Big Nerd Ranch

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a private company focused on IoT lighting control systems across several verticles, including residential and all types of commercial spaces. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Big Nerd Ranch?

We wanted the capacity and talent to supplement our engineering team. It was important that we could find trustworthy partners that could deepen our portfolio of helpful contractors.  

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re our software development partner. We worked with 3–4 of their engineers on the development of our iOS and Android applications. After going over the code base and feature requirements for a project, they would begin development. We worked with them over the course of six months on a few projects, integrating with our team. 

What is the team composition?

We engaged with four developers and dealt with a small team for management and sales. 

How did you come to work with Big Nerd Ranch?

When we started finding our internal resources to be limited, we began our search for a new partner. We had to scale our team for a few projects. They came up in our list of options to consider. We’d considered them for a training-related project in the past, so we revisited their services for this project. They had a good reputation and were a mature group.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $150,000 on their services. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2019–March 2020.

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

They deliver important features and functionalities in our software on time. We couldn’t have achieved that without their help. 

How did Big Nerd Ranch perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re organized and good at communicating about issues early. We used a Scrum agile development methodology, so we had daily check-ins. Our teams also used Atlassian, Jira, Bitbucket, and Microsoft Teams to coordinate the effort.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their development resources are sharp and high-caliber. They brought skills to the table that we didn’t have in some areas. In addition to helping us complete work, we were able to learn from them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

During the course of the engagement, we were able to iron out all problems and issues. They were very flexible in doing that, so there isn’t anything for them to improve upon that they haven’t already addressed. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Break down the work to ensure there is alignment on the size of tasks and timeframe for delivery. If you have a transparent schedule from the beginning, you’ll avoid roadblocks that may have existed otherwise.  

Introduce your business and what you do there.

PartCycle Technologies LLC was founded in April of 2015, with the vision of building an online e-commerce marketplace where people could buy and sell recycled auto parts. Today, PartCycle employs more than 10 highly talented individuals in the small town of Florence, Alabama. Consumers and mechanics alike can search the PartCycle Marketplace and choose from over 3 million used auto parts for sale all over the United States.

What challenge were you trying to address with Big Nerd Ranch?

Big Nerd Ranch was introduced to help us build the initial minimum viable product while we built our own internal development operation. The challenges were numerous and very complex. Initially, we were required to identify and build solutions for two very distinct customers: those who want to sell used auto parts and those who want to buy them.

Building a first-stage product also introduced some unique challenges. All we initially came to the table with were high-level ideas and a loose concept of the product. Throughout the project, we would need to mold these ideas into functional software all while getting to know each other. Additionally, we had to work through unforeseeable challenges stemming from the fact that we were new to our industry and didn't completely understand the solution we needed to build.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Big Nerd Ranch brought in a team of senior backend and frontend developers as well as an application designer to help us build the initial version of our marketplace.

They provided a range of technical services. First, they scoped out and defined the structure and feature set of our MVP. Big Nerd Ranch then implemented modern development practices such as Agile software development, test-driven development, and continuous integration. They were the architects of our technical infrastructure, including a scalable and decoupled Ruby on Rails backend and Ember.JS frontend with a supporting PostgreSQL database. Lastly, they defined the epics, user stories, and release dates for each iterative feature and function. These helped us go from idea to viable product.

In addition to the technical services listed above, the Big Nerd Ranch also helped us further refine our product, business practices, and team structure. They provided access to top-level project leadership who helped us think through some of the less-defined areas of our business model critically.

What is the status of this engagement?

We will definitely work with Big Nerd Ranch in the future and I believe any company, big or small, is lucky to have the chance to do so as well.

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

I couldn't be more satisfied with the Big Nerd Ranch. Our project had it all—upfront challenges with putting together an effective project team, scheduling conflicts that arise with trying to staff a project for more than a year, making tough decisions to combat against scope creep, and balancing release schedules and budget constraints. What we ended up with was an industry best solution. It was not only a functional version of our initial dream, it was a solution built to scale and grow quickly.

What did you find most impressive about Big Nerd Ranch?

The project team and leadership at Big Nerd Ranch continuously showed us that they were committed to our success by communicating frequently and addressing challenges promptly as they arose. I am certain that there are many technology startups out there searching for help to build an initial product and get their company off of the ground. I can't quantify how valuable it is that Big Nerd Ranch not only helped us build the initial product but they helped us establish best practices for our own software development team. We were able to slingshot out ahead of every company in our industry based on the fact that we do things like Agile development, test-driven development, continuous integration, and the like. It's an immeasurably valuable proposition to companies who have raised capital and need to get started. Today, we are able to build significantly faster and with higher quality than any of our competition, and we do it with relatively inexperienced developers. This is all because the team at Big Nerd Ranch took the time to educate us while they were building.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Care+ Ventures, L.L.C. is a startup firm that has developed an ICU software module for mobile apps. Our product improves communications between families and doctors in critical care situations. I am the chief financial officer, and I handle the technology, operations, and financial risk management.

