Data Driven Design is Now a Craft CMS Verified Partner

Like a lot of companies that handle design and development work, we've spent a lot of time honing our skills and evaluating the various CMS options in the market. Over the years, we built sites on a variety of platforms in an attempt to balance the interests of project stakeholders.

We've found that building custom sites results in working with extremely creative designers who don't want to be too hemmed in on what they can create. That's the excitement of working in such a creative field! Developers want to put some guardrails around these designs to ensure that designs are well-thought-out, replicable and scalable to minimize inconsistency and re-work. And content creators and marketing folks want to be able to make their changes on the fly as their company changes direction - without having to go back to developers every time they need something added to the site.

Craft CMS was the platform we were looking for, and we've been designing and developing for it across a variety of industries for several years now. We've built custom integrations with Craft for a native plant nursery, a forward-thinking insurance business, a headless integration with a more traditional e-commerce platform and many others. We've also been extolling the virtues of Craft for years and were extremely excited when we heard they'd be creating a Craft Partner Certification process.

In order to become a Verified Partner, Craft checks out many things including your code, customer satisfaction, and the professional credentials of your business.

Here are the requirements:

raft Projects: 5

You have to have completed at least five projects on Craft CMS. We've completed far more than this minimum number and currently have some more in flight.

rofessional Hours: 2000

To be listed as a verified partner, you have to have spent at least 2000 hours developing on Craft and be able to prove it!

lient References: 2

In order to make sure you're good at what you do, they require at least two client references so they can hear directly from those you've completed work for.

ull-time Developers: 1

They want to make sure you've got the staff to back up your claims by having at least one full-time developer who has significant professional experience with Craft. Agencies that outsource all of their work need not apply.

roject Reviews: 1

Craft requires that you provide access to the code you developed in order to ensure that your work is high-quality and follows best practices for development in Craft.

rofessional Business Cred

Craft verifies that your company is a registered business, that you have a professional services website, that you have appropriate Master Service Agreements, project contracts and other documentation.

Why do it?

There are a ton of agencies out there who each specialize in specific platforms, tooling or skills. Our view of the world is that there's plenty of opportunity to go around. In order to be happy in what we do, we want to make sure we're partnering up with the right clients on the right kinds of projects so that we can maximize value in the areas where we most shine. Since we're such a hard-core supporter of Craft as a platform, we want to make sure we have the credentials that matter. There's nothing better than actually having someone from the outside your organization check your work to keep you accountable to a high standard. As one of only 16 Verified Partners in North America (and the only one on the West Coast), we're proud of having accomplished this goal.

What now?

We're going to keep our heads down doing the kind of work the makes us stand out from the crowd. But we're also looking to the future, extending our skill in Craft Plug-in development, Craft Commerce and integrations. With new projects in the works, we hope to add an additional level of Craft certification by the end of the year.