App'n'roll

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the head of product for an internet company.

What challenge were you trying to address with App’n’roll?

We had a few projects that we needed development assistance on and were looking for support for our onshore team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

App’n’roll provided development services to multiple projects. One specific project they worked on was our landing page. We took care of the design and got the infrastructure set up. A lot of the architectural planning was done on our end, all of which we took to App’n’roll. They helped us make some technical decisions based on what we had come up with and helped us make tweaks. 

Their team provided development support as we built out our site. They also provide web and web app development. We also do mobile app development, and App’n’roll has supported us on that in the past. They typically work within the typical JavaScript framework, including ReactJS and Gatsby for CDN.

What is the team composition?

Typically, we work with a project manager, a QA engineer, and then at least two engineers because they work on a pair programming system. Occasionally, there’ll be an additional engineer either on a floating basis to support the development efforts of the two primary engineers or in some cases, a fourth engineer.

How did you come to work with App’n’roll?

We were initially looking to augment our existing team and looked through at least 12 different companies. After a series of interviews of code reviews, App’n’roll stood out because of their communication skills, code quality, and stellar internal processes.

How much have you invested with them?

The average project size is around $30,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with App’n’roll began in 2016.

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

The work App’n’roll does is consistently stellar. A large part of that is their process. Any sort of staff augmentation that they provided has gone smoothly and in some cases where they’ve taken a larger role and driven the heavy lifting, the results are phenomenal. Everything is bug and error-free, which leads to higher client satisfaction.

How did App’n’roll perform from a project management standpoint?

App’n’roll has excellent project management skills. Typically everything that needs to go on the permanent record is done over e-mail and the rest is handled via Slack. They set up a dedicated channel within their workspace for us as a client. 

These Slack channels are converted into cards on Jira. Their environment is well set up and consistently maintained. We agree to work hours at the beginning of the project and their response times ar every quickly, typically within 30 minutes. They’re great at responding to us after hours as well, which we really appreciate. Nothing falls through the cracks with App’n’roll. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

App’n’roll is a really solid team. Their internal pair programming code review process is rare for offshore teams and they do a really good job with that. They consistently check in with their clients about how the project is going. When issues pop up, they move towards a very integrative solution. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Keeping a log of hours for projects that are on a time and materials basis would be helpful. That was the only source of surprise that came while working with them, and it wasn’t egregious. Their timesheets are sometimes a little bit more complex and something more clear would help.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure your requirements are crystal clear. Clearly state what you want to be done and what done means in your eyes. Write clear acceptance criteria and develop a process with them. They’re very smart and up to date on their technologies. If you impose something and don’t give them the room to push back, you’ll end up with a subpar product that takes longer.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Head of Sales & Marketing

For what projects/services did your company hire App'n'roll?

Web development and Design

What were your goals for this project?

A revamped version of the website, with a modern, minimalistic design. Integration of the elements like blog, forum and resources to provide high-quality content and engage people on our platform.

How did you select this vendor?

Guys at App'n'roll had a completely different business approach from the other companies - they showed a high level of creativity and were engaged since the very beginning of our idea. Designers also created interesting workshops with during which we cam up with awesome new ideas.  Is also worth to mention that their team works on Time & Material (while almost of the software houses work on fixed price).

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Design and development of the website, with modern, minimalistic design. Integration of the elements like blog, forum and resources to provide high quality content and engage people on our platform.

What was the team composition?

App'n'roll has a complete team of developers and designers, hight quality project management team, sales and marketing team. They were engaged in the process 24/7 and have a fantastic communication skills

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

App'n'roll created our product from scratch: designed for us a community forum, illustrations and animations for the landing page, website, design vision, logo design, guidelines, wireframes, and they also prepared a team photoshoot for us.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The workflow between Mudita and App'n'roll team was extremely smooth and positive. We mainly used Slack for conversation and also had a pleasure to meet in their office for design workshops (it was such a brilliant experience!). Our assigned project manager, who lead the development and design processes, established such a strong and comfortable way of collaboration, so we could have a direct contact with developers and designers as well.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their team was very transparent in everything that they did. App'n'roll is full of talented, professional, and knowledgeable people. All the work was delivered on time and I can honestly say that our collaboration looked like a great partnership.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Can't think of any

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of Vooom, a multimodal platform that links all types of shared vehicles with public transport.

For what projects/services did your company hire App'n'roll?

We needed help building our mobile app from scratch, along with a website and web application. 

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted the Vooom app to make people's everyday routine easier and more comfortable by implementing rental and car sharing solutions in one app.

How did you select this vendor?

They were a referral.

Describe the project in detail.

App'n'roll hosted a workshop to discuss various prototypes and mockups for iOS and Android. Once the design was locked, they led front- and backend development, branding, and design testing. They also created a logo and helped me understand user stories. They continue to provide service on the app as I plan to extend my business worldwide.

What was the team composition?

I worked closely with their development, design, and project management teams.

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

App'n'roll delivered great results within only four months. The app was launched with the highest ranking on both Google Play and the App Store, putting us in competition with the most famous rideshare companies. Our customers are able to use the new Vooom app to rent scooters, cars, or bikes without any challenges.

