Tintash

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a creative agency that builds custom software for enterprise and startup clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tintash?

We work with offshore development teams in a hybrid development capacity to augment our internal team. Our lead in-house engineers architect appropriate solutions and work with developers to fulfill software designs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve done iOS and Android development for a few of our projects. The bulk of the work we do with them is for a large U.S. healthcare company. We worked together to write the code, and they did all the development. We complete the design specifications and API requirements on our side, as provided by our clients.

These apps act as portals for users to take actions or see information related to their healthcare or provider. They can schedule appointments, change primary care physicians, or see lab results. We leverage mapping features, keychain functionality, and biometric security to ease user authentication. The app has to be HIPAA compliant, since it touches on a lot of personal health information. We also worked with a team of three on a smaller Unity software project that has since ended.

What is the team composition?

We work with six to eight people. The Unity project was a smaller team of about three.

How did you come to work with Tintash?

The search process was completed before I joined the company. My colleagues were impressed by their communication skills. We keep in close contact with their COO, who travels to meet with us at least once a year. They also have competitive rates and offer good quality for those rates.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere between $250,000–$500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started around September 2014 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They continuously do software development for this larger project. Their partnership has helped us cultivate and substantially expand the account with this healthcare provider.

How did Tintash perform from a project management standpoint?

We generally manage the projects internally and work directly with their developers. They send daily scrum updates and diligently stick to the schedule and update us whenever something is blocking them. They’re on top of the process and we’re happy with their operations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Resourcing with them is great, especially compared to some of our other development teams. They have a very predictable resource capacity, which is helpful for our planning purposes. Their development matches the rates we pay them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve had positive and negative experiences with the development quality. We recently took them off of Android development to focus solely on iOS. We’re very happy with their Unity and iOS developers, but their Android developers gave us mixed results.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They can execute any task that is well-defined and straightforward. Be very explicit when explaining your design and avoid excessive complexity if you can. Our projects have been relatively successful because we take a hands-on project management approach. It’s helpful to get on the phone with them. Their English is good and they make themselves available for weekly calls.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a project manager and the principal engineer at a software development company with a focus on augmented/virtual reality. We also provide more typical software solutions for a range of companies, from startups to fully-fledged enterprises.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tintash?

We were working on an iOS project that required resources we were unable to provision internally.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tintash provided us with additional developers that helped us in executing the project, and we managed them internally. We gathered product specifications and user stories and worked with them to prioritize, implement, and ultimately deliver. It was a very close collaboration despite the distance between our two companies.

The project we were working on was a virtual closet app that allows users to take photographs of their wardrobe and create outfits out of them. Users can also create style presets and share them with friends through the app. Its share functionality was a key priority, and we needed it to be seamless.

What is the team composition?

I worked with two developers, one QA specialist, and one project manager. We asked for developers that were most competent and most interested in this project, and they certainly delivered on that request.

How did you come to work with Tintash?

We were referred to them by someone internally. We were evaluating other companies, but we ultimately went with Tintash due to their immediate availability.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $25,000-$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July of 2017, and we are set to conclude the engagement by the end of February. Tintash has fulfilled all obligations and delivered on all requirements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

From a logistical perspective, they were both on time and on budget, which are key. In terms of their quality of output, after extensive internal code reviews, we’ve had no complaints whatsoever.

How did Tintash perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. They communicated clearly, coordinated with us effectively, and kept us updated with daily reports. We used a combination of Slack and Jira for daily communication/task management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very good at following directions and sticking to a plan. I’ve worked with many developers in the past and many have worked too independently in working through backlogs, often diverging from expectations and ignoring important parameters. We did not have this problem with Tintash.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were some situations in which the team may have been unsure about certain aspects of the project but went ahead without asking questions or providing suggestions. We valued their input and wanted to see them be a bit more forthcoming when there were issues.

Advice for potential customers?

