Utility

I was a creative lead at Amusement Park Entertainment, working with Mondelez International’s Stride Gum brand on a major rollout of a new media property (Heaven Sent) and its accompanying mobile app game.

We hired Utility to design, plan and build out the entire Mobile App Game for the “Heaven Sent” event, which was a companion to the Live Event on FOX, where Mondelēz’s Stride gum brand-sponsored Luke Aikin in executing the first complete skydiving jump without any parachute.

Our goals were to build a mobile app game on iOS and Android that would mimic the real-life experience of skydiving through the air without a parachute, just like Luke Aikins. We also needed to make sure it was not only engaging and sticky, but also scalable so that millions of users coming to our app would have a positive experience.

Our goals were to build a mobile app game on iOS and Android that would mimic the real-life experience of skydiving through the air without a parachute, just like Luke Aikins. We also needed to make sure it was not only engaging and sticky, but also scalable so that millions of users coming to our app would have a positive experience.

We had mutual contacts that referred them to us, through Mondelez International’s team. We had a bunch of conversations and decided they were a perfect fit based on their previous experiences in not only mobile app development, but game development as well on a primetime level.

The project consisted of collaborating with creative leads on our side, mapping out all the app’s architecture, wireframing and detailing all the game’s mechanics, and then of course building out all the art pieces and the game code itself, on both iOS and Android. They also needed to set up the App Stores with us and submit for approval / get approval from the App Stores.

Over 100K

Mid 2016 to 2017

They provided us with a lot of people, but there was always a lead Producer on their end that was in charge of making sure everything was getting done. There were a lot of groups involved so there was a lot of coordination. We also of course had designers and developers that were on board to execute the entire project, and we also had access to the executives at Utility who were always gatekeeping quality control.

The Live Event was a big success, with millions of viewers tuning in on FOX to watch the spectacle. Stride ended up getting tons of positive brand exposure from both the programming as well as the mobile application. The usage of the app was also really impressive, people loved it and it was really sticky. There were also like really no bugs at all once we launched, so we were really happy about that.

Everything was smooth. They were really in control of the project and we all worked really well together.

Their ability to “make it look easy” was really impressive. We were able to spin up this entire game up in just 3-4 months, which is really hard to do for any mobile product, especially a mobile game with many levels, characters, gameplay, etc.

Nothing we can think of, they were even really fair in terms of being affordable so we can’t even complain about costs!

I am the Director of Pediatric Pulmonary & Asthma Program within New York City Health + Hospital/ Kings County. In addition to clinical matters, I am also in charge of overseeing special asthma-related projects as well.

We hired Utility to design and develop the entire Asthma management application that we had incubated at NYC Health + Hospitals. The project was to design the entire application and then build both iOS and Android native applications to be released to our constituents for testing.

The idea of the "Ask Me, AsthMe!" suite of applications was to help children and families increase knowledge of pediatric asthma and its management especially those families with low health literacy.

We found them online, and they stood out because of their graphics which is a very important aspect for our application.

We wanted to help families get a more organized approach to personal tracking of daily life with asthma, with a wide set of mobile tools to make this as easy as possible for non-technical patients. The goal was to build a robust v1.0 product we could bring to clinical tests to measure efficacy.

Around $225,000 to date, and we continue to work with them.

We began in early 2019, finished in mid to late 2019 and then released the v1.0 in 2019, and now we continue to work on updates to the product.

Utility had a full staff of people we have been able to interact with, including a lead Project Manager, a head of Project Management, a Product Strategist, multiple US/UI Designers, and of course a team of Engineers, all local right here in NYC. Also, the CEO has always been very available to us for anything that ever came up.

First of all, we were able to launch the asthma suite of apps on time, which is a big deal in our world (most projects in the medical-tech are usually delayed by many months at times). Just as important, we were able to roll out our test studies and gather valuable information about people’s usage, behaviors, etc.

We never experienced anything but great attention and intimacy from the Utility team. We have great project managers, and our questions were always answered quickly. We are naturally the experts in the field of content and science that was needed to help craft the product, and we were always woven in throughout the process to help give our recommendations about how the features would evolve.

We didn’t have anyone super technical on our side, so we were able to trust them for owning this part of the equation. They carried this project from start to finish and were extremely accommodating to any revisions we requested especially as we started using the app with a pilot group of families.

It is hard to find a dark spot, as the experience was overall really positive. The only thing we can think of is we could have been better educated on our at first to know exactly what we would be expected to do, especially with App Stores and testing, but the Utility team did assist and make this easy for us along the way so it really didn’t hurt us.

I am the Co-Founder and CEO of i-Function, Inc. I work closely with my two co-founders who are both industry-leading research professionals from top medical institutions (Weil Cornell Medicine and University of Miami Miller School of Medicine).

We wanted Utility to help us build the 2nd generation functional skills assessment and training software. The focus populations for this project were healthy older adults and older adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment as well as individuals with different types of mental illness such as schizophrenia. The software needed to have both a user-facing digital interface, as well as administrator portals to manage the entire platform and capture important analytics.

The goal was to build a fairly large first release of the software that could be used by different types of research organizations and commercial institutions to assess and train functional skills related to technology. The goal was to get enough data and input to continuously improve the software and prepare for the next generation software build.

We were introduced to Utility through a contact at the University of Miami who had used Utility for a project and provided really good feedback with respect to their experience. We met several times, discussed the project and ended up feeling very comfortable with Utility as our main design and technology partner.

i-Function’s was founded to help restore and improve the capacity of individuals to do everyday technology-related tasks, and enhance the quality of life for older adults as well as for people suffering from Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), Severe Mental Illness (SMI), Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). i-Function bridges the “real world functioning skills gap” between daily life, functional skills and technology. We needed a software solution that would assist us in accomplishing our objectives.

