Sloboda Studio

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re still at the project stage—rather than already being a full-fledged company—and want to help people track their family timelines. Our platform gives the ability to create private networks for family members and close friends to upload and share pictures and stories about close and distant loved ones. The platform comes with a visual timeline, push alerts for family events and anniversaries, and capabilities for uploading and crowdsourcing family photos that otherwise may have been lost. I am a co-founder with another family member.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?

We wanted to get an MVP up and running very quickly and then be able to iterate upon that very frequently during the development process. After, we wanted to get something live so that we could test it with extended family members, learn from those tests, and continue to refine the model until it is ready for testing in a larger market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They have provided Ruby on Rails development work for creating the MVP. There is no mobile app component yet but we do plan on making it mobile enabled in the future. For now, our target audience is people who are comfortable using the platform on a desktop. We have finished phase one and are about to look at phase two, which might include exporting into something like PHP.

What is the team composition?

We have a very flexible relationship with Sloboda Studio. We have worked with a project manager, who would coordinate with a number of different tech developers, and one of the cofounders himself, who would brainstorm and discuss with us while overall boosting the entire process.

How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?

We found them through a reference, from cityFALCON, who is a friend and contact of mine in the tech world. He highly recommended them as they helped him get his product up to speed. He showed me some of their output and explained a little bit about what they could do. My initial conversations with one of the cofounders turned into an ongoing engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together about one year ago and the engagement is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For an application, I think there are two sides to measure it from: first, how usable it is, and second, how well does it visually work. We came up with a basic, unfinalized design and they interpreted it into something that is highly usable. The application works and makes it easy to upload an image and description, which then create alerts. For example, if I upload photos from my grandparents’ wedding anniversary it will effectively push a picture alert notification to respective emails, which all sounds easier than done.

How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been helpful, responsive, and extremely adaptive. Their ability to think through a problem is notably impressive as well. For example, they recognized that apple phones imported pictures at a 90-degree angle and were able to correct for that. I think that they have also contributed to the development of the idea itself. One of their key strengths is that they will help out on even small projects and not meticulously charge for every half-hour of services rendered.

Their pricing is both fair and flexible; despite this, they go beyond what is the basic requirement in order to get something up and running. We principally use them for development work but would also consider them for design work during phase two. Skype is our primary form of communication and email is used for sharing documents and specs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have been most impressed with their responsiveness and positively helpful nature. Unlike the company that referred us (who has already raised funding and put together a team), we are a very early stage concept. Sloboda goes beyond what is normally necessary and has done a great job; from my relatively limited experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only improvement I would recommend—and it’s minor—is to work on the problem of some things being lost in translation. This is often a challenge when dealing with people oversees. I think an improvement in English language capabilities would save time and avoid sometimes overly blunt conversations. However, there were no problems with the platform.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Provide very clear specs up front and understand what Sloboda Studio can and can’t do for you. For example, I am fully aware that they, at this moment, cannot do mobile apps; however, if I expect to create a mobile application, I think they would be able to find a partner who can do that. They are able to manage and hire teams to work on behalf of a single client, which is something that is potentially a very attractive thing for some potential clients.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO at Mynewsdesk. We are a B2B company that helps our customers with PR and communications by providing media monitoring, social media integration, and offering channels to contact different journalists.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?

We needed more resources to extend our web application and were interested in working with an external team of developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They are extending our web application, which is currently a running beta with a larger launch planned for autumn. They are using Ruby on Rails and React as the main frameworks to built the backend, and then deploy the code on Heroku integrating with our frontend platform.

What is the team composition?

Sloboda’s team had a project leader—or Scrum master—and a team of front- and backend developers that integrated with our team.

How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?

Sloboda reached out to us. We wanted to work with them because we found their company and work exciting.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in December 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

We have great communication and collaboration between the teams. They always give detailed and helpful feedback. We use Slack for daily communication; we have sprint meetings and planning every two weeks; and before each sprint meeting, I meet with the Scrum master. Sloboda’s lead developers have integrated with our in-house developers, so we have open lines of communication with them.

