Perpetual

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager of a financial services firm that delivers news and data products to customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We were retiring a website that was developed a number of years ago. We had to rebuild it completely from scratch. We wanted a new UI based on Amazon Web Services (AWS). We didn’t have the resources to develop the frontend application in the timeframe we wanted.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We brought them in to do the UI/UX work as well as the web development. Our site is a video website and is heavily video based. They have the expertise and knowledge about how to develop such websites. They were working with APIs that we have available, as well as embedded video players to rebuild the site.

They used Ruby on Rails based on AWS. They used video technology from a company called Kaltura. They were working with the Kaltura video player and API to develop the overall experience.

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with Amish (Head of Product Development, Perpetual), who is the head of the team. He was the project and product manager. We also worked with Matthew (Product Designer, Perpetual), who was the head developer, and there were some other developers involved.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

Our company has historically worked with Perpetual but our specific team hadn't. We found them through prior business arrangements and word of mouth. Historical knowledge and expertise is why we went with Perpetual.

How much have you invested with them?

$25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January 2015 until July 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re very happy with how the platform performed. It was developed in a very short period of time, so we weren’t sure whether it would stand the test of time, but it certainly has. The developers who have taken it over are very happy with how it’s performing. We haven’t had to really make any changes at all from their original deployments. We’re very happy with how it’s working.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

The project management is pretty good. We mainly worked with Amish—he was our project manager in that phase. We shared documents online to track timelines and open tickets. We had an open view into the work they were doing. They were very open and transparent, which is what we needed because we had very strict timelines to meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the UI/UX is very impressive. We gave them free rein to develop the website as they saw fit in the timeframe. They came up with a UI/UX that was very unique and novel in that short time. To then meet that design with good development was also very impressive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Transparency is crucial. Communicate the ideas that you have and show them to them clearly and quickly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Obsess. We’re a startup building an augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) platform for experiential shopping. We help brands and retailers create beautiful 360° web and mobile-based AR/VR experiences.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We wanted to redesign our website. Our previous website was a single Squarespace website. We’re a software as a service (SaaS) platform, and most SaaS platform websites are pretty boring and standard. We cater to the fashion, home, and lifestyle industries, and I wanted our website to be really beautiful and interactive. I wanted to do the design part very collaboratively because I had the aesthetic direction of where I wanted to go but not the skills to do the design. We don’t have anyone on our team that does web development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built us a WordPress website. One feature is directly related to VR. Our landing page has a 360° image at the top. That’s a part of our product and we wanted to give a teaser of it. Perpetual implemented a custom 360° viewer that works on desktop as well as on mobile. As you move your phone around, the 360° image moves.

We focus on mobile AR/VR and we wanted to have a lot of videos showing inside an iPhone X, which was complicated. We have a lot of auto-playing videos on the site and the ability to turn sound on and off. On mobile, it has to work differently because you can’t auto-play videos. It was a complex implementation because we wanted it to be so visual, interactive, video-based, and 360° image-based.

SEO was part of the website development as well. We had the number two Google ranking for virtual reality shopping platform or augmented reality shopping platform with our old site, which was just a single page. We wanted to maintain and improve that search ranking. They implemented a special plug-in in WordPress that helped us custom-set every field that we wanted, and they advised us on how to do the rest of the SEO.

They also implemented the capability to schedule a demo through our website and to sign up for the newsletter. We get an email every time somebody signs up for a demo and it is also saved into a spreadsheet.

What is the team composition?

We had one designer, one developer, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

They were highly recommended by someone who had worked with them. We looked at 2–3 other teams. We ended up going with Perpetual who was local because, after I talked to their designer, I felt he was great and we could work in a very collaborative way. This was so design-intensive and I really wanted to make the design really innovative and unique.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from December 2017–February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our experience was really good. The website is live. They were able to capture what I was looking for, making the website alive, different, unique, modern, and interactive. They translated that design very well for mobile. I was impressed with the implementation. They took on all of our complicated pieces and delivered everything on time.

