Waker

Introduce your business and what you do there.

HRsoft is a human resource software company that produces fast solutions. I am the SVP of product, and I’m in charge of our current and future roadmap.

What challenge were you trying to address with Waker?

We needed to modernize our existing applications. We also wanted to have a more organized process for bringing in new solutions that are consistent with our brand identity, easy to use, and ready to go out of the gate.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our goal was to make our products have more visually attractive and intuitive interfaces. Waker started the first phase of the project by looking into our products that were already on the market. Their team gave us their feedback and made recommendations to improve those applications’ UI/UX. 

We went back and forth for a little while until they were able to get enough information from us to produce some really nice mockups. It was an iterative process, and we were able to take those mockups and build them into our actual software. 

The Waker team also helped us with the rolling out of new products, including a new pay equity solution and a new incentive management solution. They helped us create mockups before we went into any R&D work so that we could get started with a blueprint right out of the gate.  

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with two people: Nafis (Co-Founder) and Jay (Designer).

How did you come to work with Waker?

Our business development manager helped me do some research on various firms that could help with product marketing and UI design. Waker was the first agency that we thought had the best combination of technical, marketing, and UI expertise. We also felt that they were extremely organized and considerate. Their follow-up was excellent.

Another good thing about them was that we could procure them on a monthly basis such that if one month is less busy than the other, we wouldn’t have to worry about being nickel-and-dimed. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $6,000 a month. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in June 2021, and the work is ongoing. 

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

I don’t necessarily have any statistics or metrics, but I can say that the mockups they’ve created have really helped us redo about 90% of our software products. Our CEO and CTO have also said that Waker has produced beautiful designs that make our products look 10 years more modern. There has been a definite improvement in our image as we’ve been able to present more elegant software to our customers.

How did Waker perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great. Their team used Asana to keep track of the project. We also use that, along with emails and phone calls, to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

What really distinguishes Waker from other providers is that they’re a one-stop shop. They’ve got excellent customer service and great technical expertise. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, but I could probably be more focused on my end. They’ve done a good job with that anyway. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you have an idea of what your goals are and are interested in getting things done in a tactical manner, Waker can help you get started really fast. A lot of other vendors are heavily conceptual and strategic but will take months and months before they get things started. These guys, however, are really ready to hit the ground running if you are. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a medical startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with Waker?

We wanted to build a mobile app to improve communication among healthcare providers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Waker designed and developed the prototype for our mobile app. It’s meant for the web too, but it’s only prototyped at this time. The next step is to develop the app into a functional product.

The app intends to increase communication amongst medical professionals to discuss studies or research and come to solutions regarding that in a more organized way. Users can exchange files and have topic-by-topic discussions for members only. It’s for closed organizations.

What is the team composition?

I’m in contact with Nafis (General Partner).

How did you come to work with Waker?

Nafis was referred to me by a common friend.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2020 and it's ongoing.

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

Waker has good ideas and is always available and responsive. It was a successful collaboration.

I’m happy with the prototype. It’s a new, innovative development. Whatever we thought of doing, it was put into practice which is good.

How did Waker perform from a project management standpoint?

The overall communication was pretty good. They met deadlines most of the time. Our teams communicated via Zoom meetings, and they used InVision where they showed the prototype with me and I could give feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Waker is very open to ideas. They give really practical and realistic input. Their team gives good input to develop ideas into a finished product. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they could do better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Discuss your ideas openly with the team. Give the team a good idea of what you’re looking for. Define a timeline and develop your ideas accordingly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a nursing home chain.

What challenge were you trying to address with Waker?

We needed help with app development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re creating an iOS/Android app to improve communication between families and the facilities that we have. The app includes a dashboard that communicates with our electronic medical records.

What is the team composition?

We work with two people from their team.

How did you come to work with Waker?

My business partner found them locally in Columbus, Ohio.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent close to $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2020, and our work is ongoing.

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

They’ve done a fantastic job. We have a group that we were working with prior to Waker and they didn’t do a great job. Waker was able to pick up where they left off and exceeded our expectations. We’re really happy with their work.

