Sloboda Studio

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO and Head of Product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed front end, full stack, and dev ops support for our proprietary e-commerce website. Our needs were complicated by extensive technical debt - about 75% of the code was no longer being used. We had limited budget to maintain and iterate on the website prior to our next fundraise.

SOLUTION

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

I reached out to 8 different dev studio vendors across the US and Eastern Europe and ended up choosing Sloboda. They weren’t the cheapest, but they were by far the most responsive and asked the best questions to scope our needs.

This continued throughout the engagement: they were curious, responsive, hard-working, and able to quickly get up to speed and contribute where we needed help.

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

They took on work our US-based engineering team didn’t have the bandwidth to deliver. This was a web development project using Ruby on Rails and related technologies. They participated as equals in our weekly engineering sprints, determining work assignments based on their bandwidth and skills.

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

We hired 1 full-time Front End Dev and 1 part-time Full Stack Dev who also helped with occasional DevOps needs as they came up.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sloboda delivered work at a high quality appropriate to their career experiences. They were true peer partners for our US-based team.

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

We had daily stand-ups (US morning, Ukraine late afternoon/early evening) and sprint sessions every week or two. We used Jira to track deliverables (our system already in use, they readily adopted it) and Slack for quick communications.

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

They were tenacious, curious, and determined to deliver good work. They also showed superb customer focus for us are their customer, and solid CX sensitivity for our customers. They were consummate professionals, quick to respond to our bid and our vendor vetting process, collaborative in nature, and dedicated to our success.

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

No. They exceeded our bar on every need.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a company that provides a platform where people can rent accommodations. It allows property owners to list their amenities, which vacationers can then find and book through our web-based software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?

We were trying to design a website that could make it easier for property owners to advertise their accommodations to customers. For this, we hired Sloboda.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sloboda created a web-based platform where vacationers could find accommodations in different locations. The team developed several functions to enable users to list and advertise their properties, reserve or book an accommodation, make their payments on the website itself, and leave reviews about their experience. Sloboda also created a search filter to help customers narrow down results based on their preferences. 

I provided a textual description and basic design of the website that we wanted to develop, while Sloboda used software from another company as a reference for the build. I already had the website hosting in place, so their team now only provides ongoing maintenance for us.

What is the team composition?

There were 14 people who worked with me: a team manager, a web designer, eight web developers, and several customer acquisition specialists. 

How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?

I found Sloboda through a Google search. I chose them based on past reviews of their work and based on their responsiveness during my initial consultation. I don't get in touch with a few other companies, but Sloboda was the best.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $110,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

A partnership began in December 2020 and it is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve done internal testing on the platform, and my staff and I are very happy with the design and the website flow. Though we have yet to have actual end-users test the website, we believe that the features and functionalities will be good at meeting the needs of our customers. 

How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Sloboda meets all of our expectations. We’re very satisfied with their performance. They are attentive to our needs and they respond quickly to critical questions and concerns. 

We use Figma, Slack, Google Meet, and Zoom. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Sloboda delivers a high-value product at a reasonable price. They have a good hourly rate, and it is lower than what our competitors have paid to achieve the same end. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can think of anything at the moment.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Prepare for the project in advance. If you're planning to do web development, make sure to outline everything you want to achieve before getting in touch with Sloboda. It will save you a great amount of time and money compared to if you approached the team not knowing what you're looking for.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product director of an IT company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?

I was assigned to a product development project, but we lost our backend developer. To keep the project moving, I needed a new backend developer as soon as possible.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have the frontend team, and they handle the backend development. The previous backend developer kept some of our product documentation in Notion, so we’ve given it to Sloboda Studio’s team.
 
What is the team composition?

I work with one backend Python developer. There are other developers working as well.
How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?

Our company was already collaborating with them. 

We actually had several projects going on with Sloboda Studio because our company was already collaborating with them. When I needed a new backend developer for my project, I found that it was really hard to find a full-time resource. So, I hired someone directly from Sloboda Studio because we’d had a good experience with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2021, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We were only planning to hire one person for 1-2 months, but his work has been so great that we’ve continued working with him. It’ll be really hard to let him go after we finish the MVP.

How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Our backend developer is really great at communication. If there’s a problem with a task, he always comes to me first and tells me about the potential risks. The team is satisfied with his work, too. What matters most is that we can see the stages of development and know when the feature is ready. We communicate via Slack and Jira and have two meetings per week.

What did you find most impressive about them?

This is the first outsourced person I’ve worked with. I don’t have anyone to compare him to. I’m satisfied with him.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t know what he could’ve done better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you have a pause in development and are thinking whether to wait and hire a full-time person or to use outsourced developers, I suggest that you hire an outsourced developer. You’ll save so much time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of engineering for an internet company. We’re involved in gaming. I support four different platforms for four different companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?

I needed to scale up our development team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sloboda Studio provided outsourced developers to us. In just 1–2 days, they built up a team of 5–10 people and started working.

When we start a new project, I request developers with certain skills, and then it’s completely on me to provide all the documentation onboarding that they need. I usually work with Ruby on Rails developers, Java developers, frontend developers, and React developers.

