The Codest

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO of Funktional, a Strategic Branding & Digital Products agency. We build brands, products, and services by exploring the vast expanse of creativity.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The Codest team has been responsible for the development of digital products we design. As our mission is to transform our clients into a digital world, we needed a trustworthy team having skills in the field of building MVPs, delivering reliable solutions into the market as well as having experience in working with eCommerce, SaaS and Marketplace industries.

SOLUTION

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

I had heard lots of good opinions about their services and after quick consultancy, we decided to start cooperation with them.

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

We delegated software development projects to The Codest team that has been building them from a simple idea to the MVPs, and then further developing products as needed.

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

The team consisted of software engineers - mainly Java developers, and PM who was in charge of keeping projects on the right track.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As we strive to keep constantly growing our business we are fully aware that delivering stable and reliable solutions for the clients is the most important metric.

Cooperating with The Codest, we have on our side a strong tech partner who proved their skills and expertise in building SaaS/Marketplace business what has a direct impact on the clients’ satisfaction.

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

The Codest is well-organized, and their workflow creates effective synergy between teams.

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

Tech knowledge, deep experience, and understanding of our business needs, individual approach for each project as well as partnership cooperation.

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

From my side, they are really good at what they do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO, CSO, and co-founder of Mixfit Inc., a personalized nutrition technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with THE CODEST?

We had lost our lead developer, so we were looking for senior backend developers with knowledge of Ruby on Rails.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a monthly retainer with THE CODEST for Ruby on Rails development services. They provided us with a lead developer who coordinated two other people that were working on the backend.

Every month, we had a meeting with them and the product owner to discuss the development process. We discussed task by task and gave them freedom when it came to the software architecture. The lead developer also took care of the DevOps side.

What is the team composition?

We had six developers working for us on our technical team: three people worked on the backend, two people on the frontend, and one person was in charge of connecting the website with the software.

How did you come to work with THE CODEST?

They contacted me through LinkedIn.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working around April 2020, but we paused our collaboration by the end of June 2021 because we’re going through a financing round, and I couldn’t keep everyone on board. However, I’m interested in getting them back because I had a very good experience.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since the lead developer from THE CODEST joined our team, we saw qualitative improvements in our development process. This person was a very good developer. For example, he was proactive, fixing issues that were slowing our system down without asking us or being asked by us to do it.

How did THE CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

Their performance was excellent. We’ve worked with 5–6 different external companies over the last five years, and compared to them, THE CODEST was very professional without being intrusive. They always made sure that we were happy, but they weren’t following up on us constantly or in excess, which was very good. Additionally, they were available whenever we needed support.

We usually communicated with them through Slack, and for our internal project management, we used GitLab. We also communicated via email and had a couple of video conferences. For the development process, we used the Agile methodology, so we had standing meetings every morning, as well as a weekly meeting on Mondays to kick off the week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of THE CODEST’s developers was impressive; they managed to provide us with great talent. We spoke with two developers from their team, and both of them were very well qualified.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I was very happy with their services, and our experience was very positive. It would be great if they charged less, but their price was within the industry standards.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

THE CODEST offers a very standard approach; they provide you with external resources on a monthly retainer basis. That is the best way to use their services. They’re also a great option for long-term relationships, thanks to that business model.

I can only advise you to work with them — our experience was very positive. They do an excellent job, and they’re very well organized.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director and a partner of Min-Mave. We have a website that provides a forum and community for mothers, pregnant women, and families in general.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with THE CODEST?

We make revenue through advertising, so traffic is the key to our success. We brought THE CODEST on to create a new community page. Our old one was outdated and cumbersome; it was performing poorly and was built on a lot of different systems. Our objective was to have one fixed system in WordPress.  

We asked THE CODEST to replicate the old page. We wanted to keep the design because our users are familiar with it — they like the page — and we want to maintain trustworthiness. THE CODEST was tasked to create a new page from scratch, with the exception of the design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our new website. It’s a big site, and we have many years’ worth of threads on the forum dating back to 2003. We had over a thousand pages that needed to be migrated from the old site. Their team migrated everything and developed the right code so it was compliant with Google SEO. We wanted to make sure the platform’s performance was still the same when we moved to the new site. They also changed all of our URLs for the pages; that was a big task.

