Perpetual

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of enterprise products for a data aggregation and distribution company in institutional finance. We work on multiple content types: research, modes, and interaction.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We needed a partner to help us build out the interactions management and entitlement side of our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual is in charge of prouct management and UX. The product management is more high-level, making sure everything is running smoothly. We give them basic business use cases, and they design the screens and create the story. They make sure that dev and QA is functioning properly. The UX consultant also designs screens, but it’s for a wider range of tasks. All resources are located on site, so as to be able to work more closely with our team.

What is the team composition?

They provide a senior and junior product manager and a UX expert.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

My boss had worked with them previously.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since September 2017, but the partnership is winding down.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They helped us see the project more holistically. That wouldn’t have been possible without them.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

Their senior product manager didn’t always have his work done, even when he’d said he would. He’s begun to disengage with the project near the end, knowing it’s coming to a close. The junior product manager frequently checks in, but we’ve had to be more involved than we expected. We mainly communicate via Slack, Skype, and Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their UX consultant is fantastic. He stayed late and went above and beyond. He made great designs and had a thoughtful process, taking into consideration what we wanted.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their UX is better than their product management. We had our top choice for a product manager, but he was unavailable, so we got our second and third selections. The senior manager understood the space but didn’t grasp the nuances of our business, which caused some problems.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Make them feel like part of your team to get them invested in the process. Also, frequently check in with your product managers to make sure they’re on track.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a creative agency. We handle a lot of different tasks such as brand design, digital campaigns, and building websites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We handle most of the design and strategic development on our end. We needed a partner to help us build some of the websites and platforms we designed.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with Perpetual on two CMS-driven projects. For one, they developed an e-commerce platform for a shopping experience. The client wanted to use Shopify Plus. Perpetual created a custom frontend design, and then implemented the design within Shopify's framework. Because the site was for custom furniture, it required them to build many different combinations.

They also led a mission-critical website implementation. They helped build and implement the backend for a custom WordPress site. They've helped with UX/UI design as well, translating some of our sketches or PSD files into more functional responsive executions.

What is the team composition?

We typically work with a project manager, a developer or team of developers, and UX/UI designers.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

I worked with one of their founders at an agency several years ago. We had a good working relationship, and I knew that they were proficient.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $30,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June–October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The tangible benchmarks were that they delivered on time and on budget. The subjective component is that in both cases the brands or clients we work with were extremely happy.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team was quite impressive. They’re super professional. They were responsive, even late and on the weekend. We used Slack on one project and another we just communicated through email. They were open to using whatever technology or style worked for us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had a pleasant disposition and great technical proficiency. Their flexibility to work on different kinds of development platforms made them easy to work with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing immediately comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Not really.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the owner of RSR Sports Management, LLC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

I engaged Perpetual for web development support to make some fixes and enhancements to our website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual provided web development support. Initially, they helped fixed some issues with the site to get it up and running, reorganized a dropdown menu, and made other enhancements as needed.

What is the team composition?

I had one main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

One of my colleagues had a good experience working with them and recommended them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $1,000–$2,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They worked on the site around January 2016 and finished the work within a few hours.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I've received positive feedback on our site from the changes Perpetual made. 

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They're good; they deliver quality work on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They get the job done and they do it in a timely manner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront with them about your needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of enterprise video for a multinational company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We wanted to create a type of CMS to help us plan, control, and monitor the distribution of live video news content. We didn’t have the necessary skills to build the product entirely in-house, so we reached out to Perpetual for their UX expertise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project required us to build an easy-to-use editorial system for journalists and other people within the news media industry. Journalists have highly stressful jobs that force them to work as quickly as possible. Therefore, we needed our product to not only minimize the number of clicks it takes to complete tasks, but also to enable intuitive workflows. Ideally, we wanted a platform that could be utilized without requiring resources to go through a training program.

I provided Perpetual with some extremely rough sketches of how we wanted to sectionalize the interface. We then communicated the high-level tasks and specific workflows the product needed to support. From there, they produced low-fidelity wireframes and then high-fidelity wireframes using InVision. After multiple iterations, they eventually produced the final design.

What is the team composition?

