Avocado Technology

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO of a company developing two mobile apps. One is for a travel experience and the other is an app for handling a person’s legacy after death.

What challenge were you trying to address with Avocado Technology?

Avocado Technology was hired to develop our legacy after death application. We had an idea and were looking for a company to develop it into an app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

To start, Avocado Technology created a requirements document. They then developed the app for Android and iOS based on our idea, along with the platform’s backend.

What is the team composition?

I worked with Andrii (Co-Founder & CEO) and 2–3 developers.

How did you come to work with Avocado Technology?

We looked at two companies in total, although I’m not sure how we found Avocado Technology initially. We had an exchange with them about our idea and they made an offer. They explained the advantages of doing it in React instead of creating it natively, in terms of having a faster time to market.

In the end, we got the feeling that what Avocado Technology proposed was more up to date and aligned with our needs than the other company’s proposal

How much have you invested with them?

The project cost was around $17,000, including the extra features.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project with Avocado Technology ran from April–July 2019, when the app went live. 

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

Investing in marketing proved to be difficult because our priority went to the other application we were working on. The app Avocado Technology built was launched to the stores, but there weren’t a lot of people using it. However, we were satisfied with its quality.

How did Avocado Technology perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a WhatsApp group, and we’re continuing to use it today to discuss changes and new features. We also had weekly meetings with Avocado Technology. We were very happy with the communication. We reported bugs and made feature requests through WhatsApp. This allowed us to work on it while we were abroad or in hotels.

We didn’t put our entire focus on them, so they sometimes had to wait to get the inputs they needed. That caused some delays, and it was definitely our fault.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We really liked the easy communication. Normally, we’d have to use a bug tracking system or write emails, and we’d be asked for log files and screenshots. It was easier to just send a text message to someone, with a screenshot attached, which is something we appreciated with Avocado Technology. 

They were a kind and nice team that kept things moving forward fast. Our relationship with Avocado and Andrii was more like a friendship. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything to improve. We were very happy and we know that we could have performed better on our side. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

At the time being I was CTO of the Beam, a San Francisco-based technology company, building and shipping mobile banking frontend and backend that pays 200x more, earn 2-4% a year in FDIC-insured account

For what projects/services did your company hire Avocado Technology?

Mobile app development

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to boost our platform development speed, and decided to outsource a mobile app part. Later, we just didn’t have enough time to perform deep and thorough testing on our own, so that QA-as-a-service by Avocado was a great option for us

How did you select Avocado Technology?

We got their contact as a recommendation from our friends, who have successfully worked with them developing Android social networking app

Describe the project in detail.

We created a mobile product from scratch that helped our clients to be always on top of things with their bank accounts - it was meant to be used every day, to be secure and perform without any flaws - and that’s exactly what we’ve got.

What was the team composition?

First, the team consisted of 2 Mobile developers, and once this phase was over, we switched to working with 1 dedicated QA Engineer. We also had a project manager who was in charge of various organisational and operational issues

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

The team developed for us a product that pushed our business forward and became vital for us. It was a great enabler for us, as while they were taking care of mobile app development we were able to focus on other important business needs and opportunities. Later, they were doing a great job spotting different issues and incorrect behaviours in the system while testing, without letting our users face them in a production environment.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

During the dev phase they were mostly guided by us, that was more convenient than creating useless extra links. While doing QA - they were mostly independent and directly communicating with our team. So there was no project as a project, but from a managerial point of view they performed really good. We used Slack and Asana as collaboration tools and it seems it was enough

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was impressed by their flexibility and availability. Though we had a huge time difference, we’ve never actually felt it as the job was done when and how it was needed. They adjusted to our schedule to be available for various important team meetings - daily, plannings etc. It was also interesting to see how deep they dived to a product and what weird bugs they were reporting. We’d hardly find them on our own.

Are there any areas for improvement?

