Dashbouquet Development

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

SitEinander is a mobile app for community childcare where parents can meet other parents nearby, plan playdates and trade free, spontaneous babysitting among trusted friends.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dashbouquet Development?

Our company has completed the first phase of the development and went to the Stores. But we had issues with project structure. The application was raw. We needed someone who would do a lot of refactoring and bring the application into a general orderly form and fix bugs so that we could move on.

What were your goals for this project?

Get the app more user-friendly for the users by improving the speed, fixing bugs and optimizing the user-interface.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

My teammates met them at the WebSummit conference in Lisbon last year. We were looking to extend our team in order to ramp up the speed and quality of the development. My colleagues had a very positive conversation with their salespeople and the pricing was good, so we decided to bring Dashbouquet onboard right away.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Once we started we had a couple of discovery calls with a project manager and developer to determine the scope and discuss the workflow between both our teams. The first big step was to conduct a complete audit of the system and clarify what kind of work is needed and how much time it will take. After that, we divided the tasks between the two teams (ours and Dashbouquet's). Work was done on weekly sprints. Tasks were always collected in the backlog, the developer took them to work in priority. At the end of each week, Dashbouquet provided a report in the visual presentation form of the work done and a detailed report on the hours spent on each task.

What was the team composition?

There were a project manager and a developer on the Dashbouquet’s side. Also 1 developer, 1 technical expert and 1 designer worked on our side.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were so satisfied with the work of Dashbouquet that I recommended them to a lot of people in my network

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They are super organized, very clear and have a very professional communication. We connected over the phone several times a weeks and used Slack for all other communication. DB always presented the results after one week (in a way also non-technical people understand) and always kept us informed on the current state of works and budget expenditure.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their communication was always super clear, polite and efficient. The whole team is hard-working and very experienced and they deliver what they promise.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything was perfect

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a health device manufacturer. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dashbouquet Development?

We needed to develop an app for monitoring urine cells in men and for early detection of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) or other problems with urination health.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dashbouquet Development developed an Android and iOS application that can process the sound of someone urinating and convert it into a flow that calculates the dynamic parameters of the urination processes like maximum flow, average flow, total volume, and urination time. Users can also send a report to their urologists about their cells.

The next part of the project was a web platform where urologists can see what’s going on and communicate with patients. Now when the urologist invites the patient, he can see in real-time what’s going on with them.

What is the team composition?

There are about four people.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $100,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They developed the mobile app absolutely perfectly; I give them the highest marks and everyone likes it.

How did Dashbouquet Development perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management skills are very good; they’re responsive and creative. Everything was on time and there were no problems with communication. We communicated via email and Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

From the start, they understood the programming side, how it works, and how to make it work better; they’re a very good company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they do everything we asked them to. They gave us several different solutions to choose from as well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re very helpful and I highly recommend using them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a founder and managing director at ARCHiTRACKER – a mapping app of interesting architecture.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dashbouquet Development?

ARCHiTRACKER launched the first free London architecture-only mapping app in 2017. We've planned to release the new global-map app, with new designs and features - including 27,000+ more buildings across the globe. We don't have an in-house development team. Dashbouquet helped us develop our brand new version subscription app.

What were your goals for this project?

We want to release new features that our users have asked for and start having paying customers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

My friend and my husband have worked with Dashbouquet before. They rated Dashbouquet high.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we contacted Dashbouquet, asking for the availability, we sent the design and prototype of the app. We got the estimated cost and working time. We jumped into a video call for the project kick-off. Then Dashbouquet started working on it right away. Based on our design, Dashbouquet had developed both iOS and Android app for ARCHiTRACKER.

What was the team composition?

I'm always in contact with Sergey, the project manager (He's the best!!). I'd spoken with the development team at the beginning. Then Sergey was always in charge of answering all questions, getting the info that the team needed from me, and manage the project smoothly until the end.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We've released the app in the App Store and Play Store for 3 weeks. The app is beautifully made. There has been no clashing. It works really well. We've started promoting the app. But we have had downloads

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The project manager who worked with us was very responsive. I think he's the key person in the project. Any questions, he found the answers right away. When developers had problems or need something from me, he's the one who contacted me and explained to me if I don't understand (I don't have tech background). I prepared the app design for them. They developed it accordingly and gave me suggestions if needed. The workflow was great.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are knowledgeable and quick-working, producing quality work.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything was great. The project had run slightly longer than the estimation. But we both wanted the best and at the end, the outcome is brilliant.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Urbix is a data analysis and software development company based in Manchester, UK. We specialize in compiling, cleansing, analyzing, and presenting government data to ensure that users have the clearest and most accurate understanding of it. I’m the CTO and co-founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Dashbouquet Development?

