Cleveroad

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Just Play, a sports technology company. We provide services for people who are looking to play social team sports like basketball and soccer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cleveroad?

We needed a company that could develop mobile apps for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We work through about 150 physical venues where our games take place, and we built our own platform to manage everything, including payments, events, players, and bookings. We built that separately and not with Cleveroad over the period of a couple of years. 

What we engaged Cleveroad to do was to build our user-facing mobile apps to then use to interact with our platform. The apps allow users to book in, RSVP, interact with their teammates, find out their game times, and receive notifications.

The deliverables were actually four different native apps. As part of our business model, we've split into two brands: Just Play and One Game. Cleveroad delivered two native apps for each brand: one for iOS and one for Android.

What is the team composition?

We worked with six people from Cleveroad, including an iOS developer, an Android developer, a UI/UX designer, a project manager, a QA person, and a solutions architect.

How did you come to work with Cleveroad?

We found Cleveroad through Clutch. We put out a light version of the scope to five different development agencies that had good reviews. We then asked them to engage us in a dialog about what technologies they would use to execute it and what they thought the timeline and budget would be. Based on those interactions, we decided to go with Cleveroad.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $210,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this project from April 2019–April 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Cleveroad was able to deliver all of the feature sets that we wanted for our users. So far, we’ve got 130 ratings, an average of 4.6 stars, and over 10,000 downloads on the iOS App Store and 4.7 stars and over 5,000 downloads on the Google Play Store. We’ve also had very few issues in terms of bugs and errors within the apps.

Overall, having a stable app in a live environment that our customers enjoy using was a big part of our measure of success for this project.

How did Cleveroad perform from a project management standpoint?

Cleveroad performed well in terms of project management. They were responsive, flexible, and proactive when it came to solving problems. The whole project was broken up into sprints, and Cleveroad did a good job of making it clear where the project was at, how the team was progressing, and the issues they were dealing with.

Moreover, since we're a bootstrap business, we had a strict budget for this project. Cleveroad’s ability to execute the project within the initial budget and timeline was very impressive.

We used Figma for the designs and Slack for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with Cleveroad’s technical competence and skills in being able to solve problems and execute what we wanted to do at a high level. Nothing was too hard for them to do — whenever we wanted to solve a problem or deliver something in a particular way, they did their best to do it how we wanted.

But they were also not afraid to push back and make us aware of the technical options that we have so that we could make more informed decisions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we have no complaints. We were really happy with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You need to plan to invest the time from your side to be in regular communication with them and answer questions so that the development team has all the information they need to work quickly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the founders of my company. We’re building a mobile and web app for hiring construction workers in the US and managing the entire process of getting hired within a construction company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cleveroad?

There’s a major problem finding qualified, skilled labor in the construction industry, as there’s no real platform. Cleveroad has built an iOS and Android app, as well as a web portal.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The solution allows customers to log in and post jobs and review applications. We’re using geo-based location services, and the website is built on an API that allows employers to access a database of thousands of construction workers.

We’re in the middle of Android development right now, but the iOS version is live in the App Store. They’ve developed everything from scratch. In the next few months, we’re going to launch a marketing campaign and push out our services.

We used them to do the coding of our idea. They put in as much effort to the design and processes and flow of the app as we did. Not only were they writing the code for us, but they helped us along with the ideas.

What is the team composition?

We initially worked with two people, but that’s expanded to five at the moment.

How did you come to work with Cleveroad?

We budgeted the assets to be built in the United States knowing the going hourly rate, but after researching developers in Ukraine, we found them to be much more cost-effective.

I came across several large blogs that mentioned Cleveroad as a well-known firm in Ukraine for mobile app development. They’d worked with a couple of large clients, and that made us feel more comfortable.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2020. My partners and I have come up with other ideas to improve our ecosystem, so what started with a targeted app and no website or Android app turned into an effort that’s ten times its original size.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The feedback has been excellent so far, both internally and with our test customers as far as the design, usability, and functionality.

The design team and the UI team is phenomenal. We seem to work very well together. I’ve been a developer myself for many years, and I know good quality work and great design when I see it.

How did Cleveroad perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly meetings, and sometimes twice weekly, including different forms of communication: Zoom, Slack, WhatsApp, etc.

They’ve never missed a single deadline, not even with the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. They’re using InVision for the prototype, as well as a third-party website that we go to to approve the design layout.

We don’t have one set collaboration tool, but email has worked best for us recently.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team is very smart and intuitive. They’re able to ask the right questions of us to make the app and the other products that they’re developing better. Additionally, the way they're managing the situation now just blows my mind. They haven’t missed a single meeting or deadline. I’ve recommended them to several people. The product hasn’t suffered.

