This review was updated on September 10th, 2019, by the client. The original star ratings were: Overall – 4.5, Quality – 4.5, Schedule – 4.5, Cost – 4, NPS – 5. New Content is below:
BACKGROUND
Please describe your company.
We’re a provider of high-quality custom software development solutions, and I used to be their managing partner until October 2016.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
Could you describe the business challenge that you were trying to address with Brightgrove?
Brightgrove helped us to establish our own software development center in Kharkiv, Ukraine, from scratch. They also provided strategic consulting services for us, including invaluable know-how in Ukraine.
While we were ramping up, Brightgrove supplied us with key technical and non-technical roles to serve our clients effectively.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
They covered all areas for us, from technical project management to higher-end software development work in various technologies (i.e., Microsoft, Java, databases, etc.) to UI/UX and QA. They also supported non-technical functions, such as recruiting, admin tasks, and office management.
What is the team composition?
It was the project manager, 2–3 tech leads for different teams, software developers, a QA tester, UI/UX designer, and more.
The team structure and size dynamically changed, scaling up and down depending on our and our clients’ needs. It was quite valuable for us, as it allowed us to manage our client relationships proactively and cost-effectively.
How did you come to work with them?
I used to work with Brightgrove Management and Exec Team for many years, even before Brightgrove was formed in 2010.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Brightgrove has very solid software dev and management practices and methodologies, and it resulted in impressive deliverables for us and our clients. As an end result, we’ve been able to secure repeat and growing business from our clients, and became growing repeat customers for Brightgrove.
In another words, our relationships with clients and revenues grew organically, clients were quite satisfied, and so were we.
The Brightgrove team, based on long-term successful relationships with clients like us, has experienced significant growth over last several years from both revenue and headcount perspectives (about 3–4 times).
How did the team perform from a project management standpoint?
Brightgrove has carefully chosen professional project management staff, including certified Scrum Masters and Agile coaches.
Kudos to their project managers. All are well-versed in all modern aspects of successful project management practices. They are very strong professionally, and pleasure to work with personally.
What did you find most impressive about them?
One of their main assets is the top-notch, experienced executive and management team. All good things start from the top. Add to that robust recruiting process, mature software development processes and methodologies, the “right fit” corporate culture, and all these advantages lead to very important fact: high-quality developers want to work for Brightgrove.
This is definitely important in Ukraine (not unlike in the US). There is always a shortage of fully-qualified experienced software developers. Brightgrove is able to attract the best technical resources.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Nobody is perfect, and certainly there were moments when we felt less than thrilled by specific developers or deliverables. But those moments were rare, and Brightgrove managed to minimize those risks and adversity pretty well.
Any advice for potential customers?
Start slow with Brightgrove. Don’t run, walk. Set up a smaller core team with them and then grow consistently and gradually.
Always stay involved. Treat it as a partnership from the very start, not as client-vendor relationship, and good things will come out of this collaboration with Brightgrove.
Brightgrove exceeds expectations in their timely delivery of intermittent releases that include all required features. The team communicates well and regularly travels to do onsite development. Although the team’s onboarding process could be smoother, internal stakeholders value them as a partner.