Powercode

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Levr Tech. We offer software development services to startups in Singapore and across Southeast Asia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PowerCode?

We partnered with PowerCode because it’s difficult to find freelance software engineers in our area.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We work together on a number of projects, creating MVPs, mobile apps, and assisting with migration startups. They use AngularJS and React.js for frontend development, and Node.js for backend infrastructure. They’ve also worked on databases and API development.

What is the team composition?

When we first started, I was assigned a project manager who coordinated with their developers. Recently, however, they’ve allowed me to select and manage my resources personally. This helps streamline the process.

How did you come to work with PowerCode?

I began working with them while serving as CTO with a previous company. I worked with other contractors, but found that PowerCode delivered quality products and services while meeting deadlines, so I decided to work with them when launching my current company.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested around $55,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

Including my previous company, I’ve worked with PowerCode since October 2016 and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

With their help, I was able to take on more projects and deliver results in a timely fashion. My clients often expect a turnaround of a few months – a few weeks, in some cases – and PowerCode helps me meet these tight deadlines.

How did PowerCode perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m happy with our level of communication. I use Slack internally and PowerCode has accommodated me, though we also talk through Skype. We organize projects with JIRA, Trello, and InVision.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They offer an excellent balance of cost, efficiency and quality. They produce timely deliverables to the standards of a larger company, but at relatively low costs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their English-language proficiency could be improved. It would also help if they hired more developers.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an entrepreneur providing a service for project management and idea creation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PowerCode?

We wanted to transform our startup project into an app platform that encourages users to share information. This required both design and development of mobile/web apps.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They first provided graphical blueprints of everything to lay out a plan and get ideas flowing. Most of the development they are doing is in JavaScript. The independent nature of the platform doesn’t require other system integrations as of now. However, it features user submission so the NoSQL database they built stores that information and displays it via an API.

What is the team dynamic?

I correspond with one project manager at this time. There are 1­–2 developers on the team.

How did you come to work with PowerCode?

We found them on Upwork and conducted several interviews. They provided great quotes and we found their previous work impressive.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ll say $10,000­–$50,000

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t launched yet and don’t have any metrics or user feedback. However, the owners of the site and I are very happy with the functionality.

How did PowerCode perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication-wise, their 24/7, it’s amazing really. We primarily used Skype and Jira for communication and project tracking, respectively.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Adaptation comes to mind. They’re able to implement new ideas rapidly and the baseline product is great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are features that we'd like to include that weren't thought of immediately. Aesthetically, the project could be improved. This could be prevented in the future by slowing down and personalizing more projects. Instead of trying to match other ideas, invest time in creating novel ones.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

OnBoardMe is a startup in its very early phases with an overall goal of allowing users to travel with more of an intent-driven approach, putting a twist on the regular itineraries. Through market research, we came up with the concept of focusing on users’ travel intents, or moods. By working through a series of moods, such as “feeling heart” or “forget my ex”—some more gimmicky than the others—we were able to use ‘likes’ algorithms, and start making associations in order to find out the true meaning behind all of these moods, making people resonate with them. We came up with the concept of travel boards for users, which would serve as snapshots of the destinations, with inspiration from likes on Instagram, video content, and live events they could interact with during trips.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PowerCode?

I scoped the concept out with an early founding team, and brought in PowerCode early on to create a scope of the overall project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

PowerCode has worked on our responsive web app. It runs on JavaScript and basic HTML on the frontend, and PHP on the backend. We are building native versions as well.

We looked at some of the more common code bases such as Python, but settled on PHP because it’s more common in London.

We also have third-party APIs in place. Once a user is taken through a questionnaire telling us about their trip (destination, travel mood, partners, and more detailed preferences), we will put the information into our database and make the necessary calls to our APIs, coming back with a first cut of the travel board, which is then sent to me or someone else on the team. We’ve built a CMS [content management system] on the backend, and once we receive a request, we will interact with the customer further, finding out more about the trip, or we will start building more of that board.

Within the CMS, there are additional search functionalities which allow us to look through keywords and particular APIs, giving us a dump of all results which match a particular category. From there, we will manually personalize what the user is given and send in a second draft.

We have integration with Google Maps and other services, Instagram, Facebook login/signup APIs, Facebook graph for live events, and Foursquare for additional events location services. We use Elasticsearch for querying the databases.

The design of the site was outsourced to another provider.

What is the team dynamic?

Andrey Zakharov was our project manager. He oversaw tasks around testing and management planning. We worked with three developers initially and brought the scale down as needed.

How did you come to work with PowerCode?

It was an active search during which I reviewed different profiles. We spoke to more than 20 vendors through Upwork, and PowerCode seemed to be right for the role. A key thing which I realized was that many of these companies want to look at the cost first, and the product second. While PowerCode’s team understood it was a client-provider relationship, they also felt they wanted to innovate on the product and add their own touch, rather than execute by-the-book.

