Perpetual

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of software engineering for a news and information-based tools company. We create software for our editorial staff to support our editorial workflow, providing and creating content from stories to pictures, videos, and everything else that editorial manages. I oversee multiple development teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We needed to bring in contractual resources to fill in for our development needs. Sometimes we have busy periods where work slows down.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual has provided resources that do UI development to develop internal tools that are used by our editorial staff. We’ve also had React developers, API developers, and UX designers from their team. We initially used them for UX design; Perpetual came on board to design our platform and implement pieces of our common UI. We currently have more projects in place. 

As we’ve gone through different projects and required UI developers, we’ve asked for specific technical knowledge. Perpetual has provided the developers in the space we’ve defined. They don’t manage the projects; we mix our staff with contractors to fill in the gaps.

We’ve developed multiple sites with them, including an editorial tool for story content production. The product is a Windows Presentation Foundation desktop application that we’re migrating to React with a web UI technology stack; it allows our editors to create stories, edit, provide metadata, and more. Also, it takes them through different workflows so they can get the content to editors and reviewers before they get published. Then, it integrates with our publication endpoint and all the other endpoints we support.

We’ve requested a UI design that’s easy to use, looks nice for our editorial team, and aligns with the new concepts that are common in the web technologies space. Perpetual has created the entire design, including the color palette and visual elements. They’ve also conducted interviews with users to figure out their needs and identify what would work best. They’ve used Figma for the design.

What is the team composition?

The team size varies. Within my space, we have about 10 resources, including seven UI developers, 1–2 UX designers, and 1–2 API developers. Other Perpetual employees are assigned to my peers within the organization, so I don’t know the overall number of resources.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

Our higher-level staff hired them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them a few years ago, in June 2019. Our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have over 3,000 people in editorial around the globe creating tech content. So far, we’ve met the goals for the year for the features we wanted to deliver and what we wanted to migrate into the web-based application.

We’re also getting a lot of traction on conversion. When we started two years ago with this specific project, we began from scratch; none of our users were utilizing the web UI. Right now, we’re up to 15%–20%, and we’re still progressing toward feature parity.

Users don’t have yet all the features they want in there to migrate everybody to it, but we’ve estimated to have 40%–50% of our editorial staff utilizing our new web application by the end of the year.

There have been bugs, but what we like about Perpetual’s approach is that they listen to feedback and know how to prioritize production issues. They fix the problem and address the root cause. Overall, we’ve had outstanding resources assigned to our project.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They deliver on time 80%–90% of the time. None of the development teams we’ve worked with has delivered perfectly on time because there are always unknown issues that come into play. However, Perpetual has delivered according to our expectations.

We follow an agile process, and their developers blend in with our squads. Our product managers are Toronto-based, and they deliver the requirements to Perpetual using a sprint methodology and Scrum approach. We also communicate internally through Microsoft Teams and use Azure DevOps for project management. Additionally, Perpetual’s members are assigned a company account to become indistinguishable from our own teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We like the quality of the resources we’ve got. We’ve been able to migrate some resources from a high-cost center to a low-cost center while maintaining a good level of quality. Moreover, we’ve dealt with Amish (CEO) numerous times, and he’s very approachable and reachable. He listens, delivers, and communicates extremely well. We value all those things a lot.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everybody can do better, but nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

First, I’d ask if you already have a development team in place. If you expect Perpetual to deliver something from scratch, we haven’t used them in that capacity.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was a principal at a venture capital firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

Over the summer, we led an extensive research project to understand how consumers were thinking in the present and orienting themselves around the future. In an attempt to broadcast our research, we wanted to create a fun, snappy research report that we could distribute widely to a greater base than just other investors. The goal was to get people to subscribe to a community of like-minded individuals looking to help illustrate and illuminate different consumer trends.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Perpetual to produce a research report with a design and quality that would be digestible to a wider audience. They were also tasked with building a Webflow microsite as an accessory to our existing website. The microsite illustrates and highlights our research and helps us identify the different types of consumer archetypes.

We started the project with a discovery phase, which involved a lot of brainstorming and vision-boarding around the overarching design and motif for both the microsite and the research report. Once we had a brand identity direction, we discussed what kind of backend architecture would help us get to where we wanted to be. After that, we started with the implementation phase.

We provided Perpetual with the results as well as various points from our research that we wanted to highlight. Perpetual then crafted the design thinking and user experience and handled the software build and backend development.

