Darwoft

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of ArchIQ, a digital transformation and software engineering firm. We build our own products internally and perform B2B AI and data services for our clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Darwoft?

We were looking to develop a product in the computer vision space, and Darwoft had the capabilities to turn our idea into an actual prototype.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Darwoft helped us develop the prototype of a web app with a computer vision background. Initially, we came to them with a product requirements document (PRD) so that they could scope it out and give us a quote in advance. The app required a computer vision AI model running in the background, and Darwoft also developed a rudimentary frontend for it. Therefore, they delivered a fully functional prototype.

To create this prototype, Darwoft used Azure technology and packed the AI model in a Docker image. For the computer vision feature, they used the Azure Machine Learning platform. In addition to the prototype development, the team also handled the UI/UX design. Although they offered other services, the ones described are the only ones we purchased from them.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 5–6 teammates from Darwoft, including a senior engineer, a project manager, an architect who joined a couple of meetings, and a lot of regular engineers.

How did you come to work with Darwoft?

We were referred to Darwoft by a former colleague and client of theirs. He worked with us as a project manager, so we assigned him the task of finding the correct firm to do this prototype. He came back with a handful of different companies. However, we chose Darwoft because they provided the full stack expertise we needed to build the entire prototype. There were other companies that only had an AI focus, but we needed someone to deliver the entire solution.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we spent $15,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started scoping the project in March 2024, and the actual project was delivered in May 2024. It was a 30–40-day engagement. Although that phase of the project has been completed, we intend to continue doing business with Darwoft. In fact, our last engagement with them was in early June 2024.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Darwoft was very flexible and delivered on their promises. In the end, the demo was great, and it ticked all the boxes on what we needed. The fact that they delivered on their promises was the biggest success metric for us.

Throughout the development process, all of Darwoft's demos were perfect. There were no bugs in the software they presented to us. They obviously had a QA team internally QAing all their work to ensure it was working before the demos were presented. Overall, we were very satisfied with their work, so we would definitely hire them again.

How did Darwoft perform from a project management standpoint?

Throughout the project, Darwoft managed their own team, so there wasn't a lot of interaction needed. Still, they reported to us on a weekly basis and gave us project updates. The team managed the project in an agile way, so every week, they identified new opportunities and added them to the docket.

Moreover, Darwoft delivered exactly when they said they would deliver and didn't come back to us to ask for additional funds. We used Jira for project management for almost everything, and we had Darwoft within our Microsoft 365 tenant.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most impressive thing about Darwoft — which actually helped us make our decision — was the fact that they were willing to do some pre-sales work even when we hadn't paid them a single dollar. Although it wasn't ground-shaking work, the team was willing to show us their capabilities before we actually had a contract in place, which was very helpful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything they could have improved. This was easily one of the top five engineering projects I've participated in, and it was all because of Darwoft.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Before engaging with any engineering firm, define your product as best you can. Moreover, ensure that your PRD is fully fleshed out and that you know exactly what you're trying to accomplish during this engagement. If you don't, you'll leave room for interpretation, which could lead to an unsuccessful project.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Head of Discovery of a BPO company.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We're a BPO company located in South America operating with the most important companies in the region focused in customer care services.   

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Darwoft to accomplish?

• Unproductivity management
• Operating efficiency
• Compliance visibility

SOLUTION

How did you find Darwoft?

Referral

Why did you select Darwoft over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Darwoft were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Discovery:
- Understanding of the need
- Architecture Designs (Cloud and software)
- UI/UX approach
- Feature prioritization - MVP 

Software development:
- MVP Route
- Sprint planning
- Value deliveries
- Release plan
- Testing strategy

Deployment 
- Publication of communications
- Business functional tests
- Settings management
- Usage comments
- Measurement and results

Documentation
-Architecture 
- Software components
- Data model
- UI/UX navigation map

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

- Discovery stage deliverables
- Release Deployment
- Alignment of needs and prioritization
- Availability of the software to be evaluated
- Integrations with corporate ecosystem
- Listen to key user feedback
- Adaptability to changes

- methodology ceremonies (agile)

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

We agreed to work in the agile framework. Sprint planning and definition of the MVP roadmap allowed us to ensure deliverables were delivered on time. The management of the carry over was carried out jointly, prioritizing according to the PO's decision. There was correct release management that facilitated evolutionary traceability.

What was your primary form of communication with Darwoft?

Virtual Meeting

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

In Darwoft and in the team that accompanied us, I found predisposition, passion, commitment, professionalism, clarity, listening skills, focus, agility.

Their leaders are always open to listening to my needs and providing solutions to unforeseen events.

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

In my particular case, I would have liked a more efficient and effective testing method.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a VC-funded startup building an AI-powered personal assistant. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Darwoft?

