Bamboo

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of product at Buyside. We offer real estate technology to brokerages and agents throughout the US.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Bamboo?

We hired Bamboo to be our long-term development partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Bamboo helped us develop two applications that we use to help our customers. We built out a home valuation page, for which their team did most of the frontend development. They also assisted us with getting our DevOps up and running. We're currently expanding their team so that they can focus more on the frontend.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with about four developers and two DevOps specialists from Bamboo. 

How did you come to work with Bamboo?

Bamboo was already with the company when I came in. I didn’t get to participate in the selection process but I believe we continue to work with them because of their solid English communication skills and their proximity to our timezone. There’s only a difference of 3–4 hours between us, so we’re able to work together well. We also liked that the Bamboo team has very dedicated workers who take ownership of the product.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with Bamboo for 3–4 years now, starting in 2018. We will continue the partnership to work towards developing new products.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Prior to engaging with Bamboo, we didn’t have any product people who could measure our progress, but now, we’re able to put more pieces into place for a more regular development cycle. 

How did Bamboo perform from a project management standpoint?

The Bamboo team is able to accomplish whatever task we throw their way within the given timeframe, sometimes delivering beyond that. If there’s any extra work that needs to be done, they’re willing to put in extra hours. They also do fairly well from a communication standpoint. 

We track our tasks through Jira and work on three-week sprints. We also correspond through Slack and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Bamboo’s biggest strength is their understandability and ownership of the product. It’s rare to find that level of dedication in an offshore team since a lot of them will simply build what we tell them to without being involved in the long term. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could benefit from learning how to better delegate tasks to their lower tier developers.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that you have an open line of communication and that you're contacting the Bamboo team on a daily basis. This way, you can make sure that everything is understood and that nothing gets lost in translation.