Digis, a Fiverr company (NYSE: FVRR)

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of SENDY INC. We’re an online platform that allows users to sell and buy outdoor sports equipment. We’re based in the US and soon to be live in Canada.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Digis?

We needed to develop our mobile application and website. I believe outsourcing development projects have many benefits, including having different levels of expertise and accessing a bigger team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Digis has designed and developed our Android and iOS applications. They’ve designed the app’s UI/UX and are currently working on our website’s development. 

Initially, we had several discovery calls with Digis’ project manager. We had an initial design idea that we shared with Digis, and we also had our user personas identified. We knew our market and had a clear idea of what we wanted to accomplish regarding design. Digis has used Figma for design. 

Digis has developed our mobile app using PHP, Python, Laravel, React Native, React.js, Next.js, and TypeScript. Our app is now live, and Digis is currently working on our site’s development, which will have the same functionalities as the app. 

We’ve asked Digis to optimize our site for mobile and desktop compatibility, and they’re using Google Cloud Platform for hosting. Digis also provides us with ongoing maintenance. 

What is the team composition?

I work with five teammates from Digis: a project manager, a designer, a web developer, front- and backend developer, and QA specialist. 

How did you come to work with Digis?

I found Digis through online research. We were looking for a company that outsourced developers primarily from Eastern Europe. I interviewed around 30 different companies and felt confident with Digis’ team skills. I selected Digis after having three calls with their project manager.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $420,000 with Digis.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Digis in November 2021, and our partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Digis’ work and infrastructure are fantastic. They understand our needs and are great at outsourcing developers. All our developers are based in Ukraine, and their work quality is excellent. Digis’ developers have hit every milestone and goal we’ve required, and they’ve done it during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, which is really impressive. 

Digis has created a beautiful app, and we’ve had a collaborative process. Our app mobile app has been downloaded 15,000 times. We also have over $1 million worth of gear listed on our platform and an average of 2,200 daily visitors.

How did Digis perform from a project management standpoint?

Digis stays on budget, although our budget has changed during our engagement. Digis also meets deadlines and works quickly. I thought it’d be impossible to develop our product as fast. 

Digis’ project manager is communicative and understands our needs. We communicate daily through WhatsApp and use Confluence and Jira for project management.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m most impressed with Digis’ management skills and dedication because they work at any time. I’ve contacted Digis’ developers at 1 a.m. of their local time, and they’re still working. Digis’ team dedication is hard to find. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

All Digis’ team has improved during our engagement. I can’t think of anything else for them to improve. When we’ve had issues, they’ve addressed them correctly. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend being very clear about your project’s requirements and scope. You need to understand the product you want to develop, the timeframe, and the budget. Having an idea is easy, but the challenge is to communicate your idea to a development team. The more clear you can be with each goal and sprint, the better results you’ll have.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm CEO of Zoomforth, a design platform that enables enterprise teams to build no code / low code, branded microsites at scale.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Digis?

We had an ambitious product development roadmap to achieve in H2 2022 and so hired Digis to provide expert product and project management for the duration of the work.

SOLUTION

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

We advertised the role via a number of platforms, including Upwork. We had hundreds of applicants but Digis stood out for various reasons - past positive experience of working with the firm, quick response times, highly skilled candidate, excellent fact-finding to understand the job and reasonable rates. It was an added bonus that we were able to provide business to a company based in the Ukraine, given the ongoing conflict there.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The project was to deliver a series of platform features that would: a.) enable our users to create sites more easily b.) improve the governance features and security controls c.) enable us to integrate with clients' communication software ecosystems The platform uses React in the front-end and Python in the back-end.

