Diversido

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm an independent positive psychology scholar, author and lecturer who contributes in many projects related to media and training.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Diversido?

I wanted to create a mobile application that provides a gaming experience using many psychological concepts (eg, Mere exposure effect, cognitive bias modification...etc) to enhance the player's wellbeing. The app should have a beautiful design and be created professionally to enrich the playing experience and maximize the effect.

What were your goals for this project?

The application should have a beautiful design, accurately apply the psychological techniques , provide an engaging gaming experience and high functionality, in the both two versions of the app (android and iOS)..

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I asked many friends, searched the local market and many platforms to find the proper vendor..When I would their portfolio I tried their product and I admired its design and functionality. They were the best choice for what I have in mind.

Describe the project in detail.

The designed, developed, tested and published the app, and where ready for maintenance and fix any emerging issue..

What was the team composition?

The team was around ten people to cover the different aspects of the project.. sometimes people come and go according to the needed task..

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application helped my clients practice some of the techniques that were were available only in psychology experimental labs but not available for the public. The App reviews and feedback is great.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Communication went smoothly and their business analysis was highly professional. Their project management was arranged according the requirements and it was really great. The work went smoothly and they could overcome every unexpected emerging obstacle. Clearly, they are professionals and they know what they are doing.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They did not only achieve the requirements. They were deeply engaged and suggested some creative ideas that helped achieve goals in better ways. They were a critical part of the planning process, not only implementing what they were told. Also, the team is great each of them was highly professional in her/his area of experties .. starting from the magnificent design, until the strict coordination between all the team members in every stage of the project until publishing the app.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing that I can think of.. They were really great and exceeded all my expectations..

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of a company that develops mobile and web apps.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Diversido?

We needed a partner to handle any overflow software development and UX design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Diversido provides staff support for our dev team. They mainly work in Xamarin for cross-platform apps. Initially, we tried managing the project from our end, but we learned that they’re much better at that. So, we let them take over creative and project management tasks. They’ve worked on various projects, most lasting 2–3 months at a time.

What is the team composition? 

They provide a project manager, but we also have direct access to their team of engineers.

How did you come to work with Diversido?

We found them on Elance, along with a few other companies. We interviewed each firm and thought Diversido was the most qualified candidate.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered in 2014, and the work is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of the UX/UI design is always top notch and much better than what we could do in-house. Their code is high quality, and our clients and end users love the apps.

How did Diversido perform from a project management standpoint?

We have weekly sprints and know that Diversido will do accomplish their work with minimal oversight from our side. Some of the projects have been fairly complicated, but they always deliver.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They take pride in their work and always find solutions to problems, no matter what. They care about each product more than any partner I’ve ever worked with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. We've learned from them. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be available and willing to meet with them regularly. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company that works in neurological healthcare.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Diversido?

We designed a mobile interaction that captured specific neurological functions, and we needed a game and mobile developer to build it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Diversido is developing our mobile platform and game. They’ve worked on the entire project from the very beginning. They built the backend that stores the data and the dashboard that lets us access the data in the mobile app. Besides development, they also do design and QA.

What is the team composition?

They provide a mobile developer, backend engineer, QA testers, project manager, and digital art creator.

How did you come to work with Diversido?

We found them through Upwork. We interviewed about 15 firms, and Diversido’s product and project management were extraordinary. They were aware of our product needs, and the engineers were strong, so we hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $8,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since May 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

You can’t find a better team for mobile game development.

How did Diversido perform from a project management standpoint?

We both provide project managers, and theirs is one of the best I’ve ever worked with. We have daily check-ins and use Slack, Jira, and Confluence to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re committed to their clients and care about the products they work on.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve worked with a few of their project managers but only found one that does quality work. They sometimes take a while to tell us when a problem arises, but we’re trying to teach them to send us a message immediately.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Work closely with them and invest time as if they were your in-house team. Stay organized and have strong documentation.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CTO of a startup that provides SaaS CRM software for teachers to communicate and coordinate with parents. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Diversido?

We needed additional technology capabilities for software development and QA. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked with many different resources from Diversido over our partnership. They offer expertise in Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, React, and the mobile technology Xamarin. We also work with their QA team. They fill all the roles in a standard tech organization, including CSS work. 

What is the team composition? 

In total, we’ve worked with about 6–7 members of Diversido's team. Initially, we were serviced directly by the founder of the organization. Subsequently, they assigned us an account manager who was also in our quality assurance group. We've had two dedicated account managers over the last three years. 

How did you come to work with Diversido?

When we first looked for development support, we hired individual contributors through Upwork. One of the people that we liked happened to work through Diversido and brought us into the rest of the agency for additional support. 

How much have you invested with them?

We probably spend between $5,000–$10,000 each month on their services. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working together since September 2015. They are still providing support in a variety of roles. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The combined work between our team and the developers that Diversido provides have brought us from a concept prototype to a product with 400,000 active users within the last few years. At this point, we are growing at an annual rate of 500 percent.

How did Diversido perform from a project management standpoint?

We pay the invoices through Diversido, but all their resources are part of our internal messaging and groupware systems. Each one operates as though they were our company's own employees. We work in direct collaboration with a variety of resources. The tools we use include Trello, Slack, and GitHub. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The resources Diversido assigns us are particularly well-suited to our style of work. They are very committed, professional, and deeply invested. All of them are great communicators. By and large, the resources they recruit are the exact type you'd want to have on your internal team. They do an excellent job of selecting their teammates. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Diversido's size might be due to their focus on quality, but they could use more team members. We've had to reach outside their organization to build our teams by adding members from several other companies. If they recruited and grew faster, we would use more of their resources. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Bringing Diversido's individual contributors onto our team has always been successful. If that's what you plan to do, it will work very well.