Specno

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Spiralsoft Enterprise, a software company. We develop POS and accounting software.

What challenge were you trying to address with Specno?

I wanted Specno to design and develop a prototype of a booking and payments mobile app for the beauty industry.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Specno helped us design the UI/UX prototype of a completely custom mobile app tailored to our needs. Initially, we provided them with the app’s specifications and described what we wanted. Then, they created the frontend prototype. We had to put the project on pause for the development portion, but once we finish developing the app, Specno will likely take charge of its ongoing maintenance.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Jenna, Jodi (UI/UX Designers), and Michael (System Analyst) on this portion of the project.

How did you come to work with Specno?

I found them on Google.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around 150,000 rands (approximately $8,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2022, and Specno delivered the frontend prototype in October 2022. Unfortunately, we had to pause the project for the development portion due to funding constraints.

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

The feedback on Specno’s designs has been absolutely phenomenal. We’ve shown the prototype to colleagues, friends, family, and people in the industry, and everyone has given us fantastic reviews. They’ve said that this product will be a successful addition to the beauty industry.

How did Specno perform from a project management standpoint?

Specno’s performance was spot-on; they managed the entire design process to perfection. We met every week on Google Meet and communicated regularly via Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Given that both companies are South African, we understood each other and our culture very well, and we were very relatable. This aspect made it very easy for us to communicate with them and for them to understand exactly what we wanted, which was very important. Sometimes, it is very difficult to explain something to someone who doesn’t understand our culture. Additionally, Specno proved to be a brilliant company, so I look forward to working with them again.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, their work was absolutely fantastic. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand what you want from your project. Come in with a business plan and a clear vision of how the product should work and look. Additionally, understand your client’s desires and needs for that product. If you have a clear understanding of all those points, the process will be seamless.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of Quicket, an online self-managed event ticketing platform that allows anyone running an event to sell tickets to their event online.

For what projects/services did your company hire Specno?

We hired Specno to understand our business goals, conceptualize, design, and develop a system that achieves our goals. They accomplished this and so much more.

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

We contacted Specno's CEO, Daniel, and were pleasantly surprised at how knowledgeable and experienced Specno was in the software design and development ecosystem and ecoculture. The knowledge, experience, reviews, personality, enthusiasm, and willingness to achieve were my deciding factors.

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

• Requirements gathering, research, analysis, and conceptualization Phase: Exploration, analysis, and ideation to conceptualize our new system, depicted via user flows. Specno gathered all the necessary information from us and other sources to ensure the user journeys were accurately depicted.
• Wireframe Phase: Designing the page structure, layout, user flows, and functionality of the system without color, graphics, and styles. This was completed within Figma. There are numerous feedback and review sessions during this phase. The systems analyst and designer really took the time to understand the process which we wish to facilitate with the system and ensured that it would be able to effectively do so.
• Design Phase: Specno provided a refreshed style which paid homage to the original Quicket designs. The designs were packaged as a playable prototype in Figma and prepared for development by Specno in the form of a Style Guide & Component Kit.

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

I worked with various team members from Specno during the different phases of the project. During the Research and Analysis phase, I was mainly in touch with Specno’s System Analyst and Design Lead. During the Design phase the collaboration with the above team members continued, but I was also introduced to and collaborated with Specno’s design team together with the other members.

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

Specno surprised me with their insight and eagerness to gain an in-depth understanding of the business goal. They were able to provide guidance on every aspect of the business, well outside of the contracted work. The value and insights gained and connections formed from this project surpassed our expectations.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The team at Specno went out of their way to make sure they slotted into our workflow. This made it feel like their team was working along side ours at all times which was very valuable to us.

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

Specno truly understood the product goal and the business need which the system aimed to meet, this enabled Specno to conceptualize, ideate, and design the most aesthetic system with a good user experience. Specno paid attention to all the feedback I provided and added a lot more value than anticipated.

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

Nothing

Please describe your company and your position there.

Donkidrive is a Peer to Peer parcel delivery and e-haling service with the aim to reduce carbon emissions and provide logistics opportunities to small communities. I am the founder of Donkidrive and responsible for the rollout of the business.

