STX Next

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a startup platform geared at making learning easy and fun. 
 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

I needed help with design and branding.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I started out with some specs of what I wanted to design. I reached out to figure out how much it would cost using Figma. Once we settled on a price, they kicked off the design. 

What is the team composition?

We work with their head of design, a product owner, and a couple of designers.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

In worked with them on a previous development-heavy project. I sat in on some good meetings about their design services. I had a good impression of them and the way they work.

How much have you invested with them?

I spent €6,000 (approximately $7,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2021, and we wrapped up in August 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m really happy with the designs. All of my project manager friends are super impressed with the website.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was lowkey. We had a Slack channel where we could share information.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their adaptability and their willingness to challenge ideas stands out. It makes them a much more powerful partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, it all went extremely smoothly. I was impressed with how well everything worked.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They have a very robust way of thinking. Trust them and things will go well.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was published on February 19, 2019 

Project summary

STX Next is helping rebuild a SaaS platform in JavaScript and PHP into a microservice architecture in Python and AWS. They remade a form renderer and a dashboard tool. They’re also improving the overall UI/UX.

Feedback summary

Several new features have yet to launch, but STX Next has delivered high-quality code on time and at outstanding value. Their presence has helped bolster internal knowledge of Python and agile methodology. Customers can expect a diligent, flexible team that grasps requirements quickly.

Company Responses

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of product development at Firmstep. We offer a SaaS platform to help local governments and public sector organizations provide excellent service to citizens as efficiently as possible.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

Our platform was a monolith built in PHP and JavaScript. It became increasingly difficult to maintain as we added more features and products. It also lacked full documentation, meaning that knowledge was lost through regular staff turnover.

We decided to move to a microservice modular architecture platform using Python and AWS services. We brought in STX Next as development partners to assist our internal team and lead the rebuilding process.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our platform offers a form builder and form renderer. Once a user builds out a form, they can customize how it displays through the form renderer. The renderer had become buggy and difficult to maintain. STX Next rebuilt the tool to address its root issues. They also redesigned it to automatically comply with the government design principles established by the Government Digital Service. This update makes it more straightforward for customers to abide by their industry’s design standards.

STX Next also revamped a workflow management tool used by councilors to organize their caseload. They improved its performance to better accommodate the tool’s current level of demand. They also added filtering options, more powerful search functions, and flexibility in the user’s viewing experience.

The team helped us update our self-service portals and widgets as well. They’re also working to improve the platform’s overall user experience, decreasing page load and render times while implementing a more consistent and visually appealing design. 

What is the team composition?

Our initial team comprised ten people: a product owner, a manual tester, and eight frontend developers, backend developers, and full-stack developers. We’ve added another two teams over the last few months and started working with a scrum master to help manage each team’s processes.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

Our CTO found their team through online research. STX Next had also worked with a mutual colleague, which further convinced us that they were the right fit for this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2018, and the project is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Given the scale of the rebuilds, several features have yet to be released to customers. However, our pull requests in our code repositories have increased tenfold, which we’re happy to see. Working with STX Next has also taught our internal team about agile processes, Python, and new technologies. They’ve shown us better DevOps practices and how to deploy our code more safely.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

We lacked experience working with outsourced teams. STX Next helped guide us through the initial process where we learned our ideal workflows to maximize productivity. They’re excellent at understanding requirements and delegating tasks appropriately. We never feel the need to micromanage their work.

We communicate through Slack and host weekly standups on Google Hangouts. When we need to update requirements, we either use a Google Doc or a phone call. STX Next manages tasks and progress through Jira. They’re highly independent and self-sufficient, and they always keep us up to date on the project’s status.

What did you find most impressive about them?

STX Next has adapted well to our organization, our goals, and our management styles. They’re also deeply engaged with our product and platform. Even without having direct experience working with UK local governments, the team still produced excellent user story maps and user personas for each product. They also often suggested ways to improve the user experience and make the outcome more successful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Since these were new technology stacks for us, we hadn’t thought about deployment in the earlier stages. This lack of planning caused miscommunication later on about the exact scale of the project’s scope. We eventually resolved the issues though.

Any advice for potential customers?

Trust in their process. Give the team a degree of freedom to expand on the original requirements and make adjustments. If STX Next had stuck to our exact list of specifications, we would have wound up with a lower quality product. They’re very experienced developers with a solid understanding of UI/UX principles.

