Northern Node

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Pre-Sales Engineer and Software Developer of EmberMail

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Cold Outreach made easy

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Northern Node to accomplish?

1. Build a robust and scalable web platform for our email automation services.
2. Implement AI-driven personalization features to enhance user experience.
3. Ensure our platform meets stringent cybersecurity standards.

SOLUTION

How did you find Northern Node?

Referral

Why did you select Northern Node over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Northern Node were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Northern Node was responsible for the full development of our EmberMail web platform, which included back-end development, front-end interface design, and integrating AI-powered email recommendation systems.

Key deliverables included a fully functional, secure web application, AI-driven content personalization, and daily performance reports to track project progress.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Northern Node delivered a fully operational platform that increased user engagement by 25% within the first month.

Additionally, the AI-driven personalization features resulted in a 40% improvement in email open rates. All performance metrics were tracked daily and reported weekly, showcasing a clear upward trajectory.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Northern Node’s project management was exceptional. They consistently met deadlines and delivered all items on time. Their responsiveness to our needs, whether for minor tweaks or major updates, was prompt and efficient. We always felt informed and supported throughout the process.

What was your primary form of communication with Northern Node?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The level of transparency was unparalleled. Northern Node provided daily and weekly reports that broke down individual and team performance, giving us complete visibility into the project’s progress.

Their dedication to maintaining clear communication and delivering high-quality work was impressive.

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

Nothing! I would suggest nothing for improvement—Northern Node exceeded our expectations across the board.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Lingopie

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Lingopie is a language learning application that uses TV shows and movies to teach. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Northern Node to accomplish?

• Build out back-end features that we lacked the internal resources to com
• Add new functionality to our applications to enhance user experience and capabilities.
• Augment our internal team with experienced developers and AI engineers to meet project demands efficiently.

SOLUTION

How did you find Northern Node?

Referral

Why did you select Northern Node over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned
• Other

How many teammates from Northern Node were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Northern Node was hired to augment its development team with six developers: two front-end developers, two back-end developers, and two AI engineers. The primary objective was to support Lingopie in building critical back-end features, enhancing front-end functionality, and integrating AI capabilities into our platform.

Objectives:

1. Build out essential back-end features that Lingopie did not have the internal resources to
   complete.
2.  Add new functionality to the frontend of our web platform to improve user experience.
3. Implement AI-driven features to enhance the capabilities of Lingopie’s platform.
4. Provide ongoing staff augmentation through six highly skilled developers (frontend,
   backend, and AI engineers).

Detailed Scope:

1. Backend Feature Development: 
   • Objective: Complete critical backend features to support platform functionality.
   • Deliverables:
     • Design and implement backend services and APIs to support new and
       existing features.
     • Optimize database performance and implement scalable solutions
     • Integration of third-party services and data sources as needed.
     • Thorough unit testing and quality assurance for backend systems.
   • Milestones:
     • Backend infrastructure improvements completed in the first phase.
     • End-to-end integration testing and optimization in the second phase.
2. Frontend Feature Enhancement: 
   • Objective: Enhance the frontend of the web platform with new functionality to
     improve user engagement.
   • Deliverables:
     • Build new user-facing components based on design and feature specifications.
     • Ensure responsive design and cross-browser compatibility.
     • Collaborate with the backend team to ensure smooth API integration.
     • Conduct UAT -- user acceptance testing to validate feature usability.
   • Milestones:
     • First round of frontend features delivered within the first sprint.
     • Final frontend functionality release by the end of the project timeline.
3. AI Feature Development: 
   • Objective: Implement AI-driven features to enhance Lingopie’s platform functionality.
   • Deliverables:
     • Development of AI models and algorithms to improve content delivery and personalization.
     • Integration of AI features into the existing platform.
     • Regular performance testing and fine-tuning of AI models.
     • Support for post-launch iterations and improvements based on user feedback.
   • Milestones:
     • AI models prototyped within the first few weeks.
     • Integration of AI features in the middle to later stages of the project.
4. Staff Augmentation: 
   • Objective: Provide six highly skilled developers (2 frontend, 2 backend, 2 AI
     engineers) to augment Lingopie’s internal team.
   • Deliverables:
     • Immediate onboarding of developers to align with Lingopie's project timeline.
     • Daily and weekly reports on developer progress, tasks completed, and deliverables. Along with proof of work.
     • Ongoing communication to adapt team size or skills based on project needs.
   • o Milestones:
     • Full integration of all six developers within the first week.
     • Ongoing progress assessments and adjustments to ensure timely project
       delivery.

