Aubergine Solutions | UX + AI + Product Development Consulting

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a company called Atheer, a B2B software company that focuses on delivering software solutions to large industries and enterprises.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aubergine Solutions?

We were looking to elevate our customers’ experience, so we needed someone to provide us with UI/UX design and development. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Aubergine Solutions provided us with in-depth UI/UX design and technical support to improve the users’ capabilities to write their own applications.

They utilized Figma as their primary design tool and other collaboration software such as Zoom and Google Meet.

What is the team composition?

We mostly collaborated with a senior product designer and two other product designers.

How did you come to work with Aubergine Solutions?

I’ve already established a previous working relationship with Aubergine Solutions from past projects.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February–July 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m quite satisfied with our partnership with Aubergine Solutions and the products they delivered. They were patient, listened to our challenges, and were very productive and open when it came to discussing the project.

How did Aubergine Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They exceeded our expectations regarding their approach to project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with their development expertise and design principles.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they need to improve on since I was quite happy with our engagement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise you to be clear with your vision so they can fully focus on identifying solutions for your problems.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aubergine Solutions?

We needed help with staff augmentation and development. We had complex topics, so it was hard to find talent in the marketplace that could build products for the specific domain we were looking at.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Aubergine Solutions to build products. They started as staff augmentation but slowly evolved to become the core team. Initially, they had a process of key questions and specifications about the product. We spent time understanding the scope, existing architecture, and what needed to be done. They focused on this for the first two weeks of the engagement; then, they started coding and building software.

We mainly use Node.js and React as key languages. Also, we’re deployed in AWS.

What is the team composition?

We have two senior engineers, one junior engineer, a QA engineer, and an account manager.

How did you come to work with Aubergine Solutions?

They were referred. A friend in my network highly recommended them and got me in touch with their leadership team. They quickly set up a team according to our needs, and we immediately started working. We were very impressed by how meticulously organized they were.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2021, and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We planned the launch for the end of the year, and we launched on time. They have a 100% completion rate; they’ve never missed a deadline. Overall, they know how to build products using best practices and processes. They move mountains to make things happen; we’ve been extremely impressed.

How did Aubergine Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve brought structure and organization into our process. How they run sprints, do reviews, capture development priorities, and manage the agile process is structured from the get-go. We’ve been very impressed with them; every founder needs that organizational structure, especially a non-technical founder like me. Even though I lack the technical skills and transparency, having a managerial process where we discuss all the issues, priorities, and action plans really helps to make progress.

Also, they’re always on deadline and within budget. If there are any changes, we will have an appropriate discussion. All in all, it has been an incredible partnership. They always find ways to satisfy us, and the leadership team is very thoughtful.

We use Jira, GitLab, and Microsoft Azure. On the other hand, we mostly communicate through Slack, emails, and Teams.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have very talented people and are highly organized. Their processes and planning are what really distinguish them. They have a modern approach to building products. The founders have a history of building in Silicon Valley, so they’ve turned their agile way of building into a philosophy for the whole company. They meticulously teach it and educate their people so everything is done the same way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Finding talent and bringing them on board is challenging. If we need someone, we must plan ahead and let them know. They can’t find that person in a day, so it’s not fair to say they could improve that. However, I wish we could just bring in someone immediately.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Follow their lead and their processes. Share as much as possible early on and carve out the time. You can’t expect a team just to come in and be productive in a week; it’s unrealistic. Also, invest the right amount of resources, provide the input, work with them, and make them part of the team. Don’t treat them as an outsourced team — if you give them enough attention, they’ll move things quickly. Beyond one month, you’ll see extreme productivity. Just commit to it and you’ll be rewarded.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I'm the director of a startup company with a meditation platform. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aubergine Solutions?

I needed someone to develop an application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Aubergine Solutions has built our mobile application for iOS and Android using Flutter. I provided them with the entire UI design and gave them a detailed set of requirements. From there, the team used the UI to code the application. The app is in the meditation space, and its features include community functionality and content. Currently, I'm doing acceptance testing. After that, Aubergine Solutions will handle deployment.

