Peak11

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the former founder of a successful startup called kununu and currently CTO of Hektar Nektar – a startup specializing in finding solutions for stimulating bee population growth. We’ve established the largest Social and eCommerce marketplace for local beekeepers (from Austria and Germany), businesses and households. As a company we’ve also started Projekt 2028 that aims to increase the global bees population up to 10% till 2028.

For what projects/services did your company hire Peak11, and what were your goals?

Few years ago we started planning to create a digital space for people who are interested in stimulating bee population growth: beekeepers, household and sustainable businesses. It was all about community. We came up with the idea of ​​connecting small and large businesses with local beekeepers.

To make this happen, we needed a platform and a technical support tool from the professional IT company. We worked with Peak11 team before, we knew we could completely rely on them, so we turned to them right away to discuss our plan. Peak11 took care of all stages of our Social and Ecommerce Platform implementation.

From the ideation, research, product design till final web application development and ongoing support & maintenance. Peak11 team accompanied us through many changes and transformations in the company and project. Together, we have implemented all crucial functionalities for all categories of users: beekeepers, sellers, businesses, and private people - with the result of an actual increase in the bee population.

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

We worked with the Peak11 team on previous projects. We knew that they were professionals in the field of IT services, that we could fully trust them. They always deliver on time, are a great support and booster of ideas over the years, while not consuming our startup budget. By the way, they offer a full service - from design to technical implementation, ongoing support and project management. And that's what we needed.

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

We've started our journey with Peak11 from the kick-off meeting and Design Sprint. At that stage, we discussed our vision and confronted each other with ideas. We shared our knowledge about bees, beekeeping and target users and they did their best to combine it with technological skills, the best ideas for functionalities and efficient results.

We decided on technology: Ruby on Rails and React because simply in this field Peak11 rocks and it fitted us perfectly. With the technologies they were able to deliver a scalable, secure and functional platform within the agreed timeframe. Together we created an efficiently operating Marketplace.

A very specific marketplace, because we trade bees here (delicate, living creatures), so everything related to shipment and logistics is also delicate and complicated. Peak11 was responsible for building Hektar Nektar platform - fully functional eCommerce marketplace connecting sellers with buyers with ability to manage orders, payments, users, products, bee adoptions, including integration with 3rd party services, Stripe and Paypal payments integrations and cloud deployment in the AWS cloud.

Aside from the platform the scope of work included various types of functionalities: subscriptions, bee adoptions, content-portal with special marketing content for companies, social profiles for sellers, beekeepers, businesses.

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

The team was adapting to the needs of the project. On a daily basis we worked hand in hand with Project Manager, Backend and Frontend Engineers, Product Designers, between 4-6 people. That was the core team but when we needed to “increase our powers”, Peak11 was able to quickly scale the team.

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

Thanks to the Social and Ecommerce platform creation, we have gained a large group of bee sellers with whom we have been cooperating for several years. We have managed to establish close cooperation with large, recognizable corporations that are important in business. Therefore, we were actually able to help bees and local beekeepers.

Thanks to Peak11 team services, we have created our own community (made up of various user groups). Our clients enjoy the platform and its functionalities, and they have a much better understanding of our services now. We are constantly developing and changing our directions, and development is the best result of cooperation.

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

Peak11 introduced an iterative, agile workflow. We hold bi-weekly planning meetings to discuss the nearest plans, goals, bugs and blockers. Together with the Peak11 Project Manager, we set up priorities, and then the Peak11 team organizes tasks and internally plans their work. Iterations and tasks are always well estimated and we can trust each other. Peak11 has always adapted to the sudden changes in our startup plans and ideas.

We communicate daily with Slack, documentation of plans and projects are created in Notion, and track development progress in Pivotal Tracker. Communication with the team has been at a great level, and always professional but at the same time we established a friendship bond.

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

Excellent communication skills, trust, agile approach, same direction, delivery on time. Not to mention technical skills - they know what they are doing in the IT world. They do it well, quickly and efficiently. We simply needed a trusted companion on this journey of creating the Hektar Nektar platform. And we found such a long-term partner in Peak11.

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

Peak11 team was solving all problems on a regular basis. I have no constructive comments about our cooperation, because it was at a great level. They always informed us about any changes in the team, project, technology, updates. Our Hektar Nektar team with the Peak11 team found a common ground from the very beginning.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am co-founder of Teko, a US based company. Tenko provides merchants and users unique tool to take advantage of personalized prices directed to individuals.

For what projects/services did your company hire Peak11, and what were your goals?