The best thing that they do is keep us on track, following up to make sure we answer their emails and not letting anything slip through the cracks.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ve dealt with a lot of mobile app development teams over the years, and I can’t say anything bad about Cleveroad. The only thing may be getting more of an internal collaboration system, as, right now, we’re spread across a number of tools for communication. It doesn’t bother us, and it’s not a dealbreaker.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If I was recommending them to someone, I would say that they needed to have a full-time resource dedicated to whatever Cleveroad is doing. Their team is fast, and they ask a lot of questions so don’t make them wait for responses. Stay in constant communication.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

As the founder of both Unified Potential, Inc. and Salmon Upstream, LLC my goal is to develop and implement technical solutions to promote the health of communities and the people that live there.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

By client request, we designed a novel social media platform aimed at providing a healthy environment for people involved in any type of activity or competition. When the client was unable to devote the resources to the project, we decided to develop the platform ourselves and reached out to Cleveroad to build it for us.

SOLUTION

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

I have worked on and off with Cleveroad since 2016 and have always found them to be creative, professional, and capable. For example, they are constantly on top of the rapidly evolving software arena and were already versed in Flutter whereas other companies were more interested in continuing to use languages with which they were more familiar. Even during the project they were learning and applying new skills to our build.

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

Backend Firebase and Flutter-based mobile application for both iOS and Android, DeltaSport is a secure social media platform that has all of the functionality that people have come to expect in a platform of this type.

However, the web-based admin panels allow much more stringent control over content creation and user account management than similar offerings, thereby expanding the applicability to organizations for young people including public school systems and youth sports. We are already working on adding the functionality to allow safe and secure usage by children under 13.

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

Project manager, 2 senior designers, customer liaison, and multiple developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The finished project met every expectation and actually looks and "feels" better than expected!

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

Extremely professional and detail-oriented. They stayed directly on task and completed the project slightly ahead of schedule despite their country being invaded!

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

The entire team seemed genuinely interested in the project and the outcome. Their work ethic and devotion to their craft is simply in another league. These are some of the hardest-working young people I have had the pleasure to interact with.

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

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of Crossfader, an online DJ education platform. We provide online courses and lessons for students worldwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our previous website was held together via many third-party plug-ins on WordPress. It had become too complex to add anything new and scale our product suite.

We wanted to add a membership and subscriptions alongside our current offering of one-time payment courses. We also wanted to create an app for our users to learn on the go. We decided to get our own platform developed with a whole new learning area and app that work side by side.

SOLUTION

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

We searched online and interviewed many companies who were rated highly on Clutch. We spoke to companies based in the UK, India, US and Europe.

We found that Cleveroad were the perfect balance for us as we could tell from the start they had a strong work ethic and communicated well, whilst being priced reasonably across the global market of developers.

We needed a team that was quick to respond, suggest improvements, and were in it for the long term as this was going to be an ongoing project eventually.

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

The scope of work for this project was huge. Because we already had a large user base and website that offered various services we needed a lot of development to just match what we currently offered.

This included a content management system, a payments system, video players, multicurrency, various user roles plus a huge database migration from our current Wordpress site.

We basically needed to build our own version of Wordpress/Woocommerce/LMS system. On top of that, we needed the new feature set to be developed too. This included a subscription model with new user roles and the ability to upload regular video content.

The video content would also be available for offline viewing in the newly developed iOS app.

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

We had various project managers throughout as our main point of contact as the project has been going on for so long. There was a full team of developers working on this project which changed size throughout. Included were backend, front end, QA, business analyst, PM & iOS developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're still in development and updating various parts of the project but overall we have had a fantastic response to the new platform. It's much easier for our users to engage with the content we create. This development now allows our offering to grow with ease. The new admin panel is easy enough for our whole team to use and we're excited to see where it takes the company.

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

Because we had various project managers throughout there were different styles, however, each project manager had a weekly video call with us to provide updates and work through the next scope of work.

Communication was clear during the main development. We're now establishing a new way of working together as our main project has come to an end and we're looking at maintenance support and future smaller scopes for feature updates.

We recently set up a group Whatsapp to help with ongoing communication which has been great for those times we need a quick answer.

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

They always find great solutions to the problems we encounter.

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

The timing of new project managers joining the team was unfortunate. Because it was such a huge project that lasted so long there was a lot to communicate during handovers. One of the changes in PM happened a few weeks before launch which was unfortunate timing.