What is the team composition?

We've worked with a senior software developer, two software developers, two QA people, and two backend developers.

How did you come to work with Aubergine Solutions?

I found them while looking for companies online.

How much have you invested in them?

We've spent around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with them in late 2021, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Something unique about Aubergine Solutions is that the senior software developer is also the project manager. Most software development companies have a separate project manager who isn’t technical and ends up being a middleman. That setup isn’t ideal when working with smaller companies and sole entrepreneurs because the project manager can become the bottleneck; they have to convey the client’s message to the developer and vice versa, which doesn’t always work. Since I’m working directly with the senior software developer, the process has been a lot more efficient for this project.

Additionally, I could speak directly with the CEO during the initial phases of the project, which clients don’t get with large software companies. Although the CEO wasn’t involved in all the nitty-gritty details, I knew I could go to him if I had any issues. He has jumped in to discuss the project and ask how it’s going. Having the CEO involved has given me that added peace of mind that I’m in safe hands.

Like any project, we’ve had a few issues; we didn’t stick to the original schedule, and there were some resource changes with new people who jumped into the project. However, these changes haven’t caused any problems, and I don’t mind the delay because I was getting all the additional input from the developers. I’ve stuck with Aubergine Solutions because they know what they’re doing and are fully committed and involved.

How did Aubergine Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

The senior software developer is also the project manager, and she’s very organized. They use Jira for project management, and during development, the whole project was mapped out there, so I knew who was working on what. In terms of communication, I would have a call with them every week through Google Meet during development, and we used Slack for questions or doubts, where I could reply fairly quickly. We used GitLab for the code.

Although we’ve had a delay, communication hasn’t been an issue. Overall, Aubergine Solutions is significantly better at project management than some of the other companies I’ve worked with.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Aubergine Solutions’ software developers try and think like the end user, which is rare. In most companies, developers work towards the specification, and that’s all they care about, without thinking about the end user.

Meanwhile, the Aubergine Solutions team puts themselves in the user’s position, so they come back with little tweaks and ideas to make things easier for the customer. That feedback and suggestions from the developers have been helpful because I’m doing this independently and don’t have a big design team. That approach has also helped me identify some minor issues I hadn’t spotted.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always room for improvement; in this case, they didn’t deliver the app on time, so it would have been nice to have a more realistic timeline. That never happens with development, though. Although most projects are delayed, the less delay, the better, so an improvement in the planning would be helpful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Aubergine Solutions are a great company to work with and I'd be happy to recommend them to others. My advice to potential clients would be to make a detailed set of requirements (the more detailed the better) with clear milestones. Assume there will be technical challenges and issues along the way, so create the timeplan accordingly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Operations Manager at Coffective, a Certified B Corporation that supports state and local organizations in improving maternal and child health outcomes through increasing access to care, facilitating hospital quality improvement, and establishing consistent messaging.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Aubergine Solutions ?

We'd gotten feedback our web app wasn't intuitive and noticed decreased usage. We also had new features we wanted to integrate. We hired Aubergine Solutions to enhance the UX/UI in order to improve user acquisition, onboarding, experience, and retention.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We posted the project on Upwork and shortlisted 8 individual contractors and agencies. We chose Aubergine Solutions based on samples of past projects, communication during recruitment, and the clear process they outlined for the project.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We had video call discovery sessions with the UX/UI designers and different members of our internal team to learn more about the company and its goals, our current web app and it's challenges, and our needs for an updated web app design. Aubergine conducted video call user interview sessions to get a deeper understanding of the issues they faced in using the web app and needs for improvement.

Initial mock-ups and workflows were created in Figma, and we went through rounds of feedback and iterations through email and video calls. Prototypes were created, and Aubergine conducted screensharing user feedback sessions to gather insight on the new designs. Our team supported in conducting additional user feedback sessions as well. Further internal feedback was provided through Figma comments, and designs finalized.