What is the team composition?

There were three people from Perpetual whom I regularly engaged throughout the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July–December 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within a few weeks of launching the project, we got 8,000–9,000 subscribers on the platform with very little marketing push. Aside from that, the quality of Perpetual’s work was top-notch. The quality of their work reflected their experiences and our effective collaboration.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

Perpetual performed well in terms of project management. They were incredibly professional, receptive to feedback, and quick to respond. They were willing to push back when needed and offer things that they felt were best practices.

We used Slack and Google Docs to communicate and manage the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perpetual came in with a wealth of experience relative to onboarding flows, which we were able to incorporate into our process of getting people to subscribe to our newsletter.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There's room to improve when communicating deadlines and timeframes and keeping us on point for potential speed bumps or roadblocks.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend that any newer clients have a point of view regarding what they want to accomplish and by when and then have the Perpetual team fill in any of the gaps that might exist.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm Manager of Software Development a large multimedia company. The product I manage the team for is a B2B application which allows customers to search for, purchase and download multimedia content

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Perpetual?

We needed to quickly add Front End Developers to our team to help support and grow our Single Page Application

SOLUTION

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

Perpetual had an existing relationship and excellent reputation with the company I work for. They were a natural choice.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

They provided 4 Front End developers who directly integrated with our team. These developers ramped up on our stack and our process, participating in all SCRUM activities. we use Clojure(Script) so they learned the language as part of the onboarding process. Once up to speed they started working alongside our other developers to help deliver both BAU and Feature work.

Describe the recruitment process in detail.

The hiring was fluid as we were sourcing contractors from multiple agencies. We provided a job description and within a week, Perpetual started providing candidate resumes. All resumes they submitted were worthy of an interview. We conducted a single interview with the candidates leading to a hire or no hire decision. Perpetual had one of the highest acceptance rates out of all the agencies we've worked with.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With their help we delivered on 4 initiatives in the last quarter of the year while also continuing our BAU work. These initiatives are being incrementally provided to customers and have thus far been received warmly without any major bugs reported.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The members who joined our team are contractors in name only. They are as integrated as any full time member of the team. They participate in SCRUM, provide code reviews, help deploy code, and contribute to forward looking architectural decisions.

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

I really appreciate the higher level of talent their candidates have as well as the white glove communication I get from their staffing team. It has made the engagement with Perpetual pleasant and success full at all stages.

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

There were a couple occasions where newly onboarded contractors hit some blockers which weren't immediately raised. It would be great if Perpetual was overly active during the onboarding process to help ensure any issues are quickly raised and resolved.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a business analyst for a homeowner insurance company in South Florida.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We needed someone to provide us with web development services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started our engagement by talking about our requirements, and the Perpetual team did an analysis of our goals and areas of improvement to revamp the website. Once that was done, we implemented SEO strategies to attract visitors and increase our online presence.

They then presented us with a series of design options and collectively chose the one that was the best fit. Since then, they’ve incorporated a contact information page, phone call automation, and consumer-facing features such as an inquiry form.

The team utilizes Figma and is hosting the platform on Webflow. They’re currently providing us with ongoing maintenance and support.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact is Shreyansh (UX Designer), but also interact with Amish (CEO), a designer, and a content writer.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

One of our technical architects came across Perpetual while researching web development companies.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested somewhere between $32,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in November 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve been experiencing significant improvement in our SEO ranking since we’ve utilized Google Analytics to monitor our web traffic. We expect our numbers to improve once we start doing some marketing.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been excellent when it comes to delivering items within our given timeframes. The compromises between our team haven’t really impacted our timelines, but they’re highly committed to delivering their work accurately.

We utilize JIRA for project management and communicate through email and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with their commitment to success and agility to address issues.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise you to maintain constant communication and provide them with channels where they can always reach you, as the team is very flexible when it comes to adapting to any tools.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a technical architect at Florida Peninsula Managers, a homeowner insurance company. We provide home insurance policies in Florida through two companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

In 2022, we wanted to upgrade our companies’ marketing websites. The sites were built by different companies at different times and were 7–8 years old. We wanted to upgrade them and move them to a new platform. 

