Surcee.com
With Surcee, everyone can add their favorite things to their wish list so that they’re shared with their friends and family - across any e-commerce site or brick-and-mortar store. It’s gift giving made simple.
Why Surcee?
A “surcee” is a small gift that says “I’m thinking of you,” or “I love you.” Surcee.com was started because giving the right gift is hard. Sure, we’re all thoughtful and we all care, but for whatever reason, we miss the signals that a certain “something” would be a great gift. Sometimes we forget dates and special occasions sneak up on us. Then, we panic!
Meet the founder, Allan.
Founding a startup to solve a problem close to the heart.
Allan started Surcee for the simple reason that he’s a (self-proclaimed) “terrible gift giver.” For him, gifting was always a source of anxiety, not fun. And after talking with friends, Allan found out he wasn’t alone.
An idea for a digital solution.
In a flash of inspiration, Allan decided to build an open gifting web-app. Now, his friends and family are the ones that point him in the right direction. Surcee makes it easy to find and give the perfect gift.
Read Founder Series InterviewThe SolutionLab.
Designli's proprietary product-planning session, the SolutionLab, took Allan’s concept and transformed it into a tangible, and executable, roadmap.
Distilling a product dream into a technical scope.
Allan knew that he had a big dream, and was always excited when talking about the future of what Surcee.com could evolve into. Our team stepped in to help think through the Minimum Viable Product approach: what was the simplest possible solution we could launch for him in order to prove the market demand for his gift-registry concept, and avoid the tendency to “over-build”?
Ensuring a streamlined user experience.
The goal of the web-app was to allow users to easily paste in a URL from anywhere on the web, and pull over that product’s information - title, description, image, price - with no additional effort. And, this needed to be balanced against the additional need to be able to take photos of real-world products or experiences and add those as ‘wants’ as well. These considerations were explored and fully documented along with expected price-points.
Graphic design & prototyping.
Graphic Design is where the vision for Surcee.com became a tangible, navigable prototype that was shareable with investors and key startup mentors.
Agile development, launch, and ongoing product iteration.
Designli handled the from-scratch Agile Development of the Surcee.com web-app, developed in Angular and Node. The product relies on various third-party API’s for e-commerce traffic monetization. Working with a designated ‘Sprint Plan,’ the features that made up the Surcee system were broken down into digestible milestones so that progress could be regularly tracked.
Since public launch, Designli continues to assist Allan with analyzing feedback from users and iterating on the core feature set to best address the market need.
Visit the live product at Surcee.com"I didn’t know if my ideas were doable or scalable, so I needed someone who could go through the web and app development process logically and help me prove the concept along the way."
"You’re getting a lot of experience and knowledge from people who have been there before and know how to do it. That’s where Designli is head and shoulders above the rest."
