tkxel

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Draftlens, and we offer a web-based SaaS service that helps lawyers draft contracts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tkxel?

We wanted to expand the feature set of our product. The initial version of the product was built by our in-house CTO who was mainly a backend engineer. As a result, we hired Tkxel to take our product to the next level.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tkxel’s two engineers are creating a slicker frontend interface and are layering additional features to our product.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with their two engineers.

How did you come to work with Tkxel?

They found us on LinkedIn, and we were impressed with the way they pitched their services to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing collaboration started in May 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Anecdotally, we’ve been really impressed with their work. The team has really been good at translating our vision for the product into actual engineering requirements and then executing those requirements. In addition, they’re very thorough in considering all the implications of the features we’re trying to build.

How did Tkxel perform from a project management standpoint?

One of their engineers has excellent communication skills. Although the other engineer’s English skills are not so good, it hasn’t been really an issue since most of the work is interfaced with our main point of contact.

Furthermore, they’ve missed a lot of informal deadlines, but I haven’t made it a point of hitting those deadlines, so our timeline has been a little bit flexible due to the complexities we’re facing in the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have strong design and coding skills. They have excellent coding skills because of their solid QC process.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should stick to the given deadlines and estimates. Perhaps, they can also provide a bit better communication from the entirety of the team and not just the main point of contact.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s okay to come to Tkxel with a half-baked idea or a business idea because they’re good at translating your vision into a workable engineering project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO, and we work in the digital food safety industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tkxel?

Our backlogs had swelled, and we wanted to get a few things out of the way sooner rather than later.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re doing web application-based development work for us, specifically in the area of Ruby on Rails (Rails).

What is the team composition?

We’re communicating with four people from Tkxel. We work directly with their developers and they have a person in charge who ensures that everything’s okay on a weekly and monthly basis.

How did you come to work with Tkxel?

Tkxel reached out to us through email and their tone was very friendly. It was also the correct timing because we probably wouldn’t have done anything if they didn’t do that. In the end, we gave their services a try and see if we could knock some of the low-hanging fruit off.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership started in March 2022, and we continue to work together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been able to speed things up and provide some relief to our internal developers by getting some things out of the way. The Tkxel team is also well-integrated with the internal team. We haven’t had any issues with any of their work, and they really produce high-quality outputs.

How did Tkxel perform from a project management standpoint?

They know we work, and they have excellent communication skills. It has been seamless working with their team because they continuously have check-ins to make sure that we’re happy and that deadlines are being met. Overall, we’re very pleased with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They listen to what we want and it’s very important for them to understand our needs and get things right. It should be the norm, but other companies we’ve worked within the past always prioritized the way they want our projects to be executed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would love it if they can give their services for free, but other than that, there’s nothing to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a large organization, and they cover a wide variety of skillsets. We’re just using one part of their services, but they can handle pretty much anything that you throw at them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for a children’s enrichment brand, so we provide schools, daycares, and preschools with music classes, park and recreation centers, and educational sports programs. I’m the senior marketing manager, so I handle a lot of the digital side for the company across five brands.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tkxel?

We hired Tkxel to help us with the branding and marketing of one of our brands.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tkxel consolidated the multi-site of one of our brands in WordPress into one domain because we didn’t want to have eight separate sites showing the same exact information for different regions. They also integrated a new design and updated the platform to be more modern. Along with that, they developed new features such as a registration system.

On top of that, the team dynamically populated all of our locations to individual landing pages. We’re now moving to the next phase of our plan on the website. We’ve also had a meeting with the team to start working on two other websites for other brands.

What is the team composition?

There have been four key players in the project, including a project manager in charge of managing the workflow. We’re also collaborating with their web developer and designer.

How did you come to work with Tkxel?

Our CTO found Tkxel. We also looked at other companies as well as development agencies we worked with in the past. However, we didn’t see it working out. One of the biggest factors why we chose Tkxel was because of their solid communication skills.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $80,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in June 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Tkxel has successfully developed all of the custom features we wanted to have. In fact, they’ve enabled us to triple the number of our users and raise the number of our viewers. They’ve helped us increase our SEO value, too. 

Furthermore, we’ve been able to improve our efficiency by having a consolidated website with additional features since we’re no longer focused on constantly updating eight different web pages. As a result of our increased efficiency, we’ve been able to expand our brands, which is the reason why we decided we’re working with them again on two other projects.

