Yomba

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an online dating app that matches people based on who they are rather than what they look like. I’m the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yomba?

We needed to build a minimum viable product for an iOS app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Yomba built the frontend and the backend, which includes the matching algorithm and the user admin. They built the app natively in Xcode. The backend is structured on Google’s Firebase platform, and the data is processed through a JavaScript application in Heroku. There have been two people that I have contact with. They have been the most knowledgeable of anyone I’ve worked with. They’ve pushed me to put best practices in place. If I have a list of 50 features I want to include, they work with me to isolate which ones will deliver the best value and be the most cost efficient. They’re more of a partner than just a development agency. There’s some bandwidth for them to provide strategic services in the future, but I won’t use them unless I know what their strong suit is.

My requirements for the site were that it had to be quick and low in file size. They’ve delivered on both of those. It had to provide quick matches as well. There’s a lot of heavy calculation that goes on in the background, and one of the challenges was delivering matches efficiently that were cost effective as well as quick. Yomba has been able to work through a number of different challenges to make it happen. I recently had them take a Node/SQL dataset and put that into a big query data warehouse. That’s something that one of the engineers at one of the leading data analytics firms said might not be possible, but the Yomba team managed to do it in four days. That’s testament to their advanced abilities to conceptually understand what I’m trying to do and then find a solution when other leading brands who do that type of work say it’s impossible.

How did you come to work with Yomba?

Being a bootstrap business, I needed to find someone who could do this project cost effectively. Because of that, I searched a lot of companies in Budapest, Ukraine, and India. I spoke to 30 different people. I had a wireframe, a design, and functional and technical specification documents. I had a lot of what I needed and it was clear to me whether or not whoever I was talking to got it or not. I had people that would blatantly lie about their experience and there was a massive variance in cost estimates. Yomba is not the cheapest but the sense of understanding that I picked up through speaking with the team made it extremely clear that not only did they understand what I was trying to do, but they also bought into the concept and helped me turn it into something that was better than what I had come to them with. The benefit of the relationship went well beyond their services to helping shape and craft the product into something better.

How much have you invested with Yomba?

I’ve spent over $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2016, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The feedback we have is about the concept rather than the code or the app. We’ve done 474,000 matches since the app launched in January. There were 2.1 million questions they answered.

How did Yomba perform from a project management standpoint?

I have a project management background and I work with them directly, which made the project easy. Yomba uses all the same development task management protocols. We work in Agile sprints and there's proper testing and planning. I outline the business requirements and they design the features I want. We have a call at the beginning of each sprint to work out how much effort is going to be required in delivering each of those, and I prioritize them.

We’re in regular communication about how things are going; if there are any challenges, we work through them and we always come to the best possible outcome. They also cut down on the scope of a feature. They offer suggestions to save time and money. That’s also a sign of them wanting to help you get the most out of the engagement. They go beyond just providing a service. They could go ahead and do what I want and charge me much more than they have. However, they understand the relationship is only good if the business is still around. They’re invested in making sure that we succeed to keep that relationship going. I’ve had investors that have pushed me to find local resources, but through the dedication and commitment of the Yomba team, I’ve been able to prove to them that the way things are set up is working just fine.

What did you find most impressive about Yomba?

They’re willing to understand what you’re trying to do even if the way you do it is confusing. They’re good at getting to the core of your concept and they’ll help you come up with the best solution rather than just developing what you asked for. They have a longer vision than the immediate task at hand, and that’s vital for a platform like this that’s constantly evolving.

Are there any areas Yomba could improve?

I know they have plans to grow. Throughput is the only thing that they could improve.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

It’s my own company and what we do is rent out GIF animated photo booths to different companies for parties, get-togethers, or promo events. We wanted to create a new product - a more compact version of the photo booth - a digital booth. They created the software that’s running on the booth.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yomba?

