ANODA UX Design Agency

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Project Lead of a consulting company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Consulting for strategy and transformation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design | to accomplish?

• Designs for CRM and other internal tools

SOLUTION

How did you find ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design |?

Upwork

Why did you select ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design | over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location

How many teammates from ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design | were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We engaged Anoda for a ~3-week collaboration as part of a strategic consulting project. Their role was to develop UI/UX designs and wireframes based on a set of preliminary recommendations and concepts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Anoda delivered excellent results – quickly, professionally, and with a high degree of clarity. Their team immediately understood the project context, asked the right questions, and translated abstract ideas into concrete, user-centric design outputs. The communication was smooth throughout, and they always stuck to agreed timelines without compromising on quality.

We were extremely satisfied with the outcome and would work with Anoda again without hesitation.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Deliverables were always on time. Short response times when reached out to them.

What was your primary form of communication with ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design |?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their proactivity in pushing the results further.

Are there any areas for improvement or something ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design | could have done differently?

No, we were fully satisfied.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of Charity Miles

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Charity Miles is an app that empowers people to raise awareness and money for charity when they walk, run or bike.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design | to accomplish?

• Design the UX and UI for our Employee Empowerment Program.
• Design the UX and UI for our integrations with peer-to-peer fundraising platforms like GoFundMe and Classy.

SOLUTION

How did you find ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design |?

They cold emailed me.

Why did you select ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design | over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned
• Really liked their team and resourcefulness

How many teammates from ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design | were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We hired, and continue to hire Anoda to design the UX and UI of very key features of our application.  The first was our Employee Empowerment Program, which allows companies to create private teams for their employees and sponsor them to walk, run and bike for charity.  We now have hundreds of corporate clients that use this feature.

Anoda also designed the UX/UI of our peer-to-peer fundraising features which allow users to link Charity Miles to their personal fundraising pages on sites like GoFundMe or with charities directly.  this is a key new feature of Charity Miles which enables us to better support our charity partners.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

They were great to work with.  They heard our goals and criteria and designed very simple, clean UX/UI in a very time-efficient manner.  They were also very responsive to feedback and delivered great designs that were easy for our tech team to implement.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Very responsive.  Very time efficient.  Very easy to work with.

What was your primary form of communication with ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design |?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their team had a great culture and attitude, which starts at the top with their founder, Oksana.

Are there any areas for improvement or something ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design | could have done differently?

Can't think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Product Lead of Wildcast

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Wildcast is a host-read ad-matching and camapaign management platform for the podcast industry.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design | to accomplish?

• Platform Redesign
• UI/UX Optimization

SOLUTION

How did you find ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design |?

Online Search

Why did you select ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design | over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great test project

How many teammates from ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design | were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Anoda Helped us to redesign out entire web app, which was at the time in the MVP stage. The work Anoda did helped to bring our product into a fully working and optimized state through design upgrades and added features.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The amount of time and money we saved by using Anoda was immense. Their team was extremely thorough and helped to identify and iron out flaws in out UX. They also connected us with a development partner that succesfully brought our visions and their designs to life without issue. 
Anoda brought us from the MVP that got us off the ground to a fully working product that satisfies the needs of our customers and internal users. Our new platform has helped us scale and increase revenues by over 400% compared to 2023.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They delivered on time, and often early, and were extremely communicative about timelines and updates. We were in touch daily, and only communicated when necessary.

What was your primary form of communication with ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design |?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Their understanding of our company's needs and ability to deliver on time and within budget were unmatched.

Are there any areas for improvement or something ANODA | Product Design Agency | UI UX Design | could have done differently?

All of our designs were ultimately perfected through Anoda's revisions. There were no issues getting the things done that we absolutely needed before sending to dev.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director and CEO of a company developing a cloud platform and OS based on free software. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ANODA - UI/UX Design Agency?

We hired them for UX/UI design on multiple projects. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The team provided UX/UI design and branding services. This included our logo, pitch deck, and mock-ups for OS screens. ANODA - UI/UX Design Agency used Figma for the designs. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with the CEO, two designers, a project manager, and an account manager. 

How did you come to work with ANODA - UI/UX Design Agency?

We were doing research and found them; when we talked to their CEO on the phone, we felt confident they would be up to the task. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $2,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together during the month of March 2023. We had to pause the project because of funding and decided to focus on our cloud platform instead. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It’s been frustrating that we couldn’t continue the development because of issues on our end, but as a result of our efforts, we have logos and samples for other projects we plan to develop in the future. ANODA - UI/UX Design Agency also provided a nice pitch deck we can use and repurpose. Their design artifacts were high-quality, and we will be able to use them down the line. 

