West Agile Labs

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of a global family travel website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with West Agile Labs?

We needed to grow our inventory, so we hired West Agile Labs for custom software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They worked on custom software development of API integration between a property supply channel manager, and the backend of our website. We provided them with documentation from the API company, and West Agile Labs developed a proposal for us from there. After a back-and-forth period discussing what everything would look like, we started development. After development, we went through a QA process, testing, a soft launch, and a full launch. 

We used Ruby on Rails on the backend, and West Agile Labs used a staging environment to test how everything would work; we also used Stripe as a payment processor. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with about five people from West Agile Labs; this included software developers, engineers, and a project manager. 

How did you come to work with West Agile Labs?

I’m not entirely sure how we originally found them. Our company has been working with them for a long time. 

How much have you invested with them?

We invested around $30,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between December 2021–March 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product came out how we expected it to, but we didn’t set any metrics other than finishing the project on time and for it to be functional. 

How did West Agile Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t feel like the project management was particularly strong because we ended up doing a lot of the management on our end. We had to make a few changes at the end of the project, so we did not end up finishing on time or within the budget, but we don’t think this was entirely their fault. We used Slack and Google Meet for communication and Jira for project management. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We think they’re very good at scoping.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We didn’t feel like the QA piece added that much value to the project, and we paid a lot for that. We also had some issues with a language barrier, and some confusion came along with that. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask for timelines and really push for those because even a generic timeline will be helpful.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder. Task Creation. Ordering. Invoice Management. Based in SF.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire West Agile Labs, and what were your goals?

I operate fast casual restaurants and wanted to have someone develop a system that could digitize my Operations and then convert it into a startup SaaS that I can scale and sell to other Operators experience it the same issues I go through.

SOLUTION

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

Pramod and his team were basically finishing my sentences when I was explaining what I wanted. They have a “we can do that” mentality. As a non-technical Founder they do a great job giving me options on builds, explaining scopes and working with me on coming up with the most efficient steps to compete modules on time.

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

From conception to launch. Only chose to build in iOS. RoR and different Apple SDK’s

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

Front end, back end, design, project management, etc. They have a solid team that has always done a great job making sure things are getting explained and the information to their whole team. They are a one-stop shop for a complete project build.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Even when I was unsure of what my project was between Enterprise or SaaS, they did a great job walking me through the process and giving me options at every turn. In the end, they built a compelling application that is more of what I wanted than I was even aware of

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

Very organized. Never missed a deadline. There is a person at every level needed and they all work well together to complete the task objectively.

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

Patience. They worked around my other obligations and never pressured me into answering things just to get an answer. They would rather build it right the first time.

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

Nothing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a chef and I own nine restaurants in San Francisco.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with West Agile Labs?

We reached out to West Agile Labs to develop an app that could help me manage all the managers at different restaurants. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I discussed my project needs with West Agile Labs, and they provided guidance on developing more of an Apple Developer Enterprise Program or SaaS software, rather than the mobile app I originally intended on. The software acts as a task management tool that allows for different logins for each manager, without being tethered to a physical location or IP address. They also implemented graphs that capture different tasks for various jobs as needed. 

What is the team composition? 

I worked with a handful of people, including a project manager, developers, and designers. Whenever we had phone calls with their team, 6–8 people were generally on the call. 

How did you come to work with West Agile Labs?

My co-founder knew of West Agile Labs through a mutual friend. Compared to other companies we considered, they were a lot more confident in their ability to develop a custom solution and MVP. 

How much have you invested with them?

We probably spent around $63,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from around August 2018–February 2019. They were moving a lot faster than we were, so they probably could've completed the project a lot sooner. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It's in the process of being tested with a few people, but it's already received a ton of positive feedback. The app has already streamlined many processes for my staff and had a positive impact on my daily operations. The product they ended up building is much better than what I originally planned. They were also able to navigate through some complex labor laws to create the platform. 