We now have the number one Google ranking for virtual reality shopping platform or augmented reality shopping platform with our new site. The site was much easier to optimize for SEO.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

We met with the designer initially and we were all on Slack. We used Google Sheets to track the status. There were no communication issues. They were responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were really comprehensive in their approach. They advised on all the things related to the website. They created a unique experience that represented our brand, our offering, and how we wanted to position it in the marketplace. They were able to capture that to my satisfaction.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Describe your business objective to them. They will give you ideas after they learn about our business. If you collaborate with them in the design process, it can help both the client and them implement it in a much better way. The more you work together, the better result you’ll get.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and director of WhetstoneX. We provide army education courses online.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Perpetual?

I hired Perpetual to complete a detailed prototype of an online course with sample content for an Army First Aid course.

What were your goals for this project?

My goal for this project was to create a compelling user interface with a course structure in place to show the design aspects of what we intended to achieve. We hoped this would win us a to contract to build a $1 million AUD military course.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We chose them because they had extensive experience in online education, particularly with EdX.

Describe the project in detail.

The project was designed to provide a clickable interface for a military course called Army First Aid. This involved a detailed design phase, design meetings, and several iterations of the prototype. The prototype incorporated all of our technical military requirements, including an instructor interface, a student dashboard, video link requirements, and online testing modules. A secondary product included detailed online course descriptions with a video explaining how to use the product.

What was the team composition?

The team composition consisted of a UX designer, an engineering team, and a project manager. The project manager was instrumental in setting design objectives and meeting key project milestones. I met with the designer and the project manager in person; they were technical and quick to understand and deliver the product.

The build phase test team consisted of a UX designer, two frontend software engineers, three Python software engineers. For the deploy phase, which lasted two months, we had a UX designer, a frontend software engineer, and two Python software engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

The demo they made is no longer available online, but as a prototype, it was outstanding in its quality and had a unique UX style.

How effective was the project management?

Their project management was excellent, from accuracy of work the schedule, to communications and leadership. They completed the work within a tight timeline and managed expectations effectively as it progressed.

The final product's quality was amazing. Our submission beat 29 companies and was considered as one of three finalists. I was told our design was the best, but we did not win the competition due to pricing.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They deliver what they say they will. The company completed exactly what they said they would to standards that were above expectations. Overall, I found them to be incredibly easy to work with and really fast and accurate with requests.

What tips or recommendations do you have?

My tip is to engage them early. Tell them what you need, not how to do it, and they will deliver. I have strong confidence in them and would use them again.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our business develops products for the wealth management space. I’m involved with product management.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We needed help in rebuilding our user interface.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual redesigned the UI for our .NET-based web app which functions as a news viewer. They designed the entire user interface, built the mockups, listened to client feedback, created a detailed spec, and participated in the entire development cycle.

We went into the project very quickly because our app had already been in place for 10 years. They completely redesigned it without breaking the underlying foundation which all our users come through.

What is the team composition?

Amish [Head of Product Development, Perpetual] was our main point of contact, and he had a designer, developer, and one other person on his team.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

Amish has worked on a number of projects across our firm. We needed to develop our product quickly. He was also familiar with the application in which our news app was going into, and the fact that he knew how to integrate it was a skill we valued.  We didn’t consider anyone else. He had the skills and was already working with our team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We needed to turn it around very quickly, and Amish was able to do it. It went from concept to established project in a matter of two weeks. The redesign is in QA testing right now. We plan on deploying in another month.

Users have received the platform extremely well. We’re very excited about how well it’s performing. We haven’t experienced any technical issues.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very responsive. They worked 24/7. We had threads going back to 11:00 at night where Amish was still online. His responses were very good and well-thought out. He didn’t just respond through his phone, but was actually online.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Amish’s team came up to speed very quickly. The mockup phases provided visibility into the end product. Once we approved it, he was very organized in keeping track of everything. They quickly built very detailed specs, including one that was 125 pages long.

They also participated in the development process. His team now participates in QA and logs bugs directly into Jira. They also validate this data and educate the developers on how to implement things. Amish is very talented and innovative.

