Pepper Square Inc.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder & CEO of Soliton Technologies, a leading global provider of software services for multiple Fortune 500 companies in the area of Test & Measurement Automation. We develop and deliver software applications that are used by our customers and their customers. Our engagements are long term with our customers and many of our projects are executed using the managed services model.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pepper Square Inc.?

We were looking for an expertise in User Experience and Interface Design for some of the Web applications that we developed for our customers. Our engineers had the knowledge on the domain and the electrical engineering side, but we did not have the UI/UX skills. Pepper Square came across as a perfect UI and UX Design partner considering the wide range of portfolio and global clients they have worked with.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal for this project was to design and develop intuitive user interfaces for users to easily evaluate the myriad capabilities of a class of complex semiconductor devices.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We have been working with Pepper Square from 2004. They have worked on many projects for us from designing and developing our website to many UI & UX solutions.

Describe the project in detail.

The project involved understanding the capabilities of a class of semiconductor devices and designing corresponding software GUIs / applications that would guide the evaluator of the device through all of the capabilities of the device across all of its operating modes in an intuitive manner.

The Soliton engineer would understand and communicate the technical specifications to the Pepper Square designer who would conceive and design the GUI. Together they would translate the information from a spreadsheet into an intuitive GUI/application, which was the most challenging part.

What was the team composition?

The project involved multiple experts across different domains. They had a senior UX and UI designer who researched, visualized, and worked on the software application design, supported by the Creative Director and Senior Project Manager.

They were able to manage timely deliveries of the UI/UX design despite this being an iterative process that involved approvals from multiple stakeholders from Soliton and the end customer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new interfaces were highly appreciated by our customers. We got feedback saying that the difference was big as between night and day! The new GUI designs improved the end-user’s experience and also the amount of tech support that our customer’s application engineers had to provide to the end-users.

Pepper Square was involved along with Soliton right from the start of this engagement with our customer. Soliton bid for a significant project to build GUIs for a class of complex devices. As part of the bidding process we had to build a sample app to prove our UI/UX and Web development capabilities. Pepper Square’s contribution was crucial to Soliton winning this bid, because we impressed the customer with the sample app.

After winning the project, Pepper Square took up the UI/UX design for the many GUIs/apps that we built for this customer over many years and delivered good designs that consistently won customer appreciation.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project management was transparent throughout our collaboration. Their team was always available for calls along with the occasional face to face meetings with our team.

They were using a project management tool called GetThingsDone.io which involved co-ordination, task updates, and reporting. They also used tools like Invision and Zeplin for design collaboration which made the review and delivery process smooth. The team was quite methodical in terms of defining the deadlines, goals and tracking the task status.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Pepper Square team’s ability to visualize the problem, and deliver the best possible solution while keeping the product vision in mind was impressive. They took ownership of their scope in the projects, communicated frequently with our team, and delivered on-time. The team’s understanding of simplifying the user experience makes them a highly recommended design partner.

The integrity displayed by Pepper Square in all our interactions over many years built the trust in us and we saw them as a reliable partner we could confidently introduce to our customer who had very strict non-disclosure requirements and secure their permission to sub contract Pepper Square for UI/UX design in their projects.

Are there any areas for improvement?

1. Pepper Square design team can be more proactive / assertive in recommending the reuse of previously developed designs in order to reduce the development cost and time. This was suggested by the customer.
2. Pepper Square used a Google Drive to exchange files with us and we had some issues keeping track of the change history.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Senior Vice President for Opteamix. We are an IT services company. We focus on developing custom solutions for our customers in multiple technologies. Our engagements are long term with our customers and we execute projects for them in the managed services model

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pepper Square Inc.?

Given that our engagements were managed services and long term we were aspiring to provide an option to all the stakeholders including customer, management and teams to review the project performance in real time. For this PepperSquare developed a very intuitive graphical and digital dashboard. This was turnkey project wherein they used their UI architecture, design, content management and development capability

What were your goals for this project?

The key KRAs for this project were responsive UI design, data integrity, highly intuitive visuals and easy navigation, good performance. The application was developed using Drupal and MySQL and was very well received by our customers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had worked with them in the past and we were always impressed by their UI architecture skills wherein they looked at a problem from multiple perspectives before giving a solution. Given their highly transparent process we could very comfortably trust them from day one

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project involved developing a responsive dashboard which demonstrated the project performance against 6 parameters namely cost, effort, timeline, quality and team strength in real time. The dashboard also had the provision of displaying the performance trend against the above parameters. As a dashboard it also allowed to manage our risks, track our milestones. Based on Pepper Square's suggestion the dashboard also served as a repository for storing project artefacts

What was the team composition?