Even though our companies work similarly, because different vendors made the sites, it was difficult to maintain and upgrade them. Therefore, we needed to hire a design firm to build new websites and give us a new platform. The plan was to build the sites in 2022 and go live in early 2023.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual has designed and developed our companies' marketing websites from scratch using Webflow. Initially, they gave us prototypes, and we approved some of them and modified others. We wanted the same site for both companies but with different themes so that we could easily maintain them. They came up with many designs, and we went back and forth for 2–3 months to choose our options. 

They asked us to participate in our SEO and Google Tag Manager projects to review our Google timeline and history. From there, they gathered the keywords and pages we used. They submitted an audit of our previous websites' SEO.

Per our request, they've built both sites as responsive websites. As insurance providers, we have certain requirements, such as compliance with guidelines. Perpetual has worked with our marketing team to create the pages' content. They've also suggested different tones for the content, and we've settled on the most professional option. Perpetual has also helped us pick graphics for the site to determine what would look best. 

Additionally, we like to inform our users of timelines when our business might be open or closed, and Perpetual has developed banners for this purpose. These banners can help us inform our users when we'll be closed, such as when there's a hurricane coming to Florida. 

Overall, Perpetual has done 90% design and 10% development. They've also provided Webflow training so that we can maintain the basic content and CMS. In January 2023, both sites went live. The websites are hosted on Webflow, and Perpetual will provide design maintenance. 

What is the team composition?

I work with Perpetual's CEO, who acts as the project lead. We also work with one designer, one content editor, and another designer who provides support. 

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

We found them on Clutch. Although I visited other sites, I found Clutch's reviews to be the most detailed. Moreover, I liked that there were many ways to filter my search, such as the project's budget. We also found companies through colleagues and past experiences. 

From there, we had a six-month selection process. During the first stage, we reached out to around 20 companies, got responses from 10, and Perpetual was one of them. Based on their Clutch profile, they had good reviews and were within our budget. 

During the second stage, we put out an RFP. We got four detailed proposals and requirements and checked what each option offered and the platforms they could support. We narrowed our choices to two companies and got detailed presentations from them. Perpetual was the only company that could work with Webflow, which we liked because of its intuitiveness. Additionally, they provided us with two references from previous clients, who gave us good reviews. 

Ultimately, we chose Perpetual. Although they weren't the cheapest option, we decided to go with them due to their style of communication, their presentation, and the detailed information they gave us.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $50,000–$200,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around August 2022, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we only launched the site two days ago, we won't have specific metrics until after a couple of months. However, we've hired a company to audit the sites' SEO, and the results are very good; there aren't any issues with SEO parameters. Overall, we haven't found any issues with the sites. 

Additionally, we appreciate the SEO audit Perpetual did on our previous websites, which was outside the scope of work. This audit has given us confidence in them, even though we'd never worked with them before. Moreover, the CEO's involvement has also brought us confidence.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They're extremely good at project management. From the first couple of weeks, their response has been outstanding. Perpetual is very professional, though they're not unapproachable. 

We meet them twice a week, they discuss tasks for the next two days, and then they send us a detailed document with everything discussed. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we haven't done many on-site visits. Still, they're always on time for meetings, and the CEO has been on calls since day one. 

They're also really easy to reach. We use Microsoft Teams, and even though Perpetual doesn't use it within their team, they've installed it so that we can ping them anytime to discuss anything. Additionally, we use email for back-and-forth communication. 

For project management, we use Jira in-house, while Perpetual uses Notion. They've shared all their Notion pages with us for project plans and requirements, and we've opened our Jira network for them so that we can open tickets there. 

The team gives us all the support we need. When we launched the site, we had internal IT issues and finished at 2 a.m. The main designer from Perpetual was with us until we finished, and the CEO stayed with us most of the night. Perpetual also delivered the site early for us to do some integrations. As a result, we've been able to launch the site seven days early. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perpetual is a very technically sound company. The project has had some challenging tasks, and they've quickly resolved those issues. I also appreciate how approachable they are. Whenever I reach out to the CEO, he replies within five minutes. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don't see much for them to improve; they've been up to every task.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Perpetual's team is good, and their CEO is very involved, so I doubt any new client will face issues working with them. I highly recommend them for web design and development.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a VP at a financial services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We needed to ramp up our ability to get work out the door faster. Although we’re always looking for more developers, it takes a long time to interview candidates and build a team that way. Therefore, we hired Perpetual to ramp up a team quicker and get us over the hump.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We used frontend developers from Perpetual, who knew how to work within the React framework. We already had the designs and the copy, and the team helped us build our website’s frontend. They worked within our process, where they delivered work, we tested it, and if it was good, we deployed it to our live site. Throughout the engagement, they fixed bugs, updated existing pages and features, and built some pages from scratch. 