Do everything you can to define your requirements and specifications as clearly as possible before going into the engagement. Any ambiguity is an invitation for possible shortcomings.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the Chief Technology Officer of a company whose main product is a cloud-connected and portable medical device.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tintash?

We needed assistance on Android development, and at the time we were building up our in-house team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the beginning, our Tintash resource was primarily focused on the user interface (UI) development. We have two Android apps—one for virtual reality presentation and one for administrative control and user management on a tablet—and they did a first draft of the UI for the latter. They also built some data model into the app, and then we transitioned that resource to being in-house for full development of the app.

A few things overall in which they were involved for this specific project include user management, the authentication and device connection workflow (minus the actual authentication backend), and the creation of member profiles. More recently, they assisted us with a proof of concept on the iOS platform for data collection, and we are in the midst of interviewing a candidate from Tintash for web development.

What is the team composition?

Initially, our team was made up of a mix of Tintash and some outsourced help, which evolved to Tintash and an in-house team as we completed that process. During this first project with Tintash, we worked with one developer and Jazib Zahir [COO, Tintash], who was our account manager and oversaw most of the coordination between our teams. Currently, we also use a design resource from them to help generate some UI expansion, as well as our user manual and some marketing materials.

How did you come to work with Tintash?

An engineering colleague personally recommended them, and we hired Tintash based on that advice.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested somewhere around US$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around March of 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been deploying the application since the summer of 2017, and the user feedback has been universally positive since then.

How did Tintash perform from a project management standpoint?

They were particularly strong at project management. Jazib is very good about keeping track of timelines, deliverables, and the overall communication between stakeholders. Otherwise, we largely kept the task management in-house.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were critical to the early development of our primary application, particularly with regard to its UI, and thereafter produced a polished production application. Additionally, their communication is especially good, and they are well organized. Tintash delivers work at a good value, and they are very responsive and flexible. Overall, they are extremely good at delivering what you set out for them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

During the course of the project, we did feel that we needed a senior developer managing the architecture. It has been a long time since we began that specific process, but I believe I had the impression that such a resource was not available to us, although having one would have been useful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you have a high-level review, and request a senior developer to guide the process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a startup IT company which develops English learning software for business professionals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tintash?

We needed to develop a proof of concept or MVP (minimum viable product).

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had a rough code base from where we’d done some development before, but Tintash extended it and added some features that we requested. The platform is a mix between an application and a game. They were able to implement the various features regarding speech recognition and character animation. The app was developed for iOS, but because we use Unity, it is a cross-platform that’s also compatible with Android.

We had our own UX designer who put mockups together, and then Tintash worked from those. It wasn’t quite ready to release after they’d done the work. Our business model is B2B, so the app was a little different in that it wasn’t going to be released to the App Store. We wanted to sell to companies, which required us to do a bit of extra work afterwards.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people in total. Their main developer was involved for the first couple of Skype calls and Sprint planning, but then he was called onto other projects. He left it to another developer, and we worked with them for the remainder of the project. He was more of a junior developer, but equally able.

How did you come to work with Tintash?

We wanted a company that had game development experience. At the time, I was looking to outsource development, and a contact here in Ireland recommended Tintash. I’d heard good reports on them, so I decided to contact them.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent around $8,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in May of 2016, and the project was completed in May of 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our company sells software to Japanese companies, and we do many of our business development sales directly to our networking departments.

We hired a CTO who designed the main software architecture, and then Tintash worked with that. There were a number of things they were really helpful with. An issue we had was the size of the images that we were using for the display-based animation. Many of the image files and download sizes were really big, but they were able to redesign it in such a way that compressed everything and made it more efficient.

How did Tintash perform from a project management standpoint?

They were pretty good. They were available full-time on the project, but were also juggling with other clients’ project. This may have caused deadlines to slip a bit. To be fair, I’m sure we also contributed to that by changing requirements or having them wait on our design decisions. In general, they were good and they work quickly.

