MicroPyramid

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of a consulting agency.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MicroPyramid?

I was looking for technical expertise that we could add to our development team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

MicroPyramid acts as an extension of our in-house team. They’ve worked together to create additional features for our existing products. Their developers used Python and Angular to help create our application, including single sign-on (SSO) functionality.

What is the team composition?

MicroPyramid assigned 2–3 resources to our team, including one project manager who has worked on most of the projects.

How did you come to work with MicroPyramid?

They were referred to us by friends who had worked with them previously.

How much have you invested in them?

So far, we have invested about $250,000 in their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in June 2016, and the work is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our internal team has received their work positively.  

How did MicroPyramid perform from a project management standpoint?

They quickly understand the functionality of our products. We’ve also seen how their performance and technical competence compare to that of our onsite team. We track all the requests through Basecamp, which has metrics that we use to gauge development efforts.

What did you find most impressive about them?

MicroPyramid has good developers with excellent technical skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everything is good, but they could improve when it comes to making their code ready for production.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure they understand the importance of how the product goes to production. They have to take the deadline that is set and push to meet it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the marketing director of an online music lesson website. We hire professional musicians to record music lessons, then we deliver them to our clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with MicroPyramid?

We wanted to update our website and launch a new brand identity. We were working with a different agency, but the site wasn’t turning out how we’d hoped, so we looked for a different partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

MicroPyramid worked on the site’s frontend and backend, giving it new usability features and integrating the site with the new brand. They mainly did development work, but we did some design work together. They took the layout of our previous site and built an entirely new one from scratch.

We currently only provide HD videos, but MicroPyramid is working on a solution to provide multiple resolutions, so our customers with a slower internet connection can still access the videos. They also enabled the backend to track client data, letting us know who’s accessing which lessons. We recently implemented a subscription-based payment option, and MicroPyramid helped integrate that into our site. We can also access and edit customer accounts, allowing us to give free lessons as loyalty perks. For our affiliate program, people can now feature us on their own websites, and we can track who they send to us. MicroPyramid also helps with minor repairs and bug fixes.

What is the team composition?

We had two main points of contact. But we knew the team well and could just directly contact whoever we needed to talk to.

How did you come to work with MicroPyramid?

We found them on Upwork and hired them for a trial project. It went well, so we have a long-term partnership now.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $5,000–$10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this project from July–October 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our customers think the new site is a lot cleaner and easier to use than the previous one. The video screen is bigger, and the different resolutions should make the user experience even better.

How did MicroPyramid perform from a project management standpoint?

They used a variety of tools to manage the project, including Pivotal Tracker and Trello. Communication was always good, and they were easy to reach. I’ve sent emails on Sunday afternoon and gotten a response within minutes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were committed to their work and passionate about the projects they started. They were skilled in numerous different types of technology.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would’ve appreciated them speaking up if they thought there was a better technical solution. They probably just assumed we’d done our research, but they had experience that could’ve informed our decisions.