The site’s UX involved three different pieces. First, the team worked on non-log-in pages, such as the home page, our privacy policy, and the contact page. They also worked on logged-in pages, which formed our customer portal and included information about our services. 

There were also pages for users to sign up for our program, which included a user flow as customers signed the agreement and added their personal information. For some pages, the Perpetual team only had to build the page; for others, they worked with cookies and requests and responses from our backend to display data appropriately. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with four frontend developers from Perpetual and had a project manager. Throughout the project, we never had more than two developers working at a time. 

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

My boss brought them to our attention, though I don’t recall if he’d worked with them previously or found them online. We chose Perpetual because as we walked through our requirements and expectations with them, they had a few of their developers on the call and told us how they would do the work. As a result, we were confident they’d be able to deliver. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $250,000–$300,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from September 2021–August 2022. We started with a six-month contract and added additional months later, while we still had a backlog of work and not enough people on our internal staff.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Perpetual’s work allowed us to rapidly deliver a ton of work to our customers. They supported us with two developers during the bulk of development, and once the site was released, we had one developer during the maintenance and bug-fixing mode. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to do so many iterations so fast. 

I interfaced with the team the most, and they were all very professional. They never had any issues, so I was never concerned about whether they could get something done. Overall, our engagement was very easy. Moreover, since my internal team was also remote, they felt like part of my team. 

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily communicated through Slack, and the team was very responsive and made it to all of our meetings. Additionally, we didn’t have any issues regarding efficiency or the timeline.

The process was smooth, even during transitions where teammates changed. They were very good at handling the overlap of teammates and made sure they ramped up the person coming in, so we had no downtime. Moreover, the team was very good at reminding me when contracts were ending and giving me enough time to decide whether we wanted to continue with our developers. They didn’t wait until the last minute, which was why the transitions were so smooth. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with Perpetual’s professionalism and the ease of working with the team. They didn’t feel like another company; it was very simple to integrate them into our team. As a result, we all felt like a single group without any power struggles. 

Other providers throw in a lot of processes that involve bottlenecks and red tape during these kinds of projects. For example, they’d make us go through a project manager or a blocker to discuss issues. Meanwhile, I worked directly with Perpetual’s developers, and getting things done that way was very simple, as opposed to going through intermediaries. 

The project manager was very hands-off and let the developers slot into my team. As a result, I didn’t have to change the way I worked with them compared to my internal resources. This approach was great because it helped us move things along rapidly. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was nothing they missed the mark on. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to integrate them into whatever tools you’re using for communicating and project management. Treat Perpetual like part of your team because they will be, so there’s no benefit to treating them differently than your internal resources. If you were to hire someone who only lasted five months, you would still assimilate them into your team. Therefore, I recommend bringing Perpetual in and treating them like part of your company; that way, you’ll be able to move super fast.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I worked with an international development company. At that moment, I was the director of digital architecture and applications. I was in charge of the digital transformation, finding new ways to use technology to do what the company does.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

Our main challenge was attempting to build an entirely new application to manage our field projects, which was the core of the business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought Perpetual in from the beginning. They were involved from the conceptual phase to the detailed design. They completed 70–75 interviews with potential users and broke them down into a document that codified and cataloged all the findings. We looked into a couple of cross-platform development tools to build a web app that could also translate into Android and iOS. They used Figma and Miro for the frontend, and the proposed solution would use Java with a React frontend, along with PostgreSQL and AWS. In the end, they delivered a document that described the proposed technical architecture.

We also used them to maintain the AI. We were primarily Azure customers, but we were starting to dabble in AWS. We had a separate contract with Perpetual to maintain and support our small AWS footprint.