What is the team composition?

I worked with 4­–5 team members including a project leader and two backend developers.

How did you come to work with THE CODEST?

I received a recommendation from a network contact. THE CODEST had done some work for them, so they knew THE CODEST would be a perfect fit for us. Initially, we wanted to choose a Danish development team but we ultimately selected them because of their professionalism and price. They were compatible with our budget.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested roughly €30,000 (approximately $36,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement was from July–November 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The work they’ve done has been great. I’ve worked with other companies from around the world and what makes THE CODEST stick out is that they’re professional and make themselves available all the time. Overall, I’ve been very satisfied with what they’ve done and what they can do. They’ve shown there’s nothing they can’t do or solve.

How did THE CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

We primarily communicated through Slack and Google Meet. Communication could have been better, but that partially could have been on me. If I had been pushier about communication, I could’ve gotten more meetings, status updates, and demos from them; but I didn’t really push that. There could’ve been more structure on how to manage a sprint so we had fixed days for all the components.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They never said no to any request. THE CODEST was quick to find solutions based on the demands I had. We’re not a big company so our budget wasn’t big either. It was very nice that they found a solution that fit us in the best way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing apart from the communication and structure details I mentioned before.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the founders of Estimote, Inc., an IoT technology company operating for the last eight years. We specialize mostly in location and sensor technologies. Our company primarily operates in the US market but we also have customers in Europe as well as a team and office in Europe and the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with THE CODEST?

We’ve been growing pretty rapidly over the last few years especially around our software business. One of the challenges was to have a better understanding of the dynamics around growth and some peculiarities about customer acquisition and retention. We needed to build a BI tool. There was no standard tool in the market that we could use. Our team needed a vendor to build a custom BI solution for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We developed some mockups for the wireframes of the software we envisioned. THE CODEST helped us estimate how long it’d take to develop the different features. They also separated the front- and backend tasks and took full responsibility to implement these wireframes to make the product.

The project was executed in an iterative way. We had a number of sprints where we saw how this product had been created from simple prototypes up to a product deployment that’s helping us on the management level to analyze the business situation of the company. Most of the services we used were classical, agile development for both the front- and backend. A number of the technologies included Vue.js, Node.js, SQL, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, etc.

Currently, we’re working on some other projects and continue to use their services. We have expanded and have quadrupled the number of team members that we utilize from them.

What is the team composition?

They have a lot of different competencies inside their team. For this project, we used mostly the front- and backend developers. We’ve also utilized their project managers for other projects.

How did you come to work with THE CODEST?

I personally knew one of the founders through a previous engagement. When I learned that they started a new software house, I was excited because I knew they were experts in software development.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in December 2018, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

THE CODEST has done a very good job. They have good practice in writing all the necessary tasks. All the implementation is done according to the design and wireframes we provided. Their team implements any fixes to bugs in a quick turnaround.

We’re never concerned about quality. The quality of the developers they have is really high. THE CODEST also has a very good process of when we decide which developer should join the specific projects that we request. They meet our expectations and deliver very good quality compared to other experiences we’ve had.

How did THE CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

Our teams have been collaborating partially remotely even before COVID-19. We’ve seen some of their team members in our office. It’s fortunate we’re in the same city. Most of the time, it is remote collaboration either on Slack or Zoom calls.

We used to have daily standups but whenever we provided them with a new sprint or scope, they transparently estimated the time needed and always followed accordingly. There have never been any issues where something was underestimated.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a very good company culture, which impacts the results of the work. THE CODEST is extremely professional. They’re good communicators with very good English skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In software development, we can always expect visibility of some issues. If there’s an issue blocking something, we quickly and proactively resolve it. It’s not a red flag but something every software team can improve on.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Behind every project and software house, there are people who tend to be more engaged and motivated if they’re fully involved and feel the mission and objective behind the project. Instead of giving them wireframes and asking them to code, you can explain why your solution is important and what kind of outcome you want.

