About the project
Merit is a groundbreaking verified identify platform, with the end goal of being the leader in truth between organizations and individuals across every industry.
When Clearview started working with Merit, we were hired to build a prototype -- proof of concept, essentially, for a product built on top of Merit's brand-new API. Part of the purpose was to bring more value to the Merit platform; the other part was to test that new API (in essence, to test Merit's thinking on the design of the API itself).
Since Clearview was in on the process very early, we were able to provide a lot of feedback on that newborn API. Instead of simply meeting the milestones, we were able to partner with Merit to answer some of the bigger questions: around how the API should work; how products could communicate with the platform; how to handle some of the trickier use cases.
Merit ended up rebuilding their API in direct response to the Clearview team's feedback. They replaced the original version with a harder/better/faster/stronger one, boasting a considerably more efficient data structure. Notably, they were able to rebuild before the first API had gone far enough to generate too many dependencies on the original structure.
Before long, Merit was wrapping us into projects that were core to their platform. Eventually, we integrated into their core team. At time of publication, we’re taking the big ideas that come out of Merit -- or from our discussions with them -- and building proof-of-concept for each.
This arrangement brilliantly suits the way we work. It gives us a granular view into what organizations' needs are; now-and-future use cases; what very-cool stuff could potentially be built on the platform. Not only do we have that information for ourselves -- knowing all that means that we'll be excellent support for third-party developers keen to build on the platform. All of this optimizes Merit's resources, magnifies their growth and nourishes the rapidly-growing scope of their platform and related products.
- We went from a small contract (developing a web app) to a long-lasting, scaling partnership, with a team of around a dozen people on our side working alongside Merit on their suite of core and non-core products.
- We build prototype projects from planning to final product.
- We test Merit's public REST API -- reporting bugs, suggesting changes and improvements and giving general feedback about API implementation.
- We build small, pitch-perfect teams on short notice to respond to fast-arising projects.