For what projects/services did your company hire Specno?

Donkidrive is a progressive web app released in the Western Cape, South Africa. The app has been bootstrapped and had never gone through a prototyping and design phase in order to properly develop something that was truly user friendly.

Our number one problem was that our users were telling us the system was too complicated to understand or use, and since we had no traction we couldn’t raise funding for mass-market adoption. We needed Specno to create a design that was intuitive.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed Specno to understand the business case of Donkidrive, and be able to translate it into a system that was user friendly and intuitive. The designers needed to take into account our development budget and what had already been developed and come up with a design that would not take too much time to implement.

How did you select this vendor?

The team managed to wireframe and prototype the system within just a months work, while quickly grasping the concepts and coming up with beautiful designs that were easy enough to implement. We are currently in the implementation phase.

Describe the project in detail.

The team was to reduce the number of pain points in the current app/software and enhance the user experience to attract and retain users.

• They started with wireframes that focused on realizing the eventual goal of our users whilst simplifying the process for achieving this.
• Then they introduced a user-interface that re-inforced these principles and created an attractive aesthetic for the software.
• They developed a design language for the brand and consistently implemented it through all contact points in the software.
• They ended by creating a prototype that allowed us to interact with the new designs and together we fine-tuned the interface and user-flows.

What was the team composition?

Our CTO, Michael I., dealt directly with their creative director who personally ran the design audit and work on the UX/UI.

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

We conducted user tests to see how the new designs shaped up to the old look and feel and found that the new designs were a lot more intuitive.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We began working with the team during the first week of the national lockdown of our country. Everything was fully remote. The team was completely set up to handle all the work, telling us what they needed from us before and after each call. We would choose to continue remote work over needed to come in.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They quoted me a relatively low amount of time required compared to other agencies, but I was highly impressed by what they were able to deliver in that time. They came in better than I expect for a price lower than I expected.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I was satisfied with their work, no room for improvement.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CTO of Syndeo Ventures, and we’re the creators of an app called Rola.

What challenge were you trying to address with Specno?

We hired Specno for their mobile app development services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Specno has been providing us with an array of services in relation to iOS and Android app development. They work in sprints so they deliver what they work on every two weeks, and they’ve never been delayed. Apart from that, they’ve also been teaching us how to become a successful startup since they were once a startup as well — they take the time to make sure we understand the technology they’re implementing.

Moreover, they have the best designers sit down with our UX/UI experts to teach them how to effectively design an app. Their developers also regularly speak to our head of technology to make sure that they understand the system wholeheartedly.

Our MVP has been done for a few months now, and we’re moving into the more complex features to acquire revenue from users.

What is the team composition?

I work with Brandon (Creative Director), Max (System Analyst), Kevin (Software Engineer), and a backend developer.

How did you come to work with Specno

We started looking for companies that can build a fantastic product at a cost-effective rate outside of the US, and that’s how we found Specno.

One of our team members is actually from South Africa, so he did a lot of research on them. He reached out, got a meeting, and was able to convey what we wanted. After scoping out the project and having preliminary meetings, we made the decision to go ahead and move forward with them.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, I believe we’ve invested just under $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing partnership started in May 2021.

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

As a CTO, it’s all about quality assurance and timeliness for me. Specno has actually never been late for any delivery, even when they asked for an extension once during the development — and they were still able to submit it before the allocated deadline. In addition to that, the number of bugs in every release is always mitigated and are fixed immediately.

How did Specno perform from a project management standpoint?

I would say they’re fantastic when it comes to project management. Max has a conglomerate of knowledge of making the client happy and knowing what’s realistic for the development. He walks our CEO through the process of how features are implemented.

Because of their effective work, we haven’t had too many features end up on our backlog. They’re good at arranging the implementation in a way that we can get everything done — they’ve managed the project well and have had minimum setbacks.

We mainly use Slack to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their most impressive quality is their passion. I’ve never seen a team of people who are so excited and prone to want to improve upon a project. When we brought them on, they understood our idea and the practicality of the app immediately, and they actually had developers request to be part of the project.

