Parkside Interactive

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and one of the founders of Leftshift One, an Austrian high-tech company in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). We are developing the “Artificial Intelligence Operating System by Leftshift One” – an operating environment for AI.

The AIOS functions both as a toolbox for a variety of AI skills, as well as a foundation for creating and running tailor-made AI products with those, AI skills.

For what projects/services did your company hire Parkside Interactive?

We hired Parkside to challenge the existing UX of our AIOS and to come up with a radical new UX based on our user personas.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to enable different types of users (not only power-tech users) to use AI.

How did you select Parkside Interactive?

We already worked together with Parkside on client projects and saw their expertise in UX in real life. Once we came up with the idea of improving the UX for our own product, there was no doubt that we would hire Parkside to do that.

The key factor was Parkside’s plan to include various engineers on their end so that both UX designers and potential end-users worked together on the UX design.

Describe the project in detail.

The project started with a UX expert review by their Principal UX Designer, evaluating the existing platform based on common usability heuristics (Heuristic evaluation according to Nielsen, evaluation according to aspects of Cognitive Load Theory, etc.).

The expert review was based on the personas we defined ourselves. Parkside’s UX Experts soon realized that a redesign of the platform would be more beneficial to our goals. So we decided to change the scope of the project. From that point on, they started working on wireframes for the new platform.

They used Sketch, a prototyping software for interface and UX design, to create the wireframes. The design was improved in short, iterative steps, with regular meetings and feedback sessions with us. In the next phase, designers presented created wireframes to us via InVision and asked for our feedback.

The wireframes were also evaluated in occasional usability tests based on engineers’ feedback. The final result was a clickable prototype based on grayscale wireframes. In that way, we were able to test the interaction behavior of the platform and the most critical use cases.

What was the team composition?

2 UX Designers 1 Project Manager

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

I am extremely happy with the new UX since it enables Software Engineers, Data Scientists, and Business Analysts to work with AI. Previously we did not have this experience.

Based on an increased conversion rate of leads to new customers and meetings with potential customers we already see that it is now much easier to work with our AIOS.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

This collaboration was done in an agile way. We defined milestones and had short feedback cycles. We were in contact with Parkside’s project manager at least once per week to stay up to date with the current project status, the remaining budget, and the next steps and milestones.

Due to a limited budget and limited time it was crucial to make sure we were on the same page all the time. For communication, we used email and Microsoft Teams but we also communicated directly in personal meetings and calls.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Parkside’s flexibility in terms of needed resources and timeline was a huge benefit for us. We also appreciate the open and frequent discussions with their UX designers and the team very much.

Regular and effective communication with Parkside and their flexibility are one of the reasons why the received wireframes were of high quality and timely delivered.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Even though the feedback process via InVision worked well, it could be optimized in the future in certain aspects. Also, the form of the handover of the final wireframes could have been clarified earlier. An interim confusion about the predicted remaining budget was clarified quickly.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Managing Director and Head of R&D at a market leading company in Aviation. We work with airports and airlines to solve operational bottlenecks from approach to departure.

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

In a short period of time, we had to implement a web frontend of our existing FAT client (C++, QT). Since we had no dedicated expertise in web technologies we were looking for a partner for defining a web tech-stack and for implementing an MVP. The goal was to replace an outdated HMI (Human Machine Interface) solution with a modern web-based architecture which is both technologically future-proof and fulfills the latest UX and UI design standards.

How did you select Parkside Interactive and what were the deciding factors?

We were looking for a local partner, having a cross functional team, aiming for the implementation of state-of-the-art custom software in high quality, in a short period of time. We were impressed by the experts they added to the project before we officially assigned them. They gained a lot of knowledge about our industry in that early stage. Overall they showed high engagement and proved the expertise and professionalism they promised in the first meetings.

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

The project required design and implementation of a highly available, scalable node.js-based backend as well as an Angular-based frontend capable of rendering large amounts of real-time data. Flexible integration with several proprietary and standardized third-party systems as well as with our core backend was essential to build a reliable and extensible solution for traffic management on large airports.

