Build

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the COO of Slow Talk - an employee engagement platform that helps organizations thrive amidst the war for talent by enabling them to retain, inspire and understand their workforce. The Slow Talk app facilitates structured, real-time discussions that cultivate a stronger sense of purpose and belonging amongst employees.

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

We were looking for a team that would help us take our idea to a reality. The Build team helped manage the entire product development process - from ideation to design to dev and testing and helped support us through our initial beta users. We needed an app that focused on an audio-first experience that was both intuitive and qualitatively different from today's current engagement platforms.

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

We chose Build based on their demonstrated ability to assist small stage startups through product development. The whole process was collaborative and helped us prioritize key features for the first version of the app.

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

They designed and developed both a mobile app and web-based control dashboard. This included various feature workshops, co-designed UI/UX, and thorough QA. They delivered our vision of an audio-first mobile app built on Agora, which could handle various digital assets and small group dialogue.

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

There were 5 members working on our project, including a product manager, UX/UI designer, two engineers, and QA.

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

We were able to launch a minimal testable product for initial beta testing within 4 months of starting the project. This first release included several key features, including in-app survey, digital asset playback, etc.

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

The project management style was above and beyond. The team communicated with us regularly on Slack and during weekly team check-ins. They were very transparent about sprints, deliverables, and estimates for feature development. We worked in partnership to ensure prioritization of certain features, leveraging several tool such as Miro.

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

We had direct access to the entire team at any given time. The Build team is incredibly responsive and transparent about their process and work. The team also diligently captured all processes, admin, tech solutions, etc.

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

N/A

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a product manager at MyVilllage, where we help women start home-based child care programs.

What challenge were you trying to address with Build?

We used third-party tools in the past. However, our business evolved quite a bit over time, and we needed help working on different development projects.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Build does all of our end-to-end development work including design and QA. We started with our first software tool, which was a supply-demand engine that matched programs with open spots to families with kids who needed childcare. 

Currently, we’re working on building out a platform that gives our members access to live classes and a community of educators. We use Prismic as our CMS, Stripe Billing for our purchase flow, and AWS for the projects that need it.

What is the team composition?

The number of people has fluctuated over time, but we’ve worked with up to six people. This includes a scrum manager, developers, QA, and a designer. 

How did you come to work with Build?

We found out about Build because some of their team members were based here in Bozeman. We wanted to find a contract team of developers to get us up and running quickly without having to hire a full-time team. After that, we met a couple of different onshore, offshore, and nearshore development companies.

Build is the best fit for the working style and relationship that we were looking for; they allow us to have control over the product management side while still partnering closely as a team. The time difference is not a problem because they are in Costa Rica, which is only an hour difference from us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $500,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in August 2019, and the partnership is ongoing.

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

We’re blown away by the quality of Build’s work. Personally, I’d never worked with a contractor before and was a little skeptical, but they’ve been amazing. Working with them really feels like they’re a part of our team. We’re really impressed with how quickly they move, what they’ve built and accomplished, and the quality of it. We’re working with them longer than we originally intended because of that.

Build has been instrumental toward us hitting our goals as a company and as a product team. The tools and products they helped us develop have contributed toward insights. As a startup, it is important to move quickly, and they’ve given us visibility into core business metrics that have led to us making big business model shifts. They built out a product that has allowed us to reach our growth and revenue goals, which has been a very big impact.

How did Build perform from a project management standpoint?

Build’s team is great in terms of project management — they are really rigorously agile. All of the coordination happens in Jira. The Scrum master we’re working with has a lot of experience and is an extrovert in agile methodology. He has really helped our team get ramped up on the systems and processes from the Build team. That is the biggest factor in the success of our coordination and communication. 

They’re really clear about priorities and how much work we’re going to get done. In general, Jira software and following agile closely enables us to stay on the same page and have clear expectations on what’s going to be delivered and when it’s going to get delivered. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Build’s QA services have been a huge asset. They have such detail-oriented testing ahead of every release. Their team has good communication skills and is always available — whenever something needs to be discussed they just jump on a Zoom call. They’re transparent, easy, and enjoyable to work with.