Once we provided our requirements, we spent a couple of days discussing their suggestions and ideas. I liked their approach to future-proofing the concept, in terms of the technologies used. PowerCode was a natural pick, rather than other vendors.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work has been around £25,000. [$32,000]

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with PowerCode in October 2016, and finished the MVP version at the beginning of February 2017. After the launch, we held off on iterations for a time, during which I went through business validations. I had set out a clear objective of what we needed to build, but after coming to market and realizing that we weren’t churning any valuable data from users or building a customer base, we decided to iterate and improve the product. The second phase agreement was aimed at reviewing our roadmap, and continuing to build new features.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We didn’t collect analytics from the start, but have implemented Mixpanel, Google Analytics, and Intercom, which allows us to communicate with the customers visiting our page. I don’t have a before-and-after view, but we’ve received quite a bit of feedback around the site’s functionality.

How did PowerCode perform from a project management standpoint?

We wanted to work in an Agile environment, and their team was comfortable with this. We worked in 2-week sprints initially, but we realized that we didn’t have much of a heartbeat, so we moved the schedule down to 1-week sprints. There were many challenging times, working with APIs like Elasticsearch, which is a huge black hole. This did lead to delays and the need for additional sprints, but everything was discussed clearly upfront. We didn’t have any major surprises, which is why we’re still working with PowerCode.

We used the Google suite for communication, including Hangouts for live chat. We handled ticketing through Atlassian, JIRA, and made some light use of Trello as well. In order to centralize designs, we used Zeplin. There was a huge emphasis on commenting on Zeplin tickets, in terms of missing assets or misunderstandings around the site behavior.

What did you find most impressive about them?

When I kept tight control over the day-to-day operations, and micromanaged their team, I saw good performance. When I put more trust in them, and allowed PowerCode to come back with solutions to my requirements, that’s when I was most impressed.

I gave a simple requirement for the Facebook events-returning functionality; at the end of the sprint, PowerCode managed to accomplish my task, but also built additional functionalities, which made it more powerful than ever. It didn’t only return events, but looked at ones which were taking place based on city, time, and other variables, which I didn’t even know were available through Facebook Graph.

They came up with innovations, instead of just building something in order to get my money and move on to the next project. PowerCode considered what the best thing to do was.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Interaction between the developers and the client would be an improvement. I’m a business analyst by trade, and communicate with all team members, including coders. In PowerCode’s case, there could be less communication being liaised through the project manager. I find this to be an older model.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of KwickDoctor, an online app for people who can’t easily reach a doctor, especially in the Middle East.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PowerCode?

I came up with the idea, but I needed someone to formalize my business requirements and build the app and website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

PowerCode initially proposed native iOS and Android apps, but I wanted an app and a web presence. We decided to make a hybrid app, and instead of using Node, we used Meteor since PowerCode is skilled in it. They’re managing the API and integrating online video conferencing into the app.

What is the team composition?

There’s a project manager, two designers (one for web, one for the app), a UX lead, two business analysts, and three developers (one for web, two for the app).

How did you come to work with PowerCode?

I looked into a lot of companies, but a colleague recommended PowerCode. I interviewed the entire team, I liked what they offered and they fit my criteria, so I hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $25,000, and we’ll probably spend between $40,000–$50,000 by the end.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in June 2017, and it’s still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Nothing has officially launched yet, but after every sprint, PowerCode gives me a demo so I know exactly where we’re at. I created a delivery plan, and they’ve achieved every goal on time so far.

How did PowerCode perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team maintains clear and open communication and follows an efficient agile methodology. We video chat frequently and use email to stay in contact. The project manager is amazing, and we talked nearly every day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their BAs and project managers are phenomenal. They understand the project requirements completely, and they even provide in-depth feedback, which is quite impressive. They have superb business and project management skills.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not all team members can speak English well. Their understanding is good, but their communication skills could improve.

This review was updated on March 13, 2018 by the client. New content is below.

UPDATED REVIEW

What was the scope of their involvement?

They created a hybrid app and helped with APIs.

What is the team composition?

There was a project manager with two designers who handled the development. I wasn’t happy with the designers and ended up designing everything myself. They were just a development team and their designs were very basic, which I didn’t approve of.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We stopped working together in January 2018.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

The final product they delivered was developed poorly and incomplete. I wasted around $35,000 with them and received nothing. The product very basic for how much it cost. The delayed everything and failed to meet deadlines. I had to take the project away from them and hire somebody else. I ended up asking them for the codebase.

How was project management handled?

They were lacking in both their skills and ability to communicate. Only the company’s owner, the project manager, and the business analyst could speak English. I was hopeful that things would get better and that they’d respond to me on time, but they stopped communicating completely. It would take them 24 hours to respond to one Skype or Jira message. It was either a communication, competency, or cultural issue. I wasn’t happy with that team.

I want to ask the company’s owner if he really thinks a two-page project is worth $35,000 because I feel I was taken advantage of. I’m scared because they still have my codebase and passwords.