Before the project started, we were concerned with how well the teams would integrate, so we spent a week letting the teams get to know each other and work together. After that, we felt secure in the fact that the project would go smoothly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have open and honest communication. If there are challenges in the project, they notify us right away, which is something I was unsure we would get with an outside team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’ve been open to our feedback and are already working on areas where they could improve. Any time there has been an issue they’ve made improvements or adjustments quickly.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If possible, meet with the Sloboda team in-person. In general, it’s good to know the people you’re working with and their culture, and in our case, it helped the two teams integrate early in the project. Either go to their office or have them come to yours. It’s worth the cost.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of SalesFolk.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Sloboda Studio to help build a software platform, optimize internal processes, and improve our customer experience.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to automate and streamline our internal processes for higher efficiency and greater transparency.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were initially recommended by a friend who has been working with them for the past six years. I spoke to several other firms, but they seemed to be the most affordable with the highest quality.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They helped us build an app using Ruby on Rails. We had already built out most of the backend architecture, which had some existing documentation. The Sloboda team helped us finish and launch the product, while also adding additional features and functionality; This included rolling out another version of our software. Their developers used best practices for committing code using Github and various automated testing software.

What was the team composition?

In the beginning, they provided one backend developer, but later added another backend and one part-time front-end developer. We had some issues with the first front-end developer, so they replaced him with a better one as per my request.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They were definitely successful in improving our internal processes.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The team almost always hit deadlines, used Github to track code, and were always available on Slack. I worked closely with Sloboda's developers and reviewed all code they committed before pushing it live. They were very knowledgeable about Ruby on Rails.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They are organized and good developers—better than some of the ones I've seen in Silicon Valley.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Some of their developers were definitely better than others. One of the developers was truly exceptional, while the other one wasn't quite as strong. However, they did a great job with helping me replace the weaker developer, and even gave me a two-week free trial period to test them out before hiring them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are developing a cognitive assessment platform that allows clients to perform brain function assessments. The measured faculties are verbal and reasoning abilities and memory. I support the platform from a tech perspective and oversee some of the product development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?

We were looking for professionals who could support our team. We were looking for the right balance between skills and rates.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We have worked with professionals from Sloboda in an outstaffing model. They are a part of our team, engaged in our development and delivery process. They provide web software development, primarily using Ruby on Rails. They are developing new features, providing maintenance, testing for our current platform, and planning new features. We involve everyone in long- and short-term planning from a technical perspective.

What is the team composition?

We are currently working with one senior engineer from their team. He is a remote teammate in Ukraine. We work directly with the developer, and we have an account manager on their side for support. We may expand the team in the future.

How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?

We researched a few companies that provide expertise in the technologies we were using. I found some reviews for Sloboda through my network, and we contacted them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Sloboda around October or November 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The Sloboda team has very good speed and a performance level that is on par or higher than our team’s.

How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a straightforward scrum process, and we keep burndown charts, story points, and so on. We do not communicate very often in terms of project management. Once we set something up, it works. At the same time, they are quite responsive whenever we have a question. We have a few points of communication from their side, which is always an advantage.

Sloboda is a part of our team and process. Everything is tracked online, and our company had a distributed model from day one. Our tools were set up to be remotely accessible.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team from Sloboda is very responsive, and they are very professional in terms of tech-related knowledge. Even though they work remotely and we will always have a small communication gap, we haven’t felt that they are in a different time zone. They have good work quality and have a good balance of rates and benefits. They stand out in terms of speed of development and quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had a conversation with them about changing their rates five months after we started working together. The pricing is accessible, but they changed their rates whenever we increased their responsibility or the scope of the work. The conversation started based on the contract, which included a chapter stating that they could increase their rates or subscription fee.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We ran the TaxiPixi app, which has since been shut down. It was a taxi-booking app that operated in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt. I was a project manager for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?

We had an issue finding skilled and affordable talent. We were a bootstrapped startup, and Sloboda Studio was the perfect match for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They assigned backend developers for our project. The work was mostly related to server-side and backend development. The core native mobile app development was done by another agency.

What is the team composition?