I hadn’t really used Jira before, but they are pretty good in getting everything together into Sprints. They are one of the strongest partners we’ve worked with. They were very diligent in dividing all of their time and tasks on the system, which made it very easy to see the work that was done.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are reliable. They are very quick to kick off Sprints or projects, and are also consistent. I could rely on them to have features or bugs fixed in a short amount of time, which was usually a couple of days or a week. This was really important. Many developers can be a bit more undependable, but Tintash was quite reliable in terms of finishing things.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They might not be so strong on the QA side. I didn’t budget them to do any QA, but I’m sure they would have done it at an extra cost. We tended to do the QA on our side, and then test the features they’d done. We had some trouble with a system where extra levels could be downloaded, and there was a range of bugs that we had to go back and fix.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

There are a lot of important things which need to be prepared and decided on in the beginning so that Tintash can just get to work. This eliminates the need for them to wait around for decisions to be made or for tasks to be completed. Changing things halfway through a project will just waste time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a company that makes mobile adventure games.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tintash?

We wanted to develop more games—puzzle games in particular. They were a bit more complicated than we felt like doing on our own.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with a small project. Our games (built in Unity and C#) normally have anywhere between 20–40 puzzles in them, which take a little bit more work to program, so we started Tintash off with a 2–3-puzzle project. We tested those and were pleased. Since then, we’ve ramped up our involvement with them. So far, they’ve contributed to about six games. Each game takes a couple of months to build.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had up to three people working on our games at a time, doing backend coding and general infrastructure. It comes and goes based on how busy we are. Right now, we have one software developer helping us.

How did you come to work with Tintash?

I found them through an email list for people interested in the game industry. I didn’t shop around that much. It turned out that a member of their team knew my brother from college. I saw them as a trusted source.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $50,000–$199,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2015 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve certainly helped us produce more games. All our games are a mix of our effort and Tintash’s. For some games, they’re making over half the puzzles, which is very significant. They contribute to our overall efficiency and ability to deliver.

How did Tintash perform from a project management standpoint?

They estimate how long it takes for the puzzles they’re working on. They send emails every day about their progress and we use Trello to manage the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re really good at managing discrete pieces of work, then shooting them back and forth to us. They’re also pretty open to feedback.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes, they haven’t QAed their work very thoroughly before they send it to us. They test it, but not test all of the use cases. It’d be helpful if we could rely on them fully to do the testing.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Start with a small project to figure out how you work together with someone. It will be helpful to play through as much as you can play through or test the code quickly. Since they work remotely, too many days without looking at the work makes it feel like you lose touch with what’s going on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m CEO and founder of a company that develops and publishes kids’ apps.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tintash Apps?

We’re always looking for freelance developers for creative and technical functions. Recently, we needed a third-party to execute our ideas for kid’s brand, and then bring the app to market.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In total, we’ve awarded Tintash contracts for 3 apps built on iOS and Android. Two of the apps are listed in the App Store and work on the third is imminent. They have done ad hoc work on some of our other apps as well, including QA.

The team provides remote project management for the production process. We collaborate on development, using video technology to monitor progress on wireframes and other milestones. They also interface with our clients, which are notable kids’ brands.

Additionally, they provide marketing materials and other collateral I may need for social media postings. While the team offers a wide range of services, we don’t use them all.

What is the team dynamic?

I work with 5-6 people total, but interface with 1 point person on a daily basis.

How did you come to work with Tintash Apps?

The founder contacted me, which led to an in-person meeting in New York. Our decision went against normal practice to not pursue cold calling.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work began June 2015 and is on-going.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The apps received favorable media attention. The first was on an important cable news show; Google and Apple featured the second one.

Metrics have been mixed; one app performed much better than the other. However, these results were not due to their work.

