How about meeting one of our biggest Success Cases?
I kindly translated an interview with the amazing team of programmers of iJunior, responsable for the development of our website since 2017
In this post, we will tell the inspiring story of Ethical Fashion Brazil – formerly “Moda Ética”- an incredible project, with the aim of spreading ethical and sustainable fashion around the world. Conceived by Luciana Duarte, the site has been achieving fantastic results not only in Brazil, but in Europe as well.
But calm down, there’s more! Luciana told all the details, from the first challenge to the final victory, in an exclusive interview!
Below are some of the questions addressed:
- What were the difficulties you encountered in your life / business before meeting iJunior?
- Why did you decide to trust us and try our solutions?
- What were the difficulties during the implementation and how did you overcome them?
- What results have you achieved using our product / service?
- How did your life / business change after using our product / service?
Without further ado or spoilers, let’s find out how it all started…
A troubled start
In 2007, Luciana Duarte created Moda Ética, a website with the aim of spreading ethical and sustainable fashion around the world. However, after 5 years, due to a server error, the access to the blog was lost and with it all the material produced in that time. There were also problems with a former programmer responsible for creating a new website, who did not deliver the service. After going to the Court, without any lawyer, she won the case and some money, but unfortunately, it was not possible to recover the lost content.
Without the website as a communication channel for her social projects, Luciana had to send long e-mails to hundreds of volunteers and donors, instead of centralizing the information in links to direct to the site. In addition, relying on honesty and the work that could be done by new programmers was a difficulty task, due to past events.
Despite all the challenges, the essence of talking about sustainable and ethical fashion continued. Redoing the site in a virtual magazine template, with new pages, categories and other details, was a desire, but it was impossible for only one person to do everything. A team was needed, with whom the tasks could be discussed, evaluated and then divided and executed. It was then that in 2017, upon receiving a referral from a friend, Luciana found iJunior, and with it a new opportunity.
“When I went to talk to an iJunior business analyst, Raul, for the first time, he soon made a proposal and a contract. Then I was sure that the work was going to be serious. The team was not playing at work. They were really working, aware of the professional stage they were living in, still as students at the university. ” Luciana tells in an interview.
A learning process that strengthened ties
Luciana participated actively in each change that occurred on the site. In addition, our meetings were a real immersion in the ideas of the project and every small detail was vital, after all, we are dealing with the world of Fashion! As a product designer, Luciana understood a lot about the concept, the visual appearance, the user experience. On the other hand, the developers understood a lot about the function, the technical possibilities.
This presence was fundamental for our team, because in this way, we learned the importance of being close to the customer. We learned that the exchange of ideas and constant feedback are essential so that the project not only meets the expectations of the client, but also adds as much value and personality as possible.
“I have a millimeter ruler on the iris of the eye, so all the spacing, shapes, font sizes, I asked to adjust very precisely. With little time, all the teams that joined the website project understood this, and it is funny that, at the end of a project, they who anticipated correcting a “tiny millimeter” that, sometimes, I did not even notice myself. The spell turned against the wizard, in a good way. ”
An unquestionable success
After much dedication and joint work, we created a new website, much more robust and efficient, as well as very safe. The new platform has several articles, tips, interviews, as well as an e-commerce with sustainable products. Check here the result of this fantastic project and, mainly, rich in content.
The website was officially launched in an exhibition at the Museum of Fashion in Belo Horizonte – MG – with the theme “Who made the website ethicalfashionbrazil.com”, whose coverage was done by important media such as TV Rede Minas, Estado de Minas and Belo Horizonte City Hall (learn more details by clicking here). But its reach did not stop there.
“As a designer, as a consultant, the main thing I sell, that is, the main value that I offer to a client, is my reputation, my credibility, my knowledge. It is delivering 100% security to the customer that I will perform a service with excellence. While I lived in Belo Horizonte, my resume supported this regardless of the website, people knew me from the various social and charity projects I did. However when I moved to The Netherlands in August 2019, I came across the fact that I was nobody. So, at this point, the website helped a lot for me to create networking and convey confidence about my work. The website is the main element that gives me credibility abroad, in Europe – because here the numbers on social media are not indicators of your professional reputation.”
After that, in November 2019, Luciana Duarte was invited to show her website at a business fair in The Hague, aimed at young entrepreneurs, the ImpactFest. Then, a sustainable fashion fair in Belgium, the Ghent Fair Fashion Fest, called her to give a lecture at the event, which will be in November 2020. She says she was also able to make several contacts with companies and designers of sustainable fashion, prospecting some to have their products sold in the online store being launched.
For us, a real motivation
The result of all this was an endless partnership! The project worked so well that Luciana always looks for us to add new feats to the site. Thus, it has been almost three years of collaboration, in which our team has worked to perfect and add value to the Ethical Fashion project. Members of different generations of iJunior are privileged to help build this story: among developers and analysts, fourteen people have been involved in the project over the years!
At the exhibition at the Fashion Museum, mentioned earlier, we had a big surprise: each member participating in the project, until then, received a personalized plaque with a ghost and the respective name below. Remembering that the mascot of iJunior is a very charismatic little blue ghost – the iJunior Spirit – that’s why Luciana was careful and delicate to create different ghosts for each member, with so much affection!
In several posts on Instagram or on the Blog, Luciana makes a point of showing who UFMG Informática Junior is and how we contributed to her reaching the goal she dreamed of so much. Below is a testimonial on Instagram in April 2020:
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-cVf9zisVC/
And to close with a flourish, the interview we promised!
How did you hear about iJunior?