As a small company, we designed our product in-house and developed its front end using an external team. We used a great but quite expensive local company. As a result, we searched for an offshore company in a time zone similar to ours. Based on that, we engaged Darwoft.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Generally, I have a roadmap in words, which I tell my designer. My designer then transforms my words into pictures, and my CTO advises on how hard it will be to build the pictures. He then builds a backend with an API. Darwoft gets a version of our conversations over Slack. They chime in with their opinions, and we then give the task to them to build the frontend. 

After that, they submit the code to a repository, where my CTO checks it. We run the code into a staging environment and then deploy it to production at different percentages at a time. This way, not all users get to see new features early. We get to test the features, report any bugs, and fix them. Sometimes, Darwoft finds bugs in our prior work. Such bugs get added to a queue, which we all manage using Linear. 

For key technologies, we mainly use JavaScript and NestJS, a framework on top of React. This fairly new framework removes the need to design buttons or fields. In addition, we give Darwoft the mock-ups via Figma. We also use a toolkit called Flowbite.

What is the team composition?

We work with two developers, although I mostly talk to Waldemar (Client Engagement Manager). He doesn’t work with us full-time but ensures their team and ours are kept on task. Sometimes, we work with a QA specialist. We talk to an account director about the project’s direction, number of hours, and rates. 

How did you come to work with Darwoft?

I knew Darwoft’s account manager from a common investor. That investor recommended I reconnect with the account manager. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started in August 2023, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of Darwoft’s work is excellent. They’ve found bugs in our existing work, filed tickets, and completed their tasks. This is useful because we don’t have to keep fixing their work. They’re cost-effective, and we don’t have to undo any mistakes from them — it’s important for teams to get this right, and Darwoft has been great at it. 

Moreover, we haven’t made any major mistakes, and there have been no real problems in staging environment deployments. We have processes for reviewing code before it goes out, but they’re not comprehensive. Given that, it’s been a huge help that we can just show Darwoft a picture, and they’ll build it for us. 

How did Darwoft perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve met deadlines and stayed on budget. For communication, we mainly use Slack. They’re great at communicating — in fact, they’re better than we are.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve initially been formal with us, treating us like customers. However, as we’ve become closer, they’ve become more like a partner to us than a third-party vendor. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The main problem is the distance. They bring their account manager and engineering manager to our office 2–3 times per year. We have lunch with them, but we’d love to meet more with the engineers and the rest of their colleagues. Maybe we’ll be able to do that at some point, but flying engineers is currently difficult and expensive. This makes it a bit difficult to build personal relationships, and it’s one of the challenges of offshoring.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Darwoft is capable of augmenting your efforts, but they work best when you give them a whole project. Some people use teams like Darwoft as an extra coder here or there, but it’s much better when you let them develop a feature for the entire duration. They can do the entire project without you embedding one of your teammates. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior director of talent at Insite AI. I oversee our recruitment and onboarding processes alongside our staffing partners and clients. I’ve been with Insite AI for about two years, and we’re a cloud-based, AI-driven revenue and category management software. We work in the consumer-packaged goods and retail industries to help companies forecast and optimize their business to make better decisions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Darwoft?

We do a decent amount of project-based work with our customers. As such, we need a strong partner that can help us attract, hire, and bring on strong talent to help us with the projects. That’s the reason we’ve engaged Darwoft.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve done a couple of projects with Darwoft, and every time we have a new project, I meet with them regularly to share details such as job descriptions and our requirements. Then, they submit candidates to us, and we interview them. From there, we come up with an agreement to bring the candidates on to work for us for a certain period. Candidates with expertise in data science are among our biggest needs. We also look for data engineers and full stack engineers. 

What is the team composition?

We work with around eight teammates from Darwoft, including data scientists, data engineers, and full stack engineers. I regularly collaborate with Facundo (Business Administrator), Christian (Business Solutions Developer), and Adrian (Backend Developer). 

How did you come to work with Darwoft?

We found Darwoft online and went through an RFP process. We had some conversations with several other companies, but we chose Darwoft.

How much have you invested with them?

Our investment is around $500,000 per year. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement started in May 2022, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Darwoft does a fantastic job of finding the right people to work for us. They’ve been fantastic and delivered on all of our needs and requests. Overall, their work quality is great. All of the teammates they’ve provided us are professional and experienced. 

How did Darwoft perform from a project management standpoint?