They had a very senior architect who visualised the product and he was supported by a technical lead and UI lead. They had a very unique manner of resource management wherein they never overloaded the projects with team. The team members were onboarded based on the requirement during the different phases.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The solution was very well received by our stakeholders , One of the customers quoted that this is a very an excellent way of establishing trust with us by displaying transparency of such a high order.

This also helped us in saving a phenomena quantum of effort as there was no need to maintain multiple versions of status report also the customers and our executives felt that they had a very nice window to view the engagement performance over multiple layers of engagement

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management was primarily carried out by Pepper Square. They had adopted a modified form of Scrum Framework which involved a continuous feedback cycle. They used tools like Trello for collaboration

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their ability to visualize the problem and solution from multiple perspectives impressed us. The sense of accountability wherein the CEO himself sometimes got involved with the design. A very distinguishing aspect was their spirit of ownership on the end result for us.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I did not find anything major area of improvement, except possibly they could slightly documentation process to be more formal

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Right To Live, a not-for-profit, was conceived with the core mission to help the less privileged improve their standard of living by providing them access to transformative services such as Health and Education. I am the Founder of Right To Live

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pepper Square Inc.?

Underprivileged people die because they can’t afford medical treatment and this is a fact of life. Many poor, sell all their little/life savings, all other assets, and fall into debt trap during critical medical situations, and neither they get healthy, nor they come out the debt during rest of their life. We wanted to build a platform to provide financial help to underprevileged

What were your goals for this project?

Building India’s first crowd donation platform that connects financial donors, volunteers, NGOs, corporates, and government with a mission of improving the standard of living of the less privileged.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

References

Describe the project in detail.

We just had this thought in our mind when we approached Pepper Square to build us our platform; but they didn’t just give us technology, they gave life to our idea by making us think deeper into the social problem, developed fantastic design, crafted heart touching content and we were up connecting all stakeholders within eight weeks. Thank you PepperSquare.

What was the team composition?

UX/UI Designers, Web Developers, and Content Writer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been recognized as India's first crowd donation platform and have won the award as best Corporate Social Responsibility Platform and entrusted by large corporations for their CSR Programs

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Excellent, daily communication and simple matrices

What did you find most impressive about this company?

UX/UI Expertise, Deep involvement in our problem statement and putting their passion into providing us the right solution.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was Director Marketing at Aditi Consulting, a MBE certified IT Consulting and Talent on Demand company, headquartered at Bellevue, WA. Aditi is about 1000 employees and consultants with clients across US, India and Europe. I headed Marketing for Aditi for close to six years between 2012 and 2018, where I was responsible for making Aditi’s prospects aware of the brand via digital and offline media and engage audience to be their partner of choice.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pepper Square Inc.?

We were going through a brand refresh and hired Pepper Square to help us create a fresh brand identity for Aditi. The project included a complete revamp of Aditi’s brand persona as a technology consulting firm, creating a fresh brand style guide to be reflected in our online and offline presence. It also included the revamping Aditi’s corporate website with new messaging and future forward-looking design.

What were your goals for this project?

The objective of the project was to map market demands with Aditi’s service portfolio. Once mapped, the goal was to 1) create the overarching brand message that will attend to all of Aditi’s audience types (clients, candidates, and employees) and 2) get the new brand message to reflect through our corporate website in a simple and minimalistic design.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We looked for UI/UX expert firms who also have deep strategic know-how on go-to-market strategies. We searched in our area online and through references. Got four agency profiles that matched our requirement and had great client testimonials/case studies. We went through a series of discovery calls/meetings with each and shortlisted two based on their initial pitch presentations. We finally went ahead with Pepper Square for the quality of similar projects they had in their portfolio, and the agile process and the tech competency of their delivery, even though the cost was at little higher side.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we signed the deal, the Pepper Square team was quick to engage various stakeholders across teams and geographies to understand the business vision and objectives via discovery calls/meetings. Their brand strategy, content, design and development teams worked in tandem to provide us options on new over-arching messages for the brand. With a few brainstorming whiteboard sessions we selected the brand message, which then their creative team converted into mock up designs. Pepper Square closely worked with our marketing team and created new information structure for the website and options for the home page designs. All of this within the very first month. Once the design templates were finalized for rest of the website pages, we went on weekly calls to finalize and approve content and design of various pages. There was also the requirement of integrating APIs of other tools we used in our business operations with the website. We introduced Pepper Square with our other technology partners and the team coordinated to do the rest with each of them.

What was the team composition?