Key Deliverables Summary:

• Fully developed and tested backend services and APIs.
• Enhanced frontend features delivered with a focus on user experience.
• AI-driven features integrated into Lingopie’s platform.
• Six developers (2 frontend, 2 backend, 2 AI engineers) working as an extension of Lingopie's team.
• Regular updates and reports to ensure project transparency and smooth execution.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Thanks to the additional developers, measurable outcomes included faster delivery with high-quality code. We saw a significant increase in development velocity, and key features were completed ahead of schedule. Daily and weekly proof of work and performance reviews -- at both individual and team levels -- were crucial for monitoring progress and building trust with the teams. 

These detailed reports ensured transparency, providing insights into the team's efficiency and the overall success of the services Northern Node provided. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Northern Node's project management was highly efficient. They consistently delivered items on time or even ahead of schedule and were very responsive to our needs. Their communication was clear and proactive, allowing for quick adjustments when necessary. The team's ability to adapt to changing project requirements while maintaining high quality was impressive. Daily and weekly updates provided full transparency, which was crucial to our daily standups and project status reports to management.

What was your primary form of communication with Northern Node?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

What impressed me most about Northern Node was their hyper-transparency and commitment to quality. Their daily and weekly performance reports provided clear insights into progress, making it easy to stay on top of the project. 

The CEO, Alexander, also made himself available at several stages to help with team integration and technical challenges. It was clear that there was a lot of pride in the work they provided, and their proactive communication and ability to adapt ensured a smooth and successful collaboration. Northern Node exceeded expectations with their skilled team, timely delivery, and clear communication, making them an easy recommendation for any project.

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

Although we didn’t initially expect it, having more UI/UX experts would have been helpful. That said, the team delivered excellent results, and the overall experience exceeded our expectations.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP R&D of Sparx.ai

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

AR and VR solutions for the real-estate and furniture companies markets.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Northern Node to accomplish?

• Initiate an R&D teams
• Lead the R&D teams
• Develop the main products of the company

SOLUTION

How did you find Northern Node?

Referral

Why did you select Northern Node over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Northern Node were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We started to work with Northern Node right from the beginning and they still help us a lot in developing the main website, backend and mobile applications. 
They showed extreme professionalism from the start, the communication was always easy and productive.
During the recent year they helped us build 3 websites and a serverless backend that are all currently being used widely in production. In addition, they helped us tailor a state of the art AR apps for iPhone and iPad and were able to come up with solutions to complex mathematical and logical problems. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

As the company built our entire products from scratch, out measurements were:

1. Having all required products and features in production.
2. For the AR iOS apps - have extended sessions with no drifts.
3. The ability to download many 3D models quickly.
4. The ability to steam images and videos.
5. Having a dedicated server with minimum latency, error and maximum response time.

More outcomes where to establish a good and personal relationship with the employees and the ability to persist a positive and stable working environment.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Yes, they are always on time and work extra hours if needed.

What was your primary form of communication with Northern Node?

• In-Person Meeting
• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The accountability and professionalism over many different types of technologies. 

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

I cannot think of any

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Kamatera

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

global cloud services platform provider, providing enterprise-grade cloud infrastructure products to organizations of all types and sizes since 1995

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Northern Node to accomplish?

• rebuild existing site with better performance
• implement new redesign with performance oriented (SEO driven)

SOLUTION

How did you find Northern Node?

Referral

Why did you select Northern Node over others?

