Studio Graphene

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Chief Product Officer of Canopy (InsureStreet Ltd)

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We help Landlords and Agents easily reference Renters, and help Renters make the most of their finances; to save money and improve their credit

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Studio Graphene to accomplish?

• Launch MVP and then help iterate our B2C Subscription - CanopyGrow
• Help iterate and improve our B2C Marketplace

SOLUTION

How did you find Studio Graphene?

Online Search

Why did you select Studio Graphene over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Other

What was the size of Studio Graphene’s team?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

StudioGraphene have been engaged as a long term partner to work on our consumer proposition. They have acted both as trusted software engineers and also product and UX ownership alongside our internal product, UX and business teams.

They owned their full application stack for B2C, working alongside other internal and external teams in a helpful and co-operative manner. The software developed has been primarily ReactNative running across desktop / mobile web, and native iOS and Android applications.

In addition,backend services were written to integrate with 3rd party providers - such as Equifax - to provide additional value add services to renters.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Delivery of defined product increments in regular sprints
• Low regression of code defects

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The project / delivery oversight on the project has been outstanding. Clear, concise updates on status. Rapid response to key production issues. Sensible pushback and discussion on how best to deliver to the goals given project constraints.

What was your primary form of communication with Studio Graphene?

Virtual Meeting

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

There's a 'can do' positive attitude from all team members, working collaboratively to find the best solutions with strong communication at all points. This combined with solid experience in the fintech space to bring new possibilities to how we might best deliver our desired company outcomes.

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

The team evolved through the process, with strong reflection to improve weak points - so any areas for improvements have been polished away over our time working together.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of K9 Nation the mobile app for dog owners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had recently pivoted in the business and wanted to create a new MVP that was a quick and cheap as possible to test our new hypothesis.

SOLUTION

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

I was introduced to this vendor through a personal recommendation.

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

Working within the constraints of time and budget the SG team suggested we use FlutterFlow as a code base as this would help us meet our goals while keeping cost down. The team did a proof o f concept at no cost to check the GPS tracking feature we needed would work using this technology as other investigations had shown it wasn't possible in Buubble.

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

We had a PM as well as an account manager and then a team of two developers and a QA.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our app was launched to a beta testing group of approximately 250 users who were able to test the app and provide meaningful feedback for further iteration.

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

Communication was done via Slack along with weekly check in meetings and show and tells. Requirements were gathered initially via a Google sheet. Everything was done remotely.

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

I was very impressed at the lengths the team went to assess the viability of the chosen code base for our solution. They checked the code to see if it suited our product.

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

After the first big part of the project I asked for a retrospective with the team to see what we could do better. I think this should be standard with clients and also when appropriate include them in the refinement session with the teams at the start of big sprints.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

FormScore is a mental health and wellbeing platform that has been developed to support individuals to develop self awareness about their wellbeing and then proactively manage it. Alongside the support for the individual, there is a employer dashboard providing real time analytics - so FormScore is a B2B SAAS solution. I am the COO of FormScore.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to further develop the FormScore platform - to introduce functionality for employers to personalise the platform to their needs. We also wanted to re-design the onboarding flow and introduce a new customer engagement platform (Customer.IO).

SOLUTION

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

Studio Graphene were recommended to us by another partner - because of the quality of their design and development team.

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

We had a series of meetings to discuss the requirements and wireframes - and then the team went away to do an initial build. We then worked with the team to iterate the final product.

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

Over the course of these projects c. 4 developers (both front and back end) worked with us. In addition, the Customer Success Lead worked closely with me (the COO) to keep me updated and the project on track.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The work was delivered on time - and to a high standard. Communication was great and we were delighted with the improved functionality of the platform.

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

Project was delivered on time and on budget - and the communication was proactive. Always responsive to my multiple Slack messages!

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

Their development skills are excellent - and they are really easy to work with.

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 the CEO of a Health and Beauty retailer with operations in the UK and US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Studio Graphene were selected to develop a full eCommerce and Marketplace for our beauty business.

