Red Foundry

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am an Executive of Technology of Dentologie

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We own and operate multiple dental offices.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Red Foundry to accomplish?

• Build new mobile and web app infrastructure.

SOLUTION

How did you find Red Foundry?

Previous experience.

Why did you select Red Foundry over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Red Foundry were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Provide a patient facing mobile application focused on scheduling dental appointments and collecting dental/medical history information along with insurance details. 
• Android and iOS apps both provided and having feature parity. 
• Web app scheduling tool provide that matches the mobile experience. 
• Backend integration with our electronic medical records system. 
• Scalable solution as we move from 4 offices to 40+.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Release of the web scheduling tool on time and budget, despite us shifting priorities during the build phase. Mobile applications ready for launch on time.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Very responsive to our needs and the moving landscape of services provided by third-party vendors. Provided cost-effective solutions when issues arose with other systems our project was integrate with.

What was your primary form of communication with Red Foundry?

Virtual Meeting

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

The buy-in from the Red Foundry team into our project was amazing. They cared about our patient's experiences and wanted to make it as wonderful as we want to make it. Several of the Red Foundry team have since become patients of our practice.

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

No areas needed major improvement, everything went about as well as it could have in our interactions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP, Learning Products of BellXcel

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

BellXcel is a nationally-recognized nonprofit that empowers youth program providers with innovative solutions, services and resources to scale and create meaningful impact across a variety of settings and communities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Red Foundry to accomplish?

• Discover, Design & Develop a seamless user-friendly web-app experience for the BellXcel user (learner).
• Create unified visual (UI) experience across our entire platform, including our learning products (currently housed in a separate LMS)
• Integrate a headless CMS (Contentful) to manage all of our learning content.

SOLUTION

How did you find Red Foundry?

Referral

Why did you select Red Foundry over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• We have used them in past.

How many teammates from Red Foundry were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Red Foundry Deliverables during this phase include:

• User Personas, User Journeys, and Feature Requirements
• a narrative describing and documenting the Product features and Requirements from a user’s perspective.
• Initial UI/UX Wireframes - illustrating UI/UX concepts and user-to-product interaction flows.
• Clickable Prototype – a clickable, user-flow enabled simulation of the Product, which provides the Client with a visual representation of how the user would interact with the Product. Technical Architecture - a summary of the technical components, or subsystems, and interfaces that provide the foundation of the Product. This Deliverable is to address the Product architecture, 3rd party services, database design, API interface layer, and in-Product services (e.g., push notifications, chat) as needed to implement the requirements and design.
• High-Level Data Model - illustrating the key data entities and relationships that will be stored in the backend database as needed to implement the requirements and design.
• Project and Jira Sprint Plan - a prioritized list of features and proposed release bundles, (the Product Roadmap - v1.0, v2.0, v3.0, etc.) including project estimates for each release and for the v1.0
• Phase II - Implementation Stage, which includes develop, test, and launch.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

A functioning prototype that includes filtering and searching functionality, now in UAT, going to production.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Very timely and responsive, with constant communication as to costs.

What was your primary form of communication with Red Foundry?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

They are nice a group of people and easy to work with. They're responsive to our needs.

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

Nothing in particular for this project!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CTO of Yello

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Yello helps large enterprises and the Federal government recruit tens of thousands of diverse candidates into entry level and internship roles every year.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Red Foundry to accomplish?

• Understand and help support a legacy iOS & Android application.
• Add small features as needed.

SOLUTION

How did you find Red Foundry?

Online Search

Why did you select Red Foundry over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost

What was the size of Red Foundry’s team?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Red Foundry was asked to pick up a legacy code base and understand what was required to support it going forward. Beyond that we have added several features including rewriting a major portion that significantly improved the number of crashes the app was having.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The new features have been delivered within the estimated period. We also reduced the number of app crashes significantly.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Our project manager is very responsive. We agree on timelines and Red Foundry hits them.

What was your primary form of communication with Red Foundry?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email
• Messaging App

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

I have been impressed with Red Foundry's commitment to finding the best outcome for our clients, including meeting with the end user if needed to resolve an issue.

