Spire Digital

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of engineering at Uplight, a SaaS company that serves energy providing business.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

Our work can fluctuate a fair amount depending on our sales cycle and even depending on the time of year. We hired Spire Digital to help us get resources to augment our engineering team when we needed additional help but didn’t want full-time staff members.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire Digital has helped us round out a whole bunch of different skill sets. They do most of the Python development for us, which is our main programing language here. 

We've also used them for a lot of JavaScript, Node.js, and React development, as well as data engineering. They’ve done EGL and data pipelines, and they’ve also taken data that we’ve received from our customers and helped to write data pipelines to get that data into our system.

What is the team composition?

We work with a lead on their side.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

I heard about them through my former boss who had worked with them, and he had good things to say.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $500,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

My contract with them started in January 2020, and it’s going to wrap up this week. However, our engagement with them as a company is ongoing.

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

A high-level metric is the number of energy programs that they've helped us launch. When I say energy program, what that means is that, when we're working with a utility customer, they're buying a standard product of ours, but it's always configured to be specific to whatever that utility is trying to achieve. 

Spire Digital has helped us launch five energy programs this year in the time that we’ve worked with them, which represents a big chunk of work. Their ability to help us augment our team to enable us to do all of that work has been a huge win.

Had we not had Spire Digital’s help, we wouldn't have have been able to launch all of that work.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

The team has been flexible in terms of conforming to how we want to run our projects and working within our boundaries. They’ve conformed to our sprint cadence, and they use our ticket system. 

We have daily standups with them where we answer questions and talk about code deployments. Spire Digital also gives us weekly hours reports about the status of the project that outline how many hours we’ve used and how many are left on our contract, which is useful. 

They are very good at communicating those statuses. The lead on their side does project management and engineering and technical work, helping to organize their team. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our business ebbs and flows a lot, so the team’s flexibility is impressive. All of the resources they’ve given us have been useful in terms of having a pool of people who we know can help us.

Spire Digital has also been good about adding additional resources when we have busy months. It’s been nice that they’ve been able to be adaptable to our ebbs and flows and help us hit the customer-committed dates.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing stands out. The team has been great about taking feedback and working with it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them as much information as you can provide. They have been good about being able to help us even when we don’t have anything, but I would advise customers to provide information around, for example, technical architecture that they need to conform to.

This will help Spire Digital make sure that they align with your expectations. Once we took the time to organize ourselves and present a clear goal, we were able to make sure that we were doing well.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a project manager for a financial services and insurance organization.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

The project involved creating a digital marketing as a service product essentially.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire Digital provided us with a go-to-market strategy for our product. Their team created a digital strategy to roll out our digital marketing as a service product to potential customers.

Spire Digital also provided UI/UX design and web development services. Their team built the site from scratch, covering all of the documentation and wireframing. They built a scalable microsite based in Marketo with React for the frontend. We can spin off the platform into multiple microsites that are individually branded for each of our partners.

What is the team composition?

I'm in contact with one person from Spire Digital who’s my go-to if I have any questions or concerns. I also interact with their design lead and a handful of their development resources too.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

We completed an extensive RFP process amongst firms based in the central to west coast area of the US. We found Spire Digital through Clutch. They had great ratings, so we extended the RFP to them. Their team had experience with the exact type of product that we sought to launch.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $100,000–$200,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the discovery phase in December 2019 and the project’s ongoing.

