Codesmen LLC

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of workforce strategies for the workforce development institute. We’re a state-wide nonprofit in New York state that focuses on growing and preserving good jobs in New York State. We work with businesses, unions, and community-based organizations across the state to support their workforce needs through training, grant programs, and our own workforce intelligence.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codesmen?

They created a web platform for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re always looking for new ways to build the support, training, and upscaling of workers in New York State. One thing that came across our radar was how difficult it is for people to be able to discover and compare options and then connect to educational opportunities if they’re not a traditional high school graduate. We were trying to create a simple, easy-to-use system that allowed people to find and connect with a wide variety of community colleges, career technical education providers, and union apprenticeship programs.

What is the team composition?

Asad was our primary interface, but he mentioned several other team members.

How did you come to work with Codesmen?

We partnered with a different firm that subcontracted out to Codesmen on this project, but there weren’t any layers in between us. I worked very closely with Asad (CTO). I didn’t pick him out, but the vetting process was heavy on the technical side and their ability to grasp processes in the workforce development world.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our conversations started in September and entered the final testing in January. The platform was ready to go by the end of February or early March. Now, we’re in maintenance mode and making enhancements as they relate to user feedback.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was doing a walk-through of the platform with a potential competitor and they were very impressed with the platform. They thought it was simple and clean and joked that they weren’t expecting someone in workforce development to have such a great, uncomplicated tool.

The beauty and simplicity of the platform are that it does what it says it will do and does so simply and cleanly. It’s easy to navigate and has a clean interface. Education providers are starting to load courses and are amazed at how easy it’s been. They praise the forethought they see we put into it.

How did Codesmen perform from a project management standpoint?

They were extremely responsive. We managed the project with Trello, which I found very easy to use. I’m not a technology expert, so some of my staff assisted as well. I kept an eye on big-picture, conceptual things and other teams used the tool to communicate with Codesmen about details during testing. I was impressed with it.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have no doubt that the platform would have cost half a million dollars if we didn’t work with Codesmen. Part of the value was our partnership with the firm that subcontracted to Codesmen, but another was Asad’s commitment to this project. He wanted to begin developing tools for our field, which isn’t known for being tech-savvy and innovative. He had both social and innovation purposes. We’re a non-profit, so we don’t have millions of dollars laying around, but people who have seen the platform have thought we’d invested half a million in it.

I worked with another firm on setting up a tracking database for childcare subsidies. Getting them to understand the flow of the work required a certain amount of subject-matter knowledge that was difficult to convey to the developers. They were able to grasp how all the pieces fit together and implement that knowledge as they developed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They were very responsive when things needed to be changed. When we were launching, a specific subject-matter expert wouldn’t be able to understand something and Codesmen would make the change quickly. Right now, they’re golden to me. Maybe I’ll have more feedback down the road.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a news website. I procure news articles and run surveys that look at political bias in articles.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codesmen?

I needed web development support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our website is basically a news aggregation site, and Codesmen’s main responsibility was building it out properly. As the project developed, more and more features and functionalities came up that the team was able to implement.

What is the team composition?

I dealt with two people on a regular basis. 

How did you come to work with Codesmen?

I came across them on UpWork. I interviewed several vendors, and Codesmen seemed like the right fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $50,000––$70,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration took place from June-October 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m really impressed with the work they did. I absolutely love the flow of the site, and the way it looks and feels. Everyone who visits it says the same thing. There’s an ease of use to the platform, it really draws the user in. It’s just the kind of site you don’t want to leave.

How did Codesmen perform from a project management standpoint?

We were mostly in touch via both email and phone calls. They’re very receptive and responsive—if I ever needed to call them, they’d always pick up right away. Also, Codesmen was able to adapt to changes in requirements easily, which was a huge help. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their continued customer service is fantastic. Even though our collaboration is over, I still feel comfortable calling Codesmen for guidance. They’re always willing to help out.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. The website works impeccably—it’s exactly as they promised.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Innovate+Educate, which is a global workforce nonprofit.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codesmen?

We were looking to develop a skills marketplace for a client in New York.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They worked with one of our clients for this project. The scope involved building a three-way platform that would allow learners, community colleges, and training providers across the state of New York to add their resources to the platform. Now, they have a maintenance contract with the client, so they continue to perform revisions and edits.

What is the team composition?

There was a project lead. The team also included a couple of different developers, as well as a really good graphic art team that did logo and branding work for us. 

How did you come to work with Codesmen?

We found them on a different marketplace listed as a developer. We interviewed five different companies and selected them.

How much have you invested with them?

The investment was between $200,000 and $400,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

It began last May of 2018, and the partnership is ongoing.  We’ve done two contracts with them, and we currently have a maintenance contract with them. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we’re just now going live, so we don’t have a lot of data yet. However, we had worked with this client before with a different development team. The client’s satisfaction with Codesmen is much, much better in all areas. They’re satisfied with the look-and-feel, along with the usability and the team’s communication. Also, the maintenance contract shows that the client was happy because they chose to continue working with Codesmen for a year.

