CKC

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of a gaming company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

An LLC formed to develop PawBorough.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire CKC to accomplish?

• Build the game elements outlined
• Get onboard with user testing
• Refine the application for launch

SOLUTION

How did you find CKC?

Upwork

Why did you select CKC over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from CKC were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

CKC was hired by myself to help develop my mobile and browser game. The team was given a comprehensive breakdown of wishes for mechanical function and algorithmic calculations. This has included heavy demand in:

• Statistical calculation.
• Game design.
• User flow.
• Content generation. 

The project has included:

• Pre-made asset generator, changing colors and dynamically overlaying and adjusting various layers from a PSD.
• Cataloguing said traits for breeding and RNG; breeding flow. 
• Currency usage and cross-player public trade for items and currency. 
• Item storage.
• Decorative scene customization featuring image scaling and stickerbook mechanics.
• Setting up APIs and CSVs for admin control of player items, item drops, customization, and combat calculation.
• Setting up schematics to grow these mechanics and build them to their full potential. 
• User account creation. 
• Front end desktop build. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• CKC has seen my project through to alpha testing, which is proving a smashing success with testers and promising a bright future for the development of the application. 
• Having users on the live website is a huge turning point for progress, and has given a fresh breath of direction and motivation. 
• Through managing issues, I've observed CKC smash through dozens of bugs in near days. I was particularly impressed when a refactoring of the application broke most of its functions, leaving it a mess within a deadline, and CKC pushed through to get the entire application in a testable state within one week. 
• The consistent updates in user flow and code quality has been great for understanding the comprehensive progress and uplifting morale. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

When working on my project, it has been understood that longterm goals are marathons not races. However, they have always actively progressed when working, and they have really pulled through during times when those shorterm deadlines mattered most. 

My application has required a large amount of problem solving and thinking outside the box. While it's taken more time than I would have hoped, it's no fault of CKC! I have a beheamoth of a project! CKC allows you to track every piece of progress they make on a project, which provides transparency and sincerity that of which I have been very grateful for. 

What was your primary form of communication with CKC?

Virtual Meeting

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

CKC's authenticity and sincerity, while still delivering a quality and humble service, have been uniquely pleasant. I would not trade it for the world! The team working with me has been not only friendly, but jovial and amicable in a way which greatly improves the quality of the workspace. 

I feel that CKCollab's casual yet respectful approach is unique in providing a personal and quirky charm; one which you simply do not find when hiring companies which employ a stricter, more reserved approach to socialization and teamwork. This charming environment has also never been grating or proven overstepping, as the team is respectful and still maintans a polite demeanor when discussing work. 

The team has been excited to work on my project! It's amazing, as a PM with as much love as I have for my own work, to have a team of people who not only enjoy the work, but engage in passionate discussion and cooperative building of the vision in a way that is pleasantly interpersonal. 

If you're looking for a company that will really sink their teeth into your project, work with you and not just for you, and provide a personal charm to the work--all while never losing the respectability of the client and worker relationship nor quality of service--I highly recommend CKC!

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

All areas I could have pointed to in the past as worth improvement have since been voiced and improved upon, therefore I feel it's a disservice to give anything but a glowing review on their impressive adaptability Mand comprehensive action in the face of blunt criticism or feedback. CKC has taken every nitpick I could have made about the process in stride and with tangible change and accomodation in response. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CEO / Chief Pathologist of a digital pathology practice.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We enlisted help to develop our own whole slide image viewer because we did not find an acceptable product that would suit our needs. Our goals were image quality, loading speed, color profile application, speed of processing, efficiency of browsing the slide, specific GUI requirements, and ability to interface directly with our proprietary reporting software.

SOLUTION

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

We found this vendor through word of mouth. We wanted someone who was well-versed in digital image processing and web app development, who could quickly grasp the needs as we described them. It was clear early on that CKC was able to intelligently approach our problems, and, one after another, solve them to our satisfaction. This led us to continue with the project.

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

CKC designed a web-based application to view digital whole slide images. They utilized pyramidal image file types and adjusted settings to ensure smooth zooming and panning, quick rendering, integration with our proprietary input device settings for optimal consumption of the entire slide in a consistent predictable way, color adjustment options to maximize true-to-life coloration of the working image produced from the digital scanner.

The team trialed image files from four digital scanner vendors, providing feedback on ease of processing, transmitting, and image manipulation. We expect to have an application that transmits to and receives data from our digital cloud service, and transmits to and receives data from our laboratory information system in real-time for tissue diagnostics.

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

I believe there were at least two people on the project. One senior developer and one assistant developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project is ongoing. We are very satisfied with the product thus far and it has enabled us to move forward with our goals as a business according to our expected timeline.

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

We have loved the communication with CKC. Easy to communicate, quick answers. Project tasks are completed quickly and tracked via github or email. Very happy with the timeliness and quality of work.

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

We are most impressed with the way CKC researches solutions to our problems by reading and understanding vast amounts of online software development kits and using tools already developed or tweaking them for our specific use cases. We appreciated their placing focus or priority on those elements of the project that we needed first over other items. We appreciated regular meetings to make sure the project was on track and tasks prioritized.

