STX Next

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the software engineering manager for Scurri, an IT company providing carrier integration for e-commerce merchants. We connect and optimize online ordering, shipping, and delivery. It’s a dynamic platform and API designed to be simple, effective, and adaptable.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We needed help scaling our team when we received big projects with fast deadlines. Specifically, we needed Python developers, and they’re difficult to find due to demand. We work with high-profile customers and we needed developers who would integrate seamlessly into our own team with no decline in quality.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They came on board a few years into the existence of our platform. They’re embedded completely in our process to the point that there’s no difference between one of our in-house developers and one of theirs. We’ve given them specifications for all the work that needs to be done. They've helped us integrate new shipping carriers into e-commerce platforms.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with three full-stack Python developers from STX Next. They assist with coding, databasing, and infrastructure elements. We also discuss details with their project manager every two weeks.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

Our engineering manager found them originally, and we contacted them again for our current engagement.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost is over $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2018 and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Adding their developers did not slow down our process at all, nor diminish its quality. They’ve maintained the same standards we have on our own team. We’re completely satisfied with the quality and reliability of what they’ve delivered.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve never had any issues with their project manager, who responds immediately whenever we have questions or suggestions. Their developers take part in our planning and retro meetings. We have our own Kanban development process and we communicate through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They offer a broad range of consultation services. We can always count on getting specialists for single tasks—AWS implementation, for example—who bring a unique understanding of the work needed. It’s like paying for three developers while also having access to skilled consultants who can help whenever needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would help our business if they could offer service at any time of the day.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Always work to understand the developers personally during the onboarding process and integrate them fully into the team. Don’t treat them as a third-party service.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a multi-channel marketplace platform that works with independent brands to sell a variety of products, including homeware, fashion, and jewelry. As the product manager, I oversee STX Next’s developers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We decided to outsource all of our development to STX Next so that we wouldn't have to hire and coordinate between different vendors. Their team works with our CTO to improve and maintain our platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STX Next handles all of our development support to enhance our marketplace solution. It’s a custom built platform that allows independent brands to sell products through our site. Brands can upload portfolio items through a design dashboard, manage their profile, and update their listings.

So far, STX Next has resolved bugs and assisted with new developments. While the team is proficient in Python and JavaScript, they’ve also learned to work with Cubic to help build features. They now continue to maintain our site.

What is the team composition?

They’ve assigned an overall account manager who serves as the point of contact between us and our developers. Initially, we worked with a single developer but have since expanded their team to two.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

Our CTO had research and contacted several options, including STX Next. We set up a call with them and were impressed with their work.

What is the status of this engagement?

They’ve worked with us since April 2018, and I don’t foresee us ending the engagement anytime soon.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since joining the project, they’ve helped us maintain and grow our platform. Whenever we’ve had a technical emergency or unforeseen downtime, they’ve always been available to keep the site live, even if it meant acting out of hours.

Furthermore, STX Next is willing to scale to our project’s needs, providing qualified, professional resources. At one point, one of our developers needed to switch to a different project, so they replaced him with and helped bring the new member up to speed to ensure a smooth transition.​

​​​​​​How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re professional and communicative. We use Slack to keep in touch throughout the week and Trello to track tasks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Not only are they familiar with general tech stacks, but they’re also willing to learn new platforms to help us grow. We use Cubic to generate the experiences on our website, which neither of their developers had worked with before. But they were able to pick it up to support us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, their work has been great, and they have high standards. Sometimes there can be a bit of a language barrier since they’re based in Poland, and we’re in England. But this hasn’t affected the work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the former lead developer of a financial technology company. Specifically, we offered a software product that helped quantitative analysts with their investing. It spans the range from very heavy statistical computations to data management to data visualization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

Given that the company included just the founder and me, we needed outside assistance to scale appropriately. STX Next was brought on to provide web interface support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were in need of a supplemental engineer as this wasn’t a well-defined project with a start and an end. We worked with a single engineer based in Poland that would accomplish our assigned tasks. We’d communicate daily and provide specific pieces of work concerning our web interface, including building new features and fixing bugs.