How did West Agile Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a great job of managing the project efficiently, tracking milestones through tools like Asana and Pivotal Tracker. I was very hands-off and only had a couple of calls with them each week for about an hour. They were also very thorough and responsive overall. Even though there's a big time difference, it was actually more convenient for me to work with them late in the evening. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Accountability is very important in my profession, so I appreciate that they operate in line with those same values. I didn't need to over explain myself; they were able to take the project and run with it. They were also very transparent and good about explaining the technical aspects of the project in layman's terms. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really. They delivered a better product than I originally anticipated creating. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Try to have a good business plan going into the relationship, so the process is more streamlined than it was for us. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of operations for Batchelor & Kimball, a mechanical contractor.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with West Agile Labs?

We needed to improve our website and build an intranet-style employee portal where we could post documents, announcements, etc.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first project was a standard website upgrade and redesign. It took about four months to complete. The employee portal took a bit longer, but West Agile transitioned seamlessly from one project to the next.

West Agile worked on the intranet from start to finish. They called us, and we discussed what websites we liked, what features we wanted, how it should look, etc. We wanted a clean, simple, and low-maintenance site that didn’t require an in-house developer to constantly update it. The portal needed to be professional and mobile responsive for any phone. From there, West Agile built some wireframes and sample templates to meet our requirements. Our team reviewed them, provided feedback, and suggested modifications as needed. We had a few more calls to revise the product and then selected the templates and features.

West Agile custom-coded the portal, building specific features just for us. For example, we needed to be able to take PDF files with employee information, parse them, and upload them individually to employee’s sites. Each employee has a login and username, and there’s a dashboard with general company information and a section for files specific to that individual. Because the portal had information like benefits and payroll, it needed to be secure and ensure that employee data wasn’t uploaded to the wrong file. West Agile took all of that and built a system that checked off every box. They coded in the backend on Amazon Web Services (AWS), and they made sure the user experience matched our branding. We went through a few months of testing to make sure everything functioned.

We then uploaded tasks and content, commented on Pivotal Tracker, and they populated the website. It was a sandbox environment where we could review and provide comments and changes. After a few months, we were in the final stages and just doing some minor content editing. West Agile taught us how to edit the platform ourselves, and we currently manage it. It’s a WordPress site, so it’s fairly easy to navigate the frontend.

We went live with the whole company at once, and West Agile supported us throughout that process. They tweaked a couple of things and made sure the AWS plan worked. We found a few bugs, but they cleared them up right away. We’ve been live for over six months, and it’s been working well.

What is the team composition?

We had two teams, one for the website and one for the portal. Each team had a project manager, and that’s who I mostly interacted with. Sometimes an engineer would be on a call if we needed something technical explained.

How did you come to work with West Agile Labs?

A friend referred them. We’d worked with West Agile on a previous project a few years ago, so I decided to reach out to them again for this one. They have extensive resources, and their rates are good, so we decided to hire them.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July 2016–May 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The portal was part of an initiative to go completely paperless with all of our company information, benefits, and payroll information. We’re now 100% paperless, and the feedback from almost everyone is that it’s fantastic. The portal is easy to navigate, and West Agile did a great job making it user-friendly. Once you’re on the dashboard, it’s obvious where to click.

The feedback for the website has also been overwhelmingly positive. We went from an outdated site to a modern and sleek one. It looks professional and sophisticated while also remaining simple and easy to manage. It links to our other portals seamlessly, which is a huge benefit.

We have a few complicated dev projects coming up, and my plan is to hire West Agile again. They did a great job, and we’ll continue to work with them.

How did West Agile Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They did unbelievably well, considering they were managing people in California and across the country. I was worried about the time difference initially (they’re located on the west coast and have developers globally), but they adjusted their hours to work with us. They answered emails within 24 hours, but usually within 3­–4 hours. If I ever needed to talk, they were available and responsive. They utilize technology well to communicate and stay organized. English was also a concern, but they all spoke it well.

If there was a bug or issue, they’d put in the extra time to research it and find the best solution. They did whatever was necessary to make sure we were satisfied and to build the product right.

We used email, phone, and conference calls to communicate. Pivotal Tracker helped us track and comment on our progress.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our projects are complicated, but West Agile is always willing to do them. They have a vast skillset and never say no. If they don’t know something, they’ll review options with their team and give us a solution within a week. I have no doubt that, if they say they can do something, then they’ll do it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

When we first started several years ago, we had communication issues. Now, however, their project managers speak great English and work hours compatible with a U.S. office. It can be hard to coordinate work when team members are located around the globe, but West Agile manages that pretty well.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of NIGHTOUT, an event discovery and ticketing platform. We provide a space for businesses to market and sell tickets online, while customers can browse events through our website, mobile app, and social media accounts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with West Agile Labs?