How did Codesmen perform from a project management standpoint?

They completed the project on time and continued to do weekly calls throughout the 9 month period. They were also as adaptable as they could be based on the contract price. 

They have a good depth of knowledge about everything that needs to happen for a site to go live. They used Bitbucket along with another project management tool.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication stands out. They were very flexible and great at communicating with us and our client. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything that they could improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have a structured process. You should work to make sure that both parties agree on the project plan and process. Then, your project will be incredibly smooth.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a public benefit corporation that serves working leaners. Our goal is to produce social technologies that influence behavior in a positive way.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codesmen?

We were looking to design one of the social technologies and move into development with it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project was split into two distinctive parts. The first was the conception of what the design would look like.  Their team helped us think through the design process and quoted future work. So, it started solely as a design project. However, they also won the development work for the same product.

The final deliverable will be a digital marketplace. Their work involved them linking community colleges throughout the country together to better develop the skills of individuals. It also allows employers to come to the site to contribute their skill sets to their organizations.    

What is the team composition?

Asad (CTO) has been a constant contact for us from conceptualization to development. 

How did you come to work with Codesmen?

We heard of them through a marketplace in Singapore. Their team was a technical assistance provider with them at the time. We hired them for a few small projects to assess their ability to collaborate and set budgets. After being impressed with their abilities, we brought them on for this larger project.  

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $100,000 on the work. 

What is the status of this engagement?

For the design piece of the project, we started in October 2019 and wrapped up in December 2019. They started the development component in January 2020. We’re planning to launch the product in May 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Community colleges are often impeded by legacy systems and restricted workforces. Their team has won them over. That alone speaks volumes of them. We’re also making a major tech transition with them about a month ahead of schedule, so that also impressed our stakeholders.   

How did Codesmen perform from a project management standpoint?

We appreciated how Asad has been a consistent contact from one project to the next. It can be so easy to hand off work to others. However, in those cases, details get lost in translation. Asad handles update meetings, negotiations, and other project management tasks. He works directly with the developers as well. Our primary method of communication is texting. Otherwise, we rely on email and chats. Our weekly update calls are conducted over video calls.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to understand our vision while approaching the project with flexibility made all the difference. Not many teams are enthusiastic about changes to scope, but they’re able to provide us with tradeoffs to direct our decision-making. They tell us how much wiggle room we have to add features. That makes sense for us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

If they had more capacity for work, that would be great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a social media company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codesmen?

I needed a capable team that could think outside of the box with app development. This project required a lot of creativity and a sensitive budget.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

My original goal was to get an app built for both Android and iOS within a specific budget. Their creative thinking was important because I merely provided them with concepts and my vision before letting them get to work. They were completely in charge of implementing my ideas. 

Their team handled design, development, implementation, and integrated features. They set up several APIs and plugins that made the final product more functional and user-friendly. I hadn’t even considered those integrations until they recommended them. The end products were native apps.

What is the team composition?

I had direct contact with the developer working on the code.

How did you come to work with Codesmen?

I was evaluating candidates on price, quality, and the ability to think creatively. 

What is the status of this engagement?

They started working on the project in June 2019, and the app was launched in January 2020. During the beta phase, I did some additional testing, so any delay was on my end.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was very pleased with the quality of their code, and I can be picky. User-friendliness was key for the app. People were impressed with the level of sophistication and professionalism the app had. The team took my mission and put in a significant amount of work to give me a good result. They were honest when offering up recommendations, and their ideas were often better than our original thoughts. Maintaining that open communication was essential to our success.     

How did Codesmen perform from a project management standpoint?

Having a direct point of contact with the developer that was actually building the code was very helpful. If I didn’t like something that was implemented, we could communicate about how to make it better. They provided me with a TestFlight link that allows us to see the app being developed in real-time. We communicated directly over email. It was important to keep everything in writing for clarity’s sake. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their work fell right within my budget, and their quote for the project was more than fair. I didn’t even have to negotiate. They were transparent about their capabilities. Even without a background in coding, I knew they were a strong team from the beginning. They were able to answer my questions easily and could explain to me what was possible.  

Overall, the quality of their work and honesty they showed my team stood out the most. They had the technical expertise to point us in the right direction. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I wouldn’t have changed the interaction at all. I’m keeping them on board as part of a long-term partnership. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Keep your expectations clear, and they’ll be able to execute your vision.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a consulting firm that works with non-profit organizations. I oversee tech teams on their behalf on various projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codesmen?

We needed help developing a  marketplace-type website for a client.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Codesman developed and designed the platform for us. They created initial concepts of what the UI would look like and how it would work, using XD files. 

What is the team composition?

All communication went through Asad (CTO, Codesmen).

How did you come to work with Codesmen?

