Atomic Object

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a startup that serves K-12 education institutions, primarily public school districts, and charter schools. We have back-office software in the people management space, and our flagship product deals with tracking employee absences. It also matches and places substitutes in classrooms. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We hired them to help us build our product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Atomic Object worked almost exclusively on the web UI of our flagship product using React, GraphQL, Apollo Client, and TypeScript. Their team developed the key features of our product, such as data and absence management. Our team had limited experience, so Atomic Object brought their React experience to the table. We also used some tools from their libraries to help us cogenerate a library for GraphQL. They also helped us find simplified ways of cogenerating interactions between Apollo Client and TypeScript. 

What is the team composition?

Two developers worked directly with my team on a day-to-day basis. Meanwhile, my main point of contact was the project manager, who managed our business relationship and billing schedule. 

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

Atomic Object was hired by the company that invested in our product. When I came onboard and merged with the business to rebuild the product, I inherited the team as part of the company’s investment in us. Meanwhile, I was highly impressed with their philosophy and approach. The team was truly mature; I enjoyed sitting down with them and talking shop, so we continued the engagement. 

How much have you invested with them?

During my involvement, we invested around $300,000. Prior to that, the company that found them spent well over $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

They worked with us from September 2019–January 2020. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Atomic Object was instrumental in our timely launch; we built the entire UI and 90% of the backend in only around five months. They didn’t work on any standalone feature that could be measured quantitatively, however. 

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was mature and reasonable, though they didn’t truly have any project management responsibilities that specifically involved me. Their developers integrated easily with our team and our loose process. They were also highly flexible as they adapted to our fast implementation cycle. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The knowledge of their entire group was impressive. The Atomic Object team was able to draw knowledge from other developers and teams as they worked closely on Apollo Client and GraphQL. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Atomic Object was thorough but a little slow. I pushed for speedy implementation and decision-making because I saw that they had a slow, methodical approach to the project even before I came on board. The project wouldn’t have succeeded at our preferred scale if they continued at the rate that they were moving. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Atomic Object has a good methodology for discovering business requirements and designing deliverables. However, they’re not cheap; they’re going to be more expensive if you don’t know the software you want to build up front. As a result, you should bring much of your software knowledge and experience to the table. Although the team is open to adjusting to your needs, it's difficult for any software developer to build without understanding the deliverables.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a supervisor at an automobile OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). I manage two products in our ecosystem.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We were tasked with taking a research project and turning it into production software in a short amount of time. We realized that we didn’t have enough time to complete it in-house.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

It was a location and map-based project. The team brought in very experienced, high-quality developers that were able to look at the POC and our requirements and help build the required solution. They were involved in all of the planning, architecture, and development.

What is the team composition?

We worked with seven developers and two project managers.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

They were recommended as a good company with a high skill level. They had definite expertise in the technology we needed and the area we needed. The way they worked was also very good.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $1.5 million–$2 million range.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020, and we wrapped up in June 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They completed the new software feature successfully. They definitely met our requirements from a quality standpoint. The team also helped us meet our tight deadline. Their attitude and ability to share knowledge with our team was excellent. They’re very easy to work with.  

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

We had daily standups to talk with the team. We used Slack for communication, and we also had monthly check-ins with the account management team to make sure everything was going well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to learn things quickly stands out. They were able to ramp up quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was a bit more turnover than I’d like to see on a team of our size. That being said, this project happened during COVID-19, so there were a lot of things changing at that time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If things aren’t going as you had hoped, don’t be afraid to ask for something different or new. We did just that on the project management side, and the team was very flexible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Healthy Minds Innovations is a nonprofit that provides products and services in the mental well-being space. Primarily, we’ve developed an app that provides training in terms of mental well-being skills. We’re also closely affiliated with the University of Wisconsin Center for Healthy Minds. 

I’m the VP of customer engagement. As such, I have plenty of conversations and contact with outside organizations that are looking for services, which are quite varied from research projects to straight-up customer relationships.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Objects?

We were a small team of 27 people, and we had a fairly significant number of departures from teammates — we lost around 7–8 people. That included software developers and project managers who were involved in the app we were developing. In other words, we had a big gap in resources, hampering our ability to continue supporting the app and adding new features to it. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our engagement with Atomic Object had two main components. In the first one, one of their senior members guided us around managing our team as we lost senior managers. He also assisted us in our hiring process, helping define job descriptions and vet candidates to fill the gap in our team. Overall, he provided general consulting advice on how to keep our operations running smoothly while we rebuilt our team. We also wanted to restructure our organization, so they helped us think through optimal ways to organize our team in the area of software development. 