The more you involve THE CODEST, explain, and engage, the better their work will be. It’s all about the developers fully understanding why they’re working on something.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are the leading digital health and wellness company in the Nordics offering videos, playlists and programs online within yoga, meditation, relaxation, mobility practice, stress management and personal growth in collaboration with market leading experts. We provide individuals and organizations with tools, support and tailored programs within physical and mental health. Our digital service is a turnkey solution and available worldwide with content in English, Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian. I am the CEO and Founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Codest team has together with our team continued to develop our web application improving code quality and building new features. Together we improved the running of the service which has led to fewer bugs and a faster service which makes our business better.

SOLUTION

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

We were looking for a trustworthy software development partner and I took a chance on a humble sales person representing a neat setup of developers.

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

We work on 2-week sprints. Our team follows and contributes to planning, executing and bringing home long term key deliverables while making time and being agile for commercial short term necessities. Together we are building the latest version of our platform and making sure we have a future proof offering and platform in an every changing and exciting market.

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

Codest team consists of three Ruby developers, who collaborate closely with our Tech lead. Two developers have full-stack capabilities while the third is a pure backend developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Together through our collaboration, we have made the platform very stable and reliable and increased the quality of our service/offering/features and thus increased conversion and retention rates.

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

We have daily morning meetings. Our entire team is remote so we rely on tools such as Slack and Clickup for good flow. Monthly detailed reports over hours worked are supplied to satisfaction and they adapt well to feedback. What is most appreciated by their style is that they care. Both management and our developers. They genuinely care for our product, service, offering and end-results.

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

They are honest, straight forward and solution oriented.

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

There are always nooks and crannies. The most important thing is that things are solved, silly mistakes avoided and responsibility taken when it is due. We are happy with the evolvement of our collaboration.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product owner at Yieldbird, a company that helps publishers increase revenue. We mostly focus on programmatic advertising.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CODEST?

We work with hundreds of publishers and wanted to provide them with a tool to better track and analyze their revenue. We needed a partner to develop the product.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CODEST has been working on our project from conception, collaborating with our internal team to improve ideas and outline the product’s features. They conducted market research and helped build a proof of concept and minimum viable product (MVP). They’ve worked in a plethora of technologies, including Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, and BigQuery.

The product helps publishers dive deep into their revenue data and provides analytics that enables them to make smarter business decisions. It was built in the React framework and connects to the Google Ad Manager API, which many of our clients use. We’re currently doing live testing to receive feedback on the tool.

What is the team composition?

We work with a team of seven people. The scrum master is our main point of contact, but I also have direct access to the other team members.

How did you come to work with CODEST?

They were a recommendation.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered in June 2018, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Because of them, our business is much more transparent and scalable now. We no longer need to do manual reporting—the tool makes nearly the entire process automated, which saves us time and money. The product is a more advanced way of analyzing data and provides better insights in a more visual way.

How did CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

We follow an agile methodology, but CODEST is flexible and willing to adapt to our needs. We can present new ideas, and they gladly implement them. Communication is easy and straightforward, and we mainly use Slack, video conferences, and in-person meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re well experienced and proactively provide suggestions to make the best product possible. They push back if they think something could be better, which we appreciate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everyone can improve, but I’m not sure what CODEST could do differently.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be open and share your ideas with them. They’ll work with you to improve them, so share as much as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the engineering manager of an e-commerce company, operating online stores in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. We provide thousands of people with construction, household, electronics, interior, garden, and leisure goods to help them make their house into a home. Established in 2015, we were announced to be the best e-shop by the technology and innovation festival LOGIN in 2016.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CODEST?

Thanks to our well-organized daily workflow and having an effective model of cooperation, we were able to build a new payment provider, data anonymization tool and multi-language functionality for our online stores.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CODEST’s developers are engaged in the development of our products using Ruby, Rails, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Docker technologies. We wanted a partner with the same technology stack that we’re using in our team.

In the first stage of our cooperation, they were responsible for creating a tool for data anonymization. Then, they integrated the Worldline payment provider into our platform.