We got a project manager as POC. At every stage of the project we had specific SMEs assigned. Senior folks for the initial brand strategy foundation stage. Content and SEO team for the site’s information architecture and On-Page SEO, design team for aesthetics and layout and finally the development and QA team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For us, the complete change in messaging in line with our next market penetration strategy and refreshed look and feel was the outcome we were looking for. But we got a lot more. Our website was not only talking loud and clear about our service portfolio (Talent on Demand for our Statement of Work (SoW), Project Staffing, and the IT solutions) and the differentiation but also it was made pretty clean for candidate engagement, in terms of job search functionality, clean job search listing and job landing pages.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

There were initial hick-ups initially in terms of project schedules and catching hold of our stakeholders for discovery interviews. But we ironed it all pretty well with the flexible yet affirmative communication from Pepper Square.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Project plan was shared at the very beginning with all the timelines and we had regular weekly meetings which went absolutely smoothly because the team comprehended iterations well and there were hardly any delays.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is always some scope of improvement at each stage of the project and responsibility lies on both the sides. Overall we were satisfied with the delivery.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Accelerite is the products business of Persistent Systems; a leading software services provider. We deliver cloud, security and big data software solutions to Global 2000 organizations.

Our products and services help enterprises design their business by accelerating cloud adoption, modern security, industry process platforms and leverage of the data-driven economy of today. I work as a lead for Inbound Marketing

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Pepper Square Inc.?

We hired PepperSquare for web design and development of our website. Also to execute many digital strategies and collateral designs

What were your goals for this project?

Creating an exemplary website which provides great experience to users.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Peppersqaure came with a strong reference and got added to our list of finalized vendors for the project. We evaluated them on design thinking, wordpress expertise and understanding of Tech domain.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Web design and development Wordpress development Collateral designs Email templates Support and maintenance of website They became our go to partner for anything digital- right from custom google analytics implementation and tracking, to design.

What was the team composition?

UI/UX personnel Wordpress engineers Project manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The website improved it's score on mulitple quantitative parameters, like- Load time, bounce rate, User engagement. Also, witnessed increased conversions due to website revamp.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We used Trello tool to manage the project. It was a seamless affair throughout. A dedicated customer success manager was appointed, who ensured our deliverables were met within the timelines and with desired quality.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Commitment to a deliverable. Their agility towards our dynamic business needs stood out along with their design thinking and approach

Are there any areas for improvement?

None

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Product Manager of National Fitness Campaign, and we build outdoor public gyms all over the country.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pepper Square Inc.?

Our goal was to enhance a mobile app that allows people to learn more about our fitness courses, participate in challenges, and generally incorporate our gyms and resources into their lifestyle.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had an app when we started working with Pepper Square Inc., but they helped us to build out a lot of the features that really take it to the next level. They’ve designed the front- and backend of our app completely. Their work has enabled many of the interactions the app is now capable of providing to our customers, such as signing up for classes, finding locations, and being a one-stop shop for a lot of different fitness needs. Pepper Square Inc. developed those capabilities for iOS and Android using React Native, as well as Java on the backend.

What is the team composition?

We usually work directly with their COO to coordinate the project at a high level. Once we get into design, we collaborate with the designer, and in development, we have one developer that serves as our primary contact and a second developer who has more of an oversight role. They’re good about collaborating with other teams if you want to bring another group in for a specific task, but in general, there are about 3–4 people that we’re aware of working on the project at any given time.

How did you come to work with Pepper Square Inc.?

They have an office that is very close to ours, and they actually reached out and pitched themselves to us. It was clear they really wanted to work with us, and it was ultimately their commitment and follow-through that made us realize we could accomplish more with them than we could with other partners. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in November 2018, and our work has continued over the course of a lot of different projects since then.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app has grown its user base 13 times over in the last 13 months. The number one result we’ve seen from working with Pepper Square Inc., however, is the increased stability of the UX. In the past, we would launch features under such time and budget constraints that we would have to deal with all sorts of bugs, but over the last few months, we’ve systematically worked to clean them up. Our crashes are down, our glitches are rarer, and user onboarding is better. On top of that, we launch much faster with Pepper Square Inc. We like to move quickly, and they let us do that.

How did Pepper Square Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

Pepper Square Inc. does an extremely good job managing the work we give them. We always know that they’ll be able to build whatever we ask for, no matter how ambitious it is. They’re great about setting goals and making sure everyone is on the same page to understand the why of what we’re doing and to align on timing, pricing, and strategy. We largely use their own internal project management tool called “Get Things Done” to communicate, but we’ve also used Slack, email, and UberConference to stay in communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Above everything, Pepper Square Inc. is very committed to doing their work well. Everything they do for us centers on UX and making sure that we’re always delivering a lot of value to our customers. It feels like they do everything they can to be consultants and partners with us rather than just people who take code orders.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re working with them to have a clearer idea of what our costs will be ahead of time, but I think we’re making progress with that and are both invested in being better aligned. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would suggest you make sure they understand exactly what you’re trying to do, and what your business goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) are. That’s something they really get, which is certainly one of their strengths.