Refact

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Graphic Editor of El Colectivo 506

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

El Colectivo 506 is the first national media organization in Central America dedicated to solutions journalism. It has published 40+ editions of investigative journalism from education to biodiversity. It was founded by Katherine Stanley Obando and Mónica Quesada Cordero who also founded the Latin America Solutions Journalism Fund, which has provided training to more than 500 Latin America journalist and more than 80 production grants for stories on responses to problems in the region. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Refact to accomplish?

• Develop an AI supported chatbot to help journalists to brainstorm their story ideas and turn them into solutions journalism pitches.
• Develop a website that hosts the AI supported chatbot and information about the LatAm Solutions Journalism Fund.
• Install learn press into the website for future development of asynchronous training about solutions journalism.
• Provide technical support during the first year of implementation of the project.

SOLUTION

How did you find Refact?

Referral

Why did you select Refact over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Great discussion meeting/interview to discuss project

How many teammates from Refact were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Conversational chatbot

• Guide users through developing solutions journalism story pitches
• Ask series of questions to evaluate story ideas and provide feedback
• Allow users to save progress and resume conversations later (optional login)
• Provide formated summary of responses at completition
• Support multiple languages: English, Spanish, Protuguese
• Uses OpenAI API

New WordPress Website

• Complete design and development of new website separate from El Colectivo 506's existing digital magazine site
• Set up hosting and launch new website

LearnPress Integration

• Install and integrate LearnPress learning managemente system
• Provide training to EC506 staff on creating and publishing courses 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Met all project milestones with great understanding of our needs.
• Needed small changes on each iteration. 
• The project advances at the right pace.
• Met all project milestones on schedule. 
• Great representation of our brand and identity in the products. 
• Great communication through the entire project.

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

Working with ReFact was very pleasant and we would say easy. The project manager was always on top of the progress and put the right pressure to advance in both us as clients and the team at ReFact. They surprised us with deliverables that showed they were actually listing to our needs and understood what we were looking for. When small changes were needed, they also responded with great respect and attention to our needs, and when necessary they explained clearly why things hand to be done a certain way or another. The entire project went very smoothly and we are very happy with the results. 

What was your primary form of communication with Refact?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

• Great attention to details
• Strong communication skills
• Flexibility with meetings
• The final product exceeded our expectations.

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

We are very new and not knowledgeable about AI, so we now know that we would have loved to have some kind of a "behind the scenes" to understand how the tool was developed, because now we get a lot of questions from users that we don't really know how to answer. Also, having a small explanation that gives us clarity to the limitations of tools used when it comes to AI.

We feel that this is a particularly important step to include in the age of AI, when the client wants it, so including it as an option to offer the client could be beneficial to the relationship. This is something both parties should keep in mind for future projects.

But we must add that ReFact has been great at answering our questions about this, post-launch of the project. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Publisher of Down East Enterprise, Inc.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Down East is an identity magazine for Mainers and for anyone whose heart and soul are fed by our state and state of mind. Since 1954, our mission has been simple: to hold a mirror up to Maine, showcasing its landscapes, traditions, flinty character, and unhurried way of life, as well as to confront its complexities intelligently and with heart. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Refact to accomplish?

• Website management
• Website improvements

SOLUTION

How did you find Refact?

Referral

Why did you select Refact over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Refact were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

• Site migration
• Wordpress theme updates
• Wordpress plugin audit/updates
• Security features
• Custom coding
• UX/UI audit for Shopify
• UX/UI audit for wordpress
• Site speed analysis and improvement

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Site speed went from a D to a B+
• Secure migration to manageable server for long-term service
• Themes safely updated
• Plugins removed and/or updated
• Shopify audit (recommended changes in progress)

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

Refact communicates very well and provides regular estimates on how much time a project will take and when it will be done. Refact has met every expectation on project delivery.

What was your primary form of communication with Refact?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Refact's response speed is fast, and answers or solutions come as fast. Their expertise is second-to-none and we do not need an in-house web master as a result.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Digital of Keck School of Medicine of USC

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

School of Mecdicine in Los Angeles.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Refact to accomplish?

• Migrate content from legacy WordPress newsroom for .edu to new newsroom as part of redesign
• Ensure seamless redirection of legacy content and URLs from old server/environment to new, including new default URL structure for 1,000+ articles
• Training content provider end users on how to add new articles and related editorial content
• Create new Gutenberg block for niche usecase related to media mentions

SOLUTION

How did you find Refact?

Existing relationship

Why did you select Refact over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Refact were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Refact was hired to migrate our legacy newsroom which contained nearly a decade-worth of articles to a new newsroom as part of a larger website relaunch. The work involved converting the legacy post structure to a new, Gutenberg-based block structure with custom fields specific to our needs.

We relied on refact to ensure the new site's posts did not contain duplicates (which the old one did) and that all old URLs successfully resolved to their new, friendlier locations. Along the way, Refact built for us a new block (thugh it was not their primary resonsibility) to meet a specific communications need, and trained our end users on how to update the site.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Completion of successive stages, from development to staging to production, with accompanying testing/QA meeting requirements. Easing load on our team so we could focus on other aspects of the broader project. We did not need to micromanage Refact and as a result were able to make the most of billable hours with them.