SOLUTION

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

We conducted a huge amount of due diligence by interviewing over 25 agencies all very highly recommended on Clutch. Studio Graphene delivered an excellent proposal so they were selected as the go-forward agency.

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

Studio Graphene committed to supply the full design, development and product management services in order to deliver the client (us) an e-commerce and marketplace Wordpress responsive website.

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

Through the project we worked with about 8 of the Studio Graphene team, from the CEO to designers, account managers and website developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The final deliverables were not as promised. The marketplace was not launched due to the poor design, development and limitation of the platform and plugins used. The eCommerce site was launched in part but full of bugs, glitches and the speed of a website from the 1990's. The overall product was substandard and not satisfactory to us or a crowd research panel that we had test the site. We did not launch the site to the public and are currently pursuing legal action against Studio Graphene and they have not taken any responsibility for the poor product delivered.

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

Studio Graphene committed to deliver the full project within 6 months on their SOW. It took 14 months for the project to be "complete" and the end-product is not fit for purpose.

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

Nothing. Unfortunately a case of oversold and under delivered. Studio Graphene quite obviously didn't have the experience that they claimed. They suggested a Wordpress site which in hindsight was absolutely not the right platform for an eCom or Marketplace. They committed to a fixed-scope which obviously stretched them and resulted in the delivery of a poor end-product.

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

Studio Graphene self admitted that they shouldn't have offered a fixed scope agreement, and that their lead developer made the wrong choice in selecting Wordpress. Studio Graphene also admitted that the use of so many plugins was a mistake and the project was doomed from the start. Despite all this they choose to accept no responsibility for their failures and we have paid out over £70,000 for a website we cannot use. We also have also wasted over 2000 hours of our own time on a project that we cannot launch to the public.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Rainbow Energy is a start-up domestic energy provider based in the UK. We are awaiting entry into the market. My role is Head of People, however, being a startup everyone has to do everything! I have been responsible for the relationship with Studio Graphene.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Being a start-up we needed a website and a mobile app. Our customer interface is complex but we wanted to ensure simplicity for our customers along with a clean, modern tone of voice.

SOLUTION

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

Studio Graphene was selected as they understood the constraints of a start-up business but worked, flexibly, professionally and collaboratively from start to finish. All the staff were knowledgeable, friendly and nothing was too much trouble.

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

The project consisted of a fully functioning website and mobile app. The project management was excellent through each phase. The design phase consisted of ensuring our tone of voice was captured, and not only the look of the website and app but building out the full customer journey.

The process was totally collaborative from start to finish. The build of the products was happening alongside the design phase to ensure our project was completed on time. Studio Graphene was totally flexible when it came to the tech stack to be used and worked with what was best for us.

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

We had an account manager who oversaw every aspect of the project from build and design to ensuring that our invoices were timely and delivered to us at appropriate milestones.

We were also allocated a first-class project manager who took the time to learn and understand our industry and who gave the appropriate challenge to ensure our end product was fit for purpose. We also worked very closely with the designer and the UX professional.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have received great feedback about the clarity and look and feel of our site. We were delighted with the deliverable, in fact Studio Graphene exceeded our expectations in many ways

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

We had weekly project calls with our account manager and our project manager (and any other relevant staff who were required at the time, for example the designer). We communicated mainly via Slack as Studio Graphene set up a channel for us to use. This meant we could instantly chat as and when questions came up. Everyone we interacted with at Studio Graphene were always very responsive.

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

Their understanding of working with start-up organisations and the way they really took the time to understand our business. Nothing was too much trouble (and I am not sure we were the easiest of clients!)

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

I don't have anything to add here. I would wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone wanting web or app work of any kind.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Volograms CEO. Volograms is a company operating in these fields of Augmented and Virtual Reality. Our products offer human 3D scanning capabilities for both professionals and consumers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Studio Graphene?