How did Tkxel perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication skills have been outstanding and have been the best that we’ve had with any other agency we’ve worked with. We set up twice a week meetings and discuss different parts of the project. We also have our own Slack channel where we constantly provide each other with information, including their objectives and their target deliverables. Above all, the team always requests feedback and provides us with feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They keep us in check so that we can move forward at a fast pace.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should gauge project timelines better, especially when it comes to API servers, making sure those are properly set up.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Set up a Slack channel with the Tkxel and have weekly meetings at a minimum. In our case, our good communication with each other has allowed us to make sure we’re on track.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the development and product manager of Curriki; we’re an e-learning company based in Cupertino, California. We have an app to create interactive content deployed through various learning management systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tkxel?

We brought them on board for engineering support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Tkxel has been helping us develop and improve our product. Their engineering team works closely with our development staff to create the system’s functionality using technologies like PostgreSQL and React, among others.

What is the team composition?

We’ve been working with 3–5 members of their team, including the lead developer and his group. 

How did you come to work with Tkxel?

They were already working with my company when I took my current position, so it was natural to engage with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Overall, they’ve been very professional; their team has been able to accelerate the development and deployment of the system to integrate our components, which is very helpful.

How did Tkxel perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been very responsive; we have daily stand-up calls and work through a Jira ticketing system.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to communicate and get things done is outstanding and differentiates Tkxel from other firms. Most companies have good engineers but aren’t willing to share the project's status, listen to our requirements, and be available for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think there’s anything they can improve on, but it’d be nice having someone from an architecture view.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear with them about your requirements and expectations because they’ll deliver based on that.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a company that helps connect consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands with prospective buyers through product sampling experiences. We’ve built an AI chatbot called Sam that replaces a physical brand ambassador, and it helps consumers discover new products and redeem full-sized product samples for free.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tkxel?

Originally, we brought Tkxel to develop a tool that brand ambassadors could use during in-store product sampling to improve the experience. We had some iterations on that tool towards the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. However, COVID-19 put a damper on that project, and we made the decision to pivot into a different project, which is the chatbot. Tkxel has been working with us on both projects, and they were able to do a seamless transition between one another.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I’m a programmer by trade, so I’ve worked with several outsourced resources in the past, but those engagements weren’t the best, to be honest. When working with those other companies, there were a lot of layers of bureaucracy between their developers and me. Thus, when I hired Tkxel, I wanted to ensure that they met my requirements.

Initially, I had a conversation with them to ensure that we were all on the same page. My ideal scenario, which then was one of my requirements, was that I would be able to interact with the developers directly.

We also provided them with some documentation regarding our requirements for the functionality. We had a platform already built, but it wasn’t built well, so we needed to rebuild it. Tkxel spent a couple of weeks understanding what was already built, and we started to iterate from there — it was very lean.

Our current engagement continues to be very lean, and I treat Tkxel’s resources as an extension of our team. Instead of just providing them with our requirements, I try to leverage their developers on a creative and collaborative approach, asking them for their opinion on how to architect our software in the best way possible.

What is the team composition?

I’m almost exclusively in contact with two developers from Tkxel. We’ve also talked with their project manager a few times, but we don’t work directly with him because we also have project managers internally. Hence, we only need a direct relationship with their developers.

How did you come to work with Tkxel?

Originally, I had a conversation with one of Tkxel’s account managers. This person had reached out to me while I was in the midst of an engagement with a different firm, so I passed.

Tkxel was part of a network I was in that offered discounts and promotions. When I was getting frustrated with my old firm, their name popped up on the list of that network, offering a good deal. I reached out to them, we had a quick conversation, and we then started working together.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around May 2020, and our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My experience working with Tkxel has been great. In several instances, they’ve offered to switch their schedules unprompted, working extra hours and night times in order to hit the deadlines.

It was very frustrating spending time and energy working on a product that, in the end, didn’t get delivered. However, their team was able to jump right into the next project headfirst, learning about new technologies and platforms on the go. At that point, I was really happy with my decision to bring them on because not every outsourced developer has that ability to pivot.

How did Tkxel perform from a project management standpoint?

Tkxel is very flexible. We use ClickUp internally, and they use Jira. Thus, we maintained both platforms for a while, and they doubled their efforts to ensure that I was happy with the process. However, I work directly with their developers, so I don’t have much more feedback about their project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

On the one hand, I’m very pleased with the two resources from Tkxel; they’re very talented people. Tkxel is very good at understanding the requirements right and allocating resources effectively.

On the other hand, my main point of contact has been really helpful to ensure that we’re being cost-effective. We’re able to take advantage of discounts and opportunities along the way to ensure that we’re getting the maximum value for the money.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had a few instances where the project manager offered a few services for free on top of our existing contract, but there was no follow-through. It would be good if they improved that part.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear about your requirements and needs, and make sure that you clearly communicate the level of talent you need for your project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CFO of a consulting firm that helps nonprofits raise money for projects. For instance, if they want to build a building or expand programs like homeless shelters, we help them raise money for it. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tkxel?