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

Their project manager was among the best I've worked with. She is a professional who keeps chaos at bay and can see both the strategic view and tactical needs simultaneously. As a reult, we were able to meet deadlines and pivot as needed when unforseen events required adjustments to project plans.

What was your primary form of communication with Refact?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The team and depth of technical expertise are impressive. Also the fact that we had direct contact, almost 24/7, with the product manager, engineer and other key players.

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

None that we encountered.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a publisher at a magazine and internet publishing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Refact?

We needed to redesign our website and migrate it from Metro Publisher to WordPress.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Refact has designed our site on WordPress and migrated all our data from our previous platform, Metro Publisher. Initially, we had extensive talks with Refact to define the project. Refact continues to do R&D work on the site, launched in May 2024.  

What is the team composition?

We've worked with around 6–8 teammates from Refact.

How did you come to work with Refact?

Refact was recommended by another company.
How much have you invested with them?

We've spent around $20,000 to date.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first contacted Refact in November 2023, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Refact has created a great-looking and functioning website, which is vital to our business. Our page views have increased, and the overall engagement has grown by about 20% since we launched it. Refact is great to work with in our complicated business.

How did Refact perform from a project management standpoint?
Refact is organized and a good communicator. The team delivers all the requested work on time and on budget.
Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I want to highlight Saeed (Web & WordPress Developer), Parnia (Product Manager), and Naghmeh (Senior Account Manager).

Are there any areas they could improve?

The one thing that I think needs to be improved is Refact's communication. The team can improve in ensuring the project's communication and organization are clear and crisp because some developers aren't native English speakers. The team has made grammar mistakes that I needed to watch for, like misplacing commas or wrong capitalization. However, Refact corrected it after I talked to them. Other than that, the team has done an excellent job. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I suggest focusing on communication because natural miscommunication will likely take place; it's different working with a team that is native English-speaking.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder of Stratably

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Professional services business helping retailers and consumer brands in the area of eCommerce.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Refact to accomplish?

• Audit website for improvement opportunities
• Automate data collection and analysis

SOLUTION

How did you find Refact?

Referral

Why did you select Refact over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Offering fit my business well

How many teammates from Refact were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Host Transition Review subscription software setup Review email setup and segmentation GA Setup Fix Multiple Checkout Pages for Memberships Fix Misplaced Checkbox Field for Terms and Privacy Fix UI/UX Issues on the Checkout Page Update Utilizing Reminder Feature Set up Clarity Install plugin to assist with user issues Investigate why post updates are slow Automatic Paywall setup Automated Tagging Automate completing the user’s profile data

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our project involved fixing many problems on the website that did not have specific measurable outcomes. More so repairing the foundation of the site and our workflows. We've been very satisfied with the progress so far.

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

They have consistently delivered items on time and have been very responsive. They excel from a clear communication stand-point in terms of the plan, what our team needed to do, and what they were working on.

What was your primary form of communication with Refact?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Clear communication and planning - they methodically work through a list of action items and continually keep our team up to date on the status.

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

None that I can think of!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Content

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We're a highly vetted peer network for founders of $1m+ startups

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Refact to accomplish?

• Help us design and add a brand new email capture form to our website

SOLUTION

How did you find Refact?

Referral

Why did you select Refact over others?

Referred to me

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

We hired Refact's team to help us with several ongoing web development projects. The first was a series of email capture forms that needed to be designed, built, and added to our blog. We continue to work with them on other projects too.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

On-time delivery of a prototype, and the successful implementation of that design on our site.

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

The team has been excellent. They're communication is quick, clear, and they deliver ahead of schedule. Have been thrilled so far, and look forward to continuing our work together.

What was your primary form of communication with Refact?

Email or Messaging App

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

Two things stand out. First, they were excellent at understanding our vision for the project. I rarely need to give more than a sentence or two of feedback, and they quickly iterate on a concept with excellent results. Second, they're fast. They communicate well, so I never wonder what to expect.Then, they over-deliver, often getting deliverables in days ahead of even our aggressive schedule. Such a relief to work with a team I can trust like this.

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

So far, no. I've been very happy with the experience on my end.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Product Manager for Trends.co, a premium newsletter and entrepreneurial community from The Hustle.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Mark It Done, and what were your goals?

Mark It Done manages all of the development for our site:

frontend:

• implement design changes
• create landing pages
• UX improvements, etc

backend:

• billing
• membership business logic
• integrations, etc

SOLUTION

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

We started working with Mark It Done during a migration from another platform. The agency was so great, that we decided to continue working with them for basically all our engineering needs. They are specialized in Wordpress development and happen to be some of the only people we've found that can work reliably with WooCommerce.

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

Explaining everything in this box would be near impossible, but

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

Our original point of contact was the founder, Saeed. Now our primary point of contact is a terrific project manager, Naghmeh. We also interact regularly with a senior engineer (Masoud) and 2-3 other engineers on the team via tickets or in testing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Trends has grown 5x since we started working with Mark It Done and, again, they are responsible for near 100% of all our engineering work.