For the second component, Brian (Software Consultant & Developer) joined our team and worked alongside our existing staff. He ran through a series of sprints with us, which were typically a couple of weeks long and varied widely in nature. His tasks included fixing bugs, digging into new features, and solving problems. Sometimes, Brian worked alone. However, he was often involved in pair-programming with our members. Moreover, he worked full-time, so he was in all of our daily standups — he essentially served as an extension of our team to bring stability and his expertise to the table. 

One of our biggest projects with Atomic Object was developing a web portal that allowed customers to register accounts and sign in on a platform. It consisted of several sprints’ worth of work and involved connecting 2–3 data streams into a unified format. This way, the data could be assembled and organized. Plenty of work was needed to make this feature work, and Atomic Object helped us tackle this large project while they were on board. 

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with Brian and one member of their leadership team, who advised us on how to structure our organization. 

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

I became familiar with Atomic Object through my previous employer. We built a software team, and the first person we hired introduced us to Atomic Object. Over the years, we worked on a number of projects. When I joined my current company, I continued our working relationship and recommended them as a great resource. Our team also looked around for other options, but we ultimately decided that Atomic Object was the best provider for us. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with them ran from January–June 2021 or around 5–6 months. However, I’m sure we’ll have other opportunities to work with them. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Having Atomic Object as part of our team helped us shift from doing simple maintenance — where we merely maintained our app and fixed bugs — to making actual progress on a long list of features that we wanted to add. Rather than being stationary in terms of development, we dug into a to-do list and knocked things off one by one. For instance, the web portal project was a fairly extensive piece of work, and they helped us complete that during their time with us. 

Overall, they were highly talented. Although they were more expensive than other firms, they provided more than enough value for our money. As a nonprofit, we didn’t have deep pockets and a lot of revenue. Upon reflection, we felt that Atomic Object was well worth our investment

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

Atomic Object’s project management was exceptional. We used our own tool to track our workload, and they integrated with that smoothly. Every Monday morning, they’d provide us with a summary of our work together, including the time spent working, billing reports, and budget updates. 

As a result, we knew exactly where we stood in terms of how much of our budget was left, how much had been used, and how much time we had left for each of the people they provided us. Overall, they had great communication, and we always knew where things were, especially in terms of budget. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed by a few things about Atomic Object. On a high level, we admired the way they were organized as a group. They structured their organization in a way that looked after their people, ensuring that team members did great work as they tackled meaningful and valuable projects. 

Overall, everyone on their team was an outstanding contributor. As a result, we had a great deal of confidence and faith in their ability to jump in and help us out whenever we needed their assistance. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The process of assigning people to our team was a little nerve-wracking. They were obviously juggling a number of commitments each week, so there were uncertainties around who was doing what. Though the Atomic Object team was good at communicating, we couldn’t plan our engagement until the assignments were finalized and we knew who was joining us the following week. 

We couldn’t do much about this. However, projecting assignments a bit further into the future with more visibility into potential options would be nice. That being said, once we put everything into writing, our engagement went smoothly. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an engineering lead for a global automotive and aerospace supplier. I manage a small team of developers that provide internal applications and tools for other engineers in the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Atomic Object, and what were your goals?

We have a critical legacy application that is used by lots of engineers internally. It was written in C++ and suffers from problems with usability, deployment of updates, and inability to easily add new features. We hired Atomic Object to help us convert this tool into a browser based web application.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We had hired Atomic Object several years prior to work on a database design and to temporarily augment our staff for a new product we were developing. They had provided quality personnel and expertise at that time, so we did not hesitate to want to hire them again.

We gave them our requirements and they sent back a project proposal that was thorough and within our budget.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

Atomic Object was hired to provide a ready made tech stack and to train our developers in the practice of web development. They worked well with our developers and were able to successfully integrate into our existing DevOps infrastructure.

The teach stack consisted of git, Node, npm with Yarn , React, Redux, Redis caching, Apollo GraphQL, Docker on Linux, and Visual Studio Code.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There were a total of 5 consultants. A lead architect and system designer, a lead UI/UX designer, two web developers, and a project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We accomplished the main goals of the engagement, which were to design a web based user interface to the existing tool, and to train our developers on how to continue to develop that tool after the engagement was over. We worked in two weeks sprints and successfully maintained project velocity and merged PR's on time according to our project plan.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

Atomic provided a project manager that oversaw the team on the Atomic side and interfaced with our project manager at a high level. They used Pivotal Tracker. We had daily standups, end of week reviews, and sprint planning sessions every Monday. We also constantly communicated using tools like Discord.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

We were impressed with the quality of the codebase and the expertise of the developers that worked on our project. They were thorough, professional, and up to date on the latest trends and technologies. We also appreciated their approach to user interface design, called Human Centric Design.

