Cleveroad

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.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of the swiss company Eydeer Solutions corp. The company is developing a new survey platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Cleveroad?

Cleveroad was developing the website vottelo.

What were your goals for this project?

Cleveroad was responsible for the design, back- and frontend and an admin panel.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I was getting several offers from various providers. Cleveroad was fast understanding my needs and I was convinced of the offer. Also the personal contact was very satisfying.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They designed and developed the website.

What was the team composition?

The communication was mostly with the project manager. Other team-members were from the design and delevolping team. Responsible for discussing the contract was the business devoping manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

As we are a startup, the website didn't exist before. So we started at zero. And now it exists a prototype with full funcionalities. And we are doing ongoing improvements.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project was very well organized. The communication was by skype, mail and we used google docs, sheets, zeplin and invision for working together.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The time and costs which were scheduled were always maintained. The panned meetings started always on time. Any questions I had were always answered very quickly. I felt very well serviced.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I would appreciate to meet all teammembers at the beginning of the project, not only the project manager. It is important for me to know the people personally.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-creative director and co-owner of Weill Media LLC.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Cleveroad?

I hired Cleveroad to help me re-create a basic MVP for an Android app that I made. The previous proof-of-concept was riddled with problems, multiple inefficiencies that made it slow. I’d worked with three other groups to fix it and realized that I needed to start again from scratch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Cleveroad designed and executed the app from scratch. They delivered a user interface and code to get it to the point where we could launch it on the Google Play Store. We plan to also create a premium version and an iOS version as well.

What is the team composition?

I provided a liaison who serves as my point person. I rarely interact directly with developers or designers outside of meetings.

How did you come to work with Cleveroad?

I found Cleveroad through a Google search, but then verified them using Clutch. I was considering about four or five other development teams, but Cleveroad seem professional and met the financial requirements of the project. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in December 2018, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality is high, mainly because of their process. They press me to define what I need and then confirm that with me before they execute. When you're trying to develop software, it can get very muddy, and you can't see the forest for the trees. Cleveroad has this process that makes everything clear. 

As a result, they’ve created an app that functions well and doesn't crash very often. It's very stable and intuitive. They simplified what I was trying to accomplish.

How did Cleveroad perform from a project management standpoint?

One of the aspects of their team that I’m very impressed with is their responsiveness. They hustle, they get tasks done quickly, and they keep me focused. 

I’m happy with the tools that we use. InVision has been particularly helpful. We also communicate via email and shared Google docs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I got the sense that they were very dedicated to the success of the project, and their actions bore that out. I feel like I have a team of knowledgeable folks in my corner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Keep up with their process and focus on communication. If you do, they’ll be able to resolve issues quickly.