We use Asana and Slack for async comms as we are a fully distributed team, located in different timezones around the world. The overall project was split into a series of smaller milestones and included: Customer and market research Risk & Issue identification / management Resource management Design Product Development Pre and post launch activities e.g. customer comms, training etc. Digis provided overall oversight and management of the whole project

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

Digis provided a product and project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team delivered: A public API to enable native integrations An integration with Zapier to enable third party integrations Product features such as content animations, header & navigation options A governance dashboard for enterprise clients New user permission options Data Loss Prevention solution

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The product / project manager brought significant structure to our process which helped keep the team on track. She instigated a new format for our weekly sprint call, kept in touch daily with all stakeholders and project team members, updated me as CEO and our CTO weekly with a succinct and comprehensive written overview as well as verbal updates as needed. She also provided valuable hands-on support in the writing of product requirement documentation, product design feedback and testing.

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

The things that constantly impress me about Digis are their strong work ethic and desire to get things done. Also, their keen desire to learn and immerse themselves in our business before suggesting efficiencies. Plus, we found it impressive how invested they are in our success.

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

Initially, it took a little while for us to blend our respective company cultures as Zoomforth puts a great deal of emphasis on work / life balance, whereas Digis (being an agency) is understandably very much more focused on the work product. I think it was a great learning experience for all of us and we will most definitely call on Digis' services again in the future.
 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO of a mobile app company

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I hired Digis to staff our development team. My goal was to hire the strongest developers within our limited budget.

SOLUTION

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

I interviewed a number of software staffing agencies, and had previously worked with other software staffing agencies and software development agencies. Digis is hands down the best. The software developers and Q/A are well-vetted. They are excellent, hardworking and conscientious.

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

We are building a react native mobile app. The developer I hired through Digis has improved the code, and added new features. She is a very clear communicator, works hard and anticipates problems. The Q/A person I hired through Digis tests each app build, and manages the bug tickets. She is thorough and conscientious. Both are excellent.

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

One full-time front end react native developer, and one part-time Q/A tester.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Both the developer and tester have exceeded expectations. Their performance is excellent. Together they eliminated bugs, introduced new features, and ensured that the app is working without problems. Previously, we had many complaints in the app store. Since working with this developer and tester, these complaints about the app functioning and bugs have disappeared.

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

We use Jira, slack and zoom. We have regular zoom calls to go over the feature details and progress. Communication is clear. Their English is excellent.

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

Both people I hired through Digis were excellent. That is impressive. It is clear that they very carefully vet the people they hire.

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

The time zone different is sometimes challenging, since we are in California and they are in Europe.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CFO of a SaaS UGC Webapp company. We enable brands of all types to capture video of their customers using or talking about their products or experiences.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were looking for frontend developers to support our existing team and to work with a group that maintained enough resources to grow our team as needed.

SOLUTION

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

Digis was found through a referral and we began our working relationship with one developer. We have continued to add additional developers on a fairly consistent schedule that parallels our growth.

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

Digis has worked on our proprietary project and will continue to do so.

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

As stated we began with a single Digis FrontEnd Developer and over six months we have grown that to four.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team is adept at working with our Project Manager and aiding in time estimates as well as self-directing towards deliverables that match their strengths.

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

Our communications stack consists of Slack, Jira and Figma. Project management is a dedicate full-time resource that on our internal team. Communication and timeliness is always clear and concise.

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

The ability to consistently source and maintain talented resources at all skill levels is impressive. 

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

Digis has been receptive to our needs and work with us a true partner, not just a vendor.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of the company. We are developing and selling vehicle diagnostic and fleet management solutions to B2B customers and consumers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed to add a frontend developer to our inhouse team to speed up development of our new fleet management platform

SOLUTION

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

We were searching via upwork for a freelancer and got offered a perfect fitting candidate offered from Digis.

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

We had a kick-off meeting and from day one Denis from Digis was part of our development team. He gets task from our inhouse team and is working on them remotely. Frequently he is presenting his progress and we launch it our live system after review. New tasks are always based on new features so we usually see progress every couple of days. Denis is using Javascript mainly.