They assigned 3–4 people to our team. The size of the team kept changing based on our requirements. We sometimes had only a single person working for us, and a maximum of 4 people.

How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?

Our co-founder had worked with them in the past. We found them on oDesk, the predecessor to Upwork and hired them as a part-time agency. We didn’t give them a lot of work initially, as we weren’t sure what needed to be done at that point.

How much have you invested with them?

We worked with them for over two years. Their invoice was $3,000–$4,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between 2013 and 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measured the output in terms of deadline adherence—whether a task was completed within the given time frame. I wouldn’t say that they always delivered on time, but we never know what cases we might come across during a software development project. Everyone from their side was helpful and hardworking. If we had a delay, they would pick up the pace. I never had any issues to bring up.

In terms of quality of work and of code, I would give them an 8/10, based on the bugs that appeared later on. We had a few issues where they had to roll back changes and complete fixes. This was in part because we didn’t have an automated QA tester. We were a small team and there were only developers on their side. They tested the work alongside me. We sometimes released items to production that were not ready to go to production. We had to go back, fix them, and release again.

How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Most of the time, they assigned project managers or leaders from their side. Those kept changing, for some reason. I would work with one person for a couple of months, after which they would be changed. However, it didn’t really create many problems. I would communicate with their project leader to explain the requirements, and they communicated with the developers. The developers were included in a Skype group, where they could ask any questions they had and I would answer. We didn’t have any issues with communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their skill level was different than that of developers from my own country, India. One of the reasons for choosing them was that they were more knowledgeable and knew about the latest developments in Ruby on Rails. They were able to suggest any necessary upgrades, which is not very common among Indian developers. They were very aware of the latest trends.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They would provide us timesheets, detailing how many hours they’d worked for, and what tasked they’d finished. I had to ask for details for specific jobs, on many occasions. We had a few discussions regarding timesheets where the tasks were not clearly mentioned.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Since we always outsourced our work, and we used multiple agencies, it would be hard for me to think about Sloboda in particular. If someone is from India, I would definitely recommend a company like Sloboda to them, specifically if they are looking for Ruby on Rails developers.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder of a merchandising company. We print t-shirts and apparel to help people grow their merchandising businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?

We needed alterations made to our Ruby on Rails database. Our previous developer moved on to different work and we lacked other connections in this arena. We reached out to Sloboda and hired them to take on the project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We introduced embroidery products to our business and needed the website to reflect that. Sloboda integrated new products into the site by developing a UI in admin database that could interact with everything on the frontend. They used this to create the pricing, display, order forms, and filtering functionality of the new products on the marketing side of the website. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to offer them a constant stream of work. However, they make an effort to be available and provide occasional support and maintenance when necessary.

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with a project manager and one assigned developer.

How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?

We’re working with another developer on a separate project, but they aren’t equipped to work in Rails. As a result, they put us in contact with Sloboda.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project took place from November 2017–February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Sloboda performed really well. I measure the quality of their deliverables by comparing them against the rest of our site, and not necessarily the strength of the code itself. Instead, I put more value in how their work translates to an intuitive UX. They delivered what I expected and there weren’t many issues. Everything aligned pretty well.

How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager set the terms of the agreement between us and laid out how the whole thing was going to work. Despite the time difference, we’d frequently correspond with them via Slack and Google Hangouts. They were organized, communicated any changes that needed to be made, and stuck to the timeline they projected. Overall, the project was very well executed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I found their ability to integrate with my workflow and methods of communication to be one of their most notable attributes. They just worked well even with the time difference and being in two separate locations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We needed basic contract work, but they were looking for a long-term project with a broader scope. I understand that, but it meant I had to sign a fairly robust contract while only asking for a short-term engagement. I’d recommend they offer a smaller-scale contract template for firms who want to do smaller developments before moving into a large project.

Also, they should implement an easier payment system. Initially, they wanted me to use a software I’ve never used before to pay them. Being more accustomed to PayPal or some kind of bank transfer, I had to push back on that. They were flexible and we eventually came to an agreeable solution.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more detailed you can be when sharing information the better. Some things are literally going to be lost in translation, so using screencasts, screencaps, or mock-ups will always go a long way.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of a company called Social Health, which provides a social wellness service designed to reward and incentivize people to go out and be more active in their local communities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?