We hired Dashbouquet Development to assist us with planning and building a dashboard platform.

What were your goals for this project?

We’re hoping to build a robust and scalable foundation for our MVP. We want this dashboard to be the core of our platform, and we plan to build upon it further once they complete the first iteration.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We reached out to various software agencies after reading reviews on Clutch. We were looking for an experienced and trustworthy agency that specializes in Python development and data visualization. Overall, we met with about eight agencies, both in the UK and other parts of Europe. 

I was heavily involved with the selection process, and Dashbouquet Development stood out from the beginning. We were impressed with their communication style, team structure, and price. We also spoke with other clients of theirs, and this gave us even more confidence in their abilities.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We started the project with a brief that covered our short and long-term objectives. After we fleshed out our requirements, Dashbouquet Development began designing and developing the project.

They’re building our data analysis and visualization platform from scratch. They’ve added data upload and calculation features to the product and are working on creating separate interfaces for clients and our internal team members.

What was the team composition?

The team includes an excellent project manager, two brilliant developers, and a talented designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we’re currently rolling out the platform, we’re still at the early discussion stage with various partners. Nevertheless, their work has already made an impact, and people have enjoyed seeing what the dashboard can do. When we show off the platform, people immediately ask more questions and express interest in its potential to expand in functionality.

This project is an essential part of our long-term vision, and we’re excited about the impact that it will have on our business. We’re planning for Dashbouquet Development to build upon the platform as we continue to receive useful feedback.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management has been second to none. Dashbouquet Development was on the ball from day one, explaining what they needed from us and providing everything they could from their end.

Initial conversations took place over Skype, Google Hangouts, and email. Now we primarily communicate via Slack. We still send emails when necessary and use GitHub to see how the project is progressing.  

Their team provides time breakdowns and cost estimates, along with useful workflow diagrams and project documentation. We haven’t had any issues with the time difference, and they’ve been quick to respond to all of our inquiries. Overall, we’ve had straightforward communication with their team.  

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their clarity in explaining progress has been excellent, and I can’t say enough about how seamless communication has been. From the first email to now, we’ve never had an issue. Everyone, from their management team to their developers, is willing and ready to answer our questions.

I’ve also been impressed by the fact that even the part-time team members are always up-to-date with progress and available when necessary. At first, I didn’t even notice that some people weren’t fulltime, because they've been consistently smooth and professional in their delivery.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I can’t think of any areas for improvement. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with Dashbouquet Development.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder and managing director of an organization that offers design services for brands, with a focus on UX design. Most of our clients are based in the UK. Over the past 4–5 years, we've increasingly specialized in the design and creation of internal tools that staff use to solve problems and power their companies, rather than customer-facing products. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dashbouquet?

The challenge centered on development. Our clients want actual products, rather than just pictures of such. Dashbouquet was a good team to add to our efforts. They help us turn our images into products and enable us to bring them to life. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our collaboration predominantly focused on development. In particular, they provide frontend and backend development. We receive support for coordination and project management from their side. Typically, we hand over our designs to their team and talk them through the concept to make sure they understand how the apps and tools should work. 

From there, they code the products following our agreed-upon process that might involve testing if needed. They usually assign one product coordinator per product to facilitate discussions and raise any blocking issues to ensure everyone's on the same page. Since they build our products from the ground up, the CMS is usually bespoke.

We've worked using two different methods. Often, we hand over the requirements without being prescriptive about how they should implement the development work. Other times, they inherit a project after we set it up. They extend and change the scope as necessary so it matches the designs. 

What is the team composition? 

We've worked with at least 7–8 people from Dashbouquet or possibly more. On average, we have two projects live with them at any time. Each project team usually includes 2–3 of their developers. 

How did you come to work with Dashbouquet?

We met through a mutual acquaintance. They'd developed an app for a friend of mine. I reached out to them, and we took it from there. 

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent a significant amount of our budget with Dashbouquet. As with any product development cycle, they provided design, development, and testing services for all of the projects we involved them in. Over the past year, our total spend has been about £50,000–£100,000 (approximately $66,000–$132,000 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

We first began working together in March 2018. Our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Dashbouquet skillfully gets up to speed quite quickly. They maintain an open dialogue and ask us probing questions to gain a deeper understanding. The code they write is of good quality, especially if we agree on a testing process as well. 

