Wonder and Wander

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder and CEO of Aureo, an EdTech company with a focus on allowing people to integrate learning into their daily lives.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Wonder and Wander, and what were your goals?

We hired Wonder and Wander to improve the in-app user experience, setup a way to interact more directly with users to get a better understanding of their needs and problems and to more accurately measure user behavior.

SOLUTION

How did you select Wonder and Wander and what were the deciding factors?

I met Jon, a Wonder and Wander co-founder on an entrepreneurship mentorship call and explored the potential of Wonder and Wander working with Aureo.

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

We started with a kick-off meeting to understand the stage Aureo was at, what were its key priorities and where and how Wonder and Wander could offer the most value.

We broke down the priorities into initiatives that Wonder and Wander could implement quickly and to test certain hypotheses Aureo had regarding how it could get a deeper understanding of its users, their problems and their needs. Wonder and Wander worked quickly and diligently to execute on the work to be done.

How many people from the Wonder and Wander team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There were 5 people from Wonder and Wander who worked with Aureo. A project coordinator, a front end and backend developer, a UX/UI designer, and a user business intelligence expert.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After launching the enhancements to the app, we were able to interact directly with +100 users, engaging with them on their experience with the product and getting key insights into how we could better deliver on our value proposition.

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

We communicated continually via Slack where we had a dedicated channel for communications between Aureo and Wonder and Wander.

On that channel there was full transparency with regards to all the interactions between the two companies. We had weekly progress meetings on Zoom, where Wonder and Wander would track the content of the calls to ensure no detail was lost.

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

What impressed me most about Wonder and Wander was their think and act like an owner mentality. I felt like they were a part of Aureo and that they were alongside us every step of the way, to ensure we reached our objectives.

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

I valued the work that Wonder and Wander did for Aureo. I don’t see anything that could have been done differently.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m a CEO of a SaaS company that services film production.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Wonder and Wander?

We hired Wonder & Wander to help us get AWS services back up in running, as we were in a tight spot where many clients weren’t able to get into this profiles, as well our bill was going to be 1000x higher (no exaggeration) with AWS if a solution wasn’t found.

SOLUTION

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

A friend of mine, who works with many startups, suggested I reach out to them for this issue.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

First step was discovering the scope of our problem, what had been done, laying out potential solutions, and settling on a prices for the predicted scope of services. After that, we got them the needed credentials, looked at the issues together, brought in problem specific experts, and solved each of the initially outlined issues to get us to project resolution.

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

Main contact was Jon who is a founder and Engineer, as well as an operations lead, security consultant, as well as outside of the company they connected us and worked with 2 senior level team members at AWS.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Within four days they outlined the problem, found solutions, solved each of the initially outlined problems, as well as equipped us with knowledge & tools to solve the problem internally in the future. On top of this, the found other potential issues, less urgent, to pursue in the near future.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was very effective. The team knowledge and connections streamlined the process.

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

I would say the values of the team, the intentional education, and their impressive connections made them stand out.

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

In all honesty I feel they were very well rounded, and exceeded expectations . Something that may be cool is if they advertise a process roadmap from problem to solution on their site, for scoping in process expectations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the director of Engagement and Special Projects at 1MILLIONHOME. We help forward-thinking orphanages around the world transform their model of care so more kids can live with family rather than in institutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Wonder and Wander?

Our website was suffering from long-load times and needed to upgrade our google page insight from a "D" to "A". Pages were taking up to 5-6 seconds to load and we weren't sure why. Furthermore, we were anticipating large traffic to our fundraising portal and were concerned the existing UX would compromise people's ability to give on demand. The challenge was to review the developer code and documents provided by the fundraising portal and create a solution that leveraged deep-linking URL technology for mobile devices.

SOLUTION

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

Wonder and Wander heard about the mission of 1MILLIONHOME and had taken interested in supporting our work. They took time to listen and even feel our technological pain points. In our founding years, they volunteered their time to build out our Google Suite and set up our IT systems. As they've journeyed with us, it was a natural fit to hire WW to take us to the next level.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

After a series of emails, WW initiated a kick-off meeting where they presented their development pathway. They affirmed our choice in platforms and gave us the confidence to proceed by revealing their process and clearly articulating expected outcomes. They held to the agreed timeline even when pivots had to be made with new information coming to light.

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

A project manager was our main point of contact.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After the site upgrade, our pages loaded within 2 seconds. This was a huge improvement from the 6-8 seconds before. They went on to share what they did and empowered us to keep our site optimized.

They recommended plugins and other security features to prevent unauthorized installations or events that would cause the site to slow down - even this was out of scope, their proactive stance in supporting our mission was an unexpected deliverable. With the site optimized and donation portal UX code updated, we were able to raise over $125,000 in donations at our stadium event.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was efficient because their onboarding process was dialed in. Constant communication was prioritized, and responsiveness to solution-driven action was appreciated.

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

I was impressed with their responsiveness to understanding the issue behind the issue. They were personable in their approach and took vested interest in the cause. It didn't seem like another project to them but something they saw value in building. It was not common to see that.

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

The project manager was professional and to-the-point. However, at times, it was confusing to navigate through Slack due to the threading feature. If we didn't follow along or stay on top of messages, it was easy to miss things. That said, having insight into the process and a platform to stay connected was essential to getting this project done on time and on budget.