When it comes to my project and company, they’ve been more than just external employees, they’ve been team members for our app Rola.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could get better at saying no. I know sometimes outsourced development teams will do all they can to please the client and not disappoint them. I suggest they should tell us no when there’s a situation that would end up benefiting us in the long run.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Jumping Fox Software was established in 2016. Our software helps collection teams to follow the prescribed pre-legal steps and identifies the best next step in the collection process to increase the collection success rate. Daleen & Hendre Vorster are the owners of the business and directors of Jonker Vorster Attorneys. In September 2019, the business owners decided to expand the product line.

For what projects/services did your company hire Specno?

The new product had to be up and running in January 2020 and had to run parallel with the existing development roadmap. The in-house development team was working at full capacity and the company had no alternative but to outsource the project.

What were your goals for this project?

The project had to be finalized within 3 months, with all necessary marketing material to launch the product.

How did you select this vendor?

Specno software and design agency, with their team of experts, managed to build the system within the scheduled time frame and within the agreed project budget. Their design team also provided the business with high-quality marketing material.

Describe the project in detail.

The system had to be able to manage school fee exemption applications online. The system also had to include functionalities such as a dashboard, reports, add a user, permission levels, back end workflow, document uploads, print, percentage calculations, and an admin portal to create new sign-ups. Applicants have their own portal where they can apply and view application statuses.

What was the team composition?

Our business owners, support team, and some of the current Jumping Fox Software clients worked with the Specno team to finalize the project on time. The communication and support from the Specno team added some extra value to ensure that work was completed effectively and efficiently. The founder of the business acted as their project manager and system analyst and their creative director handled all the design work.

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

More than 30 clients signed up to use the system and to date, 3000+ applications have been lodged through the system. Specno has been very helpful and provided continuous support from day one. All support tickets logged were resolved within 24 hours. Their team is currently analyzing the system to add new features and improve user experience.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between the teams was very good. Their development team took the lead with the development of the back - and frontend as well as the system architecture. One the frontend the systems were developed in parallel and our team was very involved with the system analysis and design phase. Specno's project manager was in constant communication with our team and they were able to remain agile.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The system is built on the requirements of the South African Schools Act and in order to understand the workflow and calculations you have to understand the act and the appropriate legislation. The team skilled them on all legal requirements and understands the exemption process in full. That was impressive. The fact the system was developed in such a short time and with such high standards is also something to be proud of. Development was speedy, they grasped concepts quickly.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The Specno team places quite a high importance on usability and well-designed interfaces and insists on getting it right, if your company just cares about the functionality of a site you may feel like time spent on designs is a waste.

Please describe your company and your position there.

SchoolPass is an educational technology company that provides attendance, dismissal and school safety automation solutions to K-12 institutions. Primarily US based, the SchoolPass team is entirely remote and collaborates with contractors within and outside the United States. My role is Director of Product Management, and I frequently work alongside the development team and dev contract teams to articulate requirements for new features, elaborate on bugs found by QA and customer success, and facilitate communication between the teams during sprint planning and daily scrum.

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

Our website was created 15 years ago and was outdated. We needed to migrate to a new, mobile friendly framework that could also unlock new functionality. Specno's primary tasks are the migration of our legacy functionality to a new framework, and spearheading all front end web development for new features. We had used a prior contracting group to begin the Angular site migration but it was clear that we needed more expertise specifically in Angular, as well as an elevated level of creativity, to continue.

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

I joined SchoolPass after Specno had been selected, but I do know their skillset and pricing is very competitive.

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

We regularly meet with the Specno dev team and discuss features both small and large, and how to utilize the unique functionality offered in Angular.js to realize our greatest hopes for the product. The developers are great at communicating with our internal team about items that might not be clear, or endpoints that need to be adjusted, as well as gather feedback from all stakeholders across our organization. The Angular team is used to meeting our deadlines and helping us set reasonable expectations for development timelines.

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

A total of four Angular developers have worked with us over the past year; all of them are web/front end devs who also focus on optimization and scalability. We have also worked with two UI designers from the Specno team during this past year.