We were about to launch a new app, changing our business model and addressing a completely different type of clients. We are a small company so we don't have a designer in the team, so we had to outsource the new products UX/UI. Besides, we wanted to take this opportunity to refresh our branding and update our website.

What were your goals for this project?

We hired Studio Graphene to help us with three main things: - Refreshing our brand to make it look fresher and more professional - Updating our website (redesigning and building it) - Design the UX and UI for our new app

SOLUTION

How did you select Studio Graphene?

We talked to many design studios but we decided to go with Studio Graphene because:

1. their quality/price ratio was the best
2. they had worked with other Augmented Reality companies in the past
3. it was very easy to find some of their previous work still being used by their clients

Describe the project in detail.

Three members of our team, including myself, actively worked with Studio Graphene to provide feedback at every iteration, which guaranteed a great result. We also involved our tech team to make sure that the designs for the new product UI made sense, were technically possible.

What was the team composition?

We worked with an account manager, a project manager, two designers and two developers, but

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

You can check our new website: https://volograms.com that already includes the new branding. Our new product was announce in this video, where the UX/UI can be seen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dThppf2v5_4

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was great working with Studio Graphene. Their team was always willing to discuss everything. We used regular zoom calls and Slack as an internal communication channel. Their account manager sent an email every week as a progress report, which was great to understand where we were at every point of the process.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

How open-minded they are. Our technology is not easy to understand for people that are not in the field, but they really helped us come up with something that anyone could easily use.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not really, we are pretty happy with the result.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a tech startup building an employee experience management platform. I’m the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Studio Graphene?

We needed a partner to help build our platform's UI/UX. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Studio Graphene's designing the UI/UX of our employee-facing application. We normally have basic ideas that we hand to them. Their team then iterates on our ideas, working on them for 1–2 weeks typically. We then work together and agree on the best next steps. For their work, they use Adobe products like Adobe XD and Photoshop.

What is the team composition?

I most closely work with Nathan (Client Partner), a number of freelancers, Maria (UX/UI Designer), and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Studio Graphene?

We looked for design studios specifically familiar with the startup game. We also wanted a UK based company. We ran a Google search, found Studio Graphene’s website, and considered 3–4 competitors. However, they were the friendliest, had the best reputation in the market, and had done impressive work.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around £18,000 pounds (approximately $24,600 USD) on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in September 2020, and it’s an ongoing project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

So far, we’re extremely pleased with their work. In terms of design quality output, they constantly exceed our expectations. I’m really pleased with the collaboration.

How did Studio Graphene perform from a project management standpoint?

We send emails, share files, and catch-up normally 2–3 times a week via video calls. It’s an Agile project, and it’s easy to work with them. They’re available and meet deadlines. We only had minor challenges, so overall, they’re great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their designs, straightforward communication, and overall friendliness are their most impressive characteristics. It’s very easy to work with them. We had a common language.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would’ve been nice to always work with the same people. We played it quite Agile, so we didn’t know exactly what we would need in two-weeks time. Their team adjusted on short notice but that came with the trade-off of not always having the same person working on our project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have an open mind, be friendly, and tell them exactly what you want. They’ll be amazing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of Hello Solo Ltd. We have been running dating events since 2017. We are in the process of launching a B2B2C platform for the dating industry that will showcase everything from events to products and services within the industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Studio Graphene?

The dating industry is extremely fast-growing and there are a lot of different providers of services within the industry. It’s very difficult for users to find events, products, or services like a matchmaker or a dating coach. 

Before they even get to the challenge of meeting somebody to date, they have to get through the rigmarole of which app to use or which matchmaker to go to. We want to provide a central marketplace for them to be able to find all of those things.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have a fairly involved product. 

On the B2B side, we have SMEs within the dating industry ranging from dating apps and singles events to matchmakers, profile writers and profile photographers. On the B2C side, we have singles of all ages, sexual orientations and locations.

From a single’s perspective, they needed to be able to create an account, search & filter events, products and services, make bookings, see their bookings, review businesses after attending an event or buying a product or service and match and chat with other singles who they had met at events.

