Code District

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the IT director at Barrett Values Centre. We offer a suite of tools that help leaders gain deep insight into the cultural dynamics of their organization at every single level. This insight provides a map for leaders to build and sustain a high performing, values-driven culture

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had a need to quickly onboard a highly skiled team to help modernize our IT solution. As a small to midsize company, it made clear sense to outsource to a company that already had a fully vetted team of professionals. We were fulfilling multiple roles and functions and we needed more expertise in dedicated positions.

SOLUTION

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

We originally found them through a referral. After researching them online via their website and professional reviews I decided to reach out to them. We set up a meeting to talk about our needs and the services they offer. I was blown away by their systematic approach to helping clients like myself to meet their goals. This included the assembly of a complete project team that consisted of a PM, Analyst/Strategist, Designers, Front End Developers, Back End Developers, DBA, and other supporting roles as needed.

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

They are helping us streamline and modernize our IT solution. We started with a detailed discovery phase that covered over a decade of product development of our current solution and business processes. Their Analyst/Strategist and UX designer have played a critical role in reviewing our current Architecture and Business Processes and have been a great sounding board for shaping the solution going forward.

We have divided this project into 3 phases and phase 1 has now officially moved into QA and UAT. As we work to find any issues, I've had the opportunity to take phase1 for a test drive and I'm really pleased and excited about the new version. Some of the technologies used are:

• React
• NodeJS
• Hussura
• GraphQL
• Postgres
• Salesforce
• Message Broker
• Authentication Provider
• AWS

Steps included a high-level discovery, project team assembly, detailed discovery with wireframes and documentation, a comprehensive roadmap with transparency around every step, development, and finally a staging release of the solution.

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

There were about 10+ people on the vendor's team.

• Project Manager
• Business Analyst
• Strategist
• Designers
• React Front End Developers
• Back End Developers
• DBA
• other supporting roles as needed, like UI/UX expert, Quality Assurance, and HTML/CSS designer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The deliverables are professional and modern looking which is what we wanted. They also include much-needed improvements to the UX and UI which will hopefully translate into a more scalable system as more of our users take advantage of self-serve.

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

The project managers were very professional friendly and organized. They set up and organized meetings and were very accessible via slack, Jira, confluence, and email.

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

We had access to the team and they were incredibly efficient. We actually needed to go at a slower pace because we were torn between keeping our day-to-day operations working and getting our own internal documentation prepared. They seem to have a great connection internally which reflects in the experience they are able to share.

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

There are a couple of things that could have been improved about the project. The thing is internal to our company, we had quite a few knowledge gaps, fuzzy business processes, missing product owner, and overstretched stakeholders. This made our initial phase1 discovery less than ideal. Because it wasn't always clear what decision was made, who truly held the product vision, and who was the final decision-maker.

Fortunately, we were able to course-correct. We took a pause on phase1 development while we got our own internal ducks in a row. Code District was very gracious in delaying some of our original agreed-upon project dates while we sorted ourselves internally and were able to resume discovery and design with a clear structure and vision. It's hard to say what Code District could have done differently in this situation other than recognizing it for what it was.

While we have a software solution, we aren't a software company and many of the people coming to the discovery meeting had never taken part in product development and don't know anything about software development lifecycle, design thinking, and the different methodologies like agile. The great thing about Code District is that they do embrace industry standards in terms of methodology which includes retrospectives, so they are very good at making adjustments to what is working well and what can be improved with each client.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Medical Director/Developer for the Engage with Skills Training Programs

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We engaged Code District to help elevate our use of Salesforce for registration and learning management in 3 separate projects.

• Project 1 involved remediation to an existing grading logic.
• Project 2 was to create a new grading logic for a new developed training product.
• Project 3 was the integration and launch of a Salesforce native application.

SOLUTION

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

We had experienced negative outcomes with 2 previous vendors. They were selected based on a recommendation of an IT consultant.

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

We engaged Code District to help elevate our use of Salesforce for registration and learning management.

• Project 1 included making updates and remediating challenges in existing registration flow, grading and data validation logic.
• Project 2 involved setting up a Sandbox, creating new grading and registration logic for new training products. This included creating new Salesforce objects, custom fields and ensuring that API connections with the training platform were in place.
• Project 3 focused on installing and implementing Blackthorn Events, which is a Salesforce native application. This project included installing two app, Blackthorn Payments and Blackthorn Events, then setting up the Stripe connection with the Payments App and configuring all Salesforce and app settings enabling them to function as desired. For each project, development took place in a Sandbox environment, followed by UAT and then deployment to production followed by a second round of UAT.