Our interface included elements with React.js, Redux and ES2015 JavaScript, along with Python and Django in the backend.

Among the projects he completed was adding a date filtering functionality to our generic table views of multidimensional data. He also added a means to manage a multidimensional dataset further—they can’t be displayed very easily, so users need to filter it down to 2D data. The engineer worked with the UI that allowed the user to decide how to go from nD to 2D.

What is the team composition?

We worked with just the one engineer, but we were in occasional contact with his manager, as well.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

The founder of the company created a list of potential companies that were all based outside of the United States. I am unsure of how he found them all, however.

How much have you invested with them?

I’d estimate that we spent around $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement spanned May 2018–September 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We ultimately found it difficult to communicate with a remote engineer, which led to a shortened contract. In those four months, a lot of the work was completed in ramp time, so he did not seriously start contributing to our business. He completed some minor features. If he had stayed on longer, there might be more of an impact I could point to, but given the duration, it would be difficult to do so now.

That said, the engineer was very smart, and I learned a lot from him. We had trouble communicating across time zones, but the work he produced was quality. He’s smart and a sound engineer.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

Our side served as the project manager in this case, so there was not much that needed to be managed or tracked from their team. The engineer received our directions and completed the work. We used Trello to keep track of tasks, and we communicated using Slack and Google Hangouts.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The company as a whole is easy to work with. They were responsive to our messages, and they checked in with us constantly. I had a pleasant experience overall working with them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’ll reiterate the need for the engineer’s communication skills to improve, but I can’t suggest anything specific for the company.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

As a general piece of advice for hiring overseas, one must be willing to deal with the time zone differences.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a platform that helps landlords efficiently manage their renters. We automate all of the manual steps in the process, from generating contracts to collecting rent.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We were just starting out. I’d developed a proof of concept with some freelancers and had a few people using the platform. I needed to find a vendor that could help me improve the system’s structure and launch the business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STX Next worked on the MVP of our property management platform. They used Django Python for the backend development and React for the frontend. The entire system runs on AWS with a PostgreSQL database.

The team was responsible for four main features. They programmed the platform to generate contracts based on data provided by the landlords. They created a centralized documentation component to manage informational files for each property. They built an estimation function that could calculate the return on a property based on its rent prices and current value. Finally, they integrated the platform with different payment methods to collect money from tenants. The system is connected to one of the main payment and collection services in Europe and supports both credit and debit cards. The STX Next team also linked the platform to a service that lets landlords view all the transactions associated with a specific account. They continue to support our development needs while we gather some initial metrics to share with investors.

What is the team composition?

Unlike many other agencies, STX Next provides full-time resources that don’t work on a project-by-project basis. For the bulk of the work, I contracted a project manager, a frontend developer, and a backend developer. They also provided designers on an hourly basis. Currently, we’re only working with one full-stack developer who’s been with us since the beginning.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

I was located in Asia at the time, and I was looking to work with a European vendor to avoid major time zone discrepancies. I shared my ideas with a few agencies. STX Net had a strong reputation in Poland, and they offered a competitive price. I also found them to be the most professional.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent between €45,000–€50,000 (approximately $51,000–$56,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with STX Next in July 2017, and the relationship is ongoing for the time being. I’m happy with their work, but I’ll be hiring my own in-house team soon to improve our internal operations with more in-person collaboration.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’ve presented the platform to outside parties, and they’ve praised its backend systems. STX Next was flexible in their workflow, allowing us to add more features throughout the development process. We changed our expectations quite a bit, and they expertly accommodated our requests. It was a dynamic collaboration.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Jira to track the project, and we handle day-to-day communication through Slack. They aren’t bad, but they do need to optimize their management processes. Sometimes, they offer up suggestions that could benefit the platform but would hurt our overall business. At times, I’ve felt that they were more focused on their company than mine.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by how quickly they’re able to allocate resources to our project. When we work on specific features, they promptly provide specialists to help us out for a few hours.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re a bit expensive.