How did Tintash Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

I give them an A-plus for project management and communication. We use Google Docs to keep track of work. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their engineering is great – quality coding and minimal bug issues.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have good creative expertise and could bring out their creative side more during the consulting stage. It would compliment their technical skills well. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be aware of all the services they offer. Depending on the project specifications, they can be perfect team partners.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

HER Inc. has 2 properties. One is EmpowerHer.com, which is a women’s health blogging platform. The second one is called SkinSAFE Products, with a web presence and an iOS app. This deals with beauty and health topics. We're developing the product in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic. I am the CTO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tintash Apps?

We are a startup, so funding is a big thing for us. Hiring locally is expensive, so we decided to find an offshore team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with SkinSAFE. I was using a different set of resources for EmpowerHer.com. The site is built in Ruby on Rails on the backend and the UI. I needed someone who also specialized in HTML for UI/UX.

The main feature is the algorithms in the backend. SkinSAFE is a personalized recommendation engine. The personalization happens at the ingredients level, not the product level. We can classify the ingredients, especially if someone has an allergy, and give a personalized set of recommendations.

What is the team dynamic?

We had 1 or 2 developers for Ruby on Rails and some QA resources. QA took care of all the testing. The developers would report directly to me.

How did you come to work with Tintash Apps?

My CEO knew about them through a VC group and recommended them.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent between $170,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them over 2.5 years. The site was launched and they kept helping us with features.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site is standard and responsive. They did a good job in delivering the UI/UX and the performance side of things. We’ve had good feedback from the customers. Tintash didn’t develop the iOS app, but the QA person would give helpful suggestions on improvements.

How did Tintash Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

We used a project manager on our side. They were flexible in terms of daily scrums, being willing to adjust times and not fuss about it. Being offshore, they could provide 24-hour support.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their communication stood out, particularly their English skills. My project manager and I didn’t have to repeat ourselves all the time. I gave them specifications of what to do and not do. Their abilities grew as we continued using them. They were able to take on projects and deliver on time without me doing much.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s more on their management side. Sometimes we had to call a few times, but they worked to take care of things. They are based in Pakistan, and there are internet issues there from time to time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Stick Sports Ltd., a mobile-games developer and publisher focusing on sports games across mobile platforms.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tintash?

In 2010, we needed someone to produce a mobile version of our game, since we lacked the internal skills. We wanted help with the codebase, rather than design considerations.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tintash has worked on multiple projects for us over many years, for the same core group of products. Most recently, they’ve also provided some graphics work and design concepts, as well as handling the core technology—building the games’ codebase. We’ve been limited in terms of what we’ve asked of Tintash, only asking for Cocos2d-x development at the moment, not due to a lack in their capabilities, but because of our requirements.

They’ve been integral in taking games from codebase to delivery in stores, and have also performed ongoing management. They’ve been responsible for the bug- and beta-testing programs we have in place. Tintash built the initial games based on our designs, which we then publish to a beta market. This is a rapid process that involves making changes and fixing bugs.

What is the team dynamic? 

We’ve worked on several projects, ranging from 3 to 7 person teams. They tend to be code-heavy, utilizing a project manager with a lead developer, and 1-2 junior developers. Additionally, Tintash will involve a graphics person, and overlay this with a couple of QA people.

How did you come to work with Tintash?

They approached us. We had started a project with another third-party company in the UK and it had stalled. We decided to cancel that contract and heard pitches from Tintash and one other company. We chose them based on their understanding of project requirements and ability to deliver.

More recently, we’ve retained them to do work because of their understanding of our needs going forward, which has been developed over the years. Tintash has been responsive to this, and we haven’t found anyone comparable, even though we’re approached regularly by other contractors. None have given us the confidence Tintash has.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost has been in the hundreds of thousands range. They are quite reasonable in terms of pricing, and we haven’t found Tintash to be either ridiculously cheap or overly expensive.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Tintash in 2010.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Tintash has been working on a particular piece of IT for about 2 years, which has generated around 25 million downloads in that time. It’s reached the number 1 position in various country app stores, and has dominated in the core countries it was marketed towards for a number of years. There’s no denying their team’s involvement and impact in helping us deliver this result.

