Today,
Website Planet‘s Marko Velimirovic had the opportunity to interview Vibor Cipan, CEO of
Point Jupiter – digital product development agency. We discussed how the company developed, what is its mission, and how Vibor envisions the future of the industry.
Please present Point Jupiter to our audience
Point Jupiter positions itself as digital product development and design company. We work on different projects – from web app development and websites to UX and UI design, product strategy, and user research with usability testing.
As a company, we are positioning ourselves as our client’s partners – not just vendors who’ll come in, develop, or design something based on specs and then go off. Instead, we cherish long-term partnerships and mutual value-building and are in it for the long run.
Please describe the story behind the company: What sparked the idea, and how has it evolved so far?
We have always believed that the purpose of technology is to serve humanity – to make our lives better, our communities stronger, and businesses empowered. Only then will it enable everyone to fulfill their true potential.
Before Point Jupiter, I started my previous company primarily focused on UX design, and even before that, I had the amazing opportunity to work for Microsoft in Croatia and Denmark. Being exposed to how you design and develop affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide sparked the desire to build my own company to try and do something like that.
I’ve been in this business for 13 years now, and Point Jupiter, which I co-founded with David Jelić (our CTO), presents the culmination of that vision. We want to create stunning, meaningful, and valuable digital products and services for our clients. Therefore, we are happiest when we get to work on a project from its inception through discovery workshops, design sprints, UX and UI design phases, software development, testing, and deployment.
We thrive when we get to challenge the status quo. Our clients love that – they expect us to engage in frank, open, and very direct communication. We treat clients and projects as our own – because, in a sense, that’s what they are. It’s a very fulfilling job, and it’s more of a calling than just a job position for me.
What services do you offer?
In general, there are four main types of services we offer. Typically, projects start with the product ideation and design phases. That’s where our UX and UI design services shine. It’s a very exciting process covering interaction design, information architecture, discovery workshops, design sprints, prototyping, customer journeys, and so much more.
Following that are our development services. We are good at developing web apps, building websites, and mobile apps. We have a state-of-the-art development stack, optimized build and deployment services, solid architecture, and infrastructure enabling us to develop, test, scale, and grow. We often hear our clients saying we are punching well above our weight. It’s nice to hear that!
The third group of services is related to usability and user research. Our advantage is that we look at products and services through users’ eyes. Sometimes, those users are our senior user researchers, and sometimes we engage actual product users. As a result, we’ve found a way to connect empathy, a scientific approach to data analytics, and data-driven efforts to help us build products that users will use and enjoy.
Lastly, we offer specific consulting and strategy services. We will provide expert guidance, education, support for design and development processes, and strategy development. Sometimes projects start with these services. For example, we help clients define their product and business strategy, conduct a business and competitiveness analysis, run workshops, help design services, and processes and even offer 1-on-1 leadership consulting. It’s an excellent way to share decades of our experience and distilled knowledge and make it work for you.
What is the mission of Point Jupiter?
Our mission is to help and empower our clients to take advantage of technology in solving their challenges.
And while doing so, we are building a company that serves its employees and community.
Our mission also powers our vision to become a digital product design and development leader, delivering solutions across all digital platforms.
Who are your typical customers, and what do you think is the main challenge that your product solves for them?
Our clients are exciting, and they come from numerous industries. We’ve worked with the world’s largest IT companies and telcos, but we also did some of our finest work with well-funded and agile startups pushing the limits of what’s possible.
We have a very valuable combination of development, design, and business skills we put together and deliver meaningful and lasting value to our clients. We work exclusively with businesses (B2B), governments (B2G), and international organizations and institutions.
And the challenges we are solving are as varied as our customers – sometimes it’s a complete digital transformation of the company and its processes, sometimes it’s taking their legacy systems and reengineering them and redesigning them. And sometimes we help with the new product strategy development. So that enables us to start building the product from scratch, and it allows us to showcase our wide spectrum of skills and capabilities.
How do you envision the future of your industry?
IT, as in industry in general, will continue to be one of the main catalysts of GDP growth globally. We are just starting to tap into the potential of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Web3 will likely find its meaningful applications in the near future. Another overlooked area of potential growth is integrated public services (national, regional, local) offered by governments. By saving time and improving trustworthiness and reliability, those changes will affect the perception of governments and society. It’s an opportunity that we must not ignore!
However, achieving all this is not going to be without obstacles. The key challenge will be finding, retaining, and growing the world’s best talent. Companies, large and small alike, will face those challenges. But on the other hand, IT and development companies like Point Jupiter will improve their hiring practices and employee well-being, leading to further growth of their employees’ salaries and benefits.