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

No, we've had a very positive experience working with Red Foundry.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Grupiks, an app that allows users to take selfies while being in multiple locations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Red Foundry?

We needed to develop our application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Red Foundry has developed our application from scratch using AWS. The app is for iOS and Android, and it should be accessible on all devices, such as laptops, desktops, and iPads. They’ve also helped us with the design and website development. They’ve used Figma to review the wireframes and app structure together.

We initially engaged with Red Foundry, and they sent us a contract with the scope of work to put the proof of concept (POC) together. Our lawyer reviewed the contract, and we moved on to work with them.

What is the team composition?

We started with two teammates, and now we’re up to four: Ron (Partner & CTO), Kerri (VP & Client Delivery), and two developers.

How did you come to work with Red Foundry?

My lawyer referred them.

How much have you invested with them?

The POC was $75,000, and we’ll spend roughly $320,000 more to finish the app.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2022, and our relationship is ongoing. We’ll hopefully finish the project in May or June 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ll hopefully launch the app in a few months. Currently, we have the prototype downloaded on four phones to show it to investors and our team. Overall, Red Foundry’s quality of work is excellent, and they have a great team working on our project. We’ve had no issues.

How did Red Foundry perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is excellent. They communicate well with us and let us know exactly where they’re at with the process; we meet every week to go over everything. If there are any issues, we work together to solve them.

We communicate through email, Figma, and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’ve met the CEO in person and bonded well with him. All in all, we feel Red Foundry has the same vision as us. They’re an excellent company to work with, and their staff is outstanding.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there isn’t anything to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If they agree to do your project, they’ll get it done for you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of LuvDuv, a startup company that offers a dating app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Red Foundry?

We needed someone to design and develop our mobile application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I asked Red Foundry to create the UI/UX design of our iOS and Android mobile dating app. Red Foundry’s CEO outlined a statement of work (SoW) that included understanding the app’s needs, formulating a corresponding solution, identifying detailed requirements, creating the UI’s design wireframe, and the applicable prototype.

As stated on their SoW, Red Foundry's original deliverables were the user personas’ feature requirements, the UI’s wireframes, the clickable prototype, and the high-level data model. 

In the end, I didn’t conclude the app’s discovery design process with Red Foundry.

What is the team composition?

Initially, I talked with Rich (Partner & CEO). During our engagement, I primarily worked with Kate (Product Designer) and Ron (Partner & CTO). I also worked with Kerri (Partner) and Courtney (Project Manager). 

How did you come to work with Red Foundry?

I did extensive research looking for mobile app development companies. I came across Clutch and found Red Foundry’s profile there. I noticed Red Foundry was based in Chicago, which is also where I’m located. 

I chose Red Foundry after I read their Clutch reviews and checked their previous work. I also talked with Rich on multiple occasions to sort out all my concerns. 

How much have you invested with them?

I invested $40,000 with Red Foundry. 

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked with Red Foundry from October–December 2022. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

I encountered multiple issues during the second half of the project that made me decide not to continue with Red Foundry for the app’s development. The UI design’s quality was very poor, and the design process was very disappointing, to say the least.

After presenting me with several poor-quality designs, Red Foundry requested I select a design from premade templates. They then changed the color palette and presented almost the exact design to me a week later. The template designs Red Foundry presented to me were easily found on other website-building platforms, which went directly against Red Foundry’s advertised ability to produce high-fidelity designs.

Furthermore, there was no collaboration with Red Foundry’s UI designer. We didn’t have in-depth discussions about the app’s user personas so that they could generate original designs accordingly. Red Foundry didn’t make an effort to understand our company’s values or ideas.

I showed Red Foundry’s work to some marketing and advertising colleagues, who were simply baffled by the design’s lack of quality. Overall, Red Foundry’s general lack of talent and creativity led me to move on with another company. 

How did Red Foundry address the challenges that arose?

When I addressed my concerns about Red Foundry’s poor-quality designs, the initial response by one of their team members was that the work they had delivered answered my initial requirements, which was completely inaccurate. 

After discussing the issue a bit more, Red Foundry came up with more designs, but they were still lacking the quality I required. This situation continued for the rest of the project until the funds ran out. 

