Vrrb Interactive

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing for a company that specializes in tools, ranging from screws and anchors to hole punch kits and saws. Our catalog is about 3,300 SKUs (stock-keeping units), so the breadth of our line is huge. Our business has been around for 55 years.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vrrb Interactive?

We were looking for a web team that could work with the breadth of our catalog offering and integrate it into Oracle, which is the centrifuge of our company. We use Oracle to do all of our invoicing and fulfillments. We wanted these assets to be within that same infrastructure so that we could keep everything in line on a daily basis. Our goal was to be able to export a CSV (Comma Separated Value) file, which would be adjusted by the website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Vrrb Interactive designed and developed our website. They did coding, execution, and picked hosting. 

We knew what we needed on the website in terms of functionality, and we were familiar with what our peers in the industry were doing. Vrrb definitely helped to guide us on some of the industry standards. They made sure that things were optimized and ran quickly.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with two individuals: Seth (Founder & Managing Director) and a lead developer.

How did you come to work with Vrrb Interactive?

We did a pretty big quarry of looking at different people’s websites and trying to get the transparency as to who developed them. When we ended up selecting Vrrb, much of that had to do with their prior work. They had also done work with somebody we’ve had relations with in the lighting industry, and they were able to provide further testimonial that they were a good partner.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began interviewing Seth in the summer of 2019, and our contract began around August. We’re still finalizing the site's go-live date and are tentatively looking at January. Right now, we’re going through a final vetting process of our sales team and extensively looking at all of the attributes. There’s a lot of system on our part, but system-wise, it’s been pretty quiet for Vrrb over the last couple of months.

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

We are in the midst of a soft launch, so we have shared the website link in our dev environment with about 40 individuals. Most of those individuals are within the company, so it ranges from customer service to purchasing to our outside sales organization. They’re going through and doing their own processes of testing, and we’ve gotten really flattering feedback, such as how night-and-day this site is from our previous one, how easy it is to use, and how clean and modern it is.

How did Vrrb Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a fantastic job. As we’re getting to the tail-end, I can tell they’re ramping up with other projects, but they’ve done a good job facilitating overall. It has not been an easy project — it’s been incredibly long — and they’ve been very accommodating in hitting all of our needs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve been able to deal with the fluid motion of our project as things have evolved and changed. The attribute piece has been the most challenging part of the project. They’ve been flexible in making adjustments to thousands of different attribute buckets.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I think they could have a better line of communication. We have different platforms that we use to provide feedback and comments, and they’ve been great in that regard. However, as we’ve gotten to the end of this project, it’s somewhat difficult to remain on their radar. I will be anxious to see what the service component post-launch is going to look like, such as what turnaround times will be.  

Any advice for potential customers?

Our situation was so unique because of how large our catalog is. If you’re just selling simple items that are very like each other, it would be a very easy process. I think that having all of your stuff in alignment going into the process would be incredibly beneficial and would dramatically reduce the timeline. Unfortunately for us, a lot of the process required reinventing the wheel, because these were things we didn’t have, or we didn’t have them in a way that could be pushed into a system and pulled back out.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the PR manager for the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism. We’re a destination marketing organization for the city of Palm Springs, California.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vrrb Interactive?

We hired Vrrb Interactive to basically build a new WordPress website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They started by selecting basic design elements like fonts and colors. Then they moved to development. Our old site was on Drupal, but they migrated the platform to WordPress. The project was divided into several phases and they focused on a new section of the site in each phase. In the middle of the engagement, we became more involved in their work and began filling in images and copy.

They’ve continued to support us since the development ended. If I can’t do something, I submit a work order and they finish the job.

What is the team composition?

Onset was our liaison with the development team, so he was the only person we worked with directly.

How did you come to work with Vrrb Interactive?

Our webmaster found them and set up our partnership.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from January–October 2020.

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

Despite the platform migration, traffic remained the same and everything worked well. Everyone who has commented on the site has said that it’s much better than it used to be.

How did Vrrb Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily communicated over email and Zoom. They also made training videos and shared documents with us online.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Vrrb Interactive is very consultative. Previous companies I’ve worked with just did whatever we told them, but Vrrb Interactive made recommendations based on their expertise. I appreciated how they collaborated with us.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

The process took us longer than we expected.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to their advice. Rather than giving orders, new clients should focus on collaborating with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I primarily worked with Vrrb Interactive in my role as managing partner at REQ. I recently left to found a new agency.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vrrb Interactive? 

