Agilie

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the founder of Knear. Our company is building an events platform to connect musicians with their fans

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Agilie?

I needed to work with a team who could provide development and design for an iOS mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially hired Agilie to only build a minimum viable product (MVP) with multiple functionalities. Ultimately, the team developed our iOS app from scratch. We provided wireframes, screen designs, basic functionalities, and ideas about how it should look. Based on these materials, they completed the actual design of our product. 

What is the team composition?

I was in contact with a project manager, the head of the design team, and the head of development. 

How did you come to work with Agilie?

I found Agilie on Dribble and chose them based on their competitive price and the caliber of their design portfolio.

How much have you invested in them?

I spent between $12,000–$14,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this project from February–June 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m pleased with the quality of the deliverable they produced. Our app is currently live in the App Store and is functioning very well.  Agilie’s development team was especially skilled. 

How did Agilie perform from a project management standpoint?

Since I was in the U.S. and they were in Ukraine, the time difference was a challenge. I appreciated their consistent availability. Agilie always managed to make time for our meetings, even early in the morning or after working hours.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their development capabilities are excellent. Agilie brainstormed innovative new ways of completing challenging tasks. I especially appreciated the proactive approach they took to problem-solving and finding viable solutions for our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The design team could be more involved in the process like the engagement we saw from the development team. They could have been more proactive by offering additional mock-ups and further ideas on how to improve the design.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a transportation company that has a system for ordering a taxi through a mobile app or call center, similar to the Ukrainian version of Uber.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Agilie?

We needed to develop the app for our company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Agilie took charge of all the design work while also creating an Android driver app and an iOS and Android client-facing app. Additionally, they built a dashboard for handling operations. They used Ruby on Rails and native programming languages for the apps.

What is the team composition?

I’m in constant communication with the assigned project manager. We have a team in charge of implementation, which consists of a couple of mobile developers, a couple of backend developers, and a QA specialist.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent between $200,000–$500,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in September 2013, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve had pretty good reviews and ratings for our client-facing mobile app, which is almost at five stars. We’re very satisfied with the cost, their code quality and deliverables, and their communication skills.

How did Agilie perform from a project management standpoint?

We receive constant updates from the project manager. They use Jira internally and we mostly communicate through Skype and Libre.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a responsible team that provides the results we expect. They try their best to stick to our plan so that we’re able to deliver on our side as well when it comes to marketing campaigns. There haven’t been any issues.

We have a huge system with a little over 1 million Ukrainian citizens using our service as well as thousands of drivers. Because of the nature of our work, there can be issues during the weekends or weeknights when we’re at our busiest and almost all our drivers are online. Agilie provides maintenance services to help us on this front.

​​​​​​Are there any areas they could improve?

I asked for a few more people to join the team so that we can complete some of the tasks a little faster. They’re looking for a couple of candidates at the moment, but it would be great if they could add those new team members as fast as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO for EasyWay. We gather and process different information related to public transportation and provide it to the public.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Agilie?

We needed help with mobile app development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Agilie developed the first versions of our iOS and Android applications from scratch. We then switched to a different company, who we were completely dissatisfied with, and came back to Agilie. They now maintain both versions of our app, and we hope to use them to cover needs in the upcoming years. Most of the work involves client server communication and optimization of big data.

What is the team composition?

They have three people for Android and two for iOS. We try to engage as much as possible with the development.

How did you come to work with Agilie?

We used to be from the same city. Before partnering, I got references from their past clients, and then we hired Agilie.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $30,000–$40,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2013, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have around 1 million downloads on the Android Google Play market. The crash rate is 99.7%–99.9%, so I’m happy with their work.

How did Agilie perform from a project management standpoint?

We meet on a daily basis in order to go over what they’re doing and if they’re meeting our goals. We use Jira for project and task management, and we talk on Skype. They’re online when needed, and I don’t have any issues with project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

If I see that a task should be done in a week, Agilie will try to complete it within eight days. Our previous partner would take up to three weeks, which was inefficient.

Agilie works on an hourly basis and is worth the cost. From the business perspective, it’s why I’ve continued our relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The team leader knows everything, and I would prefer him to spend more time on my project, but it would cost more. We’ve found a balance, though, and he does outstanding work while his colleagues cover the general tasks.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m VP of product of a Norwegian company focused on safe and smart homes in multi dwelling properties. I own our product strategy, development, implementation on the engineering side, in addition to supporting of the commercial side. We white-label our self-developed, certified smoke detector that registers (and uses WiFi to report) temperature, air humidity, and motion. The hardware and firmware are developed in Norway.

We are approaching a very traditional market from an untraditional angle. We offer our products to third parties such as telecom, cable, construction companies and insurance companies to enable them to sell and install this product for their customers. The main focus is on entire apartment buildings, associations consisting of multiple buildings, and other multi dwelling properties.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Agilie?

Our product has a large backend component, a web portal for property management, and a web-based support tool for our distributors. We also have an application (which can be branded for distributors) that end users, facility managers, and installers can utilize. We needed to outsource our project management and development tasks, but since this was never a one-off project, we needed to find someone with a good cultural match so they could be part of my team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Agilie mainly assists with project management, development and QA, but is also very much involved with the product as a whole, including what direction it goes in. They are involved in the process of identifying what to do next, as well as the best way to do it.

