Spire Digital

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the technology manager for a school communications company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We had a Flash-based application, and nobody at the company was aware that Flash was going away. We needed to get our UI fixed, and we had December 31st as our deadline.

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the beginning, Spire Digital helped us create a website. Then, they worked on UI designs, and we decided to go with them to build our entire UI. They came up with the design portion.

The app was a UI software to communicate emergency responders with district personnel in Colorado. It used Node, Express, React, and PostgreSQL as the stack.

What is the team composition?

They were acquired two months into the project, so we worked with 20–25 people from their organization, ranging from VP to frontend developers, web designers, and project managers.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

The company had already started talking with Spire Digital and building the website before I was brought in, so I’m not sure 100% how that process went. However, when it came down to selecting a company to build the application software, I used Clutch as part of my presentation to make sure my president and VP understood the rundown of each company.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $257,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the project in May 2020. We were aiming to finish it by November 2020, but we technically never finished.

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

They were supposed to help us move from a Flash-based THP stack to a modern, mobile-compatible stack. However, the solution didn’t work, and we aren’t satisfied. 

How did Spire Digital address the challenges that arose?

From a customer satisfaction standpoint, their ability to solve problems was zero. It was beyond frustrating.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

The app doesn’t work. It can’t support multiple users logging in at the same time, and I don’t mean 100 users; I mean four or six. It’s a huge flaw, and multiple developers have confirmed to us that the app is broken.

Spire Digital’s answer was to tell us that we could pay almost the same amount we already paid to fix it or go to other firms because they didn’t have availability.

How was project management handled?

Before the acquisition, it was actually great. From what we saw previously, I’d like to think that they would’ve been on the ball to help us fix it.

With the acquisition, we had three different project managers. They’d come through, and then we’d have someone new on the meeting saying they’d take over. We lost our lead developer and engineer because the acquisition made them unhappy enough to leave.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

The designs, UI, and wireframes were beautiful. They looked great.

In what specific areas can they improve?

Out of the three projects, two of them had issues post-deployment. Therefore, they absolutely need a new QA team to ensure the solution will be helpful.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

Research well. We looked at some companies that were used to dealing with corporate business, so they didn’t know how to work with a small company.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of business development for Raven Health. We’re a healthcare tech data company that’s focused on improving the interaction between healthcare providers and patients.

We’re going to release an app for the applied behavioral analysis field to help clinicians acquire rapid data using a tablet.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We needed a full-stack team to help develop and design the UI/UX of our mobile app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire Digital’s involvement can be broken down into four steps. The first step was the introductions to the team and stakeholders, the second step was the discovery, third was MVP development and design, and the last step was the delivery of the product.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

We found them through Clutch and we started working with them because their team dynamics connected with our values as a company.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from March–October 2021.

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

One of our challenges was conceptualizing and developing an app that didn’t really exist in the marketplace, but Spire Digital was able to succeed in bringing our vision to life. They created a responsive mobile-focused app that implemented their tech-driven knowledge and innovative design.

They were just really receptive to our needs and we appreciate all their efforts in meeting our requirements. This partnership helped us understand what our next steps should be as a company moving forward.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

They were exceptional from a project management standpoint — they did really well in sticking to the timelines and budget. We mainly used Zoom to communicate and Miro for the intensive discovery work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were really impressed with their talented and personable team. They delivered high-quality work and they had well-rounded project management skills — it’s hard to find someone who’s as professional and creative as the Spire Digital team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had a really good working relationship so there’s nothing they could’ve done better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Candidly, I would highly recommend them. They’re a great team, they will care about your industry, and they will work with you to build a solid partnership.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Fulfilld, an enterprise software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We’re a startup needed an expert to help us with the initial UX design for our web and mobile app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We leveraged Spire Digital in a multitude of ways. They designed the screens for our web and mobile apps. From there, they created the frontend UX design schematic, and built out the designs in Figma. That provided the foundation for the development. After that, they also developed a started website for us.

What is the team composition?

Spire Digital had a team of seven people, more or less, including project management, designers, and developers.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

They’re well-known in our area and have a great reputation. They do great work. Additionally, we’ve worked with them in the past.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Spire Digital from August–October 2020.

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

Spire Digital delivered high-quality work on budget and on time. I’d use them again in a heartbeat.

Their engagement, professionalism, rigor, and transparency were all top-notch. Spire Digital created the foundation for the product we’re now developing. None of their work needs to be redone. I recommend them to everyone.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Their management was great. They used Jira to track the project from start to finish.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They felt like an extension of our team, and they were mindful of our budget. They treated the money as if it was their own. We completely trusted them, and we never felt overcharged.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If they’re looking for a high-quality and transparent team within the space, I’d highly recommend Spire Digital. They have expertise in specific disciplines and industries, but that’s not a requirement for them to do great work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CCO of USA Swimming, a 400,000 member organization. We’re the premier organization for the sport of swimming in the US.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

We had an existing public website that was used primarily by the members of our organization, and it needed a complete overhaul in UX. The navigability and design were poor — it didn’t look or feel good at all. Thus, we looked for help to redesign and reskin our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Spire Digital created the new look and feel of our website, including a redesign of our UI/UX, which helped us align the site to our brand standards. We provided them with all of the content, and they did the complete redesign and layout of our site.