How did ANODA - UI/UX Design Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything went smoothly in terms of project management. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The CEO was highly impressive and was responsive to our needs. We were impressed with her ability to take on different projects regardless of the size and scope. She had a lot of experience and helped us better understand the tasks we were working on. She consistently offered different options and had a network of people who could help us with business planning and other sides of the project. 

We were really happy with their work and look forward to working with them in the future. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing we can come up with. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Rely on ANODA - UI/UX Design Agency because they are professional and will have answers for you. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the product manager of a company, focused on creating health and fitness products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ANODA Web & Mobile Development Agency?

We work with several large products in the company, so our in-house team already had too many tasks. Therefore, it was decided to find an agency to work with the new app. We needed help with UI/UX design for an app and watchOS. So we went to ANODA.

SOLUTION

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

We already worked with them a few years ago and had a positive experience. So we decided to contact them again.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

ANODA worked on the UI/UX design of our app, an AI personal trainer with IoT support for the sports equipment manufacturer. The app uses a lot of health and fitness information to provide effective workout plans for each user. It was necessary to create a design that would combine these technologies and a user-friendly interface. It should be easy to use, even during training or running. ANODA did a great job and designed the home screen, training programs pages, advanced user profile settings pages, and so on. Totaly we got more than 75 pages as I remember. And all this was also implemented for the watchOS too.

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

We worked with several people from their team. Mostly with the project manager. Also, our designers got a Zoom meeting with ANODA's designers to share ideas.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We are very pleased with the deliverables. This is exactly what we needed. ANODA finished work even before the deadline.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I have positive impressions of cooperation with ANODA. They were always in touch, answered all questions, and were attentive to details. Their team has very strong soft skills and their project management style is top-level.

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

Their professional level of design skills. We were very pleased with the interface of our app. It is perfect in every detail!

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

Currently, I see no cons to talk about.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our main focus is FinTech software development services for blockchain technology. I'm the CEO and Founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ANODA Web & Mobile Development Agency, and what were your goals?

One of our big clients requested a healthcare SaaS platform development for clinics. We asked the ANODA agency to help us and take care of this request.

SOLUTION

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

We met with Oksana, CEO of ANODA agency more than a year ago in a closed entrepreneur business community. We know their work and knew about their problematic customer's experience. Their transparency and communication level were perfect, and we decided to proceed with them. The key deciding factor was that they already had experience in building such platforms.

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

Technical requirements included: HIPAA-compliant user data storing, SaaS development, AWS deployment, DevOps, Mobile applications development, and store publishing

Project services and stages are:

• Business requirements gathering and SRS creation
• UX journey maps and idea validation
• Application interface design for Web and mobile versions
• User-faced Web application development on React.js
• Back-end development on Node.js, GraphQL, Twilio, and Docker support
• Mobile applications development using Swift and Kotlin Admin-panel for clinics and for supervisors, technical administrators.
• Full-cycle project management
• Milestones and investor demos
• Assisting with technical pitching as a part of customer team

Quality assurance: Penetration testing, Security testing, usability testing, UX, and compatibility testing.

Technologies used: React.js, Node.js, Docker, GraphQL, Twilio, Swift, Kotlin, Figma, Sketch, AWS, IoT, Bluetooth.

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

The customer has worked with the CEO and project manager almost day by day. We knew about 1 Designer, 1 Business analyst, 2 Node.js Developers, 2 React.js Devs, 3 Swift, and 3 Kotlin devs, and 2 QA. As I see at least it was about 16 people involved in the whole development process, but they didn't work at one time. They were assigned to different phases according to the project stages.

I enjoyed the team technical level, and it was higher than I expected. All developers were Middle+ or Senior level.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This project was built with Venture funding so, all documents, milestones, and demos required approval from the high-management part of the Investor's team. We were in the fixed estimate of time and money. Each demo was performed in time with specified functionality. Each demo approval was the most valuable process that we can measure here. As a third party, we were glad about end-customer accounting, and we didn't spend a lot of time on project management and reporting.

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

The most important for us were customer satisfaction and communication. ANODA fully and by their own controlled all communications in email and custom-setup Mattermost chat. They assigned a dedicated project manager, and he created and handled milestones, sprints, and tasks in their self-hosted Jira. All documentation is written in Confluence. Customer feedback and tickets were transferred through Google sheets and email. We used Trello feedback cards for design tasks.

Summary: Project management: some soft mix of scrum and kanban in Jira As we have a big number of stakeholders communication flow was tricky: Slack for communication with us and the Customer team, WhatsApp for urgent questions, email, Google Hangouts for video calls, Mattermost for technical team communication.