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

Our team loves working with Spire Digital. We’ve found a lot of value in the quality of their deliverables. We really appreciate their partnership and leadership. They always lean in to provide strategy and best practices in areas that aren't described to the letter of our scope.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Spire Digital used GitHub for their development tool. They provided status reports weekly and adapted to any formatting requests. The report format changed a couple of times over the course of our project but their team was understanding. We appreciated that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re still contracted with Spire Digital. We signed on with them for managed services, which speaks to how much we appreciate their partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had a number of constraints on our project especially time. It would have been nice to have more formal documentation. But we didn’t require that in our scope of work because we needed to get an MVP out as quickly as possible.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the vice president of marketing and operations for an insurance company. We are a group of insurance companies that provides mostly commercial lines insurance, commercial auto insurance, and commercial property insurance, as well as workers’ compensation services.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We were looking to redesign a customer-facing—this means for our retail agents—commercial auto rater. The goal was to create a product that would let them go online and write up a commercial auto risk assessment, get a quote, and bind the policy. We’ve been using in-house software for about 10 years, and, although we knew that it was time for a refresh, we didn’t have the design talent to build a good UX.

Insurance is pretty static, and it's hard to change things too much without disrupting the way that agents do business. Because of this, we asked Spire to think outside the box and see if they could help us do something different from the rest of the industry. We initially hired them for design and development, but ultimately decided to keep all of the development in house.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire Digital completed the ideation phase and design work for the project. They created designs mostly from scratch, although they did take some ideas from our old site. The team provided wireframes using InVision, which they used to discuss potential changes and make adjustments based on our feedback.

We also asked them for some guidance regarding the question flow within various parts of the product. They didn’t deliver anything new in terms of content, but they did offer some feedback about the wording of some sections.

What is the team composition?

There were two main individuals that we worked with on the design side and three or four other managers that we would occasionally touch base with. We worked with the executive management team, as well.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $130,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This is an ongoing project that began in November 2018.

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

The product did well in user testing, and we’ve gotten some positive feedback from other stakeholders. Our developers are still working on building out Spire’s designs, so I can’t comment on their effectiveness yet.

They’ve helped us take a step in the right direction—toward innovation—and I’m very excited to see the product in action. Spire has done a fantastic job, and we’re considering another project with them that would be more focused on content.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They were fantastic. The team stayed in touch with us throughout the project. We’ve been going through a shift to agile development with our in-house team, and Spire has been very patient with us despite some challenges.

They met with us every week to let us know how the project was going. We also received frequent demos, which allowed us to provide feedback and ask for adjustments. We used Microsoft Teams as well to manage tasks. Spire was great about pushing back against our ideas when they weren’t useful and steering us in the right direction when we went off-track.

Our primary method of communication was WebEx, but we also spoke to them over the phone while sharing our screens. We also had a number of in-person visits where they came to our office and sat down with our team. This seemed to help them learn more about our products and our business goals.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Spire went above and beyond to take care of an external problem that we faced at the beginning of the project. Initially, they found a developer to build the website using their designs, and that individual ended up being a poor fit. Spire wasn’t aware of this, and we eventually brought to their attention the fact that the individual’s work and hours billed did not make sense.

I couldn’t be happier with how they responded to the situation. This could have been a huge detriment, but instead, we were pleasantly surprised with the outcome. This shouldn’t reflect poorly on Spire, because, frankly, this could happen with any contractor, and they went out of their way to make things right for us. I really appreciated that level of service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so; I was very impressed with them throughout the project. Design is something that we do not have much expertise in, and we’re thankful that we’ve been able to utilize Spire for that. I’ve been very happy with their work and their design process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We came into this project having never done something like this before, and Spire immediately put us at ease. They came to our office right away to get to know our team and quickly learn our business. My advice would be to share with them as much information as you can at the outset so that they can figure out how to translate that into real results.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the VP of digital for Connected Fitness at Under Armour.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

Under Armour’s client is a large international consumer electronics company that developed a GPS fitness tracking watch. We needed help developing a web and mobile app that would allow consumers to connect their watch with our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire Digital provides full-service development support and helps with digital strategy. They’ve taken the lead in managing the client's needs. They helped create the requirements and wireframes for an Android, iOS, and web app. The team designed and developed the app, and they also provided testing services.

