Visible Magic LLC

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a program director of an agency that provides web and digital development services for big international clients. We’re responsible from the discovery phase up to the final development of their projects. We also provide clients with maintenance and upgrading services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Visible Magic LLC?

We called up Visible Magic for their expertise in certain fields where we cannot deliver.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re working with Visible Magic on the development side of the project. They bring in a high level of knowledge on the technological stack that’s dependent on the scope and requirement of the project. Some of the specific requirements that we’ve worked on are security issues, usability, and accessibility.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Jay (Co-Founder & COO) and Viktor (CTO). We also work with other developers from their team, depending on the range of the project.

How did you come to work with Visible Magic LLC?

I found them when I joined my company through other outsourcing partners. I then tested them to see how they can impact my daily work and from there, I continued to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around £200,000 (approximately $270,200 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The ongoing partnership with Visible Magic started in November 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Visible Magic has been helping us meet our goals. They deliver their tasks on time and we’re fully satisfied with their work — otherwise, we wouldn’t be working with them.

How did Visible Magic LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

We work directly with the development team and sometimes we face complex problems we need to resolve. However, it’s been good and we don’t have any issues with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed with their technology stack, because whatever the challenge is, they cover a wide range of solutions for our needs, and they do pretty much everything we ask for. They have really good knowledge of the field.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m not sure, but if there is, we’ll discuss it and try to optimize. We have pretty good and open communications with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you plan to work with Visible Magic, make sure to clearly define the requirements and the scope of the work. We witness a lot of MVP and agile approaches to project management, which means sometimes clients don’t know what they want. I think that a proper definition and planning can improve any kind of project.

This is not specific to Visible Magic, but I see a lot of clients experiencing this problem due to lack of communication.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for Mindstream Interactive a CX and digital agency based in Columbus, OH. I am currently the Director, Client Growth focusing on new business and marketing for the agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Visible Magic LLC?

We brought in Visible Magic to help build out our development capabilities for a large retail partner.

What were your goals for this project?

The project was an RFP response and corresponding pitch. Our ultimate goal was to show our combined capabilities and what we could collectively bring to bare for the client.

SOLUTION

How did you select Visible Magic LLC?

We have a past relationship with Jay Donovan, one of their founding partners. Upon talking to Jay and the larger team they are a skilled app shop that brought the dev chops we needed for the project.

Describe the project in detail.

This partner is foucsed the digitally savvy Gen-X crowd. They have an immersive app experience currently but struggled with a seamless ecomm UI. Additionally, there is a strong loyalty component that needs a thoughtful content strategy to keep people coming back, interacting and buying from this retailer.

What was the team composition?

Jay helped lead the response team. He pulled other key subject matter experts to help flush out the response and audit of the current infrastructure. The whole team was always accessible and willing to dig in to try to address the detailed requirements of the RFP response.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Being it is an RFP response, we were successful at showing case our abilities via the written response which resulted in us being shortlisted. Once shortlisted, we were asked to formally pitch the work and the Visible Magic team was there each step of the way. Additionally, for the final pitch we wanted to show case our work and thinking and had an idea for a quick responsive site that helped playful articulate some of the key components of our response. The Visible Magic team offered to take it on and knocked it out over a few nights and weekends. It came together quickly and really helped set us a part from the competition.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was very smooth. The team was on all the calls (kick-off through content review and budget creation). They were always quick to offer thoughts and insights that enhanced our response.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their speed an nimbleness. It is clear they have a very capable dev team but to respond quickly when this is not the only thing they have going on was great.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They were consummate professionals at every step of the way. Nothing that could be improved upon from my POV.