They have only basic knowledge of workflow principles. I asked the team and company owner to provide me with a complete product backlog (which I paid them for), but they only gave me a one-page list with bullet points. They have no idea what product backlog items or stories are. The project manager was incapable of doing their job. I sent them everything via emails and Skype and even asked them to do the same. Misunderstanding things a couple of times is understandable, but the language barrier caused this to happen constantly.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

I asked them to prepare a contract for me, but they didn’t because they were too busy to give us something in writing. The amount we agreed on for the minimum viable product (MVP) was $25,000, but they changed the price. I agreed to pay them more to deliver the MVP, which ended up being $35,000. The total scope was $50,000, but they took over half of that and didn’t deliver anything that was complete or meet any of the deliverables.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was updated on October 30th, 2019, by the client. The original star ratings were: Overall – 0.5, Quality – 0.5, Scheduling 0.5, Cost – 0.5, NPS – 0.5. New content is below.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of KwickDoctor, a telemedicine mobile app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with the vendor?

The growing and aging population around the globe is becoming more demanding and frustrated with their existing medical norms. They want instant medical reassurance, medical attention, and second opinions while they are on the go. This provides a very big market on a global scale that can be tapped into anywhere in the world. 

KwickDoctor is a new and improved portable mobile and web application that will provide its users with a full range of medical services. Our target user is an individual with mobile or web access that requires medical attention or associate services either locally or abroad from any geo-location. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

• Live video chat with local and foreign doctors
• Scheduling appointments with specialized doctors such as surgeons or pediatricians
• Scheduling appointments for diagnostic procedures such as X-rays, lab tests or MRI’s
• Ordering medicine for delivery or pick-up at your local pharmacy
• Easy, secure and convenient payment methods that cater to most clients
• Fully compliant with HIPAA standards to protect patient’s personal data
• Convenient storage of patient medical history that can be accessed by other doctors for future consultations

What is the team composition?

A business analyst/project manager and three full-stack developers.

How did you come to work with them?

Through a friend’s recommendation.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The cost is reasonable, but the scheduling and quality are average.

How did the team perform from a project management standpoint?

Very average performance of the team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their keenness and effort towards doing things right are impressive. Hence, I am giving them one more opportunity to fix things this time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Communication and time estimations could improve.

Any advice for potential customers?

Possibly in the future.

Company Responses

The vendor responded on March 15th, 2018.

Designs

Designs were provided from the customer's side. Despite wireframes were agreed during analysis stage, before the start of the development stage, final designs for main user flows were not agreed and not provided.

Designs changed numerous times and were updated with not agreed functionality. 

In most cases team was not even informed about updates. 

Initially customer claimed that deadline for MVP is the start of December 2017, still, the team began to receive first designs screens on January 2018. Final designs were not approved even by the end of collaboration. 

Planning

Most parts of the agreed planned work were interrupted by change requests, updates, and spontaneous ideas, that were presented as a selling point, but was not ever discussed within planning and analysis stage. 

Over cost

All over costs and corresponding timeline shifts were caused by increasing of functionality scope, and change requests. 

At the start of the 2018 team received part of designs that were not precisely relevant to existing functionality. 

The team had to overtime (it was never paid) to cover the enlarged scope of the work and implement reworked site front-end. Moreover, the last month of work wasn’t paid and was done for free. 

Communications

PM work was never paid. Most parts of communication requests were spontaneous, while team (including PM) works according to the precise schedule. 

Delivery

All repositories with code were always available for the customer.

The team even prepared instructions and run the project on the customer's machine.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO of EASE based in Ukraine

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We’d like to create a platform for he European IT industry community. The goal was to create all conditions for small and medium-sized companies to scale, develop and influence processes at the state level

SOLUTION

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

We've activelly collaborated in some common projects and already know how the team workflow set

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

The team successfully created: Website for clients CRM integration Itegration with Email system

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

• 1 Developer
• 1 QA engineer
• 1 Designer
• 1 Project Manager

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Making the IT brand of Ukraine recognizable
• Implementing development and innovative products of its residents in all spheres of life in Ukraine and the world

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

They were open in communication and always made themselves available to discuss all the project solutions and challenges

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

Their open and transparent communication and a keen eye for detail took away all my worries. Additionally, discussing the project needs was on top. The team's enthusiasm and willingness to overcome unexpected issues made our partnerships truly valuable.

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

No, not at the moment

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Director of Partnerships. We offer full-scale design and development of web, mobile, and chatbot solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed a highly-skilled team that would include a top Python development expert.

SOLUTION

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

The presence of great developers and the level of their expertise were the deciding factors.

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

As we have a good tech background, we carefully selected and auditioned every member of the project team. For several months we couldn’t find our perfect Python engineers until we met one of Powercode business developers who offered us, great candidates. One of them appeared to be perfect for our project.

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

Several technical experts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Outstanding results and skills in Python, communication, and management. When the project ended we were so satisfied with their hard and soft skills that we continued to collaborate on other projects as well.

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

During the entire work with Powercode no problem or misunderstanding occurred. Management, communication and timelines were always satisfactory and smooth. We used Jira and Slack.

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

High expertise of their tech specialists.

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

Cannot think of any right now.