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

No complaints. We are very happy to have found this group to work with. Reach out to me for a final assessment of CKCs work when the project is done, but I have no doubts it will be developed as well as we can imagine it!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of the company. We do flips and rentals in a very specialized real estate niche.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We manually do a bunch of data entry for addresses and phone numbers. I spend so much time doing this and the idea of it being automated or partially automated would be a dream come true.

SOLUTION

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

He seemed like he had an reasonable idea of how to do it. He gave me a plan of how this might be tackled. He was also super responsive to my input that I had because there were very specific things that needed to be done in order to do the job accurately.

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

We started with me recording a video of what my manual process looks like. I went through all the steps and pitfall I go through when I do all this data entry manually. He came up with ideas and software solutions that we could make to replace that process. We had a solution that was about 60% of the way after the first day and then together we figured out why the software was maybe not getting the most accurate information. When I shared where I thought the software was missing he was able to come up with a programming solution to fix that problem. It was super cool!

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

I worked with Eric. Lead django + python + vuejs software engineer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We're finishing up testing the software but it is already way better than what I hoped for. It can do about 75% of the work I usually do manually which is HUGE! It is also doing it as accurately as me so which is the most important factor for us. I could not be happier with what we've got delivered.

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

We instant message a lot back and forth. He was always really responsive and we did one video chat to figure out where we were missing a lot of accuracy which was productive.

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

I was most impressed with their excellent communication. Being able for the developer to say look at this and give feedback right away to keep us going in the right direction was great.

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

Not that I can think of. Exceeded all expectations I had.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a co-founder of Truffle Shuffle. We are a high end subscription meal kit service with live stream cooking classes taught by world-class chefs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have always had trouble working with out of the box solutions for our company because we have such a unique business model. We needed to work with a team to build a product that could combine live streaming, subscription, content, and ecommerce.

SOLUTION

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

I got a reference to CKC from an app developer who let me know they were the best dev team around.

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

The CKC team did an incredible job of first understanding our business model and what we needed from them. We have worked very closely with them every day for over a year now and have meshed very well from a cultural and standards direction.

The CKC team build out a membership model for us, account portal for our members, custom integrations to the rest of our tech stack including Zoom, Hubspot, Google, and Shipstation. We first built a module to handle all of our corporate event bookings and then moved into the build for our public-facing membership bookings.

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

We have worked with about 8 members of the CKC team including designers, front end engineers, back end engineers, and full stack developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I can't say enough good things about working with CKC. They are professional, smart, creative, and maintain very high standards.

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

We have worked closely with them using a combination of Slack and Notion to manage this project.

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

Their culture. You can tell that the team at CKC works very hard, has high attention to detail, understands sense of urgency, and overall takes a lot of pride in their work.

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

I think they're great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a digital marketing agency. We create all things digital, including apps, digital marketing campaigns, graphics, logos, and branding. We also help businesses go from inception to market by developing a digital strategy for them.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CKC?

We needed help with software development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CKC developed custom software from scratch. We gave them some concepts, and they took that and made necessary adjustments to make it functional. The app runs natively on iOS and Android and acts as an inventory management system to help our client manage their warehouse. Its features include the ability to scan barcodes, inventory tracking, and so on. Additionally, it notifies the user of their stock levels to help them with the reordering process. 

The platform is now undergoing beta testing. The client is already utilizing it to track their inventory and warehouses, but CKC is still making some alterations.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact is Allen (Marketing Assistant), who acts as the project manager. We also work with Logan (Full Stack Engineer) and Bailey (Software Developer).

How did you come to work with CKC?

We were both in the marketing industry, and they had an incredible reputation within our community. I researched them and found rave reviews on their services, so I reached out and interviewed them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in November 2020, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app has made a big difference in our client’s processes. Before the engagement, the client was doing everything manually. Having this app allows them to easily scan through their inventory, which has expedited their production times and streamlined their budget management. It’s been a crucial piece of software for the client.

How did CKC perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re actually just a couple of office spaces from each other, so we’re able to communicate pretty thoroughly in person. Additionally, we’ve done some Zoom calls and exchanged emails to send screenshots.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their leaders possess extensive experience and are genuinely dedicated to satisfying their clients. The team has been very thorough in ensuring that the client and we get what we need from the project. Additionally, their communication is fantastic. CKC is a team filled with a diverse set of skills and incredible workers, and their in-depth critical thinking skills have helped us think proactively and consider things we might not have anticipated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think I can come up with anything they could do better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Meet with them and see the passion behind their team. Once you see CKC's experience, you’ll see how thorough and dedicated they are.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Av1 Productions, a film and video production company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CKC?

We hired them to provide VR services for a skydiving landing simulation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The project started with a different developer originally, and CKC came on board when that developer left. When I went to them, it was already being built on Unity, so that’s what they continued building it in. They completely revamped everything.

What is the team composition?

I’ve been in contact with Eric (CFO, Founder, & Lead Software Engineer), my initial contact, and Bailey (Software Developer).

How did you come to work with CKC?

