Rikover & Co.

Introduce your business and what you do there?

I'm the director of global operations for Rapaport. We operate within the diamond and jewelry industry with customers in over 120 countries.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rikover & Co.?

We needed Rikover & Co. to lead the UI/UX design efforts for our company's marketing website and mobile app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Rikover & Co. initially designed our native mobile app, which was both iOS- and Android-friendly. They handled the entire app design phase, taking charge of wireframing, prototyping, iconography, and UI/UX design. Upon accomplishing their initial deliverables, they used Adobe XD to update our website by incorporating our new brand guidelines and managing the hierarchy of its UX among our paid users.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with Nadav (Owner), who occasionally brought in 1–2 team members on his side.

How did you come to work with Rikover & Co.?

I found Nadav's online portfolio and was impressed with the quality and range of his previous works. We then contacted him to discuss the project, and we were happy to hire his team upon knowing that they met all our qualifications. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $150,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project ran from January 2014–December 2019.

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

Our mobile app was well-received by our users, thanks to Rikover & Co.'s seamless design skills — we secured a 4.5-star rating on iOS and Android, which was a good number. Their methodical approach rewarded us with a sophisticated and refreshing website that's far from our outdated and mundane platform. We also saw a significant increase in our customer retention rate, which was backed by numerous positive feedback from our users.

How did Rikover & Co. perform from a project management perspective?

We used Asana for project management. Rikover & Co. led a smooth, systematic, and collaborative process, allowing us to accomplish our goals on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Rikover & Co. was an inquisitive and experienced partner —  they understood and delivered what we wanted.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were times when we had to launch new discussions to address questions that we already answered. While I thought it was a good brainstorming exercise, not everyone from the team was in favor of Rikover & Co.'s approach.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Prepare a detailed project brief and comprehensively highlight your goals and expectations.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Stanley Black & Decker is an American company that has over 45,000 employees and business units all over the world. I am a hardware product manager and I work with physical storage, such as toolboxes, for any type of customer.

What challenge were you trying to address with Rikover & Co.?

We were looking for a designer to help us, so we sought Rikover’s expertise.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started by giving Nadav (Founder) our requirements. He then gave us some input that helped change the way we saw things. His contribution was largely on the UI/UX design, but he also gave us ideas on how to improve our product beyond its interface.

What is the team composition?

We only worked with Nadav, but there were other people in the background who we never got in touch with. 

How did you come to work with Rikover & Co.?

Nadav was a highly recommended designer but was slightly above our budget. When decided to go with someone else but immediately realized that it wasn’t a good match. By then, we had even less time and were under more pressure. We went back to Nadav and we started working with him immediately. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $20,000–$50,000 USD.

What is the status of this engagement?

The whole project lasted from April–December 2017.

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

There were many things that I considered a success. For one, Nadav was extremely well prepared and was able to handle all of the internal politics as well as the opinions of various stakeholders. He gave us enough to work with, providing three designs instead of just one: one bad design for the sake of this exercise, one good design, and a copy of the good design with slight alterations. 

It became apparent that he did this in order to let different stakeholders feel like they contributed to the final output. This was a quite remarkable maneuver, and I found it to be unbelievably efficient.

How did Rikover & Co. perform from a project management standpoint?

Our timeline was very, very tight, but Nadav always made sure to deliver on time, if not slightly sooner. It said a lot, considering he was already under a lot of pressure. We were very pleased on that front. Soon after he joined us, it immediately felt like he was part of the team. He was quite reliable and flexible, and I don’t remember having an issue with him not being available. 

We met in person a few times and talked on the phone quite often to make sure that things were going according to plan. We also communicated through email. Nadav would send us files every once in a while whenever he needed input. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

It felt more like a partnership than a customer-vendor type of relationship. Nadav’s input was great at the get-go, and his commitment was absolute. He never tried to do something that was impossible; he was always very clear with his timelines and stood by it. This allowed him to deliver good quality designs in the end. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of any criticism of their work. Nadav actually made the project a whole lot easier.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try to get them on board as soon as possible. Nadav can give valuable extra input so try to make him part of your team as immediately as you can. He has plenty of experience, so make sure not to treat him like a service provider; do not simply hand off your requirements to him, but instead work closely and collaboratively with him, as you would with any member of your team.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the co-founder/CEO of a digital health company

For what projects/services did your company hire Rikover & Co.?

In the past they did mobile app Ux. This time we hired them for designing the checkout funnel for our first subscription product to augment our medical device solution

How did you select this vendor?

we work with Rikover for 6 years now

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

No matter how small the project is Rikover always does a complete process. They reviewed our marketing requiring spec, offered a wireframe. After we agreed on it they delivered a designed mockup on invision. Finally they delivered the assets for our developers on Zeplin with f/u as needed.

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

I work directly with the founder, Nadav who leads the projects and oversees the team.

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

The project not live as of yet but the design already won us a number of partnerships.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

fantastic as usual

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

This the one design vendor who always surprised me for the better. As such I don't need to micro manage them. They simply delivered a fantastic product within budget and schedule.

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

not really