Parkside provided a large team of experts to take over conception, design and development based on our requirements. In addition, professional support in DevOps and deployment of the application was provided by them.

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

On average 10 people, distributed in the roles:

• Product Owner
• UX/UI Designer
• Principal Software Engineer
• Software Architect
• Frontend Engineer
• Backend Engineer
• DevOps Engineer
• QA Engineer

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

The MVP is ready to be deployed at our customers. It was implemented based on the UX/UI design and the tech-stack we worked on with Parkside. Next to that, a continuous delivery pipeline was implemented so that we are really ready to implement and ship new features very quickly. Parkside also trained our system engineering team to deploy the new product at airports.

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

The project management was done in an agile way, based on Scrum. We had review meetings after each sprint (2 weeks), demonstrating the achievements from the last sprint and also giving the outlook for the coming sprints. Since the core part of the backend functionality was written by our team and the new infrastructure had to run at our end and at the airport, the engineers were in steady exchange.

For coordination, communication and documentation we used Jira, Confluence and Microsoft Teams. Designs and click dummies were provided to us via InVision. In review meetings it was made use of a branch deployment setup. That way we were able to review single new features and provide certain states of the application to our end-customers.

Through the project timeline, there were a lot of changes since the outcome was not fully defined when the project started. Due to that, it was obvious that there will be some kind of delays within the project. Parkside informed us upfront about concerns they have so that we were able to adapt. Thanks to that, our customer received demos and information timely.

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

Parkside Interactive had a very solution-oriented approach all the time during the project. No matter what was needed or which additional role was needed within the project, Parkside was able to come up with a plan to make this project successful. They promised ownership and they really fulfilled that promise.

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

In some moments the relation between costs and progress was not clear for the higher management. I do understand that the project had a high pressure from a timing perspective and many stakeholders were involved which caused many changes on the scope. However I think that could be improved.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO of Supernova Group, which is a leading private real estate company owning 74 assets in Central and South-East Europe. 

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

We wanted to set up a uniform digital platform for our assets in Slovenia and Croatia, in order to offer an online presence for potential customers looking for information about Supernova centers and its stores, and to lead them to our centers offline. The aim behind this was to direct potential customers looking for brands or stores online to our stores offline.

We decided to achieve this by increasing local presence and clear dominance with local visibility. Another requirement was that expansion of the platform as a digital presentation platform should be very simple and quick as soon as a new shopping center is acquired or built. We wanted a common CMS for all Supernova shopping centers, which is filled by the center management together with the local agencies.

How did you select Parkside Interactive and what were the deciding factors?

Prior to this project we were already woking together with Parkside for another one. Approximately one year before the kick-off of Supernova Cross Link, we were setting up the new supernova.at website. Therefore, we decided to work with Parkside as quality, flexibility and reliability are very important attributes for us, which Parkside all provides.

The execution and the result totally met our demands and expectations and, as the cooperation has been very good and we were optimizing our teamwork in efficiency, it was somehow obvious that we will choose Parkside for this huge project Supernova Cross Link again.

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

The project included conception, design and implementation of a multi-domain capable TYPO3 system for the uniform administration of the websites of over 20 shopping centers of the Supernova Group (further expansion to 50 in progress). The increase of visibility and the guiding of online seekers to the offline store was realized via local SEO-optimized websites.

Google was also used with the Indoor Maps feature for route planning within the shopping centers. Parkside took over the entire project management in several phases:

1. Analysis, research & conception UX & UI Design
2. SEO Strategy Infrastructure & Dev Setup
3. Development
4. Roll-Outs Training & Documentation

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

The team included 2 UI designers, 2 project managers (1 for customer communication and 1 for technical aspects), 2 Typo3 developers and 1 key account manager in the introduction phase.