They're flexible about the platforms and frameworks they use. Dashbouquet has developed a number of products with us to date. We've completed several projects in parallel. 

How did Dashbouquet perform from a project management standpoint?

Dashbouquet has helped us greatly in their project coordination role. Since they're based remotely, we have to use tools to facilitate our discussions rather than holding them face to face. 

We haven't had any issues with communication at all. They're very easy to talk to. Whenever we need them, they'll readily jump on a call to join a discussion.

In the past, we've used GitHub as a tool. We added Confluence more recently to facilitate conversations. They've been happy to sign up for these services and flexibly adapt to any tools are required. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm impressed by the effort they put into being available for their clients. The project coordinator role is one they clearly value. They always have someone there to be the voice of their clients when they're not in the room. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Communication is crucial to progress and working efficiently as possible. They have strong language skills and are readily available, but they could always find ways to further improve in the future like using more tools or coming onsite. We're actually going to visit them soon. 

Improvements of this type would help us work more closely together and strengthen our relationship. I don't have any explicit criticisms or areas of improvement to suggest otherwise. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a health company that has a smartphone app to allow men to check their urinary health at home.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Dashbouquet Development?

We needed someone to build the app.
 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I explained the problem and goal to Dashbouquet Development, showing them the algorithm for our product and how it should function. They then created the app, including the design and UI. It’s a mobile app for iOS and Android that creates a dynamic flow curve of a man’s urine hitting the water surface, which it acquires through sound processing. The app immediately shows the results of the test in real-time, and Dashbouquet Development built the app to acquire, process, indicate, and save the data. They even built a feature that creates a report that can be sent to a urologist.

What is the team composition? 

We have a project manager and two developers.

How did you come to work with Dashbouquet Development?

We found them online. We considered a few other companies, but Dashbouquet Development seemed to be the best fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $25,000–$50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered in September 2017, and the work is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Dashbouquet Development has done excellent work. Over 90% of our testers say the app is helpful and easy to use. 

How did Dashbouquet Development perform from a project management standpoint?

They provide numerous options to solve our problems. We mainly communicate via phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team is knowledgeable and experienced in both UI and how data can be processed and utilized. They have a deep understanding of what we want to accomplish, which optimizes our partnership.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I'm satisfied with their work.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I highly recommend hiring them. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the head of e-commerce at HVMN, which manufactures and provides a variety of nutritional supplements.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire DashBouquet Development?

We needed assistance in implementing a number of software initiatives, focusing primarily on our e-commerce platform.

What were your goals for this project?

Our aim was to onboard two engineers familiar with React.js and Ruby on Rails to help develop our e-commerce platform on a full-time basis.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We spoke with dozens of agencies around the world. DashBouquet stood out for their leadership and professionalism. They were clear in their process and offered flexible terms for the initial engagement.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

We have worked with two DashBouquet engineers, and they are now an integrated part of our engineering and product development team. A one-month test has turned into an ongoing relationship to help us build and grow our e-commerce platform. In addition to helping with development, they conducted A/B testing, revamped our analytics, provided end-to-end marketing automation, rebuilt the checkout process across the entire stack, designed a custom CMS, revamped the account and subscription user interface, and performed a number of backend improvements.

What was the team composition?

We work directly with two engineers from DashBouquet. They have essentially become full-time members of our team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We now have an e-commerce platform that processes millions in revenue and has seen over 100,000 orders. Their impact cannot be overstated.

​​​​​​How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We have daily standups and communicate through Trello and GitHub. The engineers’ English proficiency is great, and they are proactive in their communication. There is a time difference, but they start work at a later time to accommodate us—which allows us a five- or six-hour window for our work schedules to overlap.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The extent of their talent sets them apart from competitors. DashBouquet’s engineers are as skilled as the top developers we’ve worked with in Silicon Valley. Their team members are smart, thorough, and motivated. They were able to produce quality code in no time at all.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

No, but advice for others would be to speak with leadership at the beginning about tips for a productive working relationship.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is twofold; we work both as a data company and in the social media influencer space. We offer data analytics jobs, including bigger projects for social media, along with app development and catering to clients on a continuous product solution level.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DashBouquet Development?

I hired DashBouquet Development to create a new version of our company’s mobile app. As a social media influencer marketplace, it helps marketing agencies build relationships with prominent users.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

As a coder myself, I had already started a rough draft of the project. Initially, the team performed an intake on the existing coding. After this background check, they planned different iterations. I learned new things from their work, while still enforcing my original road map. We set up a methodology to dictate how our weekly work would take place, and define the agile principles and technology we’d use.