They meet our deadlines and budget requirements. To communicate, we use phone calls, instant messaging, weekly meetings, and quarterly check-ins. I communicate with them 3–4 times weekly, and they’re great at ensuring everything is communicated properly. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Darwoft’s delivery has been impressive. Other companies have struggled to understand the skill sets we want, the projects we’re working on, who we are as a business, and our industries. Meanwhile, the Darwoft team has done a great job understanding who we are, what we do, and what technology stacks we use. They bring on the right teammates who serve as true partners for our business. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Rely on Darwoft’s expertise. They have great teammates who understand the staffing and hiring business model. Work with them, and be open to their suggestions on how things should be done. This is the best way to partner with them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the IT - Innovation and Technology Manager of PRODENG SRL

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

ALTERNATIVE ENGINEERING We bring together the most outstanding local talents and the latest generation equipment to offer a differential service of high added value in the Upstream of the Oil & Gas industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Darwoft to accomplish?

• This document contains a detail of the PTD Part of Digital Work platform for all the company's collaborators, allowing daily work updates to be available. On the other hand, it will allow optimization of the salary settlement work for those responsible for the HR area.
• The objective of the PTD APP is to allow each operational / hierarchical person to register and consult daily their news complementary to those already registered in the different platforms of the company (Digital Diary Part, Licenses and Access Control) thus having the detail complete update of the news in the different settlement periods. This information is then validated by your superior and executed by salary settlement personnel.

SOLUTION

How did you find Darwoft?

Company that was referred through personal contact and knowing 2 of the company's directors.

Why did you select Darwoft over others?

Experience in the technology that we internally define to use in our initial requirement.

How many teammates from Darwoft were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Daily reports 
  • Work Fronts 
  • Licenses 
  • Base Access
  • Tango 
  • PTD App 
  • Detail of hours
• Reported from: 
  • PDD 
  • Licenses
  • Base Access 
• Upload form: 
  • Work done 
  • Outbound Trip
  • Return Trip 
  • Overnight 
  • Licenses 
  • XLS 
• Exportable report: 
  • PDF 
  • Personnel News 
  • General News 
  • Form for HR

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Progress as planned in time. Excellent quality of work done. Score from 1-10 (9)

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Advance and manage correctly.

What was your primary form of communication with Darwoft?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

We were impressed with their seriousness, commitment, and time compliance. On the other hand, the quick interpretation of the scope of the business and how to solve it technically.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the IT Manager of Prodeng SRL

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

ALTERNATIVE ENGINEERING We bring together the most outstanding local talents and the latest generation equipment to offer a differential service of high added value in the Upstream of the Oil & Gas industry. Where there is a challenge, we see a solution, because we have alternative thinking focused on efficiency and improvement.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Darwoft to accomplish?

• General objective: This document contains a detail of the PTD Part of Digital Work platform for all the company's collaborators, allowing daily work updates to be available. On the other hand, it will allow optimization of the salary settlement work for those responsible for the HR area.
• Specific objectives The objective of the PTD APP is to allow each operational / hierarchical person to register and consult daily their news complementary to those already registered in the different platforms of the company (Digital Diary Part, Licenses and Access Control) thus having the detail complete update of the news in the different settlement periods. This information is then validated by your superior and executed by salary settlement personnel.

SOLUTION

How did you find Darwoft?

• Referral
• Company that was referred through personal contact and knowing 2 of the company's directors.

Why did you select Darwoft over others?

• High ratings
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Darwoft were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Goals General objective This document contains a detail of the PTD Part of Digital Work platform for all the company's collaborators, allowing daily work updates to be available. On the other hand, it will allow optimization of the salary settlement work for those responsible for the HR area. Specific objectives The objective of the PTD APP is to allow each operational / hierarchical person to register and consult daily their news complementary to those already registered in the different platforms of the company (Digital Diary Part, Licenses and Access Control) thus having the detail complete update of the news in the different settlement periods. This information is then validated by your superior and executed by salary settlement personnel. Daily reports – Work Fronts / Licenses / Base Access / Tango PTD App Detail of hours. reported from: PDD / Licenses / Base Access Upload form: Work done Outbound Trip, Return Trip Overnight Licenses XLS exportable report – PDF Personnel News General News Form for HR

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Progress as planned in time. Score from 1-10 (9)

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Advance and manage correctly. Excellent quality of work done. 

What was your primary form of communication with Darwoft?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Seriousness, commitment and compliance with times. Their quick interpretation of the scope of the business and how to solve it technically stood out.

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

NO

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

SnowShoe is the leading provider of proprietary location mapping technology used by Fortune 500 firms to verify presence, authenticate location and validate transactions. SnowShoe's technology has served up over 25 million authentication events worldwide. I am the CEO of SnowShoe.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

SnowShoe hired Darwoft to deliver a complete end-to-end online and mobile app system which included a mobile web app, iOS app, and Android app. The system also included a full cloud based SaaS service that would power this multi-tenant and multi-site consumer-facing application. Our goal was deliver this application to thousands of eager consumers and hundreds of businesses in our target market in North America for a Summer 2021 pilot program.