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

We have frequent contact to our Project Manager Vlad and on adaily basis to denis the Developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The new platform is a huge step forward in regards of design, loading times and scalability (eg number of cars to be shown on a map at a same time). Since we launched the new platform after 11 month of development more and more of our customers chnge from our old version to our new one and they are quite impressed by the new platform. Now we can attack the market with a top notch product.

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

We are in touch with their developer almost on a daily basis so it feels as if he is a part of our team. We use slack and zoom for communication.

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

Very helpful and quite responsive at any time.

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

So far everything to our full satisfaction.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the VP of engineering at connected2fiber. Connected2fiber is a cloud based service company that helps telecom companies buy and sell connectivity.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Digis?

Connected2fiber hired Digis to help design build and deploy a quoting system which helps buyers price and quote connectivity for multiple addresses at the same time as per desired specifications.

SOLUTION

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

We interviewed multiple vendors and candidates and the engineering team at Digis impressed us with their quick understanding of the problem and their analytical skills.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Initially Digis built a simple but working version of the cpq. We used an iterative approach to add features and functions to the product. This product became very successful among our customers and they too requested more features which made the product which it is today.

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

There were 10 software engineers, 2 qa and 2 pm.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team has been innovative and reliable. Their experience and professionalism were admirable. They delivered successfully and on time. Any problems or bugs were addressed quickly.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Digis became and extension of my team and we collaborated on design and worked together on features. Digis contribution on this specific project comprises the majority of the work.

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

Quality of engineers and great communication skills. That helped a lot in the success of the project.

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

We are in need of more engineers from Digis and their recruitment could be faster. We do understand that hiring quality engineers takes time though.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Project Manager, Requirements Engineer

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Digis?

The feedback from our alpha testing phase shows us, that certain processes were poorly understood by our first users. Furthermore, the core idea of the platform could not be conveyed. We decided to keep the basic virtues, but upgrade the project with a completely new UX/UI concept.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

As always, we did some interviews on Upwork and decided to work with Digis. Based on the initial interviews, which were very professional.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Our project can be well divided into project phases. In the beginning, it was quite understandable that the UX/UI designer had to deal with the product. Before the actual work could start, a lot of discussions took place. Many approaches and ideas grow during the discussions with a requirements engineer and the CEO. The first low-fidelity prototypes were created in Figma, which gradually described the concept.

Based on the low-fidelity prototypes, the first process and data object diagrams could be created. In several iterations, we were thus able to develop a new UX concept. Once the low-fidelity prototypes and processes were finalized with the development team, we were able to start with the high-fidelity mockups, which were mostly created in consultation with a front-end developer.

In parallel, we designed our own pattern library/design system based on the Atomic Design principle. This gave us the opportunity to have a unified design across the whole platform. Further changes to the individual patterns were easy for us to handle.

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

My team works directly with a UX/UI-Designer. A responsible project manager was always available to us as a contact person.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication was smooth either through our teams communication channel or with the project manager via email. We were in daily contact with the UX/UI designer in form of dailies or when we had to clarify some questions. With the project manager, we had a short conversation every 2 weeks to clarify all possible questions.

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

We personally love to work in a very process-oriented way. Because when we understand how to do something, we usually know how the end result can look like. With Digis, we also had the feeling that they knew what they were doing and how to do it. Every next step was planned from the beginning. If something didn't work in line with our processes, we could readjust it.

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

We were basically satisfied with everything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm CTO of the company. We develop applications to help build research communities on college university campuses and virtually showcase research work. I work with our business team to decide business priorities and technical needs and work with our dev team for implementation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have an ongoing web development project with DIGIS where one of their developers is actively involved in the development of a virtual events application we've built over the past year.

Our goals have been dynamic, our roadmap has had new large projects set month to month and the DIGIS developer has actively given feedback on the technical aspects of project design and has been involved in implementation.

SOLUTION

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

We selected DIGIS as the developer that we interact with's resume stood out, in interview they shared some example code they worked on which also was obviously complex. They demonstrated knowledge of their example code that let us know they'd be a meaningful contributor.