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

We worked with two team members, an Account Executive and a Developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All projects were completed successfully. The outcomes we desired were achieved. Updates to existing registration and grading logic corrected errors left by previous vender. The addition of new registration and grading logic, and the implementation of Blackthorn allows us to scale our training operations to meet demand. We now have a system that can collect payment and registration data for individual buyers as well as elevate the registration process for corporate clients. We now have data that we can trust in a system that supports our business use model.

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

Code District allowed us to use and maintain our internal Project Management methodology and tools. We mainly used email, Zoom and Slack to communicate about project status and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for task management. This worked well with a small team. Even with a huge time difference between our team and theirs. The project team was available throughout our day to respond to requests in a timely manner.

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

We valued the flexibility and curiosity of the team. They spent a great deal of effort to understand our product and current technology set-up. They were flexible enough to handle change requests and routinely made suggestions to improve the project result.

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

Since we were working with a small team, we had to modify our timelines and focus on one project at a time. That did not stop Code District from meeting our very aggressive deadlines and their delivering the quality of work we expected.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

MHAMD is Maryland’s only volunteer nonprofit citizens organization bringing together consumers, families, professionals, advocates, and concerned citizens for unified action in all aspects of behavioral health. I am the organization's chief information officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We want to expand a skills training program designed to develop specialized competence to work with specific populations. We were seeking a cost effective way to automate the registration process, allowing staff to focus on program growth and continuous improvement.

SOLUTION

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

Because our goal is to automating this and other process workflows in Salesforce, we were looking for a team of highly skilled Salesforce developers familiar with the kind of challenges that small organizations encounter when moving to automated workflows. Strong customer service skills was also a must for us.

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

The project involved collaborative work with another vendor that would design the registration and payment within a native Salesforce app. A great deal of logic was required: in response to the registrant's input; notifying the training platform of the registrations; accommodation for registration changes; custom scripts to resolve scheduling challenges beyond the capabilities of the registration app; calculate and transmit participant grading; and automated emailing and API configuration for pushing data back to Salesforce after the training.

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

I worked most often with our Account Executive Ahsan, and our project lead and Salesforce Engineer Ashfaq 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was a total success. Deliverables were on time, every time; in fact we were challenged at times in keeping up with the pace of Code District's work. We we met all deadlines and expectations, within scope, even with several unexpected challenges that Code District handled masterfully.

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

We typically met 2-3 times weekly, and occasionally more often if necessary. They used Slack to coordinate information. All stakeholders attended meetings, which also helped to keep things progressing smoothly.

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

I was very impressed with three areas: Salesforce knowledge, communication and timeliness. This team really knows the inner workings of Salesforce! There were several needs that I honestly thought would not be possible, but Code District found a way to solve them.

As for communication, I wouldn't have asked for better. They listened well, especially with my non-technical team members; and they always explained needed to be done and why.

Finally, these guys work fast. My internal customer had a March completion date that I did not think was possible, but Code District made it happen. I couldn't be happier.

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

None.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I run the tech team at a product consulting firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed a quick turnaround on engineering resources for a UI rework of a client portal.

SOLUTION

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

A colleague recommended Code District and our goal was finding the best intersection of cost, timing, and quality.

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

The portal had been previously been built using Angular, on top of a Spring Boot Java microservice backend. We worked with new designs and client representatives to iterate over a number of sprints and bring the new features and designs to life within the existing codebase.

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

One web engineer who made updates to the Angular codebase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to bring the client ambitions to life and expose new functionality to their existing userbase, resulting in an improved impression of the offering and reduced need to seek information outside the portal.

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

We ran two-week sprints managed by our internal product manager. The engineers from Code District integrated into our processes well.

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

Code District proved to be very flexible in providing the specific resources we needed to flesh out our existing team, and doing so on a tight timeline.

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

It's always a challenge to work with people in significantly distinct timezones, but the Code District engineer flexed to make sure that overlap was as wide as possible.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the IT Director for a women's apparel manufacturer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We converted our Order Entry system to be a web enabled Order Entry system

SOLUTION

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

Researched and spoke to many companies looking for someone that was professional and had a lot of knowledge in web programming. Someone we could work closely to to generate our own custom system that worked best with our team.

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

We have initial meetings to talk about what we need and then we have weekly scrum meetings where we go over what has been developed, and discuss changes till complete and then promoting software from delivery to development where we also do our own testing and then to production. We have installed the software in phases with each phase we promote more system functionality to our sales team.

