Xfive

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of lifeinsurancecanada.com.

What challenge were you trying to address with Xfive?

Two different companies developed our website. We also hired one full-time engineer and developer. However, our website never worked.  We needed to make sure the website was functional and connected with all of our automation platforms.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Xfive essentially built out an entire WordPress website from start to finish, beginning with the wireframes. We gave them our full design wheel but also asked them to make changes.

Their team also added functionalities to the site, enabling users to quote insurance and sign documents. Their team did a lot of API work. Xfive integrated the website with DocuSign, Infusionsoft, and G Suite.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Bartek (Head of Business Development) who set up the project. We then worked with Pawel (Senior Project Manager) who was the project manager. We then worked with Daniel (UX/UI Designer) who was the designer and Rafal (WordPress Developer) who was the developer. Another person tested the website.

How did you come to work with Xfive?

We found Xfive on Clutch. Unlike another group that wouldn’t leave us alone, Xfive presented in such a way that there wasn’t pressure. Their team negotiated on the project’s price, which we needed during the middle of COVID-19. They also demonstrated interest in our brand and wanted to create a case study following the project.

They also used Basecamp, which is project-based. I also liked that they had a team and made themselves available.  We loved the design of their website and their previous work.

Their team was also specific about what they could do. For example, we asked if they could help us with digital marketing. Their team said that they couldn’t and recommended that we find an agency through Clutch to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $35,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Xfive started working on the site in May, and the website went live in October 2020. We plan to retain them on a maintenance plan.

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

Our website’s one of the first front- and backend life insurance platforms in Canada. We had someone complete an online application for life insurance, click sign using DocuSign, and process the application. Before the new website, the application was a five-step process. Xfive cut out all of those steps. In terms of manpower, they saved us a ton of time. They designed the website so it’s easy for us to make changes too.

Their team’s incredible. I’ve worked with a lot of companies over the years, and I can’t say enough about Xfive. We recently talked to another company that spent over $1 million putting their website together. Our website’s honestly more functional.

How did Xfive perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re always up to date. During the project, we always had a summary of actions taken every day. If needed, we hopped on a conference call within a day.

They’re responsive, even with a different time zone. Their team’s knowledge and ability to execute and understand us are incredible. They’re a phenomenal company.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team delivered what we needed. Their price came right near what they quoted, which nobody ever can do in that industry. Their team also beautifully managed the project. Unlike my past experiences, I never had to ask Xfive for a status update.

Their design and thoroughness were also impressive. After the website launched, we both found errors. Their team spent two full days fixing them. Neither my business partner nor I have had a professional relationship that worked as well as ours with Xfive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m thrilled.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have a game plan for the project because it’s important to be deliberate with your decisions. Don’t make so many changes that you start to get away from the project. Also, let them lead the project and answer their questions in a timely manner.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP at Jones-Dilworth, a marketing communications firm. We help emerging science and tech companies go to market. One of our focuses is marketing websites.

What challenge were you trying to address with Xfive?

We hired them for frontend development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Xfive has done about 15 different websites for us. Our preferred tech stack is the JAMstack. They’ve been working with us on Gatsby sites and ones that use their proprietary framework, Chisel.

We’ve added CMSs as well as other form functionalities. The team has also assisted us with Squarespace sites and WordPress blogs. Our team handles the design, so we give them Figma design files. They then give us feedback on how to tweak designs.

Additionally, Xfive has given us DevOps hours too. For example, when we’ve needed domain mapping advice or general website strategy, the team has stepped in.  

What is the team composition?

We work regularly with their project manager, and we’ve probably worked with 6–7 various team members.

How did you come to work with Xfive?

One of our clients had used them to build their website. We were working with a freelancer, but our design work was growing. So, I began looking for resources and, considering that Xfive had been recommended by a client, I looked at their websites.

I was impressed with their WordPress work. I talked to them and they blew me away in our first conversation. We then did a test project together and it went really well.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $100,000 to date. Our projects are usually $5,000–$10,000 each.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our first project with them began in about July 2018, and our engagement is ongoing. 

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

We’re trying to build websites that perform well, meaning that they have clean code and are fast. We also want them to have no limits in terms of artistry, which means breaking the grid when it comes to design. 

