Numera Lighting, a lighting manufacturer

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for a newly launched company that provides interior lighting fixtures for condominiums and hotel construction projects. I am responsible for overseeing operations and marketing.

For what projects/services did your company hire Boldare?

We engaged Boldare to design and develop a website to promote our products. Since the brand was entirely new, we were starting with no pre-existing reference points or sites.

What were your goals for this project?

Due to the innovative and unique nature of our products, we required a website that sufficiently explained what they are. Furthermore, the website needed to be a self-service destination. We wanted our customers to return time and time again to view the product lineup and obtain pricing and technical details as required.

We approached the project with a lean start mentality, with the goal of going live as quickly as possible. Finally, we wanted a website that was easy to use and pleasing to the eye, since our target customers usually work under tight deadlines and have a keen sense of aesthetics.

How did you select this vendor?

Initially, we did an exhaustive search of other websites that we admired in order to trace back to their creators. When we discovered Boldare’s portfolio, we were immediately impressed by the scope and sophistication of their work. We were further encouraged by our preliminary discussions as they clearly held themselves to a high level of professionalism and listened openly to our objectives and questions. After reviewing their proposal, we felt that the cost estimate was very fair.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

Boldare designed and built an entirely new website for our company. The project started with workshop sessions that helped us refine several key aspects of our brand. From this shared understanding, they began to swiftly create several designs that were presented to us in variations to select and modify. This was followed by development and programming work. It was quite exhaustive as the website involved several plug-ins and modifications on the Shopify storefront. Once the site construction began, we were involved in the debugging and testing process. Their team quickly made final adjustments prior to launch.

What was the team composition?

The first contact we had was with the business owner, with whom we discussed the scope of the initiative and negotiated the agreement. We were introduced to the designers, programmers and the Scrum master during the first workshop session.

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

Without the website, our company essentially would not exist. The project guided us through core matters such as pricing, marketing strategy, product development, and so forth. Now that the soft launch is complete, we now have the opportunity to start our promotional efforts.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We were truly impressed with the rigor of their project management techniques and procedures. The Scrum master was the primary enforcer of the plan within Jira, while the entire team utilized Basecamp for ongoing communication. We had direct communication with each team member throughout the project. I found that the team was very transparent with what was involved to achieve certain tasks and proactive in preventing unnecessary delays. If there was a concern or challenge to be managed, we would work directly with the business owner or Scrum master to formulate a solution.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

From the start, Boldare took on a collaborative role to help us achieve excellent results. We never felt that we were just a customer or that they lacked enthusiasm. They demonstrated a true desire to understand and support our business objectives, and this translated into the quality of work they produced. Beyond these qualities, they are also true experts in design and web development.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

The only issue we encountered was that a few edit requests discussed within Basecamp did not get implemented, which we discovered in the testing phase. They made those revisions before launch, but it did cause a short delay. Eventually, we employed a spreadsheet to track required changes. We should have done this earlier in the process, as there were aspects discussed in the early design phase that had later implications but were forgotten.