Additionally, they did a quick demo video for a mock-up and helped with vendor selection for a separate effort. Another group in the company contracted them to help select a company; it was an urgent need.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a total of five people. We had two frontend designers — one was a senior; the other was a junior. Also, there was a system analyst and architect, an AWS infrastructure expert, and a business analyst. Additionally, one of the founders led the project.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

Another group in the AI was using them. I knew the person who selected them; I’d helped on that project for about three months. We sent out an RFP to them and a few other companies, but we decided on them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $200,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July 2021–April 2022. We haven’t finished the application, but they delivered the conceptual work and design. We need to take that to the executive team and board to get the approval to move forward, which would be a second project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

First, we presented the video mock-up they did to the board, who gave us the go-ahead to proceed with the conceptual project — that deliverable clearly worked. Then, they did an excellent job mapping the catalog into the UI for the web and mobile applications.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They had a full-time project manager running the project. They used Notion and Trello as management tools, and we could always see what was happening. We had a few overruns, but it was from our side. It was during the conceptual phase, so things changed quickly. However, they did an excellent job.

For communication, we met at least two times a week. Also, there was a daily stand-up that we could join if we wanted and monthly project reviews with my boss and other interested parties.

What did you find most impressive about them?

First, their senior designer was one of the best I’ve worked with in the past 30 years. He was awesome. Also, they had a solid project management team — they were flexible and adaptable to what we were doing. Since what we do isn’t well-known to the public, they also did a good job understanding that, which came down to their vast international experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had a few growing pains. For example, sometimes they thought they knew better than us. Also, they were stuck on doing their processes. Although they were open to feedback, they should be able to change their operations based on the client’s idiosyncrasies. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have your internal affairs locked down. It’s probably not useful for Perpetual, but it’s useful for you. Also, spend more time upfront defining the project with them. We moved quickly in the contracting phase, so we didn’t know what we wanted, which left too much leeway. Finally, get the senior designer if possible; he’s amazing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of product management at Sangoma, a provider of unified communication as a service. We offer all kinds of communication tools, from SMS and voice calls to video meetings and collaboration platforms. In my role, I oversee all of our product offerings, including mobile and system applications, and I also oversee our UI/UX design strategy to ensure we offer a unified UX across all of our products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We needed help with UI/UX design implementations.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Over the past year and a half, Perpetual was a crucial member of our team in the design and implementation of UI/UX components, helping us establish a design system across all of our applications. They also helped us redesign and refactor various legacy applications. Additionally, their scope included mock-up design, prototyping, and user research, leveraging Figma as the main design and prototyping tool.

Throughout the engagement, we provided Perpetual with some documentation. Still, we mostly collaborated hand in hand on establishing new design systems and ensuring all of our applications followed the same standards.

Whenever we had a new UI/UX design project, we met with Perpetual’s designers and our engineers to discuss the goals and objectives of the new features to be added to the applications. Then, they did some research to see what our competitors were doing in that sense. They also reviewed those competitors’ forums to see end users' feedback.

After the research phase, Perpetual designed the wireframes for the new feature, and we met to review the design’s feasibility. We then looped in our sales department and some of our partners to get feedback, iterating on that feedback to refine the designs.

Once we ended the design phase, we entered the implementation phase, where the engineering team took care of implementing the designs into the applications. Throughout this process, Perpetual’s design team reviewed what was being launched into our testing environment to ensure that the features implemented matched what they had proposed with the designs.

Perpetual remained available after the implementation was finished in case we got feedback, complaints, or suggestions for improvements from end users. If that was the case, they helped us make changes within the next couple of days. It was an ongoing iterative process.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with a designer from Perpetual, and we had monthly conversations with Amish (Managing Partner & CEO) to go through the roadmap items and discuss any roadblocks or challenges.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

When I joined, Perpetual was already our partner, so I wasn’t involved in that process.

How much have you invested with them?

On average, we spent between $10,000–$20,000 per month

What is the status of this engagement?

My company started working with Perpetual almost three years ago, in 2019, and our engagement ended in July 2022 because we wanted to change our approach and hire full-time in-house designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Perpetual’s work quality was outstanding, and they worked very fast.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