Overall rating 5 

Quality 5 

Cost 5

Schedule 4

Willing to refer 5

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of technology at a data consultancy called Anmut Consulting. We are based in London and we have been in existence since 2018. We mainly work with clients to look at the condition of their data. We are mainly focused on data, and what that means is that we work with clients and deep dive into their data. We try and help them get a good understanding of the condition of their data and identify the key areas of data that are assets for them. Once we identify them, we put a number on them and help them prioritize different projects, and show them how they can make the best use of that data they have in their system.

We have consultants in the company as well as technologists which is where I fit in especially on the software side of things.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

The biggest challenge was that we didn’t have the talent for frontend development. We had a small backend team, but no frontend team. We were looking at the market and were looking to try and hire internally, but the timelines were too strict, and we had to get someone in as soon as possible.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked with STX Next to build a platform so that our consultants can do their job in an easier and more orchestrated way. We had a lot of conversations around UX and UI, and they asked questions about other projects that we were working on. They provided a lot of stuff pro bono which was really good, but the main stuff that they provided to us was building out that frontend for us.

They took the designs that we created and created the frontend out of those. We asked them what tech stack they thought would be best for the frontend and they recommended React and TypeScript and they went with SCSS for the stylesheet. We went with all of their recommendations and so far it has been working pretty well.

They talked to us about how we could potentially improve our UX and UI, so they gave some very preliminary pointers with the aim that they could fix those things for us. We aren’t quite in a position right now to take them up on their offer yet, but it is something we intend on doing in the next few months with them.

There is another team, completely separate from my team, that was creating a tool that links into Power BI. That team asked STX Next for some advice and input. They didn’t do any actual work, but they advised them on potential things that we could do.

What is the team composition?

Technically, there were two people but then they split their time. We had one developer doing the main coding 70% of the time, and the other developer about 30% of the time. That developer verified everything that the first developer did and read over the code just to make sure that everything was good quality. The reason we did that was that we wanted a more senior person to review the code before it was pushed in. 

How did you come to work with STX Next?

I had worked with STX Next in the past at my previous company. We had a similar situation where we wanted to deliver quite a lot of stuff in a short amount of time. The CTO at the time just brought on STX Next.

Once they were onboarded, they were really easy to work with, very competent, and very good at what they did. That left a really good impression when I was working with them there.

When I left that company and came here to Anmut, I realized we needed some help and I thought back to how good STX Next was when I worked with them in the past, so I recommended them to my boss, and we went on from there.

How much have you invested in them?

We invested around £15,000–£20,000 GBP (approximately $20,000–$28,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started a conversation with them before Christmas 2020, and we talked to them for quite a while until we had someone from STX Next actually working with us in February 2021 doing the coding. We finished the MVP in April 2020, and we will be working with them soon on other projects.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The tool they helped us create is an internal tool and it is the frontend, so we don’t really have any metrics for that. We have UAT testers that are working on stuff right now. My personal feedback is that I am very happy with the front-end work that they have provided.

The feedback that we have received from our CEO is very, very positive and he is really happy with the system as a whole and also happy with the work that STX had done, and it is the same from my CTO. It is still an MVP, so it isn’t perfect, but they are very happy with the first round of frontend. Overall, very positive feedback from the whole company.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

I was in charge of managing the project and making sure that we were on target. In terms of the day-to-day of what the developer was working on, I was managing that with my team as well. We have the usual scrum meetings and agile ceremonies and things like that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

STX Next was really easy to work with. They are really good communicators with a proactive attitude. They always respond to messages, and I am talking about the company as a whole, not just the people we worked with. They are very good on that side of things.

The reason I was very confident in recommending them was that I know from past experience that the quality of work and the code they produce is good, and they are quick. I had no fears about that and that was the main thing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, everything was great. The developer himself was really good. He wasn’t a super, super senior guy so he could improve his communication skills, but overall, he was 99% good. There were some small things with communication that I maybe would have asked him to improve on if he was working with my team long-term, but definitely nothing massively negative at all.

Overall, it was very positive with him in particular and also speaking to account managers and more senior people at STX.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I definitely recommend them. Have an idea of what you want them to do. Come to them with ideas and bounce those ideas off them. It is a better use of time to at least have some design you can hand over to them and then they can turn that into a frontend if that is what they are working on. If they are working on something else, like the backend, it is always best to come prepared and give them at least some direction they can take which improves a lot of things.

