Quarry — Insights

Testing Your Great Idea Doesn’t Have to Break the Bank

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Have you been sitting on a brilliant business idea but feel stuck because development costs seem overwhelming?

As a software development leader who has guided many organizations through this exact challenge over the past decade, I’ve found that the most successful projects often start much smaller than you’d think.

At Quarry, we have worked with everyone from eager entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 companies, and we consistently see that the organizations that test their ideas efficiently before building everything tend to succeed more often than those who try to build it all at once.

The Real Cost of In-House Development: Why Outsourcing Might Be Your Best Bet

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT

When I founded Quarry in 2016, I wanted to create a web development firm that did things differently and truly understood businesses across various industries. An external firm that operated as seamlessly as an in-house dev team – with better results and a deeper bench of experts.

Our team has worked with everyone from e-commerce startups to major financial institutions, and what sets us apart is our experience – both as an external partner and working alongside in-house teams.

Having worked on both sides – we truly understand the pros and cons of each approach. Let’s explore why outsourcing might be the right choice for your web development needs.

The Hidden Cost of Bad Data: Why Your Ad Spend Might Be Lying to You

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT

As the principal and founder of Quarry, I’ve spent years diving deep into the world of data collection and analysis.

The people who run ads love us, and for good reason – we specialize in ensuring that the data informing advertising decisions is rock-solid.

Over the years, I’ve worked with a wide range of clients across various industries, and there’s one constant: accurate data collection has a massive impact on Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

The Traditional Agency Model is Broken. So We Got Rid of It.

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Yes, technically we’re a firm. But, you’re never going to be stuck in cookie-cutter calls with an “account manager.” Here’s why.

As experts who have worked for a combined 250+ years in the tech industry, we’ve witnessed firsthand the shifting dynamics of client-agency relationships.

At Quarry, our leadership team is filled with industry veterans who have spent years refining and perfecting what we do–including the art of client communication and project management. It’s that way on purpose.

The Importance of Honest, Accurate Estimates When Choosing a Tech Vendor

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Recently, a Quarry staffer was waffling over whether to reduce the number of hours we estimated a portion of a new project would take.

They were worried the number looked too big, even though it was an honest and accurate assessment of how long it would take to do their portion of the project.

I told them that estimation should equal as precise of a measurement as possible — what will it actually take to produce something? Whether there is a business case or an adequate cost/benefit ratio is up to the business stakeholders to decide.

Mono Repositories FTW: The 12 Benefits of Consolidated Web Architecture

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMT

As business owners consumed with the day-to-day, you may not think about solutions until you run into a major problem.

But how is the average business owner supposed to know the right solution for an unfamiliar, complex, super-particular tech problem?

In years of building web products, both on my own and since founding a firm, I’ve worked with both small startups and big brands, gathering years of experience along the way. Understanding the stress and limitations that business owners face when trying to improve a business’s technology has been a big part of my journey.

Trend Watch: Simplified, Democratized Marketing Sites in Large Organizations

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Large organizations are finally letting non-engineers publish to the web. It's overdue, and it's saving real money. Like many forward-thinkers, you probably recognize the importance of making creation on the web accessible and empowering for all, not just the technically elite.

We’ve worked with clients at every scale – from small startups to some of the biggest multinational corporations you can think of. After driving nearly $2 billion in revenue for our clients, we’re proud of the ways we work to craft the exact right solution for each, focusing on creativity and nimble thinking and cost vs benefit ratios versus sticking to the status quo.

Over the past two years, it’s become even more apparent that what works for the largest teams doesn’t necessarily translate to smaller, scrappier teams where individual departments may need to move quickly and reliably on their own.

Leveraging Fractional Technical Resources: A Solution to Startup Constraints

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Disclaimer: We love efficiency and we also believe in transparency. LLMs (Large Language Models) were used to assist and save time while writing this piece.

The work we do at Quarry has given us a front seat to the challenges startups face. While at their most rapid phases of growth, founders and CEOs are often faced with endless responsibilities and limited resources. They have to balance managing access to capital, talent acquisition, scaling, revenue generation, stakeholder expectations, and market validation. We’re seeing a trend in the startup community that offers a solution to many of these challenges: hiring fractional technical resources.

What is a Fractional Technical Resource?

2FA, CRO, GTM, ROI, UX—WTF?