We build our technology in-house and work alongside a handful of third-party development firms, including West Agile Labs. We have a small team and a small budget.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve worked together on a number of projects. For one, we needed to create a consumer-facing iPhone application. We provided the initial specifications, including wireframes, and they helped us choose the appropriate technologies, many of which we were unfamiliar with. They then built the native app from scratch using React.

Additionally, they’ve worked on a few backend projects, creating features to improve our ticketing process. This includes integrations with other platforms and development work using Ruby and Vue.js. They also repair bugs and provide maintenance.

What is the team composition?

We stay in contact with their high-level management, including their CEO, and we currently work with six or seven people. This includes a full-time backend developer, a QA tester, and a React developer who works as needed.

How did you come to work with West Agile Labs?

They were recommended and, coincidentally, reached out to me through a cold call. We work with a number of development shops, so we’re always interested in finding new partners.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2017 and our relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve created some very popular features for us. Our app has 125 customer reviews and we have a 4.9 rating thanks largely to the efforts of West Agile Labs.

How did West Agile Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Their technical knowledge allows them to adapt to any project quickly. They have weekly standups with our CTO through phone calls or video chats, and we also have a shared Slack channel. They hit every deadline, with any delays caused by our end.

What did you find most impressive about them?

One of the biggest challenges with any development project is sticking to a timeline. This has never been an issue with West Agile Labs. Their ability to consistently deliver on time sets them apart from their competitors.

They ask questions to ensure they understand our requirements. We’ve had negative experiences with other companies that failed to do adequate planning, but West Agile Labs learns about any feature prior to development. They also do QA testing, meaning their deliverables are ready to launch as soon as we receive them. This is a fairly rare trait.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Clarity and transparency is important when working with any external developers. We always provide a detailed blueprint that includes project specifications and the tasks they’ll be assigned.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of an innovative platform company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with West Agile Labs?

We engaged West Agile to develop a web-based platform for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We collaborated on the development plan, and they created a wireframe for it. They then built the platform on Ruby on Rails. 

Next, they built Android and iOS mobile applications on native software. Though it was a separate project, the app was connected to the web-based platform. 

Throughout the development process for both the app and web-based platform, West Agile took direction from us because the platform services a very niche market. They were most useful in providing their expertise to create the most user-efficient experience, while we drove most of the content creation.

What is the team composition? 

We started out working with about three members of their team and eventually expanded to work with their development team, which was lead by a project manager. In total, we worked with about five to six members.

How did you come to work with West Agile Labs?

We initially heard about them through a recommendation from a third party. We then did an interview process with them in addition to several other firms. We decided to move forward with West Agile because we felt the firm’s culture was a better fit for our assignment.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in August 2016 and launched the platforms in January 2017. They continue to add more features and provide maintenance and support when necessary. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Users are pleased with both the web-based platform and mobile apps.

How did West Agile Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They did an excellent job. Although the development team was offshore, they continued to be extremely accommodating with regard to our time difference.

They used a combination of tools for project management, including Pivotal Tracker. They also used Basecamp, UberConference and Zoom to communicate with us, along with email and phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very accommodating and diligent in getting their work done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

As the project moves forward, more attention to customer feedback would be ideal.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

West Agile works very well in collaboration, so I would highly recommend approaching any project you bring to them as a completely collaborative effort.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of a health company that works with both consumers and enterprises to in help validate the supplement industry. Whenever you go to a grocery store to buy a supplement or try a new diet trend online, we show you how that product impacts your health using your own medical data.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with West Agile Labs?