Xfive achieves both of these things. We’ve never put a design in front of them that they couldn’t figure out how to code, and we’ve never done a website with them that hasn’t been A-plus on speed.

How did Xfive perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve never missed a deadline, and their project management is one of the most impressive I’ve seen. They have one of the most efficient processes I’ve ever seen. We know exactly what’s happening, and they’ve been willing to put in overtime. 

Our clients are constantly moving timelines, and the team is very honest with us if they won’t be able to meet our needs. When they say they’re going to do something, they do it. I also feel comfortable with everyone they’ve put on the team. We mostly use Basecamp, but we also use Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One thing we love about working with Xfive is that they don’t just do what we give them; they think really hard about our goals. They get our intentions and are able to tell me if there is a better way to achieve the best for my clients. The team is truly a partner. They’re also very reliable. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I honestly have no suggestions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more you can tell them upfront, the smoother your process will be. My advice is to treat them as a partner, tell them what you want to achieve, and give them as much context as you have about the work. By doing this, you’ll get more out of the engagement with Xfive.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our objective is to become the leading engine for innovation and entrepreneurship in sustainable energy. We are about securing Europe's global competitiveness in the field of energy technologies. Close networking of all our partners speeds up commercialization and generates new energy products. I am a project manager responsible for various IT projects.

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

We hired Xfive to design and develop website for a global event which takes place on a yearly basis.

How did you select Xfive and what were the deciding factors?

We run the RFP procedure. Three companies were invited to take part and X-five won by scoring the highest amount of points in selection criteria.

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

• Gather necessary information to build the website
• Plan Sitemap and create Wireframes 
• Prepare Design: Page Layouts/Templates, Review, and go through the approval cycle
• Coding
• Testing, Review, and Launch/migration to our hosting
• Training Maintenance: deliver agreed on the post-implementation support package.

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

We worked with 3 people.

1. Bartek - project manager
2. Daniel - designer
3. Marcin - developer

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

They have a great project manager, designer and a quick developement. With Xfive help we have created a website that everybody likes. Overall, we are very pleased with Xfive. They did everything we asked in a timely matter. I will definitely be recommending Xfive to other companies. Thanks for such good work.

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

We communicated pretty much every daily, and their team is very responsive. We had review calls once a week. We used Basecamp platform to support communicaiton and assets exchange. Overall, the project management was excellent. Bartek was flexible and incredibly understand our needs.

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

They are very flexible, professional and attentive. They are very friendly and very easy to work with. They provide very valuable and honest advice which let's you rethink what you wnat to achive.

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

Not really. I wish there were more companies like Xfive.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Luminary is a digital agency based throughout Australia and Bali. Since we began in 1999 we bring together the brightest minds in digital to craft experiences that are intuitive, engaging, impactful and enlightening.

We are known for our work on complex web projects for leading Australian brands, but we also do everything from digital transformation and user experience design, to digital marketing and managed cloud services. My role is CEO.

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

We have been working with Xfive since 2014 across a range of projects. Essentially we were keen to compliment our Frontend team by having a team who could increase our capacity when we had large projects.

They had the added benefit of being in a different timezone and we could design during the day and they could do the FED overnight. This reduced our project timelines and increased our responsiveness.

How did you select Xfive and what were the deciding factors?

They understood our approach to Frontend Devleopment and were happy to work with our frameworks. We felt that their culture was similar to ours and we got along well as we valued the same things around Frontend as well as culture.

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

We have worked across so many projects that it is impossible to list them all and their details. I can say that we have worked on many major projects, largely with frontend deliverables, as well

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

We have worked with about 6 Frontend Developers and one amazing Producer!

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

We work closely with Xfive whose team members support our team members. We generally work with a scrum team so the Xfive team members are part of our team. So together we produce the results.

Generally we operate in sprints and Xfive team members contribute to the deliverables as any other team member would. There are no specific metrics that we share as we work with individuals rather than providing Xfive with a whole project.

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

We work closely with their team members and we generally do the project management. We use Slack and Jira for briefing and comms. We have excellent working relationships with them and we genuinely see them as part of our team. Gosia's (Xfive) management skills are great and she is able to assist us with scheduling the team.