What they could have improved while collaborating with us is taking more product ownership of the mobile app development. They were doing a great job in following our instructions, still it could have been better if they could feel as if they are an equal part of the team.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CTO of JobyPepper, a french service offering short (less than a few ours) missions for students. We are specialized into micro missions, pushing all the automation allowing us to manage many little missions.

Our daily challenge is quantity over durations, meaning we have to process, invoice and value each day many and many thousands of--tiny missions. Imagine what it takes to hire one person ? Imagine it now multiplied daily and automated for simple missions with simple tasks

For what projects/services did your company hire Avocado Technology?

We needed Avocado tech for coding the base of our mobile App. At the time, we had already a simple webApp, our company was 1 year old, and we had a little team composed of only two developers.

We were cleary understaffed, and weren't very confident about mobile techs. We knew which we would like to use, but didn't had the time to start So we needed an exterior developer to start the project for/with us

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to start the project, allowing us to follow it, and to learn by watching. It needed to match somehow the architecture we already had in our webapp (ReactJs), but under ReactNative, allowing us to build for Android/Ios. We planned to take the project back into our teams after a few months.

How did you select Avocado Technology?

We had a common contact that motivated us to try it out with Avocado Tech.

Describe the project in detail.

The project was to start a Mobile App, based on our webApp. We already had reducers, login, all the mecanics done in ReactJs (webapp), but it needed to be transposed into ReactNative.

What was the team composition?

We started with a senior Avocado dev who build the boilerplate, and after we worked with a 'less senior' Avocado dev. The work went wuite easely, with a weekly review/skype with the avocado team (One or two people).

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

The app is now out and available (in France) on play store and apple store. Just look for "JobyPepper". The product did grow and evolve very well since our time with avocado, but the project with Avocado was very helpful and allowed us to finish the app on our side for some details.

So the project, went very well, and eventually the app came out as intended

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was effective, given the complications on our side. Basically, the project started based on our webapp, which should be "transposed" by Avocado Tech.

The mobile app project went for 8 months, so our webapp did continue to grow, and we couldn't always send visuals as intended to Avocado, so they had to deal with some difficulties because of us.

But at the end, when we took the project back into our team (as it was intended from the start), we had to put very few efforts into it to add new functionalities, adapt some visuals and make it work as needed.

They were a few things to do, but it was clearly our fault, it was not possible to run after our webapp version indefinitely. Considering those problems, Avocado tech did a great job. So to answer the question : it went very well, but I need to say that we might not have been the easiest clients :)

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have been very patient. as explained, we couldn't always send all the data, visuals and so on that they needed, and despite that, they always tried their best to make the project better and bring it to a point that would allow us to us it later efficiently.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is always place for improvement. But in this case, considering the price we paid, it was very good and I wouldn't dare ask more. Maybe about the English, during the skypes.

I hadn't any issues with speaking/understanding, but my colleagues were sometimes a bit lost about the accent of the dev that worked with us. I would maybe say another detail. I'm a manager, so I love to watch, manage and direct projects.

But in our configuration with Avocado tech, i'd like to say that if you're not a manager as I am, it might prove difficult to follow and understand all the worke they are doing. So I guess that depending on the client profile, they might need to add some more manager type profile into the project.

But this remark doesn't really apply to our project, as it was exactly how I needed to be.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the head of project management of an online currency exchange services provider.

For what projects/services did your company hire Avocado Technology, and what were your goals?

We wanted to develop a mobile app for our product to allow users to do their currency exchange with it. We also asked Avocado to improve our web application.

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

We got recommended Avocado by a relationship. We decided to move forward with them because they proposed us some experienced developers profiles at a very low cost.

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

They were in charge of the development from scratch of the Android and iOS app using react native technology. They also took care of the redesign of our web application in react js technology.

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

We worked with 3 different developers and 1 QA.

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

We currently have 8.7k users using our mobile app. The App ratings are 5.0 on iOS and 4.5 on Android. We are satisfied with the overall quality and development speed.

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

The project management is done from our side using collaboration tools like Trello and Monday. We use Slack for the communicaton.

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

They have highly skilled developpers which are reactive, commited and easy to work with.