What challenge were you trying to address with Big Nerd Ranch?

Big Nerd Ranch helped build our iOS, Android, and web back-end system.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Big Nerd Ranch revisited the design of our app, which was done by another firm. They made some constructive changes and helped us see things in a different light. After that phase, we started exclusively on the iOS and the web back-end, which is built in HTML5. Those were the first two products completed and rolled out by Big Nerd Ranch. Then, we began working on the Android version of the software. That project just wrapped up this past week [July 2016].

Big Nerd Ranch incorporated the platform onto a company called Aptible, which is a HIPAA [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act]-certified secure environment that runs on top of Amazon web services. We recommended Aptible and Big Nerd Ranch did the research. They also made the necessary adjustments to make the product work on their platform, which uses containers and other similar items. It was all cloud-based, and they utilized HockeyApp for testing on iPhones and Android devices. Big Nerd Ranch worked iteratively, which was one of the things that intrigued us about their process. We were able to see the product and test the latest version when a new build rolled out every Tuesday.

How did you come to work with Big Nerd Ranch?

We asked for references in order to identify companies that were leaders in the healthcare space or had good reputations in the design and development world. While Big Nerd Ranch did not have a large presence in the healthcare space, they were keenly interested in that field. They came with an excellent reputation and our principles matched. It was clear by the end of our meeting that they were the company we were going with.

How much have you invested with Big Nerd Ranch?

We invested more than $200,000 with Big Nerd Ranch.

What is the status of this engagement?

The Android product was completed in the last week, but we do still have an active relationship with them. Our meetings with them started in June of last year [2015], and the design phase kicked off in late June or early July. Big Nerd Ranch delivered an alpha version of the product, and we asked family and friends to test it out. In November, we regrouped and made some additional changes. That phase continued into January of this year. Then, we released another full-blown version in the Apple Store and started our testing in March. Big Nerd Ranch is looking at a number of our projects, particularly feature enhancements for the iOS and Android apps. We're scoping out the logistics for those projects.

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

Aside from a 10-week pilot, we don't have a lot of information at this point. We're now getting ready to integrate Android into the hospital and start a full-blown, IRB-approved research project in August with a large university. Since we only utilized the iOS version in the 10-week pilot, Android users were not included. That meant half of the population who came into the intensive care unit was eliminated. However, we are very pleased to have a strong acceptance and use rate from the pilot iOS users. But, I don't have anything hard and fast to tell you at this point.

How did Big Nerd Ranch perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is a real strength of Big Nerd Ranch, and they are very task and iteration-oriented. It was clear what was going on in a particular week. They used the Basecamp and Pivotal Tracker, and we had equal access to those tools. We were able to review and approve stories in Pivotal Tracker as they completed the work each week. We had at least one telephone meeting each week, a standing meeting where each of the developers working on the project discussed. That was also an opportunity for the group to address any outstanding issues. We were comfortable working with them.

What did you find most impressive about Big Nerd Ranch?

As I've mentioned to Big Nerd Ranch, they stand out as the best company I've worked with in my 30 years in the industry. They delivered on time and within our app budget consistently. When we needed to do something that changed the scope, we always knew what those changes were going to cost. Big Nerd Ranch stayed on top of the project, and I appreciate how an anal-retentive guy like me could see exactly what was going on in the project at any point in time. I could communicate with their team very easily and, even at one o'clock in the morning, I could leave items to be discussed the next day. Big Nerd Ranch really delivers on what they say and do it for the amount they said they could do it for.

Are there any areas Big Nerd Ranch could improve?

We've not had any significant issues along the way. We've gone back and questioned some things we did before, and we've had the typical bumps that come in a large project like this. But, we've never had a formal dispute. We've never had anything that we couldn't just sit down and talk our way through. 

Please describe your organization.

I work for a larger company that owns multiple pest control companies, with the largest national one being Orkin Pest Control.

What is your position?

I’m the Director of Marketing.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Nerd Ranch?

It was sales enablement. We needed a way to make our outside sales force, which represents around 900 people, more effective in front of customers.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

We’ve since developed maybe 11 or 12 separate iPad applications with Big Nerd Ranch over the past three years. It started off with a relatively simple one. They knocked it out of the park. It consisted of taking almost all of the digital collateral and making it possible for seamless presentations to be customized on the fly by the account manager on the iPad, based on the customer’s needs. Then the second one became much more sophisticated. It was an iPad application that digitized the whole sales process, from graphing to creating a scope of service, developing a proposal all within the application that Big Nerd built for us.

How did you come to work with Big Nerd Ranch?