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

A huge impact on our project's success made by their CEO. She pitched each demo hand-by-hand with our Customer to the investor's team. At some moment she acted with this project as her own. Oksana and the team provided incredible software solutions for the main application feature. This was a key moment for project investors, and after they gave us full trust credibility.

They provide to us and customers fantastic communication via their project managers, CEO, team leaders. We finished the project earlier than planned with good quality. They are very respectful and expect the same respect from you for their personalities and professional skills

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

They used to replace a project manager in the middle of a project, as he had some sort of health problems after a COVID-19. It was a quick and good replacement, but we'd like to have assigned two dedicated project managers on a such project from the start. They asked to pay in advance for every 2 weeks of an agile sprint, it would be better for us to pay when each milestone completed. It is a more likely practice in the United States. But we were ok with their request.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a health and wellness tech company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ANODA Software Development Agency?

We contracted ANODA to develop both our Android and iOS platforms simultaneously as well as the backend. These were exact requirements set out and agreed upon for both platforms.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

They were responsible for building out our app, which broke down into a pretty long list of tasks. A couple of notable ones included implementing a registration process, setting up specific questionnaires, a tutorial, and more.

They also needed to implement edge detection algorithms. We’d already written the actual algorithms, so they just needed to implement a certain silhouette in the edge detection part. That took two weeks to figure out when it should’ve only taken a senior developer an hour to do. 

What is the team composition? 

They had to have at least one Android engineer because one of them quit. On the iOS side, they had three developers. About a month and a half into development, we noticed that two of those developers left our Slack channel and were replaced by other resources, all unbeknownst to us. 

It was very clear in our agreement that they wouldn’t replace anyone without our approval because we needed to know who would be replaced. That was a breach of contract. We decided not to pursue the issue at that point because we had tight deadlines and believed that they would still deliver.

How much have you invested with them?

We agreed to a fixed price of $35,000 to complete several features. I paid them 50% in advance — that’s about $17,500 — and I don’t think they’d even worked on our Android product. This was during the middle of a pandemic when projects and cashflow are important.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from April–July 2020. We had to fire them due to performance and non-delivery issues and just the sheer lack of respect from Oksana’s (Founder & CEO) and Artem’s (Head of Marketing) team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

It doesn’t seem like they’re as big of a firm as they present themselves to be. Within the first month, one of their Android developers quit, and they immediately said that this would cause a two-week delay. It’s been three months since, and we haven’t received a single Android release. 

To be fair, we said that the biggest priority was the iOS side, so we were okay with them taking the time to find an Android replacement. However, it’s been three months, and we have nothing to show for it. 

How did ANODA Software Development Agency address the challenges that arose?

When communication fell through with the engineers and project management, it was no longer worthwhile to continue having direct conversations with their team. We sent multiple notifications to have upper management involved in these calls, and they just refused to join.

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

It’s been a nightmare. We have investors here who are waiting for this product, and I’ve got a million dollars worth of commitments. The previous demos worked fine, but they weren’t good enough to have an investor sit with the product unsupervised for a whole week.

That’s why our most recent release was super important. ANODA needed to get it right. But, what we saw was that some of the things they did, they nailed. Then, for other things like the edge detection algorithm that took a while and the registration process that had persistent, critical bugs, they missed the mark.

I can’t say for sure, but it seemed like there were senior resources working on the successful parts while junior resources got stuck on some of the other tasks. Half of the stuff is amazing, but the other half makes you think, “What are you doing?”

It was a constant battle with them to explain things, too. For example, we had a weight-loss feature that was five releases in, and we had to explain them how the feature needed to work at each release. At that point, we’d explained it in every different way possible. 

I even offered to have the instructions written in Ukrainian to limit miscommunication, but we still had challenges with toggles going the wrong way and numbers being incorrect. It was just unbelievable. They’ve cost us a lot more than $35,000 in losses. We’ve lost time, investor commitment, credibility, and potential. 

How did ANODA Software Development Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

There were significant miscommunication issues, despite the fact that we recorded all of our phone calls on UberConference as well as having written emails and Slack messages. Every Monday, we would have a conference call, but it was hard to get upper management on the line to support us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think that their CEO understands the dynamic between a customer and a contractor. She’s very direct, disrespectful, and sometimes sarcastic in her remarks. It’s as if she treats us like just another person that she can talk to however she wants.

To be fair, I’ve used foul language in some of our calls — not at them, but just to express my discontent. But, after five releases, how could you not be upset that a team isn’t doing what they’ve been paid in advance to do. They had nothing to show for in the Android department in three months. At that point, we’d run out of patience.