In the end, Red Foundry informed me that they no longer had the funds to complete the design phase since these iterations had exhausted the available budget to produce a workable prototype, which was one of the deliverables from our original agreement.

Moreover, I was really shocked when I received an email from Rich saying he was unaware of this situation. I then asked Rich for his personal opinion, and instead of giving me an answer, he derailed the question telling me to address this situation with Courtney and Kerri, which I had already done.

During our initial meetings, Rich advised me not to work with international companies, supposedly due to their lack of reliability and talent. However, when he found out my current service provider was an international company, he tried to convince me to work with one of their partners instead, which is also international. I found it very confusing and unprofessional that a company’s CEO advised me not to work with a company based on their location.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

The unsuccessful partnership with Red Foundry has caused a lot of setbacks in our product’s development process and finances. As an entrepreneur, I’m funding the project myself, and this engagement drew a fair portion of my original budget. 

My initial agreement with Red Foundry was that by the end of our engagement, I would have a clickable prototype. This prototype would help me draw funds for the development phase since I was planning to present it to potential investors. 

Despite all my efforts and investment, I ended up with no prototype, so I had no other option but to move forward with a different company to finish the app’s design.

How was project management handled?

Red Foundry's project management was very poor. I initially talked to Rich through Zoom, email, and phone calls. I also had weekly meetings with Red Foundry, although not every team member participated in the discussions or gave feedback. For instance, Kerri and Courtney didn’t get involved.

Moreover, Red Foundry had several communication issues, the main one being that they didn’t communicate with me that the iterations I was asking to get the desired result would eliminate the possibility of creating a clickable prototype. Red Foundry told me about this situation until one of the last meetings of the discovery phase, even though we’ve had several virtual and in-person meetings by that point.

Is there anything that Red Foundry did well or that you would consider a strength?

Kate and Ron’s communication style was really good for the most part. They were attentive and responsive to the questions I had. Additionally, the wireframe Kate created was good — she really tried to get things right. 

In what specific areas can they improve?

Red Foundry’s UI design department definitely needs improvement. They need to be more collaborative in their approach instead of working with premade templates.

Another thing Red Foundry can improve on is their communication skills. They need to inform their clients about any additional costs that overruns may generate and the delays caused by them. There also seemed to be a disconnection between the project management team and the CEO, as he was unaware of my project’s situation.

Red Foundry could also improve their organization and attention to detail. At the end of our engagement, I received an invoice created for an amount ten times higher than what I owed them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Based on my experience, I honestly wouldn’t recommend anybody to work with Red Foundry — especially entrepreneurs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a division manager for a holding company. My division is responsible for alcoholic beverage distribution in the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Red Foundry?

We needed help with mobile application development. We had built a mobile app internally, but the scope and delivery of that app were very small; it was an internal-facing app only available for iOS. Therefore, we hired Red Foundry to redevelop the entire app on a new technology stack to allow us to deploy it to Android and iOS devices. Our ultimate goal was to push the app out to the public-facing app stores so that all of our employees could use it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Red Foundry has helped us redevelop our mobile app. Using this app, our employees who travel across the country can find the brands that we provide to whatever retailer they go visit. Our clients are both on-premise and off-premise retailers, including bars, restaurants, taverns, grocery stores, and convenience stores. Thus, our employees can use the app to find a certain customer based on their location and pull up all the brands we distribute to that client so that they can support the brands we sell.

We’ve already launched our app's first version to gather users' feedback. Thus far, we’ve had at least two rounds of meetings with Red Foundry for further development tasks.

What is the team composition?

We work with 6–8 people from Red Foundry, ranging from executives to technical and support people.

How did you come to work with Red Foundry?

Our CIO knew their owner through a charitable organization. When this project arose, we didn’t have the internal skill set to do it, and we were rolling off our iOS developers because we were moving towards a SaaS model. However, I remembered what Red Foundry did and reached out to the founder to see if they would be interested in working with us.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around April 2022, and we’re still engaged.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had extremely positive feedback from our users about our app. They’ve told us that our app is brilliant and that they love it. We’ve also received ideas for new features, and we’ve never received complaints about issues or bugs, which is great.

