itCraft

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

DigiMax Global is a technology company committed to unlocking the potential of disruptive technologies by providing advanced financial, predictive, and cryptocurrency solutions across various verticals. DigiMax is an official IBM Watson partner, and the Company's engineering team has extensive experience in Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Cryptocurrency technology. I am the CTO at DigiMax, and I am responsible for the organization's technological needs.

For the Company to develop properly, in line with its assumptions, and to change everyday business life, I oversee short- and long-term plans to implement technological investments, giving the organization profit and competitive advantage.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired itCraft to improve an existing WordPress-based website, create the visual identity of our brand, conduct product discovery workshops, prepare application screen designs and create native mobile applications available on Android and iOS devices.

SOLUTION

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

One of our employees recommended us to cooperate with itCraft. In the beginning, we wanted to check them by collaborating on changes to the website and creating branding. It quickly turned out that it would not be our last project done together.

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

We targeted a solution capable of leveraging our artificial intelligence mechanism to support individual cryptocurrency investor decisions. The first stage of cooperation was to improve the existing website and create the so-called brand book, i.e., complete visual identification of the brand. Then both teams held a few days' workshops defining the business and technical assumptions of the product.

With such a base, we created a User Stories list that defined the flow of the application, then wireframes and mockups of the application's screens. The well-made design phase allowed for making a technologically correct, user-friendly, and intuitive application.

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

The team consisted of 14 people during all phases of the project. Additionally, itCraft provided an additional person to the team whose competencies are not part of the itCraft team. As a result, we did not have to spend additional time looking for the right person to join our team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Both apps were released at the scheduled time. They are now used by many users and the feedback is positive. Moreover, the application works smoothly, without major faults requiring complex repairs.

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

They simply followed agile best practices which allowed for our ability to communicate effectively. The time difference was a challenge that would have made the project difficult without the use of a disciplined and consistent method. The challenge revealed itself during time-sensitive collaboration responsiveness and during our secondary QA. Overall it worked and empowering the ItCraft PM with more decision-making authority could have improved this issue.

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

I really appreciate their expertise at every stage of creating a mobile application. This process consists of many factors; not only the developers' competencies are essential. The excellent work process in every phase, experience, and thinking outside the box are reflected in the product.

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

There will be something in every project that can be done and improved. In our case, the issue of decision-making and the setting of thresholds of responsibility would shorten the time of making high-importance project decisions, primarily when we work on two distant continents.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Małgorzata Bezubik and I’m the Co-Founder and Director of Studies at Beespeaker.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The itCraft team led us through the entire process of creating a custom software including product workshops, analytics, UX/UI design, user research, development, and further development of the application. A very important element of the platform is an Android and iOS mobile application built in Flutter technology.

SOLUTION

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

After initial market research ( we researched on the internet) we shortlisted 5 companies. itCraft is a company with a very good reputation and has been recommended to me by a friend working in the IT industry. After a few talks with the itCraft team, I could see that they have a very good understanding of our needs. itCraft has a very well thought out software development process, ideally suited for creating new, innovative digital products. The quality of their offer definitely stood out from their competitors.

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

BeeSpeaker is one of the few language learning apps that puts emphasis on speaking – after all, communication is the most important thing! This natural method of teaching, which involves talking to foreign language tutors, will bring results in no time. The project was divided into five major phases:

1. Product Design Workshop - it was vital to analyze the commercial priorities, the user requirements and technology required to ensure the success of the project.
2. UX/UI design - based on the deliverables from the workshop UX and UI designers used the latest design trends, user habits and design best practices to create all the necessary mockups required for the development stage.
3. Usability testing - the team evaluated prepared mockups, verified product hypothesis and value proposition with a selected group of potential users.
4. Development - the itCraft team started to work in Scrum methodology. In practice, at the beginning of each sprint, the team focused on identifying the tasks which will deliver the highest business value. At the end of each sprint, a demo session was held.
5. Implementation - implementation consisted in making the application available on the App Store and Google Play, installation of the necessary components in the AWS cloud.