They wrote the iOS app in Objective-C and the Android app in Java. My team provided Spire Digital with API documentation, and they built the app so that it would strategically integrate with our platform.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a product lead. There were ten people on their team.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

Over the last fifteen years, I’ve worked with Spire Digital in different capacities. They have a really good reputation as a digital product firm, both locally and nationally.

How much have you invested with them?

Under Armour spent between $1 million–$5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

My company started working with Spire Digital in May 2015, and the work is ongoing.

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

At the time that I left Under Armour, there were more than 300,000 users on the platform.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We worked in an agile methodology. Spire Digital was excellent at meeting deadlines and following the requirements. We used Slack for daily communication and Zoom or Google Hangouts for our weekly check-ins and standups. Their team deployed Jira for managing day-to-day user stories and issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve gone on to work with them on other big projects. I’m a long-time fan and repeat customer. I have nothing but good things to say about Spire Digital.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re growing so fast that it creates a challenging environment for them, but they do a good job of hiding that from clients.

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the director of brand and creative at an in-flight internet and entertainment company. We service commercial and private aviation around the world.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

When we hired Spire Digital, we were a very small team. We didn’t have a proper UX person, and our digital team was particularly tiny. We brought Spire on because we’d never done a usability study with our website. We wanted to establish the personas of our site users and understand their goals. We also wanted to see if users were satisfied with our website. At the time, we had no baseline of insights or metrics.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire helped us with a usability project, and we retained them to provide some recommendations for how we could improve our site. During the usability phase, Spire guided us through participant selection, telling us what the cohort makeup should be in terms of customers or prospects. They gave us estimates for how many people we should recruit and gave us strategies—incentives and that sort of thing—for reaching out. The team even wrote down the questions that we used in the study. Since I have experience with copywriting and customer experience, I collaborated with them to solidify these questions.

After the usability test was complete, they provided a combination of strategy and design work for our site. Their designers sent us wireframes and prototype UX designs to help us visualize their proposals. We’d already mocked up some designs—wireframes and some high-resolution UI designs—of top-level parent pages. They were mostly conceptual and were based on our industry knowledge, intuitions, and assumptions. We handed these designs to Spire and revisited them with the lessons we’d learned from the usability test. Spire took them as inspiration and guidance and then built on them.

The deliverables from the project were Sketch files and strategy documents. We hired a couple of developers and a web strategist to implement their ideas. We’re planning to redevelop the site in-house.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with three people from Spire. Becky (UX Product Owner, Spire Digital) was our main point of contact, and we also spoke with Ayla (Digital Strategy Manager, Spire Digital) and another designer. I served with one of my colleagues as their points of contact.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

We had a relationship with Spire before this project. Our company had used them previously on a number of projects, so I was aware of them and had heard positive reviews of their work. I also knew one of their executives on a personal level. I reached out to him and offered to have Spire pitch for the project. They were the clear winner amongst the other RFP respondents.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $60,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in October 2018 and had their final deliverables by February 2019.

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

We’re very happy with what Spire provided to us. They took us where we needed to go. Their team used elements from our previous designs and refined our ideas to make them better. They surprised us with how quickly they were able to improve upon our ideas.

Since we received their Sketch files, we’ve been working on our own to develop their solutions. We do check in with them from time to time. As a creative, I think it’s very powerful when an internal team is genuinely excited about an external partner’s work. Everything we’ve shown to our team has been met with positivity and praise. Our team can’t wait to implement their designs.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They certainly met our needs in terms of project management. We have several layers of reviews and approval at this company, which made the project take longer than expected. I didn’t fault them for that or the quiet periods when we had to reach out to them. This is a part of every agency-client relationship, and I’m not surprised that they moved on to other work and waited for us to ping them. Becky and Ayla were always super responsive. They got us where we needed to be in a short timeframe.