In the next stage, CODEST worked at the multi-language functionality which allows our clients to surf the shop in the Russian language. Nowadays, CODEST’s developers are working on an integrated app/shop with Inbank payment provider.

What is the team composition?

We started with one developer to see how well we work together. Then another developer has joined the team to fulfill our growing needs. Currently, we work with three CODEST developers on a full-time basis.

How did you come to work with CODEST?

We lacked good candidates here in Lithuania and decided to search abroad. CODEST used the same technology stack as us and their hourly rates were good. We decided to give them a trial project, an MVP, which worked really well. On top of that, we organized some new features and improvements. In general, this project converted from a locked contract into a full-time position. We saw the quality within the first three weeks.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m really happy with what they deliver on a daily basis. We are happy with the quality of their development efforts and their hourly rates. 

How did CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a project management tool where we have a backlog. It helps us to keep track of what’s going on. We also use Slack for quicker communication as well as daily standups.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They deliver what they promise and meet deadlines. They’re really good at estimations. There’s a balance between the quality and the rate. They give us good suggestions and feedback from their experience. It’s a good collaboration.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Can’t come up with something right now.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I was the e-commerce director for a large Polish publisher running multiple press titles and websites. My department was responsible for running an online affiliate network.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CODEST?

We needed them to write a web app from scratch, which would serve as the heart of our affiliate network, fulfilling all the needs connected to it.

The most important functionality was a tracking service—the app would collect information about every single click and lead generated by the network and count all the money. There would also be functionalities for building statistics, sorting, assigning traffic to the network publishers, and running financial operations.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed the web app using Ruby on Rails, with PostgreSQL and MongoDB databases. It ran on quite complicated infrastructures requiring a number of database instances. The team wrote it from scratch and were also responsible for a large part of its administrative functions and quick improvements to assure the stability of the system.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Jakub (COO, CODEST), but the developers were usually our main points of contact. They were replaced from time to time, so there were a number of people working for us. Tomasz (Expert Ruby Developer and Dev Manager, CODEST) worked with us for the longest time, along with one other team member.

How did you come to work with CODEST?

I was mandated to work with them, as CODEST is part of the Agora group.

How much have you invested with them?

At the time of my departure, the rough combined cost was around 1 million Polish zloty, or perhaps a bit more (approximately $267,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

I worked CODEST from 2014–2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This collaboration was essential—the affiliate network couldn’t have come into existence without CODEST’s work. The application served as the very heart of our business. It covered all essential operations for publishers running ad campaigns, financials, and so on.

I’m partly satisfied with their work. In the very beginning, the application ran well: it was stable, and it provided all the functionalities we needed. However, as time passed, it became a little messy, and some bad practices accumulated. During the last year of work, we had a number of problems connected with performance, stability, and optimization, which cost us a lot of time, money, and led to some stressful moments. These problems appeared after three years of continuous development on the app, including data consistency and code optimization.

How did CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

We worked with them remotely on a daily basis. There were a lot of email and phone exchanges, and the developers acted as a remote part of our team. We also had longer remote conferences 2–3 times per week.

I was satisfied with the level of collaboration as they were always at our disposal, they answered emails and phones instantly, they had good engagement, and they addressed problems in a professional manner.

Often, they fulfilled duties that were meant for infrastructure administrators, rather than developers. There were some glitches with our hosting company, and CODEST was a great partner for us in solving these problems.

What did you find most impressive about them?

As a business manager, I’ve only worked with Agora’s internal IT team and with CODEST. Compared to my former IT department, I appreciated the quality of CODEST’s service. They’re faster, better programmers, more engaged in projects, more responsive, and so on.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could’ve produced better-quality code. They made some mistakes designing the database structure, which became ineffective after a few years of continuous use. The quality of the code they produced wasn’t top-class, but I can’t say they’re incompetent, either. They made the application from scratch and their level of understanding into our needs and requirements was high.

This was the very first affiliate networks application that CODEST produced. It’s possible that some flows in this app were inadequate because of their lack of practice in the industry. Our own team was also new to the requirements, so we were less accurate when forming our requirements.