Any advice for potential customers?

Clients should hire STX Next to help them through the last stage of scoping out a project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Blocktrade AG, a crypto-asset exchange platform focused on being fully regulatory-compliant.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We were trying to get to market as soon as possible but had a hard time finding an experienced team to onboard quickly and develop our exchange platform. As a result, we established an internal team to handle the initial site development before partnering with STX Next for front- and backend support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We collaborated with STX Next to develop our trading facility website. The platform itself isn’t a blockchain, but, rather, it’s a centralized exchange within internal matching systems. The site is Swiss guarded with the highest security features and fully complies with market regulations.

Both teams were responsible for the front- and backend along with all APIs and necessary parts. They built our site using Python on the backend with a PostgreSQL database. On the frontend, they used AngularJS and the different libraries that go with it. Everything was held in Docker, so it was easy to deploy.

STX Next was also instrumental in helping us secure an agency to handle the mobile development side of the project. They took part in the discussion and served as a liaison between us and the other developers. Even though another company handled the mobile development, from our perspective, it was as if STX Next had done all the work.

Currently, we’re working to optimize site performance, extending our APIs and adding new features. This involves improving the charting library, adding better wallets, listing new crypto assets, adjusting and refining database performance, and upgrading the app.

What is the team composition?

The team changed based on our demand. We initially started with three backend developers, two frontend developers, a QA tester, and a project manager. At our peak, they assigned four backend developers and 4–5 frontend developers. We’re now working with three backend developers and one QA tester.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

We reviewed the available development resources in the market and shortlisted a few candidates to meet in person. Out of all of them, STX Next was the most competent and flexible option, and they had the required expertise.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around €400,000 (approximately $453,000 USD) so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in November 2017, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s hard to attribute all the results to one party or the other because it’s been a mutual collaboration. However, we see them as part of our team. Together, we’ve launched the beta site and went live with a full version.

We’re now focusing on optimizing our productivity, and STX Next has continued to give us feedback. With their support, we’ve been able to improve our delivery and development speed and are satisfied with STX Next’s work.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve done a great job at project management. In the beginning, we didn’t have a dedicated project manager on our side, so they assigned a resource who synchronized everyone across both offices. We now communicate daily through Slack, and they use Jira and Confluence for tracking and documentation.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve done a great job overall. Not only are they transparent and flexible, but they’ve been immensely helpful when we needed to scale up. When the time came to scale down, it was no problem, either.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s crucial to treat STX Next as part of your team rather than just an outsourced vendor. Clear communication is also important because it simplifies processes. Finally, an internal project manager or product owner helps align everyone to achieve your goals.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CFO at a security, crisis investigation, and intelligence consulting firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We’re looking to turn our consulting firm into a quasi-consulting tech firm that offers an online platform. The software would allow clients to view their data through a meaningful dashboard and for our firm to better serve their needs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STX Next helped us build the platform we envisioned. First, they hosted a three-day discovery workshop to chip away at what this project would achieve, how we would do it, and what the end product would look like. Before, we had a vague list of desired functionalities. The STX Next team helped us come up with a complete and streamlined vision of the platform. We envisioned four modules that make up the system: intelligence, to educate clients; threat assessment, to evaluate the probability of potential threats to their companies; crisis management, to create procedures in case something goes wrong; and investigations, to implement after something has gone wrong. The team then took that vision and brought it to life.

What is the team composition?

We first communicated with a business development representative and her superior, who together worked to take our proposal to the next steps. Our development team—consisting of a project leader, a development expert, and a UI/UX expert—picked up the project from there and has handled it from start to finish.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

My colleague found STX Next and was ultimately responsible for hiring them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between £5,000–£10,000 ($6,600–$13,200 USD) but we’re planning to spend between £100,000–£400,000 ($132,000–$528,000 USD) for the full scope of the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

STX Next has delivered us a story map of what the platform will look like and a roadmap of how they will develop it. These two products allow us to show our clients what we’ve been building and how it can serve them. We are also using these maps to show shareholders and potential investors how we’re creating additional value for them.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

Their business development representative has been responsive to our questions and proactive to make sure we’re happy and have everything we need. The development team itself has an innovative approach to collaboration that we plan on replicating with our own projects with clients.

