Relab Studios

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Managing Director of Steele Consulting

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

LeaseSuite is Australia’s first comprehensive lease management platform, helping major businesses mitigate risk, and gain control over one of their largest corporate expenses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Relab Studios to accomplish?

• Create a user persona and customer journey for our target clients
• Design a MVP product prototype

SOLUTION

How did you find Relab Studios?

Online Search

Why did you select Relab Studios over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Relab Studios were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

What was your primary form of communication with Relab Studios?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

• High fidelity design prototype (Figma) 
• Design files (Figma)
• Video of user interview highlights
• Summary report of user interview sessions 
• Reframe the goal. 
• Co-design a range of solutions. 
• Decide on a winning solution. 
• Storyboard. 
• Rapid design & prototyping. 
• User interviews (or Validate prototype) 
• Reflection & sprint planning. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They delivered a well-researched and designed prototype that provided us with what we needed for further research, business development, and product development.

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

Always on time and always communicating progress in a concise and timely manner.

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

Comprehension and the ability to turn our vision into a real looking beautiful product design in a matter of days! Great team to work with.

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

Hire more people and get bigger so more companies can benefit from your ability to understand problems and design intuitive solutions.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and Co-Founder of FURNISHD. Our platform allows users to search for a property they want to buy or rent and make an offer. Customers can also purchase a furniture package after settling in the property they’ve purchased or rented. Other than that, we also offer a cleaning solution; customers can contact a service provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Relab Studios?

We hired Relab Studios to help us design our platform's UI/UX to connect people to all of our services and allow them to leave hassle-free.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first project we engaged Relab Studios for was the UI/UX design for a mobile application we wanted to develop. The team did a customer journey review for us. The project was a five-week sprint divided into four parts. 

Part one involved going through our existing customer journey and user persona. We also discussed our service’s touchpoints. Relab Studios helped us prioritize what we should focus on at different stages. We also went through the user scenarios and the scripts we needed to prepare.

During the second week, Relab Studios helped us clarify our goals. They provided solution sketches about what the UI should look like. Then, we did an exercise called Silent Library, where the teams went through different solutions, and we voted for the best one. Based on that, we built the storyboard and the prototype.

The third week was about drawing the prototype. Relab Studios’ UX and design teams created the drawings. They also arranged interviews with potential customers at this stage to go through the prototypes and collect customer feedback. With that information, they reviewed our customer journey maps and the service touchpoints again.

The final part was about documentation, and Relab Studios presented the results. Although the main deliverable was the UI/UX design, they also provided suggestions for branding, marketing, and product development. 

Later, Relab Studios designed the UI/UX for our website after our company’s rebranding. They started the design from scratch using InDesign. We wanted to find an easy-to-use platform that could help us do the visual design ourselves, and the Relab Studios team helped us narrow down the options to WordPress.

What is the team composition?

For the app’s UI/UX design, we worked with four people from Relab Studios, including  Alvin (Principal), Jessica (UI Designer), a UI/UX designer, and an operations manager. Later, we worked with two more people for the website project, bringing the total teammates up to six.

How did you come to work with Relab Studios?

We went through keyword research in Google and found several candidates available there. We used Google reviews and went to every candidates’ website to see their previous work and find one with experience in the industry we’re working with. With Relab Studios, we were surprised by their design thinking methodology and the great work they’d done in the past.

We gave them a call and invited them to our office to discuss our requirements. They were very helpful and spot-on in that meeting, understanding what we needed. The team came up with a tailored plan for the design sprint to meet our and our key stakeholders’ needs, so we decided to bring them on board.

How much have you invested with them?

The first project cost around $50,000 AUD (approximately $38,000 USD). The second project cost around $20,000 AUD (approximately $15,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The first project lasted from November 2019–February 2020. The second project, which involved the website, spanned May–September 2021. 

Currently, if we want to tweak anything on the website, we still reach out to them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Relab Studios helped us optimize the UI/UX of the app we wanted to build. Our tech built the app following their suggestions, and the result of the project was a user-friendly and beautifully designed mobile application. As for the site, everybody who visits it says it’s well-designed and that the UI/UX is great. The website is easy to use, intuitive, and informative.

How did Relab Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very good at project management. They surprised us with their skill set because they met every key milestone and over-communicated with us. I would call these great strengths, as I realized late in the project that these qualities are rare in other agencies. We mainly used Slack to communicate, and other than that, we connected via email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Relab Studios understood startups, and their design thinking methodology was their key strength. They were also great at strategy; they found a fine balance between business and design requirements. Sometimes, agencies overlook the budget or timeline to achieve a great design. Relab Studios considered everything and gave us a true MVP-applicable solution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there wasn’t anything they needed to improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you only have an idea and want to use it to start a new business, I would encourage you to talk to Relab Studios at a very early stage. Listen to their advice — they’ll save you a lot of time and money.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of digital for a business called Joval Wine Group, one of the largest privately-owned wine distributors in Australia. We sell wines to restaurants, hotels, liquor shops, etc.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Relab Studios?

We hired them to help us design our new B2B e-commerce portal.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Relab Studios mainly handles the UI/UX and solution design of our e-commerce website. They utilize a design sprint methodology to quickly bring in high-fidelity prototypes that can be tested and validated with customers.

What is the team composition?

In terms of the design sprint, we mainly work with three members from their team — Alvin (Principal), Jess (Senior UI/UX Designer), and Matt (Designer).

How did you come to work with Relab Studios?

I’ve worked with them for many years on several various projects of different scales. During this stretch, they’ve designed award-winning websites and game-changing applications for me and the businesses I used to work with. So, we decided to hire them based on our history and their uniquely high-level design work.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our collaboration began in July 2021, and it’s still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The portal is still being built at the moment, so we haven’t officially launched it. But we’ve conducted successful user tests that reflect the quality of the thinking and design work put in by Relab Studios. 