How did Waker perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great and we’ve had no issues with communication. We use phone and email to keep in touch.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to understand what we want and apply that to the app is great. It’s a complicated project since it involves healthcare. They do exactly what we ask and more.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve done an excellent job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to communicate with them frequently. If you do, they’ll do whatever you ask of them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of views. We’re a social network for rational discussion and factual information around societal issues.

What challenge were you trying to address with Waker?

We engaged them for design and development work for the frontend of an MVP.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Waker provided frontend work for a mobile app built for both iOS and Android. They created about 30 design cards in InVision and a workflow prototype to show to people. There is a hinge slider profile, nothing functional, but it’s all design work right now. Waker and Nafis (General Partner) have connected me with a good network of people to build the backend. Right now, we’re starting the process of answering questions and feedback on the functionality.

What is the team composition?

Nafis is my main point of contact and I work with one of their design people a bit.

How did you come to work with Waker?

I actually went to high school with the founder and followed his work for a long time. We spent three months meeting with each other and talking about prices. He was willing to give me a deal, which I thought was great. I need the knowledge he had in the startup world and he was willing to offer that to me and help me through some of the basic stuff and that was very helpful.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $11,000–$13,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in August 2020 and finished up the first part of the project that October, although the work is still ongoing.

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

I have a core group of about 20 people that I send the deliverables to as I receive them. All of the feedback on the design and the features that we built to this point has positive. Nothing really stood out in terms of flaws. In terms of design work, I had raving reviews from everyone I sent it to.

How did Waker perform from a project management standpoint?

Nafis is always willing to meet with me whenever I need it and willing to work me in even though he has a really busy schedule. We have weekly conversations and they provide great information and I recorded everything we talked about. We didn’t have any set deadlines, but everything gets done in a reasonable amount of time. I think if I had more experience, then the pace would be faster. Because I don’t have any experience, I’m able to spend a couple of days learning about everything and familiarizing myself with the terminology. It’s the perfect time and the perfect communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Waker was very willing to get things right, like the slider, which was a critical point. We probably spent three weeks going over different ways we could get it right. The design work is incredible. Their ability to take something that I said, that I had no conception of what it would look like, and being able to make the first edition exactly as how I envisioned it is incredible. It’s really exciting to see. I also think that Nafis being someone younger and being able to understand younger people is an added value.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there is nothing. I’m extremely happy.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I highly recommend working with them.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an eight-person, venture-backed startup. We’re building workflow intelligence software for operations teams.

What challenge were you trying to address with Waker?

We worked on two projects with Waker. The first was using their help for some of our product visioning, thinking through what the future state of our design mockups would look like so we could run user feedback sessions on them. The second project was to get our marketing site up and running. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

The deliverables were predominantly based on design work. They shared everything in Figma so that our development team could easily take and implement it into our product, similarly with the website. They designed the layout, helped us think through the narrative for copy and messaging, and worked closely with us for the final website design. 

Using the context they had from the prior project, they were able to design both the components of the site and the narrative around what we were trying to show on the marketing site. We’re going to be building the website ourselves, so they put the designs for both desktop and mobile, which will make it very easy for us to take and build ourselves in Webflow. 

What is the team composition?

Two people worked with us, Nafis (Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer) and Jay (Designer). 

How did you come to work with Waker?

I found them through a referral by a user we’re getting feedback from. The person ran a customer support organization and he referred us to Waker as a design firm. Once we met with them, we looked through their portfolio and reviewed their proposal, including the scope of work and the cost. We felt like it was a super high-value engagement that we wouldn’t be able to get within our own networks.

How much have you invested with them?

I believe we spent between $11,000–$12,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2020–January 2021.

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

Nothing is live yet, but we do have intangible results around how the product visioning helped us build relationships with a few customers that have translated into pilots.

How did Waker perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t necessarily need them to use any tools, since we mainly communicated over email. They were super flexible, especially our main point of contact. We communicated with Jay whenever we needed to. They sent out an agenda in advance so we could come to meetings prepared. Their team was very responsive to our feedback. 

