When I was at the Connected Health conference in Boston in early October, I chatted with a university researcher who was presenting a poster. It was really interesting to hear the gory details of the journey she took to find and work with a technology partner to design and build the mobile app she needed for the study. She is a self-admitted “non-technical” person, and she started with a Google Search of “Good Developers in my city”. She then interviewed 10s of developers and picked one that she thought would be a good fit. Unfortunately they seemed to be more about making money than helping her (e.g. they started sending invoices before even understanding her needs). She then picked another, and then spent more money and time developing, testing and using the app than she needed or wanted to.
When I explained how we at Ballast Lane would have approached and executed the project, she said, “you should come and do a brown bag lunch for all of our researchers and tell them this! They all need someone like you!”.
You don’t have to have a huge budget and a grand project in order to follow a process that will lead to results you can be proud of.
In fact, many of our long term clients started out with a small project, sometimes because that was their need, but in some cases it was to “test us out”. Once we developed a trusting, successful relationship with them we moved onto larger ones over the course of several years.
At Ballast Lane we usually follow the process described below. If our client already has completed one or more of the phases, or has their own resources to complete some of it, we can work with them to ensure seamless integration and delivery:
Discovery/Planning
At this stage we sit down with you and figure out what your goals, constraints and resources are. We would also propose solution options, including features and tools. The result of this phase includes detailed requirements, timeline and budget.
Design and Architecture
Development of wireframes, designs, review and approval.
Collaborative Development
Our developers work to create awesome solutions to meet your goals. Our Project Management team will keep you informed every step of the way to ensure that any decisions that need to be made are done so with everyone feeling empowered and informed.
Testing and Launch
We ensure that anything that is released is of the highest standard!
Support, iterate, evolve
We won’t leave you hanging, but instead will support you during the launch phase, as well as iterate on the product to ensure that it continues to move with the times.
We pride ourselves on working closely with clients every step of the way, to ensure that their needs are met, within their budget and timeline constraints. You can see for yourself by reading our independent client reviews on Clutch.