It was primarily a resource challenge. There were times when we had a lot of work and times when things were quiet. Since we couldn't afford to hire on staff for a short-term project, we would bring on Vrrb Interactive as needed.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

The bulk of their work was in development and engineering. Usually we’d partner with them by bringing them into a project for the discovery phase. We’d typically design the projects and then bring them in as a contractor when it came to build.

We worked with them on at least 15 projects. There were a few where we brought them into the design phase as well, but that was less common. Other times, we gave them the entire project and served only as the middleman between them and our client. 

What is the team composition? 

Seth (founder and creative director, Vrrb Interactive) was our initial point of contact. He would get the requirements from us. Depending on the project, either he or the project manager would then interface with our team. A number of developers and designers were part of each project. 

How did you come to work with Vrrb Interactive? 

I started working with them when I was at an agency before REQ. We were scaling up the company and we didn't have enough resources in DC. We had a business trip in L.A. and we decided to meet with some agencies out there. They were one of the agencies we met with and we decided to work with them. When the agency was acquired by REQ, I brought the relationship with Vrrb Interactive over with me. 

How much have you invested with them?

Collectively, it’s somewhere in the $200,000–$400,000 range.

What is the status of this engagement? 

I worked with them for about six years. They’re still working with REQ as far as I'm aware.

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

They were very good at asking the right questions. I very much enjoyed working with them. There were never any surprises because they were so thorough in their preparation. In the consulting industry, expectations from clients can be difficult to meet. There are times when a client would add to the scope after the discovery phase, which made things hairy. Vrrb Interactive understood how to work in that environment. Regardless of the challenges, I can't think of a single instance where they didn't deliver. 

How did Vrrb Interactive perform from a project management standpoint? 

Seth was especially good at being responsive. Even when he was traveling or on vacation, he gave us a clear expectation of where the project stood. We communicated using email, Basecamp, or Mavenlink depending on the project and the client. Vrrb Interactive was flexible and willing to use whatever project management tool or software we chose. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

They excelled at setting expectations. Their team was very good at analyzing a problem and giving a good estimate of the level of effort required. Additionally, they were great at delivering within the budget. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

No, they performed quite well. I can think of only one engagement where there was a communication mishap, but that was definitely outside the norm. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Be open about expectations and requirements. Err on the side of oversharing. They're good at transforming your requirements into tangible milestones.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing director of Tempo. We're an LED lighting company in Orange County, California.

What challenge were you trying to address with Vrrb Interactive?

We had just refreshed our logo and branding, and our website did not match. It was very dated, so it was time to come into alignment with where we were going.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were just looking for an entirely new website so we even had a new URL ready to go. We knew in general what the outline of the website would be. But, Vrrb Interactive pulled it all together, took our concepts, and did the development work. The website was on a WordPress platform. I had two main contacts and then from there, they put together the team on their side.

How did you come to work with Vrrb Interactive?

I did a lot of research to find a good fit. It just seemed like they understood, and their cost point was very good as well. I requested quotes from a few different companies. I met and evaluated different companies before making a decision. After speaking with Vrrb Interactive, they seemed to have a good grasp of what they were looking for from a B2B [business-to-business] side.

How much have you invested with Vrrb Interactive?

We spent $10,000 to $50,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Vrrb Interactive in July 2015. We officially launched around the first week of December 2015.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We've had nothing but positive reviews. I wish our original benchmark was higher than it was, but we've just had positive reviews that the website is easy to use. Our target audience includes architects, lighting designers, and engineers. They're looking for a certain aesthetic, and we have vastly improved on that aspect as well.

How did Vrrb Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

Vrrb Interactive had great online management tools. If they had questions or I had questions, everyone on their team was on the same page. I think they used Basecamp. They were very responsive and made changes quickly. They definitely communicated well and kept to timelines. The project took about five months. Most of that was probably spent on our side in loading all of the information that we have.

What did you find most impressive about Vrrb Interactive?

The quality of the work that they provided was impressive. They were well priced and very competitive.

Are there any areas Vrrb Interactive could improve?

No, not really. I can't think of anything.

Please describe your organization.

Zaption is an interactive video learning platform that allows you to take any video and make it interactive and more engaging by adding images, text, or questions and then tracking what people learn with those videos.

What is your position?

I am the former CEO. Zaption was acquired by Workday last week [July 2016], so I am no longer with the company.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Vrrb Interactive?