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

Over the course of months, we worked primarily with the Product Design team and developers. Team line-up was as follows:

• Project Manager,
• Business Analyst,
• System Analyst,
• UI designer,
• UX designer,
• Flutter Developers,
• Backend developers,
• AI engineer,
• QA engineers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We successfully achieved the MVP product deliverables: Android and iOS mobile application, AI engine with other backend components. I think the best measure of success was getting an investor for our product after demonstrating what we have achieved in this phase. We also have a validated business model and the first users who have purchased a subscription. The application has very high ratings on Google Play and App Store.

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

As I mentioned above, the workflow of creating new products has been mastered out to perfection by itCraft. The team has been able to adapt quickly to changes, and work on time and within budget.

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

Probably the most important aspect is the outstanding quality of the products made by itCraft. While previously working with other suppliers, the quality was never as high as when cooperating with itCraft.

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

To be perfectly honest, it’s hard to point out areas that should be improved. I’m extremely satisfied with the cooperation.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Marlena Szymanek, and I’m a CEO at Woonti. Woonti is a recruitment company supported by modern solutions in the area of mobile, web, AI in order to accelerate and reduce the cost of the recruitment process. We operate in 6 countries: Poland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

At Woonti, we wanted to build a number of mobile and web applications supported by AI algorithms. The itCraft team helped me primarily in the consulting area by preparing recommendations on: the architecture of the entire system ecosystem, functional and business analysis, technology and the final shape of the team that I wanted to employ in my company.

ItCraft engineers were also involved in the development phases of web and mobile applications

SOLUTION

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

I found itCraft on the recommendation of my law firm. After checking the information on the itCraft website, I was sure it was the right partner for Woonti. Ultimately, I was convinced by a very constructive conversation and advice from itCraft at the discovery stage of my needs.

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

Our cooperation consisted of 3 stages. The first stage was consulting at the sales stage. ItCraft consultants put a lot of work into understanding my project, asked the right questions and proposed initial solutions and a model for further cooperation.

It took about 2-3 weeks, and I also talked to 3 other companies at the same time. The second stage is very intense online and onsite sessions according to a prepared schedule. Each session had a defined goal and a properly selected team of consultants.

Importantly, after each session, I received products defined in the contract (e.g. studies in a defined form, recommendations, estimates etc.). The entire cooperation process was arranged by the itCraft project manager. The third step is the support of my internal small development team by the itCraft team. We worked in an agile methodology.

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

During our cooperation, I had the pleasure of working with many people in various roles. Some completed their work in a few days, others were engaged for much longer.

They were: Project manager, Mobile Tech Lead, Backend Tech Lead, Business analyst, System analyst, 2 x web and mobile developers. Invaluable support at the business consulting stages was the involvement of the itCraft CEO.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The greatest successes are applications that are already running, including a mobile application for job seekers, a web job board, a web application for recruiters, and an AI engine matching employees to job offers. The second important success is the itCraft accurate recommendation.

Before cooperating with itCraft, I had a wrongly selected technological stack, expensive to maintain, and I had problems finding the right developers. After the changes recommended by itCraft, development goes fast, I have access to a large number of developers who know the recommended programming languages and frameworks.

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

The cooperation was exemplary. itCraft delivered work products on time. The meetings were coordinated by a very experienced project manager.

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

The itCraft team has excellent technical knowledge. itCraft's focus on value delivered for my business was worth emphasizing.  It is rare to have a business-oriented approach that is so successful.

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

It's hard to point to the elements that did not work. As a customer, you would always like to receive such support. Perhaps the prices were quite high, but on the other hand, understanding the realities of the IT market, I got very good value for money.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Sebastian Zywiecki, and I’m a CEO at VMS MEDIA. As part of our business we create modern startups focused around augmented reality solutions. We have our own team of developers but we also work with professional technology partners in areas where we do not have in-house expertise.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We were looking for a technology partner with great mobile and AWS cloud computing expertise.

The project that was assigned to itCraft among other areas, consisted of: Analyzing the current AWS environment, including primarily settings of AWS security policies against S3 resources, per account and per resource rights settings and setting relevant resources to related services.

Analysis and optimization from the delivered mobile application code, integration with AWS cloud. Designing and configuring AWS service for video conversion, installing and running Docker based video converter and API interface. Analysis of legitimacy of uses and integration from AWS Elemental MediaConvert. Testing the holistic solution.

