Zade Agency

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company has built a software development platform. I work there as Marketing Lead.

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

Our website needed some minor updates and, more importantly, a CMS. We worked with a design agency who partners with Zade for development.

How did you select Zade Agency and what were the deciding factors?

My company has an established relationship with the design agency, who uses Zade as a preferred partner for development.

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

Zade was required to develop each of the pages the design agency handed over, including two completely new pages (the rest were slight updates). key deliverables: finished website with Wordpress CMS and google analytics set up.

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

two; one project manager and one developer.

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

Zade did a great job of delivering against the timelines and deliverables they set forth. Any delays on the project were due to client constraints / bottlenecks. As usual, there were some bugs, and Zade did a great job resolving them in a timely and professional manner.

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

There were weekly calls to run through the demos of the website as it was developed. Asynchronous communication took place on Slack, and Zade was (and still is) extremely responsive. Bug reports and other requests were organised in Trello, which wasn't a perfect solution, so Zade was flexible and we began using slack instead.

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

They are patient and professional, regardless of all extenuating circumstances.

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

there were some bugs that took a few iterations to fully fix, so perhaps there could have been more testing on that before handing over.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a CTO of an early-stage Insurtech startup based in Israel, which is developing a new SaaS platform for commercial insurance brokers, helping them to perform better.

For what projects/services did your company hire Zade Agency?

Our product is too complicated and that is very important to simplify it for end users by making the most friendly and intuitive UI/UX as possible

How did you select this vendor?

We received a recommendation from one of our employees.

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

In a few meetings, we explained our vision and sent the required materials to the Zade team. Then, they created the User Stories and screen prototypes. After that, we started incremental research coordinated by weekly meetings, until we reach the required level of perfection.

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

We worked directly with 2 team members.

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

We continue working on our product and have nothing to share right now. Most likely we continue to work with the Zade agency on a regular basis without hiring UI/UX designers in-house because we feel them as part of our team without any inconveniences. Also, their perfect work helps us to acquire and communicate with investors and potential customers, by showing them the demo prototype of our product.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager was very proactive in terms of communication and updates. He took responsibility for all aspects including arranging meetings, documentation management, etc. Everything was done as quickly as possible.

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

From my experience with other agencies, Zade's team stands out for its unique ideas, fast and accurate execution, and special attention to detail. They have raised the standard level familiar to me to new heights.

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

Nothing

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO and co-founder of Zvook (zvook.co) a digital marketplace connecting podcasters willing to monetise their work with brands willing to advertise in podcasts listened by their target audience. We do it in a modern, tech-enabled way.

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

UI/UX design, front-end and full stack development. Our main goal was to speed up the already established development process as well as continuation of the work on our custom design system.

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

The agency stood the test of thorough selection, interviewing and probation period.

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

Scrum-powered design and development process delivered in 2 weeks-long sprints. Technology and design stack include things like: Figma, Storybook, Zeplin, TypeScript, GraphQL, React, AWS Amplify, Neo4j, AWS DynamoDB and more.

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

3. We used to have 2 front-end developers and one UI/UX designer. These days we have 1 UI/UX designer and 1 front-end (React) developer.

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

Current per-sprint workload is being delivered almost fully. Even though it rarely reaches 100%, it's mostly due to our organisation not yet being fully compliant with typical agile project management standards. This trend is constantly changing though.

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

We use Slack, AWS Chime, Figma, VS Code Live and Google Meets depending on the context. Zade's management style is flexible and we never felt like they were taking advantage of us as a client. We consider ourselves very demanding, and they were able to fit themselves into our framework and thrive. It's very professional.

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

Open-minded, ready to readjust and not afraid to tackle unknown elements of our obscure technology stack. They can withstand pretty much any amount of client's critique and come out stronger than they were initially. So, they're coachable and hard-working and that's all it takes to be professional.

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

Any improvements I could suggest here would be too insignificant to bother mentioning them here. Don't expect any magic bullets and don't expect that they'll be able to read your mind. If you know your tech and you can express your business needs in a concise industry-standard way, you'll be given high-quality deliverables back. Otherwise: garbage in - garbage out.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The company is leading UX/UI and Branding agencies and I am Head of PMO and Client Partner of it.

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

We cooperated with Zade in terms of software engineering purposes. They implemented the designs of the website which our team was working on.

How did you select Zade Agency and what were the deciding factors?

We have heard great recommendations regarding previous work of the Zade agency. Moreover, they provided exceptional competence while negotiation process with clients regarding the technology stack. In addition, they were quite flexible and had great expertise especially in Web, so it ensured professional cooperation in the future.

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

We used Gatsby.js, Google cloud for the current project. The scope of work covered the multifunctional website with various pages. The project process went really smoothly. The developers are very attentive to details and, to our surprise, suggested lots of interesting improvements to the design. They were quite flexible and extremely fast. We reached all the deadlines on time even though there had been lots of changes and possible risks of the delay.

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

We have worked with PM, two software engineers, QA and DevOps.

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

Zade agency is an amazing vendor. I was shocked with the speed and quality of the delivery they provided us. We reached all the goals of the project within the agreed timeline and budget. The team is very responsive and professional. The designer has mentioned that Zade is one of the best development partners she has worked with before. And our client is very satisfied with the outcomes in the end.

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

We have used something like Scrumban with the certain backlog, Trello board and daily standups to ensure everything is on the track. The main communication channel was slack.

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

I am amazed by their speed and flexibility. The project was challenging and they managed to adapt and deliver quick solutions within the process.