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

One of their developer they proposed us was not at the expected skill level.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO of a tech company that has a set of own products in the domain of government, social and political solutions. We also provide custom software development services on demand. Our company provides expert technical support and information support and contributes to the digitalization of processes in business and government organizations.

For what projects/services did your company hire Avocado Technology?

While developing an app for our client, we had no experience in building mobile apps while it was a part of the system. So instead of taking a risk and facing all the issues and mistakes by ourselves, we decided to outsource this part. Besides, we had a very tight deadline requirement, that’s why React Native as a cross-platform solution looked very interesting from a time-efficient point of view.

What were your goals for this project?

To develop a cross-platform solution with the use of React Native.

How did you select Avocado Technology?

Avocado Technology took full care of mobile app development. We provided them with a spec of what we’d like to see in the app — and they did the rest: UI/UX design, app development and testing, supported us in app stores account setup and during publishing into the market. And of course with the further product support and maintenance.

Describe the project in detail.

As said, we were developing a meeting service system. We were able to cover the web and backend, while there was still a need for mobile app development. So we hired Avocado to help with it. First, we had a couple of meetings with their team to ensure project feasibility and fitting to the deadline as it was crucial for us. Once we were ensured that the project is doable in the mentioned scope, and Avocado is able to set up the team of a needed size to fit into the deadline — we proceeded to design, development, and so on. In 3 months we already had what we needed.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of a UI/UX designer, 3 developers, 1 QA and a PM.

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

The main outcome for us was a properly working app exactly when we needed it. We have successfully released both iOS and Android apps, finished the project and got into the support and maintenance phase. Later on, we got back to Avocado with a huge app update request again.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

It was a very structured and transparent approach. Before we got to the development phase, they did a deep study of all our requirements to ensure they can deliver and won’t overpromise. The communication was established through mutual messenger chats, calls. We had personal meetings with our backend team for better efficiency, they did a demo in our office and helped in demonstrating the app to the client. We felt their support.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Most impressive is that they’ve delivered what they’ve promised though the deadline was really tight. It took almost 3 months from our first meeting till the product release. Those were pretty hot days as requirements were also evolving on the go, we were facing some issues and obstacles, but still, we got what we needed and when we needed it.

Are there any areas for improvement?

All work up to this point has been excellent. We were satisfied with Avocado Technology's work a lot. Our collaboration has led to the desired result for LMS. We were happy with the outcome, and we hope to continue our partnership.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Head of Operations for a boutique advisory firm focused on Wellness and Hospitality.

For what projects/services did your company hire Avocado Technology, and what were your goals?

We wanted to create a company website to have an online presence. We wanted a website that represented our company values and our vision.

How did you select Avocado Technology and what were the deciding factors?

Avocado Technology was recommended to us by a close friend. Their customer service and responsiveness was a deciding factor for us.

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

We wanted to build a website to demonstrate our company profile, about us, our services, projects, and a blog.

We start with the vision, brainstorming, looking at benchmarks and from there worked closely with Andrii and his team to realize our vision. Our website was built in WordPress and has amazing animations.

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

We were in touch with Andrii who is the CEO.

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

We have received so much positive feedback from our network since we launched the website. People love how creative and young it looks.

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

We communicated mainly via email. We had a few zoom calls as an introduction and to share our original vision. From there we exchanged emails to provide feedback.

The website was first designed on another platform to visualize what it would look like before building it.

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

They were very patient with our feedback and allowed us to make as many changes as we liked until it was perfect.

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

We were very happy with the outcome. It took a lot longer than we had anticipated but that was partially due to our feedback loop.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Founder of a video streaming platform

For what projects/services did your company hire Avocado Technology, and what were your goals?

Back end development to help filter tags function and create a seamless video player - all code in react.js.

How did you select Avocado Technology and what were the deciding factors?

I was introduced via word of mouth. The deciding factors were not only technical capabilities but surely Andrii's great communication skills. I appreciated the fact that he made himself readily available- especially when hiring a vendor outside of the country. He is reliable.