SOLUTION

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

itCraft has a reputation as a very reliable and trustworthy company in terms of mobile development. I decided to contact them and organize a meeting to discuss our needs. I managed to reach directly to the CEO of itCraft.

After an initial discussion of our needs, itCraft organized an online workshop in a very effective manner with our development team and dedicated team members from itCraft that could handle the project. itCraft’s engineers understood our needs very quickly and addressed several possible solution scenarios during the workshop.

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

The first stage of our cooperation was the online workshop where we met the itCraft team responsible for the subject matter. Cloud Architects specializing in AWS solutions had the most input during the workshop. The next stages were in an agile methodology based on the prepared scope of work.

Our developers team met with itCraft’s consultants at 2-3 day intervals to test the solutions for subsequent points of the plan.

At the end of the cooperation, itCraft prepared in-depth architecture documentation of the proposed solutions and supported us in its parameterization to achieve scalability for the future at optimal infrastructure cost. itCraft’s Service Delivery Manager was responsible for supervising the project.

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

itCraft’ CEO was involved in the project at the very beginning, he allocated the relevant team and helped to develop a framework of cooperation. The core team that worked on the project consisted of 2 AWS Cloud Architects, a Quality Assurance Engineer and a Service Delivery Manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

itCraft has executed all stages of the project in an agile methodology. The result is a scalable AWS environment, with the necessary services configured video transcoding/compression, video sharing, and uploading a video from a mobile application. The architecture is done cost-effectively and well secured.

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

The cooperation with itCraft was very well organized. We would like to emphasize the speed of action, very good communication, and the team's expertise.

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

We were impressed with the large dose of the expert knowledge that we received from the start of our cooperation which was the workshop. The speed of itCrafts actions exceeded our expectations. The cherry on the top is providing very detailed documentation of the performed work

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

It is really difficult to point out any weak areas of our cooperation. We are extremely satisfied with the service at every stage of our cooperation.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Pelin Bagce, and I’m a Chief Operating Officer at Eczacıbaşı. Eczacıbaşı’s core sectors are building products, consumer products and healthcare. Additionally, the Group is active in finance, information technology, welding technology, natural resources, and property development. In Turkey, Eczacıbaşı is the leader in most of its businesses with some of the most effective distribution networks in the country for building products, pharmaceuticals, and fast-moving consumer goods.

It is also a major exporter of tissue paper, welding electrodes, electronic smart cards and natural resources such as clay and feldspar. With its steadily growing portfolio serving each stage of human health and its respective needs – from preventative care to early detection, advanced treatments to personalized care – the Eczacıbaşı Healthcare Division is leading Turkey’s health sector as the pioneer of the “integrative care” approach.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire itCraft?

We wanted to create the MVP version of our evital telehealth platform. That’s why we’ve reached out to itCraft, and they proposed a workshop. We’ve met in our headquarters to gather materials required for conducting the UX/UI design phase and agree upon deliverables such as:

• Prioritized user stories documentation, including acceptance criteria
• Detailed cost estimation with priorities options
• Technical recommendations including logical architecture, infrastructure architecture & costs, tech risks & assumptions
• Low-fidelity wireframing
• Prototype
• Visual design
• Graphics files

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Cooperation with itCraft was possible due to the recommendation of our partner, Vero Healthcare Consulting - as we were looking for a suitable software house with experience in implementing medical e-services. It was vital for us to work with a company that was experienced in building applications for patients and doctors and creating platforms connecting both of these groups. itCraft has guaranteed efficient project implementation and support in outlining the development strategy.

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

Our requirements required close cooperation and flexibility to create solid foundations for project implementation. The goal was to conduct open workshops, during which we could define the directions of product development and outline the strategy of implementing it on the market. Therefore, the first stage of our collaboration was the workshop at our headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey. Together, we could define personas and analyze how our product could satisfy their needs.

The next step was to prepare UX mockups by the itCraft design team, to which we submitted our corrections and details. After accepting the UX flow, itCraft prepared UI screens and prototypes of patients' and doctors' apps. In addition, we received technical recommendations for future app development.