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT

At Quarry, we often use tech or other jargon when interacting with our peers. It can sound like an entirely different language is coming out of our mouths when we’re trying to communicate a lot of information quickly. OUR APOLOGIES if we ever use terms that leave you behind! The problem with insider terminology and acronyms is that too much of it can turn language into gibberish, sounding SSIF. (That’s “so stupid it’s funny.”)

When we communicate with clients, we try to use actual words to make sure the message gets across clearly. It’s always a pleasure to explain and translate our insider language, but because we do sometimes hit you with strings of letters, we wanted to share an \[incomplete!\] dictionary of common acronyms (and other shortened identifiers) we use often.

What is AOV? Why, that means Average Order Value!

What the heck can tech companies do for a more sustainable future?

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

It’s 2022 and we all see companies talk about reducing plastic waste, reducing water pollution, or becoming carbon neutral. We applaud those making big moves. But we certainly have moments of pessimism as well, especially when looking at the broken timeline to save our planet.

It’s late to adopt these policies, and they’re too small. And we often fear the true goal is—wait for it—feel-good marketing. Sometimes solutions that involve brown paper, biodegradable packing peanuts, and sustainably harvested palm oil let us off the hook too easily. It’s common to see unbleached wrapping or recycled materials and understand what efforts a company is making, get a shopping fix guilt-free, and then go on with our lives. Sometimes that works to calm our worry and make us feel we’ve done our part, but it definitely doesn’t cause the sweeping change we need. We know we can’t FIX the situation, but that isn’t going to stop us from doing everything we can.

Sustainability looks different for tech companies. Tech happens mostly in the background. A lot of people don’t think about what goes into the websites or apps we access daily—and yet, the world’s largest cryptocurrency alone boasts the same amount of carbon footprint per year as the Czech Republic. Digital impact may be harder to see, but it’s massive.

The 3 Ps (and why we charge rush fees)

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT

While we (deeply) love the entrepreneurial world and can geek out with the best of them in marketing discussions, we also recognize its pitfalls.

Yup, we want to earn profits. We also don’t want to give up anything we believe (not a single thing!) in order to do so. We’ve set ourselves up to run a profitable business in order to:

- support our collective team - support our communities - be able to make philanthropic investments in causes and organizations that we care about, and - plan a future

Will you help?

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMT

We’ve been doing the same things that other people who are not in imminent danger have been doing about the war on Ukraine: watching the news, worrying about our current and former team members in the area, and trying to determine what we can do to give meaningful help. All while feeling concern over questions like:

Who is helping people facing racism as they attempt to flee?

Who is helping people move with their animals?

Quarry’s Vision + Values

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMT

When asked who we are, this is what we say:

Quarry is an intentional tech collective overturning agency norms while creating uncommonly meaningful technology. We are driven by humane design and business thinking.

The words “intentional” “collective” “meaningful” and “humane” all point to our values system. They are standards that have always been held at Quarry, but since we’ve grown, we decided to make them formal policy: to write them down, distribute them, actively use them to inform our decisions, and talk about them as often as possible. And honestly, to check ourselves when we need to!

Taking Time to Celebrate

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 00:00:00 GMT

It’s very easy to focus on our daily hustle. We all know people whose response to “How are you?” is always “Busy.”

At Quarry we make an effort to celebrate our own achievements and those of our clients. It’s especially sweet when we get to reflect upon collaborative accomplishments.

That’s why we wanted to take a moment to (retroactively) recognize a huge project that we completed without much ceremony at the time.

Building a Brand Pt. 3 – Brand Experience

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

With this post, we’ll uncover some of the details of brand experience.

This post is number three in our series “Building a Brand” for part 1 see What is a Brand? For part 2 see Visual Identity.

What is brand experience?

How to Have a Brand Which Stands Out and Leaves a Lasting Impression

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Sun, 24 Jun 2018 00:00:00 GMT

We are at an incredible point in the history of commerce. The progression of technology has brought the ability to found, own and operate a business within reach of the majority of the world’s population. But, how can one have a brand that stands out with the increasing competition?

Globalization has expanded the customer base for many businesses, to nearly the entire world. Along with that, consumers now have more options than ever, for just about every product and service. The consumer has more choice than ever before. For the service providers, retailers, and manufacturers of the world, this choice leads to steep competition.

It is more important than ever for your brand to stand out amongst competitors and in the market as a whole. In the current market, brands must be noteworthy in order to thrive.

Negative Customer Feedback Can Grow Your E-commerce Business, Here’s How

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Wed, 02 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Everyone dreads negative customer feedback. Does your heart drop each time you get a notification from Yelp before you can see if it was positive or negative? I think many of us have been there.