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

It is hard to define something. Everything was great.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO and founder of a software development company/automated marketing technology company. We have 10+ of our own proprietary technologies and we build and incubate numerous other companies and technologies.

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

We have many technologies launching into the market for our own companies and companies we are incubating. Funnel optimization and customer touchpoints are always critical in a product launch.

Our goals were to create smooth and clear flow explanations for simple to complex technology dashboards sometimes requiring users to complete complex setups. Additionally, we needed to make sure our team and CS were accessible through these flows. Finally, we needed intelligent tracking and data gathering.

How did you select Zade Agency and what were the deciding factors?

We found them on a freelancer site. Deciding factors were their expertise after a round of interviews with other candidates.

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

They worked on numerous technologies, codebases, designs, flows, etc across a variety of integrations all smoothly and seamlessly.

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

We had five members from Zade Agency working directly with us. They ranged in positions relating to Lex Chatbot experts, to front end UI.

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

Deliverables and outcomes were always perfect. Everything has been done extremely well, smooth, high quality, and efficiently. Very very pleased with their quality of work and their flexibility and understanding of our operating framework.

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

The project management style was excellent including weekly followups, breaking down of subtasks, tracking against those subtasks, hourly reporting, availability for calls to ensure project deadlines were hit. They were very professional and organized. Timelines were always met and communication was fast and accessible using slack/email.

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

It is rare to find a software development agency that combines flexibility with efficiency with affordability with the quality deliverable. Generally, a compromise on one of them is needed. Zade delivers on all of them. Great work.

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

No areas for improvement. The only one we had was more about our own internal style of operating and when raised to Zade Agency they immediately adjusted and met our operating practice on that immediately. I have no improvements to suggest.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am digital marketing manager.

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

We needed developers to implement a web app to help our customers configure their product and see prices for their choosen configuration.

How did you select Zade Agency and what were the deciding factors?

We searched online and quickly shortlisted to Zade Agency as they had a solid portfolio with interactive apps based on the same technologies as we wanted for our app.

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

We had a precise technical requirements, wireframes and design for them to start to work with.

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

We had a backend and a frontend developer working for us.

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

The web app was exactly implemented as per our wishes. We are very happy about it.

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

We had a dedicated chat room on skype with the developers. They also agreed to use our project management tool so that we could give feedback, report bugs and technical requirement changes.

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

That's 5* development quality. The front-end design has been implemented exactly as per our design screens, that's what I would call pixel-perfect! The backend developers was very knowledgeable and understood immediately our needs, responded very efficiently and. Very professional team!

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

Maybe give it more time at the beginning of the project to align on every detail with the client, to avoid misunderstanding or rework (not entirely their fault as we as client also maybe rushed it too fast)

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a stealth startup that does B2B and B2C in the real estate world.

What challenge were you trying to address with Zade Agency?

We needed design and development services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with them from the beginning when we started tech development. They worked on our prototype and then developed the platform from where it was to where it is now. Their team handled the frontend, backend, and UI/UX.

The solution features an apartment search. There are some chatbots included as well. It’s all about real estate rentals. It’s live and active and operates in New York City for now. I gave them room for creativity, but we also gave a lot of input just because of the complexity of the project.

What is the team composition?

The size of the team changes. We have one project manager who works on the backend. He manages the developer who does the frontend. Then there are also two people working on the UI/UX designs.

Currently, we have one person working on the design. In the past, we had multiple people working on the backend. We also had a person working just on the chatbot function. It changes. At one point, we had 10 people working, now it’s four people.

How did you come to work with Zade Agency?

Our CTO found them. He posted job listings somewhere.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2020, and the work is ongoing.

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

I’m super happy with the backend and frontend work. I’m not the happiest with the design because of the creativity of the work; I told them that. I’m originally from the eastern part of Europe as they are. Their design doesn’t align with the Western Hemisphere but we’re working on it.

Our product is very complicated. They’re getting better at it. There were some glitches when we launched our beta, which we’re still in. There were also some communication problems. As a CEO and co-founder, I’m going to always push for faster, better, and more.

However, if I say I want something in three days and it realistically takes seven days to do, don’t tell me it’s going to be done in three days. That happened on a couple of occasions. I know they tried really hard to deliver but sometimes it’s not possible to deliver expectations like that. The fact that we’re working with them still means we’re happy overall.

How did Zade Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re a little disorganized. Their co-founders were very involved at the beginning but aren’t involved on a day-to-day basis. I think they should be involved in something like this. They jump in when there are issues. Issues have occurred because they were not active. The assigned project manager is amazing but he’s not a decision-maker.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re hardworking and know what they’re doing. They’re good listeners to what we need. Their team can build anything.

Are there any areas they could improve?

My biggest issue is the payments. We tried to help in the beginning by having very short timeframes. They were getting paid right away after they finished the weeks. If we didn’t pay them that day or in two days, there was panic and stress from them. That’s just business. The payments are going to come but nothing is ideal. Not even a customer who is paying us is ideal. They got better at that but it’s helpful to understand it’s business and in business, things happen.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

When it comes to payment, be very clear on how and when they’re going to get paid. Set the communication channels up from the beginning and who the person in charge is. When it comes to design, be very clear that you want their designers. Have them present creatives to you before they actually create things.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the owner.

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

We were wanting to find an agency to work on a React application that has bindings with three.js. They were great!

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

We talked to our network to find a high quality developer team.

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

We write down tickets in GitHub and the team does the work

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

3 people worked with us

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

They submit PR and I review them and approve and merge.

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

We have weekly calls to review the board

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

I appreciate their flexibility.

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

All good