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

We cooperated with a large team, including the itCraft’s CEO, CTO, Head of Product Design Team, Project Manager, System Analyst, and four UX/UI designers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The goal of the project has been achieved. We've created the whole concept and the product development strategy, as well as graphic stat with UX/UI paths and clickable prototypes. Moreover, during the workshops, we redefined the scope of the project and its entire structure. It gave us a new opportunity to position this product on the market as a medical services marketplace.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between itCraft’s team and ours was very effective. itCraft has a great process that allowed us to regularly check work progress and provide instant feedback that has been applied. Both teams were a part of one great squad working together to achieve the same goals.

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

In our opinion, the workshops made a great impression. The way they were hosted, the open formula and insightful opinions influenced further decisions regarding product development. The main idea we've been working on during the workshops was to go beyond the platform for communication between the patient and the doctor. Instead, we decided to create a marketplace with a number of educational and typical sales activities to carry out. In addition, the itCraft team was always committed, available, and flexible during the entire process.

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

The only aspect that limited our possibilities was the deadline for delivering the materials. Considering the dynamics of product development and its strategy, this deadline should be extended.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m Jozef – CTO working on behalf of several companies in real estate, mining, telecommunication, and other industries. I am responsible for choosing the right technologies in startups our investors are interested in.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We’ve built four digital products together with itCraft. All of them had a web component. Three also included native mobile apps for Android and iOS. itCraft was responsible for all production stages, including workshops, design, development, quality assurance, implementation and maintenance.

SOLUTION

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

itCraft was recommended by my long-term business partner that knows the landscape of Polish software houses very well. Based on his opinion, we decided to get in touch with the vendor via video call and asked for an offer. When we got it, we’ve decided we wanted to meet the itCraft owners in person. We went to Poland from Australia to work with them for a few days and get to know each other. We’ve also discussed the details of our collaboration.

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

The project work was done by the outsourced managed team from itCraft. They were responsible for building products with all required functional features that would meet our business needs. In the beginning, the design team prepared clickable prototypes of all the apps we wanted to create. The first phase of our cooperation was focused on MVP versions of the modern mobile applications we were making. Then, we developed the products further, adjusting them to market needs and maintaining them after release.

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

Each product had a dedicated Scrum team composed of: a Scrum Master, a business analyst, a product designer, two backend developers, one front-end developer, two developers each for iOS and Android native development and two testers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

One of our products, an app dedicated to nursing homes, achieved splendid business success. From a startup with three engaged people, it became a company that hires a dozen of employees and is now a pioneer in these types of solutions in Australia. They already implemented the service in numerous facilities around the country. We are currently considering the expansion of our target group of clients with functional changes within the app.

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

Comparing to other teams we’ve worked with before, itCraft paid a lot of attention to understanding our requirements. The face-to-face meetings were highly effective, so we organized them several times over the course of the project. itCraft also recommended them so we could define the final products together. Despite it being a significant investment and effort (because of the distance), we can really appreciate the benefits of this approach.

itCraft consultants communicated excellently in English. We could definitely notice their engagement in the project and determination to solve problems that happened throughout the way. itCraft has a curated development process that allowed us to regularly check the results - the apps were shared in a cloud-based testing environment. We are up-to-date with documentation, design visuals and test versions of the products.

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

itCraft delivered all the products within estimated timeframes and budgets. I want to acknowledge the opportunity to meet in person with the itCraft owners to discuss our long-term business relationship, as it was insightful and took our collaboration to the next level. Throughout the five years of working together, we were not even once disappointed in the itCraft team.

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

In the early stages of our collaboration (in 2016), itCraft gave us many great recommendations regarding good practices in mobile development, functionalities that should be included and the ones that we could skip. They gave up too quickly when we disagreed, and often the time showed they were right. The company hired more experienced business consultants and analysts that challenged ideas and shaped the project each year. We think this is an excellent direction for itCraft’s improvement.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Bjoern Carstensen, a Global Business Manager for Projects & Digital Solutions for a leading medical and safety company from Germany. I took the position of a project leader and a product owner during our collaboration with itCraft.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire itCraft?