Their designer met with our internal customers to get direct input on what they wanted to see in the redesign effort. This was invaluable, as it provided a direct window into the usability problems of our customers. So far the feedback on the new design is extremely positive.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Budget constraints on our end forced us to have to remove a dedicated tester from the project in order to extend the time available to the software devs. As a result, there are a few places where unit tests are missing or need to be improved, but so far we have not found any serious bugs or design flaws that a full time tester would have caught.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Senior Project Manager at Fremont Insurance.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Atomic Object, and what were your goals?

Our Policy Dashboard supports our Independent Agents with functionality to view, edit, and report on policies, claims, billing, payments. It needed transformation into a Web Services platform with improved information security.

SOLUTION

How did you select Atomic Object and what were the deciding factors?

Atomic Object was selected for their expertise in Web Services, industry knowledge and experience, and to support our local businesses and economy.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

We started with project discovery and brainstorming meetings to drive out project scope. Then a team of BA's, Designers, Developers were assembled from Atomic Object and Fremont Insurance. The project was co-managed by a PM from each company. The site was delivered in an Agile methodology, and deployed to our Agent workforce using Amazon AWS.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Atomic Object provided two project managers, one web designer, and four web developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

From the user experience perspective, the site has been well received. There were some bugs to work our after deployment, and Atomic Object resources were vital to the quick turnaround of these bugs.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

The Atomic Object project management team used an Agile approach to the project deliverables. The primary means of communication involved Slack and Pivotal Tracker was used for the project information.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

Atomic Object was very willing to augment the project team with additional resources as needed. One of the challenges they assisted with was providing web developers during a time when we had no web developers on the project due to higher priorities for our developers to work on.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of human-centered design at a multi-national, international power management company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We needed to deliver a new mobile and web app experience for one of our product lines as quickly as possible. We also had a specific budget we needed to fall within.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, they helped us identify our issues, risks, and challenges. Next, we covered architecture and development in iOS and Android. We also did web app development. Then, we did code reviews and design work as necessary. The team was able to chip in and add resources on an ad-hoc basis for different phases of our project. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with one delivery lead, and three other contacts.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

We decided to work with them because their quality was extremely high. Some of our other vendors had lower costs, but had different impacts to schedule. We were willing to try a higher quality vendor to see if we could get a better product delivered in less time.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $125,000–$175,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2018, and we wrapped up in August 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their timing was impeccable. It was one of the faster projects we’ve ever completed. The amount of re-work that needed to be done was far less than in other projects.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

They were really strong. During our two-week sprints, they were either on time or early. The team gave us weekly updates on the hours and the investments, risks, and accomplishments to be very clear and transparent. Overall, they were on top of the ball.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication really stands out. The team is able to project what’s going to happen accurately is invaluable. Their developers are much better quality than others I’ve come across, too.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their cost is a bit high, but you get what you pay for.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to make sure you have a plan in place to hand off the work that they accomplished into your organization. They’ll have high-quality work, but you’re going to need someone to implement it on your side. It’ll make the process a lot smoother.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an engineer at a commercial vehicle product firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We had a customer request for a sensor system.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided embedded software and application development services. They used C for all app development and also supplied some frontend work.

What is the team composition?

There were initially two people assigned to the work, then we rolled it down to one person.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

I knew of the company from old classmates and acquaintances who worked there. They are highly regarded.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The work began in June 2019 and ended in April 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We didn’t have many metrics, but anecdotally they were flexible and willing to adapt to changing circumstances.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication and ability to meet deadlines were good. They used JIRA for tracking and Basecamp for collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their quality of work is very high. I was happy with what they did.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to be honest and open in communications. Be good at being flexible so you can get value through transparency and honesty. You don’t need to spend so much time writing specific instructions because they’re good at understanding what you’re trying to accomplish.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CPO of Find MeTime. We’re a family and childcare tech company. We connect parents to short term, hourly childcare services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We’d worked with a freelance developer to launch our MVP. After being live for a couple of months and gaining users, we realized we needed to make some adjustments based on our customers’ needs and habits. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We engaged Atomic Object to help us release version 1.2 of our app. The team helped us build several new features, including increasing our search flexibility. The initial product, which is exclusively a web app, was created in PHP, using the Laravel framework. 

Along the way, the team collaborated with us on ways to expand the architecture and plan for long term growth and the updates that will come with it. The advice they offered extended past appropriate future technologies to even include strategies on how to recruit and interview an in-house engineer. 

What is the team composition?