We have spent appx. $150,000+ on this project since starting with Utility.

We started working together in 2017, and after a few product releases we are still working together.

Quite a few people have been involved in this project over time (strategy, design, engineering, more design, more engineering, etc.). Especially the Project Manager has been a key person for us in getting things done. We have though through the project also kept good contact to the more technical people as well as the senior people (CEO) whenever relevant.

We have managed to conduct a clinical trial using the software and also introduced the product to several commercial clients with very positive feedback. We have had a lot of interest in the further development of this product from various sources both public and private and expect the interest to continue and accelerate.

We have had an amicable and friendly relationship with the people at Utility. From top down, everyone have been pleasant and tried to be helpful. The two Project Managers that we have interacted with over time (our main contacts) have taken a real interest in our product and been good communicators, something which has been critical for the collaboration and the successful development of the product.

We chose Utility partly because of their size; we didn’t want a large company, but we also didn’t want a very small company. What especially worked very well was their ability to understand what we wanted and use the design process to visualize this in a way that was reflective of our ideas and objectives.

As mentioned, the process of creating the software went very well and produced a product that could be used both for research and commercial purposes. If anything, one area that potentially could be improved was for us with a medical/a business background (and not IT specialists) it can be quite challenging to understand the nuances of why certain parts of the development process may take longer than we like. That said, Utility never charged us for things taking longer - they honored their quotes.

LeagueApps is a sports technology company that is the operating system for the youth sports industry. We’ve been working with the NBA since the relaunch of the Jr. NBA five years ago. I am the President at LeagueApps, and I am in charge of making all decisions for vendors we bring into our partnership with the NBA.

We hired Utility to partner on the Jr. NBA World Championship digital platform. Their role was to design and develop all web and mobile experiences for the NBA’s new global youth championship program (which source talent/teams from around the world in a multi-month tournament style competition).

To serve the global you basketball community with digital tools that make it seamless and easy to learn about the event, register/sign up, manage team information, follow news and results, engage with our growing community, and to highlight the best young athletes from around the world.

Our CEO used to work with their CEO at another company, and we knew Utility was very adept at creating digital web and mobile products. We also knew of their track-record in sports and experience-related projects. It was helpful that they were in NYC too.

The project was to build a tournament web property that allowed both types of users (athletes/coaches, and fans) to interact on an ongoing basis to engage with, follow the tournament. The project entailed: UX/UI design, branding design, web development, mobile-web development, various third-party integrations, tons of testing, a full-fledged Content Management System, and a whole lot of close collaboration with the NBA’s executives.

The entire value of the project was more than $125,000.

The project began in November of 2017, and continued through the summer of 2018.

Utility’s project manager was our lead contact, and there were also technical strategists who were brought to the table as well. There were also Sr. graphic designers and Sr. engineers assigned to the project, some of whom were required to work directly with the NBA’s engineering team.

We saw huge success with the entire program as a whole, and the NBA was very happy. Hundreds of teams signed up and participated from around the globe, and there were almost no digital glitches at all. We got a lot of compliments from Sr. executives that the product buildout was super impressive, and the client quickly started talking about the next year.

It was seamless working with Utility. We communicated daily, sometimes multiple times a day. We got together in person when needed, without much advance notice, and our teams gelled well together on all aspects of design and development.

The workflow between our team, Utility, and then NBA, required a lot of understanding, patience and creativity with proactive solutions. Utility always rose to the challenge and was able to move quickly, with deadlines always fast-approaching. They also always kept a level head and never freaked out over any changes that ever came up -- always calm and proactive about keeping on task. They were also super clean with all their code, as the NBA’s code reviews were also super positive.

No one is perfect, but Utility does truly seem to have their act together. They even were extra fair with pricing when we needed some flexibility as the project evolved. They also recognized the importance of our relationship with the NBA, and went above and beyond to exceed their expectations and ouors. We have no complaints and would work with them again, and encourage others to do so.

I was the CMO of Cirrus Fitness, what was the premier manufacturer and distributor of authentic branded fitness equipment. This was a fully funded venture by the folks that were behind Avion Tequila, Marquis Jets and Wheels Up.

We had partnered with Utility to design and develop a complex e-commerce website and mobile application (iOS) for custom branded exercise equipment, with as many college and pro league or teams’ branding available for custom production and delivery.

Our goal was to get a brand new e-commerce portal up and running to facilitate the business operations of selling our branded gear, across many product SKUs and many more branded team options. We needed it to be performant and sturdy, with all the dashboard tools that allow us to manage the workflow, inventory, customer management, etc. We also needed a way for people to order highly custom orders as well.

We knew of Utility from a former colleague that put us in touch with them. We had some good talks about the plans for the project, and they were helpful in thinking through all of it even before signing and beginning the project.

(1) Full UX/UI design for new e-commerce portal on web and mobile app. (2) Full website and mobile app buildout for the e-commerce experience for end-users. (3) Full dashboard portal to administer the operations.

We had a lead project manager who was managing everything from start to finish, and there were various design and tech resources that were in and out of the project when needed. We also definitely had access to the top management at any time if we wanted to talk overall strategy.

We were able to launch in under half a year and we were able to accomplish the main functions of the business, and grow from there. It was a pretty modern and slick design, and people were really having a seamless experience. We were able to come out of the gate with sales instantly, and we were also able to make more and more deals with sports leagues (NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA, etc) as well as fitness celebrities to promote the brand.

Great, we had a good chemistry with their team. Each team had a PM that would handle the day to day, and everyone was able to collaborate as needed. We also had a chance to reivew and QA everything before it went live, so we were always in sync.

E-commerce platforms have many moving pieces. It was impressive to see Utility juggle so much in a short time period.

Not really, the project was smooth.