SOLUTION

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

Darwoft had the security, gamification, and mobile app expertise we were seeking, and proved themselves to be stellar at project planning, project management, and project execution. Darwoft was priced right, with absolutely stellar developers.

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

1. Darwoft led an initial round of discovery meetings, UX design meetings and user focused use case writing sessions. These were highly productive and included senior user experience designers from the Darwoft team.
2. After the flow of the application experience was fully codified, Darwoft assigned a team that included the original UX designer, as well as a project manager and senior technical lead, to design the architecture and underpinning platform that would support the application flow and designated user experience.
3. Darwoft and SnowShoe worked closely together, using daily standups, regular project checkins and status reports to track the work throughout the course of the project as the app went through initial builds, alpha release, beta release and production release.
4. Regular updates, bug findings from our team and user-driven changes were easily accommodated by the Darwoft team, and the project was delivered on track and on schedule for use by thousands of users and hundreds of retail locations.

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

A project manager led the team and served as Scrum Master. An experienced UX lead was also part of the project, as well as a technical lead and a full team of software engineers and additional testing personnel.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our initial release of the mobile app was launched to much acclaim and immediate downloads by many users. The app was the centerpiece of a summer-long festival and ongoing loyalty program in the downtown retail district. We've achieved all our KPIs and program goals from this application, and I can't thank the Darwoft team enough.

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

Fantastic communication. Very clear and structure dialogue, along with really strong ability to understand user needs and to accommodate changes in the roadmap as we adjusted to user requests and findings in the field.

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

Darwoft has a very strong project management culture, a clear understanding of how to be agile (which includes their codified scrum practice), and they also have an absolutely wonderful development team with serious chops in full-stack development.

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

Documentation of everything would have been nice, but as we didn't include this in the initial scope of the project, that was not part of our project plan.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there

I am the CEO of a ballistic software company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Darwoft?

We were looking to bring our platform into the mobile environment.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a mobile app both for Android and iOS.

What is the team composition?

There were four people involved in the project.

How did you come to work with Darwoft?

We were looking to find a solid agency for this development, and we didn’t want to work with an independent developer. When we started searching, Darwoft came up as a reference and we contacted them. Their proposal was good in terms of budget and delivery times so we decided to start our collaboration with them.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent around 1,3000,000 Argentine pesos (approximately $16,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started during the last week of March 2020 and finished in October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were very satisfied with their work. They were very professional and attentive to our needs, in addition to being flexible. Things got complicated because of the pandemic, and they were able to adapt completely to every setback we encountered. They made the project work.

How did Darwoft perform from a project management standpoint?

We used a project management tool at the beginning. It worked well, but we were in contact daily so, in the end, we decided to keep up the dynamic of daily personal contact and do the scheduling ourselves. The project ended up lasting longer than we expected but they were able to adapt very well to any unexpected changes that came up.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were very professional and flexible and were able to understand our needs clearly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I couldn’t say anything in particular.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there

I am an IT manager at a university.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Darwoft?

We hired Darwoft to help us with a services platform for teachers and students.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us with developing a prototype that could allow us to test a set of options we were planning to include on the site. They worked on the design and functional HTMLs, which were incorporated into an Angular frontend.

What is the team composition?

We work with a project manager and a designer.

How did you come to work with  Darwoft?

They were referred to us. We contacted Darwoft along with other companies. In the end, we felt they had understood and translated our needs best. 

How much have you invested in them?

We've spent approximately $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted about one year and a half.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t implemented the system yet so it is still early to measure results. However, we had a test with a group of students and teachers, and the results has been excellent. The end-users have been very happy and eager to use the platform. 

How did  Darwoft perform from a project management standpoint?

They have been very open to discuss different ideas — which has been important for us in these early stages because we weren’t completely clear on the project’s specifics. After that, they were very strict in the execution of the project. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The design was very well-accomplished. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think they have any areas they could improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there 

I am a partner at a telecommunications software firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with Darwoft? 

We needed development support. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve worked with us to develop a web platform. Their team is also creating an API for facial recognition, among other things. 

What is the team composition?

There are about six people in total working on the project. 

How did you come to work with Darwoft?

We met them while we were both working with Drupal and we had a couple of joint projects. So when this project came up, I thought about them and decided to start our collaboration again. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started with this project in March 2020 and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The results have been very good. We’ve made a great team working together. With their support, we’ve managed to meet all of our requirements on time. 

How did Darwoft perform from a project management standpoint?

They meet all of our deadlines and we have very fluid communication. We use Google Meets and Slack to communicate and they use agile methodologies for project management. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication skills are great and they have good expertise. 

Are there any areas they could improve? 

I honestly can’t think of anything to improve.