What did you find most impressive about them?

STX Next took the time to really understand what we wanted to achieve and how we envisioned the product. During the discovery workshop, they asked us many questions and then followed up our answers with insights and further questions. This approach set them apart from other developers we talked to during the shopping period for this project.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In some ways, they were more expensive than we expected, but they also clearly explained why. They deliver exceptional products at great value compared to other, potentially less expensive firms.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Have them host a discovery workshop. We found it invaluable to figuring out exactly what we were hoping to accomplish with this project. We went from having a vague vision that we couldn’t quite put on paper to a clear understanding of what we wanted to achieve, how to achieve, and what the end product will look like.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the co-founder and CEO of Zappi Ltd, a recruitment platform that allows teachers and schools to connect directly.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We engaged STX Next to build our web-based platform and mobile app, including the frontend and backend.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STX Next designed and developed both our web-based platform and mobile app, incorporating custom functionality and features as requested. After meeting with their team for a three-day discovery workshop in Poland, they then went into design and development, using Django and Reactive Native to build the platforms.

What is the team composition?

We work with a scrum master, tester, 2–3 designers, and 4–5 developers.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

We found them on Clutch after spending a lot of time researching vendors for the project. After narrowing our choices down to a few options, we decided to work with STX Next based on their experience, methodology, and pricing.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since April 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our entire business revolves around the platform STX Next built, so their work has been invaluable. Although we just launched, we've already received a lot of positive feedback from users and our team is very happy with it overall.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is one of STX Next's greatest strengths. They're very organized and responsive, utilizing the latest tools to stay on top of tasks, including Jira, Slack, and Zeplin.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very friendly, honest, and approachable.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There's room for improving their frontend capabilities and React Native knowledge, but they're in the process of expanding those expertise.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I highly recommend taking advantage of their discovery workshop; it was very beneficial in our process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO at Signal Kit. We provide communication services for the K–12 education space in the United States. We allow them to do mass communication for their entire school, class, students, or parents.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

We wanted to expand our development capacity for software programming, at a lower cost than what we could get with resources here in the U.S. We didn’t want to hire in-house because our needs were fluctuating pretty widely at the time. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STX Next helped us better define and develop additional software features for our platform.

We have another effort with them, and they're developing our iOS and Android mobile applications. This is another option for our end users as opposed to just accessing our site. One additional feature they implemented is a performance enhancement, and another is for social media posts. For example, we can push out information and school updates via voice, SMS text, and email, as well as into the web app and on social media platforms. Their team provides software testing as well.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a salesperson, a project owner who helps secure the resources, a project manager, three developers, a UI/UX person, an auxiliary resource, and a programmer on the mobile app. We’re bringing on a dev ops resource in two weeks and another developer.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

We were looking for a company that would help us bring in experienced resources, was readily available, and had a good track record at delivering on their word. We stumbled across them online. We did some research, found a lot of glowing reviews of their work, and reached out to them.

How much have you invested with them?

$75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2018 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our team is very impressed with their work process and enjoys working with them, having developed a good sense of confidence in their work. The first piece of work they did for us was around performance. They got the job done and identified other opportunities, rather than just doing specifically what they were asked. We liked how they acted as if they were part of the team.