Still, Red Foundry has also been extremely helpful at problem-solving. One time, we had an issue with the API that connects our app with Google Maps for the geolocalization feature. However, it was an issue on our end. We had signed up for a free trial and never moved to a paid version, so at one point, the map API stopped working. We contacted Red Foundry, and they told us exactly what the issue was and how to solve it. Within minutes, we had our system up and running again.

How did Red Foundry perform from a project management standpoint?

Red Foundry has performed better than expected. We’ve come a little under budget, so we’ve used some of the extra money to do some other tasks after launch. Although we ended up delivering a bit later than planned, it was due to an issue on our end; Red Foundry was ready to deliver two weeks early.

From a project management perspective, Red Foundry has been one of the best service providers I’ve ever worked with. In fact, we’re looking at doing a second project with them. They’ve been very clear about the project status and sent us weekly updates throughout the development process.

Moreover, Red Foundry has been very collaborative. We’ve had several interactive demos through Figma, where they’ve shown us the screens and what they’ve been working on to gather our feedback and provide our input for design decisions. We use Microsoft Teams and Zoom to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Red Foundry offers a much more personable approach to projects than other software developers I've worked with in the past. We don’t have a lot of people on our end involved in the project, so they’ve done the heavy lifting. These efforts have included listening to us very well and doing a lot of work upfront.

Initially, we talked about a lot of different things, and they helped us define our requirements. Then, they were instrumental in translating those requirements into technical tasks for their development team.

Other companies act as client advisors and require the client to do a lot of the work, but Red Foundry is excellent at leading projects themselves. For our next project, they’ll even do more tasks, and they’ll even meet with stakeholders for us. Overall, they’re very involved and use a hands-on approach, which is outstanding.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they could improve on; we even enjoy talking with them about the success of the project, so our relationship is almost like a friendship.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with them. Their pricing is reasonable, and they offer a lot of services.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a market research company. We have a series of apps in the App Store and Google Play Store.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Red Foundry?

We needed to improve the UI/UX design of our apps.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Red Foundry provided us with UI/UX design services using Figma. We already had user personas and had done competitive research, so we offered examples of competitors’ apps we wanted to emulate while putting our own spin on them. The Red Foundry team picked a color palette and font and gave us an outline. 

From there, they iterated on the design with us. Red Foundry followed specific design requirements because we worked with credit card networks. The team created a centralized dashboard in an additional screen our previous design didn’t have. They also designed a feature that displays users’ transaction history. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with Alaina (Senior Project Manager), a senior developer, and a designer from Red Foundry. Other administrative teammates came in and out to keep an eye on the project. 

How did you come to work with Red Foundry?

Although I don’t recall exactly how we found them, I believe it was on Google and Clutch. I interviewed some service providers from Clutch. Interacting with Red Foundry was good; it felt very professional and like we were in good hands, so we went with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $25,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

This project lasted from August–October 2022. Currently, they’re working with us on other design projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app looks and feels much more polished, which is what we were going for. One of our goals was to make the app look like we’re not such a small team, and Red Foundry accomplished that. The team was great at iterating with us until the design came together nicely. As a result, it looks much more professional and trustworthy. 

I like how they displayed users’ transaction history, and the dashboard looks good. The dashboard has been helpful for us to have a de facto place to put some of our experience, which we didn’t have before. Overall, everyone on my team is very happy with the design. 

The Red Foundry team was really professional and not pushy, which we’ve experienced with other companies. Initially, we were interested in having Red Foundry do some development for us, but we had some budgetary constraints.

How did Red Foundry perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great at communicating with us, meeting deadlines, and staying on budget. They were clear about their rates and how much our project would cost. Although the budget was built over time, it was close to their initial projection. 

We were working with some credit card networks, and there were specific design requirements to do that. Whenever we asked for something specific there and gave them feedback from our network partner, Red Foundry turned around the work within a week and sometimes even faster. 