The main issue was to find a programming team that would balance efficiency with good cost, good service, and good customer support. We found that many programmers we’ve worked with in the past overrepresented their abilities during the interview process and then underperformed when doing the work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our basic infrastructure for our service was already completed when we began working with Sloboda, so we needed them to build in various tasks and features. We’ve created a series of projects for them to implement in various segments. For example, the big task we have Sloboda working on now is an in-app messenger service.

What is the team composition?

I speak with the owner of Sloboda occasionally, but he does not work with us day-to-day. My COO has communicated extensively with an individual at Sloboda who coordinates between us and their developer. They are very responsive and we mainly communicate via Skype.

How did you come to work with Sloboda Studio?

I had heard good things from some programming friends about their experiences working with Europeans. We started Googling established European programmers and spent about a week calling, emailing, and interviewing about ten that we had narrowed down from a larger list. Then, we gave tasks to about three or four of them and Sloboda was the one at the top at the end.

What is the status of this engagement?

is ongoing, and we have been working with them for about a month, since about the end of March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The overall work product has been exactly what we wanted. Sometimes I’m blown away because they’ll build something the way I imagined it without me giving the full details of how it should look. As my business partners have described it, they’re hungry for the work, they want to do the work, they’re not doing it just because they know it’s something they have to do to make ends meet. It seems like they really like what they’re doing and that’s important. It makes a difference that they care about what they’re doing.

How did Sloboda Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

We hear from them daily. We’ve worked with firms local to us with whom we would barely meet every other week while they were working on projects for us. On the other hand, we’d get daily updates from Sloboda and they are halfway across the world.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I find them to be kind of like us – they are a younger organization. The positive thing about that is they’re very responsive. They don’t care that we’re a startup nor that we are still trying to figure out the landscape. If there are any quirks, rather than disappearing on us or making us go through some bureaucratic mess, they will stick around and work through those issues. Considering the time distance between here and where they are located, in Ukraine, they’ve also adjusted their hours on certain occasions to be more available to us. Also, despite there being a bit of a language barrier, they go out of their way to answer questions and provide relevant explanations on things like why a certain feature or piece of code exists or works in a certain way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really. The only hiccup we’ve had has been an issue with payments going through. I think that is an international issue with payments being heavily scrutinized and not even their fault. Frankly, everything else is great and when this causes a delay, it is by a couple of days.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be prepared to deal with the time zone difference. While I have found myself answering questions over Skype at 5:00 a.m., they have also kept their offices open until 9:00 p.m. their time just to make sure everything is right with us. So, it is a tradeoff. Just do your research on the logistics of working with someone halfway across the world.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at CityFALCON, which is a start-up that focuses on aggregating and curating financial news and content for people in financial services. Our clients range from retail traders and investors to banks and other financial institutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda Studio?

We were looking for a company to help us develop a website and work with our budget constraints.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I built the first version of the website and they took over the project, overseeing the back- and frontend development. The website is similar to Google News, but it's geared towards financial services industry. Using Ruby on Rails, HTML, Javascript, and jQuery, they built about 75% of our website. In addition, they helped us focus on other products, such as iPod and Amazon Echo.

What is the team composition?

I'm the project manager and I work with 8–9 people from their team.

How did you come to work with them?

I found them through an online search when I was looking for a web development agency in Ukraine. I liked their website, so I contacted them. Initially, I hired one person from their team and worked with him for a month. Since he did an excellent job, I decided to expand the team.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2014 and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have a complicated product with a lot of different channels, but I've been very satisfied with the quality of their work. Also, we appreciate the fact that they're very focused on testing.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

They've been doing an amazing job. We use Jira, Confluence, and Slack to communicate. Sometimes we have specific deadlines, but we've also tried sprints to track productivity. We're located in different time zones, but we haven't had any issues with that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very committed, disciplined, and productive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It's important to be aware of cultural differences and be careful when communicating with people from other cultures.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear about the tasks. It helps when you work with an overseas team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a current owner of MirPokera, a poker website created in 2006. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

A lot of gambling websites have been blocked in Russia by an organization called Roskomnadzor and therefore aren't available to users in Russia.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed a geolocation tool that would change the Russian visitor prohibition notification page to a link with information regarding restrictions for Russian users. We then wanted the page to display further links that would allow them to access the site through a proxy. This would allow Russian users to access our site.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

One of our site owners had previously worked with Sloboda Studio and recommended them.