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

We find Xfive impressive with the way they are always eager to help us, even on short notice. We love working with them because of this approach and attitude.

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

None that I can think of.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of QualSCORE. We have quality scores for businesses, products, and services all across the cannabis market. We have a scoring system of 0–100. Our aim is to create a customer experience engagement platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with Xfive?

We needed to build the full app from scratch.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Xfive harnessed my idea and helped me break down what was needed. They helped me figure out what the most important thing for the development of the software was. We used an agile approach, building what was necessary, testing it, and then deploying it. 

They helped me plan out iterations in accordance with my business plans. The platform was built solely as a web app. The team also helped with logo identity, graphic design, and complete front- and backend development. They developed it in Ruby on Rails.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with Bartek (Head of Business Development), who is my main point of contact, as well as Pawel (Project Manager), Maciej (Web Developer), Daniel (UX Designer), Urszula (Frontend Developer), Milosz (Head of Xfive), and a QA tester.

How did you come to work with Xfive?

I had a couple of options, and I chose Xfive based on their work for other clients. My main concern was working remotely with a team from across the world. 

I was seriously thinking about working with a local company because I wanted to do a lot of whiteboarding and have the chance to really explain my vision and avoid any hiccups in the beginning. 

I had a gut feeling and took a leap of faith with Xfive, and I made the decision because of Bartek and the responsiveness and professionalism the whole team displayed in the beginning. It was never high-pressure.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent $90,000–$120,000 with them so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Xfive in August 2018, and our engagement is ongoing.

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

I started with Xfive from scratch, and, two years later, I have a beautiful website that works and that’s well-received. This is just the first version of the site, and I’m excited to get more funding and move forward with it. 

They’ve allowed me, as just a single entrepreneur, to compete with some of the biggest players in the world. They deliver high-quality work every time, and it’s affordable.

How did Xfive perform from a project management standpoint?

Working remotely has actually turned out to be great. I can do my work in the morning and maybe have a meeting with Xfive at night, and they’ll have the next version by next morning. I’ve done webinars with Bartek, and he was the one who helped flesh out my idea. 

He’s really great at client communication, giving explanations, and planning. He was able to take all my ideas and help me determine what the best solution would be. He really understood what I was trying to build.

The team uses Pivotal Tracker to keep everything organized. They’ve always delivered on time. I’ve had some tight deadlines, and they’ve worked on weekends to help me. They’ve done this time and time again.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing about working with them is their high-quality output and the quality of their people. Xfive actually cares about me. I’ve had conversations with Milosz, and he’s a genuine, softhearted, wonderful person. 

He hires the right people and creates a culture where people want to work. They have a friendly team atmosphere that inspires people to do good work. The people Milosz hires stay with him because he’s such a good leader.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their accents can be hard to understand sometimes, but they’re actually taking English classes. I told them about it in the beginning, and it hasn’t been a problem since. They told me that, based on my feedback, they’d actually start taking English classes and getting better verbal communication skills. 

They want to tap into the US market, and they’ve definitely improved. That was the only challenge in the beginning; it’s much better now.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I’d recommend simply calling Xfive and talking about their process.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and administrator of a startup.

What challenge were you trying to address with Xfive?

I hired Xfive when I was setting up the business, and I hired them to develop the platform end to end, including the front- and backend.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Xfive first took care of the platform’s design. I defined all the flows on paper, but there was nothing in place from a design point of view. Xfive’s designer helped me mockup all the customer journeys and web pages. I’m not a technical person, so Xfive chose the technologies for the front- and backend. 

I believe we used Ruby on Rails for the backend and responsive HTML for the frontend. The key requirement was for the platform to be mobile responsive, effectively behaving like a web app.

The deliverables were the web platform, the backend, and pretty much getting my business running. They also helped me streamline some of the business processes in relation to the online journeys.

What is the team composition?

I worked with five teammates including the business development manager, who was involved in the scoping of the project. After that, I worked with a designer, a project manager, a lead developer, and a second developer, who was more focused on building the backend.

How did you come to work with Xfive?

I found them through Clutch. I used the one-to-one service, which introduced me to four companies. I’d prepared very detailed documentation of what I was expecting, and Xfive went the deepest by far in understanding what I was looking for. 