They are experts in UI development. They were also really good at moving team members in and out as we needed them during the process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any suggestions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The biggest thing is being able to see the designs very quickly. Tools such as InVision allow next-day visibility and prevents anyone from having to go through the project blindly. This also allows for quick feedback and more easily facilitates an Agile process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a co-founder and CEO of an information security startup. We provide professional services in information security. We also develop products in information security to handle certain enterprise functions in a much more secure way.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We were contacted by my client who needed a solution in the information security space to deal with medical devices. This was an area in which we required particular expertise at a medical device level and understandings of some device protocols and lower-level data flows. We didn't have that specific expertise and it would take some time for us to pick it up. I reached out to them because they did have that, and they understood these issues much better than we did.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had to invent technology for my client. He wanted us to create a little black box that sat between a medical device and a hospital's IT network. We created the software that would be installed on the black box to do the monitoring of data going between the hospital IT network and the medical device to make sure the data is secure and encrypted. We had to research and invent software and capabilities that could do that.

What is the team dynamic?

There were two resources assigned to the project: One primary engineer who did a good deal of the research, and one architect/senior project manager who did some of the research and also helped manage the time involved, the scheduling, and some of the coordination. From a technical side, they probably had more than a half resources and a quarter for project management.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

I found them through my professional network.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $40,000 to $50,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from August to December 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My client had some trouble understanding the broader picture of how such technologies work and how they could live in a hostile IT environment. They had some misunderstandings about alternate requirements that they wanted to create.

Perpetual's professional focus was awesome in the sense that they actually understood and were able to test various scenarios that we could use. They then brought them back to the client to explain how different possibilities could work to clarify the picture that ultimately should have been clarified by the client themselves.

I was very satisfied with Perpetual in terms of the creativity that they brought, some of their solutions, and ultimately their professionalism as well: how they attended meetings and reported their time. I was quite pleased with what they did.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They were good. We had client issues; the client would sometimes change dates and we would have to adapt to that. Despite that, they were quite on time and we knew how we were paying them and where the budget was going. It was quite organized.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very creative folks. They stick to their word and deliver what they say they will. I had a good comfort level in depending on them doing this kind of work. That was a very positive thing. Not everyone delivers exactly as planned or as they say, but Perpetual do it quite well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing that I can think of. Things were positive. The client had questions that would come up, but nothing on their side.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of one of the leading education companies in Vietnam. We focus on English language training and critical thinking skills development for students 5–18 years old.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We were looking for a learning management system solution. We needed it to cover administrative tasks for our school, help us create different types of learning activities, and create semi-personalized students experiences. We decided to look for a vendor to work with us in building an Open edX platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our model is unique in that we include parent information in the student experience. Perpetual’s UX designer flew to Vietnam for a few weeks to interview Vietnamese parents, students, and teachers. We customized the platform for the parents to include the Vietnamese language and simplified what they could track in terms of student progress. We wanted the students to have a personal vocabulary box where they could click back and receive auto-generated exercises. This was a technical and design challenge that was not an off-the-shelf solution.

When users go to the platform, they receive personalized content and can highlight vocabulary words they wish to learn. The system uses this information to self-generate different types of exercises. We’re building an online/offline integrated experience.

What is the team composition?

Their team provided a designer, a technical architect, and a business analyst to work together with our curriculum developers.

Matthew [Product Designer, Perpetual] and the main business analyst were both key team members.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

I found them on a website’s list of companies that build learning management systems with an Open edX base. Perpetual’s portfolio had visible clients and schools in both India and Africa. It showed me that they could set up different environments other than in a U.S. K–12 or university setting. We are neither of those, so a flexible partner was important to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our pilot courses have used this platform. There are about 100 students and 100 Vietnamese parents using the site. This year, we need Perpetual’s continuous support to roll it out to the entire school of more than 15,000 students. It’s exciting.

