Case Study: Eric Davis, Little Stream Software

Today we're happy to feature a case study from Eric Davis of Little Stream Software, highlighting how Eric, a consultant providing Shopify app development for App Owners, uses Remarq in his consultancy. Interested in your use of Remarq being featured as a case study? Send us an email!

"Getting My Publishing Tool Off My Computer Is The Biggest Benefit"

Before he started using Remarq, Eric had the choice of spending hours pushing pixels in a tool like InDesign — or using a bunch of tools and band-aid scripts he put together to take a markdown document, convert the text into other formats, and then generate a PDF version of the document.

The issue? His publishing workflow was based on open source projects that frequently ended up causing problems:

• The maintainer for the Open Source project would change, leaving the project no support,
• Eric would need to use an older version of the project, just to preserve critical features as part of his workflow
• The open source projects would update the templates that they used, resulting in the output being different from one document to another

In Eric's words, "It worked okay, but it was tied to my computer."

To consistently produce case studies, white papers, or longer articles that matched his company branding, he needed all the tools set up on his computer, he couldn't have anyone else help with his process. Worst of all? The system wasn't that repeatable.

Eric's Experience Using Remarq

Over the last month, Eric has used Remarq in three very specific ways:

• To Create Beautiful Documentation — When a non-technical client needs documentation on an application that Eric has built, he's able to take the Readme file that lives in the code (that a non-technical client would never see) and turn it into a beautifully designed, easy to read document. He can take the markdown, put it into Remarq, and get a high-quality document to email to share with the client, clearly explaining the necessary steps to use, maintain, or extend the project.
• To Share Weekly Reports — Eric works weekly with his clients. On Monday, he works with them to figure out the priorities for the week. During the week, they'll periodically check in. At the end of the week, Eric will send them a 'work recap' that summarizes what they accomplished. Eric puts that work recap into Remarq, generating a short, well-designed document that the client can read and pass around.
• To Produce Marketing Content — Eric uses Remarq for his content marketing. In the last month, he's generated three case studies — sizable documents with multiple sections, screenshots, and a table of contents — to showcase his projects.

"Before Remarq, Consistency Was A Huge Concern"

Before he started using Remarq, Eric's biggest concern was "If I need to re-generate a document, will it look the same as it looked originally — or will it look differently?"

Operating a consulting practice that regularly produces documentation, reports, marketing content, and books, Eric wanted to know that whatever tool he used for his publishing workflow would allow him to generate documents that matched his branding and styling. And, most importantly, that updates to the tool wouldn't break his design, forcing him to recreate old documents.

"It's Just 15-Minutes Of Work To Get A Beautiful Document"

Now, using Remarq, his documents look like he's paid a designer step in and produce his documents.

• Clients love the way Eric's reports come out. They're nicely designed and easy to read.
• Eric's marketing materials are much more professional looking with matching branding and colors

On top of that, there's timesaving factor without needing to set up or fiddle with new tools. Having a consistent 'just going to work' tool is a huge benefit.

On top of that, Eric has sold services — Roadmapping Sessions — to clients where he's used Remarq as a way to deliver the deliverable documents to them. And the client feedback was great:

• At first, they were hesitant to buy the service Eric initially proposed
• Eric proposed they start with a small engagement, a Roadmapping Session, so both Eric and the client could better understand the problem at hand
• After the Roadmapping Session was complete, Eric produced a report for them in Remarq — and the client feedback was great!
• After the Roadmapping Session, Eric proposed a mid-5-figure deal, and the client accepted

If it weren't for Remarq, he'd have had to use his standard office document template. Instead, Remarq gives him a document that looked like he paid a designer to step in and produce the final report.

"Service Has Been Great In Terms Of Response And Customer Support"

Anytime he's had problems, Jeremy (Remarq's Founder) has contacted him through email or chat and helped him figure out what's going on and helped Eric fix it. Many times, it's been an issue with Eric's document, and Jeremy has helped him figure out the cause.

"I Recommend Remarq For Consultants Who Don't Want To Spend The Time Tweaking Pixels Or Getting InDesign To Work!"

Eric eagerly recommends Remarq for consultants and people who aren't so heavy on the design side, people who see the value in having a nice looking document but don't want to spend the time tweaking pixels or getting InDesign to work.

In Eric's words, Remarq is useful for people creating lots of documents. There are months where he'd create 10-20 documents for clients, for his website, and for his business. Having a system where you can throw the text in there and know it'll look good is perfect.

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