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

My team worked with a UX/UI designer primarily, with early support from a senior UX/UI designer / project manager. In the recruitment process and periodically throughout the project, we also interfaced with the co-founder / lead UX designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our internal team is very happy with the designs that were created. Initial feedback from user feedback sessions was also positive, with many sharing that the designs and streamlined workflows would make them want to use the web app more. We are eager to begin development and get further user feedback.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager and primary UX/UI designer were easy to communicate with and very responsive. We had periodic video calls with email communication between. Weekly updates were sent about the previous week's progress and the upcoming tasks for the following week. During the later design phases, most communication was through Figma.

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

Overall quality of the new designs is great. We really appreciated the UX/UI designer's insights for improvements and consistencies. We felt she really took the time to understand our product and goals to make informed suggestions. She was able to aggregate differing feedback from the internal team, as well as push back when some of the ideas didn't make sense. The whole Aubergine team we interacted with is very professional, diligent, and a pleasure to work with.

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

Aubergine was very flexible in accommodating additional discovery, user interviews, and user feedback sessions at our request. This did delay the timeline from our end. Aubergine continued to advocate for getting back on track. Looking back, it may have been helpful to communicate sooner the critical timeline tipping point so that we had a bit more breathing room and time in the more important design finalization stage.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CPO of a Germany based Startup serving the whole nation with waste management services enabled by our digital platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Aubergine Solutions , and what were your goals?

After starting our business with an MVP we hired Aubergine to build that into a fully-fledged custom solution that would enable us to scale from just a few cities to the whole nation while serving our customers better. We needed intuitive, reliable software quickly to ensure that our internal teams would be able to handle a much higher load, while reducing error proneness of every step of the way.

SOLUTION

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

We found Aubergine through a referral and considered them with several other parties. We ultimately went with Aubergine as they considered our needs, were proficient in our tech stack, demonstrated flexibility and offered both development and UX insights to us already in the initial code & UX review prior to kick-off of the project.

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

Aubergine provides a team of full-stack developers that work in 2-week scrum sprints along with our internal product managers on our customer-facing shop, our internal order management tools as well as all DevOps related topics. Relevant technologies and platforms include Python, Django, Angular, PostgreSQL, AWS, GCP, GitLab CI, Docker...

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

We worked with 2-4 full time full stack devs of varying seniority. Other resources such as QA engineers or Scrum Masters would come and go depending on the project's current needs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Aubergine's team's attention to detail and willingness to go the extra mile have impressed us again and again, fulfilling the requirement to create valuable, usable, feasible and viable software. We've been working with Aubergine for 3 years now and intend to continue.

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

Project Management was mainly done by us in-house so it was great to see how well Aubergine adapted to our processes to enable efficient communication that mainly went through the channels JIRA, GitHub, Google Meet and Slack.

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

We have direct access to the whole team, which makes it easier to communicate our ideas. Things can be lost in translation if you're only talking to a project manager.

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

In hindsight, in several areas the dial between Documentation vs. Development Speed vs Code Quality could have been turned a little differently. But we were always happy with the reasoning behind decisions at the time they were made so can't blame anyone for that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CTO of Quesmed, a company that focuses on medical school education. Our goal is to make preparing to become a doctor much easier and less monotonous. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aubergine Solutions?

We needed help in designing our product. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Aubergine Solutions has designed pretty much every aspect of our product so far. We’ve used their work as a base point whenever we internally work on designs. 

Notably, they redesigned our website during the start of our partnership. We’re currently working on an educational video. They use Figma to create their UI/UX designs. 

What is the team composition?

We’re working with four people, with two points of contact.

How did you come to work with Aubergine Solutions?

A colleague referred them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around £20,000 (approximately $27,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve started working together in November 2020, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Aubergine Solutions has successfully redesigned our website. Their work has helped increase our sales by 550%. I’m completely satisfied with their work — they’ve exceeded my expectations. 

Their design team has been excellent, and they’ve stuck with us throughout the partnership. As a result, they’ve been really helpful since they already know our product and preferences very well. They can tell what we and our users like, so we’ve been able to work efficiently. 