Tenko hired Peak11 for initial ideation of mobile app design. Based on their work, Peak11 created the web site for merchants and users. An online simulator was designed for user to experience the Tenko dynamic pricings.

How did you select Peak11 and what were the deciding factors?

We decided on their past work, small agile company, familiarity with tools and technology required, quality of their past work.

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

- Initial online workshop at FigmaJam - Discovery, ideation, concept - Wireframing - Product Design - Animations - Implementation - Agile methodology that made the collaboration close and systematic - Slack as a team communication tool Tenko required Gatsby.js, Gatsby Cloud, React.js, Strapi CMS

How many resources from the Peak11 team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Project Manager UX/UI Product Designer Front-End Developer Back-End Developer Content Writer Quality Assurance Specialist

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

We are based in California and we were accommodated for time difference. Multiple weekly meetings were held and deliverables were identified and communicated very well. Project continued on schedule and quality never compromised.

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

Dominik Rogoz is an experienced and knowledgeable persona in his field and conducted meeting very efficiently to deliver project on time and within range of budget set. He used Figma and Slack for presentation and communication.

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

Very dedicated team and agile. They focus and deliver. They knew the technology and right people at work.

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

They are improving and expanding their knowledge base as other companies do.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the founder and the CEO of Laboratorium EE – the established technological company specializing in the design and implementation of digital products using cloud, mobile and artificial intelligence technologies.

For what projects/services did your company hire Peak11, and what were your goals?

We were developing an intelligent web application using AI and NLP that helps companies organize their knowledge and makes customer service process smooth and effective. As the product’s MVP was ready, we realized we had no attractive marketing materials that we could show off to potential clients. We therefore asked Peak11 to create from scratch the new product name, branding, storytelling, and presentation.

How did you select this vendor?

We cooperated with Peak11 by other IT projects. We knew we could rely on their product design team that is professional both in the field of UX/UI as well as branding. For several clients across the globe they’ve delivered flawless digital products along with outstanding branding and visual identity.

Describe the scope of their work in detail, including any steps and the final deliverables.

Throughout the creative process we were carefully guided by Project Manager and Product Designer from Peak11. The cooperation started with online workshop in FigmaJam. In-depth research was done, so that we become aware of brands, names and solutions available on the market.

Having done that phase we started the process of ideation, that is defining key features and key advantages of our product over the other similar solutions. That led us to create moodboards, drafts and name variants. At that stage the process was widely consulted with all stakeholders including software developers, UI designers, product’s owner and marketing manager.

As we agreed on one direction, the branding final phase of branding process went very smooth. Peak11 delivered three different concepts and we finally picked up the one most suitable for us. The brand book was delivered by Peak11, so that we have a feeling that our product's visual identity is clearly defined. As the name and branding was done, we started working on the product’s marketing presentation.

First of all we delivered Peak11 a lot of information gathered by us. That were statistics, statements and cases describing problems and challenges faced by customer service departments. We left all that information to be structured by Peak11’s Product Designer and Content Writer. We were so happy to see, that they managed to organize the story about our AI/NLP product in a logic, clear and attractive way.

The presentation was divided into three major parts – Why? What? How? – so that to make it as easy as possible to understand the product’s specificity by any new reader. Presentation layout become concise and clear, data was illustrated with diagrams and infographics, text was simplified and reduced to the bare minimum.

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

Project Manager was our main contact throughout the brand design process. Other team members working for us, that is the Product Designer and the Content Writer participated in every team status meeting and workshop. All of them were available for us on Slack and Figma, so that we had a feeling as if we were one team focused on achieving one goal.

By the end of every phase of the project, we got a precise hourly report, so that the cooperation was transparent and in line with time and budget.

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

Having the proper branding and the story behind our AI/NLP software product it was definitely easier for our Key Account Managers to talk about the product to many potential clients. Thanks to professional brand design and product description we started serious business talks with several corporate clients. The work done be Peak11 facilitated and accelerated our sales process.

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

We were precisely guided by Peak11 throughout the design process. Daily stand-ups were kept by their Project Manager who gave us short information about the work status. Every week we kept one team meeting along with Product Designer and Content Writer that let us discuss the progress and plan the work ahead. Apart from that we had synchronic communication channels open on Slack and Figma.

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

They have great command of brand design skills and deep understanding of marketing strategies. Although they are first and foremost a custom software house focused on UX/UI design and technology, we were impressed with their wide business perspective and professional attitude they have toward issues like branding, storytelling and product presentation.

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

I have no constructive feedback for the Peak11 team. The whole process went with no issues thanks to their competencies, high project management, and communication skills.