Square Mill Labs

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a full-time consultant at Melmac Education Foundation, a nonprofit in Maine that provides grants to various education stakeholders around the state.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Square Mill Labs?

With the number of grants that we were providing, we needed to do plenty of monthly and annual reports. The problem was that we didn’t have a centralized place to do it. Some reports were done on paper, while others were done via emails. Ultimately, we wanted a CMS for admins, grantees, and stakeholders to create reports. The platform must also have pre-populated information from old reports to streamline our reporting process as a nonprofit. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Square Mill created the CMS that served as our one-stop-shop for reporting and registering events, among others. Before them, we worked with another company at the start of the engagement. However, that company went in another direction halfway through the project, though we’d already gone through the discovery and design phase with them. In other words, we already had plenty of materials but didn’t proceed to the actual development phase — that was where Square Mill made things happen.  

The Square Mill team sat down and fast-forwarded through the discovery and design portions and dove right into the development stage, taking the system from paper and plans to fruition. To be clear, they had paperwork that told them about the discovery and design phases’ results, but they didn’t have any coded pieces at that point — they developed the app from scratch. 

So far, we’ve finished version 1.0 of the portal, and we’ve decided to constantly improve it in the foreseeable future. Apart from development services, they’ve also helped us with content development. We tell them what content we want to do as it relates to the end user, and then they come up with a draft that points us to appropriate directions. In terms of the tech stack, they use a web host with various technologies behind it to generate dynamic pages.

How did you come to work with Square Mill Labs? 

We found Square Mill through another vendor of ours who knew the team. They had experience with the Square Mill team, and they recommended them to us. From there, we started the engagement. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere in the range of $150,000, and I expect that that will continue to tick up as we continue to engage with them. We currently have a month-to-month contract with them. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in January 2020, and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For success metrics, we don’t have any hard data yet. However, our main objectives are time savings and efficiency as an organization in the way we process reports. We also want time savings on the end of our grantees. Overall, we’ve achieved a significant amount of that and efficiency due to the portal that Square Mill has created. 

How did Square Mill Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is fantastic, and I’ll give them a perfect rating for that. They’ve communicated quickly and efficiently with our team, and their resources are always available to us. To communicate, we use Slack and Zoom, and they’ve been highly responsive. We also use GitHub for tickets. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a small group, but it doesn’t feel that way. The services we get from them are equal to the services of the bigger vendors we’ve had; sometimes, they’re even better than them. Simply put, I have nothing but good things to say about their ability to meet our needs as a client. 

For context, our relationship with the previous vendor that handled this project has been clunky. Ultimately, that vendor never completed the project for us. Fortunately, Square Mill has picked it up and ran with it — they’ve truly brought it forward a lot faster than our previous vendor. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Sit down and bring your ideas forward. Then, let Square Mill put their ideas to the table. They’re great at interpreting what you want and translating it into something better. In other words, maintain your flexibility and don’t have hard metrics on the deliverable; simply give them your general objectives and let them run with it. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Monarch ISC is a data security company focused on regulated industries, helping them understand and meet their compliance requirements.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Square Mill Labs, and what were your goals?

We requested their help in developing and implementing a web-based tool to help organizations navigate, understand, and meet the new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification requirements,

SOLUTION

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

We decided to work with SquareMill to create a custom webapp. They understood the need, the requirements, and understood the necessary cybersecurity focus.

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

Development of a marketing front page. Development of a backend of entering data Creation of user security tables and authentication. Development of a custom reporting

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

The principals at SquareMill were our direct contacts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was completed and is now live. We have been continual tweaking and adjusting. This product targets a new "vertical" who is not used to cybersecurity requirements, and we have needed to respond quickly to their feedback.

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

We meet weekly to ensure progress was made and used Github to track issues. We continued to communicate during the week using Slack.

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

Their flexibility, dedication to getting the product live is impressive. They have an understanding of the necessary steps towards producing a live site, and continued patience as we work with a new clientele and adjust our needs accordingly.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company provides an Incentives Automation Platform for medium and large organizations. My role is the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Square Mill Labs, and what were your goals?

We hired Square Mill to provide full-stack development services for our SaaS application. Our goal was to deliver the first version of our platform, then iterate.

SOLUTION

How did you select Square Mill Labs and what were the deciding factors?

Square Mill replied to a post of ours on Hacker News. We always undertake a well defined, small, but meaningful project with new developers to see if there's a good fit. From the beginning, we were impressed with the breadth of skills demonstrated, as well as the care taken to understand not just the requirements, but the overall context. SquareMill isn't just a contractor -- they're an integral part of our team.

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

Square Mill did extensive frontend and backend development on our Ruby on Rails application. They've worked on many aspects of our platform, including UI design using Javascript libraries and modern frameworks like React; background processing services using queueing systems; payment processing using external payment providers; user authentication systems; API development.

They've taken major functionality from concept through wireframes to prototypes through development and to production.

How many people from the Square Mill Labs team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We've worked with 3 people from Square Mill. They are all developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Square Mill consistently delivers within their projected timeframes, and with high quality.

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

Square Mill communicates with us via Slack, email, and phone, consistently, clearly, and reliably. Their work with our team is seamless, using our existing repository, issue tracking, and CI infrastructures. We have visibility into work in progress. Their team members often offer helpful, insightful comments on other activity occurring in our tools that isn't directly related to their tasks at hand.