Several companies are interested in providing such services for their employees, so we’re currently working on potential cooperation agreements. The mobile app was launched together with a web app and website, and I’m super satisfied with the final outputs.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication between our teams was perfect. I was frequently in touch with the project management team as well as with the developers and designers. We mostly used Slack but I also met with them a few times at their office. They were able to deliver every aspect of the project within the deadline.

They always take my suggestions or ideas seriously, and worked to turn it into a reasonable solution. They give me great advice on how to implement the app better. 

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I’m impressed by the talent and time management skills of their team. They’re absolutely professional.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, not really. The work was done perfectly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-owner and managing director of SpaceFactory, a design, construction, and real estate advisory company with eight holdings.

What challenge were you trying to address with App’n’roll?

My company engaged App’n’roll to provide web design and development services.

What was the scope of their involvement?

App’n’roll has developed WordPress websites for our design and construction companies. They do infographics for LinkedIn and other specific designs. They have completed several projects for us, and our partnership is ongoing.

What is the team composition?

We work with a main point of contact, who organizes App’n’roll team members based on each project’s needs.

How did you come to work with App’n’roll?

The co-owner of App’n’roll is a friend of mine.

How much have you invested with them?

My company has spent $10,000-$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2017; the work is ongoing.

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

My team is happy with the quality of work that they provide.

How did App’n’roll perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager efficiently distributes jobs within their team, facilitating a smooth process and effortless collaboration. We communicate via Skype and other modern systems.

What did you find most impressive about them?

App’n’roll has become an extension of our team. Instead of just focusing on individual assignments, they strive to understand our entire business. When we began working together, they initiated several conference calls to learn about our company. I have not seen this level of involvement from other web developers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I would have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t hesitate to work with a young team such as App’n’roll’s. Follow their approaches, especially in terms of communication.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder at AutoSeca, a water management company. We’re developing a leak detection and water management system that’s non-invasive to plumbing. We’re focused on commercial and industrial buildings.

What challenge were you trying to address with App’n’roll?

After we got to a certain part of our technical development, we needed to be able to show our prospective customers how information, data, and notifications would appear. Our organization needed an app, but we weren’t ready to develop one because we didn’t have the product completed. We then hired App’n’roll to develop a prototype to demo on our phones to customers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I outlined our vision for the app. Since I have a web-based background, my description didn’t align with how people use mobile apps. As a workaround, App’n’roll took my skeletal and minimal input to develop the complete prototype. During development, the team educated me on best practices. To demonstrate the app’s flow, my engineering team selected limited data to incorporate on the prototype.

What is the team composition?

I interfaced primarily with two people and there were others behind the scenes. Tomasz (CEO/Co-Founder, App’n’roll) was the first person I talked to and did the contracting with. There was a woman who was doing the design and the development; she had a team working behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with App’n’roll?

I got an unsolicited email from App’n’roll; their offerings matched the services I needed for the app. I have no idea why I opened it because I don’t usually open those things, but I'm glad I did. Although I didn’t look at any other companies, I was still apprehensive about the geographical distance.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from September–October 2017. We plan to engage them again next month for more technical development to create the real app.

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

I was hesitant to start the app because we didn’t know how App’n’roll would present the data. I’m very particular and needed a vendor that could tell me when I was wrong, but also listen when I wasn’t.

I found their responsive service and quality deliverables impressive; the prototype felt like a real app. The prototype became the first look and feel for the company beyond the logo.

How did App’n’roll perform from a project management standpoint?

The team performed well and often chased me for approvals or input. They managed the project on my schedule even though my delayed responses made that nearly impossible. But if I was delinquent on delivering something, the team never used that as an excuse for being late. They’d be on me and explain that deliveries relied on my response times. The physical distance was never an issue; it was like they were right next door.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The creative visuals stood out. The designs were also practical because App’n’roll remained focused on the objective. That balance between aesthetics and function distinguished the team from other vendors that think only about the former.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid of a remote partnership. The distance had no impact on the quality or the service. The pricing was incredibly competitive as well.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of a fintech company in the wealth management space.

What challenge were you trying to address with App’n’roll?

We already had an iOS app and we needed to make a copy of it for Android.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a native Android version of our iOS app, using an API and some designs supplied by us. They made some tweaks to the designs, but they didn’t fully modify them; the majority of this project was development. They had some good ideas related to the differences in user behavior between iOS and Android, which they used to translate our app in a nice way, but they didn’t build any features particular to this version.

They’re fully in charge of app maintenance. We send them new requests every two weeks, and they’re fast in developing them.

The app has a longer than normal signup flow that requires users to fill a questionnaire and upload documents. On the other side, there is a dashboard where people can log in, contact support, and perform a lot of other actions.

What is the team composition?

We worked with five people from their team on this project, including a product owner and three developers. I was mainly in contact with two of them.

How did you come to work with App’n’roll?