As for communication, we had weekly meetings through Zoom and also used email. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was impressed with Red Foundry’s experience building mobile apps. They could advise us on some things we weren’t aware of. For example, we talked to them about the technology we wanted to work with because they were very knowledgeable. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They didn’t need to improve; we were happy with them and engaged them on another project. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open and honest with Red Foundry; they’ll work with you and get you what you need.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief information officer at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. We educate and represent 40,000 orthopedic surgeons in North America and worldwide, and we’ve been around for over 80 years. Our goal is both to represent them from an advocacy perspective and to train them to ensure they can get from residents to successful surgeons and, ultimately, emeritus members of our organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Red Foundry?

We were trying to create a new member experience so that we could get our members to the most frequently used sites on our web environment.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Red Foundry has created a mobile membership app for us to help us simplify our member experience. First, they worked with us to define the member experience, which required a lot of design thinking and requirements gathering from the various business lines within our academy.

During this process, Red Foundry worked closely with us to understand the requirements of our different membership categories. They also assessed the existing capabilities of our various programs and existing websites to come up with wireframe designs for a high-impact/low-touch app that could provide our users with easier access to those capabilities.

After that, Red Foundry built the mobile app for us using React Native. Our product had to comply with both the Google Play Store and the App Store requirements, so they worked with us to create both versions of the app. Once they developed the app, they helped us with testing and release management. Now, we’re in the maintenance phase, and we’re planning to develop a second version of the app for 2023.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with around 6–7 people from Red Foundry, including Rich (Partner & CEO), Kerri (Partner), Ron (Partner & CTO), Elizabeth (Project Manager), and some designers and developers.

How did you come to work with Red Foundry?

I was referred to them and heard about the work that they had done. We thought some of their work was fantastic, so we hired them to do something similar for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2021, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The mobile app developed by Red Foundry has brought around nine different core functions to our members’ fingertips, making it easier for us to push messages and for them to log in and get to most of the assets they need from us. After its soft launch, the app has been well-received by our board of directors and our residents, who have provided very positive feedback.

Additionally, we’ve seen an increase in the number of downloads, as well as sustained usage from the people who have downloaded it — a high percentage of them continue to use it. These users also continuously use the communication features we’ve implemented, demonstrating the success of the product and exceeding our expectations.

How did Red Foundry perform from a project management standpoint?

Red Foundry has met their scheduled deliverables on time and within budget. We communicate regularly with them and have status meetings. Whenever we have challenges, we rapidly reach out to them, and they’re very responsive to those challenges.

The development process has been very complex, as the product has a complex infrastructure with multiple sign-on environments and CMSs. Still, Red Foundry has been very good at defining the issues they’ve found and bringing people to the table to solve them without waiting for us to report those issues.

We use Microsoft Teams to chat and have meetings. We also have in-person meetings twice per week and communicate via email. After the requirement-gathering process, we used a very helpful tool to visualize the outputs and bring them to our governance teams. Additionally, we’ve used PowerPoint to create presentations for feature trees.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The diligence and quality of Red Foundry’s people are impressive. Kerri and her team have been on top of the project from start to finish, leading the entire process and correcting any issues to ensure we’re happy with the outcome. Red Foundry has earned our trust right from the start, and they’ve consistently performed well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. If anything, I’ve felt that we both have spent some time trying to fix things that ultimately haven’t represented major issues, making us spend more time than necessary focusing on those small details.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Leverage the weekly meetings and other communication channels to keep abreast of the project’s progress.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the chief product officer at a national nonprofit organization that provides digital solutions for out-of-school time providers. I handle all of our product development. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Red Foundry?

We hired Red Foundry to develop mobile applications for the educational technology space. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had some high-level ideas for the goals of the mobile apps going into the project. Our primary goal was to develop tools that allowed partners to communicate and engage with families easily. At the same time, we wanted to build a foundation with the app that would enable us to grow and introduce new capabilities in the future. 

We started with a round of discovery work and then worked with Red Foundry and our design partner to develop wireframes and scope the project. Red Foundry then took control of the project; they fleshed out the design and explored different technology solutions that could handle the capabilities we wanted to include. 

Once all that was done, we went through a few development sprints and then pushed out two cross-platform mobile applications to the app stores. Now, they provide ongoing support. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with two senior members of the organization, including their CTO and program manager. The developer, project manager, and designer from Red Foundry were amazing.

How did you come to work with Red Foundry?