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

Since the first go-lives of the new shopping center pages onto the platform in 2018, we have seen an increase in the number of visitors to those centers who previously became aware of us online. Currently, about one third of the "offline visitors" who were previously triggered online are visiting a Supernova Center. And the trend is rising.

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

The web platform was developed in an agile manner, i.e. planned in sprints and jointly achieved in iterations. Development and design proceeded in parallel. The coordination was mainly done by email and telephone, as the agencies were on site in Croatia.

When starting with our first page supernova-zagreb.hr we were at the Parkside office to get to know the CMS and to train for working with it. This workshop was even recorded in order to be able to refresh the content later.

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

We were already very satisfied with the cooperation and communication during the last project, and due to higher complexity of this project now, we are pleased with the perfect workflows and efficient teamwork. The team was perfectly coordinated and agreed. We want to work with the best partners and have made the right choice with Parkside.

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

Nothing to add.

Please describe your company and your position there.

As a service provider for the areas Network Infrastructure & Security, Communication & Collaboration and Data Center &
Virtualization, we provides intelligent technology solutions and optimises business processes. As a specialist for information technology we implements the requested specifications in a speedy, flexible and uncomplicated manner. The service spectrum reaches from Consulting,
Integration, and Support Services to Managed and Cloud Services. I am the Product Owner for our internal systems, that are monitoring our customer's network infrastructure.

For what projects/services did your company hire Parkside Interactive?

We only have limited know how in UI/UX in regards of software development and that is why the user interface of our internal products provide functionality without much focus on usability. In order to increase the efficiency of our customers working with our software, we hired parkside to identify improvements in regards of UI/UX.

What were your goals for this project?

* Identify usability pain points by doing interviews and observations with the actual users of our software. * Presenting the results and concrete improvement proposal

How did you select this vendor?

Parkside is known for profound know how in UI/UX and software development. And since Parkside is also located in the same area as we it was easy to get in touch.

Describe the project in detail.

We had several meetings at the beginnen to provide Parkside and their team an understanding of the software and who is using it. After that we set the roadmap for the project. We defined how to move along and who should be interviewed and overserved. After the actual interview, Parkside worked out the first draft of paint points and improvements. After several touch points with me as their main contact point, Parkside presented their results on front ob a biggers audience at our site.

What was the team composition?

From out site the following people were somehow involved: * Me as the Product owner * 2 Team leads of our user base * 5 agents/engineers who are the actual users From Parkside: * 1 UI/UX expert as our main contact * 1 Commercial manager

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

We have not implemented the outcome of the project yet.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our communication was very effective. We enabled Parkside to get in contact with our user base without any detours.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Parkside is very professional in every way. And this is what you can see in their presentation. The presentation of the results was on a such a high level and easy to understand, that nobody in the audience at NTS doubted the higher efficiency of our user base with the implemented proposals.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No

Please describe your company and your position there.

Raiffeisen Bank International AG is a leading commercial and investment bank in Austria and Central Eastern Europe (CEE). In CEE, its subsidiaries cover the largest part of the region. 16.7 million customers are serviced through 2,000 business outlets in Corporate, Retail and Investment Banking.

For what projects/services did your company hire Parkside Interactive?

We hired Parkside for software development but also for UX and UI design for MVP retail product.

What were your goals for this project?

The goals were to build an MVP product with the help of which we can validate the business case and problem/solution fit on some specific markets as well as learn more from the customer behavior and value proposition.

How did you select this vendor?

We had several external vendors recommended to us and had meetings with them. Based on initial meetings on scoping and cooperation models, based on our team assessment and decision, we chose Parkside.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Parkside built together with us the front-end (responsive website) and the light back-end logic (admin interface) of the MVP which was deployed successfully using fitting technology.

What was the team composition?