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

We have been able to migrate every key functionality for teacher users over to the Angular framework, and are well on our way with doing so for staff users. It's difficult to quantify exactly because we are not measuring clickthroughs, though we can say that tens of thousands of teacher and staff users rely on the Angular site to measure wellness, visitor management, attendance, run carline, and manage emergencies each day.

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

The Specno team joins our daily scrum, and we also have weekly check-ins with just their team to discuss upcoming planned work or larger features. We use Azure DevOps primarily to track and discuss tickets, manage pull requests, etc. and the team is adept at using this tool for all necessary functions. We communicate throughout the day with the Specno team using Slack as well.

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

It's not only the quality of their work, but the quality of the people we get to work with, that truly sets Specno apart. The team there are more than just developers we work with, they are just as much a part of the SchoolPass team as any of our internal teammates. Without Dane, Josh, Marnus, and Ross, we would not have been able to move at the speed we've been moving at this year!

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

I wouldn't change anything!

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and director of ihempi. iHempi was created to offer no frills, clean, no hidden nasties and sustainable HEMP based skin and body care. We have created a community rooted in diversity, self-expression and fearlessness.

It’s our mission to empower individuals to be their most authentic and courageous self.

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

I hired Spenco specifically to an e-commerce website with a visually unique and vibrant design- a leader in its industry. I needed a website that would be distinguished from the current beauty crowd.

I also required digital renders for my products and business advice on how to best launch with a MVP.

How did you select Specno and what were the deciding factors?

After obtaining 4 quotes from around the world, the absolute deciding factor was the fact that they offered not only a tangible visually appealing website, but also on-going emotional support for getting my business off the ground and business advice that was not limited to developing my website.

I was offered key-insights from their experience in the product and e-commerce industry.

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

he project was broken up into multiple phase. During the discovery phase the team spent time understanding my market, the business and the brand. They went over my user personas and social media to pick up on my taste preference.

Next they went into wireframing and prototyping where I could see what the system would look like. Finally they went into the build phase. They used Adobe XD and webflow, as well as zoom and slack for communication, the team kept me in the loop throughout the process.

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

I worked with a small team from Specno. My initial engagement was with the managing director and the creative director, where they walked me through what the process would be like of building my site and gave me some tips to starting the business.

I was also given access to a project / account manager, as well as a second designer who worked on my product mockups

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

They design prototypes first, so before I had to commit to a build they had shown me what my site would be looking like. I could see that they offer completely trailer made solutions, they took effort to incorporate my brand and give me something unique.

Once they started the build they also often spent time with me showing me progress and keeping me up to date with what comes next.

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

They are an agile development agency following the lean methodology. They would often give me tips into how I could keep costs down in the beginning and then scale things as the business grows.

They had an outlines of how they would be handling my project and were good at scheduling meetings and giving me enough time to process their progress and provide adequate feedback.

There was a good connection between the team and myself, and I found it easy to talk to them. They created a slack channel for me to communicate with each team member directly, and then had weekly zoom calls whenever they needed to present.

All in all the project ran over 2 months.

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

I was most impressed at how they guided me through the whole process of what I needed to launch with a minimum viable product.

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

There aren't any areas for improvement

Please describe your company and your position there.

Skudu is an agri-tech company operating in South Africa. We develop platforms to empower the agricultural value chain. This entails the development of algorithms that assist advisors and farmers with precise guidelines for inputs to optimise crop production, an online marketplace to procure inputs, and a trading platform to sell their produce.

My role as Product and Sales manager is to manage the development of these and other solutions in collaboration with Specno; and onboard the different parties (users) necessary to the platform work.

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

Skudu needed to automate various manual functions and provide our solutions in an easy-to-use and proficient manner. Specno developed the following for us:

• Skudu Exact: Develop a platform for farmers and advisors to easily submit fields with crop info and soil and leaf analyses, and generate specific crop nutrition guidelines with the most fitted products to address these needs. This was previously done in Excel and it was difficult to automate and scale the function.
• Skudu Market: An online marketplace where farmers can procure inputs from various suppliers.
• Skudu Match: A trading platform where transparent and fair cash markets are generated at each point of delivery across South Africa.