We used email pretty frequently, but I pushed to have more face-to-face meetings. We ended up doing weekly, in-person check-in sessions. Some weeks we would have a long list of items to discuss, and it was vastly easier to do that in person. Typically, we would drive to their office, and other times they would come to us. I was really happy that they were so willing to meet us at our office. As great as Slack and email can be, in-person meetings are sometimes much more efficient.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were always willing to go above and beyond. They knew that extra effort on their end would help us full take control of the project. Spire also understood our brand and our needs. Feedback from my team has been positive all around. The quality of their work and the processes they used were just fabulous.

Something else that separated Spire from others was their willingness to tell us when they thought we were wrong. As a former agency owner, I know how alluring it can be to say yes to clients, but that’s now how Spire worked. They firmly believed in trusting the data, and, when we wanted to go a different way, they wouldn’t budge. It was unsettling at first, but we eventually came to appreciate their insight and expertise. We had many frank conversations with their team, and they always left the decision up to us. I thought their feedback process was really impressive.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing that I can identify as a mistake or a problem. The only change I would make is to look critically at the review and approval process. In hindsight, I would’ve wanted them to hold us to milestones because that would’ve made the project go much faster. That’s less of a comment on them, and more of a comment on our company culture.

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the senior manager for lead generation at Inseego. We focus on industrial IoT products and produce the latest 5G technology devices to cell phone carriers worldwide.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We’re a relatively new company, in that our organization went through many iterations before we became Inseego. This current iteration is a combination of all of the companies that we’ve acquired, and, because of this, we realized that we needed help in establishing best practices to move forward.

At the time when we hired Spire Digital, which was before I joined, we only had two marketing people that were being stretched thin with limited resources. Another person was brought on for channel marketing, and she also became overwhelmed. The next choice was to bring in a lead generation expert—myself—and scale up that process.

Now there’s five of us, and we needed support from an external team to help us scale our success. We hired Spire to come in and do a small amount of work, and that relationship has since grown to include more and more projects.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire is helping me develop a strategy for our new website and lead generation campaigns. The team is breaking down, piece by piece, the types of things that we need to be successful, especially in how we relate to clients. 

They have provided wireframes that include examples of potential changes, which we can edit and comment on. They’ve also created new landing pages and copy that fit with our current campaigns. In addition to web design, the team sets up email campaigns for our channel partners that typically include three or four emails. They develop the cadence for those campaigns and find relevant images to use. I deal with them exclusively on lead generation, with some minor copywriting. Our senior director of marketing engages them on product updates for our 5g and wireless devices and our channel marketing director engages them for our IoT product line.

What is the team composition?

I talk with about three people on a day-to-day basis. We have a dedicated point of contact, a digital strategy manager, and a PPC specialist.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

My coworker found Spire before I started.

How much have you invested with them?

Our retainer is $5,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2018, and the relationship has continued since that time.

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

Their services have helped our team a great deal. Spire is fully ingrained with our team, and I sleep better at night knowing that our projects will actually get done because of their help.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Spire actually meets and exceeds their deadlines. For example, let's say we wanted something at the end of the week. In that case, Spire would give it to us tomorrow. It’s like magic for us, but it's really just because they know what they’re doing. They have every process already set up. That's the great thing about working with a partner like Spire.

I’m their point of contact, at least in terms of managing the relationship. It’s been really fruitful, mainly because I talk to them every day via email. I’ll sometimes text my point of contact for more urgent things, and we have weekly meetings for status updates.

They’re willing to provide me frequent status updates, so it’s been really good working with them. They’re like another set of hands for me, and other people on my team work with them if a project needs heavy lifting. I know that if I’m ever overwhelmed, I can always count on Spire Digital to help get the project done.

What did you find most impressive about them?

