impactful, trackable metric in terms of site performance, has gone from a 1% to 2% which I suspect is most impacted by Novvum's work to our store. There are many other metrics including bounce rate, time on page, and ability to see the customers journey, that were positively impacted.

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

We were led through a smooth process without communicative barriers.

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

Their ability to act as a team, with a unique and precious skill set. They understand our minds from a creative and marketing perspective.

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

I don't believe so.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CTO of HyreCar, a car sharing platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with NOVVUM?

When our company transitioned from a full offshore team to a fully onshore partnership, we didn’t have the internal resources to renovate our legacy platform. We hired NOVVUM to convert our legacy system and build a new code base.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

NOVVUM spoke with our customers to identify missing pieces on the frontend. The team aimed to adjust the user experience and upgrade backend functionalities from scratch. They then developed a custom backend on GraphQL and admin screen, which we used to manage customers alongside a third-party CRM. The team used React for the frontend and then migrated all data on to the new system.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people including the project manager.

How did you come to work with NOVVUM?

We considered multiple vendors, but NOVVUM stood out. The team understood our business needs as a startup. They also possessed an impressive degree of technical knowledge.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2017 and the partnership ended in December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

NOVVUM eliminated nearly all the outages we experienced on the legacy system. Downtime is now almost nonexistent. We also received positive feedback from users and internal stakeholders.

How did NOVVUM perform from a project management standpoint?

Rather than jumping in blind, NOVVUM dedicated time to learn about our business. This strategy enhanced the team’s performance.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have worked with a few agencies, but none has cared about the customer as much as NOVVUM. The team successfully took on challenges that our business team hadn’t initially thought through because they understood the nature of our product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

NOVVUM is a small team that uses cutting-edge technology. They are up to speed on the latest trends in mobile development.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is an early stage software as a service platform focused on food and beverage incentives for salespeople. I’m the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Novvum?

I needed a vendor to develop an MVP [minimum viable product] launch of my platform so that I could grow the idea and turn it into a successful business venture.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was 99% development. There was a small amount of design work that we paid for, but mostly it was development. We’re using Algolia, Zapier, and GraphQL. Those are the types of services that we are using in the backend. We’re building a top, next generation web services to bring it to market as cheaply as we can.

How did you come to work with Novvum?

I met them at a co-working space, and we talked. I got competitive bids from a more standard app development company and talked to them too, so I didn’t go in totally blind. But as far as how I met them, it was a handshake, and then I went and did a little bit of research to see, from a cost standpoint, how they’d fit in.

How much have you invested with Novvum?

We’ve spent about $50,000 with Novvum.

What is the status of this engagement?

The timeline is roughly 6 months. They’re no longer the lead, but we’re still working on a piecemeal basis with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

It’s early days so not really.

What did you most impressive about Novvum?

What is unique about them is they are very good at taking a concept that is not fully hashed out. They’re very good at taking an idea and bringing that idea to something that’s real and that I can actually touch. I think Novvum has done a good job on that. That’s what I think their skill set is.

Are there any areas Novvum could improve?

I would be more critical to them than it’s fair for review because, in general, I think they have done a very fantastic job. It’s my nature to nitpick on that type of stuff. If I had to give them one high-level piece of advice, they are very good developers, but when a business is coming to them, part of what they are looking for is making sure you are comfortable with the people you’re working with. Part of that is having proper management in place. I’m not sure how to say that without coming off overly critical. I think they have done a nice job as far as being the young, entrepreneurial type of people, but I do think they need to shore up the project management side of their business.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Novvum?

Put some time into a well-crafted project brief.