How did Aubergine Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Aubergine Solutions is excellent at project management. They ensure our visions are met, deadlines are followed, and our teams are in sync. We communicate through emails and weekly meetings through Google Meet. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Aubergine Solutions’ understanding of our vision is impressive. Initially, we’ve been skeptical by the amount of time they’ve spent studying our product. However, in the long run, that has been beneficial for us. They know our products and needs, and there have been a few back and forths between our teams — we’re thrilled with their work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Aubergine Solutions is very good at figuring out what you need and want. If you don’t have anything to show at the start of the project, provide them with a brief slide of your competitors. Pick the features you like, and they’ll be able to deliver based on that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a product manager at Workforce Development Trust, a not-for-profit charity that works with healthcare organizations across the United Kingdom in a number of different areas related to the workforce. 

We have a consultancy branch, but I work in the digital solutions branch in London, where I manage a roster system that we sell to the National Health Services to ensure that their trusts have the skilled workforce they need. The focus is on ensuring workers are compliant with various working restrictions, including taking sufficient breaks and not working over allotted hours.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aubergine Solutions?

We don’t have any UX/UI experts internally, so we were looking for outside support to help us renovate our workforce roster platform. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For 18 months, Aubergine Solutions worked on product renovation for the rostering system we sell to the National Health Service to ensure the system could handle a new user interface integration.

We started by discussing how exactly the platform worked and what we wanted to change. They then helped us understand and codify website navigation from the user’s side. Their team came back to us with proposals on how we could improve user navigation — connecting the dots to build a better interface. 

Aubergine Solutions then provided us with several user navigation maps and a set of custom-coded Figma UI mockups for a number of areas of the platform. Our developers then used their deliverables to build the platform’s UI design. 

What is the team composition?

Jui (Senior UX Analyst) was my main point of contact. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested £8,000 (approximately $11,100 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?
We worked with them from December 2020–June 2021.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With Aubergine Solutions’ help, we improved our user interface and experience navigating the platform. While there are no specific analytic metrics, users have provided us with positive feedback on the new interface. When we asked our user groups to rate their excitement for it on a scale of one to five, the average score was actually 5.2. We’ve been able to speed up some of the platform’s processes as well — instead of taking hours to run a program, it now takes minutes. 

How did Aubergine Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Aubergine Solutions was very easy to work with. They were very clear about the requirements for the project and what exactly they needed from us. They were flexible in scheduling — Jui and I would accommodate each other regarding the time difference. 

We predominantly communicated via email and conducted calls through Google Hangouts to arrange and host our meetings. We used Google Sheets for project management. They also used Figma to send their final deliverables.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

There were several impressive aspects of Aubergine Solutions’ work. They were easy to work with on the day-to-day and were able to quickly and intuitively investigate the interface problems we were trying to solve. The quality of the deliverables was also to a very high standard. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The Aubergine Solutions team could have reviewed the development libraries our development lead circulated in advance of the project and double-checked if their planned components were supported in the development libraries we used. 

Our development lead ended up communicating with Aubergine Solutions to ensure their components would integrate into our platform — it actually required some redevelopment on their end to fit it with our development libraries. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise potential customers to be fully engaged in the process — there’s a lot of expertise and support available with Aubergine Solutions and it’s important to take advantage of it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the product manager at Sponsorium, a SaaS company that helps companies manage their sponsorship portfolio. Our platform allows users to receive, evaluate, and respond to sponsorship requests through an online form.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aubergine Solutions?

We needed help in revamping our platform’s UI/UX. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, we had discovery sessions with Aubergine by evaluating our platform, and together we set up the project’s scope. We focused on our tool’s primary functionalities and most used pages to limit the project’s scope. After that, they started working with us, and we had 2–4 meetings per week. 

Aubergine used Figma, an online platform for designing wireframes. Sometimes, they go in-depth with their wireframing and work on details up to 40,000 pixels. We had complete access to all those wireframes, and we were able to collaborate remotely.