How did Tintash perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re good at project timelines. We employ our own project manager (or managers) to control the outsourced relationship. Inevitably, this is a tough relationship to have, but Tintash’s people have always shown themselves to be responsive, sometimes under difficult circumstances.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a good management team, are realistic in what they can do, and don’t oversell themselves. This is quite important in an outsourced partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve in terms of the types of technologies offered, and platforms used for development. Overall, Tintash has been responsive and I have little to fault them on.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of Askvisor, a provider of innovation and business consulting to small and medium-sized businesses. We work with them from ideation to product launch.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tintash Apps?

One of our clients has been in the field of education for adult learners, with a focus on workplace English courses. Their instructors were still delivering content in a traditional way. We wanted to develop a solution for them to gamify delivery of part of their content via an app, allowing learners to acquire basic vocabulary in a fun and engaging environment. Students are busy, so we needed to present bite-sized content in a fun way.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tintash handled the initial game design concept, as well as the coding and implementation of the Android app and backend server. They coded on the Unity framework, but we focused on Android, because the school only uses tablets on that platform.

The design process was collaborative. I provided a brief with background information on the app’s usage, and they provided ideas through an iterative process.

Our original intention was to use the app for various languages, but so far we’ve only used it for English. It targets students who need to learn the language for their workplace, and it works similarly to the game Fruit Ninja, where players slice fruit by swiping the screen. Instead of fruit, short phrases are displayed with a word missing. Users have to choose the correct word to slice.

It’s a B2B product for language schools and isn’t targeted at consumers. We published it on our client’s account.

What is the team dynamic?

We worked with an account director, an account manager, and a senior developer who oversaw the whole project. A QA [quality assurance] person and a graphic designer also participated in the game design. These resources were involved on an as-needed basis. We had two people involved full-time: A frontend developer for Android who received weekly reviews from the senior person, and a backend system engineer.

How did you come to work with Tintash Apps?

We put out a request for proposal, shortlisted about three companies, and made reference calls. One of the candidates was from Vietnam, and our CTO was concerned about their English communication.

Tintash professionally presented their proposal and came back with a detailed hours estimate for each part of the project. Their English communication wasn’t an issue, so we selected them.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost of their work was between $30,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Tintash around October 2015. The project ended in February 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our client implemented the app for its beginner English class. We received good feedback from the users, who found it engaging and helpful for exposing them to basic vocabulary. It tied in well with the school’s learning system, where students learn some of the vocabulary before class so teachers can focus more on having conversations.

We didn’t develop the app for an audience beyond our client. This was about our business model, rather than the product. We approached other language schools with the app, and they were excited about it, but it’s difficult to compete with the many free English-learning products available. Marketing it worldwide would be a sustainability challenge because we’d have to attract more than 100,000 users.

How did Tintash Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

I would rate them as professional. They use the Agile Scrum approach, with clear reporting of their past progress and upcoming task setup every Monday. Along the way, our CTO had Skype calls and messaged with them on an as-needed basis, as issues came up or needed further input.

Overall, the project was well-managed, and we had a clear understanding of the general project status and progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Tintash has experience designing games, and they were able to design an actual product from our rough concepts. They were very strong in terms of incorporating input we gave and participating in the process.

Project management is one of their strengths, as is their attention to detail. They have an international approach in terms of graphics and developer mindset, compared to teams from India or Vietnam. The demands in terms of style and graphic design are different in those countries, so it takes many more conversations to get to the same vision. Tintash understood our needs, and they were easy to communicate with.

Are there any areas they could improve?