One of the challenging things with design work is how preference-based it is, so when something didn’t initially match exactly what we were thinking, they did a good job hearing our feedback and how to address it. They thought at a higher level about what we were aiming for and came back with something even better. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their responsiveness to feedback distinguished them; working with them definitely felt like a partnership. There was no point where we gave them what we wanted and they went radio silent — we always felt like we were getting expertise and giving them some influence. We had a real partnership that helped us come up with a better deliverable, ultimately. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a few instances where we were waiting for an update or a call would get moved, so there could be tools to help us have a better sense of where the project was in between updates. We would have been super open to having updates about where they were at and if they had any roadblocks. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We went in with a pretty strong conviction of what we needed and wanted, but we benefited from not being too stubborn about it. We let them think with us about the product and marketing website. This led to a less transactional relationship and produced something better than we even envisioned, so I recommend that approach. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of product management for a SaaS company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Waker?

We looked at our mobile, tablet, and web solution to understand the best UX for our particular users.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We discussed different conceptual ideas such as features and functionalities for the product. We’re embedding artificial intelligence into our product and their team helped us to understand how to visualize those functions.

Waker examined our different user personas and worked on the UX. From our ideas and the existing platform’s structure, their team completed redesigned the UX. Essentially, they created a new way for users to work. Their team used a standard mockup tool that allowed us to see and comment on their designs.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one person from Waker.

How did you come to work with Waker?

I looked for experienced designers in my area. When I talked to different people, they didn’t show completed projects. I talked with Waker in the office. Their team was knowledgeable about design. They showed completed designs that fit our vision. The combination of scouting the web, talking with Waker, and seeing their designs sold me on their team.  

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $50,000–$200,000 in their services so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

The relationship started in 2019, and it’s ongoing.

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

Waker helped to create one of our fastest adopted modules. Users bought the module based on the designs. They bought it before it was even implemented.

How did Waker perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication’s great. We never have a problem connecting with them. We call them or schedule a time for both of us to meet. Waker’s great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They created great UX designs. Sometimes, their team provides designs that give us pause. But then we think about and talk about the designs, which changes our mindset. Waker makes us think outside of the box. Their team specializes in mobile design first and can scale it up, which is great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re one of the best design firms that I’ve engaged by far.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Waker can pick up on projects quickly, which means you don’t have to have a face-to-face meeting sometimes. Other times, it’s nice to bring them on-site and discuss a project. After our meetings, their team executes the project on their own, which made me nervous at first. They’re great about touching base but are self-sufficient.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We have a memorial platform that allows users to relive life’s best moments. After I lost my mother, I heard wonderful stories about her, and I gained a better understanding of her as other knew her. I felt it would be wonderful to have a digital version of those moments that could be shared and reexperienced. I’m the CEO and co-founder.

What challenge were you trying to address with Waker?

I don’t have any technical experience, so we reached out to Waker to help us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They handled everything from UI/UX, to development, to branding. They managed all the design and mockups, and they consulted with us on best practices. Then, they developed the whole web application. They used Ruby on Rails and React, but there may be other technologies they used as well.

We had an idea of what we wanted the platform to look like, but we relied on their expertise. It was a collaborative process, and we added new things we hoped to include or change. They gave a lot of useful feedback, and they were responsible for all the logo design and other visuals.

What is the team composition?

I have a single point of contact on their team.

How did you come to work with Waker?

I found them via a friend of a former client of theirs. We’d discussed a few projects that never materialized, and we came to them again when this project began. We talked to several other companies, but the Waker team had strong business acumen and could act as a partner. Their pricing was much better than some of the other companies we considered, and we felt they would be a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent roughly $30,000 for their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We just wrapped up the project, and we hope to go live in a week or two. From start to finish, the process ran from February-September 2019, but the relationship is ongoing.

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

We receive great feedback. A big portion of our distribution is to hospice care providers, and the product and execution really resonate with potential users. It’s a unique tool, and people are surprised by the level of customization we’ve achieved. Waker is very responsive and helpful with design iteration, and they are open to changes to the original scope of work.

How did Waker perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re great to work with, and their communication is good. We didn’t have any firm deadlines in place, but their estimates remained accurate. They were always clear about their process and the project’s next steps.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a great organization. The value is there, and they make us consider important technical and business perspectives. Their forethought is a major asset.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they should improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do as much brainstorming as possible. They’re happy to do that with you, but the clearer and more detailed your vision is, the better. Take your time in the scope of work phase, then leverage the mockups you’re given to get the best feedback before development starts.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a media company. We created a social networking app to help high school basketball players connect with college coaches and scouts.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ghost Lab?