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

There is one lead on their side who will bring in a team of people anywhere form 2 to 5 people to discuss the work we need performed. This is done weekly. They have certain people who specialize in different parts of each project or phase. We have 5 people on our side that are defining the scope of what we need completed that meet with Code District.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They have been great to work with and always want to do things the right way. In some case we have had to change our own design and they are really helpful at completing our needs and making sure the integrity of the software is on point. They have been very professional and easy to work with.

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

We use Trello as a way to organize the details, changes, scope of the project. They usually will give me a timeline for the current phase and then we break down each part on a timeline. All bugs are recorded there and they will give us a timeline on when they will deliver.

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

Like I said before they want to do things right. If they do something and we tell them it may be better to do it this way, they will change it to what you suggest.

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

Really if there were ways to improve that we could think of, we would just tell them what we want and they would change to what we want so I would say that there are not a lot of things I can think of on this.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Megilla is a B2B SaaS video platform for organizations. I am the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired CD to build our B2B video platform. Our goals were to finish development with a formidable MVP we can use to engage early corporate clients, then iterate and refine the technology as we learn, scale and grow.

SOLUTION

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

We spoke with a lengthy list of other agencies and were impressed with CD's intelligence, professionalism, talent and affordability. They asked smart questions during the interview process and followed up like professionals. We felt confident and safe with them as our agency of choice.

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

We were pivoting from a B2C to B2B model and already had a B2C video platform so we hired Code District to build our B2B MVP. We came with designs, a feature set, and use cases to develop around. Before development, we engaged in a discovery process that proved helpful and insightful.

The new platform was full stack (React/Node) and they were strategic in helping us think deeper and more intelligently about our product. We are continuing to engage with CD on a smaller contract basis incorporating bug fixes and augmenting the platform with new features as we scale.

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

(2) Sales/Account Managers (4-5) Developers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

During development, CD provided a clickable prototype for us that we were able to use to procure 15 corporate clients ahead of launch. Pre-selling those clients was incredibly helpful for research and the promise that we were building a product that solves meaningful problems with a viable solution. Like all development, it took longer than expected but CD was a valuable partner in helping us build a solid platform with a formidable future.

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

We worked closely with their Senior Software Engineer who served as their project manager and point of contact. He was consistently communicative, compassionate about our timeline and company goals, and we always enjoyed our meetings with him as the lead.

He ensured confidence in the process and always took the time to talk out the development process related to our specific platform. There is a significant time difference so that was a factor at times in terms of waiting for emails but that was reasonably expected. We primarily used email and Zoom meetings as our source of communication.

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

CD zealously advocates for hiring good people who are a great balance of intelligence talent, hardworking and good humans. We feel proud working with them. Having talent and competency is one thing, but we feel it is important to enjoy the process of collaborating and working together and CD made it easy to enjoy the collaboration process and work together as a team.

CD hires people who make the entire process meaningful and successful. We only wished we lived closer so we could meet them in person and take them to dinner to toast and celebrate a meaningul collaboration.

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

The only small area of possible improvement is documentation. We primarily emailed with the team and that worked well, but sometimes there were points when we wished there was a collectively shared Google Drive with all the information or some easier way of documenting the process and information other than email.

More specifically regarding the technical handover process for documentation, we felt it was something we had to ask for in order to have all the requisite information in one contained location.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of an analytics business focused on commercial real estate. We take large data sets and transform them into usable insights and actionable dashboards for our clients, who are the owners and operators of large real estate assets — for example, shopping malls, bank offices, museums, ballparks, and places where consumers go in general. We help them understand who the consumer is, how frequently they come, how long they stay, where they come from, and how to increase their visitation frequency or spend.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Code District?

We identified a new use case for our platform and wanted to bring it up in a sprint. Therefore, we wanted to challenge our internal team and Code District to see who could do better in the same time period.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first deliverable was considered a proof of concept. We provided Code District a large data set, and they built a user frontend that was able to analyze and interrogate a data set following some design principles that we had created. It was a kind of web-based application built on React.

For the application, we understood the hierarchy of the data, how our clients would use that to derive insights, and which insights would be meaningful to them. We wanted the data organized and presented in a way that would allow a user without experience to see intuitively how to interact with the data and get value from it. Meanwhile, we wanted advanced business analysts to be able to interact with the data and go deeper into it without having to write their own code or do their own type of analytics.

What is the team composition?

On the frontend, scope, and timing, we worked initially with Ashar (Founder & CEO). Then, within the Code District team, we’ve worked with a UI designer, two programmers, one QC person, and one project manager.