With the frontend guy that joined us, he, in particular, liked that on his first day, he was ready to go. We had everything set up for him and we knew exactly what he would be working on for the first sprint and there were no delays. He really appreciated that. I would recommend just prepare things for the first day you work with them, get their environments ready and their access all sorted out so that you aren’t wasting time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a shipping services provider. We’re a SaaS product that facilitates the generation of shipping labels, tracking, and return for e-commerce.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We were experiencing rapid growth in our organization and were looking for different ways of scaling our development team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our company integrates with carriers, logistics service providers, and on the other side, with e-commerce systems and online stores. We required additional development capacity on integrating new logistic service providers. They’re responsible for building and integrating those logistic service providers into our product.

Our internal development team is responsible for the operational side of things. We provided them with some tools and interfaces so they can work dependent on our development team. That allowed us to scale up their team and make sure they’re working efficiently as well.

What is the team composition?

We initially started with a two-person development team on their side to help with this, and it’s now been expanded to a team of six developers and one product owner.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

The team reached out to us about two years ago. They visited us in the office, and it was an enjoyable talk. Based on an initial exploration together with them, we started on a trial project, which was successful. We then continued our collaboration.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with STX Next started in April 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We keep track of new business and revenue, especially new business that we can onboard into our product based on logistic service providers that they integrated into our product. We’re satisfied with their work.

We have a pretty good relationship with them. The quality of work they deliver is of a high standard.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

Initially, the project management part was on our side. It wasn’t until two months ago where we got a dedicated project manager. We have weekly checkups with their delivery managers, and our account manager also participated in those calls.

Since we’re happy and they’re performing well, there’s no real need to deep dive into their actual performance numbers.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The engineering culture that they have closely fitted how we run and build software. It allowed them to be quite well integrated with our own development teams. They provide highly skilled developers and focus on other things like communication and making sure there’s a delivery manager there to make sure that the team is actually performing. It raised the bar to make sure they’re delivering work fast with high quality.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’re quite satisfied with their services.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Get a good relationship with their developers. They are highly skilled. If your team works with them, make sure that the engineers get together and iterate over some ideas. They’re engaged and want to provide shared knowledge rather than just building things.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the global product and engineering director at Hogarth Worldwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We have our own digital asset management (DAM) system, which we built a long time ago. We had to maintain it and evolve it into new versions. We needed staff augmentation to help us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided software development services and QA engineers to implement the requirements we gave them during the automatic quality process control. We use JavaScript, React, and Python. We have our own team that is responsible for deploying the software into production and maintaining the environment.

We follow a scrum methodology. We work with them to refine those requirements. They give us the team that is allocated to us. Then they go into sprints. From there, they deliver the completed feature. We pick a chunk every two weeks. 

What is the team composition?

There are 11 people and soon to be 12. There’s a delivery manager that handles the account.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

I wasn’t at the company when we hired STX Next, but I think it was from a contact that was here before me.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2013 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since I joined, we went through a little bit of a reformation, and now we’re working in a way that’s much more focused on the cadence of delivering constant features and value to our stakeholders and product. We’re working towards the completion, the achievements of each sprint has its own goal. 

Every sprint we achieve or don’t. Every two weeks, it’s either a yes or no, and then we then decide if we need to improve anything or not.

We’re also emphasizing the happiness of the STX Next team, making sure they’re happy and working well alongside our team. If the team is happy, we can throw all these different changes of pace and the way we need to react to the business while keeping the morale high. That has improved significantly in the last few months, and now everybody on the team is saying they’re happy working with the rest of the team. They’re feeling accomplished.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

We manage the project on our side. They give us technical expertise. They have to manage their own tasks and be self-organized and assign the tasks internally. STX Next is very good at that but there’s no function of project management. It’s more about having team unity, and they achieve that.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s good when we aim for a partnership and they are as committed to delivering as we are. If you approach it as a vendor/client relationship, it’s a different kind of relationship. We’re all committed as a single group. There are no borders between STX Next and us in terms of who we’re working with. We all work as a single team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had communication issues in the past and issues of motivation but we worked through them in 2020. We’re in a much better place. We now have the relationship we always wanted to have. If we ever end the relationship, it won’t be because of the way we work together. It’d be for financial reasons or we discontinue the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re in the market for a partner in Poland, they’re good. They take care of their people. Their expertise in Python and JavaScript is good. They’re solid. They stay there for a long time and develop their own people. 