They could also improve by planning more before working on the design, especially around databases. This would make them more flexible and expandable. A microservices approach would make their apps less bloated and more manageable.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Commit CODEST to produce the app. They have more experience now, and application development is in their DNA. Clients should hire developers that are not only good, but who have experience; who know the structure and requirements of a field, and who know the directions in which an application can develop. This will aid in avoiding some young-age mistakes that can then bias the ongoing development of the product.

Secondly, work closely with the team to design the core structure of an app and its database. Leaving it solely to the developers can backfire later on when the market pushes the company to steer the app in a new, unexpected direction.

Finally, let CODEST take care of server administration and configuration. Committing a third party to run the infrastructure is a bad option, as gaps emerge in the communication between the developers and the admins. CODEST is capable of running an infrastructure, so I advise picking a cloud hosting solution and bringing CODEST in to deal with it in a top-down manner.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT director for the newspaper segment of Agora SA. My responsibility is to help businesses build new business models and products based on subscriptions, specifically web and mobile apps.

Our IT department's split into two business divisions: general IT services for the whole company and development teams for essential business units, like business transformation. Together, the department develops and brings products to the market.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CODEST?

We were trying to transform our traditional newspaper model into digital form and focus on selling subscriptions, not just newspapers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CODEST created a digital product based on our archived, printed newspapers. The digital archive has specific features aimed at helping customers find information, including a full-text search. The content is delivered through a backend and partial fronted, for display.

Their team used Ruby on Rails technology for the platform. It’s based on an API structure that delivers data from our archive. The index is based on an Apache Solr solution on the backend. Files are imported from the file system and exported to a MongoDB database.

They delivered a partial HTML design of the website, while my team provided some elements. CODEST also worked on the UX/UI based on our definitions, checking the accuracy for the people working in the backend of the materials we publish. We worked together as two teams.

How did you come to work with CODEST?

CODEST is part of the same group as our company. It was a given to go to them when looking for available resources.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with CODEST in March 2017, and the product was sent to the market in October of that year. The final version launched in December 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After the final platform was implemented, we continued to make changes and bug fixes. Just recently, we asked CODEST for extensions. We spend an average of 20–25 hours per month on the work.

The general mission of the project was to build a channel for delivering news to subscribers. Once it finished, we were able to monetize our archive, which wasn’t available to us previously.

How did CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

We worked with their team using the agile methodology, splitting the project into two-week sprints. At the end of the sprints, their delivery time was excellent and what we expected from them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

CODEST provides a professional service. Their approach to product delivery worked great for our team. Any issues we identified, they quickly fixed. Overall, the results were quality for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When a new developer was introduced to our team, we had to explain the project information and rules. CODEST didn’t provide everything, but other than that, the rest of the collaboration went smoothly.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to define the rules of the collaboration and roles of each team member from the start. If everything is transparent in the beginning, it’ll help productivity.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a development manager for a large Swedish publisher of online and printed news. I’m responsible for developing news websites and mobile apps.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CODEST?

We needed help building a new platform to be used by our sellers to create business growth. Using this tool, our sellers can sit with customers and set up ad campaigns. Since we didn’t have in-house resources back then, we needed a good partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CODEST is building a tool for booking ads that can target different audiences. They’re using Ruby on Rails as the backend language and JavaScript for the frontend.

What is the team composition?

We're working with a team of frontend and backend developers from CODEST.

How did you come to work with CODEST?

They were chosen before I joined the company, mostly because of their Ruby on Rails skills.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working on the tool since 2015, and the collaboration is ongoing. We will continue to develop it in 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

CODEST’s work has had a positive effect on our income. The platform makes it easier for our team to sell ads, which has resulted in increased business. It’s also being used by external customers, making it one of our most important products.

How did CODEST perform from a project management standpoint?

CODEST is doing a great job. We work remotely, but we have good communication with their team. They understand our business and stick to the schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re loyal and hardworking. Plus, they’re open-minded about finding solutions. They often know the best direction for our product.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They should continue to guide us so that we can also implement changes on our side. We’re buying technical development, so it’s important that they listen to our needs, given that they know their craft best.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Establishing a good relationship from the start is important.