How did you come to work with Code District?

I get a lot of development solicitations via email, and I received one of those from a lead generation company in the US. They set up the initial call with Ashar. What got my attention was that they guaranteed 20 or 40 hours of development time with 100% satisfaction or I could get my money back.

Then, I looked at the website and saw the type of projects Code District was working on and the type of clients they had, and I felt they were a good match for what we were doing. There are a lot of dev shops with 200–300 people, and with them, we'd be just a project. On the other hand, there are dev shops with 5–10 people, where we wouldn't have the necessary breadth of expertise to pull on. In our case, we were looking for a company with the ability to circle resources in and out so we could build a long-term relationship. For example, we might not need a person full-time, but we might need them for the kickoff phase of a new initiative.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2020. They’ve fully delivered the first and second projects. We’ve just signed up for a third one, so we have an ongoing partnership.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve looked into certain criteria: first, their ability to make schedules. Second, the user acceptance of the product and the fact it met the actualdesign specifications. Third, the architectural flexibility they’ve achieved. Then, I would say the last criteria has been the visual design and usability they’ve developed. It’s excellent, and we’ve received compliments from our users.

Additionally, there are a couple of factors in large data sets that are really important. Time to load and UX are pretty intertwined, and they’ve done a really nice job on both.

How did Code District perform from a project management standpoint?

They do quite well. They’re good at managing the project internally and making sure they’re moving forward. If we’d paid a 500-employees dev shop, I would’ve expected lots of project management and not a lot of code. On the contrary, if we’d paid a 5-person company, I would’ve expected lots of code and no project management. Code District fits in the middle. There’s more of an emphasis on the development code than on the project management itself, but it’s a good tradeoff.

Code District uses Jira internally, and we use GitHub in theory. Their interactions with my CTO are largely via email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The speed of understanding our business has been really impressive. It’s a collaborative specification process where we’re both understanding what the output is and bringing in ideas to the table. There’s a significant difference in how they approach development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could do a little better on project management in terms of preparation and presentation management. I think the review meetings could be more structured. They could give the big picture and show where they’re at — if they’re behind or ahead of the timeline.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

First, I would focus on giving them a detailed overview of the business objective so they understand the context that they’re developing within. I think that gets the best out of them because then they’re able to come up with ideas and suggestions, as opposed to thinking they need detailed functional specifications. In other words, you don’t have to tell them how the menu sequence needs to look or function, you just need to tell them who the user is, what level is their skill set, and what you’re thinking about the project. That’s a good way to engage them and let them take it out all the way down to ground level.

Then, if you’re anticipating to hire Code District for more than one project — which is often the case — I would recommend you sketch them a vision of the future. Giving them an idea of where you’re going as a business also gives them the greatest opportunity to support you in getting there.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Bottom Line Concepts, a contingency-based, cost-savings company. We save money for Fortune 500 companies and sports teams. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Code District?

We were building a portal that would allow clients to see their accounts, transactions, and historical and real-time data. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Code District created our portal’s software from scratch. The software is client- and company-facing. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with 7–8 people in total, including the CTO and Ashar (Founder & CEO). 

How did you come to work with Code District?

Code District sent us a cold email, and we interviewed them. They were very courteous and professional. They also took in all of the information regarding what we needed and gave us exactly what we wanted in the demo.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project was from December 2020–February 2021. They originally said it would take them three months, but it only took them two.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The software is very high quality. They completed the project under budget, which is miraculous for a software development company. As I said, they also finished sooner than the quoted deadline.

How did Code District perform from a project management standpoint?

Code District handled project management very professionally. They communicated clearly throughout. If we shared an issue or concern, they fixed it right away and didn’t have to revisit it a second time. That was very impressive.

We had weekly meetings via Zoom, during which they provided updates. If we had any questions between those meetings, they responded right away, within the same day. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Since they cold called us and we’d never heard of them, I wasn’t expecting such high-quality work. They followed through on every single thing that they said they would.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think their service can be improved.

Any advice for potential customers?

Give them a chance — they’ll definitely prove themselves accordingly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of technology for a life sciences and clinical research organization. We build software apps for clinical research effrorts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Code District?

We hired them for infrastructure development projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were responsible for website builds, general app development, UI/UX projects, and AWS tasks. We used AWS, React, Swift, MongoDB, Angular, and Node.js. The mobile apps were created for iOS users. 

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with several project managers. At one point, we had a team of about 17 developers and project managers. 

How did you come to work with Code District?