How did Relab Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style is highly professional and very process-driven. They have a unique approach that makes the entire experience as easy and as convenient as possible. For example, the user testing was live-streamed on YouTube to a closed network, which allowed our CEO to view customer reactions to the prototype.

They also gave us access to their Figma files, allowing us to see their progress in real-time. We use Slack for communication and Jira and Confluence for tracking tasks.

Overall, they’ve created a good ecosystem by providing us visibility of the projects, processes, and communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What’s most impressive about Relab Studios is the fact they’re more customer-centric than other agencies I’ve worked with — they’re uniquely empathetic and thoughtful. Moreover, their senior designers have been working with them for many years, so the quality of their work is very consistent.

Are there any areas they could improve on?

It’s very difficult for me to provide constructive criticism because they never let me down. Their team works fast, and the quality of their work is always high level.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Allow them to think creatively and challenge them to come to you with a solution instead of prescribing something — that's the best way to get the most out of an agency like Relabs Studio.
 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder of BinCaring

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Startup dedicated to provided Bin placement services around Melbourne 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Relab Studios to accomplish?

• Discover opportunities and define the vision for a residential "Bin Services" gig-economy-business
• Gain clarity on implementation priorities and deployment/launch roadmap

SOLUTION

How did you find Relab Studios?

Relab's workshop at StartSpace

Why did you select Relab Studios over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost

How many teammates from Relab Studios were assigned to this project?

1 Employee

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

• Define mision and vision of my startup
• Establish goals for my business 
• Analysing/reviewing potential competitors to identify market gaps, areas where I could provide superior value and address competitor weaknesses
• Building my product / service strategy
• Determine proto personas
• Drawing the user journey map
• Prototyping my startup's product/service
• Designs a storyboard for my product/service so I could identify alignement between my customers’ needs and my product/service features.
• Run interviews to collect feedback (1 iteration)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Clear description of my business, including the mission, vision, and target audience
• Customer journeys finished, including fixes/changes suggested by feedback collected
• MVP goals & features
• Storyboards & user flow diagrams. Output was provided to graphic designer for logo & branding design. This output will also be shared with software developer to implement my business' App
• ABN created to start providing service
• Domain service & hosting adquired
• Payment accounts set up
• Early-stage viable product document (request for proposal) to raise funds 

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

Relab (Alvin) was great at defining and scoping tasks required to get all the deliverables I expected within 8-weeks, which was the duration of the Relab’s program I bought. Organisation of specific tasks to be completed every week and constant follow-ups and check-ins with Relab (Alvin) to assess the progress I’ve done after our weekly sessions, definitely were the key for completing this program successfully and got my deliverables on time.

As sole founder, it was so important and useful for me Relab’s guidance during this process, as I could always get an honest advice / opinion from an expert in customer experience who has years of experience helping businesses success at building products that customers need.

Alvin challenged some of my ideas, and did his own research to provide me some aspects I could consider that would help me differentiate from my competitors.

Time to dedicate to my business idea was a constraint for me, as I have a 1-year-old baby, and I am still doing my regular 9-5pm job 3-4 days a week. So, Alvin’s agile approach was simply amazing. He would bring specific topics and/or tasks to work on in each session, which guaranteed I was always making progress, completing tasks on time and meeting deadlines he established for me when I started Relab’s program.

I am really glad that I had the opportunity to work with someone like Alvin (Relab), with such professionalism, work ethic and a kind personality. He always listened to my ideas and concerns, and he tailored his program to meet my business idea’s needs. He always made him available to answer my questions and emails, even during weekends or after hours.

He understood the essence of my business idea very well from the very beginning. That helped me not only refine my business idea always aligned to my initial goal, but also be able to design what I think it will be a great customer experience. It was a complete pleasure to work with Relab (Alvin). I cannot recommend Alvin or his agency’s services highly enough.

What was your primary form of communication with Relab Studios?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

• Efficient Task Management: Clear, organised weekly task scoping with consistent follow-ups ensured deliverables were met on time within the 8-week program.
• Expert Guidance: Provided honest, expert insights in customer experience, challenging ideas constructively and conducting research to refine the business's unique positioning.
• Adaptability to Time Constraints: An agile approach with focused weekly tasks suited to my limited time availability ensured steady progress.
• Tailored Support: Customised program elements to align with my business needs and was readily available for questions and support, even outside of regular hours.
• Alignment and Understanding: Quickly grasped the essence of my business idea, helping to keep strategies aligned with my goals for a refined customer experience.

Relab Studios' professionalism, work ethic, and personalized approach created a supportive and effective experience.

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

Honestly, I cannot think of anything they can improve. My experience on establishing my startup following Relab's guidance exceeded my expectactions. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a boutique holiday accommodation located in Tasmania, I am the sole director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We took over the business and property ownership from previous owner, who did not spend fund for a website. We repositioned our business and brand, and would like to build a complete new website to meet our requirements and branding.

SOLUTION

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

I had business with Relab previous for my other business. And I knew Relab has the capability to delivery what we were looking for. I

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

Create and build a complete new website for our business. Including branding, framework, artworks etc.

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

I think 2-3 full time positions during our project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After launching our website, all of our guest impressed by it, and increased our direct business substantially. But, the most important thing is the website just match our branding requirement and the level of our business and property.

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

Very efficient and prompt communication for everything.

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

Custom focus. They understood what we were looking for and would like to achieve, and then provide us the plan accordingly.

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

Generally, no... they did very well.