Working with Perpetual is comforting because they know this is an MVP (minimum viable product] but that we want to evolve into bigger things later on. We had to take this into consideration when making certain product revisions or prioritizing some things over others. Amish [Head of Product Development, Perpetual] was very supportive.

The students love that they now have more learning resources. There are a couple of minor design features that we still want to improve to make them more child-friendly. It’s also not as colorful as we wanted. We are making continuous improvements. The parents also like it a lot because they can now see what their children are doing and learning at home. They key goal that we achieved is that the platform is available anywhere, any time. This is exciting to the teams.

The next step is bringing it to more teachers and establishing more content creators within our school network. We have more than 200 teachers. It will be very interesting for us from the school perspective to see how that happens.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

There were weekly catch-up calls during the first couple of months. Afterwards, our project exploded with features, and many weren’t on a parallel workflow. I provided feedback to the team that wasn’t efficient at the time because we only had a weekly, one-hour phone call. I may have forgotten what I designed and they weren’t able to keep track. Perpetual’s business analyst then set up a tool where I could track development and the different sprints to see exactly what stage each feature was at, which was really helpful.

The main business analyst keeps in daily contact to answer all of our questions. Our curriculum developers aren’t tech-savvy at all, but she helps to make sure everyone is at the same level of understanding. As they develop the content, she doesn’t mind working with us on minor details or connecting us to their technical architect for the bigger solutions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They created a few video recaps and instructions for me and our content development team to transition us into how to use the platform from the studio/content development perspective. The fact that they went ahead and really worked with the end user exceeded my expectations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a lot of technical challenges with our requests. Generally, every 1–2 weeks we saw the development and went through with further iterations. It’s not like everything was documented in a user request and then built upon. We worked together as one team. In terms of their time management and budget, they could’ve been more aggressive. The collaborative aspect was good, but was also time consuming when it came to testing and making improvements.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of ProctorU. We watch people take tests online with webcams and microphones.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We needed to create an edX XBlock integration for a fairly large customer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were able to take our API and existing functionality and integrate them into the edX XBlock.

One particular challenge we faced with the end client was that we needed the core functionality to be in French. The application was originally developed entirely in French, and Perpetual had the flexibility that allowed them to handle multilingual support, which was great. We had the app reengineered to be transitioned and internationalized.

What is the team composition?

We had two project managers and two–three engineers during the initial engagement.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

We wanted to find someone who was familiar and experienced with creating edutech software—specifically edX’s XBlock platform. We did an online search for such developers, and Perpetual was one of the very few we found. We initially contacted four or five of those other listed shops, but none of them really understand what we were trying to accomplish. We ultimately ended up reaching out to Perpetual to create the integration.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent at least $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in April 2016, and the project was completed in July 2016. We also had them do some updates recently, and the relationship is ongoing as they work on other things.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All vendors advertise their technical prowess, but Perpetual actually delivers what they promise. They actually came through with a solid solution and implemented pretty much exactly what we discussed. From a technical perspective, the code is very clean, efficient, and effective. The value we’ve received from their services is great.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed really well. The communication was great, and they always kept me informed. They did a really good job estimating the project we were doing. We utilized Scrum and Agile approaches when working on user stories, tasks, and other things. As the product owner, they kept me up to date on each sprint.

They have team members both in the U.S. and India. I’ve worked with other development shops that have presence in both places, and the time difference can sometimes be an issue. However, we never experienced any issues with Perpetual. All meetings, check-ins, and communication were all convenient to me, as opposed to having to work around the time difference.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They say what they are going to do and are easy to work with. It was a good experience, and I have nothing negative to say about it. They did a really good job of understanding the requirements and scope.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can normally find things wrong with most teams, but Perpetual met my own internal development team’s expectations and integrated right into the process.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Take a look at their website and how they present themselves. The next thing to look at is their response time, how persistent or not persistent they are, and what their communication cycle is like. Take a look at how well they communicate when they are actually being spoken to, and if they recommend interviewing them and asking questions about their cycle, expertise, etc. Find out what they know.

