64pandas

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of the ANY (Action Near You) mobile app, which tracks events in your area. With the app, you can find people who share the same interests. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 64pandas?

We needed someone to develop our Android app. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Jakub [Founder, 64pandas] brainstormed how the app should look and which features to include. He’s primarily responsible for the way the app functions now.

Jakub developed the Android app; the iOS app was designed by someone else. Jakub was incredibly professional and got all the information we needed to describe the app. He calculated how many hours the project would take and how much it would cost. The app was designed very carefully and turned out well. The results met our expectations.

Once the project was complete, we began marketing and searching for investors. 64pandas also helped us to repair bugs for some time after.

What is the team dynamic?

Michael was one of the developers we worked with from 64pandas, and Monika was the project manager. Jakub acted as the head developer and managed the whole development process.

How did you come to work with 64pandas?

After searching for companies, I found that most of the options were too expensive for us. We started searching for freelancers and found 64pandas online. We noticed they had good reviews, so we had some initial conversations, sent emails, and held a meeting. From the very beginning, we liked their professionalism in planning the budget and the look of the app. In the past, we always dealt with vendors that said, “No problem. We’ll do that right away,” but offered no clear planning or professionalism. 64pandas had a game plan and knew what the process should look like. That’s why we decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent between $12,000 and $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2014 and continued our relationship until 2016. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We were happy with the whole planning process, including the app’s design, programming, and performance.

How did 64pandas perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was organized and clear. Everything proceeded smoothly, and any information that we needed was given right away. The cooperation went well. We communicated via email almost every day if something needed to be changed or if they had some ideas on improving features. They gave us good suggestions and showed us how to create a great product. We learned a lot from them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We chose them over other companies because they are not too expensive. They’re very professional and open-minded, and they’re eager to share ideas. They’re also smart. Working with them is a pleasure.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can always improve. I wish them all the best and hope they succeed. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a small, mid-size digital marketing software house in Poland. We have about 20 employees. We are involved in project software development, app development, and we help clients from Poland to achieve their goals. I am the co-founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 64pandas?

We needed more resources and more human power to develop products for our clients more quickly. We use companies like 64pandas to help us with frontend and backend development. All of the graphic design and UX resources we have in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

64pandas came in to help us mostly with the backend development for our recruiting system. They also helped with some larger website pages for our clients in implementing analytics and other mechanisms. One of our clients is one of the biggest companies in Poland, and they used 64pandas to analyze the tracking of their website and to aid with the flow of the user experience during their process of recruiting employees.

Most of the time, 64pandas used Python, Django, JavaScript technology throughout the development process and with some parts of testing. The work is ongoing. We have about 5-10 companies like them on our short list and we treat them as partners. When we need resources for this company, we use them.

What is the team dynamic?

Most of the time, I was in contact with Jakub [Founder, 64pandas]. My employees were in contact with other people from the company. I wasn’t involved in that process. Our developers were working together with the team at 64pandas.

How did you come to work with 64pandas?

We use other developers quite often. At the beginning, 64pandas were not the only ones that we used in development process. We were looking for a company outside of Poland because we needed some skilled developers and we also needed companies that work for clients in different countries and not just in Poland. We found 64pandas and we realized that their company is also based in Poland which is why we selected to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent between $20,000-$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2015 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

In the past 3 years, we tested 50-70 agencies or small development teams like 64pandas, and on our short list there are only 10. We work in the Polish and German markets. German companies demand very high-quality developers and a high quality of code. This is why we have a very strict process of recruiting companies as our partner, which I think speaks to the success 64pandas has had as our development partner.

How did 64pandas perform from a project management standpoint?

There were no problems or situations in which they were delayed. We used a lot of tools for communication. We use Slack, Trello, Jira, and Webmin. Sometimes we adapt the project management process according to our clients. For example, for a couple of clients we worked on Redmine, and with others we worked on Jira. There was never a situation in which 64pandas couldn’t be flexible on what project management tool we used. They were adaptable and flexible.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Time, money, and quality are the crucial factors for me. 64pandas are great guys and nice contacts. It’s really great to see Polish developers in the Polish market that work for different companies from all around the world. This is impressive and it’s nice to work with these kinds of guys.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think so. They do a great job. I hope they will keep doing that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the creative director of Follow Vision. We are a digital agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with 64pandas?

We received a development request from one of our clients and needed to outsource the backend part. We design websites, but don’t have the right people in our team for the coding.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have collaborated with 64pandas on three engagements: one main project and two side projects. The technical details didn’t matter for me very much, outside of them using modern and popular technology, so that our client wouldn’t have a problem with finding someone who could continue the work. We created an MVP, and the client chose Python, which is why we went to 64pandas.

What is the team dynamic?

We have worked with 3-4 people, including Jakub Nowak [Founder, 64pandas], a project manager, and two developers.

How did you come to work with 64pandas?

We have worked with other agencies, but have mostly used people who were proficient with WordPress, in order to build landing pages. We share a common coworking space with 64pandas, and have known each other for some time.

How much have you invested with them?

They have worked for us full time for 4 months. The total cost was between $15,000 and $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking about the main project in 2016, around July or September. The project ran for four months, until February 2017. We received a few hours per week for support after that.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The client used their own tracking system, and I don’t have access to it anymore. In terms of subjective feedback, the site seemed to be functional. One of the tasks we wanted to automate was gathering data from a few social media platforms. We haven’t received any complaints here, so 64pandas did the job right.

How did 64pandas perform from a project management standpoint?

We wanted them to follow the Scrum methodology since we use it within our own agency. I know that 64pandas uses Kanban with other clients, but they seemed to be familiar with Agile Scrum as well. We had 1-week sprints, and it worked well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were quite satisfied and received what we wanted on time, with no delays. This was expected since 64pandas has a 10-person team and has been growing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had difficulties with other companies, but the collaboration with 64pandas worked well. Nothing comes to mind right now.