I approached around five providers at the time, both local and international. I sent each one a small test that required them to build a login screen and other small items. App’n’roll was the only one able to do it within the time scope, and to figure out the small quirks I’d left for them. Our first contact with them was through a common partner.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $20,000 on this first project with them. The overall cost so far is around $50,000. We’ve had an ongoing collaboration for the last one and a half years, with weekly invoices from App’n’roll.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in February 2017. The Android app was launched around April of the same year.

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

There haven’t been any major complaints about the app; there were some minor issues, but this is normal for software development. We’ve seen only 5-star reviews on our trust website as well as on Google Play.

How did App’n’roll perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m pleased with their performance. I have direct contact with the developers, and because I’m a developer myself, it’s been easy for us to communicate.

They had a busy period on one occasion, leading to a two-week wait. Other than that, they work on our new feature requests in one or two days. It’s crucial for us to deliver fast, so it’s nice they can do that.

We’ve had a few calls on Skype, but the majority of the communication has been through Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They did a remarkable job with the first release and with overall testing. They did code reviews on their side, even though I told them it wasn’t necessary; it’s a nice approach that’s not offered by many other providers.

They also have good speed; they answer and learn fast. I’m the bottleneck the majority of the time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I would’ve told them if there was anything I was unhappy with.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

The better the client is at scoping and telling the team what they’re looking for, the easier it is for them to figure out what to do.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of Survicate.com. We’re a survey and lead pre-qualification tool for small and midsize businesses that’s integrated with Marketo, Salesforce, Eloqua, and Hubspot.

For what projects/services did your company hire App'n'roll?

After successfully using venture capital (VC) funding to get started, we decided to scale up.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to develop a minimum viable product (MVP) of our software tool. The tool enables users to collect feedback from their customers across all digital touchpoints using a variety of surveys including targeted website, one-click email, and Net Promoter Score (NPS). We also planned to utilize feedback widgets and questionnaires.

How did you select this vendor?

We met each other through a combination of our personal professional networks. We were looking for a company who was business-minded, design conscious, and tech-savvy.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

We focused on building the MVP so that we could start testing the core functionalities with real users. Since I don’t have a technical background myself, I shared my business idea from a user perspective which App’n’roll then translated into the product backlog, which is a list of tasks that need to be done that was later used by their developers. App’n’roll was responsible for translating the idea into product backlog, writing technical requirements, development, testing, system administration, and several other tasks. They also contributed business consulting, fundraising, and meetings support with potential clients.

What was the team composition?

The team was small and comprised of highly skilled developers, designers, a marketer, and a project management.

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

We’ve received a lot of positive feedback from a number of large companies who are happy with our tool.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our work was both effective and efficient thanks to a combination of productivity tools and consistent communication.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I found their professionalism and attention to detail to be their most impressive qualities. They were wholly engaged in the project and understood our vision and intentions.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

We were satisfied with the work App’n’roll did to make us what we are today. Nothing immediately springs to mind in terms of areas that could be improved upon.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a Technology Consultant at a health care and senior care coordination platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with App’n’roll?

We needed an agency to help us continue development of a software platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The software tests user behavior. They took over development from a previous service provider and are currently fully responsible for the software development of the platform. They used Ruby on Rails to develop it. They used Invision for the design of the app, and did some independent software development following our feature requests. They were proactive and offered a valuable challenge to features, and suggested their own ideas for our consideration. We discussed feature requests, time and cost estimates, and specifics of proposed solution.

How did you come to work with App’n’roll?

We knew them through a personal connection. I feel they provided great quality of work for a good price and trust due to our personal connection.

How much have you invested with App’n’roll?

The whole project was between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project is ongoing.

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

We had initially thought that the project would take over a week. App’n’roll was able to complete it within just 2 days for no additional charge. We were happy about that. That made them about 40% faster than our previous provider.

How did App’n’roll perform from a project management standpoint?

They are really great. They have excellent communication that is maintained almost 24/7. They used Trello for messaging, and Mailchimp and Mandrill for emailing.

What did you find most impressive about App’n’roll?

The quality of their code, speed, and ability to work independently were all great. They work fast and are self-starters. They will suggest necessary changes by themselves and are responsive to business needs. They were very smart and made modern improvements of existing codebase and design, which we appreciated.

Are there any areas App’n’roll could improve?

They could have had even better sensitivity to our current business needs and our priorities and budgets. That being said, this is a minor issue.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CEO of a company that makes instrumentation tools for the watchmaking industry.

For what projects/services did your company hire App'n'roll?

I needed to develop an Android app.

What were your goals for this project?

I wanted to replicate an existing iOS app for Android.

How did you select this vendor?

I found them via my network.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

Their team replicated the design and features of the iOS app in a native Android environment.

What was the team composition?

I worked with a project manager and a few developers.

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

The Android app is a must because of the market share between Android and Apple. That being said, I'm still struggling with the limitations of Android’s digital audio capacities, which are far less powerful than Apple’s.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Their team is quite efficient at providing feedback and asking questions that get straight to the point.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their speed is outstanding.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

They could go into more detail, but I understand that would take additional time (and money).