Our white-label solution mainly consists of the actual smoke alarm which reports various information through WiFi, and a cloud solution that handles communication, data, logic, and analytics for all of our customers, devices, and users. It also has extensive features and logic around grouping devices and homes so the product can act as an alarm system for an entire building, rather than just a single unit.

There is also a fully-brandable iOS and Android app that allows residents to install our multidetector by connecting to a network, view temperature or humidity data from their apartment, and receive alarms for fire, temperature, humidity, or motion. Users can add other users to either access their home or just receive alarms, and also utilize personal safety features such as movement trackers and personal alarms. There is also an installer mode.

What is the team dynamic?

We have around 15 people working on a daily basis, which includes team members from Agilie. How did you come to work with Agilie? As with most companies that choose to find an external development partner, the cost was, of course, a factor. However, it was also just as important to recruit and keep good engineers, which is hard to do in Norway. A partner we use in Norway had worked with Agilie for multiple projects over many years, which is how we became aware of them.

What is the status of this engagement?

This product has a history of its own, but I would say the start of the project in its current form was near end of year 2013. We continue to work with Agilie and have no plans to change that fact.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our product won an innovation award in 2017, and we were the only Scandinavian company to achieve that. The backend, web, and apps all work well compared to similar solutions, and installation is also easier and more reliable. During our first fully operational year we have installed 10.000 devices in Norwegian homes, which no other Norwegian vendor in this segment has been able to do. We’ve also recently signed up for our first distributors in Sweden.

How did Agilie perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re a startup with strong and very different personalities, so we can be very hard to please. After we got to know each other and what to expect, Agilie has been able to deliver great results from a project management standpoint.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really feel like a part of our company, which is a huge feat in the world of outsourcing. Their team is dedicated to delivering a great product, and they care about what features we implement, as well as how we do it. We’re able to retain balance between flexibility, predictability, and responsibility in terms of delivering new features.

For example, we’re currently delivering new releases for the backend, web portal, and apps every single month, and they all have visible value for our customers. There have been no critical bugs with this release schedule, and the trivial bugs are rare and more often than not traceable to an oversight in specification rather than implementation.

In Norwegian culture, we operate with a non-hierarchical, open, and direct form of communication, which oftentimes causes frustration when outsourcing development. Agilie is able to work within this culture perfectly, which is one of the reasons we feel as if they are all members of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There isn’t anything specific that comes to mind. They are exactly what we’d hoped for - and what they produce, in the time-frame they produce it, speaks for itself.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s important to consider what it’s like for teams to work together when they’re from different cultures. It’s not just a matter of numbers, and speed means nothing if the project goes in the wrong direction. Be clear on your expectations, but also work to get a good sense of how you can help your team deliver the best results.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I´m the founder of an education platform for creatives. We work with the top creatives in the world to produce online master classes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Agilie?

The business challenge was to build a fully-customized, flexible learning platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We did a ton of user testing, thousands of surveys, and dozens of interviews, which allowed us to come up with the specifications of the minimum viable product. I wanted to be able to give them ample direction for the design and then let them handle the technical work. I hired a fantastic, U.S.-based designer collaborated with them so that they could do the heavy lifting.

They started from scratch and built the platform on Rails. We use a customer relationship management platform called Intercom.

One of the main things that we wanted to solve was time management; it's such an issue for people to make time to learn because they have families, jobs, and all kinds of commitments that occupy their time. One of the features that we integrated was to give people the opportunity to take courses in any order that they want.

We also built a Netflix type UI [user interface] and platform where users are able to filter different types of content and choose certain lessons to add to their own customized learning path. Everyone’s learning path is completely different, so it's a novel approach to education which is typically done in a very synchronous way.

A second feature that they added was the option for people to pick the days they want to receive lessons, which I like. We send lessons from their learning plan, which they´ve fashioned, on the days they choose. Building this feature required integration with third-party apps and so forth.

What is the team dynamic?

There were 4 resources on the team.

How did you come to work with Agilie?

I originally found them on Dribble, where they are very well rated. I liked a lot of the work they had done. We met with a lot of other designers but Agilie had the most passion out of all of them, which is usually a big pre-requisite for us.

What is the status of this engagement?

It basically went in two stages. I started working with them in October of 2016 and then we worked on something else later this year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We haven’t launched the project yet; we’re right in the middle of final user testing. The feedback has been extraordinary, though. Someone even wrote to me saying that this has been a game changer.

How did Agilie perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great overall, but the project management aspect has been the best. We communicate on Slack all day and also have a daily phone call. They´re very responsive and friendly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They don’t have big egos. In the past, when I’ve worked with other firms, people have been sensitive about who’s building this tech or the design. In this case, I had another individual leading all the creative decisions and Agilie was so great at taking direction. You can save money by outsourcing the development work to an agency like Agilie, which allows you to afford a fantastic U.S-based designer.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I interfaced with the project manager throughout the whole project. It would be nicer to communicate directly with some of the engineers, but I understand their way of working and the project manager really takes care of everything.

The only real negative thing is their English speaking skills; they could improve a little bit, but it´s not their native language. Sometimes it’s a little hard to explain certain concepts, but when we’re chatting on Slack, it’s not an issue at all.