We had a proprietary campaign management software that was relatively simple but dated. As a result, we wanted Tkxel to help us imagine a better UI for it.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In the beginning, Tkxel interviewed a few of our clients and a couple of our employees to get feedback and ideas, which they used to design a better UI for the software. We had a kickoff call with their team, and I provided them the names and contact information of the interviewees. After that, Tkxel set up meetings and interviews through Zoom. 

During the interviews, they asked what could be improved about the software, focusing on end user pain points. From there, Tkxel resources started designing wireframes. They gave me iterations and I gave them feedback along the way. 

What is the team composition?

I had one main point of contact, but at least three other people were involved in the project. 

How did you come to work with Tkxel?

I didn’t know how, but Tkxel found us at the right time. Someone from their organization reached out to me when I was looking for help with our software. From there, I spent some time talking to their contact person and decided that we’d take a shot at this project. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $5,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from April–May 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Tkxel provided us with creative ideas and a better-looking interface. For context, this was a small part of our business, and we provided the software for free to clients. It could become bigger someday, but we’ve been slow in this area, so there haven’t been many success metrics. 

In any case, the Tkxel team did their part quickly, giving us a better sense of what our software could be like. Overall, the project took only about a month to finish. It was a simple one, and they did it efficiently. 

How did Tkxel perform from a project management standpoint?

Tkxel was great at managing the project, especially when it came to deadlines. The only thing that slowed them down was me; they did everything they needed to do quickly and on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciated the value they provided. They did great work for a relatively small price. In terms of the quality of their process, the team had a sophisticated framework of handling the project. Overall, I was impressed with their processes and the value I gained for our money. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Many of their resources were overseas, so I personally had a difficult time communicating with them early on because of their accent, especially when they spoke fast. That being said, it was a minor issue, and it didn’t get in the way of their work. In fact, I told them about it and they were good at slowing down for me. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let Tkxel do their job. In our engagement, I had the most out of our work with them because I let them do their work; I didn’t have to negotiate or chase them down to do what they had to do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of technology and innovation at AXIM, a government contractor. We administer government contracts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tkxel?

We’ve worked with them multiple times. On this year’s initiative, we hired Tkxel to take advantage of their React expertise and augment our team with one of their developers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, we established the scope. We then met with the project manager officer (PMO) to outline the project, the number of hours, and so on. We were familiar with his work, so we set it up so he’d receive tasks daily. Then, we’d meet him at 9:00 a.m. to go over what he accomplished. We continued for six weeks, and then we added another two to complete the project.

What is the team composition?

We worked with the project manager on a daily basis, and we contacted higher management when we worked additional days or if our PMO had days off.

How did you come to work with Tkxel?

We’d worked with them previously. We liked them because they only dealt with small shops, and they had the skill sets needed. We can reach out to them, and they align us with the right resources by providing resumes and allowing us to interview and choose the contractor.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership in 2018. This project lasted from May–July 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We mainly work with Tkxel for their consistency. We know they’ll send someone with the skill set we need, and they check at the beginning of the project to ensure we have the right person. We don’t have to onboard their candidate — we benefit right away from using them.

How did Tkxel perform from a project management standpoint?

We took over the project management, and I think that worked for us. We just had to handle the resource, and since we knew exactly which were the tasks, we just made him part of our morning huddle.

We’ve had more than one resource when we’ve done other projects, but we’ve handled that differently.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have another plan to give you a resource for 40 hours a week, so we pay by augmentation instead of pure contracting hours.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we’ll continue to use them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be task-oriented. You have to do a lot of work upfront to take advantage of the hours you’ll work together. You can’t do that while you have the resource; it needs to be ahead of time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the systems administrator of a company that produces downhole finishing tools for the oil and gas industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Tkxel?

We had a web application developed in-house over a decade ago. At the time, it was put together quickly to solve a problem, but it became an integral part of our business. Thus, we needed to bring our app into a modern codebase, which was outside of my range of expertise, so we hired Tkxel.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially looked at the app and its existing functionality together, and we discussed what we wanted to do moving forward. Tkxel then provided me with a scope of work and a timeline for this project. I provided them with a server, and they did all of the work on that server. It was an incredibly smooth process.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a core group of four individuals from Tkxel: a manager, a salesperson, and two technical programmers. I first interacted with the salesperson. Then, the manager was in charge of all of the paperwork and billing. Ultimately, I worked most closely with the two programmers on the development.