The first thing was the software development. During the whole development process, they weren’t just executing my ideas but they were also really helpful with solving the problems we had and making the app more streamlined and user-friendly.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started from scratch. What I told them was that I needed an iOS application which would run on the smaller side of iPad Pro. I told them what specs I wanted to be included in there. There’s the app itself which creates the content which then creates the GIFs and adds all the branding. Then there’s the background part of the application as well which is the admin area. That’s connected to a website. So all the settings are done there. I just gave them the initial specs and we started working from there, and they figured out how to connect them, and how to add these new features to finally create the working product. They’re also planning to add new features to this application. We’re planning to work with them again.

How much have you invested with Yomba?

It’s difficult to define an average project. This project was below $10,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The clients really like the product. We create the GIFs. We also add the branding. The clients can send the photos to themselves but we do not print them. The printer company has discontinued the model which is the hardware accessory that makes the Wi-Fi connection to these types of printers. We’re trying to solve that by a different setup with the Yomba team.

How did Yomba perform from a project management standpoint?

Very well. Every time we discovered bugs throughout the testing process, they immediately fixed them. They tested until they found a solution to these bugs. They’re really responsive. We have an advantage with a common language of Hungarian. It was really easy to talk to them on the phone or Skype, but there’s no problem with their English either.

What did you find most impressive about Yomba?

I don’t know their other projects, but I’ve worked with other software development teams before and I think it’s really easy to work with them. It was really easy to build rapport with them. Usually, in my experience, the communication has been via email and I really enjoyed the fact of being able to speak to them on the phone or Skype and being more close to the project and understanding more how it’s going and what issues they’re facing. I was also more involved in the decision-making process. So it wasn’t like I gave them the tech specs and they just gave me software. During the development phases, they also included me to see what my preference for some of the features was.

Are there any areas Yomba could improve?

Nothing comes to mind. They were always quick to communicate everything. We didn’t have any issues throughout the development process.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

 I am the owner of a small app development outfit.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Yomba?

We hired them to develop our iOS application for iPhones and all iOS devices. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did a native development of the app. That was the requirement so that the app is lite, fast, and user-friendly. The app is called wish2wish, it’s ait’s location based bulletin board where people can make posts in various locations and browse around the globe to see what people are posting. There is also a communication component where users can directly message each other and start conversations. 

How did you come to work with Yomba?

We had developers in Israel who previously worked with Yomba on other projects, and they recommended speaking to them. They seemed to have a very strong understanding of iOS native development. Also, they’re very well-versed in all aspects of development ranging from API, server side, technologies, and overall have a great attention to detail. Attention to detail was especially important to us because our app is graphics rich, and that requires a lot of meticulous work and knowledge. The need to know how to make it functional and aesthetically appealing which they did an excellent job of. 

How much have you invested with Yomba?

We have spent $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project has been completed. Yomba still provides maintenance if and when we need it, as well as updates. The core component of the project has been done. We started working with them about a year and a half ago in January 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The feedback we have received is overwhelmingly positive. Most of the feedback we get is on the aesthetics of the application. In large part, the credit goes to our designer and Yomba for that. It’s very graphics rich and because it’s all developed with native tools, it’s very fast and fluid and works very well.

How did Yomba perform from a project management standpoint?

It was a good performance. Comparing to other developers that we worked with, I’d say Yomba was by far the best in all aspects. The project was on time and communication was very easy. They raised the right questions,  and they really worked very well with the server side. There were many issues that had to be resolved and a lot of testing to be done. They were always available and did a good, solid job.

What did you find most impressive about Yomba?

I’d say attention to detail. What I really liked was how they took ownership of the project. They wanted to really to make it great and make sure that it worked well, and I really appreciate that. They were always bringing clever solutions to the conversation. In that sense, they didn’t require much management. They had to be pushed a little bit to be more aggressively, but they gave great advice and in the end and it proved to be very effective

Are there any areas Yomba could improve?

I cannot think of anything. There is always a concern when a developer raises various questions, because you would think there’s going to be a big cost overrun, but to be totally frank, I was always surprised that they were building everything on time, and the best that we would estimate would be that it would take more time than they were billing for. In that sense, we were very comfortable with all their suggestions. We didn’t feel like we were being taken advantage of. On the contrary, the suggestions were very proper, and in the end, they resolved all the issues.