Another part of what makes working with Build so great is their investment in the users' needs and the success of the business. They’re able to think about solutions instead of just executing what we ask for. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The biggest challenge is whenever people join or leave Build’s team because resources get shifted between their multiple projects. If someone that’s working on our project leaves, there’s a bit of a transition time and renewed need for cohesion as a team. I don’t think that’s necessarily avoidable because people move around all the time. However, that has been the only challenging situation.

Any advice for potential customers?

Treat Build as a part of your team. It’s cool to see how the Build team members we work with have moved from executing only specific definitions that we give to becoming thought partners for us. It takes a little bit of ramp-up time to become familiar with the product and user needs. However, if you treat your relationship that way, their team is fully capable of taking things to the next level.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an advisor for Autism Screen LLC, which my mother founded. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Build?

We engaged Build to digitize a pediatric screening tool for early-stage autism in children.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Build created an iOS and Android app for our company. We had a slide deck at the start of the project and it was a paper-based tool that the team converted into a digital format. Aside from developing the tool, they also did all of the design work associated with the app. 

What is the team composition?

Five people helped us build our tool including developers, designers, and a project manager.  

How did you come to work with Build?

They were a referral from another software company, a development shop that I collaborated with in the past. That company thought that Build would be a better fit for our project. I also did a couple of phone calls with Build and researched their background. In the end, I decided they were a great company to work with. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May–July 2020.

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

The quality of their work was excellent, and they made the whole thing happen. Build’s work was also extremely well received by our stakeholders. Overall, when they recreated our existing tool, they made it even better. 

How did Build perform from a project management standpoint?

The team was exceptionally proficient and efficient. They sent designs over in InVision and we reviewed the different iterations of the concept through screen sharing on Zoom — and it all worked perfectly fine. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Build team was very easy to work with, and everything was pretty seamless from a business and project administration perspective. My mom was very new to software development and working with a development shop, so there was a little bit of a learning curve there. Despite that, we appreciated that Build made things as easy as possible.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I thought everything was handled perfectly. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I was really impressed by the team’s capabilities — from design, marketing, and promotion. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a general partner of a shipping company. We help mail service providers consolidate packages and process shipments.

What challenges were you trying to address with Build?

We rely on them for everything tech.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They create tickets and organize them for the team. We have a senior engineer that helps with our platform’s architecture. We’re focusing on application upgrades right now to speed up the product. They cleaned up the coding from a previous vendor that we worked with for our platform’s initial build. They’re also helping us with frontend development and design to increase usability. 

Our platform is on AWS. 

What is the team composition?

We work with the leadership team, a project manager, a senior engineer, a frontend engineer, a designer, a QA specialist, and two full-stack engineers. 

How did you come to work with Build?

We met Colleen (CEO) through a business contact. Colleen is passionate about helping engineers and startups. We appreciated her energy and knowledge. 

How much have you invested in them? 

We’ve spent almost $1 million. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2019, and our work is ongoing. 

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

I can’t say enough great things about them. They’re what we needed to make our company successful. Their team feels like part of our organization. They’ve become genuine partners. 

How did Build perform from a project management standpoint?

Our project manager, Alexia (Technical Product Manager), is outstanding. We use Jira to track the project. They’re very organized and good at planning out each sprint. They’re in constant communication with us. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Their work ethic is impressive. They’re always happy to help and go the extra mile. The team has a positive attitude. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I can think of. If there ever is an issue, we bring it up, and they address it. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust that they know what they’re doing. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to bring them up. They’re a great option if you don’t have a technical background.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work for an e-commerce company dealing primarily in subscription to men’s skincare. My position as e-commerce manager embodies both the story of our website purchasing experience and technology. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Build?

The challenge we’re trying to solve is finding good developers, as it can be a daunting task. Some people may be able to solve test cases really well during interviews but in the real world, they’re slower to learn or act. For the past couple of years, we’ve been having trouble finding good “muscle” when it came to development.

I was one of the primary developers for my company who grew into a leadership role. When my time for development has started to dwindle, that’s when we began the hiring process to find developers.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide us with full-depth support across the staff for both frontend and backend development. 

We had a conversion rate optimization project where they innovated the tech stack we incorporated. On top of that, they provided us with UI/UX development, as well as testing, to ensure that the features we released were tried, tested, and true.