A couple of weeks ago, they gave us a workshop about scaling and best practices. It was actually more of a fact-finding mission for them so that they could provide better help. They ended up giving us a proposal for changes to our website that we hope to implement. That was very noteworthy, because we hadn’t solidified a path for our website, and Spire gave us a level of effort that was beyond what we expected.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were some growing pains in the beginning, but that’s true for any new relationship. I heard about these issues when I started, but right now, everything is very smooth. The cadence of communication has improved because we now act like they’re a part of our team. They’re very receptive to our feedback because they know what we need and what we want. Everything can be improved, but we’ve gotten to the point where our communication has become fine-tuned.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Achroma, a bias-free, digital mortgage marketplace.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

I wanted to build a solution that would help eliminate discrimination in mortgage lending.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire Digital design and developed the MVP for a responsive web-based platform. They built a PostgreSQL and NodeJS backend with a React Native frontend. The MVP allows borrowers to search and filter lenders and loan products that suit their financial and credit needs. Upon completing a loan application, the anonymization engine redacts key information and supplants that with externally-based data to ensure strong underwriting process while removing the possibility of bias.

What is the team composition?

The project manager also served as the product lead. We worked with a backend developer, a QA team, and then a few frontend developers depending on the stage of the project.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

I knew the CEO and we started talking about my vision for Achorma. I hired his team to build the first release version because he and his agency had a demonstrated track record of delivering digital products for early-stage companies.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2018, completed the MVP in January, and the partnership continues.

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

We don’t plan to release the product for another month. However, Spire Digital has already proved to be a valuable asset. They guided development, leading with a vision and perspective that yielded great insight into the early startup days.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Spire Digital was effective in distilling requirements into a great MVP.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The engagement helped open doors for us as a new company. Their level of service added a value rarely seen in agency relationships.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clients that can take an active and engaged role in the day-to-day of the project will be rewarded through a collaboration that will exceed expectations.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing assistant at NewCloud Networks. We’re a custom cloud computing and communications company that’s been in business for nearly 30 years. I support our marketing director with designing landing pages, writing blogs, managing social media, and anything else related to digital marketing.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We had a pretty old website with low traffic and conversion rates and an unclear layout for our content. Users couldn’t find the information they were looking for, and we needed an outside partner to help us improve the site.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially hired Spire Digital to completely revamp our website. Their team analyzed our original platform and identified any pain points or specific areas for improvement. After researching industry best practices and analyzing our competitors, they optimized both the front- and backend systems. It’s based on a custom WordPress template, and the frontend was coded with PHP, CSS, and HTML. The team also implemented a few SEO strategies to improve our search rankings. Spire Digital continues to support our web development and digital marketing efforts.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a small team from Spire Digital at the beginning of the engagement to put together a set of wireframes for the new site. Then, I collaborated with a programmer on the technical aspects of the work. Since then, my main point of contact has been Ayla (Digital Marketing Leader, Spire Digital). She helps us continue to optimize and enhance the site to increase our performance and visibility.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

NewCloud Networks was working with Spire Digital before I started my position. We continue to work with them for their personalized and hands-on approach to customer service and their extensive industry experience.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2018, and we launched the website in November 2018. We’re currently doing some A/B testing for specific calls to action (CTAs), images, and wording to make sure the content is resonating with our audience. We plan to finish up completely in about three months.

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

Spire Digital’s work has generated a lot more traffic to the website, and we’re moving closer to our goal conversion rate of 2%. The updated design sets the foundation for a smooth user experience. We track visitors as they navigate through our site, and it’s clear that they’re finding the information and content they need.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They kept us on schedule throughout the project, and we launched on time. Now in the testing process, we’re still on track to meet all of our milestones. Spire Digital communicates responsively and quickly addresses any of our questions or concerns, even if they’re outside the scope of our partnership. During the development process, we met in-person weekly, but now we check-in every other week. In the meantime, we speak through email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

First, I very much appreciated their level of professionalism, especially when they visited our office to collaborate more closely with our team. Second, I’m continually impressed by their technical and industry expertise. Our website is great. It exceeds every expectation we set at the beginning of the project. Spire Digital leveraged their experience from past partnerships and knowledge of best practices with modern technology to deliver a top-notch product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it’s been a seamless engagement. If anything, I would’ve liked a bit more guidance throughout the development process. My team doesn’t have much technical background, so they could’ve shared more details about their work in each stage. At most, there was a minor miscommunication, but we were all on the same page generally.