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

The DIGIS developer is actively involved first in giving feedback on technical requirements of a project and timeline. The developer then has worked with a team of other developers to create code, review code, and actively communicate their progress while sticking to this timeline.

After roadmaps they give feedback on improvements on technical processes and technical improvements across the site. In particular, we are working with a full stack developer, with expertise in Angular and Node JS.

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

1 person from the team, full stack developer with emphasis on Angular and Node JS.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They've been an important part of coding features that were demonstrably wanted by our clients. So far we've gotten qualitatively strong responses from clients and our business team to features that the developer has been involved with.

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

Currently, this aspect of the project is run entirely by us. They've been responsive on Slack, available in Google Meets meetings, and have been active to meet timelines.

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

Their account manager (or recruiting manager, not sure exact role) helped identify good candidates very quickly. The developer we've worked with has ramped up quickly and we're finding continuing to grow in efficiency contributing to the site.

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

The main spots for growth right now would be a continued increase in efficiency of coding + code reviewing and growth in ownership of particular projects. Based on the current trajectory, I think as more opportunity arises this will happen organically.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a scooter company. We develop scooters and stations where riders can charge the battery. We also offer a mobile app to use as a service. There’s an IoT part that corrects the data and offers the data through APIs. From the other side, we have a mobile application where we’re reading the data and can control the data. It’s connected to the IoT.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DIGIS?

The scooters have to be charged, and it usually takes a few hours. Instead of a rider charging their battery, we charge it for them. They go to one of our stations, remove the battery from the scooter, and we provide a new battery within 60 seconds. They’re full again and can go riding. We needed someone to develop our mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DIGIS developed our mobile app for those who purchase the battery swapping service. Our teams had a discovery meeting where we came up with a proof of concept (POC). We needed a lot of user research. At the end of that project, we were able to prove that it could work.

Last year, we raised €60 million (approximately $71 million USD) in order to produce the scooter and finalize the development and do the marketing. We’ve also created a backend in order to have all the logic for the commercial part of our information system. We created a web app in order to sell the subscription.

What is the team composition?

There is one iOS developer and one Android developer. There’s also a backend developer and a software developer who work on the website. Our project manager handles their team and a tester. We also have a DevOps person.

How did you come to work with DIGIS?

DIGIS was recommended to us by a partner. They started working before I joined the company. Their team came before the fundraising stage to deliver the POC.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between €150,000– €200,000 ($178,000–$237,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2019, and the engagement is ongoing. We’re in the phase where the MVP is satisfying our customers. It’s not as intense as it was a few months back but we’re doing some more improvements on the mobile app, the web, and the APIs. They continue to provide ongoing maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We started from scratch with them, and I see them as a partner. There was a part of the project where there were some delays. There are many companies that would have charged me in order to fix that. However, DIGIS really understood and took responsibility.

They’d work evenings and weekends in order to support us without charging us for the extra time. Their team did that quite a lot of times. They were truly committed to helping us succeed. The quality of work is good, and I’m happy with them. We started in Paris and have our first customers on the street since 2021.

How did DIGIS perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very connected to the project. It’s not always very easy because as with any IoT project, it doesn’t always go as planned. There have been many delays and changes. We have daily contact or may touch base three times a week. We manage the project in Jira so everything is centralized there. Our teams communicate via video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re committed and have the ability to scale up in order to deliver fast. DIGIS always does their best. For example, I started on a Monday and by that Thursday we had to meet investors to show them the system was working. On Monday morning, I had a call with DIGIS and found the coordination between them and the IoT world wasn’t as good as it should’ve been. It wasn’t their fault. Yet, three days later, they made it work so we could show it to investors to raise money. I was quite shocked.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The little testing that they did wasn’t good enough. That’s something they can improve on. They’ve been able to react to that and it’s much better now, but it was something that was a concern at one point.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You can’t expect them to understand everything because of the fact that they work remotely. You have to invest a bit more in the specifications and architecture before working. This would apply to any offshore company.