While our company was still in its early stages, we were in dire need of frontend development. San Francisco, where we’d just moved, has very good agencies, but they’re quite expensive. We needed to quickly bring on a team of project managers for frontend, design, and QA with limited funding.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

West Agile Labs is heavily involved in our organization. They focus on frontend development. Although we handle IT in-house, we work closely with them on the design and launch of our platforms. As a B2B company, each client we license our software to requires different configurations. Their team executes on those using the wireframes, designs, and workflows we provide. They’re incredibly agile about sourcing developers for any specific programming language, from React, Node.js, and Ruby on Rails, all the way to larger backend database systems.

Along with the actual platform build, they offered strategic growth for our fundraising process. West Agile Labs’ founders have finance experience, having both worked in venture capital and private equity. They know exactly how to help manage the technical stack for presenting for BCs. We've brought the team on for client calls during longer procurement cycles; they're very ingrained in our process.

What is the team composition?

We worked with between eight and 12 team members. Bringing their designers and project managers into our ecosystem via Slack and email has really worked wonders, and takes care of multiple consulting contracts at once. Assigning both stateside and international team members to our projects really saved us time.

How did you come to work with West Agile Labs?

West Agile Labs was introduced to us by a member organization. We looked at three specific options; referrals, local agencies, and individual applicants. They had the track record, experience, and pricing we needed to get a beta up and running, so we chose them.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent a little over $180,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2017, and just signed another yearlong contract with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

West Agile Labs performs work that’s seamless with our own, and our clients have loved it. They've been able to efficiently execute everything we’ve asked them to. We absolutely love working with them. None of our clients have complained about our frontend or any bugs so far. They've done a very good job, and have clear pricing.

They’ve helped financially scale our company. We conduct the process for analyzing our data sets or introducing different learners to discover new trends in the data. Meanwhile, they take care of easy and time-consuming tasks, like new push notification systems or to syncing ability with Google Calendar inside of the platform.

How did West Agile Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They've done a good job. We had some hiccups initially, due to using four different product measurement tools. Once we consolidated in the same system, with Slack as the main communication channel, it was incredibly streamlined. We meet with the founders in person biweekly, and conduct morning and evening calls with the team every day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They offer very competitive prices. In Silicon Valley, most firms charge an arm and a leg for services because they only have a handful of developers. The team was flexible, even when we were in the early stages of fundraising. They'd either defer payments or put in extra effort to make sure we succeeded. Work was diligent before they even took us on as a client. They really care about their partners, rather than just doing quick contracts with clients who are often difficult.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Having an online payment option would be great. When it comes to the actual development work, they've done a phenomenal job. I wouldn't have signed another annual contract with them if I thought we could find something better.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and COO of HiLovely, an online platform for connecting consumers with beauty experts. We have a network of celebrity, up-and-coming, and even newer artists who provide consultations for customers via video chat. Artists and customers also interact via email sometimes. YouTube is a popular channel for teens, 20-somethings, and millennials who want beauty tips. We take that to the next level by offering live one-on-one sessions with a top-quality artist.

Our artists help women with anything from skin care advice to specific makeup tricks. We’ve found that our customers want good advice, but they don’t have time to watch 50 YouTube videos to figure out what works for them. A lot of YouTube stars these days are 19-year-old girls. Our customer base is largely women in their late 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, so videos alone aren’t helpful for them. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with West Agile Labs?

We began as a face-to-face business and expanded to an app. I used an offshore firm in Pakistan to build the app, which launched just fine. I was the project manager and held Skype calls every night with our developers for 2 hours throughout the challenging 6- to 9-month process. People told me to use an offshore company to save money, and I thought that sounded great. I’d been a project manager before, and this business my baby, so I thought I wanted to do that.

We had an incredible experience, but I wouldn’t recommend using an offshore company. First, project management is not my day-to-day job, and other people are better at it. Second, the time zone differences quickly became draining. Third, I underestimated how distracting the process would be. I need to be involved, but I shouldn’t be spending 7 hours a day managing development. It depends on the team, but for founders of startups or tech companies who are really trying to get something off the ground, trying to be a project manager is too distracting.

At the time, I didn’t know any better than to use an offshore provider. Then, 6 months later, I met West Agile, and they offered to take our app to the next level. We were shifting our business to entirely online consulting and also needed to change our website. I didn’t know what we were going to do, and the idea of going back to the firm that we used gave me anxiety. They weren’t great, but they weren’t horrible. I didn’t know where to start. After meeting with West Agile, I felt that they’d do a better job. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I talked to West Agile and liked what they presented based on my requirements. After the first meeting, I was surprised at how good their ideas were. I wasn’t expecting a group of men in their 20s and 30s to have a solid plan for a beauty website. 