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

Skudu recruited two outstanding computer scientists straight from Stellenbosch University to develop Skudu Exact, who then formed Specno. We were their first clients and after four years, we are still vowed by the service and solutions they offer us.

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

After a few initial meetings to do a needs assessment, the team jumped straight into the project. They started by scanning through all existing code and looking at the data in the database. Quickly they began cleaning the tables to turn the data into a consistent format that could be used in the API they were developing for us. They kept us informed along the way, constantly showing us progress, making sure they were on the right track, and delivered on time.

They were great at understanding how the system tied in with our business model, explaining why they were coding things the way they were and how future business’s needs might affect scaling which kept us informed about the complexity and costs of what we were developing.

The system ended up better than expected. It has multiple avenues. Some areas of it include a farm management platform, an e-commerce store to order farming inputs, a place for digital agronomists to manage fertilizer, from recommendations to quotation to finance and logistics. It has become a truly impressive system with a few billion rand companies using it.

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

It was a very agile team, adjusting to our needs as they changed. The founders themselves put in the effort to understand our business, our market, our requirements and gave great suggestions into what was needed at every step of the journey to ensure we were developing a solution that made sense. They operate in pods, with a project manager and business analyst, a UI/UX designer who handled prototyping, as well a team of developers who could really handle all our requirements.

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

Our site traffic increased, our revenue increased, our product was better. We ended up onboarding clients of multibillion-rand enterprises, we were invited to London to present on stage at the world summit of agricultural innovation, as well as a number of other awards and media posts featuring our company.

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

The workflow has been one of the most impressive things about this company. They have gotten so involved in our business in order to understand what needs to be developed. They sit with us in meetings when we meet with clients, they explain the technical side of the system, they have presented and pitched for us.

They understand our system to the point that when we have management meetings we make sure to include their founders so they can guide us on the correct next steps to take. They keep us informed with what is being developed, where we are spending or wasting time on features, they give us feedback reports, timesheets, we interact with their developers and designers directly. They really feel like an extension of our team.

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

The companies workflow and passion for our project. They took on our company and run the tech as if this was their own company. They are able to share our vision and passion for what we are building. They also produce amazing software. We have pitched to over 25 of the top agricultural companies in South Africa and we consistently get told that we have the best system they have ever seen. We have even had Specno do the integration work for most of our enterprise clients — they have all been equally impressed by Specno.

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

The only way they could improve is by continuing to grow the team and add more services to their offering, but we have really used them for everything from web design, app, and web development, graphic design for presentations, animation designs for illustrations, analytics on our marketing, they have even pitched our business at startup events. Would recommend them every time.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of FinMeUp, a financial ed-tech platform that aims to educate, equip and enrich people in order to take control of their finances.

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

FinMeUp had developed version 1 of the ed-tech platform however, that version was not professionally appealing and lacked a sense of community, gamification, and overall direction. Specno was hired to conceptualise, and design a new, improved version of the FinMeUp platform that encompassed a sense of community, gamification, and professionalism. An environment that provided users with a satisfying user experience.

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

Specno was highly rated by a friend. I contacted Specno’s CEO, Daniel, and was pleasantly surprised at how knowledgeable and experienced Specno was in the software design and development ecosystem and ecoculture. The knowledge, experience, reviews, personality, enthusiasm, and willingness to achieve were my deciding factors.

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

• Requirements gathering, research, analysis, and conceptualistion Phase: Exploration, analysis, and ideation to conceptualise the new FinMeUp system, depicted via user flows and activity diagrams and written explanations within a formal report.
• Wireframe Phase: Designing the page structure, layout, user flows, and functionality of the system without colour, graphics, and styles. This was completed within Figma. There are numerous feedback and review sessions during this phase.
• Design Phase: Specno provided a style test that mocks various different styles, colours, and other design elements so that FinMeUp may choose the style that best suits their taste and goals. Each mockup within the style test is very aesthetically pleasing. It is actually quite difficult to choose an option. Once a style is chosen the rest of the system screens are designed and the designs are either packaged as a downloadable deliverable from Figma, or prepared for development by Specno. In this case, the designs will be organised within Figma to prepare for the development of the system.
• Technical Assessment & Development Roadmap Phase: This document will be informed by the research conducted and the size of the system mapped out in the Wireframing and Design Phase.  The Technical Assessment is an estimate of the amount of time and resources that will be required to develop the proposed system.