They clearly worked through the material for their pitch, and they actually had the entire team that worked with me present for the pitch. They gave me a really great impression of being professional and thorough.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent €35,000, approximately ($40,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Xfive in February 2020, and our engagement just ended. It’s been a bit of a long sail because of some company reasons.

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

My company’s a startup, and we haven’t fully launched yet, so the feedback is fully anecdotal. I’m extremely happy with the platform I have, and our beta users have found the user journeys to be really easy. I’m very happy with the project overall, but there are no metrics I can mention just yet.

How did Xfive perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m pleased with this aspect. We organized weekly calls where the entirety of the project team was present to review the project and discuss all design elements and their implications on the development. Then, we mostly used Slack as a day-to-day channel. 

The team has been really responsive. It may be worth noting that not every team member speaks English perfectly, but they’ve otherwise been really fast and responsive. It was a really good engagement from that point of view.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The thoroughness of their understanding of what I was looking for was impressive. It started at the pitch, and it’s certainly what made the project much easier. The four people that worked on the project were very dedicated. 

I could feel that they knew the work inside and out. They certainly weren’t spread too thin on too many projects, and that positively impacted the overall quality of the deliverable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They understood perfectly what I was looking for from a web development perspective, but some of the team members waited a bit too long to fully understand the business model. That could’ve helped them in some of the choices they made.  

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I advise clients to be very specific with their demands because Xfive does take the time to really understand them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Director of Design at Ironclad, a digital contracting platform software company in the legal tech space.

For what projects/services did your company hire Xfive?

Our marketing website runs on Wordpress, and had been developed by a subcontractor from a different agency. We needed skilled, fast development on new features and pages that our marketing team was requesting. Additionally, we had a backlog of bugs and maintenance to be completed on our site.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to better optimize for SEO, expand our global navigation bar to fit content expansion, add search functionality to our blog, reskin the wordpress editing experience to be more usable, and a few new content templates.

How did you select this vendor?

XFive was an recommendation from a member on our team that had dealt with them in the past.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

XFive provided project management and web development to complete our list of goals around SEO, content expansion, search capability, and maintenance.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and development on the vendor side, and a team of designers and marketers on our side.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

XFive's work helped us increase our search ranking on key content pages, provided a way for visitors to our site to find content that was relevant to them, and made the editing experience in Wordpress much easier for our marketing team to be self-serve.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was flexible and easy. They worked with our systems or organization in place and kept us on-track. Our project manager made sure we were informed of exactly what the XFive team's status on various tickets were and where we were at for hours so we could budget accordingly. Even though our time zones were 9 hours apart, our PM made sure we were all able to meet at times that worked for everyone.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their professionalism, availability, speed, and quality of work is unrivaled by any other Wordpress developer we've worked with.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Overall, XFive is excellent. One minor area for improvement is for us to be able to have a bit more visibility and status updates for the QA process.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a conservation scientist at the California chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

What challenge were you trying to address with Xfive?

We needed to redesign and relaunch our existing website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Xfive redesigned our website and ported information onto the new platform. Their team provided a complete redesign including the site’s architecture. Their team provided wireframes and a key visual to the website. They made the design responsive too. Their team also migrated the site to WordPress from a previous proprietary CMS system. They provided a custom WordPress site that enabled us to have an easy to use CMS. Now, we’re in the maintenance phase of the project.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people from Xfive including a project manager, a web designer, and a UX/UI lead.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $17,600 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began in July 2019 and our relationship's for maintenance purposes.

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

We’re happy with their work as are our partners who are impressed with the designs. The website’s modern and loads fast, so we’re pleased with the backend. Their team developed a system that’s easy for us to maintain, which is important because our organization will maintain the project and update content annually. We’ll launch the website once our team completes additional work.

How did Xfive perform from a project management standpoint?

