That Product Studio

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of ayda, a virtual and hybrid events platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with That Product Studio?

We wanted to quickly build and validate our product in the market, so I reached out to That Product Studio.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

That Product Studio is helping shape our early-stage products and contributing to the overall strategy of this software development project. 

We’ve co-developed and designed the first version, and we continue to work with them to build different features and enhancements. The process started with a discussion of the overall concept and from there, they started working on the framing, designing, and testing of the different iterations where they helped us come up with the right components and the technical architecture.

Once the design phase was completed, we commenced the actual development which has two parts; front- and backend development. We utilize React Native and Libraries, and AWS for the whole process.

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with their CTO, two developers for the front- and backend, and from time-to-time with their Chief Design Officer.

How did you come to work with That Product Studio?

We already established a working relationship with That Product Studio from a previous development project.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve invested about $150,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in May 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measure the project through the speed of the engagement and the quality of the build — That Product Studio did not disappoint us, as they’re able to deliver their tasks with agility, as well as keep defects and issues to a minimum.

The quality of their work is extremely good as they’re able to consistently mitigate any risks and resolve them before they become a problem.

How did That Product Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform well from a project management perspective as meeting deadlines have never been an issue.

We used to manage the project through Asana, but we’ve since switched over to Trello, where they’re more efficient in tracking tickets and keeping them updated.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re very impressed with That Product Studio’s understanding and utilization of the principles of gamification, to motivate users to use the product. They’ve basically been implementing their knowledge and experience in making our software more engaging.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve on because they really understand the complexities and challenges of developing for a startup.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To make the most out of your engagement, I would advise you to be completely transparent about the aspects of the development that will challenge you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Aware Technologies Limited, a company that produces hardware and software to measure the internal environments of homes to create 3D versions of them.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with That Product Studio?

We were looking for UI/UX experts so our customers can easily understand the science behind what we’re trying to calculate and interpret.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought in That Product Studio to help us design a customer journey where we could transform the data into something that can easily be understood.

The team helps by sending surveys and questionnaires to define and build user personas, so we can design prototypes of what a new service could look like. We do testing through Miro, Figma, and another visualization tool to bring life to our design prototypes.

What is the team composition?

We work with Julien (Co-Founder & CXO), Andrew (CTO), and Jez (Co-Founder & CDO).

How did you come to work with That Product Studio?

We originally came across That Product Studio through Upwork during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about £150,000 (approximately $180,600 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in November 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t really have any measurable metrics, but the team has come up with some excellent designs for our product.

How did That Product Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform well from a project management perspective and we typically communicate through email, Slack, Google Meet, and WhatsApp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with how extremely proactive, creative, and skilled they are. We don’t really need to think too hard about what we’re trying to achieve because they always hit the mark.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of what they need to improve on because they consistently deliver good work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To get the most out of your engagement with them, go into the partnership with an open mind and let go of your pre-conceived ideas on how the project will go.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Chief Product Officer at Ordo; an Open Banking payment service provider

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire That Product Studio?

We are looking to offer a new to market payment service and wanted some support to help develop the UX before we began our technical development

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

One of our web developers had worked with TPS previously and recommended them. In 2021 we commissioned a review of our existing iOS and web services, which was really insightful, and therefore they were front of mind when we commissioned this activity

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

We provided TPS with some 'industry' guidelines as to how the new service should be presented, then worked with TPS to identify a range of use-cases and customer journeys based around this new service. TPS generated blueprints to get into the detail of each use case and then created a number of 'clickable' user journeys that were iterated on to produce a final set of journeys. These journeys have since be used for two purposes:

• to help map out our process flows, data models and service catalogue, and
• as a demonstrator to prospective clients - to bring the new solution to life

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

One full time UX/UI person plus some project support for 7 weeks

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Delighted wit deliverables, which are helping drive both our internal development but also as a sales/marketing tool with prospective clients

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Superb; daily stand-up to update on progress, play back latest, and took all feedback and baked into next iteration. Flexible to fit around our diaries.

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

The 'immersion' into our world. Payments is quite niche, but the team got under the skin of the subject, were able to put themselves into the role of different actors in the transactions, and did not require a huge amount of support to do so

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

Nothing springs to mind