With STX Next, you can count on them to have the expertise you need. If you’re looking for a reasonably priced, Europe based, nearshoring or offshoring outpost, they could be a good option.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the transformation director for an independent software consultancy. We undertake all aspects of consultancy, from management consulting to bespoke systems development and support. Typically, we build online services for governments in the UK and Australia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We were working with a government organization in the UK to build a system for registering child minders and early years care provision.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provided development services. We were building a web-facing service for people to register childminders, and what STX Next did was support us with additional Python development capacity. 

We ran scrum agile. We had a Jira board and worked in sprints, with a scrum master and a product owner. STX’s developers picked up bill tickets, so they worked alongside our own development team and provided additional bandwidth.

What is the team composition?

We mainly worked with developers, but we also had an account manager, Marta (Recruitment & EB Specialist). That was a useful way of making sure the service was to the quality and need that we had.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

My colleagues found them through an online search for nearshore developers. We visited their facility and decided to do a trial engagement with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February–December 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We measured success and quality using the Agile process. The work was essentially packaged up as epics, stories, and tickets within Jira, and we adopted definitions of ready to ensure stories were properly defined. We did a lot of that and consulted STX's developers in certain cases. 

They then took those stories forward and supported acceptance by the product owner to meet the definition of done. If there were any quality issues, they resolved them. The remit was to gain acceptance of the stories they’d taken from the product owner. More broadly, they contributed to bringing together a government UK service that is now live. Their part was a valuable and important contribution to the work. We were happy with their performance and have contracted them for another engagement. I suppose that tells its own story about how well the partnership was.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

They did perfectly well; they were no big issues. They were flexible in a dynamic environment that had frequent changes.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were quite competent in Python and had excellent technical skills. They delivered what they promised to a good depth and level. We were very happy with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clearly define the scope of work you want them to undertake. Try to keep the pipeline flowing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of Brief Media. We’re a media STX Next in the B2B space. We create product for veterinarians that are clinical reference tools We have media brands as well as subscription-based digital products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We’re launching a new product early next year, and especially with COVID-19, we wanted to take a different approach to how we thought we were going to launch the new product and look more closely to opportunities to leverage our existing subscriber base.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

 Essentially, they did a discovery workshop and concept design. We already have an idea of what we want our new product to be, but they challenged our ideas and assumptions for features and UX.

We came away with eight deliverables, helping us leverage their expertise from a business perspective. We came away with requirements, a road map, recommendations on the system architecture, concept design, and prototype. Then they gave us an estimate for team composition needed to develop the platform.

This helped with product management. They also assessed how we could balance our business interests with providing the most value to the end-user subscriber.

What is the team composition?

We did most of our work with two people. One was representing the business and product aspect. Then we had another on the UX experience side and user journey. We also worked with a third who spent their time digging into the technical requirements.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

We originally heard about them from a technology consultant that we’ve worked with in the past. We had STX Next actually quote a different project awhile ago. Then, as we got more into our new product development, we had additional conversations with them in order to learn what they offered. After hearing about this discovery workshop, we decided to bring them on.   

How much have you invested with them?

The discovery workshop was about $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The discovery workshop began in June 2020 and wrapped up in July. We recently started development with them, which is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They presented new ideas to help us leverage our additional subscriber base and upsell them this new product. They took the ideas we had and were able to expand on that. I think we will have an easier launch as a result.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication was very thorough. From the proposal they provided, we knew the phases of the process would be. That included dates and which members from our team needed to participate with each session. We also had a good idea what the expected deliverables and outcome would be.

Whenever there were changes to the plan, it was because we covered more than expected in each session or because we needed more time in certain areas based on the results of the project. Overall, it turned our pretty well.

For the most part, we used email for this project. They also had Miro, which was a really helpful collaboration tool that made it easy to visualize what we were discussing and collaborate in real-time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The level of expertise that they have available due to the size of their firm was astounding. As a result, we had access to experts in areas that we don’t have on our internal team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, the process was pretty smooth. The only hiccup we had was coordinating meetings because we were in different time zones.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We had a very collaborative relationship with them, so I would tell future clients to view them as a partner and share as much information with them as they can.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Tiqets has been around since 2014. We sell tickets for cultural events around the world, mostly museums. We have a curated website and app for tourists and local people to find the best spots to visit in their regions. Our main office is in Amsterdam, and we have sales offices around the world. They connect to museums, and we connect to suppliers that sell batches of tickets to the museums. Those are being delivered to the consumer via our platform.