We had gotten kind of lazy on our process of how we develop our software. They’ve been very helpful in formalizing our processes, so we’re very happy with that.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re very satisfied with the project management. We have a project manager on site there which helps since there’s such a time difference. He manages those resources and we interact with him directly as well as the developers. It’s been very helpful in managing the overall effort. We use Slack, email, GitHub, Jira, and a lot of the Atlassian ecosystems and use scrum as our overall work process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're pretty talented and know the technology stack that we use. They brought resources on that were very technical and savvy. They’re easy to work with and understand even though they’re far away from us in Poland. They’ve been a great group to work with and we look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They’ve been great to work with.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I like how we secured the project manager. It’s been very helpful having a point person in charge of all the resources. I recommend leveraging that resource if you get a decent size team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Respondent 1 (Co-Founder): I’m one of the co-founders of a sports services company. We’ve created a platform that uses technology to expand sports services, particularly within the U.K. tennis industry. Our overall business model seeks to bring together all elements of the sport, from helping users find venues to looking at how people execute real-world experiences with our app.

Respondent 2 (CTO): I serve as the CTO. In my role, I focus on understanding the product needs and translating them into technical solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next?

R2: We wanted to create a mobile responsive web app but lacked an in-house team to build it. At the time, we weren’t looking to take on anyone permanently, so we reached out to STX Next to help us design and develop our platform while still being flexible to our needs. We’ve since expanded their role into more of a long-term partnership.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

R1: Initially, they conducted a discovery phase to identify our challenges, understand our problems, and set goals. Their account manager and CTO conducted a high-level review of the project to define the scope and assemble a team of qualified developers.

Together, we were able to produce strong solutions and ramped up our development efforts. Rather than just dictating technical tasks or just handing them problems to solve, it was a collaborative effort between both parties. We also engaged their design and QA testing team.

R2: I worked directly with the developers to build the web app. One of our objectives was to be accessible on a wide variety of desktop and mobile devices. However, due to time constraints on our side, we couldn’t invest in full-native development and opted for a mobile responsive design instead. That way, we could still deploy the site in the App Store down the line.

The platform itself allows users to sign up, book coaching sessions, reserve tennis courts, and invite friends. We’ve also included a subscription payment system, which lets users pay a flat rate for a certain number of bookings.

What is the team composition?

R1: In the beginning, we worked with their account manager and CTO to scope out the project. From there, we coordinated with their developers, designers, and QA testers.

How did you come to work with STX Next?

R1: Going into this project, we reviewed several candidates, including STX Next. As we’ve mentioned, we wanted a partner that could provide a long-term, sustainable development program rather than just taking on a specific piece of work.

R2: Out of all the vendors we evaluated, STX Next came with several recommendations. I interviewed each developer individually, giving an hour-long technical review to test their capabilities. I was impressed by STX Next's performance. They scored highly on the technical side and demonstrated strong soft skills, so we felt comfortable moving forward with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

R1: The initial build lasted from February–July 2018, but we’re currently in between development phases. They were able to effectively get the platform to an MVP stage, so we’re still able to run pilots and gain user feedback. However, from a business and marketing viewpoint, we’ve decided to pause the project for the time being. We would prefer to continue understanding our users and prioritizing next-level features before launching the app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

R1: Although we haven’t launched the platform yet, we’re still running various tests to gather user feedback. This means looking at the app from a product and value proposition perspective in addition to the technology and the user experience. So far, we’ve been extremely pleased with their services. I’m confident that if we were to go live today, the app would hold up.

R2: The team delivered many of the core and sub-features, and the app works well. We’ve completed a small-scale location test to gauge the app, and test users have successfully booked coaching sessions.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

R2: Because I worked closely with them, we shared project management responsibilities. We typically used an agile methodology, working in biweekly sprints to drive development. On occasion, we would also have weekly sprints when we needed to get something out quickly.

Each week, we’d have three check-ins as well as more in-depth meetings to discuss the product. We would then take product tickets and break them down into achievable tech solutions. I was impressed at how proactive the developers were in identifying potential issues and coming up with strong technical solutions.

R1: In terms of meeting deadlines, we were under a lot of time pressure due to industry events. STX Next was able to establish a timeline estimate, accelerate through development, and adhere to our schedule.

What did you find most impressive about them?

R2: Their developers were exceptionally personable and proactive. I appreciated that they believed in what we were doing. They were just as invested on the product side as they were with the tech side, and I liked how they were able to look at the platform from a user’s perspective. This made it easy to form a good working relationship.