They asked a lot of good questions. I was impressed with their knowledge. Within a week, they sent suggestions for different screens, and I was blown away by their quality and thoughtfulness. I’m not a coder myself, so I can’t speak to the underlying code, but the UX/UI side was phenomenal. We loved their work and decided to get started. They’d done the mockups and then put together a full timeline and plan.

We created a whole new website. A lot of the changes were visual, but we were also building a shopping engine and a video chat component. Through our initial app building, we discovered that women liked using laptops to access beauty content, even though mobile use was really surging. We needed to have a better presence on our website rather than just on the mobile app. For the video chat consultations, customers need a bigger screen than just a phone. We wanted to build a mobile app, and I still do, but I don’t have a strong use case for it. A mobile app may be more convenient in some ways, but the UX just wasn’t that good.

West Agile came up with everything—our color palette, scheme, and fonts—which wasn’t something that I expected from them. They redid everything with the initial proposal. The only thing we didn’t change was our logo.

We built the website on Meteor because West Agile thought that rolling out the platform to an app would be easier that way. Our backend database is Compose, and everything else is pretty standard.

What is the team dynamic?

We had a project manager and a UI/UX designer. I worked closely with them. Midway through our process, the UX person left, and I panicked. Thankfully, the rest of the people they brought on were phenomenal as well, so the work didn’t suffer.

At the high point, we had 3 or 4 developers, including a senior developer and a few junior ones. My direct interaction with them was limited. I worked with the senior developer a bit but mostly spoke with the project manager. He had a clear understanding of our goals and was able to translate them and direct the senior developer, who moved things around alongside the junior developers. I have a deep technical background, but not deep enough, so I learned that it’s dangerous for me to direct junior developers single-handedly.

How did you come to work with West Agile Labs?

We met them through networking in the Bay Area, which is where their main office is located. I met Pramod [CEO & Co-Founder, West Agile Labs] and really liked him. One of our advisors had told me I should meet them. I was skeptical because I had just developed our app, and I didn’t have the energy to do it again. This advisor told me that West Agile could handle everything and wasn’t too expensive.

I was trying to find a CTO at the time, and my advisor said West Agile would be a better choice because they can supply more people. They’re able to leverage both offshore and onshore resources, and they take care of the project management. They're amazing partners, regardless of whether a company has a CTO. They have a great vision and are really detail- and deadline-oriented.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent between $50,000 and $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June or July 2015. We still work with them occasionally, but I don’t need a full-time developer right now. They allow us to scale up and down easily. Our initial project length was 3–4 months, but for another 9–12 months, we implemented changes based on different ongoing campaigns. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

People love the design. We’ve been featured in a lot of major lifestyle and beauty magazines, and the first thing people say is, “Wow, your website is amazing.” We even had some of those meetings before the website was finished. The cosmetic piece was there, but the backend wasn’t. I was so nervous about the first meeting because the website wasn’t finished, but they only looked at the front page and just drooled over it. Visitors love the classic, timeless design. West Agile created this design 2 ½ years ago, and I’ve talked about updating it, but all of the designers I’ve spoken to don’t think they can produce anything better.

How did West Agile Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re definitely above average. As with any project, some things didn’t go as planned. But, they’re great at resolving discrepancies rather than blowing me off.

Once, we had a magazine meeting come up, and I thought that they’d finish a piece by that time. They didn’t, and it’s hard to say where the misunderstanding happened. Things are moving so quickly that we don’t always document everything exactly. But, when we spoke again, they were really receptive to helping us meet that goal, explaining that they can’t do everything but making recommendations about skipping steps to get what we needed. I appreciated their willingness to work through that hiccup.