Amish (Head of Product Development, Perpetual) and Matt (Product Designer, Perpetual) were our primary points of contact. Amish provided general project oversight while Matt performed the majority of the prototyping and design work.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

My company had a preexisting relationship with Amish, and we weren’t thrilled by the thought of going through an elaborate RFP process. Having seen the quality of their previous work, we were confident that Perpetual would succeed for us.

What is the status of this engagement?

Their involvement with our product took place from December 2016–July 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we’ve launched the product, our revenue from live video has doubled. I’m can't state exactly how much of that success is due to the product’s design versus the development efforts of our product managers, but it’s definitely a contributing factor. Perpetual’s UX design enables the tool to be used effectively. They’ve increased the interface’s content capacity by over 50%.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They invested themselves in our project and went on the journey with us. The early iterations didn’t meet our requirements, but it’s rare to get things right on the first attempt. Ultimately, they delivered what was promised and within the deadlines we set. We use Jira internally, so they were given access to that to update the product’s user story. We also put feedback into InVision, thus collaborating directly around the wireframes for better context.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve found that a lot of service providers try to force their known solutions onto the client. Instead, Perpetual wanted to understand our problem and asked questions when necessary. As a result, they adapted to us and designed a product that directly addressed the issue we wanted to resolve. That aspect of our engagements stands out to me as unique. They’re very honorable people.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re happy with the engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend that future clients run through whiteboard sessions with them in person. If we utilized that approach, I suspect they would’ve gotten a better understanding of the product and would’ve had time to develop an additional iteration. Proactively communicating with their team from the start of the project will yield better results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product director at Global Debt Registry, a financial tech company that tokenizes consumer assets for the structured credit market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We wanted to develop a blockchain app, but we didn’t have in-house resources to design the frontend.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our primary goal was to build an app that revolutionized the interaction between information architecture and visual design. The project required Perpetual to create a sophisticated, user-friendly interface with light and dark themes. Relevant blockchain activity is presented as comprehensible data on the platform’s Bootstrap dashboard. Perpetual's team utilized InDesign to develop the frontend, and our team implemented their CSS code on the backend.

What is the team composition?

We mostly interacted with their founder and two of their UX/UI designers, but a few members of their development team occasionally provided brief consultations.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

Our CEO has a close connection with Perpetual’s founder, so we immediately reached out to them. After meeting their attentive team and seeing their past work, we knew that they would be an excellent fit for the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $10,000 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our six-week engagement lasted between August–September 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We allowed a few of our clients to test out the app, and they all responded positively to its sleek design and user-friendly navigation. Our team is equally pleased with Perpetual’s work, and we expect the app to compete well with similar products on the market.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They were terrific at moving the project along quickly; however, they did spend more time working on the design concept than we anticipated. We met daily to discuss our progress, and we kept in frequent contact via Slack and email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Many developers use default templates to rush through the development process, but Perpetual takes the time to personalize their work with a healthy dose of creativity. It was nice to finally work with a company who has a rational thought process behind their work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were behind schedule during the first few weeks, which could have been avoided if we had set aside more time for iteration.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

A clearly-defined vision is crucial to the project’s success.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of operations at Atomic Capital, a Houston-based private equity firm focused on acquisitions in the onshore oil and gas industry in the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We engaged Perpetual to design and develop our blockchain platform for one of our first customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual built a proprietary blockchain platform and white label solution. They helped us determine the requirements and scope of work, researching third-party APIs that we could integrate such as Stripe. They've also helped us find workarounds within certain APIs as needed to deliver a customized solution to the client. Currently, we have a functional version of the product, but we're still optimizing and testing it.

What is the team composition?