It would have also been great to get more feedback on some of the features we wanted to implement. Nobody in our team has a development background so there were times I feel future updates could have been avoided if the initial scope was questioned a bit more by the development team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the Technical Lead for a start up Prop Tech services company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We engaged Cleveroad to help us develop a new Web based Cloud application platform end to end. Also being impacted due to the Covid pandemic for internal & external face to face workshops whilst also not having an inhouse development team, a limitation of full time resources & a very very tight budget.

The objectives were to run a planning phase to capture Technical requirements then a development phase to MVP; then handover for User/functional testing.

SOLUTION

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

The main differentiating factors in selecting Cleveroad at the time was based primarily their previous experiences for our type of application (use cases on their website); their competitive pricing & resource rate card, their friendly personal touch & rapport they built with the team during our Vendor presales research period.

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

The planning phase was a period off approximately 3 months, consisting of workshops with the Cleveroad team (business & solutions architects) to gather & understand our Business & technical requirements.

Deliverables consisted of meeting minutes, Lean Canvas, Features Breakdown lists, Technologies to be used, Dashboard examples, Workflow diagrams, Activity diagrams, Concept design, Infrastructure drawings, 3rd party Integrations, API research, competitor research, wireframes, Design screens, Specifications design, project sprint planning & costing forecasts for development.

The development phase was approximately 10 to 12 (2 week) sprints consisting of the solution/specifications design & ongoing Development, detailed User stories, Testing of the user stories and Quality Assurance.

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

The core team consisted of a project manager, a business analyst, a solutions architect, the Technical lead and an Account/ customer services manager. Other backend members of the team consistent of back end & front end developers, UX/UI engineers, testers & even the CTO providing consultancy services himself.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We received the platform as per the deadline to allow us to commence functional testing. There had been many changes of scope, new requirements along the way due to changes of the business direction & the platform that we wished to develop which resulted in some rework.

The Cleveroad team was also able to scale up the team & resource hours to meet some of these changes within the sprint to maintain the original milestone dates. The documention & diagram deliverables agreed were of a good & high quality.

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

Project management was a combination of waterfall & Agile framworks for managing the overall plan on a page for the Planning & devops phases. The Project management lead himeself was quite efficient with great communication skills, capturing & chasing actions & also assisting our own team manage their own pm tasks.

Added value from the project management arm was the PMO & admin support but also having technical capabilities especially when performing the technical user story tests & walkthrough Demos for us at the end of every sprint. Lateral thinking & delivery manipulation to the project plan & traditional sprint delivery to hit the same deadlines after changes was an added bonus & capability.

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

We appreciated their dedication and commitment to adapt to our needs and the constant changes in the scope; & patience in getting a steer back from us which was sometimes delayed due to internal resource being part time.

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

We had discussed the possibility of moving towards fixed price engagements to help us with budgetary controls & forecasting on the platform development & releases going forwards. Other areas we requested during the monthly customer experience meetings was to be provide some more consultaitive & advisory input into our thoughts & development. Which the company started doing as the relationship grew.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder and Sole Director of El Tab Ltd. El tab is a mobile app company, delivering daily digital bar tabs to members.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cleveroad?

To develop the mobile application across both key platforms.

What were your goals for this project?

To produce an app that works seamlessly across both platforms. To adhere to budget (£20k). To adhere to timelines (4 months).

SOLUTION

How did you select Cleveroad?

I had use them fora previous app development project.

Describe the project in detail.

I provided all of the UX and UI to the team, who then went about mapping out detailed wireframes. Once these had been signed off the dev team built the app over a period of 4 sprints.

What was the team composition?

I was assigned a project manager who oversaw the project from beginning to end. He would liaise with with development team if I had any questions or queries about the build. The dev team consisted of roughly a front and back end dev, and QA. I also had a business development manager who was on hand with any non-app related questions

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app has not yet gone live due to Covid-19.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was excellent. The only minor issue I has was with some translations issues (I am English) which sometimes help up progress. Overall I was extremely happy.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was very pleased that the team would regularly come to me with suggestions of how to improve the app.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I was very happy with their overall performance. Fluency in English would have helped, but was not a huge issue.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

TBS is a developer and vendor of biometric systems and solutions. I am the CTO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our server software was based on PHP and needed to be converted to Javascript. Besides the conversion task we hired Cleveroad to bring in their own ideas and give the solution a fresh and modern new UI.

SOLUTION

How did you select Cleveroad and what were the deciding factors?

They contacted us and we verified their technical background and skills.