Any advice for potential customers?

I certainly recommend the Spire Digital team to anyone looking for web development or digital marketing help. They’re extremely valuable. Even if you hire them to complete a specific task, they’re willing to assist in other areas as well. The team is friendly, responsive, and involved. They’re capable of improving many aspects of a single business.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Cirrus Lender Services, a company that provides software for banks to facilitate the collection of loan documents through a secure portal.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

Our software was a bit old and clunky, so we needed a partner to update the UI/UX.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our project had a quick turnaround, but we had an initial meeting to discuss our plans and goals. They then conducted user research, talking to a few clients to determine how the UI/UX should be improved. We wanted the program to be more intuitive and modern for users.

What is the team composition?

We mainly communicated with two leads, and they each had a team working under them.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

We heard of them through word of mouth. They have a good reputation in our area, so our product officer engaged with and hired them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February­–March 2018.

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

Our clients love the new software; it’s a complete transformation over what we used to have. We’ve converted over 40 users in just the past six weeks.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a portal we used, but we mostly met in person. They’re well-led and highly responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their leadership is high quality, resulting in top-notch execution and some of the best talent in the area. Everyone on the team is professional.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they worked quickly. I’d gladly use them again.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Engage with them in the early stages of your project; they’ll provide valuable insight.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company that provides a web platform that is focused on connecting the everyday person to the outdoors. We do that through technology that provides educational material and information that's necessary to help people plan and engage in outdoor experiences, such as hiking, camping, hunting, or fishing. We're leveraging technology and data analytics to help people get outside more often and leverage America's public land resources.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We had initially developed an MVP of our site, but once we gained more financial traction, we wanted to make the investment in building out our UI/UX because of its importance to the overall platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our internal team manages the backend development. We rely on Spire Digital for the UI/UX design and other frontend design tasks to best present our rather large dataset.

What is the team composition?

Their team is led by Mikaela, our project manager who also acts as a tech lead and manages the agile board space, ticket creation, and workflow. In addition to Mikaela, our Spire team consists of a frontend developer, a designer, and ancillary support from QA engineers.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

We prioritized local firms so that we could meet in person. We interviewed several different companies and discussed our design, our prototype, and our goals. We tried to get a feel for the processes in each office. At Spire, we were able to observe a traditional sprint planning session and view their bullpen area to see how the developers worked together. It was clear that Spire had a mature environment. That experience, coupled with their examples of previous work, convinced us they would be valuable partners.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in February 2018 and is ongoing. We maintain a relationship with them for a small amount of frontend design work.

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

We are extremely pleased with the outcome. The feedback we have received internally and from external users of the platform has been overwhelmingly positive. We achieved the intuitive feel and nature of the platform that we hoped for.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

We reached our scheduled milestones under cost, which is a huge achievement for us as a startup. Spire Digital doesn’t produce throwaway work—everything they build has a place in the long-term roadmap. We originally intended for our relationship to last about six months, but it was gone so well that we’ve extended it.

Mikaela has been fantastic at keeping the team operating efficiently. We have great communication with her and with the team, in general. We’re very involved in the processes. We talk every day, and we meet at their office once a week so they can demonstrate the updates to the technology. They’re very transparent, and they make good use of their resources.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We appreciate how well their team works with ours. It feels like they are an extension of our in-house group. They are excited about what they’re building with us. They’re just as passionate about being successful at this as we are. To have their team be that dedicated to us, that’s the biggest differentiator I could ask for.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I can’t name an instance when we have been unhappy. They have been responsive to all issues.

Any advice for potential customers?

The fact that we're so actively involved with them and we communicate so much with them and work so closely with them, I firmly believe that's one of the reasons why it's working so well. For any new client, I would recommend being the same way. Be involved and get to know everybody that's working on the project.