There was - the Business VP (Martin Schlögl) as my main counterpart for overall topics, resources, budgeting and coordination - UX/UI designer for the front-end and design concept as well as usability - Project lead for project management - prioritisation and enablement - 2 Software developers (senior & junior)

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The project showed that an MVP on a highly regulated topic of payments in a short period of time is possible and feasible when partner is the right and commitment on the side of the MVP team is very - and learning curve is accepted to be steep.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project was managed both on business side as well as on IT side in a very efficient way. The straight forward and flexible cooperation was the name of the game.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

First of all the high quality of the solution in terms of coding was strongly praised by our internal IT. The experts brought in by Parkside showed exemplary commitment, perseverance, a solution-driven attitude as well as seniority that can facilitate the business decisions also on the client side.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Bringing Graz closer to Vienna would have been nice, enabling even more face-to-face time between teams. That would have been for sure fun and learning curve could have been even steeper on our side.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of MarineXchange, a cruise ship software provider. We provide everything for cruise lines from the shoreside booking to every service provided on ships from security, restaurant booking, auto maintenance, the reception, the hall, point of sales, the itinerary on the ship, etc. It’s an all-in-one enterprise solution.

What challenge were you trying to address with Parkside Interactive?

We are building up a new product line that includes a lot of apps for different user groups. We needed someone to help with the UX/UI design.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They put our new corporate identity in place and everything in regards to the look and feel of the new apps. Then we went further with the user experience for the new mobile apps.

What is the team composition?

There was one main point of contact. There were 2-3 people that supported her.

How did you come to work with Parkside Interactive?

I knew them from my last position as the head of development at another company and they did a very good job. When I switched to this company, I talked to our owner and suggested that we use Parkside Interactive. There were several companies that we considered but we chose Parkside Interactive because they had a great history of different design and UX products that they presented to us, especially LinkedIn learning. They’re very close to us as well which makes the whole process quite easy.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2019 – February 2020.

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

The quality was very good even though it took us some time to discuss the domain. There are several challenges to be faced with crew members as they’re changing positions. We had some first iterations where we disagreed on several of the designs, especially the UX design, but after that, it was very good. We appreciated that they listened. We got feedback. There were lots of discussions and it went very well.

How did Parkside Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly calls with our point of contact and sometimes others from the team presented some things. We can be at their office within 10 minutes if need be. We use Jira for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really tried to understand our process. It was nice that they were really eager to understand what we think would be best. They also gave us good ideas as well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the beginning, there were some issues with technology but it wasn’t a bad thing. It was more of an issue on our side. It’s an old Delphi application which wasn’t that easy.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Prepare an overview of your industry and some things you don’t want, that will help a lot.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project manager for a third-party service provider for Red Bull Media House.

What challenge were you trying to address with Parkside Interactive?

We wanted to create hotspot areas where people could walk into and trigger interactive elements. We weren’t sure how to do it, or the limits of the technology, so we needed to hire a team to help us create it.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Parkside Interactive helped put our ideas into a focused direction, advised us on the development before collaborating. The team built a prototype for iOS. The app allows the creator to set hot spots all over the world. When a user walks into that spot, an audio message is triggered, which then directs them in some way. There’s a multi-user experience component, as well.

What is the team composition?

There are three people within our core team: two coders and a project manager. If we include the salespeople and other members, there were 6–7 people involved.

How did you come to work with Parkside Interactive?

I believe my boss found them through LinkedIn. We had seen some of their projects.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $25,000–$30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on the project from April–July 2019.

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

I was impressed with their ability to take our various ideas and bring it down to two proposals for direction. We did a lot of testing on our side and then gave feedback. There were three rounds of major fixes. Overall, we were pleased with the quality of the final product.

How did Parkside Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, they did very well at giving directions for planning. We used MindMeister to outline the direction of the project. They reached out to us more than we did to them, which I believe is a good thing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This experience far exceeds my experience with other companies. From a technical point, it was outstanding. They also generate great ideas.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Perhaps, they could do a bit more testing on their side.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Throw all the ideas at them, and let them create something with you. You don’t have to have it perfectly figured out.