Remedy Product Studio

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company does sports oriented analytics; we provide our services for various groups. I am the chief technology officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Remedy Point Solutions?

Since we’re a startup, we do not have much room to make mistakes. We needed to make sure we can move fast without bringing new employees on, and we needed to have our code work done quickly and efficiently.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project was driven by us and we applied some of the requirements. The language used for development was PHP. It was a specification that would host some analytics data and visualize that differently for different customers. They did front-end and backend work, as well as database work for us under our direction. We managed the scope of work that needed to be done and they delivered implementation for that.

How did you come to work with Remedy Point Solutions?

The company was chosen before I joined.

How much have you invested with Remedy Point Solutions?

It’s an ongoing development. We spent an average of $50,000 per month on the project. In the future, we will expand the development but on a different scale. We’ve been using that company for over three years developing various systems. Not just the one that’s the primary focus for the company, but also supporting components. We have spent roughly $300,000 per year with Remedy Point Solutions.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started shy of six years ago. There was a different company before that, and then we switched to Remedy Point Solutions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I don’t have anything.

How did Remedy Point Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

We do not use external project management; we have that on our end. We utilize Remedy Point Solutions as an extension to our team.

What did you find most impressive about Remedy Point Solutions?

I know they’ve been working with some other big startups where they’ve made a big impact on the companies they’ve done work with.

Are there any areas Remedy Point Solutions could improve?

We use them in a unique way. I can’t comment on that. So far our engagement has been really productive.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

It's a new travel map company. We were founded in March [2016]. I am the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Remedy Point Solutions?

I had an idea for a startup company back in March, I don't have the technical background to build the website and mobile application. They've been my technical partner since inception. They've built a fully functional social network-type website that has integrated map-based functionality as well as the first version of iOS mobile app so users can use my service on the go.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We focused mostly on the website, the web side of our services is a mapping tool that they built on top of a Google Maps API. It's a way for our users to visualize how they would sightsee in a city. There's a tool that's open to the public to go in and create sightseeing routes, upload photos, and comment on other people's content. What we're trying to do is build a robust community of local and tourist experts who can provide sightseeing advice. Remedy Point was great in that they sought to understand what I was trying to do, even before we went under contract. They were very robust in their proposal process talking about features that they thought were very important for the MVP [minimum viable product] versus what was more important to build out later.

They helped me craft the scope of what I was trying to do. During the last five months [as of November 2016], we've really enhanced the initial version, and they've served as both a technical partner and a strategic partner. In addition to the developers – both for the front and backend website services as well as mobile – they also provided a project manager who helped manage the different work streams as well as being a sounding board and a strategic partner for what I was trying to do. They were transparent in how long it would take to build out the separate features, which was very helpful for me to manage my budget and pick what was important and what could wait.

How did you come to work with Remedy Point Solutions?

I've been in startups for a while, so I talked to other founders and learned through their processes. It came down to that they were a recommendation from a COO [chief operating officer] of another startup. I vetted them, I engaged with five different development companies and did in-depth interviews with three.

What stood out about Remedy Point was the effort that they put into their proposal and their transparency about pricing and timing. More than any of the other vendors I talked to, they came at me with a very detailed Excel list of all the features that we had discussed when I brought the idea to them. There were also some other things that they went back and brainstormed about how they would work – that I might be interested in. They also listed some of the things that I thought were probably important but that they suggested holding off on because they would be technically challenging and they thought  would provide less value to my users.

From the very beginning, they had a very detailed approach to how they thought this could play out. Remedy pushed back and said some of these things are going to be expensive to do and probably aren't going to provide as much value as you think so you might want to hold off. The fact that they didn't try to oversell and upsell every feature to build out their cost base was reassuring.

How much have you invested with Remedy Point Solutions?

It would be in the $10,000 to $50,000 bracket.

What is the status of this engagement?

It's ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I was on the phone with a CEO of another tech company – one that I'm invested in. He called me last night and said he was looking at the latest release of Walkli. He was going through and giving me detailed feedback and said overall this looks great.

How did Remedy Point Solutions perform from a project management standpoint?

It was very good. I have a project manager. Having a dedicated project manager who translates the business need into the technical need has been helpful. The project manager helps manage everyone's time and scope which has been helpful.

What did you find most impressive about Remedy Point Solutions?

Through the proposal process and the scoping process, they were just far more thoughtful than the other people that I talked to. I thought RPS really differentiated themselves just in the thoughts that they put into how they would scope this and what they thought was important as well as asking many business questions as opposed to just purely technical questions. The other thing – and this is comparing my experience with RPS against some experiences that other startups that I'm familiar with have had with their tech guys – is after we finished the MVP, all the work has been hourly based. RPS has been very good at being transparent about how long different features will take to build and we have that discussion before we start the work. In terms of managing my budget, they've been good at providing reasonable estimates for the amount of time that something should take.

Are there any areas Remedy Point Solutions could improve?

Overall, I think they're doing a good job, and I'm happy with them. Life happens, I just ask them to be transparent about things as they come up, and they've been relatively good about that.