I work with Amish (Head of Product Development, Perpetual), Shawna (UX/UI Designer, Perpetual), and another developer directly.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

I found them through a Google search for blockchain developers. Amish was very quick to respond and provided details about the solutions he could offer when I initially reached out. They also had good reviews and seemed to have a strong understanding of blockchain and cryptocurrency, both from a technical and business perspective.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested $70,000–$90,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2018, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've received lots of positive feedback from our customer thus far; they've been very impressed with Perpetual's UI/UX design, the site's overall functionality, and their ability to deliver quickly.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They're responsive and accessible. If needed, we can reach one of their team members on an hourly basis through Slack. They're also great at providing updates and are always willing to join last-minute meetings when needed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perpetual's team is respectful of our timelines and ensure their availability for meetings and communications. They're consistently on time and are prepared whenever we do conference calls, so we can see them face to face. I'm impressed by their ability to do whatever it takes within whatever timeframe we require.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We've been very impressed overall.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As with any business problem, sometimes things get lost in translation, so I would encourage future clients to be willing to communicate directly and immediately with their team whenever an issue arises. They excel at proactively working through any issues.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the general manager at Unpakt, which is a moving service. As their first employee, I had a variety of responsibilities ranging from business operation mapping to hiring, managing, and supporting the various teams within our company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

In the first stages of our business, we worked with a different company to develop our service, but as we scaled up we made the decision to staff an internal development team. In addition, we wanted to hire a product manager and a few resources to supplement that team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Amish, the product manager, leveraged his technical background to help guide us through the transition of working with the previous company to a team of internal designers and developers. At this point, we were still building an MVP to use for beta testing. He acted as a middleman between our technical resources and our management. Under Amish’s leadership, the team was able to operate with more efficiency.

Over the course of the engagement, they completed the web platform and built a corresponding mobile app for iOS devices. The team used tools like Ruby on Rails and jQuery, along with other agile development technologies, to build the systems. They chose only the most important elements from the website and arranged them into a fluid and intuitive interface for the mobile app. One of the most important features allows users to create an inventory that can be updated at any time. With this function, users can more easily manage their move.

What is the team composition?

In addition to Amish, Perpetual also provided about three designers and six developers.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

I posted a description of the opportunity on a job listing website and received many replies. I spoke to a few prospective vendors, one of them being Perpetual. Knowing the personality of the rest of my team, I was looking for a people that could seamlessly assimilate into the culture. I spoke to Amish, and found him to have the perfect balance of intelligence, understanding, experience, and modesty. I rely heavily on my team, but ultimately make the final decisions, and it was clear in our first meeting that he could manage his team in the same way. Based on my first impression, I chose to partner with Perpetual.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $100,000–$250,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July 2012–January 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With Perpetual’s help, we launched both the web and mobile apps, all of which were highly used by customers. Throughout the development process, we tracked their work, completed features, and bugs. Based on these metrics, our company increase productivity by 50% and reduced our total number of wasted hours. Our quarterly savings rates were great and we experienced consistent month-over-month success. Now, I still reach out to resources at Perpetual if for my technical needs.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

Even though most of my experience falls on the brick-and-mortar side of the business, Perpetual actively included me throughout the development process. We all attended weekly meetings, discussed project reports, and shared information via a project management tool. We stayed on schedule with the plan that we established at the beginning of the engagement. If there was any scope creep, it was either very minimal or necessary to the project’s future success. Perpetual was very organized throughout the development phases.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Perpetual team is passionate about their work and their industry. They are up to date on all the newest tools and best practices in terms of design, development, and overall project management and problem-solving processes. Many times, I took their solutions and implemented them throughout other departments in the company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They stuck to the timeline and managed an organized project. I really can’t say anything bad about their company.

Any advice for potential customers?

I recommend clients bring Perpetual in for a full scope analysis of their product strategy, business strategy, and industry competition. The more critical information that they can access, the more accurate they can be in both their short-term and long-term solutions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a managing director at Biproxi, a commercial real estate marketplace for brokers, buyers, and tenants.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We hired Perpetual to build our website and help us develop a strategy surrounding the overall product we were creating.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual helped us conceptualize our website from the start, from developing and refining the wireframes to developing it from scratch. The platform lists roughly 40,000–50,000 commercial real estate properties for sale or lease around the US, allowing brokers, buyers, and tenants access to a national inventory of apartment, office, or industrial spaces for sale or lease. They also integrated a number of features, including social media, payment capabilities, and external data from other providers.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager and about 15 developers.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

We interviewed a number of providers, but Perpetual was recommended to us by one of our advisors. We were very impressed by their history of work and they were quick to understand what we wanted to achieve, offering helpful suggestions around our initial ideas.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested about $100,00-$250,000 to this date. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2018 and the relationship is ongoing. We expect to launch the site over the next few weeks [in August].