“I heard about iJunior once talking to a Computer Science student, who at the time was president of the Central Student Directory (DCE-UFMG), and who helped me mobilize donations for homeless people. At the time, I was without my website, I had sued a former programmer who did not deliver the service. Without the site as a communication channel, I had to send long emails to hundreds of volunteers and donors (instead of centralizing the information in links to direct to the site). I was complaining about it, and this friend said to me: “Luciana, why don’t you try to make your website with iJunior?”
What were the difficulties you encountered in your life / business before meeting iJunior?
“I had a hard time finding programmers that I could trust. To trust in their honesty, to give information, to trust that they would not take advantage of me, and above all, trust that the job would be done.
In addition, I had a project (laborious, I recognize!) of how I dreamed of remaking the site, how to organize the categories, how to create the service pages, the institutional pages, how to create the online store, how to present the blog content in a virtual magazine template, plus many other details derived from these. And it wasn’t possible for a person to just execute, because otherwise he would be discouraged. I needed a team, with whom the tasks could be discussed, evaluated and then divided, performed.”
Why did you decide to trust us and try our solutions?
“I already knew a little about how Junior Companies worked. In 2012, a student of the undergraduation in Production Engineering at UFMG attended a class in which I replaced a professor. He decided to invite me, plus the current vice-rector of UFMG (at the time, director of the Engineering School), in addition to the ‘living legend’ of entrepreneurship Fernando Dolabela, to give a lecture in Paraty, in Rio de Janeiro. It was the occasion of the Junior Enterprise World Conference, the international conference of junior companies. I was impressed with the organization, the professionalism of everyone involved, the level of communication. The trip and the lecture were excellent, so I had this great first impression from the Movement of Junior Companies, from Brazil, and specifically from Minas Gerais, who were the organizers of the event.
When I went to talk to an iJunior business analyst, Raul, for the first time, he soon made a proposal and a contract. Then I was sure that the work was going to be serious. The team was not playing at work. They were really working, aware of the professional stage they were living in, still as students at the university. ”
“I heard about iJunior once talking to a Computer Science student, who at the time was president of the Central Student Directory (DCE-UFMG), and who helped me mobilize donations for homeless people. At the time, I was without my website, I had sued a former programmer who did not deliver the service. Without the site as a communication channel, I had to send long emails to hundreds of volunteers and donors (instead of centralizing the information in links to direct to the site). I was complaining about it, and this friend said to me: “Luciana, why don’t you try to make your website with iJunior?”
What results have you achieved using our product / service?
“As a designer, as a consultant, the main thing that I sell, that is, the main value that I offer to a client, is my reputation, my credibility, my knowledge. It is delivering 100% security to the customer that I will perform a service with excellence. While I lived in Belo Horizonte, my curriculum supported this regardless of the site, people knew me for the various social and charity projects I did. However, when I moved to The Netherlands in August 2019, I came across the fact that I was nobody. So, at this point, the website helped a lot for me to create networking and convey confidence about my work. The website is the main element that gives me credibility abroad, in Europe – because here numbers on social media are not indicators of your professional reputation.
In November 2019, I was invited to present the site at a business fair in The Hague, aimed at young entrepreneurs, ImpactFest. Then, a sustainable fashion fair in Belgium, Ghent Fair Fashion Fest, called me to give a lecture at the event, which will be in November 2020. I was also able to make several contacts with companies and designers of sustainable fashion, prospecting some to have their products sold in the online store we are launching. I am proud of my networking, and the potential for partnerships for after the pandemic.
I see the website as a virtual representation of my existence, my professional talent. The website is a world that I imagine possible and in it I can inhabit, I can create, and leave the doors open to receive visits that identify with that world. In this sense, it has a powerful therapeutic effect. It is a way of existing, of projecting yourself as a subject-place. I remember in December 2018, when I was meditating in Thailand, with few people, and one of them was the former Microsoft CEO in Asia (“only!”), Alex Butt, who one day got up from his desk and went to sit and have breakfast with me. In a gentle way, he kept company, and we talked about life, he opened the website on his mobile, opened the Engineering Consultancy page, he thought it was incredible that I made a factory layout, etc. Then he evaluated my script for a video that I was going to record talking about meditation and the relationship with the site. We still talked about other opportunities, and one of the last things he said to me was, “It is amazing how your website is directly linked to you.” I was clearly not developing a business like a soulless slot machine opportunist, and he noticed it: purpose.
I think that, in the end, we gain opportunities, trips, money, reputation, networking. I won all this with the website, I continue to win, now slowly due to the global situation, and I will continue to win ahead. But the main thing I am engaged in is to win myself, in the sense of seeing the development of the website as an expression of personal development. In the end, the biggest asset we have is our stories, which is what we carry in our minds, in our souls, all the time – the other gains are transitory experiences. ”
How has your life / business changed after using our product / service?
“In addition to what I already described in the previous answer, I started to have more peace of mind. I don’t need to heat my head if they are going to do the job. I can trust and delegate. I am confident that the iJunior team will bring the result I want, or the possible result, close to what I would like. This has been constant since 2017, and always putting a good energy, of joy, of engagement, of overcoming. Even though I am on another continent, the professional relationship continues to work. We planted several seeds online (the institutional pages, the service pages, the online store), and now it needs time, to feed the site with content, to be prepared for the most auspicious moment, which I am sure the site – and life – will continue to be transformed for the better, bearing more fruit. I have the stability, the tranquility, to be prepared for what is to come. ”
Certainly, it is difficult to find words to describe the gratitude we have for the opportunity to have participated and to continue participating in this incredible project with a human being so wonderful that it is Luciana!
But and you?! How about coming to build a success story with us? We hope that this post has clarified possible doubts about our company, as well as the way we work, but if there are any unknowns left in the air, please contact us! We at iJunior will always be here to help you leverage your business. To the next!
I love you all! Thank you so much for the good energy you put to make this dream come true! – xxxx Luciana