Most of our branding had been previously completed, but Aubergine still lent us their expertise. They had built color palette and type guidelines for our platform.

What is the team composition?

We've worked directly with two people, but we've mainly interacted with their senior user experience designer. We also spoke with their other teammates, and we had seen them working on the project through Figma’s chat function.

How did you come to work with Aubergine Solutions?

We found Aubergine through Clutch. I checked about 200 companies on the platform, and I looked at all of their websites. I shortlisted 17 firms that interested us, and we narrowed it down until we picked Aubergine. We decided to work with them due to their portfolio and website design.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement lasted from April–July 2021. We still have some QA and feedback implementation to do, but they’ve already submitted all of the main deliverables.    

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Aubergine’s design was far beyond what we came up with as a first draft. Our revamped platform received overwhelmingly positive feedback from beta users. They provided high-quality output that exceeded our expectations.

How did Aubergine Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

Aubergine worked extremely fast, and they used our timezone difference advantageously by working while we were sleeping and leaving us a lot of things to review the next day. Our partnership felt instant. 

We had 42 meetings in 71 business days — they were extremely accessible. Despite our timezone difference, we never had meetings beyond our regular business hours. 

If their designer had any questions, they asked us directly through Figma. Aubergine also used the platform to talk between themselves; we can see all the communication about the project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Aubergine’s point person was very positive and personable, and they small talked with us a few minutes before we started our meetings. Their team was an excellent fit for us since we weren’t too formal and business-focused on our team. 

In addition, the tools we used and the way Aubergine built their design were really impressive. They gave us access to their work’s CSS, so we don't need to develop the code by ourselves. We were able to reuse a large portion of their codes. 

Lastly, we were also impressed with Aubergine’s responsiveness. Whenever we asked them to redesign something, they immediately implemented our feedback. Sometimes, they came up with their own ideas for improvements. Their turnaround time was less than a day, and it was really impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of any. Aubergine followed our timeline and budget, and they gave us a reasonable quote.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know your product and come prepared because Aubergine will ask you a lot of questions. Also, keep an open mind — they are specialists that know what they're doing. 

You don’t need to give them strict guidelines, but give them clear guidelines and let them work and suggest new things. They understand the problems in the SaaS space — just allow the professionals to do what they do best. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO of Quesmed.com - an adaptive learning platform for medical students based in London, United Kingdom.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Aubergine Solutions ?

We hired Aubergine to design our updated Web platform and accompanying mobile app. Our goals were to update our aesthetic, improve workflow within the app, develop an 'on the go' version of our native platform and add a number of new features for users

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We chose this vendor based on their past projects in a similar space and following a review of their previous designs.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We had a number of ideas on how to update our web platform and convert our web platform to an offline app. Following initial briefings from our central team, the team at Aubergine developed wireframes and subsequent full designs with weekly briefings to continually adjust the designs

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

We worked directly with the Chief Design Officer and 2 UX designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

After release of our web and mobile platform, we had a large increase in our userbase with users commenting on how sleek, aesthetic and easy to use the platforms were.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very easy to communicate, always available, ready to answer queries, responsive and met deadlines. Very flexible to changes in the plan according to our needs

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

Always feels like we're having a conversation on what works best rather than just us telling them what to do. Not afraid to tell us their opinion when they feel a particular aspect of the design could be improved - felt more like a partnership that way!

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

I understand that they are hiring more staff to help out with all the projects they are doing. We welcome this as we would love working with them for future projects

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the co-founders and managing partners of Tikler, a cloud-based SaaS solution conceived in April 2020. We work primarily in the document collaboration space and provide subscription-based services to B2B organizations. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Aubergine Solutions?

We partnered with Aubergine to build Tikler from scratch. They were also involved in the ideation of the product. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

With Aubergine’s help, we came up with the framework, idea, and market for this product. Their UX design team helped us map out how the platform would look and feel. On top of that, they developed the actual product from beginning to end through their front- and backend software engineers.