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

We work in Asana. Our internal team provides the assets and requirements, and an ideal date of completion. The Mark It Done team will scope and then give feedback on that timeline, either accepting it or proposing a new completion date. As that date approaches,

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

They are terrific at building the specifications, based on our requirements. They are also great at iterating on all of the changes we request after the fact (necessary side effect of having an outsourced dev team :D )

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

The scoping process is not one that I'm used to, in that we provide the ideal completion date upfront. This makes it hard to understand what can or can't fit into any given period of work. That said, we've found a good cadence in working together.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of Ohlala Macarons, a macaron bakery business based in London.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mark It Done?

I needed a new website. We had an existing Squarespace site, and I wanted a Shopify website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mark It Done designed and developed our new website from scratch. They started by doing a site audit to advise us on how to upgrade our existing site and determined we needed to migrate to a new platform. The team walked us through our options and provided advice on building the new site and the assets that we needed to create.

From there, they designed the web layout. Mark It Done also connected me to another organization that could bring in copywriters and create other marketing assets needed for the site. Mark It Done has completed an entirely new website build. Currently, they’re still helping build out my site.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with Saeedreza  (CEO & Founder), Naghmeh (Account Manager), and someone involved with the copy.

How did you come to work with Mark It Done?

I found Mark It Done on an organizational Facebook page where business owners and entrepreneurs discuss business challenges and trends. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of Mark It Done’s service is excellent. I only have positive things to say about them; they’ve been responsive and patient. The team regularly checks in, and I always trust that they’ll do a really good job. They have a 360-degree approach, which has been valuable for me. They’re not pushy in any way; they listen to my business needs and suggest the best options for us to grow and what we need to achieve that growth. 

Overall, Mark It Done strives to do the absolute best for us. For example, I had quite a high expectation of the design, so I initially pushed back on some of their ideas. They immediately rectified the course without much trouble; they understood my point of view, and the design team changed things. 

How did Mark It Done perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Asana for project management, and we communicate through email, Asana, and Zoom. In terms of deadlines, they’re always on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Mark It Done's services are really well-priced. They’re very knowledgeable and want to understand my company and my needs. The team isn’t just trying to sell me something; they’re trying to help me reach my business goals and objectives.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we haven’t had any of the usual provider frustrations with Mark It Done. If anything, we’ve had a transatlantic situation because American English’s spelling differs from ours, so we’ve had to adjust. That’s not a negative, though.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with them! Speak to Mark It Done and clearly understand what you want. The team has helped get our assets together and ensure we had the resources, photos, and material we needed, so I recommend working with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and Founder of ChargeNet Stations. We are a infrastructure and software developer that partners with QSR's to turn their parking lots into EV fast charging and renewable energy hubs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Mark It Done, and what were your goals?

I hired Mark It Done to update and build out our website so that it was more professional and reflected the stage of growth we're in.

SOLUTION

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

This vendor was recommended to me by our Lead Designer on our team.

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

The SOW was to build out the website so that it provided more detailed information and interaction. The key deliverables were the wireframes, the design and mock ups, and then the live website. Several web and cloud based tools were used.

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

A few people worked with our team. Saeed, the CEO, and Naghmeh, Account Executive were the primary people we worked with.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was delivered to our satisfaction and we were even able to make some minor updates prior to publishing and after publishing. They delivered a good work product and, although timing took a bit longer than we anticipated due to world events, we were able to get what we needed and are happy with the results.

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

I was not familiar with this. Minu on our team worked directly and support this response.

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

I found that they were really attentive to ensuring that we got the website we wanted. So making changes was relatively easy.

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

I think having a more defined cadence and deliverable schedule would be helpful.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a product manager for The Hustle which is a daily business newsletter, owned by Hubspot. As the PM, I manage our WordPress website. I work with Mark it Done on all my site development and maintenance needs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Mark It Done, and what were your goals?

Our WordPress website hosts quite a lot of content. It was developed by a different group than MID, but we needed someone to come in and help us maintain and further develop it.

SOLUTION

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

This decision was made before my time so I cannot comment here.

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

MID helps us on an ongoing, monthly basis with a variety of development tasks related to our Wordpress site. They monitor and update plugins and security vulnerabilities as well as execute on new tasks we outline for them.

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

I primarily work with one person who manages our project and communicates our needs and priorities to the development team. I interact occasionally with other members of their team but not often.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I am used to working with developers directly so working through an external agency was a bit of a learning curve for me. That being said, I have been very satisfied with the results. Notably, MID helped us recently with an update to our site's global themes and branding along with a number of design updates. Everyone was very happy with the results.

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

The project manager I interact with does an excellent job of staying on top of our tasks. She is very responsive in both Slack and Asana. We meet on a bi-weekly basis to review their sprint report and communicate on upcoming initiatives.

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

Overall, they are very reliable and responsive. They keep things organized and execute them in a timely manner. With the launch of our recent website updates, they were available for me after hours and very quickly reacted to my feedback.

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

Occasionally I catch things that could have been caught in their internal QA, but not often. When I do, they are quick to fix them.