Their team is continuing to develop our mobile app. The backend, which I developed on Firebase, allows agencies to schedule postings and handle all their relationships on one system. The marketplace itself is on the frontend, which uses React, Redox, and Typescript. The API is based on Node.js. We haven't been able to integrate testing yet, due to time constraints.

What is the team composition?

Although I was familiar with the process of outsourcing companies, I’d only ever hired individual people. This engagement was more of a collaborative effort, as it involved an entire team and managing more detailed work. I work mostly with three developers, and have limited contact with their business manager, who plans the budget and the coders' time schedule.

How did you come to work with DashBouquet Development?

I found DashBouquet Development about a year ago, on a Slack startup community of 500 professionals worldwide. I was on the brink of switching from Angular to React. After posting inquiries seeking a knowledgeable vendor, I set up a call with their manager and we began our engagement.

How much have you invested with them?

On a monthly basis, we spend between 4,000 and 10,000 euros ($4,900-$12,250). Our total investment has been around 40,000 euros so far ($49,000).

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since I’m still doing the quality checks and management myself, I’m accountable for some of the results. DashBouquet Development has committed roughly 70,000 lines of code for our project. The build was quick and straightforward. The developers were confident and skilled, and had an impressive knowledge base. Standardizing our materials solidified our system, while code enforcement provided clarity and reliability.

How did DashBouquet Development perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m the project manager, so the team follows my method. However, I might take them up on their offer to spearhead project management, because the volume of work keeps increasing. We have a fairly hands-on relationship. Our communication ranges from video calls to Slack messages, depending on the level of detail involved with certain facets of the project. We do sprints every two weeks with cards.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The specific things they do best are taking initiative and ownership of their work, and going beyond the scope of coders’ typical roles. I admired their commitment to quality. They were flexible and open, and consistently pointed out places they could improve or add to the work. Their developers are great at fixing bugs, and prioritize rectifying any mistakes they notice.

As an outsourced company, they’re not responsible for my company’s internal challenges. They go beyond the defined services we pay for, however, and help us in any way they can. For example, when we acquired a smaller company, we didn’t have a developer with the Python background to handle legacy code. DashBouquet Development took the initiative to find another vendor with that expertise, which gave us a pragmatic short-term solution.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our communication was good, but they could try to improve it. They could also offer more transparency about working hours. To their credit, they're always flexible about adjusting bills if we have any concerns.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would advise new clients to take DashBouquet Development’s advice into consideration when outlining the project, if they offer it. They’re very talented and are especially good at working closely together on coding if that’s part of your background.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Trackener is developing a horse monitoring technology, a kind of Fitbit for horses focused on health and welfare.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DashBouquet?

We needed to implement a new version of our mobile app, migrating a legacy version to React Native.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DashBouquet developed our app using the JavaScript React Native technology. This involved implementing a mobile app along with its backend for retrieving data and setting it up on Amazon Web Services. They worked autonomously and have taken part in everything from DevOps to backend and frontend development.

They also worked on improving a small React Native app which we’d previously deployed.

What is the team composition?

Dmitry Budko [Founder, DashBouquet] was in charge of contracts and planning. They assigned project managers for reviewing the project and testing the app, as well as developers for each skill—a backend coder, a frontend JavaScript coder, and a DevOps person.

How did you come to work with DashBouquet?

I was initially looking for frontend developers using Work in Startups and AngelList. DashBouquet was one of the companies that contacted me. I looked at their profile closely because of the good reviews they had on Clutch and a similar website. I had two interviews, introduction and technical, with them and two other consulting companies. I chose DashBouquet because their senior engineer was very convincing, and they did good work in understanding what our needs were, providing a macro estimate for a piece of the task.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €9,000 [$11,000].

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with DashBouquet in August 2017. The project is currently on hold because of some internal issues on our side.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In less than a month, we deployed a basic, complete solution involving the backend and frontend, which we were able to test. Since we’ve only done a small amount of testing, it would be hard to speak about the app’s impact. DashBouquet identified bugs which I hadn’t been able to find myself, either in this version or the legacy app. This was helpful.

How did DashBouquet perform from a project management standpoint?

They did as much as they could on their own without requiring me to always provide feedback or code reviews. They were autonomous, but there was also a lack of communication, possibly coming from my side; I didn’t push enough. We used Agile methodology, defining features and estimating the required amount of work for each sprint.