Specno encourages that the system is developed in an agile manner by releasing a minimum viable product instead of a fully designed system. The advice received and formulated approach has greatly reduced the estimated time to market for the system.

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

I worked with various team members from Specno during the different phases of the project. During the Research and Analysis phase, I was mainly in touch with Specno’s System and Business Analyst, Max, whilst during the Design phase, I collaborated with Specno’s design team. I was in constant communication with Specno’s system analyst and management team during the project.

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

Specno surprised me with their knowledge and willingness to help and provide guidance on every aspect of my business, well outside of the contracted work. The value and insights we gained and the connections we formed from this project are immeasurable.

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

The system analyst and design team were easy to communicate with and provided frequent updates on the status of the project. We communicated using Slack, Whatsapp, phone calls, and email. Each deliverable was communicated well and completed on time.

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

Specno’s ability to conceptualize, ideate, and design the most aesthetic system with a good user experience is impressive. Specno pays attention to the feedback I provide and adds a lot more value than anticipated

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

Develop good user serveys to send out for feedback gathering

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and founder of a mobile app loaded with detailed pre-written emails and a resume builder aimed towards college students to help maximize the overall success rate of their undergraduate career.

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

We hired Specno to understand our business goals, conceptualize, design, and develop a system that achieves our goals. They accomplished this and so much more.

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

Specno was highly rated by a friend. I contacted Specno and was pleasantly surprised at how knowledgeable and experienced Specno was in the software design and development ecosystem and ecoculture. The knowledge, experience, reviews, personality, enthusiasm, and willingness to achieve were my deciding factors.

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

Requirements gathering, research, analysis, and conceptualization Phase: Exploration, analysis, and ideation to conceptualise our new system, depicted via user flows and activity diagrams and written explanations within a formal report.

Wireframe Phase: Designing the page structure, layout, user flows, and functionality of the system without colour, graphics, and styles. This was completed within Figma. There are numerous feedback and review sessions during this phase.

Design Phase: Specno provided a style test that mocks various different styles, colours, and other design elements so that we could choose the style that best suits their taste and goals. Each mockup within the style test is very aesthetically pleasing. It is actually quite difficult to choose an option.

Once a style is chosen the rest of the system screens are designed and the designs are either packaged as a downloadable deliverable from Figma, or prepared for development by Specno. In this case, the designs will be organised within Figma to prepare for the development of the system.

Technical Assessment & Development Roadmap Phase: This document will be informed by the research conducted and the size of the system mapped out in the Wireframing and Design Phase. The Technical Assessment is an estimate of the amount of time and resources that will be required to develop the proposed system.

Specno encourages that the system is developed in an agile manner by releasing a minimum viable product instead of a fully designed system. The advice received and formulated approach has greatly reduced the estimated time to market for the system.

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

I worked with various team members from Specno during the different phases of the project. During the Research and Analysis phase, I was mainly in touch with Specno’s System Analyst, whilst during the Design phase, I collaborated with Specno’s design team. I was in constant communication with Specno’s system analyst and management team during the project

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

Specno surprised me with their knowledge and willingness to help and provide guidance on every aspect of my business, well outside of the contracted work. The value and insights gained and connections formed from this project are immeasurable.

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

The system analyst and design team were easy to communicate with, and provided frequent updates on the status of the project. We communicated using Slack, Whatsapp, phone calls, and email. Each deliverable was communicated well and completed on time.

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

Specno’s ability to conceptualise, ideate, and design the most aesthetic system with a good user experience. Specno paid attention to the feedback I provided and added a lot more value than anticipated

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

N/A