My position is tech team manager. The company has been growing rapidly, from five people in 2014 to a development crew of about 50 people in September 2019, when I joined. We’re divided into different focus teams, which are multidisciplinary and with product owners, designers, tech leads, and back- and frontend developers. There is a team division, but there’s one CTO above all teams.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

Around 90% of our developers are in Amsterdam, but we like to have a flexible shell in order to adapt quickly to market needs. There’s also some work that’s more repetitive and less challenging, or challenging in a different way. We went to STX Next for their flexibility and expertise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with one team at STX Next, and we split that up into two teams a couple of months ago. One team does API implementations while the other connects to high-end suppliers for integrations that demand specialized skills. The developers are in Poland, and they receive instructions from a product owner and tech lead in The Netherlands. Our coding language is Python.

What is the team composition?

They changed the team a short period before I joined Tiqets. I’m currently working with two managers, one for business aspects and one for day-to-day operations.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

One of the prerequisites for choosing them was having Python as a coding language. There are better-known software houses in Poland, but they don’t offer Python development. We looked at their website and portfolio, and we reached out to them to determine if we should move forward. We requested information from ten companies and made a shortlist based on that. STX Next wasn’t the cheapest, but they did have a big team of developers.

We’d worked with another Python development company, but they didn’t have as many developers. It would take them months to come up with new résumés if we asked for three more developers, whereas it's easier to scale up with STX Next.

How much have you invested with them?

It took us 3–4 months to get the team set up and working efficiently, with a cost of about €50,000 (approximately $56,900 USD). Right now, we’re paying €40,000–€50,000 per month (approximately $45,500–$56,900 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

STX Next started working with the company before my time. I’m guessing that we’ve been working with them since early-2019 or late-2018. The collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

STX Next has a decent workforce, and the work that they do is productive and efficient. Whether it could be more efficient is not something I’ve tried to find out. The impact is that we have a good connection to suppliers, and we have a stable platform.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m working with the general manager of their office. He is based in Wrocław, where we have our developers situated. He’s very approachable and cooperative in thinking through the different challenges we encounter working together.

From a cultural perspective, Eastern Europe is a bit more hierarchical. It’s basically a matter of telling them what to do and them doing it. It’s pretty productive from that perspective. We always try to stimulate more interactions, as in also getting their opinions as experts on certain matters. It takes some time to get that culture going, but I think we have a smooth operation. It does help that we have a product owner and two developers on our side. The project is controlled from the Amsterdam side and executed by the Polish team.

The developers themselves are working perfectly fine within our agile sprints, but it took some time to get started and to get used to each other. We’re using Slack for communication, Google Docs for documents, and Jira and Confluence for issue tracking, sprint setups, and measurements.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Compared to the other Python developer we’ve worked with, the fact that it’s so easy for STX Next to supply new profiles is pretty impressive. They have a big talent pool, and that makes them very flexible. If I asked them for three new developers by the following week, STX Next would be able to supply them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Among the things we find important are people’s skill levels and their personalities and approach to the work. We like to have a pretty big hand in recruitment, and STX Next wants to put themselves down as having already estimated that a person is a good addition to our team, and we have to believe them. We find it very important that a person has certain personal traits and level of intelligence, and we like to play a part in that. If there’s an improvement point, it’s for them to be more flexible around that. There’s always a bit of a discussion when I tell them that I want to interview their resources, and that it’ll take me 60–90 minutes. It always leads to a return email with them saying that it’s not their normal route for doing things.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients shouldn’t underestimate the starting phase. Taking in an external company doesn’t mean that they’ll have a full development team by the following week that will immediately build what the client wants them to. If the client is using the external company purely as an extension of the team that they have in their own office, that will lead to some configuration needs before everything is up and running.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a social media and image sharing application that’s for electronic music festivals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We had been working with a previous company for about six months, and the work that they were doing was extremely subpar and wasn’t meeting any of our agreements. The designs and code quality were bad. We brought on STX Next to save the project.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We went to them with a fully built application; all of the screens were technically completed, but everything was just poor quality visually and code-wise.