The goal was to develop a platform that would assist the selling process, and grow it.The app is dedicated to a single Sales Representative and Regional Managers, it allows users to prepare digital quotations in a more precise and faster way, including parameters and indexes specific to our business. The app is using multiple dynamic company data sources.

SOLUTION

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

We’ve found them online while browsing the web (mostly Clutch) in search of the best possible partner for this project. After evaluating all potential software houses, we’ve decided that itCraft would be the best for the job.

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

As usual with itCraft the project started with a workshop, when we discussed business goals and needs, as well as shaped the project scope. In the next step, itCraft provided the design and updated it according to our needs. Then, the development phase started. The solution is based on native Android and iOS mobile applications done with the best practices in mind. The security of our apps was our first priority, and itCraft did everything to achieve safe data processing. The whole system is deployed on Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure and utilizes Azure dedicated services to make it even more robust and usable.

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

itCraft provided a full development team, with two developers for backend, two for iOS and two for Android. We’ve also been working with a designer, two testers and a project manager. We think that it was a well-composed team that fulfilled all our needs and was adjusted to our project requirements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app was released internally. The first version of the product was implemented in June 2021 and we already have almost 1500 company users. The first few months have been extremely successful. In the future, we hope to expand the app’s outreach to more people within our organization.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our team collaborated very effectively with itCraft. Thanks to regular weekly meetings, we could discuss project status, open and new issues, and best resolutions. We had also dedicated meetings to discuss e.g. design changes and other product-related topics.

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

We appreciate itCraft for many reasons. Their open and creative approach to our project resulted in achieving the best possible business value. It wouldn’t be possible to get such a high quality of the product without their recommendations and suggestions. We also are impressed by the modern and thought-through design of our new app. The team was flexible, proactive and open-minded about the changes we proposed. What was crucial for us was their quick reaction time and strong communication game. Overall, we can say it was an excellent collaboration.

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

There are minor things we think that could be improved, but at the same time they were specific for our project and we are aware that sometimes such challenges are unavoidable. However, we know that the itCraft team always tries to get better at what they do and we can say without a doubt that they strive for progression.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Marcin Kramek, and I work for Kids Doctor as a Board Member. We are a Polish startup with one mission in mind - to provide comprehensive healthcare for children and help their parents find competent medical experts. Kids’ wellbeing is a priority for us, and we know finding a good doctor can be challenging

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire itCraft?

We wanted to build a software solution that would allow parents to find doctors, medical specialists and professors when their children are sick. It is not always easy to find proper healthcare, so we wanted to connect both sides with a straightforward service.

What were your goals for this project?

As we didn’t have any system before, we needed a provider who would build it from scratch. The functionalities included booking system for telemedicine and home visits purposes, payment gates and integrations with external invoicing software. How did you select this ve

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We knew itCraft from a different project, and we were sure they are capable. It was a perfect fit for this project. The decision was easy as the team proved in the past that they have what it takes to create a great-working solution with aesthetic UI.

Describe the project in detail.

itCraft invited us for workshops, which is their standard practice to discuss project details before the actual production process begins. We’ve provided our own UI, but the team did the rest. They took care of UX, frontend, backend and testing, which was a relief because we wanted to get everything done in one place. This collaboration showed us that picking the right IT partner with broad expertise is the best way to optimize project costs and get everything done without much stress.

What was the team composition?

The team involved in our project included a dedicated project manager, a UX designer, a frontend developer, a backend developer and a tester. Since they had all needed knowledge and skills, it was definitely enough to achieve our goals and meet the project’s requirements. The communication was transparent and regular

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The MVP of our product was released in January 2021, and 3 months later, in March, we’ve decided we want to develop it further - of course, with itCraft’s assistance. We’ve added a feature that would allow the users to book home visits and decided to test it in one city for a pilot. This period of collecting feedback from our clients proved that there’s a demand for our app, and we want to grow it even more.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Everything was taken care of, and we felt that we are in good hands. itCraft’s team is proficient in open communication and gave us a lot of space to share ideas, discuss details and propose solutions. At the same time, they are highly proactive and always ready to share their recommendations. As they proved countless times that they earned their experience, we trusted them with the process without any doubts.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Our solution came out beautifully straightforward from the client’s perspective, but works on advanced technologies. itCraft really approaches every project individually and always looks for the best possible solution to achieve expected results. We decided we didn’t want premade solutions to handle in-app communication as we wanted to integrate it with popular messaging applications, and the team didn’t question our choice. They just did it, which is very much appreciated.