• Close to my geographic location
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Northern Node were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

rebuild full purchased site including the building of full spec for recommended infrastructure changes in hosting and DB usage. the aim was to put the new site in the top level of performance needed for SEO purposes following vertical needed parameters for that matter including changes in page schemes and full redesign for the site, the project included a change in hosting and redoing DB. the work focus from Northern node was being a focal point for the project both for internal and external dev team with full reposnsability for all dev ops operation. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

fulfil redesign, improved metrics on various performance tools (lightspeed, etc), site performance, DB improved metrics. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

immediate repsonse ALWAYS, adhering to project objectives and ongoing progress reports including periodic updates between deadlines and milestones. the project had some level of complexity in the form of the need to cummunicate with various inner team members and coordinating work with and by the Northern team with external groups (mainly Dev Ops). this was handled elegantly and with great communication level to all parties involved which made it much more fluent in understanding bottle necks and getting the project back on track when we met some delay in the project. 

What was your primary form of communication with Northern Node?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their communication and professionalism are some of the main things that differentiate this company from others. this was a perfect match to what we needed in order to extract the best cooperation from our internal team that supported the project needs. 

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

in a way being to methodic might be straining some on the inner team if they are not fully used to work that way in a project....

our team had to raise the bar in terms of our standarts of planning and specing in advance in order to maximize the output of the cooperation, which was a good thing for us by itself. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director of products innovation of Caja Robotics

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are providing full end to end solution for warehouse automation from robots to software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Northern Node to accomplish?

• To boost our team of software developer
• To augment the knowledge and skills of our team
• To implement machine and deep learning in our system with experts

SOLUTION

How did you find Northern Node?

Referral

Why did you select Northern Node over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Northern Node were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The cooperation with Northern Node began early 2023 when we had difficulty hiring people to our software development team, especially hiring highly talented people with knowledge on AI, deep reinforcement learning in particular. The contract was 3-fold:

1. Augmentation of our team of "regular" developer to speed the time to market of new features. 
   1. The OKR for this topic was software engineers that worked on our system.
   2. The performance dashboard of Northern Node is great to track the performance of every individual.
2. Development of new AI-based feature with their team of highly skilled engineers. 
   1. The OKR for this was new systems AI-based to manage the flows and processes of the warehouse, people working there and robots travelling the alleys.
   2. The Northern Node experts increased the productivity by 22% in the first year of work and ongoing.
3. Development of cyber security features in our system to comply with regultaions all over the world. 
   1. The OKR for this is to comply with every regulation our customer require.
   2. The team of Northern Node delivers in a timely manner with great success.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Northern Node built great dedicated dashboards to track the progress and success of the 3 projects we run with them. It shows very clearly the progression and sends automatic alerts of any issues which is very convenient not to have to check it every day.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The Northern Node management team is very responsive. They accomodate our needs in no time. Always delivered on time or before. 

What was your primary form of communication with Northern Node?

Virtual Meeting

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

Having worked with multiple companies that offer more or less the same services, I find Northern Node exceptional in multiple ways: their hyper transparency, responsiveness, and quality of staff. It's easy to work with the project management team.

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

We are very pleased with Northern Node services, I would recommend that they work on marketing and PR for more companies to know about them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Shaft Design Ltd

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

• We are an Israel-based e-commerce company specializing in furniture. 
• With our warehouse, we manage inventory, deliveries, returns, and customer service. 
• We handle all aspects of the process, from stock management to logistics.
• We are constantly improving our systems, our commitment to providing reliable service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Northern Node to accomplish?

• Streamline logistics — stock management, order processing, and delivery tracking.
• Automate back-office operations to reduce manual work.
• Integrate everything into a unified system for better efficiency.

SOLUTION

How did you find Northern Node?

Referral

Why did you select Northern Node over others?

• Great culture fit
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Northern Node were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We needed help organizing our logistics. Managing stock, orders, and deliveries was becoming too complicated to handle manually. As an e-commerce business, we were struggling to keep up, and we knew we needed a proper system in place.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The system they set up has been fantastic. It’s made a huge difference to how we run things on the back end. Our logistics are much more efficient now, and we spend far less time sorting out stock and orders.

It’s been a game changer. We can now manage everything much more easily, and it’s freed up time to focus on growing the business. Our deliveries are faster, and our operations are running smoothly.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

It was very smooth. They kept us in the loop without overwhelming us with technical details. The balance was just right. We had regular updates, and any questions we had were answered promptly.

What was your primary form of communication with Northern Node?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their understanding of what we needed was impressive. They knew exactly how to address our challenges, and the solution they provided was spot on.

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

Honestly, no. They did a great job, and I’m very happy with the result.