We were in contact almost entirely through Slack with a few Skype sessions. We communicated on a daily basis with the developer and on an almost daily basis with the project manager. They were quite proactive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One reason for choosing DashBouquet over other companies is that they are specialized in JavaScript and have experience with React Native, a very immature technology which is hard to showcase. They’ve proven that they are capable of making a well-structured and well-architected app from scratch using a cutting-edge technology. I was impressed with their dedication and flexibility.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve by having a better structure of sprint retrospectives and taking the time to estimate, or re-estimate, all user stories at a beginning of a sprint. Again, I didn't ask for it enough until now. I would personally evaluate the criticality of the bugs they found to eventually postpone some fixes.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

When working with the Agile methodology, it’s important to structure sprints adequately and have strong expectations. I would strongly recommend to code review as frequently as possible and to get involved in the development, I think it was very helpful both for me to check the work and get familiar with the app, and for DashBouquet developer to get quick feedback.They are all team players. I find DashBouquet’s team to be individually good and supportive.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

SlashData is an industry analyst firm specializing in developer research—looking at what developers do. We produce reports and analysis for industry giants like Intel, Amazon, and Facebook. We run our own infrastructure for this purpose. I have a dual role in the company. I work on building the infrastructure as part of the development team and I consult with clients on the analysis side.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DashBouquet?

We needed to find an infrastructure management solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have worked on a couple of projects with them, using a similar tech stack. The first one was a website we ran, called the Developer Satisfaction Awards. Through it, we handed out awards to industry leaders in different tool categories and for various aspects of their development programs. DashBouquet built a static website for us, using a site generator called GatsbyJS.

The second site was a static landing page for a big survey we’re running. We used third-party tools and had a lot of trouble with them. Eventually, we decided to have a localized CMS [content management system] to handle the static landing pages. There were a number of pages associated with coming to the survey, learning why it mattered, and other related information, such as terms and conditions.  

We run the survey in 8 localized languages and historically had a manual process for managing those translations. Our marketing team decided to instead do that through a CMS, but our internal team didn’t have the time to do it. DashBouquet built it using the same technology, along with a Content-as-a-Service [Caas] called prismic.io.

We were trying to get as many developers as possible to take our survey. We had moved the static pages onto a specialist site hosting service called Netlify so we were able to easily A/B-test changes just by having different versions in place. It was a simple matter of tagging analytics for each one.

What is the team composition? 

We primarily worked with a single JavaScript developer. We interacted directly with the resources, except for the sales side of things.

How did you come to work with DashBouquet?

I was searching for an outsourcer on Reactiflux, a React developers’ specialist group on the Discord platform. They got in touch with us so I Skyped with them and found one of their technical co-founders to be very impressive.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost of their work was around $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in August 2017. The second site was wrapped up in early-October and launched in November. We plan to use them for another project—a website using the same infrastructure.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The GatsbyJS technology was new when they started using it so they had to work around some issues with the early releases. It’s been very good for us in terms of modifying and maintaining the site. It was a successful project and was built in time for the launch of the awards.

We also managed to launch the second site on time. They were flexible around some design elements which were delivered late. We wanted to make some changes later on and the person who could do them was on another project. However, they made time, even though they were busy.

We increased conversions for people coming to our landing pages by nearly 20%, through the simplifications made to the pages with their help. We drove those changes, but it was possible to do because of how they built the system.

How did DashBouquet perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly managed the projects ourselves. They checked in regularly to make sure everything was okay, but we preferred to handle management ourselves. There was an existing set of tools in place. We both used Slack for the collaboration but had separate instances. DashBouquet worked on our co-hosting infrastructure on Bitbucket, but they were flexible in terms of what to use. They documented things without being asked, which was a nice surprise.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We ran into some build issues early on and found some inexplicable errors. Their developer was able to debug quite deep into a new framework he’d never worked with before and resolved the matter quickly. We'd be stuck on a problem for a couple of days, but it took them just a matter of hours—they assigned a very competent developer.

In general, the pace at which they learned new tech we wanted to use was excellent. It was what we went to them for, but we were still pleasantly surprised, in the outsourcing scenario.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s always a trade-off when working with suppliers who don’t speak English as their native language. The level of communication and understanding of English is good, but it can always be better. They’re better than average, relative to their location and pricing.  

They were willing to find a new person when we wanted changes, but because we were working on a new tech stack, we didn’t want to take that hit and pay for him to learn things. To some extent, this was our own fault.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They’re quite a small company, so, if the client requires a significant number of developers, it will be challenging. Unless planning is done ahead of time, DashBouquet won’t be very flexible with resources. They are growing, but they are still a niche group, with around 12 members at the time we started working with them.