How did you come to work with Tkxel?

I was searching for freelancers to do this job, and I had already gotten some quotes. The president of our company recommended Tkxel after founding them, but I’m not sure how he did so.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested an amount in the range of $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2021, and the initial project went live in July 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Tkxel was able to make an extremely smooth migration of our app from an old to a new codebase. By moving it from a hosting system to a virtual machine, I reduced the overhead for this app by 80%.

How did Tkxel perform from a project management standpoint?

I was very impressed with Tkxel’s communication. I got weekly updates on the project, and they shared their GitHub with me so that I saw the codebase being developed in real time. I really appreciated all that because I always knew where we were, and we promptly resolved any small issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Tkxel’s level of professionalism is outstanding. I was very impressed by how they managed the development and the difficulties that arose.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Get hold of them and tell them your idea. They’re extremely professional and have high-level technicians on their side.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Software Lead at viaPeople, a company specializing in HR Software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We partnered with Tkxel to do a UI Redesign/Refresh for a set of products. To take our somewhat dated design and bring it up to modern design standards, while keeping our user experience as simple and straightforward as it was in the older tools.

SOLUTION

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

We interviewed a number of firms and Tkxel had the design aesthetic, strong UI skills, portfolio work and value that we were looking for. Their strong partnership approach was also a key variable in our decision to select Tkxel.

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

We started with demoing the current products, as well as giving access to a sandbox site. As initial designs started coming in, we worked with the team to iterate (covering edge cases, clarifying intent, etc.) As the iterations happened the following designs were also incorporating our feedback so that everything had a consistent design.

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

Tkxel assigned us a Project Manager and a Designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our clients and prospects have been very impressed with the new designs and we feel this will have a significant impact on future sales.

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

There was exceptional partnership between our two teams. Tkxel was very collaborative in their work style, soliciting/incorporating our feedback and then providing new designs. They were very iterative & responsive which jives with how we work as well.

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

The strong partnership, design aesthetic, and skill level of the Tkxel team impressed us the most.. Our products have many configuration options and Tkxel was very thorough in first understanding our features as well as the rationale behind them. Only after fully understanding our products did they address design and navigation needs. We felt this was the perfect approach to our redesign.

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

Nothing I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Aptima is the premier human-centered engineering firm. Since 1995, Aptima’s mission has been to optimize and improve human performance in mission-critical, technology-intensive settings. We apply deep expertise in how humans think, learn, and perform to today’s challenges. Whether for fighter pilots functioning in the cockpit, medical staff in the ICU, or teams collaborating across distributed networks, our solutions help measure, assess, inform, and augment human performance in defense, intel, aviation, law enforcement, and healthcare.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Tkxel to perform a UX design refresh and implement front-end and back-end software development. Our goal was to rebuild a healthcare application with a more modern feel and tech stack.

SOLUTION

How did you select Tkxel and what were the deciding factors?

We issued an RFQ to several companies, including Tkxel, and had 1-1 meetings with them to answer their questions. We selected Tkxel based on three criteria (in that order): - Cost - Ability to complete the work within our timeframe - Availability of skills to use the specific tech stack we wanted

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

• Discovery: Tkxel led a 2-week discovery workshop with our team, in order to review the existing application and define key, general requirements and needs.
• Design: Tkxel was tasked to design and implement a refreshed UX/UI. They used Figma and gave our team access to provide reviews and comments in an agile way.
• Software: Tkxel was tasked to:

1. redefine the software architecture
2. re-implement the front-end using Angular
3. re-implement the back-end using .Net Core.

• Deliverables: They delivered the software code, the design artifacts, and supporting documentation.

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

All in all, we interacted with about a dozen people at Tkxel. At each step of the process (RFQ response, discovery, design, development, close-out), Tkxel was very clear about who the leader was on their side, so it made interacting with the team (using Slack) a breeze and very clear. We interacted with a business analyst, a project/program manager, a technical vice-president, designers, and software engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application was developed on time and on budget. The five milestones were met as expected. All requirements were met, The delivery occurred as planned. We are extremely pleased with both the outcome and the process to get there.

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

We used a combination of email, Slack, Jira, Git, and Zoom for project management and communication. Tkxel made their environment accessible to our team for transparency and to avoid delays. They were very open and proactive, which was effective for this project on a tight deadline.

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

With a team split between the US and Pakistan, we were concerned about time difference. But that never was an issue. Meetings were scheduled at mutually-convenient time. Also, they were able to quickly 'get' what it is that we are doing, thereby accelerating the timeline and delivery.

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

Not that I can think of - they performed high-quality work within the deadline and budget!