Byteridge

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

They did quality fairly well. I think if we’d tried to do what we did in a bank, it probably would’ve taken two years. There were some issues on the frontend that should’ve been caught between deployments, which caused us to be a bit more hands-on than I would’ve preferred. Things occasionally got lost in translation or documentation. More importantly, though, they were willing to work to get to a point where the quality was what we wanted.

How did Byteridge perform from a project management standpoint?

Byteridge didn’t generally work in agile, but when we started out, we decided that it made sense for us to work in this way. Their lead developer handled that, and my side took up the project manager role. The rest of the team members on their side were developers.

I don’t think they had a contextual understanding of what we were building, which required more investment from my side to explain the concept, but they eventually got it. This wasn’t necessarily efficient, but it was more efficient than the alternative. The person we work with daily right now definitely understands the product. 

There’s room for them to improve in terms of project management and the more administrative side of things. They did better once we moved to agile development and didn’t have to handle project management.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very smart. For example, the lead developer that we worked with was able to understand the API and the integration that we needed to do, and she did it correctly. She worked through a couple of hiccups along the way, but other than that, she was able to figure it out. 

I can’t speak enough about how hard they work. I think where they may have lacked in the contextual understanding or the initial quality outputs, they made up for twice in terms of how hard they worked. For that reason, we went back to them for the support phase. We know that they care about what we’re trying to do and like to learn the type of stuff that we’re doing. It was an engaging project for them as well, and as a result, they put in the hours to build a complicated application. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

This is feedback I’ve given them, but I recommend having a preliminary workshop with the developers, especially for greenfield and startup projects. This gives everyone a common understanding of what the overall goal of the application is. Rather than just coding, they can think about what they’re writing as they’re going along and perhaps come up with some process-level improvements. 

When we were trying to implement the high-fidelity wireframes in the code, both of our teams came across some internal communication transfer issues, and we came together and fixed the issue. Their improvement along the way speaks more volumes than being perfect from the start. 

Any advice for potential customers?

Do an in-person workshop and invest 1–2 weeks ahead of time. With Byteridge, you may need to be closer to the project management side of things than you were anticipating. Don’t just completely hand over the project; have a product owner or project manager. 

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

We performed a lot of build inspections to understand if there were any issues with the software, the hardware, or the network we were using. At the time, we were mainly working with 2G and 3G speeds, but the ease with which content was broadcast to our screens was still very good. The product built by Byteridge is very light and doesn’t consume much storage space either.

We sold the company in 2016, which was also the year when Uber-like services came into India in a very big way. Business models with dedicated cab operators started declining, and that’s why we made the decision to sell. We had around 3,500 cabs at that time, after starting out with 30–100. We got more than what we expected from Byteridge.

Before we sold, we were carrying some of the biggest ads on the market. We even ran special offers with prizes given at the end of trips. The platform was so interactive that the customers watching in the back were actually glued to it.

How did Byteridge perform from a project management standpoint?

I’d give them an 11/10 on this front. We used to communicate over email and phone at the time, and we had reviews on-site at the end of the week, either at the cab stations or at our office.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They went beyond the commercial deal. We’re bringing out another technology soon, which will require an IoT interface, and we plan to go back to Byteridge to build it.

Byteridge’s understanding of our product was fabulous. They got a hang of what we were looking for and what experience we wanted to give the customers who’d be interacting with our screens. It probably took them a month and a half to come up with an initial beta version.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m glad we went with them. Even though we paid them $30,000–$35,000, what they delivered was worth more than $100,000.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Byteridge is an open-minded team, and they can get the pulse of the customer pretty easily. A client with a requirement just has to make a couple of bullet points and give it to them, and they’ll deliver a product in no time.

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

The product is part of a bigger business operation that we’re launching. We’ve only tested it as part of a 30–40 unit scale on our end, and it functioned fine. We haven’t tested it at a much bigger larger yet.

How did Byteridge perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was good. Byteridge was up to the mark; they were transparent and responsive. Communication was satisfactory. We used a shared Excel, and the product features, documentation, and tech style were on a Google Doc. All communication was through email.

We had weekly and bi-weekly reviews, at which point Byteridge shared what progress they’d made on milestones. They delivered on time and budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They went the extra mile to help us out. We always trusted that our interests aligned with theirs. They weren’t there just to make money off of us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Unfortunately, the involvement of the project managers was less than what we’d expected. I thought they’d be more involved in the regular weekly and bi-weekly discussions.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a really great bunch of people for those looking to get their product built end-to-end. You can fully rely on and trust them.

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

We saw an engagement spike during cricket matches due to this feature. We have a top-end payer section, and some of our payers really enjoy the feature. We’ve gotten direct calls from those users, stating this.

Byteridge’s developer was very helpful, and I don’t think we could’ve done it without him. We went through multiple iterations, and the first one didn’t perform well during user testing. It’s a complex feature that allows users to follow multiple matches simultaneously. We found that it was too complex, so we had to further simplify being able to switch between different bets and matches. Byteridge was able to execute those changes.

How did Byteridge perform from a project management standpoint?

Their developer worked as a contractor for us. It all went really well, and I have no complaints in terms of time management or timekeeping. I could call someone from their office in case I had any issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I enjoyed the fact that I could interview the resource before hiring them; they were very cooperative. This wasn’t possible with some of the other firms we’ve worked with, who made us sign a contract and pay them before introducing us to someone. Additionally, Byteridge understood what the nature of the project was, and that it only required one programmer.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. This was “one programmer, one project,” thing for me. If I had worked with them on multiple projects, I may have identified something.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should be upfront with them about project expectations regarding deadlines and other variables.