Vrrb helped us do a number of things. One, Vrrb helped us design various aspects of our public website to communicate our value proposition to our potential customers clearly. More importantly, though, they also designed key UI/UX [user interface/user experience] elements for our web app, which included the early stages of our offering platform, our publishing platform, and our analytics. They were key to helping us design all those different interfaces for the first version of our app.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

We worked very closely with Vrrb at all stages of the design process. In most cases, we would lay out the technical requirements of whatever page we were designing and send those to Vrrb. Vrrb then interpreted those and came back with wireframes. Sometimes, that meant imagining entirely new interfaces for new functionality in the app.

We then discussed those wireframes and shared what we wanted to changed. That led to artwork that we also went through an iterative process to refine. They listened to our feedback and shared their own opinions, which led to final artwork that our developers then took and integrated it into the app. That was the general process we went through with them. There were variations at times because, sometimes, we did the wireframes and they just jumped right into the final artwork. Other times, we weren't doing full pages. We just needed to redo some icons or redesign a particular interface that had already been in the first version or in the beta version.

We did some other small projects with them like a general analysis of our website, just to unify not only the navigation, but also to unify different visual elements, color schemes, and so on. We also had them sync through to see how the website could be used in different modes strategically, mobile mode, responsive, and so on. We used them as our full creative agency in the early days.

How did you come to work with Vrrb Interactive?

They were already working with our CTO when I first came onboard. I can't remember now whether they were referred to us or we just sought them out.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was $50,000 to $200,000 total across a couple of years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them roughly in June 2013 through June 2015. The only reason we stopped working with them was because we decided to bring our UI design in house to speed up the development cycle. We were expanding our development team, and we found a UI/UX designer and front-end programmer who could very rapidly create designs, create mockups, make them pixel perfect, and then turn that into front end HTML and PSS all in one fell swoop.

It wasn't that we were unhappy with Vrrb in any way. We loved working with the team. We felt they did excellent work all the way through, but it was just a desire to get somebody in-house.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

What I can say is anecdotally we believed from the very beginning that design was a strategic advantage and it was critical to the success of our app, especially in the education field, which is where most of our customers were.

We felt that the app had to be very easy to use, and it had to be very visually appealing. It had to feel very robust – at the same time, you could learn it in a couple of minutes. We heard from many of our customers that we achieved that with the help of Vrrb. People constantly say, "Wow, I can't believe you built such a beautiful app for educators. We don't usually get quality of this kind for us." That's probably the best thing I could quantify.

How did Vrrb Interactive perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. They worked quick. That's one of the things we liked about them. They followed through across the board. Every once in a while, there were delays here and there but that's to be expected in any work like this. We always identified the goals at the beginning of the project. They communicated what the next stage was, how long it would take, and always followed through to keep us on track.

We were very happy with how every project went. We worked with them as our outsourced creative director for two years, and so they were integral to the team. It wasn't like a waterfall project where we would identify the requirement, and they would go off for a month and them deliver something. It was much more fluid than that. We would work with them on new projects almost on a weekly or biweekly basis. As one project was wrapping up, we were always identifying the requirements for the next project.

What distinguishes Vrrb Interactive from other providers?

We worked with other design agencies before Vrrb, but one of the reasons that we stuck with Vrrb for so long was because we think they are very professional, and they have a distinctive style that helped us stand out.

In fact, the quality was so high, and we were so happy with their work, that it took us a full year and a half of looking around to find somebody in-house that could match Vrrb's quality and speed and could work well with us. I think that's a real testament when you can stick with an outside firm for quite a while. Remember, we are a web development company. We have high standards for what we wanted to do.

This wasn't just a creative exercise or just a public-facing website. We needed them to provide consistently high-quality work and designs on an ongoing basis. They did that so effectively that they set a very high bar when we hired somebody else. I think that says a lot about Seth [Geoffrion, founder of Vrrb Interactive] and his team and why they're successful.

Is there anything Vrrb Interactive could have improved or done differently?

This is not unique to them, but they could be better about communicating when things are busy on their end, so we know if there's going to be a delay of some sort. Most of the time, they were spot on delivery and very timely in delivering designs.

Another thing is to make sure that we always know who the primary contact is. There was a new person that came onboard about halfway through and it took a little while to work that person in. Those are minor, minor things. Certainly, we stuck with them so long simply because they were top notch in terms of quality and communication, and we really loved working with them. We thought they were very easy to work with and took feedback very well, which is important.