In the beginning, I interviewed maybe four or five different companies and went through the process of learning about their capabilities, looking at their past work, talking to references, etc. I just felt comfortable with the team Big Nerd Ranch had. That’s the reason they got the initial business. They received the repeat business due to the quality of work and our pleasure with working with them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Over the past three years, it’s been $200,000 to a million.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

With the second app, we saw a double-digit increase in sales per sales rep during the first year of adoption.

What distinguishes Big Nerd Ranch from other providers?

Big Nerd Ranch is a team full of great listeners. Even more so than that, they’re very solutions-oriented and not only do they build great products and develop smartly, the work they do at the requirements and discovery stage is what sets them apart. They bring great ideation into play and help you get to a great final product from a roadmap standpoint.

Is there anything Big Nerd Ranch could have improved or done differently?

We’ve been doing so much. If there was anything they could improve, I think it would be scalability. We’re feeling happy with the work they’re doing, but it’s tougher to scale to support all the demand that’s being required of them. That’s a minor thing though.

Please describe your organization.

We are a telecommunications construction firm. We build-out fiber networks and coax networks for the cable and telephone industries.

What is your position?

I’m the Chief Information Officer of the company.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Big Nerd Ranch?

We had an existing iOS-based application that used Ruby on Rails on the back end. What we needed was a management structure around that system. The system was designed for a single technician in an area to go out and do work in. It didn't have the concept of a team of technicians in the same area, or even broader, a number of areas where you had a number of teams doing work. We needed a management context built around the system we already had. We also used a third-party ticket management package integrated into the new system.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

What we asked Big Nerd Ranch to do was take that Ruby on Rails application, and basically build an HTML5 management console or management application.

How did you come to work with Big Nerd Ranch?

We had used Big Nerd Ranch prior for some training and we were happy with the results. We found out that they had professional service capabilities. We had a project coming up that was a fairly large, and we didn't have the staff availability to do it, and it was something that needed to be done within six months.

We had a couple of relationships with some other folks who did custom development, but none of them, we thought, were of the caliber to build something that would be field-based and distributed via mobile. They had to be strategic about connectivity. It had to integrate to a number of other systems. We decided to reach out to find a higher capability type of company to partner with. We interviewed about six different companies and we decided that Big Nerd Ranch was the best fit.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Our partnership with Big Nerd Ranch was a decent amount over $200,000.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Actually, I would measure success across a number of criteria. The first criterion is that they had a team, I think, of five people working on this project, including the project management person and four full-time developers. I sent a team of two internal developers to their office to take over the maintenance of the application. I sent them there for a week. They came back and said, "We got it. They did a good job designing it and its well put together. It's something that we can maintain."

If you think about having a group of five people work for six months on something, and then sending two people up there for only a week to catch up on it and come back and say, "We got it", that to me is probably the best success story because it's something that we can maintain and continue to grow without them. They kind of made themselves expendable by doing a really good job on the design and implementation in the first place.

The second thing I'll tell you is that the interface that they built for both the client application and the ticket entry system is ultimately reliable. One of the things that happens when you're dealing with a sometimes-connected workforce of blue collar workers, is that they get very frustrated very quickly if the application doesn't do exactly what they expect it to do when they expect to do it. The response from the users has been, "This thing works all the time."

The third thing is, from a management capability standpoint, they had a user interface designer work with us. We have not had the training, or the incidents we've had, even on just the little client application because they did such a good job streamlining and simplifying the design.

What distinguishes Big Nerd Ranch from other providers?

They lost their lead developer on our project about half-way through. Generally, when something like that happens, it cripples the project. We thought we we're going to go way over budget and we're going to go way over time, but they didn't miss a beat. I think that's a testament to the way that they manage their folks internally, in the way they document, and in the way they share information. We really didn't miss a beat. They took one of their existing people and put them into the lead position.

Lastly, I will say this; they're very easy to work with. Big Nerd Ranch makes it easy to get stuff done. A lot of consulting firms will put hoops up and you have to jump through this and you have to jump through that. We as customers do the same thing. You've got to send us the invoices in this format to this email address and then we'll pay it in this time. We didn't have any of that. We had a very short and simple statement of work. We all agreed to it. It was very clear what the responsibilities were and we started working. Again, somebody who makes it easy to work with them is going to get business, especially my business.

Is there anything Big Nerd Ranch could have improved or done differently?

I've had this conversation with them. They tend to cultivate very opinionated people. I think there are times where we're the customer; we know what we want. This was generally around technical things. We want it to work like this. They would come back and say, "No." It wasn't, "No and this is why." It was just, "No." Then we'd have to spend a couple of days getting everybody on a conference call. Generally, what would happen is neither side was right, and it took getting together and having that conversation to get to the final point. If we did it like this, then this meets everybody's needs.