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

Square Mill team members communicate directly with our team members, and have built great working relationships. Square Mill Labs provides good value to our company.

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

Nothing comes to mind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Marketing for Canaan, a seed/early stage venture capital firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Square Mill Labs, and what were your goals?

We were looking to move away from out-of-the-box website look and management to something more custom and unique. We wanted an backend experience that was clean, intuitive, and easy to use. We also wanted a sleek, user-friendly public-facing website to attract business and tell our firm's story.

SOLUTION

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

One of our colleagues had worked with them previously at a peer venture capital firm.

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

Square Mill built an entirely new platform for us, from soup to nuts. And, they've continued to work with us for years on a retainer basis to add updates to the site according to our changing needs.

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

Jeff – UI/UX Designer & Developer, Conor – Software Engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Jeff and Conor are absolutely wonderful partners. Ever thoughtful and always available, they have kept our website looking fresh for years now (and continue to make the back end CMS more and more useful as time goes on).

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

Always timely. Always available. Always have a can-do attitude. Primarily communicate via email and phone.

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

They're wonderful people who are experts in their field of work.

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

Nothing. They're wonderful to work with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

At the time I worked with Square Mill Labs, I was the chief information officer at a health data company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Square Mill Labs?

We outsourced several different software development projects to Square Mill Labs.

In the most significant project that we worked on with them, they developed a performance reporting portal. The platform allows healthcare providers, plans, and payers interested in health care quality to log in and see various healthcare quality metrics. Then users can search for metrics across different groupings of data.

For example, a physician could log in and see their quality metrics compared to their peers, or compare their work to a statewide average. Instead of focusing on fees, this platform focuses on the quality of the services provided.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For the performance reporting portal, Square Mills Labs used several different technologies to develop this database, including two different databases—Amazon Aurora and Amazon Redshift. Then they used Ruby on Rails for the frontend, and probably JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS.

We provided the high-level requirements, but they came up with the initial design themselves. Then we would provide input or feedback. Basically, we built the data components and they would feed that into the application so it could easily be consumed by users.

What is the team composition?

We had 2–4 people on our team depending on what phase of the project we were on.

How did you come to work with Square Mill Labs?

I’ve known one of the co-founders on Square Mill Labs for a long time. Initially, we reached out to them when we were looking to build a new website. They created a proposal and were selected ver four other web development companies.

Our business relationship evolved and we asked them if they were interested in partnering on this new application. Naturally, they were a good fit for that product.

How much have you invested with them?

I would put it a little over $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in November 2015 and the collaboration is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When I stopped working with them, there were five clients using the product and we had given them surveys to provide feedback. I don’t have access to those results, but just by talking to clients and users, I know that there was a lot of positive feedback. They liked the simplicity of the design and its usability.

How did Square Mill Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They were always available through Slack, email, or telephone. They were always reliable and available when we needed them, so their communication was great. They met al expected deadlines and milestones unless the scope had changed. Overall, the experience was very positive.

Their team is a little smaller than other big development shops, so they don’t have project managers. Instead, we talked directly to the people doing the work, which I actually think was really helpful. In my opinion, it was advantageous to communicate with the team directly because there were no miscommunications.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're really savvy with design. They put together some really solid design patterns there. Their efficiency is amazing and they were able to develop a lot in a short amount of time.

Their other strength was the team’s flexibility. Things change all the time during development projects, but they never got frustrated. They would just roll with it. They were accommodating and would execute whatever our clients needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes, when things got busy, they didn’t have the bench strength need to keep up with the work. However, they were able to tap into their network of developers and get the resources we need.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You should have a good idea of what you want to accomplish ahead of time and have the internal resources to meet the project’s needs. That’s how you’ll get the most out of working with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of a specialty surgical practice.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Square Mill Labs, and what were your goals?

My practice requires a very strong web presence because it is highly specialized and the target market includes patients from around the world who travel to us for surgery. I need interactive web sites that engage and build trust with potential patients.

SOLUTION

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

I had worked with them when I was employed at another company. Compared to other companies that did software development for my last company, the Square Mill guys always produced consistently high quality work and responded rapidly to issues and questions.

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

They created a custom patient diagnosis application, Q&A platform, and custom content management system.

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

UI/UX designer, Software engineer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The web sites have been exactly what I need for patients, who have great things to say about the site. The CMS is also very easy for me, a non-programmer, to use and understand.

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

They provide regular updates and are very open with communications. I never have to wait long for a response to any issue or question. They were extremely efficient and organized.

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

They are extremely responsive, understood what I needed, and were able to produce the software quickly.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a reputation management consultant.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Square Mill Labs?

I retained Square Mill to develop a launch website for a client.

SOLUTION

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

I had previously worked with Square Mill and appreciated the team’s expertise, efficiency and client service.

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

A launch website for a private equity client.

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

Both Jeff and Conor worked on the assignment initially and Jeff carried the work to conclusion.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The private equity firm was delighted with the outcome and got great feedback from its clients. The site needed to be a source of truth about the new firm for management teams, hires and potential investors and it achieved that goal.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Square Mill is excellent at project management. The firm develops timelines to achieve key deliverables and highly communicative in providing status updates. They are efficient and timely with execution.

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

Jeff and Conor are experts in their field and can always provide the right advice and solutions. They are resourceful if and when issues arise with development. Most of all they are just great to work with.

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

No….