Pengyilabs.com

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of the strategy and corporate development for an event management software company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PengYi Labs?

We just needed some help with UI/UX design.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had some high-level descriptions of what we were trying to build. As a result, we needed PengYi Labs to build some UI mockups and wireframes in Figma. We went through several variations on various prototypes. After that, we used those prototypes to get feedback from our customers to help drive our overall roadmap. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with two people, and both of them were senior UI designers. 

How did you come to work with PengYi Labs?

I found them through an internet search and we liked their works featured on their website. They were also very responsive when we were looking for different vendors. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $20,000 on our first project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement ran from November 2020–February 2021. Throughout the partnership, we gave them various service orders. It took the team two months to complete the first project we assigned. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measured it based on them hitting our milestones and their responsiveness to our feedback. Since we were building prototypes and none of them were going to production, PengYi Labs' timeliness was the most important part of our project. In connection with that, we were very happy with their work. 

How did PengYi Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a Slack channel and we communicated almost daily. We also had weekly check-ins using Zoom. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

PengYi Labs’ responsiveness impressed us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

For what we hired them for, they did a great job. Nothing really sticks out as something that PengYi Labs could’ve done better. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Daily communication is needed to have a constant feedback loop to ensure the project’s success.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of Exceed Protection, a security company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PengYi Labs?

We needed someone to do the design for a software application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

PengYi Labs did the design of an app. I explained to them that I wanted them to create an application we could use on a daily basis with our clients and teams to provide security. Now I’m looking for the possibilities of the development of the application.

What is the team composition?

We worked with at least six people, and we also interacted with the two designers.

How did you come to work with PengYi Labs?

I found them through Upwork. I tried to communicate with people who also speak my native language. They are from Costa Rica and Mexico and I was able to explain myself.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $3,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September–November 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

PengYi Labs was really good and professional. They always listened to what I said. They were always communicative and helpful. I have nothing to complain about. They were happy to design the app the way I wanted it and the way I wanted to approach the public in the future. They helped me with how to do it.

How did PengYi Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

There was really good communication. Once a week, we had video calls where I could put my input on everything they were developing. They had different ways to edit things and make changes. It was really good, and they met deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The communication was very good. They listened to me and would modify everything the way I wanted. I’m really happy with them.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any problems.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Write down every single detail that you think should be done for your project, and present all the details to PengYi Labs in a really detailed document.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a luxury travel tech company that blends technology with local human interaction to design custom luxury vacations for our clients. I am one of the Owners as well as the Chief Operating Officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire PengYi Labs?

We needed an ongoing arrangement where we could call on Expert UX & UI guys as we were lacking this in our company and also had never found a great company or individual. A lot of our client-facing apps were disjointed and did not have cohesiveness and we needed someone with experience to help us here.

What were your goals for this project?

• Build a Brand Book for our business
• Update our most important client-facing apps to apply to this brand book.
• Increase conversion through our sales funnel
• Increase in Revenue.

SOLUTION

How did you select PengYi Labs?

I looked online, asked a few friends in the Industry and found them on Upwork while looking for qualified Companies. I reviewed their work which was impressive, did a test and when I saw the results I jumped at them. They were great communicators and got our concept quickly, I liked that they wanted to simplify things ad even when above and beyond giving us feedback on other areas of our business.

Describe the project in detail.

The scope was:

• Build a brand book
• Redesign the UX & UI Client Facing Itinerary
• Redesign the UX and UI of the landing pages on our website

We were looking to simplify as well as keep everything under 1 design brand book. We knew having 1 company own this would make for a more fluid concept. I was the Project Owner and approved and requested changes with the Project Manager.

What was the team composition?

On our end, we had me as the Project Owner, a Project Manager and a Head Developer. We added other developers and other people in Marketing as we needed. On their end, we had one point of contact and this made things much easier.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have seen a 5% increase in conversion to the last part of our buying funnel based on the work they did, this represents a potential income of over $2m.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Was great, we used a Project Management tool as well as them using their tools to show the versions of designs. It was very organised and the work and communication flowed very well.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their quality of work, their speed to make changes and offer a variety of options and their communication in both Spanish and English.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing yet! I get concerned that they are so good someone will steal them away from me!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO at GoSquared.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

In 2020, one of our key objectives included introducing a significant new product to the GoSquared platform – GoSquared Automation. Automation introduces the ability for thousands of our customers to send messages to their contacts via email and other channels.

PengYi Labs worked with us to build out front-end interfaces and accelerate our product development, while maintaining the highest standards of interface and user experience quality.

SOLUTION

How did you select PengYi Labs and what were the deciding factors?

We spent several months assessing possible candidates for the role of front-end engineer, and concluded the PengYi Labs would be a great partner based on extensive assessment and the review of an assignment we set as part of the selection process.

PengYi Labs performed exceptionally well in our assessment – delivering a fantastic interface with a high quality user experience, good attention to details, and good aesthetics.

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

They collaborated with us on key features for GoSquared Automation – a new part of the GoSquared platform enabling our customers to send automated messages via email and other channels to their contacts.

PengYi Labs collaborated with us building our front-end interfaces on our primarily React based stack. They worked to product specifications outlined up front by our in-house team, and delivered work on a weekly sprint basis. Key deliverables were to ship v1 of GoSquared Automation by June 2020 to all customers, which we successfully delivered upon.

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

We worked with one team member – Rob – who was our direct contact and also the person who contributed design work and engineering input. Rob was like another member of our team, but in another country and that we never met face to face in person.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to launch GoSquared Automation in June 2020, with almost all functionality we planned for launch. Product quality was high and the new product has driven customer satisfaction up, and enabled us to compete more aggressively in the customer communication space in 2020 and beyond.

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

We work in one week sprints, and use project management tools including Jira and GitHub to communicate and collaborate. They joined our company Slack and collaborated with us on daily stand ups on Zoom as well as our weekly sprint retros and kickoff meetings. They committed to work in each sprint and each sprint we reviewed and assessed work before shipping to production.

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

Direct access to the people working on the code. Keen to help on design as well as engineering, and handled a lot of complex interface challenges in the tasks we assigned. PengYi Labs got very involved with the team and became like an extension of our team in London.

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

PengYi Labs could do more to proactively communicate blockers and issues holding them back from delivering work. More proactive communication would have helped push product development forward faster. Taking time to understand the wider business and goals would help to push projects forward faster without requiring so many tasks to be broken down to specifics.