It’s a little different for me because I have a set of expectations for my engineering team, so any outsourcer I use has to be on par with them. A lot of the stuff that is submitted has to go through and pass an internal code review before we deploy to production. Look for samples of their projects to gain an idea of what their code quality looks like, and ask them what their discovery process, software, and methodologies are. Ask about price considerations depending upon where their team and labor is sourced.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m on the operating side of an online, direct-to-consumer furniture business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We needed to create an e-commerce site to launch our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Perpetual provided both frontend and backend development for our mobile-optimized site. They used Shopify, but we had specific product needs–including an unusual amount of variance–which required a lot of customization on top of the standard Shopify template.

What is the team composition?

We've working with three people, including a manager, frontend developer, and UX designer.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

They were referred to us by a branding agency we work with. We trusted their recommendation, so we hired them and haven’t found need to work with any other developers.

How much have you invested with them?

Around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2017 and our relationship is ongoing. The site launched in September and we keep them on a retainer contract because we've had such a good experience.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Like any new website, we're constantly seeking feedback from users to optimize the UX. In terms of development, the website functions without any glitches and we've received zero complaints.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

We're very satisfied with their work. If there was ever a bug, they caught the error and fixed it immediately. We never had an issue with deadlines and they were always available.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very good at helping the client prioritize and hone in on their exact goals. They also hold themselves accountable. They've gone above and beyond, and I would very much recommend them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, no. We're really happy with their work.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The fact that they have both frontend and backend capabilities makes Perpetual a reliable partner for any startup. As an outsourced development team, they’ve been excellent.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My business is Baumer Designs, and it's a web development consulting firm. I do most of the work, but I have a few subcontractors, and we build custom software for various clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

A medical school department had hired me to build out a piece of software and I was overloaded with other client projects at the time. I subcontracted Perpetual to build out the software while I performed due diligence and oversaw the project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The software the client wanted was edX, an e-learning platform that lets students and instructors post course content. My client was repurposing it to distribute medical content to people in third world countries, so Perpetual did some custom coding in addition to the overall setup.

What is the team composition?

It wasn't a large project, so I worked with a project manager and one developer, although there was a second developer who helped out briefly.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

I had built a prototype for my client, so I knew what the project entailed. While I could have done the work myself, I didn't have the manpower nor the expertise to turn it around quickly, so I decided to reach out to a third party by drawing from edX's list of preferred coding vendors. I talked with about 5 firms before choosing Perpetual.

As someone who builds software, I know what I'm looking for. I liked their owner's technical background and straightforward manner, and he gave me good timeline estimates right away based on the detail I provided about the project. Of the vendors I reached out to, he was the most professional, and his pricing was also very fair.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent somewhere between $15,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in late August and it lasted four or five months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were installing a piece of open-source software, so about 95% of it didn't require any modification, but they handled the additional custom requirements well. The developer I worked with the most was very intelligent and produced quality work.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

They were highly communicative. They documented the project well and were clear about their handoff process. They also provided a clear timeline for deliverables and stuck to it. Everything was well-managed from their side.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The project itself was pretty straightforward, so I don't feel like this was an opportunity to really put their team to the test, but everything they did was very professional. They were responsive whenever I asked for something; their emails were concise and articulated well in terms of their needs or problems they encountered. Our process was efficient and I felt like I could trust them to deliver the work while I focused on my other projects. We didn't have to do much QA at the end, either, aside from the usual little tweaks. I've had issues with clients before where the end product doesn't feel complete or I've had to micromanage, but this went very smoothly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The project dragged on a little bit beyond our original timelines and they pushed to wrap it up quickly at the end, so I had to push back and request more time to finish my side of things before we declared it officially complete. I wouldn't say that was a negative experience, but it felt a bit forceful. It might've been due to the timing at the end of the year; they were trying to complete the project for Q4, which made sense, especially given the delay.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Finding the right vendor is tough. I'm lucky because I'm a developer myself and I can review the code or give clear, concise directions about what I need, but it's challenging for people without that background to even know where to begin. Even if you're not a developer, it helps to have somebody on your side who can check on the vendor and ensure they're on the right track. A lot of my work is actually performing due diligence on outside vendors—making sure the work proceeds properly and that the code is both logical and correct based on the demands of the project. But it can really be a crapshoot. Some of the people you get are amazing, but some are really bad. If you find someone good, hang onto their number and hire them for your next project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Turn the Wheel, an education and technology consulting company. We focus on education products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Perpetual?