Describe the project in detail.

Sloboda Studio implemented the geolocation function, and also added required backend tools. They made some minor changes to the website's HTML to make it more user-friendly for mobile phone visitors.

What was the team composition?

Since our task was quite simple, we only had one project manager and one senior Ruby-on-Rails developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

MirPokera is now safe from the block that Roskomnadzor had implemented.

How effective was the project management?

We are satisfied with their project management; they made sure all deadlines were met.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We had a direct access to the developer and project manager so there weren't any communication issues and communication was all very friendly.

What tips or recommendations do you have?

We don't have any recommendations, our needs were met and we are completely satisfied with service.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Artur Inside provides community-management services based on artificial intelligence. We offer Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram account management to small and medium-sized businesses. We charge a fraction of what they would be paying to a regular web agency, thanks to our AI [Artificial Intelligence] algorithm, which helps us curate and create personalized content. I am a co-founder and the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Sloboda?

We approached them at the very beginning of our company, in the spring of 2016, when we had a pay-for-business plan. We had just our idea at the time and needed help turning it into a platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sloboda developed our web-based platform. We provided a list of specifications, based on which they performed design, development, and testing. Now that we’re growing, we have our own product team so the design is done in-house. We send Sloboda full mockups and they use those for development. They still handle testing and we don’t plan to change this.

The platform itself handles thousands of pieces of content, which are selected by our algorithm. This content is distributed to the accounts of hundreds or thousands of customers, on behalf of subject-matter experts. The platform helps us generate full reports to our customers about the activity.

There is also a frontend part to the platform, through which customers can check the content we are planning to upload to their social media accounts in the upcoming weeks. They can also see the results of the mail we’ve sent to customers, the open rate, and the evolution of communities on social media. It’s a mix between a dashboard and a control tool for everything happening on the social accounts we’re taking care of.

What is the team composition?

We are using 4 or 5 dedicated resources from their side—a mixture of backend, frontend, and QA [Quality Assurance]. The project management side has been kept in-house from the beginning. They assigned a project manager, but she was only in charge of the communication between us and the Ukrainian team.

How did you come to work with Sloboda?

We did an internet search, identified 3 or 4 companies, and talked to them. Finally, we opted for Sloboda.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April or May 2016, and have an ongoing relationship. The platform is evolving constantly, with new features every day.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The company was created in the spring of 2016 and, up to now, we’ve raised around $2 million.

How did Sloboda perform from a project management standpoint?

This is the area where they’ve done the least for us. My partner is the equivalent of a CTO [Chief Technology Officer], and followed specifications as a regular CTO would do. This made our engagement different to that of a company that would outsource a technical project, without having any technical knowledge in-house. I don’t believe we followed any methodologies per se, but we did work with Sloboda’s team in an Agile manner. Sloboda helped, but the management part was not outsourced to them.

We setup tools for the collaboration, including a Slack channel. They also had access to our Asana and Jira instances. We integrated Sloboda into all the company tools we used, both in terms of the project and IT. This really helped maintain smooth communication from the beginning. Everything was done in a professional, timely, and efficient manner.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We are based in France and have worked with teams in India, San Francisco, and China. We had never worked with a Ukrainian developer before and were a little worried about the quality of the engineers. However, we were and still are impressed with the level of Sloboda’s team—they are not only competent but use the latest technologies, such as Ruby on Rails. They’re curious and want to learn new things.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could find more engineers quicker. Sloboda is growing fast, and so is demand for them. They’ve had some difficulties keeping up with it. They’re a victim of their own success, in a way.