Additionally, we’re building a new tech stack to support new initiatives. A part of it is something they’re used to working with, and another part we’re trying to innovate a little bit. We’re doing this to push things technologically, but we're also making sure we’re comfortable with the development.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a project manager, product manager, scrum master, four developers, a QA automation engineer, and a UI/UX developer.

How did you come to work with Build?

They were recommended by someone who holds a lot of accountability in the industry. I got really excited when I was talking to him about Build and told him I needed to meet them — I got a call with one of Build’s owners shortly after. I instantly connected with my scrum master and that was it from there.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in October 2020, and it remains ongoing.

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

There are metrics for each feature of the project like certain milestones we hit, the health cadence and quality of the releases, and the attention to detail. The hard metrics would be the speed at which they hit their timelines and story points for each sprint — and there has never been an issue with those.

All their developers are very talented. Part of the beauty of working with them is that they’re all well-rounded. We have a QA automation wizard who has implemented a lot of automation testing and she’s absolutely phenomenal. They are amazing people who are way above their weight class. They adapted to our technologically advanced environment very quickly, and were able to execute with both velocity and quality — the first project they did was a seamless release.

They’re very well-priced for the quality you get. With nearshoring or offshoring solutions, sometimes language would be an issue. However, their grasp of the English language is flawless. Probably better than myself in most cases. Their attention to detail and quality is insane, you know they would be able to work anywhere they wanted to — it’s all top-class talent.

How did Build perform from a project management standpoint?

They have been great. Their strength is their project management skills. Their attention to detail and passion are there — it’s a perfect game all around.

For me, the idea of project management is simple. In the past, it was me and a couple of consultants at any given time, so we had to innovate a little bit. I didn’t need a full-blown Jira Confluence of documentation, nothing that robust.

I don’t even like the word “partner” because they’re part of the team. I’ve been brought into their team as much as they’ve been brought into mine. It doesn’t feel like it’s just a partnership. It’s an amazing relationship and I’ve never experienced anything like this.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What impresses me the most is their passion. They inherited a somewhat difficult tech stack, but they didn’t shy away or make excuses. They sat there and put in the time to learn it — which they did at a very high level very quickly.

I see it in every single stand-up meeting every day. Their smiling faces, the excitement when they’re about to launch something or tackle something heavy. I don’t know if you’ve ever worked around developers but that’s not usually what you get. They’ve been a breath of fresh air. Their passion is incomparable to anything else.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Truthfully, I’m digging deep. I don’t always want to be the person who just praises, because it doesn’t seem realistic. However, I’ve had no issues at all. I don’t see much room for improvement, other than wishing they’re here in Chicago with me.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Four Corners Foundation is a nonprofit seeking to improve the water systems for the state of Montana. I am the project director for the software development arm of efforts.

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

We hired Build to design and develop an app for submitting building and project permits on Montana waterways, and a map app to view and manage the data along with other layers for making decisions that affect the water systems. Build was hired to go through discovery, design and development for the software product, releasing high performing software for end users.

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

We put out RFPs to a number of different companies, and Build rose to the top for a number of reasons. The commitment to excellence and track record were significant factors. They were also able to make commitments that were within our budget. And they approached the problem space in a way that was refreshing and meaningful.

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

This project is a minimum of 1.5 years, and as such there are many steps to the project. The key thing to mention is they are organized as well as any internal software development team, with a good design team, product team, development team, and QA. All in all, they chose AWS and other map technologies that fell right in line with our long term needs.

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

There were a total of 8 at one time working on the project: 1 designer; 1 product owner; 1 project manager; 4 developers; 1 QA.

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

The team consistently hit the deadlines that they promised. When we had to change our product roadmap, it was because of changes on our end, not theirs. They consistently delivered what they said they would. Our soft launch of the software suite went successfully without any issues.

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

We communicated with Slack and on Microsoft Teams video calls for the most part. We had weekly check-in meetings, as well as sprint demos and updates. Every interaction was timely.

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

Their team is open and quick to communicate, friendly, above and beyond what I would expect from a working relationship. I feel like I have new friends.

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

The only critique I have at this time is that there was a bit of turnover on our team, which always slows things down temporarily. However, they were quick to communicate and ensure we didn’t lose velocity.