Businesses needed to be able to create an account, pick a freemium membership level, list an event, product or service, review sales or attendee lists, view analytics & manage their teams.

Studio Graphene is building the hellosolo web application for us. They have done everything from scoping out the project to doing our branding, designing the site, and building it as well. It was built on PHP. 

They do some, but not all of our marketing. The team has worked on branding and are starting SEO for us.

At the moment, it is a web-based application but in our roadmap, we are looking into building a native app for the B2C user, so they will be able to search for products, services, and events & make bookings. It's a little way off at the moment as we need to launch first!

What is the team composition?

We have an account manager, a project manager, and about two backend developers and one or two frontend developers working on our project. Around six people in total, plus QA testing.

How did you come to work with Studio Graphene?

Studio Graphene came recommended by two other companies within the startup industry in London. I approached them to build out our platform based on our existing technology.

How much have you invested in them?

The total cost of the build is £82,000 (approximately $112,500 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We approached them in February 2020, and it is still ongoing. We will be working with them for the foreseeable future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I have been so impressed with Studio Graphene. We are due to launch at the end of February, but the UAT environment was sent to me on the date that they said it would be. 

They have been absolutely on budget and on time for everything that they have done for me so far. I can’t express how impressed I am with them.

How did Studio Graphene perform from a project management standpoint?

Studio Graphene's attention to detail is excellent. They are very communicative so every time they have come up against an issue, they have scheduled a meeting with me to discuss the best fix for it, whether we need to change the design or change a process. 

They have been absolutely great about doing that and passing on how much longer it is going to take or whether it is going to change anything, or whether we need to shuffle some things around to make sure that we stay on time and on budget.

We communicate by email weekly, and then we have a Zoom call every three weeks at the end of each sprint so we know what work has been done and I can be shown any updates on the platform. They have then pushed that to the UAT environment which I obviously have, and then I can go through and test myself.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It is difficult to give one thing, but their communication and quality are the most impressive things about them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It has been difficult this year because although I met them initially, because of COVID-19, I haven’t been able to meet them face to face. I think it would have been great to be in a room together even on a quarterly basis just to update and keep up to speed with everybody. Rather than that being something they can fix; it is just a situational problem.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Follow up to emails very quickly. Any holdups are generally from the client-side rather than the Studio Graphene side. If they ask you to do something, send it over to them so there are no holdups on the tech side of things. 

Be super clear about what you want because you can’t scope a project if you don’t have a clear idea of what you want to build. Be really willing to give feedback about what you like and what you don’t like. 

They have been absolutely great at turning my abstract concepts into designs and branding for example. It has taken a lot of practice. I have worked with a few other developers previously so I knew what I was looking for when I came to Studio Graphene and spoke to them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder and Director of one of the largest interior architecture practices in the UK

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Having worked with a range of different freelancers and smaller digital agencies, we realised we needed to work with a Studio that understood our challenges and took accountability for delivering a holistic solution that was specific to our business.

SOLUTION

How did you select Studio Graphene and what were the deciding factors?

We liked the fact that Studio Graphene were candid about the challenges that we were facing and realistic about the potential solutions. They were not afraid to suggest out of the box solutions and explain the pros and cons associated with each solution. It was clear that they were not trying to force us to go down a specific path, but instead, understand our business needs and challenges.

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

The scope of work entailed the full lifecycle from scoping our requirements, project management, design, development, and quality assurance. The deliverables incorporated the delivery and ongoing of a website as well as a CMS.

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

Approximately 5-6 different team members were involved in our project. These included a project manager, designer, marketing strategist and technical lead.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our business has started to receive enquiries through our website, which it didn't previously. That is the most direct measurable outcome and was the main reason for engaging Studio Graphene.

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

Their project management style was curated around our needs, incorporating regular updates (some of which were communicated face to face).

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

The most impressive bit about Studio Graphene is its client-first approach. This comes across clearly and creates a trusted relationship.