STX Next did a complete redo of the UI from the on-app perspective. They made the app look like the agreed-upon designs that we’d had with the previous company. From a backend perspective, they refactored and cleaned up a lot of the code. They also increased our code security and a lot of the functionality. I believe we closed around 75 tickets over the course of bringing the app to total usability. In that time, we made sure that all of the features we intended to have were actually within the app and working correctly.  

What is the team composition?

I worked with Bartek (Head of React Native), a backend engineer, and a frontend React Native engineer. 

How did you come to work with STX Next?

I actually found them on Clutch. I liked all of the positive reviews and their location in general. I reached out to 5–6 companies on Clutch, received proposals from all of them, and spoke to them on video chat. I had the most appealing conversation with STX Next.

How much have you invested with them?

We’re coming up on $30,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work together in March 2020, and we’re technically still working together through a continuing operation agreement. We were able to launch our app in June. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It was a life-changing transition going with STX Next. The development cycle with our previous company was that we’d receive a build every couple of weeks, and it was always really disappointing. We had an ongoing conversation on Basecamp about stuff that needed to be changed. It didn’t feel like there was a really good way to establish good communication to identify specific bugs, so we were wasting tons of time making Excel spreadsheets of what needed to be done. 

Once we brought in STX Next, it was a world of difference. We got a Slack channel set up so that we could communicate daily. I received builds almost every other day. We engaged in a new project management tool; they just came on board with whatever I wanted to use, which was fantastic. I was able to file tickets constantly and monitor all of the activities that were going on. It really increased our confidence in the business to know that work was being done, we were able to effectively file tickets, and we were having daily communication and daily builds. They gave us a lot more visibility into the development cycle.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything kept on track. We provided them with a special challenge; when I presented them the project, I didn’t have a complete understanding of how much work it was going to be. Their original estimate was 4–5 weeks, but once they got into the code, it ended up taking three months of work to resolve it. That wasn’t their fault; that was our not representing the project correctly. Even though it was a really difficult project, they maintained a fantastic and super professional attitude throughout. They kept working with us and pushing back the deadline so that we could get the project squared away in a reasonable amount of time for the amount of work that was required. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The level of communication and involvement that we got from their team – especially since it was such a small project compared to what I’m sure they work on – sets them apart. It was really great to be able to work with their head of React Native and talk with their developers daily. For how little I felt the project was, we received excellent treatment, and I never had one complaint about the communication.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I have no complaints.

Any advice for potential customers?

Communication is key, as is being involved in the project. They’re super receptive to communication.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of new products and IT at GS1 Polska, a business standards firm. We are most known for barcodes that you can find on items sold in shops.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

I’m the only IT person in our office. We needed to outsource as much activity as possible, including software development. When we decided we wanted to launch a new product, we needed a company to help us with the development of our small, standard website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We chose STX Next as a provider for two projects. For the first project, we created the product concept ourselves. We knew exactly what we wanted and prepared a functional specification. We had an extensive workshop with STX Next for a couple of days. We discussed the details of the functionalities that we wanted. After giving a cost estimate, they did the software development. We changed our requirements along the way; when we provided feedback, they acted accordingly. 

The first project went live in January 2020, and they continue to provide support. We proposed the second project to them in December 2019, and then the same team that did the first project started the second one in January. They don’t have their own infrastructure, so they proposed using AWS. The first product is running in the cloud, and the second one will as well. They’re about to finish the second product.

What is the team composition?

There’s a product owner. The full team was present during all of our meetings. It was great having people that were already familiar with our business work on our second project.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

We started getting quotes from different companies in March 2019. Another GS1 company in UAE referred STX Next. We trust our colleagues from different countries. STX Next is based in the same city as us, which we consider an advantage. They’re a Polish company, so there isn’t a language or cultural barrier. We don’t regret hiring them.

How much have you invested with them?