What is the team composition?

The most developers I’ve run with from Sloboda Studio at a time are 8–9. I scale up and down as needed.

How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?

I was responsible for engineering in a different group when I was working under an umbrella company, and they had two external developers from Sloboda Studio. We saw they were really good partners for us and we decided to cooperate with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $1 million with them to date.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

All of Sloboda Studio’s resources are highly motivated; I’ve never encountered anyone who wasn’t interested in working hard. It’s really fun to work with them, and I can scale the team to include any technology I want. They’re usually a bit more experienced than the in-house developers, and they perform better.

How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Our process is smooth. We try to use Sloboda Studio the same way we use in-house resources. They support me with anything I need. It’s a great setup — I can get them very quickly when the need arises.

I have a dedicated account manager that sorts out all of my issues, and we have review sessions with developers if there’s anything to improve.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re able to provide developers to me as soon as possible — and at awesome rates. They’re reliable partners.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any problems with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Understand your goals and communicate them so that they can support you in your journey. Sloboda Studio is really committed to going the extra mile. They offered to take part in some standups. They’re keen on providing high quality.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of Orange Club, a fitness studio.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?

Another company built our website but stopped working with them because the site wasn't working properly. The site had a lot of bugs and our reference links weren't working properly. We needed help from another company to fix the site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sloboda Studio fixed a lot of bugs on our website as well as the issue with our reference links. Our website has a personal cabinet where people can work with our clients. It’s a diet diary where people can find what they eat during the day and work with their managers.

They also worked on the personal cabinet as well since it didn’t work properly.  Some objects were too close to each other and they fixed the design problems. The Sloboda Studio team helped redesign most of the side, adding video content to our business page and redoing the UI/UX. Now, their team helps with ongoing maintenance and support.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact was a manager, who in turn put us in contact with a WordPress developer. All our technical questions were directed to the developer and payment questions were for the manager.

How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?

We asked our friends which companies were good in our country and they told us about Sloboda Studio. We looked at other companies as well but Sloboda Studio was the best because they had the developers we needed. Not many companies work with a website that another company built and there weren’t many WordPress developers, but they did. We were very excited to work with them

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2020 and it's ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of their work is really high. The platform works smoothly and runs without bugs. We effectively approached them with a non-functioning website. The bugs meant that it was constantly crashing. The developer understood our problems and made the site exactly how we wanted. Now, the platform is actually usable. If we find any bugs on our website, we text them and they fix them.

How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

It's been great. We use text messages and video calls to communicate. They're really fast. Anytime I need them, they’re available even if it’s at night or on the weekend.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They work quickly. If I find a bug, I text them right away. By the next day, we’re working on the bug. It’s that fast. They remember our problems and are always ready to work with us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they have nothing to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Everything was well done.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the CTO and sole developer of an IT startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?

I needed a full-stack developer to help me develop an application.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, I contacted Sloboda Studio to discuss the position that I was looking for — I basically needed a developer who can focus on my app development needs. After screening through the profiles they provided, I chose one experienced resource and interviewed her. I also spoke with her manager and looked at some of the code work she’s done in the past.

Everything seemed good to me, so I was happy to onboard her. We started the development work in October, and we’re launching the product soon. She’s been working remotely since the start of our engagement.

What is the team composition?

My main point of contact before the app development was the team’s manager. He was the one who gave me the profiles of all the qualified resources for the role I was looking for. He also joined me during the onboarding meeting with the developer, whom I am now working with.

How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?

They were referred to me by a former colleague who’s worked with them on several occasions. It seemed like a great recommendation, so I was more than happy to go with Sloboda Studio.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent about $30,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in October 2020, and the development work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m responsible for reviewing the developer’s code work, and I can be picky in the entire process. I appreciate how she quickly applies all the edits and feedback that I relay to her — it pays a lot when someone you work with takes their time to internalize and apply your feedback so they can improve their work. That alone makes me happy.

How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Google Drive to send codes and edits back and forth, and they also update me with weekly project reports. I don’t spend a lot of time looking at those because I’ve already established a good working relationship with the developer — I trust that she’ll provide me with the output I need. 

I get monthly invoices from Sloboda Studio when they check in regularly to ensure that the project is actually progressing. That’s basically all we have to do in terms of project management —  I don’t really need much from them in this aspect.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m happy to be working with a very devoted and responsible developer from Sloboda Studio’s team. She really handles my feedback well, and she cares about my vision and the product. Their admin team is also responsive when I ask for other resources to help me with other projects or tasks. With Sloboda Studio, I always get the right developers with relevant skills. They understand my tech needs, and that’s very important.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re doing a great job so far. It’s hard to spot an area for improvement.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Start by giving them a detailed description of what you’re looking for. Their team is pretty good at understanding all the technical aspects of their work, so that’s all they’ll be needing from you.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Short term rental business. I am the COO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Sloboda in order to build our customized website and app. Our goals were to have a fully functioning and smooth website for users to use

SOLUTION

How did you select Sloboda Studio and what were the deciding factors?