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

None that I can think of at the moment.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am one of the founding team members of the company with the CFO role as my primary responsibility alongside all other aspects required needed by a small team to grow a business. The company makes businesses and its employees financially healthier

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Studio Graphene?

We needed a tech development agency that could help turn our ideas, research and concepts into a working platform. Studio Graphene helped support our design team and took full ownership of the back-end and front-end build. 

Hiring a tech person/team in-house did not make sense at our stage of business. It was important to us that we remained versatile as well having access to a pool of specialists to build what we needed given the complex nature of our platform and security measures required.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted an app where it consolidated all of a user's accounts, savings, investments, pensions, debt for them to view with ease as well as being intuitive in alerting them on certain overspend risk or savings goals achieved.

This is combined with us using the data we have gathered to project a user's financial profile so they have better insights on how their financial decisions could affect their future finances. With a combination of being more informed of current and future finances along with insights on how best to achieve their goals, users can be subsequently more comfortable, hence happier with their finances

SOLUTION

How did you select Studio Graphene?

Studio Graphene came in as a referral from someone who had been involved in various businesses that have previously used them / are currently using them. At the time we sought two different quotes and the decision was actually to go for another developer. However, it was a poor build and it was better that we started all over again - that's when we chose Studio Graphene.

Describe the project in detail.

Studio Graphene started the work immediately as soon as they were engaged. They were able to do this because as part of their quotation process they put in a lot of effort in determining the details of what actually needs to be built and how it was all going to be built.

It formed a key part of their proposal process which allowed them to provide fixed quote proposals to us. The work started off with two weeks of finalising the design and UX while work was also being done simultaneously to detail all the necessary Jira tickets associated with the features and infrastructure for the back-end to commence building.

We had daily stand-up calls with Studio Graphene which allowed them to ask us to clarify any areas of uncertainty and also allowed us to use it as continuous feedback sessions we would have with them throughout the build.

These daily calls were also used by Studio Graphene to advise us on certain things they found more efficient, or effective, or even challenged us as to how we wanted our features and UX.

This was invaluable as they were proactively helping us to improve the build rather than just take the do as you are told approach. Given that there were a lot of rule based features and formulae required to power our forecasting and insights functionality, particular attention was spent with their back-end team to get this right, which they did.

Wasn't right on the first attempt, and it took several attempts, but they were very efficient in fixing it (so no delay in the deliverability of the app). Studio Graphene built the app across three sprints of 3 weeks each. Within each sprint there were agreed feature sets.

As part of each build stage Studio Graphene would do their own quality assessment to test and fix all of the features to be delivered in that sprint before handing it over to us for UAT.

What was the team composition?

From Studio Graphene there was a project manager. 3 back-end. 3 front-end. 1 quality assurance. 1 design (for the first 2 weeks)

From the company side there was 1 person - Head of product plus 1 other person to support the head of product

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Plenty of complements when we demostrated the app to prospects.  In the span of a short time since the app was completed and us being able to demo the product, the amount of interests from customers and partners wanting to help promote it increased significantly. 

Also our pricing conversations have been made easier having customers been able to see what the app can do.   

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was very efficient and productive.  The key was the ease of communication between the two teams and the responsiveness of the Studio Graphene team to queries and changes. 

There was no hesitation of the Studio Graphene team to reach out to us whenever there were queries, even the little queries.  This made sure that no time was wasted going down the wrong track. 

Given the extent of what had to be built in the timeframe it was done in is testament that the workflow between the two teams was very smooth and effective.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

There were two things that were equally impressive:

1. the fact that they were constantly proactively thinking of better solutions to developing what we told them that needs to be done - not just puppets doing what they’re told to get the job done as fast as possible (despite them even quoting a fixed price proposal)
2. their ability to understand the difficult calculations and complexed logics required to be programmed that now forms our intelligent insights engine.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Honestly very hard to say.  Perhaps the communication between their design and back-end teams could have been more frequent for the changes to be picked up quicker.  It didn't have any negative impact on the timetable though as they just worked harder to make up the time.