For the new site, we needed an improved navigation experience. We needed it to be laid out in a much more user-friendly way, so our members and visitors could find resources much easier.

We have a heavily resourced site, and, usually, people interested in the sport come in to find up-to-date data about it. The navigation experience to find that data was critically important for us. This enhancement included a much better top menu navigation and page scrolling, so it would be easier to find things from multiple points within the site.

They also worked on the responsiveness of the site. We need it to be more responsive than before to new and dynamic content, including videos on-demand, so people could play videos and watch races.

Spire Digital used our existing CMS because all of our content was already on the backend, so they had to integrate it into the new design. For the designs, I believe they used InDesign because that’s the tool our internal team uses.

Throughout the project, they let our technical and creative teams get involved from the initial designs all the way through the final designs and the implementation. Once we launched the site, they stayed for a bit on a consulting role to make sure that the site was working well.

What is the team composition?

We worked with maybe a dozen people from Spire Digital. We had a project manager, as well as designers and developers involved.

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

Spire Digital was a personal recommendation. We issued an RFP to quite a few organizations to help us with this project, including them. They responded to the RFP, and we had a meeting where they pitched back at us.

They came to us in person, pitched their thoughts, and showed us what they had done for other companies. Pretty quickly, we knew that they understood our organization and the type of work that we were looking for. We had great working chemistry, so we assigned this project to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent over $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around October 2019, and the project was delivered around May 2020.

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

We’ve seen a great response to our new site. People are using it more, and there has been an improvement in the attitude towards it.

With our old site, we were getting a lot of negative attitudes and feedback because it wasn’t easy to use. Now, people can navigate and easily find the information that they need — we’re all enjoying the redesigned site.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Spire Digital’s project management was excellent. They were responsive and lovely to work with. They knew what they were talking about at every turn. We communicated mostly via videoconferences.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When doing an RFP process, the goal is to compare various agencies to see which one is the best. Spire Digital certainly distinguished from their competitors in their creativity, which was important to us. They brought something new to the table that we hadn’t seen before.

They were also very adept at the technical aspects, as well as very affable. We could tell from the beginning that they were going to be easy to work with and put us first.

Are there any areas they could improve?

From my perspective, there was nothing Spire Digital could have done differently. If I had seen anything, I would have corrected them on the spot. They were extraordinarily responsive, and they didn’t delay any request.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make yourself available and be vocal about what you want. There’s no particular way to engage with them, they’re easy to work with, and they can drive the process.

Please describe your company and your position there.

CIO at a banking firm

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

We were designing a new fintech benefit platform that helped employers solve for key financial problems within their workforce. We worked with the team at Spire to understand the personas of the different users and what the best UX / UI would be for the platform. Our goals were to understand how the user would interact with a corporate benefit outside of the traditional 401k offering.

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

Their team had the most experience and expertise in the types of platform we were trying to develop and their process was extremely detailed and thorough.

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

User research, persona development, user testing, User Experience design, Vision Design.

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

Project Manager, UX Designer, UI Designer, Business Analyst

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

We were able to lay a solid foundation and direction for the platform in which both users and key stakeholders of our clients would get value from.

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

Very effective communication between our teams with detailed timelines, clear deliverables and attentive project management.

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

Their passion for the projects that they work on comes through with the quality of work and attention to detail in all aspects of the project. They really do operate as a partner in their projects and not just a vendor.

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

No

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of DifferentKind, a digital health startup that helps people transform their dental experience.

What challenge were you trying to address with Spire Digital?

Spire Digital developed a web app. They validated our hypotheses and built a prototype.

What was the scope of their involvement?

At the beginning of the project, we spent two days working with the Spire Digital team to identify what an MVP would look like and create a story catalog. We explained the problem we were trying to address and they did their own research before outlining a solution and recommending a tech stack.

From there, we went through a design phase where they started mocking up the ideas. Once they did that, they created a clickable prototype on Figma and did some user testing.

What is the team composition?

There were three people working on the project — the director of product delivery, a designer, and Sara (VP of Operations).

How did you come to work with Spire Digital?

They were recommended to me by a friend. The president of Spire Digital is also on the board of an organization that I trust. Ultimately, we decided to work with them because they were local to us in Colorado but have expertise from around the globe. We figured it would be helpful to have their perspective.  They provided a small startup experience with the expertise of a global company.  

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $24,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2021 and we just finished our current scope of work with them in April.

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

We wanted to create a clickable prototype and we succeeded. On top of that, we were able to see how that prototype was received through their user testing.

We’ve been incredibly happy with their work. They have a team of really experienced and empathetic people.

How did Spire Digital perform from a project management standpoint?

Things went exactly as we would have hoped. They finished on time and on budget. We were able to define how we wanted to collaborate, so we consistently checked in with them and provided feedback. We were easily able to schedule calls with them and we used Google Docs to track where in the project they were.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They felt like members of our team. They were as committed to the goal as we were and were always willing to do more work if it needed to be done. We wanted a team that believed in what we were doing and could help us reach our goals, and they were perfect for that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We should have had a discussion about the specifics around the deliverables. Until we got a little bit into the project, we didn’t know what the final product would look like. We still ended up with a better product than we expected.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to the process because they have a really good team that can approach problems from a bunch of different angles. When we were able to go with that, we were able to meet our goals. I don’t think we would have designed it the way they did, but we still ended up with a great result.

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.