We needed help in developing an online course platform for one of my clients. It’s a customized version of the Open edX platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The platform is a customized version of Open edX, which is an open source code for a learning platform where anyone can create courses. We can have our own website, but we use that underlying architecture to create courses that are available to anyone on the frontend. Anyone can customize the Open edX platform, but it takes a lot of engineering work.  

We worked with Perpetual to build the platform, but then the client wanted to try and finish the rest in house, so we had a six-month hiatus. However, the client didn’t have the expertise nor the bandwidth to complete it internally, so we went back to Perpetual to finish the project.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one project manager who was very good and responded promptly to us. There was also an entire offshore development team consisting of about three to four developers, but I didn’t spend as much time directly talking to them.

How did you come to work with Perpetual?

A trusted colleague recommended them to me.

At the time, we’d looked at a couple of other firms, but none were very responsive or seemed to have the same amount of Open edX development experience.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent around $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from September of 2016 to July of 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were able to build a functioning platform that allows admins to build courses into the back end and students to take courses on the front end. In other words, Perpetual successfully implemented the underlying course creation architecture (which includes features such as multiple-choice questions, HTML, polls, videos).

However, we weren’t able to finish some of the customized features, such as a dashboard that showed students’ progress in every course, because other issues came up that the client’s internal team couldn’t fix. This was supposed to be a joint effort between Perpetual and the client’s internal team, so when the internal team didn’t have the expertise to do something, Perpetual took over. The internal team was very happy with Perpetual and voiced how they couldn’t have deployed the customized Open edX platform without them. Unfortunately, these issues significantly changed the scope of work and a lot of important features that we had originally agreed on did not get completed.

This really showed the importance of having a technical expert liaise with the product visionary (me, in this case) to prioritize development efforts and manage everyone working on the project to make sure that the most important features are implemented. The changing scope of work was communicated to the internal team but not to me, so I was caught off-guard to hear that some features wouldn’t be implemented.

How did Perpetual perform from a project management standpoint?

I met with Perpetual’s project manager once a week to review development progress. We would test new features during the call, which would last 1-2 hours.

It would have been more efficient for the project manager to have a crystal clear understanding of what we needed to accomplish so that she could test features herself rather than needing me to test over the call. She would often see the new developments for the first time when we would run through them together. Whatever gets developed will have a ton of bugs, and then those bugs need to be tested and fixed. Oftentimes, when those bugs are fixed, some new bugs will develop, which requires a constant iteration process. It would have been great if the project manager could have tested these herself and flagged issues to the dev team, and then flagged for me only the features that she believed were working accurately so that I could test and approve only those rather than me going through every feature every time and finding all sorts of new bugs.

This way, the call can be maximized so that we focus only on approving completed features and defining the next development sprints.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their transparency was really helpful, and it was impressive how quickly they responded. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

If they understand what things should look like, then they will develop it. It’s a matter of clear communication and checking in, as well as iteration. I can’t think of anything they could improve on because they have the project manager. It could be their responsibility to try and improve things, but if I were to do this over again, I would make sure there were more resources dedicated to them versus them trying to do anything different.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

One piece of advice I would give anyone working with any development company is that they need someone with technical expertise to manage them. They are like a machine, so it’s up to the client to make sure they are doing what is needed. Clients won’t know if the product is turning out as envisioned without a ton of communication.

It’s important to know what language they are planning to use, as well as what their stack and database are. This allows visibility into whether the company or developer is going to create the project in a lean, seamless way that allows for future builds. Talk to developers who have done this before to know what key questions need to be asked, and then figure out who will go about it the best way.