Perpetual always delivered what they were supposed to and met our deadlines. They were highly responsive and got back to us very fast. Throughout the implementation phase of any project, Perpetual’s design team was always available to answer questions the engineering team might have, and they oversaw our product management team. Our engagement was entirely virtual, so we communicated via emails and video meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perpetual had very knowledgeable team members, and they constantly monitored their performance, which was really amazing. They were very caring and always ensured to provide what we needed. Additionally, they were constantly on top of new technologies and took the time to do proper research, which was really beneficial for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The quality of their work is amazing, and they could get expensive depending how many hours they work with you on your projects. Reach out to them and negotiate for the hourly ratings.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Perpetual is very timely, and they will follow your process. Therefore, be clear about how you expect them to work with you to achieve success.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of a news agency that licenses news to other news organizations. In my role, I act as the business and product owner of a B2B platform through which we sell our news to our partners’ content.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We were trying to explore a mobile app approach for our platform. We only had a desktop-based platform with a mobile browser experience, but we wanted to see what else we could do in the mobile space.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual conducted an exercise involving competition analysis, mobile app design, and user testing to explore the mobile app space for our platform. Initially, they assessed our existing platform and performed a market and competitor analysis to see what other companies were offering. After that, they provided suggestions on what was working and what wasn’t, and they complimented their research by conducting user and stakeholder interviews to get internal and external feedback.

After the discovery process, Perpetual built a prototype of our app, incorporating the feedback they received from our users and us. With the prototype ready, we went into a user testing process with about seven customers. Then, they incorporated the output from this process into the final designs, which they ultimately handed off to us. They designed the mobile experience both for iOS and Android, taking into consideration the accessibility features needed.

What is the team composition?

We worked with around four people from Perpetual, including Amish (CEO), Akshay (Senior Product Designer), Sara (UI/UX designer), and another person.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

We had worked on previous projects with them, so they were already an approved vendor for our company. I had heard excellent things about their work quality, proactiveness, and timeliness on those other projects, so we were confident that they would do a good job. When this project arose, we decided to check if the scope fit their skills, and we then went ahead with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $100,000–$125,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2021–February 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The user interviews and research that Perpetual conducted were very insightful and thorough, and their approach was very structured. Some of the opportunities they identified resonated with our customers very well. For example, one of the top suggestions was that the mobile app should be used as a tool for seeing content on the go. Now, we’re taking the input we got from this exercise and translating it into an action plan.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

Perpetual performed very well. They were very proactive and timely and communicated well with us. We had weekly meetings and other check-ins throughout the week if needed. This helped us to be constantly in the loop and provide real-time feedback, which was great.

Additionally, Perpetual handled the interviews and interactions with our customers and stakeholders really well, and they foresaw any challenges ahead of time. All in all, they offered a very good project management effort.

Perpetual used Figma for the designs and several other tools like Miro and Notion to keep the project on track and well documented. Additionally, we constantly communicated to keep the project moving forward.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perpetual’s work quality was very solid, and their team was very collaborative and easy to work with. They also understood our feedback well, which made our relationship easier because we would just explain what we wanted, and they would incorporate that feedback into their work very well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only area that needed improvement was Perpetual’s competitor research. Their user research and testing were great, but we felt that their competitor research could have been stronger.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Scoping your project and deliverables very well is key, so go in with a very clear scope.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am head of Software development for M8 Systems which is working to bring automation to agriculture. Our goals are to enable more precise irrigation which will reduce labor and water costs for farmers. This is especially important in the current water shortage.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had a working Web based app and wanted a Flutter based mobile app with better usability and future access to phone functions.

SOLUTION

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

I had heard of Perpetual through a mutual contact. When we met with them we were impressed by the skills available, fair cost, and a similar project they had just completed.

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

A working mobile app which called our APIs was the single deliverable. PNY created the Flutter based UI which called our APIs running in Mongo App Services, aka Realm. The app displays the state of the irrigation systems and enables a user to schedule new irrigation sessions. There are also features for irrigation history and manual control.

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

The team was 2 developers, a PM, and a QA resource. The latter two were part time given the M8 team's co-development activities.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The mobile app works well and looks much better than its Web based predecessor which M8 developed in-house. It has enabled us to get new customers and potential investors by giving M8 a much more "polished" look.

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

We worked well together as one team. We added them to our Slack channels and Jira backlog and they were able to execute tasks and update status easily. Through Slack we answered questions asynchronously which minimized impact of the different time zones. The M8 team worked on the APIs while the PNY team worked on using them. There was no "wall" to toss things over. PNY wrote code to use our data and we provided data per their input on what format was more efficient. Great process.

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

In a word, results. PNY kept us on our toes trying to keep up with how quickly they implemented things. They understood what we were trying to do and provided suggestions for us to consider beyond what we specifically asked for. We remain SO impressed that we are engaging PNY for follow-on projects.

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

It would be helpful if clients has better access to test the code under development rather than seeing PNY demo it and then not being able to fully test it until it is released.