I found them on UpWork. I went through a long process of finding someone, and Eric eventually responded to my posting. His passion and excitement surprised me, so I decided to partner with CKC.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $10,00 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since October 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been on top of the whole project. The physics part was very important to me, and they were able to provide. They pulled through and gave me something I’m really pleased with. Other skydivers who’ve tried it have been impressed as well.

How did CKC perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been good. The physics aspect took a little longer than expected, but that’s because it was something that had never been done before. It still got done. CKC is responsive and finishes what needs to be done.

We talk on almost a daily basis, over Google Hangouts and UpWork.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The script they wrote is most impressive to me, as well as to a lot of people who’ve seen it. Even skydivers with over 20 years of experience have been blown away by how real the VR feels.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could improve their communication and responsiveness a little bit. They still get back to me within the day, so it’s not a huge problem, I just expect fast responses.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have as much information ready for them as possible, and be very specific about what you want done.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder & CEO of Trailhead Analytics, Inc. We’re a startup focused on automation of engineering processes and design software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CKC?

We want to get our first product out the door so we can start beta testing. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re putting together our website and executing the design we have and working on having a maintainable codebase. They’re starting off on the frontend of the site, working on the client-side using Vue.js and then plugging that into a Django API. Once they finish the frontend, they’ll work on backend deployment. This will include getting things up in the cloud since we have a fair amount of computational requirements for our site. 

What is the team composition?

Three people have worked with us. 

How did you come to work with CKC?

We posted an opportunity online for a contractor and they applied for it. We went through a rigorous process and interviewed 25 different options. We narrowed that down to three and had each do a scoping and planning project for us. CKC did great and came out on top; they had a clear estimate, a good idea of scope, asked great questions and had recommendations to make things maintainable.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $20,000 at this point. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2020 and our engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

So far, they’ve done a great job. Everything is being reviewed by a limited team and preliminary beta testers, and it’s all been very good. They’re executing our design and making sure everything works well — it’s been great. 

How did CKC perform from a project management standpoint?

They actually set up a pretty nice project integration with GitHub. I have access to the codebase, any changes, and project management features. We have discrete milestones that we want to hit by week and I’m able to filter the issue list to see what they’re working on.

They’ve also set up a nice testing framework, so as they’re making changes to the code, there are separate branches that are testing and deployed to independent servers so I can see how it is performing. I can see if they’re on track early on the process and we don’t have to waste any time. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m a fan of the testing framework they put together. As you add people to projects, the complexity and chance for error go up exponentially. Their approach and management system gives me a lot of confidence that people won’t be trying to shift batches of code that have no issues. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve been really open. The bones of our interactions are great and it’s easy to suggest anything. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They were happy when we had basic specs and examples of what we were looking for. That enabled their team to jump on the project right away and be productive, so be clear in what you’re looking for. Think it through ahead of time and it’ll pay a lot of dividends. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CTO of Medcurio, a healthcare API provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with CKC?

We’re a startup, and we needed to build out a pretty substantial component of our product on the frontend. We’d had the backend and middle completed, but we needed development support to take our product to the next level.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

CKC came on board to provide the skillsets we needed to build out the frontend of our product. We started off by doing design mockups before moving on to development.

It’s a web-based application, but it’s made for enterprises, not consumers. The target audience is analysts in the healthcare industry. We wanted a JavaScript framework, so we went with Vue.js for the frontend. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with about four developers.

How did you come to work with CKC?

CKC is local to us, which is what I was looking for. I interviewed them in terms of their capabilities and experience, and decided they would be a great fit.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since July 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their quality is really good. We had a really complex topic, and they were able to figure it out. The impact has been tremendous; it put a face on our product. It enabled us to demo, which has been really positively received. Organizations can understand and grasp our product much more easily.

How did CKC perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve used GitHub and Slack, which have both been helpful tools. We have an organized system in place for tracking issues and progress. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

CKC is very customer-focused. They’re concerned with meeting our needs, and they’ve been very easy to work with in terms of figuring out compromises and alternatives whenever things don’t go as expected.

Are there any areas they could improve?

A little bit of shoring up on the project management side of things would be good. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be agile and nimble. Also, more frequent contact is better. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO of Mercury Future and I collect tools needed for my team to succeed.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Development of a web scraper.

SOLUTION

How did you select CKC and what were the deciding factors?

Time and skill.

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

Needed a web scraper that can take data from news organizations for training a ML model.

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

1 CEO

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The software was much better than even I hoped for. It replaced the work of 5 people I had outsourced to.

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

N/A

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

We had the project finished in 2 hours and support had been great. I am amazed at how good the team at coding.

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

Perfect experience. Literally could not have asked for any better.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I have a software company in the golf space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We need extra assistance with the backend.

SOLUTION

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

We want to have folks who are true craftsmen in building code and have a great attitude.

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

We're an agile shop so work changes by sprint. Our work is all focused on building web, email, and mobile solutions for public course operators.

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

Several people worked on our projects.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've been using them now to supplement our staff for more than a year. We are pleased with the results.

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

We do project management internally.

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

They have a great attitude and is willing to move mountains for you.

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

None that I can think of.