When looking for vendors that specialized in this type of website development, they were listed as a partner of an offshore vendor I found. Being in the U.S. was desirable for time zone compatibility. Asad was the only one able to answer my questions with proper technical responses.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement ran from September 2019–January 2020

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

While the project is not yet live, the client is ecstatic at the quality of the UX. It’s far more seamless and commercial, with minimized friction for the user.

How did Codesmen perform from a project management standpoint?

Asad did great at communicating through design documents with APIs written out and pixel specs for images, as well as animated movies to show the workings. It made everything much easier for the non-technical people to grasp and follow along. He laid out the sequence of work events. Our teams also had bi-weekly calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our expectations of their capabilities were greatly exceeded compared to my past experiences with development teams. Asad was able to hold the entire project in his head at once to see how it all needed to come together, which minimized re-works. They have absolute unyielding integrity, going above and beyond to achieve the best quality possible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Asad worked late and would occasionally oversleep, missing a meeting. However, he never let a major deadline slip, nor has he not delivered at any time.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Spend time on laying out the scope of the project at the beginning. It pays off and reduces hassles down the road.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My business is Greenup LLC, and I’m the president. We focus on matching drivers with freight more easily.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codesmen?

Codesmen was hired to do the beginning UX for two out of five portals for our carrier service. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Codesmen created two portals; one mobile-based one for the driver and one web-based, one for the carrier. They did 10 total edits, across both platforms, and over the month we worked on them together, we were constantly going back and forth on how to best optimize the flows between the platforms.

It was especially difficult because we were only building out half of the platform. Despite that barrier, we worked exceptionally well together and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact was Tyler (CEO, Codesmen).

How did you come to work with Codesmen?

I stumbled on them on Upwork and was able to connect with Codesmen and I liked the work they had already

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $40,000 so far, but that’s only one-fourth of our projected spending.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in August, and our work together is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve sat down with at least 20 carriers at this point who would be willing to beta test our system, and if that goes well, they'll jump on board immediately. This is a huge shift from just a few months ago when we were looking for a good team to build out the UI. Greenup is in a great place right now because of Codesmen's work. 

How did Codesmen perform from a project management standpoint?

We were aligned on Adobe, Slack, Google Docs, and HubSpot. They were great about bringing me on board and educating me on how to use those tools to better communicate with them throughout the process. We also kept in touch through UpWork on specific design examples. We were able to get on a much better page after I got up to speed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had excellent, honest communication, and they weren’t afraid to be blunt with me. Since I’m new in the space, they were willing to set everything aside and explain everything I needed to know, which you don’t find often. Their open communication allowed us to finalize in a month what we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, honestly, they did such a good job that I have no qualms.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Especially for people who don’t have a heavy UI/UX background, Codesmen is great about not beating around the bush. They’re a great partner and aren’t like other vendors who end up adding more confusion to the process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the project manager at Instazoid Web Design: A digital marketing agency. We build mobile apps, websites, and everything digital for small to mid-sized local businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Codesmen?

We were trying to create a social media mobile application for a client.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Codesmen helped us build a mobile app from the ground up for our client. The app brings together social media users and influencers to create a connected ecosystem. Their team was involved in the development process from concept and design to completion. They built the platform for iPhone and Android, using React Native, which allows for cross-compatibility.

What is the team composition?

Codesmen provided a UI/UX designer, full-stack developers, and React Native developers specifically. I believe we worked with at least four QA personnel as well as a project manager to oversee the project.

How did you come to work with Codesmen?

The reason I looked into hiring Codesmen was their experience in mobile software development. They were able to show us a number of different examples. Their team was easy to talk to and were knowledgeable about the level of expertise needed for our project, which led us to move forward with hiring them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a little more than $100,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the engagement at the end of April, and the project wrapped up at the end of August.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve received nothing but positive feedback on the platform. During beta-testing, users have said the app is easy to use. They’ve complimented the design and the easy sign-up process. The interaction between posting on the platform and sharing on social media accounts has led users to say the app’s something they see themselves using frequently.

How did Codesmen perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Jira internally but Trello with the Codesmen team. We adopted an Agile and scrum type of methodology. By working in sprints over certain periods of time, it felt easier to deliver the product to our clients quickly. If I had to talk to the project manager or schedule meetings, they were very responsive. Their team was good at responding and keeping track of our timeline.

What did you find most impressive about them?

By far, this collaboration was one of the best I’ve experienced. Codesmen was able to back up their expertise, providing knowledge of specific technology stacks. Their team made the software development cycle easy because communication was not hindered. If there was a miscommunication, they were able to go back and correct the issue. Their team was upfront and honest about each part of the development process. They made sure the client understood what was and wasn’t possible, what was realistic and what was out of bounds.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could be more affordable, but you pay for great work. I didn’t have any problems with the price.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In the beginning, be completely transparent to make the process easier. You can’t read each other’s minds so be as open as possible. You want a development agency that is honest about what your project is going to be able to achieve.