My CTO wanted to use a new technology for the backend, so Tintash had to bring in an external consultant to guide their system engineer. This added some cost to the project. However, they chose a good resource and have a solid sourcing network for expertise they lack internally.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a co-founder of Embr Labs, a Massachusetts-based technology company that's building wearable products for thermal comfort. We came out of MIT about four years ago. As co-founder, I primarily act as a product manager. We started working with Tintash to develop a mobile app that was going to accompany our first product. At that stage, we had a rough idea of the objectives for what the app should do. We were working with a product design firm on the user experience side of the app, but we chose Tintash to do the development.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tintash Apps?

We were trying to build a product that offers value on its own without being dependent on an app. We realized a lot of our users may benefit from some of the usage data that our product is generating to learn more about their thermal comfort, behavior, and so forth. We also plan on releasing upgrades to our product firmware every so often, so the app is a convenient way for users to have access to those upgrades.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started in Q1 of 2017 and we had a rough mockup of the main screen. We were scoping out a first version of the project. We agreed upon a schedule and a division of responsibilities. From there, we worked towards a kind of first viable version of the app. As of September 5th, we're sharing the app with beta testers. There's dual project management; I am the owner of the product the app, setting the pace and deciding what needs to be prioritized from the client perspective. We have a project manager on that Tintash side who does more day to day project management of the actual app development. There's iterative work back and forth, typically between the Tintash team and my team, where we clarify details of the app.

We're going to be submitting the first version again to the iTunes store for beta testing. In the next few months, we'll be submitting the app to iTunes for public demos, and I expect that further down the road will put on an Android version, and add features.

The app has most of the functionality that we wanted at this nascent stage because we challenged ourselves to keep the app as simple as possible and avoid scope creep.

Bluetooth is the main focus of the hardware, but we also wanted to have a backend that we could access to load new versions of the product firmware. We also wanted to access user data and download it on the backend. Lastly, we wanted integration with the big data analysis tools. 

What is the team dynamic?

We had a project manager who was our main point of contact. We interact with the project manager regularly, and on busy days, we speak with the engineers. We usually collaborate on Slack, and we use project management and repository tools as well. Their team is between 2 and 4 people depending on the phase of the project. 

How did you come to work with Tintash Apps?

Our product design firm collaborated with them in the past, and recommended them as a development partner.

Finding lists of vendors is not very difficult. The two difficult things were, one, finding a vendor that you could easily trust. The second, was making sense of multiple estimates. It was really hard to compare. Quotes looked completely different, timelines varied, and the process wasn't always clear. It was difficult getting to the point where we actually understood what was implied in each given estimate. We questioned everything. Tintash clarified things well, and they had a clear sense of what it takes to complete this project. 

How much have you invested with them?

10,000 U.S. dollars. 

What is the status of this engagement?

January of 2017 is when we began, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are, at this stage, feeling ready to send the app to existing product beta testers. We can start learning from their usage data and learning about how they're using the product so that we can make it better, which is a huge business objective achieved.

How did Tintash Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

I think having the project manager around is extremely invaluable. Their technical team is very good, yet a project manager is critical in order to manage projects  well, and identify questions and gaps quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think the most impressive thing is the ratio of professionalism to cost is very high. We feel like we're getting a level of delivery that's more representative of what you would have in the United States. The cost is more representative of an offshore firm, but their ability to work with us is more representative of a European or U.S. firm.

Are there any areas they could improve?

After an active sprint, we tried taking a break from the regular project management meetings and tried talking to the engineers only. We realized that this was a mistake. Regular project management meetings are really valuable to make sure that the project is staying on a  solid schedule. Project management is important because otherwise, their engineers tend to get a little bit carried away. The quality slips if they don't have somebody managing on their side.​

​​​​​​Do you have any advice for potential clients of Tintash Apps?

Spend some time articulating the specific graphic elements that you want implemented before the start of the project. The Tintash team is probably better at implementing engineering solutions than they are about designing graphic elements. Having that specified first is probably the best way to make the project optimally efficient.