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

-Integrate new designs (sketched and coded by her designer, see below) -UX improvements (mobile responsive -Development of new features (add stickie notes to videos, sharing at a certain duration, …)

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

I know Andrii was onboard as my point of contact. I am unsure about the rest of the team.

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

Timely. Communicative. Seamless. I would recommend to anyone.

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

Organized, thorough and responsive. At that time we were communicating via email and skype. I believe I even had access to Andri via text message (given this was 2018 before tools like Slack existed).

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

I couldn't have been more impressed by the communication of the team especially being that we are based here in NY and they are based in Kyiv.

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

I was thoroughly satisfied with their work.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of ANote Music, our company manages a marketplace for music royalties. Based in Luxembourg, we are a startup with 10 employees.

For what projects/services did your company hire Avocado Technology?

Avocado Technology was hired to carry out QA testing of our platform, an online portal for trading shares of music royalties.

What were your goals for this project?

We needed to test the platform during our go-to-market moment, ensuring its robustness before external users would be allowed to sign up.

How did you select Avocado Technology?

We got in contact with Avocado Technology through a common acquaintance in mid 2018, when our platform was not developed yet. We were referred to Avocado as a robust and reliable QA tester, able to spot development bugs and ensure flawless user experience. After completing the development of the platform, one year later we reverted to Avocado and engaged in QA testing with them.

Describe the project in detail.

The project involved continuous and complete testing of the platform in all its functionalities (plus user experience, responsiveness etc.). Avocado testers would identify and report bugs on Asana. After our dev team would do the necessary fixing to the code, the testers would test again.

What was the team composition?

The team of Avocado involved 2 testers, working remotely.

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

Avocado identified and reported hundreds of bugs to our development team, allowing us to achieve a solid trading platform.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We communicated with the project manager and the testers through Slack. They have always been very responsive (even during weekends), precise in their answers, quick to take action after our talks.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The structured approach. Every reported bug was extremely detailed (videos, pictures, and other supporting documents often provided), allowing us to quickly address it and ask for re-testing. Their ability to understand our product was impressive.

They were able to quickly understand the logic of trading behind our trading platform. After this, they started identifying its flaws and reporting them on Asana [the tool we were using for bug reporting]. Their flexibility. We asked them to test our trading platform employing real money accounts. It took not even a week for them to set up a bank account in Luxembourg through which they started testing.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, I am more than satisfied.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the general manager of the Golf-Club Crans-sur-Sierre which is the biggest club in Switerland with over 1600 Members and approx. 18000 visitors per season (may to november). The Club is also the home of a world class professional tournament, the Omega European Masters.

For what projects/services did your company hire Avocado Technology, and what were your goals?

We want to provide an excellent, easy and fast online booking service for our members and visitors. They shall be able to book for themselves and friends, modify or delete the bookings. This is a very important service that we HAVE to provide in order to get less phone calls at the frond desk and improve comfort for members.

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

We selected this vendor through our partner company ALL SQUARE.

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

We needed to create an app based on an existing online booking system.

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

The app has been officially announced to the members beginning of July. Sor far the feedback is excellent. We still need to adjust a few minor details but everything seems to work very well.

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

Please contact ALL SQUARE

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am CEO of an SaaS startup

For what projects/services did your company hire Avocado Technology?

We are rapidly advancing our software with frequent releases (1-2 per week). In order to assure the quality of our solution, we hired this vendor to support us in QA, especially in different terms of manual testing.

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

We searched for different suppliers and had a shortlist of 3 companies. This vendor has sound most promising in terms of flexibility, professionality and honesty. They provided us with a great QA specialist.

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

manual testing

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

1 for QA in especial manual testing

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

We reduced the number of bugs by grossly 80-90 % and achieved better customer satisfaction.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

They had access to our ticket reporting and slack. Their workflow has been very seamless. 

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

High-Level QA at an affordable price.

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

Maybe regular reflection meetings in order to quickly adapt feedback in the collaboration.