They used that as an excuse to disconnect our app from our backend. We can’t log in, register, or even use the previous releases during a time when we have very important demos with investors. They’re willing to take our technology hostage, which is unfathomable. 

Company Responses

The vendor responded on August 24, 2020.

We are sorry that this situation happened. We agreed to make full refactoring and add new features like a fixed price project in 12 weeks.

The client asked us for overtime and changed our roadmap to made a demo on week 6–7. As a flexible team, we made it happen. The demo went great, and the client received investments. The biggest problem was that the client wanted almost a fully working app on week 9 of 12. We told him that it was impossible, and, even if we added more developers, it wouldn't help. 

The next problem arose when the customer paid only 50% of the new scope to "share risks." We delivered 100% of each sprint scope and only then received payment for the next. 

We delivered 100% of the scope of the sprint and on an internal demo. The client didn't use "harsh language." It was purposeful humiliation of honor and dignity for the team. Our manager ended the call, and the client sent "call-in 5 minutes or you will regret it." I had another call, so it was impossible. 

In reply to rescheduling the call, he told us "I don't care. You must deliver everything on Monday." It was Friday night. As a result, the contract was terminated. 

The backend is deployed to the customer's AWS account and he has full control of it. All devices were sent back, and it's been three weeks since as we asking for conversation to deliver the developed part.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a consulting agency for ITO companies and I'm the COO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ANODA Software Development Agency?

I needed an internal software solution where I can track and employees can submit all vacations, day-offs, sick leaves, and other functionalities.

What were your goals for this project?

They were asked to create a software solution to make internal leave management easy, informative and manageable.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We are providing consulting services to them and as we saw that they have highly experienced developers and processes, we decided to choose them as vendors for this project.

To be honest, ANODA themselves provided an idea for this kind of project. And we thought that this is a great idea that can help our company be more productive.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

The project is a web application where staff can track the available vacation days, day-offs, sick days, submit requests for such days, see the calendar of holidays. Also, I needed to have a comfortable app where I could track when any of my employees have a vacation or absent due to any reason. It would help me a lot in my planning. As my team is often on the go, we are thinking about creating mobile applications as well.

What was the team composition?

Their team is composed of:

• one iOS 
• one Android
• one frontend (react.js)
• one backend (Golang) developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Cooperation with ANODA is still in progress and so far I have no complaints working with them. All deliverables are on time and management is on a very good level. The team understands all requirements without constant repeats and explanations.

I’m sure I will have a long relationship with ANODA and it’s not gonna be the last project for our company.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

They are cool and impressive!

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The communication, level of designers and developers, management --everything is on a high level.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Actually, nothing I can think of right now. Maybe the price for me is a bit high, but they are worth it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an executive for an education technology platform.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ANODA Software Development Agency?

We didn’t have internal developers and needed someone to build our mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

ANODA Software Development Agency developed our Android and iOS apps.

What is the team composition?

There were four people on the team. They provided an Android developer, iOS developer, designer, tester, and a little bit of project management.

How did you come to work with ANODA Software Development Agency?

We found them on Clutch. I talked to them on the phone, and I liked the CEO. The price was the right fit for us. We tried the engineers with some code reviews at the beginning and it was what we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested about $75,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January–June 2020. We’re still a little bit involved together for small bug fixes.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I’m super happy with the company, especially the developers. Their coding is super.

How did ANODA Software Development Agency perform from a project management standpoint?

We didn’t require much project management from their end. Our team handled it internally and that was easy for us. They did do excellent on their part of project management. We used Zoom, Slack, and email to communicate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The engineering quality is super high. Their team is really skilled and knows what they’re doing in coding. They were super fast too.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m really happy with them, which is why we’re continuing to work with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just go for it. I highly recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ANODA Software Development Agency?

We were searching for a company that could develop our mobile app. The goal of the project was to create a beta version of our application to show to potential customers and investors. It wasn’t about creating a finished application ready for market launch.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started with the iOS version. We wanted to create an AR application using Apple’s ARKit. The idea was to use some kind of unique scannable dot codes, similar to QR codes, that would enable users to download or view content in AR. Additionally, it was a location-based application, meaning that every piece of content uploaded to it was stored in a specific GPS location.

The project was milestone-based, with four milestones for the app development. We started with the design, but they didn’t make any initial wireframes. We had our first graphic design of the app presented to us, and we thought that it would’ve been a first sketch of the app design and the arrangement of the app. We were actually happy with that, but we expected that there might be a bit more professional design. In the end, it turned out that there wouldn’t be any improvements to that.

What is the team dynamic?