R1: To build on that, I’d like to stress just how personable they were. When dealing with a larger company, it can be difficult to get a high level of in-person service. However, since I occupy more of an overarching role, I interacted directly with people from several departments, including their management. From the CTO to the developers, every individual was approachable and accessible. We always felt that we could discuss anything with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

R1: To get the most out of their services, focus on the design before transitioning to development. They actually advised us to do this, which was the logical order, but we decided to start with a dedicated development team first and engaged the design team mid-way. As a result, it took a while for the designers to come up to speed. They handled the situation well in the end and were flexible enough to accommodate our requests.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder of a startup for financial markets and information. We're building our new platform from scratch.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STX Next

At the time, we were essentially building our business from scratch. It was a fairly holistic problem; we needed to hire developers to build a data entry system. Initially, we hired two software development houses to collaborate on our project. It was an interesting dynamic because they both used slightly different practices. I'd worked with the other team previously, but STX Next was new to us. As we got closer to finishing the MVP, we decided to only move forward with STX Next. We had them manage the project on their own.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STX Next built the architecture of the underlying technology for our entire business. The full stack developers usually use Python and Node. They programmed the frontend website using either Angular or React, as well. Our product is a series of backend Mongo databases. Each one works with slightly different types of metrics. They built a form entry with spreadsheet uploading capability and a calculation engine that computes complex financial market math.

A critical part of our system is the data scraping engine. It connects to APIs from external vendors including trace APIs from Condor. The system feeds information into a data service that uses ElasticSearch. It sends queries back and forth from the frontend in the form of a REST API.

What is the team composition? 

We started working with their top developer, who is exceptionally talented by any measure. The second resource we added was a bit weaker. They didn't work out, but STX Next assigned us a much more senior resource. Our first tester resigned, but we plan to hire a new one.

About six weeks ago, I took on a business analyst who's now performing the product owner role. Since then, we’ve hired another two developers with mid-level experience. We plan to add another one when our lead developer leaves at the end of the month.

​How did you come to work with STX Next?

We found them through a recommendation.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our collaboration with STX Next in July 2017, and we’re still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

STX Next completed everything we asked them to do. It’s a bit too early to assess how reliable of a solution they’ve developed. I don’t have the technical background to review its functionality using proper terms. A year ago, we started using the MongoDB database which wasn’t the right solution for us. This wasn’t STX Next’s decision, though; they just worked with it after the fact.

STX Next provides a comprehensive set of skills and resources, which is helpful for a project like ours. They have a strong business model and employ skilled and professional developers. The team can provide anything a client might need, from programmers, designers and testers to product owners and business analysts.

How did STX Next perform from a project management standpoint?

STX Next pairs their teams with a business analyst. They prefer scrum to Kanban, at least for our website. Rather than having the developers test the product themselves or using an automated method, they manually have it tested externally.

Initially, a couple of STX Next’s contract developers worked under my internal business analyst. This paired team collaborated with my other developers. They essentially complied with directions and tried not to rock the boat. The developers from STX Next seem much happier with the new approach and have been more productive and efficient.

Regular status updates clearly indicate what’s being accomplished on a weekly basis. We’re currently running a standard project together using Jira as an organizational tool. Our communication via Google Hangouts and Slack has been excellent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Unlike other firms I’ve worked with, they don't get hung up on theoretical concepts or on building beautiful code at the expensive of actual accomplishments. I want to see how they cope with some of the new problems we’ve given them before I’ll have a concrete answer, though.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The way they work now is a bit different than before. I felt like I had to hassle them so they’d provide us with good teams. They became quite responsive after I did so and hired new resources to meet my needs.

They’re a tightly-managed business. This is impressive for the owner, but also means they lack the spare capacity to react to urgent issues quickly. This dilemma comes with a trade-off. STX Next would be much less valuable if they had a spare person perpetually waiting around to join in on the work.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

They work best when given projects with clear goals to work towards. When they’re given control of all aspects of a project, from product design to testing and development, clients should assess the resources they assign.