Are there any areas for improvement?

itCraft is a type of company that always looks for improvements on their own. They constantly learn and look for new ideas to explore. We didn’t have any suggestions during our collaboration, but if we ever have one, we are certain they will approach it with an open mind and do everything to improve themselves.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a second-hand marketplace. We’re a startup. I’ve been acting as the CTO and COO for the last two years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with itCraft?

We needed a company who could provide us with technical resources and help us build a platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The services they provided are broken down into three parts. The first part is taking a prototype for a deep dive design phase. They took a mockup app that I put together on iPhone with some user stories and product videos. We brought it all into a design workshop.

We spent three days breaking down the app. We took it from a prototype to what it should be. We mapped all the user stories. Then, the team there took it further and helped us break down pretty much every click into a user story. We took it from about 20 screens to 100 screens in the app in terms of design.

By the end of February, we had all the user stories and about 140 screens. They mapped every click and every button. We did a month of adding color. We moved from a gray wireframe down to the look and feel of the app in terms of color, font, etc. Once all that was done, the design phase was over and we moved into the architecture implementation. The final phase is the live support once the app is live.

We don’t have a website. We went app only to begin with for Android and iOS. We built them in parallel. They did end-to-end testing from server and API all the way to if every click on a button does what it’s supposed to do. They also tested the payment infrastructure.

What is the team composition?

In the design phase, there were 3–4 people. In the implementation phase, we had up to 16 people ranging from UI/UX designers to help with any tweaks during sprints, full time server developers, full time dev ops people, three developers for each app, and QA. 

How did you come to work with itCraft?

I started with a Google search. They came up quite high on Clutch. I took the top five on Clutch and compared it to the results on Google. Then, I emailed each company. Next, I started tracking what kind of responses I got; I reviewed if the response was timely, fast, to the point, if the person were of a technical capacity or not, their level of English, or if they wanted a Zoom meeting to better understand.

At every point of the process, I ranked them from 1–5. We narrowed it down to three companies, and we chose itCraft from that pool. They were very professional in answering every question I had. That helped build my confidence. They went above and beyond.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent £150,000–£200,000 (approximately $208,000–$278,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the development in March 2020. The first live version of the app was made available at the end of July 2020. Since July 2020, there was another six months of change requests based on user feedback. Since April 2021, it’s been more support that they provide with bugs or we want to introduce a new feature.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

People like the app. We have small user groups. The biggest challenge we had was COVID-19. We had low adoption of the app. We have one user group that has been with us and we can see the ups and downs.

We’ve onboarded a school to help them deal with second hand item sales. It’s anything from uniforms to books and accessories. That user group uses the app quite a lot. The feedback from them is quite positive. The general feedback has nothing to do with the app. It’s more about transaction volumes. There isn’t any criticism on the app or that it doesn’t work. As a business, COVID-19 hurt us a lot.

Acting as CTO and overseeing every aspect of the implementation, I know how hard it is to build from scratch. From 1–10, I give them an 11 on this. I’m taking into account that three weeks after we started development, the entire team got scattered across five cities in Poland. Nobody planned for COVID-19. They’ve done above and beyond.

How did itCraft perform from a project management standpoint?

The schedule was quite tight. Since COVID-19, we switched to Slack, Google Hangouts and calls, and Zoom. There were some challenges in terms of the design and visualizing, but we managed and they managed. We were about three weeks past the original timeline but when you take COVID-19 into account, that’s fabulous.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They stand by their promises. The communication has been excellent. They find time for us whenever we need them. We signed a fixed price contract with them and then the pandemic happened. We had problems with the payment gateway solution that we, as founders, decided to use. That was new to them. They haven’t tried to renegotiate the contract. They haven’t tried to ask for more money. They took any problems we had as their mistake and kept delivering.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you use any external development team to build the product, be clear to them that you need them to map or explain to you how you would move from their developers to in-house developers. Make sure you put it as a deliverable in their side.