My co-worker found them and made the decision to bring them onto the project. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $140,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since April 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

On one of our recent projects, they went out of their way to conduct a methodical discovery process with a project lead and designer. They focused their attention on mockups and design specifications. That really helped the project go smoothly, especially when we got to the development portion of the build. They ran the project well.  

How did Code District perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re happy with the detail-oriented project manager that we were assigned. He’s paid attention to the fine details, which has made the effort much easier. We communicate through standup meetings, email, and Slack.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Because they have a wide variety of resources, they were able to scale up or down depending on the ebb and flow of our project. We appreciated that flexibility.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve on communicating with us about when certain resources were coming and going from projects. Sometimes it would be difficult to determine who would be working on a project for how long. Other than that, the engagement has been great. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Interface with them regularly, and stay on top of the project on your end as well.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner and president of Lims Analytics Group. We are a niche software company for the water treatment industry. I work for another company called Advantage Controls, and they sell my product and serve as a distributor to plants.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Code District?

The solution was originally built using relatively old technologies because I didn’t have official training in the latest principles of computer science. As we’ve gone along, our program has grown exponentially, and we discovered that the foundation we built upon just wasn’t able to support the overhead that it required.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our product is a reporting tool, so we provide a mobile application and an accompanying website to capture, collate, and visualize data to do with water treatment. They helped us to implement Kubernetes, Docker databases, Interloops, and other technologies that gave us the ability to scale up or down in capability without having to use a significant amount of people or resources.

Their team worked closely with us throughout the process to make sure what we implemented was going to be the best solution for us and our customers in the long-term. The final solution included ASP, C#, Java, some HTML, and integrations with the cloud.

What is the team composition?

They have one member of their business team checking in a couple times a week to make sure I’m happy and getting what we need out of the process. Beyond that, I talk to the rest of the team of about six developers almost every day.

How did you come to work with Code District?

We reached out to around 15 different companies in order to try to find the best fit, and Code District had a level of approachability that really impressed us right from the start. They sat down and had a conversation with me to just get to know me and let me get to know them, and I decided to move forward with their team from there.

How much have you invested with them?

Our original cost estimate that we came up with was $96,000, and we expect to overshoot that by about 10% but have had no issues there whatsoever. We’ve paid about $50,000–$60,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the spec in October 2019, launched the code development in January 2020, and are continuing to work with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Code District spent the first three months of the project just helping us to get the scope right, which was amazing. A lot of the things we took for granted or figured we could deal with later turned out to be relatively important to establish from the outset, and so as they worked through the plan for the project they let us know exactly what we needed to decide ahead of time.

They pointed us toward suggestions that would make the system even better than we ever could have. Whether it was a code base more suited for the environment we were developing in or just a cosmetic suggestion, it was clear that they had come to know the solution even better than we did.

For example, on our original iteration, our average click to product was about 15. A person had to click 15 times across different variables on different parts of the system before they could actually make a purchase. Their team was able to reduce that to four clicks, and at the same time reduce the size of our code so much that we reduced average load on our CPU from about 70% to 25%, which I think is an absolute testament to their eye for redundancy and ability to maximize efficiency in their work.

How did Code District perform from a project management standpoint?

Any time I raise a question or concern, I get a response the same day, or at the very worst, a message letting me know that they’ll start with it first thing the next day. Their ability to communicate is one of the real highlights of the partnership with them.

Their lead developer contacts me every day to tell me what they’re working on and what they’ve accomplished, and he brings up any questions or concerns that he has so that we can talk through them as efficiently as possible. We also communicate about everything on our team Slack, and that always gets

What did you find most impressive about them?

Sometimes the hardest part of working with a developer is just getting them to sit down and listen to what you’re saying, but with Code District, that was never a problem. We were at this effort for almost 10 years before meeting them, and we worked with numerous development companies in that time, and I wouldn’t recommend a single one of them.

Code District, by comparison, is absolutely on their game. They epitomize thoroughness and critical thinking in everything that they do, from questions about why you want to build things a certain way to best practices that they bring to my attention because they know it will make the final product that much better.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I honestly don’t have anything bad to say about them, which is extremely unusual for me. They’ve been honest, straightforward, and responsive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take your time. Failing to plan is planning to fail, so the instant you rush into a development project thinking you’ll figure it out as you go, you’ve already lost. Even the best development agency can’t save you from that.

Code District has designed their business model to help you think so that you can lay out what you’re choosing to do, why you’re choosing it, and what other options there might be before you move forward on anything. That level of forethought has been the most valuable part of working with them by far.