Sloboda offers an expertise in this field and with their competitive pricing and high quality staff they were the ideal match for us

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

They designed and developed our platform. We send work flow charts for every aspect of the website and they build the software to match this

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

They have upwards of 7 staff members working with us. we have a project manager, back and front end developers, app designers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The process is still ongoing but so far we are very satisfied with the results. The team at Sloboda is constantly in communication with us and very efficient with their work.

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

Great. We have regular calls providing us updates on the project. Any issue they have they communicate immediately with us.

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

We love the time and dedication they commit to our project. They are always available for a call at a moments notice

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

We are content with the service provided

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m one of two Co-Founders at Limoo which is an online platform for contractors and temporary workers to find work in Australia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio?

We hired Sloboda Studio to build our web platform.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed an MVP to be built to then be able to show our idea to potential investors.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We used Clutch to sort through a number of development studios, talk to each and then decide on who to use. Sloboda were the most responsive and were able to help us form our idea.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Sloboda took my initial wireframes and then designed and developed our solution. We had twice weekly video conferences with our project manager. The team built our product using PHP in the backend and React on the front end hosted in AWS. They were able to offer the best technology and ideas from every member of their team as to extra features and changes to features which were really appreciated.

What was the team composition?

The project team had four people. A project manager, two developers and a designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our business started from an idea and Sloboda has brought that idea to life. This is the starting block of our business. With the MVP completed we can now go and start bring companies on board to use it and contractors to find work for.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was fantastic. We had our twice weekly meetings and were always able to contact our project manager. We were let know if anything unexpected happened and had good timelines of when features would be completed. We used slack and Asana heavily and google hangouts for our video conferences.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The amount of communication and support that they provided.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We found everything up to our standards.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of an on-demand ride-hailing company. Similar to other ride-sharing apps, we pick up passengers, but we use three-wheeled motor scooters and have employees instead of independent contractors.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?

We originally hired them to build our driver and passenger apps.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided wireframes and documentation, and they completed full-feature development of our product. Using Swift, they created our iOS app. They also used Ruby on Rails for the backend that houses our data and supports different APIs, connecting the app to our database and other third-party services. This way, we can move data from one place to another.

What is the team composition?

At first, we had 4–5 people on our team, including a project manager, but we’re currently working with two developers and the project manager.

How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?

They were referred to us from the first developer we worked with.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in August 2018 and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a lot of reviews on the app store and all feedback has been positive. We have a stable app, stable backend, and a product that people love to use and keep coming back to. It’s truly a testament to the work they’ve done.

How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

We work directly with the development team, which really fits our management style well. We use Slack for instant communication, Jira for bug tracking, and occasionally we use Google Hangouts or Zoom for face-to-face meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their reliability and consistency have had a significant impact on the project’s success. It can be challenging to work with an overseas team for a long period of time, but they’ve been responsive and have consistently delivered quality work for over a year now.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve been really great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s important to thoroughly document the requirements for any project, especially when working with an overseas team. A lot of things can be lost in translation, so you should detail project requirements and provide wireframes. The time you spend initially scoping out a project, the more money you’ll save in the long run.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We create online education products and top them up with massive niche offline events.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Sloboda Studio?

When we started our collaboration with Sloboda Studio, our main goal was to create a system to collect the payment data of our clients. We needed to create an admin panel, to house our customers' information. Another goal was to integrate the payment system.

What were your goals for this project?

We were in need of high speed system that would integrate payment functionality into our internal systems and work seamlessly with the rest of our complex eco system.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

The story started when we decided to create a Profit Group Consulting project. We didn’t choose the company to develop products for us, but we were looking for partners. When we met their CEO, Pavel Obod, and learned more about Sloboda Studio's expertise and experienced developers, we decided to collaborate and create a project for the IT service company's niche consulting.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

For the back-end, they used Ruby on Rails. Sloboda Studio developers also applied Active admin gems for generating administration style interfaces.

What was the team composition?

Sloboda Studio created a simple and useful solution and made the final product with minimal, yet valuable, resources. The whole team composition included one back-end developer and one project manager/QA.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

When we started our collaboration with Sloboda Studio, we needed our tasks to be completed on time. The team really exceeded our expectations—they completed the project in just one week. They also stayed in touch and made decisions based on practical experience, so you can be sure that people in Sloboda Studio know exactly what they are developing.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We like to maintain communication through each collaboration, and this is exactly why we made the right choice with Sloboda Studio. However, the project consisted only of one project manager and Rails developer.

During the development stage, the Sloboda Studio team used mostly GitLab for project management, in addition to coordinating stand-ups to share how the work was going. They always ask a lot of questions and propose their own solutions, so was pretty easy to arrange an efficient working process and perform the results up to deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The greatest aspects of Sloboda Studio are their experience and expertise. These allowed us to get the results ASAP, as the team not only has the experience but also provides excellent project management. This was really useful for us, as we needed to build clear communication and get an understanding of our technical and business goals.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing worth mentioning here. If I had any questions, we discussed them right away and choose an appropriate solution, so there is nothing really critical to be improved on at this point.