No relationship is perfect. I want someone who is willing to help us meet our goals and who understands that we’re all in this together.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re kind of people you want on your team. Even though they’re an outsource team, they’re likable and approachable. Before I started this company, I did a lot of hiring, recruiting, and training people, and I’d always have a list of specific qualifications they needed to meet, but at the end of the day, I had to like the person to extend him or her an offer. That’s hard to convey in a short period of time, but I genuinely like the team at West Agile.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any suggestions. At the time, I was concerned when the UX person left, but the situation didn’t create any issues. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Eventyoda. We are like a one-stop shop for companies to discover and book different team building options on our website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with West Agile?

We wanted to ramp up our website development quickly. We had a local team but wanted to add onto that. We also wanted help thinking through the design aspects of it to make sure that the booking is seamless. It’s not just product booking, but it’s services. We needed to know how best to demonstrate different options that customers could view on our site.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They became a true partner. They helped us not only with the technical aspects but also the product and workflow. They helped with the customer experience, from the moment someone comes onto the website to when they make the booking. The website was built on Ruby on Rails and Bootstrap. They also provided design and the user interface.

They’ve been supportive of our business. They’ve recommended us to Tech.co where we were one of their top 50 startups. They also invited us to pitch at the IBM pitch fest. We ended up being one of the top 3 teams in the San Francisco Bay area.

What is the team dynamic?

There were 4 on the team.

How did you come to work with West Agile?

I found them at the Startup Grind Conference and started talking to them. They understood the business and weren’t just looking at it from a technical aspect. They were trying to figure out what we really need on the business end of it, and then map that onto the technology.

How much have you invested with them?

$75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2015 until October 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our customers love our site.

How did West Agile perform from a project management standpoint?

I’ve been super happy. We communicated by email, phone, and in person.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re an end-to-end partner. It’s very hard to find firms that are not just technical, but also have a good depth from a business standpoint.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. I’m satisfied overall.

Do you have any advice for future clients of West Agile?

Take time initially to explain the business. Look at it from the top down rather than bottom up, it will really help.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company built a SaaS platform that allows homebuyers to purchase homes without the use of an agent or representative. I am a co-founder and COO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with West Agile Labs?

We parted ways with our original CTO, and were looking for a replacement on the technical side. We were about 60% through our product development, and needed someone to complete the project. It’s an offer platform that asks users a series of questions, then generates a contract document. In the interest of scalability, we decided that consultancy was our best option, and really liked what West Agile had to offer.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They became our lead developer. They built new features, as well as frontend and design elements. One function included a digital signing mechanism, with integration with an assigning API. They completed unfinished work in the system’s document workflow protocols, enabled a document storage function, and built a task board from scratch. Once someone completes a transaction, the task management platform pulls data from the digital contract, assigns next steps, and auto-populates action calendars.

When they joined the project, we already had a design style guide, and a large portion of the work was already done. We had two weeks to complete the transaction dashboard and the offer portion of the platform. We completed both through a series of sprints with them. Since the platform launched, they tweak user interface design as our reserve team.

What is the team dynamic?

We got to know our lead project manager through the interview process. The design was done onshore, and the backend offshore. We met in person early in the process, but worked primarily via phone, email, and a handful of management tools, including Basecamp, Pivotal Tracker, and InVision.

How did you come to work with West Agile Labs?

We posted on several consultancy websites, and a member of their sales department approached me.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent around $160,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started development about a year ago, and launched the platform in early summer 2017. We haven’t hired an in-house CTO yet, and still use them to manage our technical elements.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform works really well, and is very stable. We’ve had a positive response since we launched. We still have some minor mechanical issues that they are helping with. It’s not the most intricate platform, but there are a lot of moving pieces.

How did West Agile Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We generally met all our timelines, and if we didn’t, there was transparency. We were on high alert after our CTO failed to meet deadlines, but we were happy with their flow. They were very helpful strategically, and had good answers to hard questions. Their quality assurance is great, so when they say something is ready for production, it truly is. We know what we can realistically expect from them. They’re efficient in third party platforms, and communication between developers was easy.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They helped our cost efficiency by providing a bigger team, onshore and offshore. They have strong business sense and helped make critical decisions. They knew what was necessary for the scope and how much time the work would take.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In a perfect world, we would have started the project with the same people we finished with. The major pain point with consultancy is changeover and knowledge transfer losses. It wasn’t a major issue, and it may not have been better with anybody else.