To kick off the project, we provided the documentation of the frameworks, visuals, and ideas we had, along with some wireframes. We also told them our end goals and the purpose of the software. In turn, they conducted research around the best tech stacks to use. They also did a bit of market validation effort to see if our idea was doable. Essentially, they provided every service that was necessary for building a piece of software.

At present, we’re still working with them. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with a team of about 6–7 individuals on a daily basis. We work with two people from their UX team, namely a senior UX designer and a junior one. Their task is to ensure our vision comes to light in terms of the look and feel of the software. We also work with three engineers, two of which are coders, while the other one is the project manager. Our team also communicates with Sarthak (CEO, Co-Founder & CTO). 

How did you come to work with Aubergine Solutions?

Prior to this engagement, we tried to build another product in 2019. We were as green as grass and didn’t know what we were doing. As a result, we found an agency and made a big mistake by not validating or vetting them in terms of their prior work. On top of that, we only talked to someone from their sales team. 

Given that, we did our due diligence for the Tikler project. We interviewed 20–30 development agencies via Zoom calls and conferences. We checked their backgrounds, LinkedIn profiles, and employees. Our team also checked testimonials. In the end, Aubergine was the only firm that didn’t use a salesperson; we talked directly to the people who were going to do the actual work. We even spoke to Sarthak himself. That was the first reason we chose them.

Another reason was their level of service and expertise. Even before we signed a contract or paid a dollar, they demonstrated what they’d be able to do for us by giving us a demo of our initial idea. In other words, they checked our boxes across the board. On top of that, we negotiated with them and received a serviceable rate that met our budget. Overall, they were amazing in terms of getting our business, so we hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $20,000–$30,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We communicated and vetted them in April 2020, and the partnership is ongoing. For further background, the first line of code was written in June 2020. The product was soft-launched in mid-February 2021, and its official launch was in June 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Hard evidence of our success is the product itself; it’s live and running. Between its soft and official launches, we’ve demonstrated the product to other organizations and businesses. In the end, all full demonstrations have received rave reviews. Everyone has praised not only the way it solves their problems but also its sleekness and modern design — its simplicity is a game-changer. 

To top that off, we’ve been accepted by two startup accelerator programs. One of them has provided us with actual funding to help us scale, while the other also helps us scale. Overall, we wouldn’t have received such great feedback from potential customers if Aubergine hadn’t done a great job in designing the product and making sure it worked as intended. 

How did Aubergine Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve had a highly collaborative approach to the project. Our team has had scrum meetings with 3–4 individuals from their team four times a week. At the beginning of every week, we’ve had hour-long meetings where we discuss our objectives for the week. Aubergine has also given us daily updates on what they’re working on and the hurdles they’re facing. 

Moreover, they’re transparent on every aspect of the development process, including the hours, resources, and efforts that have been used. They’re also accountable, so we have a great idea of how long the project is taking. Overall, they’ve pretty much hit every milestone in the project.

In terms of tools, we use Slack for back and forth communication. When we need to do in-depth presentations and have more people on the call, we use Zoom. For impromptu meetings, we use Google Meet. We’ve also used Gmail. For the design and development process, we’ve used Figma and Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Aubergine’s transparency is the best part of working with them. We’ve learned a lot, and they’ve educated us on every aspect of software development. Our team has never felt that they’re overcharging us or the product is taking too long. They’ve been truly transparent with us from top to bottom. 

Further, the quality of their services has been excellent. They look out for us from the beginning to the end; it doesn’t feel like they only build what we’ve asked them to build. The team helps us validate our idea. Every step of the way, they’ve course-corrected us. As a result, they feel like a part of our team instead of simply being a hired agency. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any. On the contrary, our team has become better because of them; they should keep up the great work. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Come prepared because Aubergine knows what they’re doing. They only work with products and solutions that can come to fruition. Their team wants to invest in you, so they want to know if the product will work as designed and if it’s going to be successful. At the end of the day, it’s going to generate returns for them. To ensure that, they’ll scrutinize and validate your business model. In other words, if you want to work with Aubergine, know that you’ll get everything you pay for if you come prepared.