We have regular communication. Their team was responsive and held meetings during their evening, which we appreciated. In the beginning, there was a slight delay. Once we got on track with consistent meetings, we’ve been consistently happy with the management. They’ve done an excellent job.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re extremely impressed with the designs that Xfive created. The look and feel of the website exceeded our expectations. Their team was responsive to our requests for modifications and professionally suggested better designs to achieve our goals. We were happy with our interactions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Before we held regular calls, there was a delay in communication. That’s a fault of us both.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have constant communication. They’re extremely responsive so a client will feel satisfied if they’re making sure to continually express themselves. Xfive will then iterate to a satisfactory conclusion. Be prepared for the time difference.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO for Boston Software Corporation, which provides software for independent insurance agencies in Massachusetts.

What challenge were you trying to address with Xfive?

Our flagship product was a Windows-based desktop application, but we’d been moving our services and functions to online- or cloud-based platforms. We decided we wanted to take our entire application online, backed by Cloud services. We engaged Xfive to develop the frontend of that online software.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Using Angular, CSS, Zone.js, Node.js, and Karma, they took our specifications to develop the frontend of our online software. We had already built out the backend.

They first accommodated our expedited beta release which only required minimal functionalities. They then executed our integration—which included coding for some special features—with Massachusetts’ Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV). We decided that Internet Explorer 11 would be the oldest version we’d support, and their team provided support on this front.

Lastly, we did an upgrade mid-project where we updated our Angular versions. We saw a major increase in performance after that implementation.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager, three developers, and a QA tester.

How did you come to work with Xfive?

We were working with another designer who recommended Xfive. We had some calls with them to gain some understanding of who they were, which led us to eventually hiring them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent more than $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in November of 2016 and the main development wrapped up in January of 2018. They provided ongoing support and minor implementations until August 2019.

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

We considered our initial beta release a success; although there were some slight delays, they did a great job of executing that deliverable. All in all, they tackled a huge project, and we credit them for being able to get it done.

After our larger launch, our users have expressed their satisfaction with the platform. They’ve communicated that the new software showcases a night-and-day difference; the solution has a much better look and feel.

How did Xfive perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team was always responsive and willing to go over any developments or issues. They were consistently engaged and always ready to help, which really stood out. The team is very hands-on, and there’s a lot of communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re willing to work extremely closely with you to iron out all the details of requirements and specifications. The team is diligent in figuring out what’s necessary for executing the project correctly.

On top of being friendly and easy to work with, they really felt like part of our own team. Despite being a remote engagement, their responsiveness made our teams truly connected.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In the beginning, they struggled to appreciate the complexity of our product. We tried to convey that it was a big project, but they underestimated that in the initial stages of our engagement. They realized the true size of the task after launching into development, which necessitated that they familiarize themselves with some insurance knowledge.

One other thing is that they sometimes didn’t ask enough questions about our requirements, which led them astray. They were super responsive about that, though, and were willing to talk about how to move forward.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re doing a really large project, make sure that both parties understand the project scope and how it’ll affect the timing of deliverables.

Please describe your company and your position there.

As Head of Digital for a boutique creative agency, I was looking for a development partner to help us with our website development projects. These included Wordpress and Drupal custom themes, eCommerce and Learning Management Systems.

For what projects/services did your company hire Xfive?

Xfive have been a development partner for over 5 years, they worked on website development and ongoing management of our websites as collaborative partners

What were your goals for this project?

Develop websites using best practice within time and budget

How did you select this vendor?

Xfive were recommended to us

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

• Project Management
• High-level estimation and scoping
• Recommending and researching solutions
• UX recommendations
• WordPress theme development and customisation
• Drupal theme development and customisation

What was the team composition?

The team has a project manager and developer/s depending on the size of the project. This makes communication really easy. We use Basecamp to communicate as well and stay on track with tasks which works wonders for different timezones.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Bartek and the team are incredibly professional, responsive, and a pleasure to work with. There was a stage where we used multiple partners for various development projects – and we kept coming back to Xfive as they were the best to work with!

Due to the high quality of their work, the great value and our working relationship, they have been our long standing development partner for over 5 years.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The team has a project manager and developer/s depending on the size of the project. This makes communication really easy. We use Basecamp to communicate as well and stay on track with tasks which works wonders for different timezones.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their level of responsiveness, their professionalism, and the quality of their work are all such rare finds! They also ensured they understood requirements and what we were trying to do before undertaking development work, which always led to a better output.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No they're great