Story of AMS

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a sports equipment corporation active in 44 countries, mostly in Europe, with different brands tailored to the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and some Asian countries. I’m the product owner for our omnichannel, responsible for integrations, in-store applications for employees, and the strategy for combining those online and offline.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Story of AMS?

Our company is quite old, but the digital team has only been in place for 2–3 years. We’re building a new e-commerce platform, combined with omnichannel capabilities. One of the first tasks is to create an app for employees to generate sales on items that aren’t available on location. We went to Story of AMS to design and develop this app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We didn’t have any designs or wireframes for the app, so that was handled by Story of AMS. We wanted to retain the look and feel of our online platform, which meant they worked from those UI designs. These included things like the look of buttons, the color scheme, and font sizes.

The app itself was built in React Native and they led on the UX. We wanted to get an MVP out as soon as possible, and we focused on the iOS version first. We’ll look into building Android and web versions in the future as well.

The app allows customers to make direct payments, and to easily scan product barcodes to add them to their baskets. We support two payment methods: in-store payments at the cash register or use of an attached POS terminal on the iPad itself.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with six people from their team, including Coen (Founder and Managing Director, Story of AMS) and Doeke (Founder and CTO, Story of AMS). We were in frequent contact with one of their developers, along with a project manager and a UX manager.

They worked alongside our internal development team, who gave them access to our platform’s backend APIs. Our head architect was also involved, making sure the solution was something that could be maintained in the long term.

How did you come to work with Story of AMS?

I saw a video of Coen on LinkedIn, and it presented them as quite an interesting company. They were located in Amsterdam, and we were looking for a smaller, fast-delivery partner at the time. I decided to get in touch and they came to our site a week later—we started the collaboration from there. They were responsive, quick, and easy to work with.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $40,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July 2016 and the collaboration is ongoing. The initial MVP is live and being used in Denmark, the Netherlands, and, soon, Spain.

We’re already thinking about versions 2, 3, and onward. There will be continuous development taking place to either extend functionalities or adopt different branding and styles.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our only KPI for the current version is revenue. It’s a clear proposition for the stores, with each one generating 5%–10% more revenue because of it. It’s definitely lived up to its promise in that sense.

There was a testing phase during development, during which we actively engaged customers and store employees with the app. We’re still doing that on our side, with a continuous cycle in place for feedback on how the app is being used, whether it’s missing any features, whether it’s fast enough, and so on. It’s an ongoing improvement process.

How did Story of AMS perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very flexible and understood our situation: we were on a tight budget and a tight deadline, with a lot of pressure from the rest of the business group. As a smaller, agile agency they could drive results and were excellent in delivering something to demo on a weekly basis. They even worked on Saturdays in order to complete the project on time. This isn’t something to always do, but it does highlight their commitment to achieving our project goals. We understood each other.

We used Jira to some extent, but most of the work was tracked using Trello. It was a simple and easy process, with no overly elaborate workflows.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their energy, speed, and flexibility were impressive. In some cases, they worked even harder on the goal than our internal employees and were driven to deliver everything that was promised, and even more. I’ve never seen such a good level of energy—they’re really enthusiastic, and I’ll definitely try to bring them in again.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a growing company, which means they need to focus on not just development, but also operationalizing their support systems. If something goes wrong in one of our 6,000 stores, we don’t know for sure that there’s a good process in place for them to fix it.

For now, their main focus has been on getting new projects, building and delivering, and focusing on new projects again. In the long run, there also needs to be a support flow in place.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Have a clear goal and timeline in place. We knew what we wanted in specific terms—at least for the first version—and we kept to it while giving them the freedom to reach it. Knowing what the goal is, setting it correctly, and monitoring the provider on a weekly basis is the key to achieving success.