I don’t know how many people from ANODA worked on the project. I was only in contact with a few of them, but it seemed that there were more people involved. Our first contact was a project manager. After having several issues with him, it seemed that he got fired. There was a second project manager assigned to us, and we were also in contact with the founder and CEO of the company, who jumped in several times here and there.

How did you come to work with ANODA Software Development Agency?

We researched Eastern European companies on Clutch and found several companies of interest. We had a three-step selection process. First, we prepared a questionnaire and sent it to every potential partner on the platform. The second step was to have Skype calls with the candidates, discussing several questions we had about the project and the company’s profile. The third and last step was a personal visit to their facilities to get an idea of how they worked, how they organized, and what their culture was.

How much have you invested with them?

My company spent €20,000 (approximately $22,090 USD). 

What is the status of this engagement?

The kickoff was in August 2018, and the end of the project was in March or April 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.

There was always a lack of transparency in terms of what work had been done, what was still to be done, and what we were getting invoices for. We sent them a debriefing at the beginning of 2019, at which point we faced the first major issues with the project.

We got to the point where we more or less had application functionality, but we still had the really poor design. Additionally, we were never officially asked to accept the design. There was not a negotiation process, where we’d ideally be presented 2–3 designs to choose from. We were faced with a design that we ultimately never approved.

We started pitching the app to potential partners and investors, stating that a proper design would cost additional money. We hired an external designer on our own, and they were able to create a proper design for our application. After bringing it to ANODA, they asked for additional money to implement it, which was one-third of the cost we’d already paid.

To give an example of their professionalism as a company, we found our application under a different name on a site where they were showing their references, even though we’d signed an NDA. The design, which is still online, is pretty close to our application design, which was made by the external designer we hired.

How was project management handled?

We had contact on Slack. The expertise of the developers was okay, as far as I was able to judge it. We were in contact with the developers about several functionalities. In my opinion, there was very poor project management on the project. Project managers only showed up when they wanted us to pay additional invoices; it was never about having routine check-ups. 

When we began to struggle with the quality of the design and to complain about the project progress, they offered to do weekly calls to improve the situation, but those calls never took place. The project milestone list, which we created on Excel so that we could check the app’s functionalities, the invoices, and the project’s progress, was always out of date. They repeatedly told us they’d send us a new list. It was never 100% clear to us which functionalities we’d already paid for, or which we had to make additional payments for. It was a very chaotic and unprofessional process. There was definitely a lack of project management.

Is there anything that the vendor did well or that you would consider a strength?

The actual coders were capable in their field. Everything around that was a bit messy.

In what specific areas can they improve?

The design was the most obvious problem. They can’t publish a reference with a slightly different name than that of our app, with a design that comes more-or-less from an external designer we hired, and post it online.

Then, when working on design, the first thing to do is make some kind of mockup, and not directly implement the design on the application framework. They didn’t ask us to approve the design before moving on to the next step. We were constantly talking about the possibility of working on the design, so we thought that that might be some kind of development process, and that it was just a rough framework of the app design, but we were never asked for final approval.

In the end, we had an app with functionality that more or less met the requirements — that’s the reason why I actually give credit to the coders themselves — but we had a really messy design. After the application was 60% done, they added a lot more cost to redesign it, which wasn’t in our budget. It was very disappointing working with them, given how their project management worked and communicated with us. The project management only showed up when they had another invoice for us. The organizational stuff never took place.

What advice do you have for clients with similar needs to yours?

I’d recommend to anyone working with them to have clear project management, to have control over objectives and key results, and to never make a payment in advance. In the end, it can be messy to work based on trust and to make payments in advance. We thought that there would be some improvements and more work on the design, but it turned out that that was it. Our money was gone, and the design was bad. It’s important to clearly control the results and the work that will be done for the money.

Company Responses

The vendor responded on April 10, 2020.

First of all, we wanted to say that we are very sorry about how we ended our partnership. This project was very interesting and seemed to be multi-faceted.

The client was happy with the design at first. But, when we were close to release, he got second opinions and requested a full redesign free of charge.

The wireframes were created for free, printed, and put on a wall. This way the team could view and discuss the flow and structure in a convenient way. The client actually was in our office and saw those wireframes.

The designs provided by the client's external design team didn’t match the approved wireframes, were much more complicated, and didn’t meet the MVP approach. This is why we had to estimate all of the additional work to change the app due to new designs. At that time, almost all development work was
finished. The client didn’t agree that it required additional expenses.

We're surprised with the low grade for quality as, from the review, it’s clear that that client was pleased with the development quality, considering that we met all deadlines and fit within the estimate.

We are sorry that this situation occurred as our approach always was to meet clients’ expectations and provide high-quality products. We learned a lesson and made improvements in our processes for this to never happen again.