We worked three people in total: two full-time developers and a delivery lead who was available as needed.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

Atomic Object was a partner of a company I previously worked at. Though I hadn’t worked with them personally, I knew they were a team who could deliver fast, quality work, which was exactly what we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a little under $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from January–March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app is live, but it’s difficult to track metrics right now, as social distancing has limited childcare services greatly. However, we’ve presented the app to some of our investors and strategic collaborators, and they all love it. The increased functionality has had a great impact on the user experience of the app overall. 

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management style was the best part of working with them. As a designer myself, I was heavily involved in the project, and we collaborated directly throughout the project. Atomic Object set up criteria and procurement tools early on, which allowed us to have an effective workflow. We used Basecamp for communication and Pivotal Tracker for task management. 

Though the team didn’t come into the engagement with an extensive background in Laravel, they picked it up very quickly, asking the right questions of our freelance developer who built our initial MVP. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their natural ability to talk to us in a language we could understand and guide us through decisions was phenomenal. I always felt included in the conversation, and despite their expertise, they never patronized me. Atomic Object provided our organization with so many educational moments without it ever feeling like they were doing so. It was always a seamless part of their communication.

Further, when I give a development team my vision for the frontend, it’s often a long time before I can see it come to life. Atomic Object stood out in that they were always able to develop a high-quality product, while balancing our need to be scrappy as a startup.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not at all. They’re doing everything right.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Figure out what you want your role to be in the engagement. You can maximize what you get out of the relationship with Atomic Object depending on what you put in.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a state education department. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

We needed help with designing a platform to support our schools. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Atomic Object first created focus groups to develop a series of user personas. From there they begin to build the platform with a series of wireframes, starting from scratch. That took six months. They also provided development support to help the dev team take what was in coding in the design process and translate it into the platform. 

What is the team composition?

We had a main point of contact on the team as well as a couple of programmers and developers.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

We’d partnered with an educational organization made up of intermediate school districts to develop platforms and applications to support the field. Together, we worked to develop an application to support our schools and provide teachers with up-to-date, accurate data. Atomic Object helped design the look and feel of the platform. When we had another, bigger platform to develop, we brought on Atomic Object again.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $70,000–$80,000

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in August 2019 and ended in January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Atomic Object produced the product on time when we agreed. They were responsive as we were doing an agile method of development, which involves a lot of give-and-take. One of the advantages of having a company like Atomic Object is that they have the vision of what technology use looks like and in the future. They’d give advice about what my suggestions would feel like to the user, but left us to make the ultimate decision 

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

They hit deadlines perfectly, and the communication was constant. There were very few times where I had to wait more than an hour for a response via phone call, text, or email. We also had access to Zeplin and another project management tool in order to see the work being done.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’ve never worked with another provider. However, what made me very confident about Atomic Object was that, like a good contractor, they made me feel like we’re the only customer they had. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The time they took to make user personas was just way too long. I feel that time could have been cut in half.

Any advice for potential customers?

Have someone who is 100% dedicated to the project and available to answer questions. That helps keep the processing going.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Root is a strategy enablement and change leadership consulting company, and I lead our learning media and development teams. When an organization is initiating change, we help make sure that change is understandable and accessible to the broad base of employees by providing learning resources and strategy discussions that engage everyone in the process.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Atomic Object?

Atomic Object is helping us build a suite of digital tools that will help companies sustain their change once they start it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a pretty clear understanding of the need and a less clear understanding of what we wanted to do about it. Atomic Object was able to take us through a design and technical scoping process to figure out a really clear workable prototype and a clear path forward for what would eventually become the first release of all the tools we wanted.

What is the team composition?

There were between 2–4 people from their side working with us at any given time.

How did you come to work with Atomic Object?

They had actually been on our radar for years and we had a few chances to get to know them through networking and scoping out a couple of potential ideas. They’re also very close to where we work, so when we decided to go ahead with this project, they were an easy first choice.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2019 and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We don’t have any direct client measurables yet since we haven’t produced the project, but they were above every milestone in all of the work that they completed for us. They delivered everything in advance on their end, and when we had some internal shifts, they were incredibly agile and did a great job of keeping the project on track.

How did Atomic Object perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication skills are excellent. We never felt like we weren’t on the same page with them at any point in the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They run really clear, well-organized projects. A lot of times you end up with vendors who champion their own opinion or sit back and don’t offer any input. Atomic does a great job of bringing a ton of experience to the work but making it feel like you are owning the project with them.

They’re not afraid to bring their opinion and recommendations, and then also iterate with you and let their opinions shift as requirements might clarify or move in one particular direction or another.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind at all.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t hesitate to rely on them for elements of the project that you might not know how to approach off the top of your head. They do a really good job in all of their work.