My company has spent $250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2019, and the work is ongoing. We have a plan to collect more requirements, and we’ll probably invest in the system again. Due to COVID-19, our revenue has dropped a bit, so we won’t invest until next year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their development work is good. Users have said that they like the application, the functionality, and the user interface. Comments have been positive. The number of users on the app isn’t as high as we expected, but this isn’t STX Next’s issue; it’s our problem that we decided to fashion up different functionality. We didn’t recognize the needs of our customers in a very good way.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

For both projects, we worked in an agile scrum methodology. We went through our requirements step-by-step. Based on the specifics we prepared, they did a final, more detailed cost estimate. During the first project, the sprints were every two weeks. By the second project, they knew that we change our requirements often, so they decided on one-week sprints. Demos are also weekly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They listen. They don’t force us to go their way; instead, they follow our way of thinking. During our tender, other companies said they’d want to keep the intellectual rights for the software they’d develop. STX Next said we could just rent their team of developers, and that we would be the owner of whatever they created. They didn’t want to be the owner of it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re good at creating software. I think more and more companies want not only software development but also maintenance. They didn’t offer maintenance at first, but when we insisted that we wanted them to be our maintenance company also, they did it for us. I think they should do it for more companies. Also, they proposed only AWS, which is probably the most expensive.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They are a company who listens to you. Based on their approach, I felt like they wanted our business to grow. They’re very supportive.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of the front office technology team of an investment management firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

The demand for Python developers in cities like London, Boston, and New York is fairly intense. We’re very much a Python shop and we invest a lot of time in our recruiting process and hiring standards. It was becoming increasingly more difficult to find good talent in those geographic hubs and so we wanted to expand our talent pool. We were looking for a firm with a track record of expertise.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve undertaken two main approaches with them.  We started with a standalone project where we wished to enhance data discovery via a rich and interactive frontend. It was a relatively packaged up type process. Alongside STX Next, we gathered requirements from end-users, and STX Next provisioned a team that worked alongside our in-house data engineering team to build that out.

A month later, we kicked off a team augmentation approach also. During this project, STX Next provided engineers to augment our existing engineering team, which was aligned to our discretionary hedge fund building out tooling for the portfolio. The STX Next engineers became part of that team’s daily workflow, their prioritization process, and engage directly with their end-users.

What is the team composition?

They brought a team of engineers with a mix of front- and backend. They had a product owner on their side, which was really key to the success. They came to London and we did design sessions in-person. The product owner really built up a very good understanding of our business, as did all of the engineers. They handled the project management for the standalone project.

In the team augmentation set up, they provided the engineers, and we provided the project and product management.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

We knew them from a few years back when we used them to build out a performance attribution tool which is still in use to this day. We were aware that they positioned themselves as Python specialists, and it felt there would be natural synergy in partnering up with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2019, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re happy with the results on the standalone project approach as well as the team augmentation. From the very start of the data catalog piece they built for us, they were thinking about how to track adoption metrics for this tool when it gets released into the world. We have a set of metrics for that particular tool that we can see the uptake in our user base. I can only characterize it as a success.

We started with one standalone project, one small team augmentation, and we have since added some of their resources in the DevOps space with ongoing maintenance. The fact that we’re adding more building blocks into this STX Next ecosystem tells you about our conviction to work with them.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

They do product management in addition to project management. They have a well-honed, agile delivery process. The other element that really complements that is they are incredibly strong in design. 

They have a very capable design team of in-house designers. That’s a great leverage effect for any firm that doesn’t have that in-house expertise, to be able to draw upon that and get that rich design layer built into your products. It creates a very nice UX on an end-to-end basis. They really want to get to know your company. They’re very disciplined.

We wanted to spend that first year learning how to best interact with them. Now we’re in a place where we can plan for potentially more work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I spent a lot of time speaking with other firms in the analysis phase of this initiative. STX Next had built a really nice culture, one that we felt would be compatible with ours. They’re very inquisitive engineers, plugged in designers, and want to know your business in a genuine way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When we first started working with them, I don’t think the finance industry was their biggest vertical. There has been a learning curve of domain knowledge. The nature of their firm is they will provide their services pretty much across industries.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do a proof of concept. Pick a project and make it something not too scary and not too close to your core intellectual property. Embrace the STX Next way of doing things as a starting point. The process can be adapted to suit your team’s working style but get a sense of how they would approach it so that you can map the differences and similarities. They will come to your office to carry out rich design and requirement gathering sessions with your end-users. It is critical that you spend that initial few weeks answering all the questions that they ask and prompting them to ask you 10 more questions. The more time you spend with them upfront, really getting them to understand your business domain knowledge, the better the work they will deliver.