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Perpetual built an effective platform, utilizing the most scalable and flexible technology solutions available. They successfully translated our verbal ideas into a solid final product. Although we haven't launched the site yet, they've met all development timelines and quality expectations. The demo site has been well received by both our clients and internal team. Bugs and issues have been minimal; their QA team is fairly robust, so any issues we've had have been addressed within a day or two.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very responsive and flexible in working with our team, despite our lack of experience in web development. We're able to reach them whenever we need to through Slack, phone, and email, but we also hold biweekly Skype calls with their team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the product they developed, their responsiveness, and the flexibility they've show in working with us has been outstanding.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more you can define the scope of a project and its requirements, the better off you'll be.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the former director of research and development (R&D) for a media provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We needed to develop an application for Google Glass when it was a beta product. We wanted a pilot that could demonstrate the capabilities of our content provider.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We passed on some design sketches to them. The goal was to debut a new technology to the public. In doing so, we wanted to build a content library that would introduce content to Google Glass and seed the app store. We wanted to be an early adopter of all kinds of new technologies. We used the development process to get closer to Google’s goals and play with a new form factor for our content.

What is the team composition?

Since it was a small build, we communicated directly with one developer. We were also in contact with Amish (Head of Product Development, Perpetual). Having Amish as our lead person was very helpful; he was invested in our success.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

We were referred to them, and the referral played a big role in the selection process. Their cost was also competitive. 

How much have you invested in them?

We spent between $50,000–$100,000. It was a competitive hourly rate.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January–August 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Working with their team was great. They figured out a new technology and worked with us to build a form factor. They provided a lot of guidance and thought leadership. Amish was very smart and creative. We leaned on him a little more than we might have done if we were just working with a developer on a standard product build, simply because we needed a lot of analysis and creativity to reach our goals.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. We didn’t have our own development team, and I’m not a technical person, so they did things like basic blocking and tackling. They really carried me along, setting up API keys and basic AWS. They helped a lot with that and took ownership of it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

At the time, most people who built Google Glass apps had their own development teams. It was especially heavy lifting to get them to understand our use case and the new technology, but they did so very well. They have a team overseas and traditionally work on larger, routine stuff. Our project was unique, but working with them was still great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager of a financial services firm that delivers news and data products to customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We were retiring a website that was developed a number of years ago. We had to rebuild it completely from scratch. We wanted a new UI based on Amazon Web Services (AWS). We didn’t have the resources to develop the frontend application in the timeframe we wanted.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought them in to do the UI/UX work as well as the web development. Our site is a video website and is heavily video based. They have the expertise and knowledge about how to develop such websites. They were working with APIs that we have available, as well as embedded video players to rebuild the site.

They used Ruby on Rails based on AWS. They used video technology from a company called Kaltura. They were working with the Kaltura video player and API to develop the overall experience.

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with Amish (Head of Product Development, Perpetual), who is the head of the team. He was the project and product manager. We also worked with Matthew (Product Designer, Perpetual), who was the head developer, and there were some other developers involved.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

Our company has historically worked with Perpetual but our specific team hadn't. We found them through prior business arrangements and word of mouth. Historical knowledge and expertise is why we went with Perpetual.

How much have you invested with them?

$25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January 2015 until July 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re very happy with how the platform performed. It was developed in a very short period of time, so we weren’t sure whether it would stand the test of time, but it certainly has. The developers who have taken it over are very happy with how it’s performing. We haven’t had to really make any changes at all from their original deployments. We’re very happy with how it’s working.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management is pretty good. We mainly worked with Amish—he was our project manager in that phase. We shared documents online to track timelines and open tickets. We had an open view into the work they were doing. They were very open and transparent, which is what we needed because we had very strict timelines to meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the UI/UX is very impressive. We gave them free rein to develop the website as they saw fit in the timeframe. They came up with a UI/UX that was very unique and novel in that short time. To then meet that design with good development was also very impressive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Transparency is crucial. Communicate the ideas that you have and show them to them clearly and quickly.