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

After preparing the specification document we started with a smaller project, to evaluate the way and quality Cleveroad is doing their work. Like the main project, the development was using Angular framework. After the project was passed to our satisfaction we introduced the main project to them and went through specification phase. They were responsible for the development itself and test API creation.

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

A project manager was our main point of contact, which changed during project execution. Several (~5) frontend developers and UI designers were involved.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project outcome fulfils the specifications and was presented internally. The feedback was very positive, additional in-house steps are needed to finalise it.

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

They were organising their work in sprints with 2-weeks duration. The results were presented at the end of each sprint and the next steps discussed. For adhoc communication Flock was used. Detailed tasks were defined in Trello.

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

They tried their best to understand our current solution and bring in new ideas to improve it. The execution of the project was very professionally organised and the project manager was very capable and skilled.

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

Maybe bit more proactive in some respect, but nothing to name specifically. We were overall quite happy with the results.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO and founder of a startup headquartered in Irvine, CA.The company was formed from the passion to connect students to educators.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cleveroad?

We set out to create a platform to connect students to educators. Unfortunately, it would be much too long for an in-house developer to take on the project without help so we've looked into outsourcing the development.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to develop a minimal iOS build to get feedback from beta users. Then improve the applications from users' feedback before we develop the android version.

SOLUTION

How did you select Cleveroad?

My team searched online for app developers in our area and overseas. We made a list of three based on their case studies. We contacted each and selected Cleveroad based on their price point which we felt was fair.

Describe the project in detail.

We had several discovery meetings via skype to discuss goals and objectives with our project manager. Within two weeks, we received flowchart and wireframes for the iOS build. After revision, some logic doesn't flow and Cleveroad went above and beyond to help our team think through the process.

What was the team composition?

Initially, we were in contact with sales. After we selected to hire Cleveroad for the project, we were assigned to a project manager as the main point of contact throughout the project. For development, they had a team of frontend, backend and QA to support the project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

During beta, there were several bugs. Cleveroad addresses the issue immediately and new patch were released within days. We've requested a few minor changes to address usability issue and these were worked on fairly quickly.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our project manager is always on top of things. All concerns are addressed within hours. Communications were always clear.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their team are very knowledgeable and always give honest feedback when we requests to implement additional features.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We've worked with Cleveroad since 2016 and are very satisfied with their work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of a restaurant marketplace company. My company is under the process of development of a mobile application for our marketplace.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cleveroad?

We hired Cleveroad to develop the wireframes, specifications document (user stories) and detailed estimation.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals was to quickly develop such deliverables in order to have a better understanding of how our product would look like and start as soon as possible the development, which required wireframes and user stories. With the estimation we would also know the investment necessary for such project.

SOLUTION

How did you select Cleveroad?

We selected Cleveroad after speaking to many different companies. We received numerous proposals and Cleveroad’s pitch was the one which impressed us with cost benefit we were presented with. We have a couple of calls and decided then to begin the development phase.

Describe the project in detail.

The project was very simple. Our product has a mobile application for uses to interact with the vendors and a web application for the vendors to manage their content and orders. The project was simply to describe it more technically through a specifications document, provide wireframes to show logically the user flow and where each feature is located in, as well as a detailed estimation document for the whole project bearing in mind all the features.

What was the team composition?

2 part time requirement analysts, unknown number of part time designers and 1 part time business developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was successfully translated into a detailed specifications document which helped considerably to understand the product and to consult with other companies and future partners.

Cleveroad was also flexible with the services provided and we were able to trade part of the wireframes development hours for the creation of a design concept. We were very appreciative of this and it certainly helped us.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

That point was where we started to have problems. Previous to starting the project, I was told that there would be around 3 weekly meetings to discuss the progress and any other detail.

However, when the project began, very few meetings took place and some weeks had no meetings at all. When the business developer was inquired about having more meetings, I was told that it was being done that way in order not to waste time.

It certainly did not contribute to less time being spent since it was harder to understand the progress and give feedback with the poor communication that was taking place.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Honestly, the services were average and they did not stand out for any specific part of the project. The only part which I deeply appreciated was the possibility to exchange some of the wireframe hours with design concept creation, this demonstrated flexibility.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Many. I decided to write this review is in order for Cleveroad to acknowledge that the Planning phase needs to have immediate improvements. Communication was very poor, deadlines were not met at all and upon the end of the project, I received an email that said that the services were fully provided but it lacked one essential deliverable: the detailed estimation.

Many of the feedbacks given were not taken into account and were not altered, many spelling mistakes in the wireframes. I believe that the greatest areas for improvement are: being more detailed oriented and providing everything exactly the way explained and promised in the contract and when the pitch was first given.