We worked with them to develop the app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built the product using the React Native dev kit, because we wanted one source code for both iOS and Android platforms. I’m a software developer by trade, so I understood React and had an easy time supporting the framework. I also like how popular React is, and knew it would be easy to add features and functionality that fell outside of the scope of our contract. It allowed me to build a product that I could troubleshoot and add features to without having to depend on an outside vendor after we deployed the beta version. Other integrated components included Branch as a linking tool, Firebase for analytics, and Sentry as a tracking platform.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two people from their company. One provided UI/UX expertise, and the other developed the product and integrated various products we wanted.

How did you come to work with Ghost Lab?

A member of a meetup group for startups I belong to was doing very well, so I asked him about his development team. He immediately recommended Ghost Lab. Based on their strategy and how polished their products looked, I was convinced that they would be a good team to work with.

I interviewed their UI/UX expert, who also acted as the project manager for this project. He showed me samples of their previous work and gave a good impression of their abilities. They were honest and made me feel comfortable during the interview process, so I decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $26,000 for this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started working with us around December 2016. The bulk of the work was completed in September 2018, but we recently added more features to the product. We're about to go to market now.

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

They designed a beautiful product that was simple and easy to use. We get real-time notifications whenever users receive error codes, and it is much easier to track users and troubleshoot areas that need additional features or functionality. They put us in the driver’s seat and helped us get the product to market quickly.

The biggest impact was delivering the product with enough time to beta test it before the spring and summer basketball season in 2019. Ironically, the summer season is more important than the regular high school basketball season, so their delivery and timing was critical to our success.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really understood us and our marketplace. They did a lot of research before beginning this project, liked what we were doing, and saw the problems we were trying to solve. Their dedication and belief in the project incentivized them to think outside the box and make helpful suggestions. For instance, we wanted a Facebook authentication process, but they pointed out that might exclude some customers who don’t use Facebook. Instead, we used a cell phone authentication process that could reach more users. The beauty of this collaboration was their belief in us and their interest in our success.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a small shop, and sometimes issues arose as customer demands increased. As they grow and their customer base expands, they’ll hire more resources to handle requests more effectively.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a clear idea of your vision, and provide them with user stories and the flow to make the process easier. I built a user story document, a flowchart diagram, and sample screens before we started the project, which made it much easier to get off the ground.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Prime Rank builds SaaS [software as a service] products for Instagram marketing. Our biggest one is Socially Rich, which is ranked number one on Google for Instagram marketing service. We served around 5,000 clients in that space. From there, we’ve been able to find and meet people trying to market through Instagram.

What challenge were you trying to address with Ghost Lab?

We needed help with software development. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve been part of every tool in service we developed since our first. One of the tools is called Quotent.co. It’s going through a rebrand right now, to the name Betterpost. That tool has a database of quotes so it helps people generate content for Instagram in a much faster and scalable way. 

We also built one called Primerank.co, which has a much more complex algorithm. It’s like a Google for Instagram to help companies find the perfect influencers to promote their brand, product launch, or marketing campaign. Not only can you search for the perfect influencer for your campaign, but it also has CRM [customer relationship management] built within it. It facilitates the process of onboarding an influencer into your campaign. 

What is the team composition? 

I hire them to manage my products. I’m a marketer and CEO and don’t work too closely with developers. I tell them exactly what I want building. 

I work with one designer and one developer. Once in a while, we need someone in data entry to join the project. I talk with Nafis [Founder, Ghost Lab] most of the time. I barely have to interact with a developer because he facilitates the communication with the developer. I hire them to manage my products. I’m a marketer and CEO and don’t work too closely with developers.

How did you come to work with Ghost Lab?

They were a referral from a friend so I decided to meet with him. After interviewing a bunch of companies and independent developers, I decided to go with them. I was going to bring a team in-house, but after I had my first experience working with Nafis, the designer of Ghost Lab, I found that he could find talent that exceeded my expectations. He’s great at managing them. We decided to continue working with them. The onboarding process is also quite professional, which is also one of the reasons I chose them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in summer 2017 and the work is ongoing. 