Our intention is always to craft our product or service in such a way that it provides a five-star experience to the customer every single time. However, the reality is, despite our best efforts, this is simply not possible.

What if I told you that negative customer feedback could help to grow your business? That’s exactly what we’ll explore with this post. If your curiosity has been piqued, read on!

How to Remove WP Engine Plugins from WordPress

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

We recently redesigned a WordPress site for a client who was migrating away from WP Engine. When we migrated the client to the new host, they still had a “WP Engine” section in their WordPress dashboard main menu.

Since this feature set would no longer be utilized, it was best to get the plugins removed to keep things lean and tidy.

While cleaning up those WPE remnants, we put together a short guide on how to remove these plugins on your own. Hope it helps!

Why Content Should Be the Heart of Your Marketing Strategy

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Content is one of the most effective and profitable marketing approaches available to us today.

You may be familiar with the saying “content is king” which was quite popular a few years ago. The saying may be tired, but it rings true as ever.

In this post, we’ll explore what the word “content” encompasses, why it is a great marketing tool, and how it can benefit your business.

Restaurant Web Design: Online Ordering

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

With this post, we’ll explore the concept of online ordering. We’ll cover topics like the value of online ordering to the restauranteur, fulfillment, the differences between ordering food online and traditional takeout, and how you can implement online food ordering for your establishment.

Let’s get started!

The Basics

Restaurant Web Design: Visit Decision Signals

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

In this post, we’ll explore consumer user intent in relation to the restaurant industry.

When a consumer visits your website, they are seeking information

You want to be sure that you have that information readily available.

Restaurant Web Design: Why You Need Online Reservations

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Ultimately, your restaurant’s website should be filling tables.

With online reservations, that’s not just a sentiment but a reality. There are a number of plugins and extensions on the market to build an internal reservations system. Online reservations can also be implemented even more quickly and easily using tools available from Yelp and OpenTable.

If you are not already offering online reservations, there’s no reason not to start! Your restaurant already has a website, start putting it to work to earn the investment back and grow your business.

3 Ecommerce Technology Trends to Watch For in 2018

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

There are a number of technologies which will bring innovation to the online retail space in the next several years. Some have already arrived and will continue to make a larger impact.

To be successful as e-commerce marketers, we typically strive to be on the very cusp of emerging technology. We try to foresee trends before they begin.

In this post, we’ll look at the three emerging technologies that have us most excited.

Restaurant Web Design: The Perfect Online Menu

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

The importance of offering an online menu

With this post, we’ll look at the importance of online menus in a restaurant website. Specifically, their placement and accessibility on the site.

The menu is a crucial element of the consumer’s decision journey. It provides several key pieces of information: selection, diet options, and price.

Restaurant Web Design: Capitalizing on Impulse Behavior & The Psychology of Hunger

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Sat, 21 Oct 2017 00:00:00 GMT

In this post, we’ll explore an important topic regarding restaurant website design and user experience: consumers search for restaurants when they are hungry.

“Hungry” user behavior

This means that consumers (or potential patrons of your establishment) are making their dining decisions on an empty stomach.

Why You Should Hire a Professional Website Design Team Like Us

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 00:00:00 GMT

With this post, we would like to help provide you with clarity on how working with a professional, high-quality website design and development team will benefit your business, and how it is an investment that pays for itself.

Who should read this

If you have found this post, you are more than likely one of several different kinds of people who are interested in professional website design and development:

Building a Brand Pt. 2 – Visual Identity

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Sun, 22 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT

This post is part 2 in our series on the architecture of a brand. For part 1 see “What is a Brand?”

A brand’s visual identity can be defined as what the consumer pictures in their mind when they hear the brand name. This includes the logo mark, but is also much more. A visual identity encompasses all visual inputs that can be associated with a brand. Some major examples of such inputs would be: color treatment, interior design and atmosphere (if the brand has brick-and-mortar space), website, print collateral, packaging, and advertisements.

Wikipedia describes corporate visual identities as having four primary functions:

Building a Brand Pt. 1 – “What is a Brand?”

hello@quarry.team (Quarry) — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 00:00:00 GMT

This post is part 1 in our series on the architecture of a brand. For part 2, see Visual Identity.

As we begin this series on the mechanics of branding, we felt that it would be natural to begin by answering the basic question: “what is a brand?”

The word “brand” as used to describe the public facing identity, or trademark, of a company or organization, seems to have been in wide circulation for the past several years. Especially since the increasing growth of social media and digital marketing.