I found Red Foundry on Clutch. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested around $200,000 with Red Foundry so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with Red Foundry began in October 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app wrapped up in April or May of 2022, and we're getting ready to set up a new contract for another round of development. Red Foundry has identified one bug, but addressed it quickly and has already pushed a fix for it. 

Since the app just went live a few weeks ago, I don't have any specific metrics. However, our sales team has been incredibly excited about the launch, and many of our partners are getting ready to use it. We've had very positive feedback across the board. 

How did Red Foundry perform from a project management standpoint?

During the development, Red Foundry provided regular reports via email, and we had weekly meetings to discuss the project's status on Zoom. We stuck to the budget for the most part, although we went a little over when we decided to do two apps instead of the one we initially planned. However, Red Foundry was able to stick to the final budget and timeline. Most of our communication was in Slack, and we used Jira to manage the project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Red Foundry is incredibly efficient and knowledgeable. They've given us a lot of good advice about technical solutions and strategies. Also, they've been able to complete robust apps in just a few months that included platform integrations and different services — Red Foundry works very fast. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have no constructive feedback for Red Foundry — this is one of the smoothest engagements we've had with a development partner. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I'd advise customers to have a good sense of the scope of their project and what they want to build. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of digital strategy for a physicians' member association. We also do laboratory accreditation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Red Foundry?

We needed to build a mobile application from scratch for our members, so we needed a good development partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially engaged with Red Foundry to do an evaluation to pull together some estimates and high-level design concepts. We didn’t have that information to get the full funding approval.

Once it was approved, we re-engaged with Red Foundry to do development. It included everything from project meetings and sprints to putting in the resources. They brought a team of developers and worked with React Native. They worked with our company’s side to coordinate content and backend integration.

The app is for iOS and Android, and it’s targeted towards pathologists in their early careers. The idea is to give them bite-size education opportunities and content that can be meaningful to them, so we’re not recreating the website. We want to get short, helpful information in their pockets. We’ve included a member directory so users can log in and look up at our membership body of roughly 18,000 people. Users can also filter and sort everything, having easy access to the podcasts and articles that other members write, as well as updates on the scientific content that members create.

What is the team composition?

We work with their CTO, a project manager, and a couple of developers. Often, our project manager works directly with their project manager, but we include the whole team at the standing meetings.

How did you come to work with Red Foundry?

My predecessor found them; I’m not 100% sure how. I believe it was word of mouth.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we’re close to $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our engagement in May 2020 and launched the app in August 2021. Now, we’re working on the next version, so our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our main KPI has been stickiness. Right now, we’re around a 40% stickiness, so members are coming back to the app and using it regularly. We haven’t been able to tie it back into membership renewals or hard numbers, but we know roughly over 800 members are currently using it.

On the other hand, there have been bugs and enhancements. We have a minor release every two months, so we’re on version 1.4 and constantly working with Red Foundry. We have a product manager who has worked closely with them to groom the backlog and roll out the updates.

Moreover, they’ve definitely been a strategic partner. They’ve helped us figure out the right way to develop the product and integrate our backend systems. Red Foundry has given us good advice around feature prioritization and setting up in the Google Play and Apple stores — they’re just experts when it comes to mobile apps.

How did Red Foundry perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management has been great across the board. The communication is excellent, and they’ve done a great job at partnering with our project manager to make sure everyone is working together, following the schedule, and staying under budget. Also, the team is very responsive; We typically have at least one meeting a week. Overall, they have effective project management and communication skills.

Most of our communication is through email. Their team uses Confluence for their internal documentation, but we use Jira on our end, so we added them into our Jira environment.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We didn’t have the necessary background or expertise, so we needed a partner who would think the project through with us. We needed an app, but that was as far as we knew. Red Foundry has worked with us to figure out what makes sense and what’s feasible. They’ve saved us from ourselves so we wouldn’t try to do too much. In summary, they’ve stood out for their ability to provide advice as well as development services.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Red Foundry definitely has the expertise; they can do even more to advise and help direct the client to success. However, it can be tricky if the customer has a vision.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Partner with them at a strategic level. Don’t look at them just as a development shop, but work with their project manager and developers throughout the project to come up with a solution that really works.