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

My projects are quite complex. I haven’t had any issues with their technical capabilities. They meet the requirements. 

How did Ghost Lab perform from a project management standpoint?

For me, to manage developers is kind of hard because you need to understand a lot about the project. I use them to manage the project and communicate with the developers. It takes the stress away from me. It removes friction between me and the developer and makes the whole project run flawlessly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They provided me an overqualified developer for the project just to make sure it can be done. The Quotent project, I had gone through two developers before using Ghost Lab. None of them could make it happen. It’s a super simple tool, but it was quite complex. They’ve done an outstanding job. The person that did the development for it was a very qualified person. Ghost Lab chooses a developer they know they’re not going to go wrong with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have no complaints. I never had a problem where we had to switch the developer during the project. With other companies, it has happened and cost me a lot of money.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very realistic with the timeline the project is going to take. Be realistic in the sense of trying to calculate unforeseen problems that will occur perhaps. Also, consider the testing and optimization of the project after the app or software is done. A tool or service can be done in a month, but with testing and optimizing it could be delayed up to 4–6 months. Don’t be in a rush to find a developer. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of a UI/UX design agency. We mostly work with startups to design out their product, apps, and web experiences. We do some frontend development, but we’re always in need of extremely talented and intelligent developers.

What challenge were you trying to address with Appify?

We wanted to find a partner with a development agency to augment our company's capabilities on a long-term basis.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project was for a marketing website that needed a robust frontend web app design and a lot of functionality in the backend. Philip [CEO, Appify] and I worked on the estimation process together, and he was more than willing to take a lot of time to outline nuanced and focused technical questions for the client.

 After that, I did the design work, and Philip reviewed it to make sure everything was technically capable and able to be built, which was incredibly helpful and efficient. We gave the design, specs, and UI guidelines to Appify, and they built out portions of the app in a milestone basis, giving us transparency of cost and the ability to check on updates.

I was essentially responsible for project management, even after the design phase was finished, and Philip was both the developer and assistant project management. Appify developed the rest of the application and built out a robust framework with requirements and features. We recently finished the product and shipped it to our client.

What is the team composition?

Philip’s my main point of contact, but I’ve interacted with his developers lately. There’s always been at least four people on our project.

How did you come to work with Appify?

He was recommended to me by a mutual friend. I’d looked at other development partners, and I wanted to keep a wide scope, but I worked with Philip on two smaller projects, and the experiences were so positive that I’m considering making Appify our sole dev partner. Right now, we have an informal partnership where I work on his design projects and he works on my dev projects.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a little bit over $65,000 on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project initiated last August and was completed this month.

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

The product owner is just sitting on it now; he hasn't released it to the public, be he’s extremely happy with it. There's no critical debugging, just small stuff to make sure everything's working great and performing right on every browser. The app is exactly what I wanted, if not better.

How did Appify perform from a project management standpoint?

Philip and I probably talked about twice a week to update one another on the project and maybe brainstorm solutions for any design or technical problems. We had a great collaboration flow, and I trusted him to handle his team just as he trusted me to handle mine.

Deadlines were met either before or within the timeline, and he always stayed in budget. If I sent Philip an email, I knew he would reply within 24 hours, even if he was traveling. He always made communication an efficient process and was reliable and consistent with project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our client had had some bad experiences with developers in the past, so he had a lot of questions, and other developers might not have been as talkative or personable as Philip was. He handled the business conversations well, was informative, and put the client at ease.

Not only was he able to communicate well, but he consistently provided feedback and constructive collaboration that ultimately led to a better product. Appify’s projects are some of the most stable, fast-performing, and reliable ones that I’ve ever shipped out. I've never had a dev team provide such excellent code. Everything he built is extremely snappy and responsive, and its identical to the mockups with focused additions that made it more technically responsive. He delivers on his promises, and the products look and feel exactly as they need to.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Whatever you need, Appify will be able to get it done. They don’t just do or build what you say, but they provide candid feedback that helps you build the best product possible. Philip will never tell you what to do, but he will give you insight to make the right decision.