CognitiveClouds

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

Not only did the original app have consistent uptime, but it also had a lot of positive user feedback. People were pleased that the design was so understandable despite how complicated the backend was. 

Kudos to CognitiveClouds for helping us pivot our business to our most recent desktop version. The current COVID-19 era is a very dynamic environment, so it’s important to have a flexible team that can help you stay afloat. CognitiveClouds is nimble and can react quickly, which is exactly what we need.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re learning about better project management practices, though there’s still room for improvement. The second phase of the project showed the most growth. While working on the web app, they introduced us to Figma, which streamlined the UI development. 

They also had the UI lead function as our project manager to keep things moving along. That’s been a key change for us because the UI lead is ultimately the person who’s developing the project all the way through.

What did you find most impressive about them?

While I haven’t worked with enough development houses to compare, I’d give CognitiveClouds a B+/A- score overall based on what I’ve read about other people’s experiences. There were some items that I felt should have happened more quickly, but I had very complex requirements. Other than that, the quality of the final product was strong — it just took time to get there.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Returning to project management, it’s clear that CognitiveClouds is an expert at using an agile methodology. However, I wish they had more discipline to tell me what I can or can’t do in a particular sprint. 

They were often lax with us about our requests, and that’s where some of the scope creep and schedule slips came into play. It was pretty frustrating when they’d miss a delivery date, but I don’t know enough about software development to judge them too harshly. Having a project manager who could stay on top of that and prevent scope creep would’ve been great.

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

We put the product into beta, and that resulted in us not moving forward with the product. That’s not a reflection of them, however. Their deliverables were as we designed but the idea wasn’t one we could go to market with in the end. Generally, the people in beta groups liked how the app looked and flowed. The use cases ended up not being marketable for us.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

Our experience with them was really good. They’re very detail-oriented and they’ll continue to chase down something until they get it right. They’re relentless.

We had a lead person on their side for both the design and development work, and then there was only one person above that who we’d occasionally interact with. Their assigned leads were very capable and organized. It was very positive.

We used InVision on the design side and Trulioo (internally on their side) and Zoho on the development side.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were our first experience with a cloud developer and the key point for us was that they came up to speed quickly. We also liked their development approach, which was creating the screen designs upfront and bypassing the traditional written requirements. Everything felt modern and agile.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have an opportunity to do better on the QA side. I mentioned earlier that we did some of the functional testing, and we even had to do some white box testing to see where some of the transactions were failing in the database. Perhaps they’re top-heavy on developers outputting functional things and are sharing testing resources across multiple projects. They just felt a little thin there. We absorbed some of that and gave the feedback to them to resolve. It would have been nicer and less costly for us if they could find the issues themselves.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

We had a vision ahead of time of what we wanted to beta test, and you definitely need that going into a relationship with any provider doing this type of work. If you back into a vision then your expectations may not be met. They were very good listeners but you have to have something for them to react to. It’s probably true of everyone but they’re very good at absorbing information and taking action.

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

We’re very satisfied with them. We have hired many of their people to our organization.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

We handle the project management. We have a meeting with the team members daily. They’re easy to manage, and they complete work on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are skilled people.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We were looking for somebody at the level of an architect, and we weren’t able to get that from them. We had to augment with a different source. Other than that, they’ve been able to provide the right kind of skills that we need.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a pretty technology-oriented organization. They’ve done some very interesting products. My advice is that you have to work very closely with their team.

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

We get regular updates through product demos that we have been extremely happy with so far. We don’t have a lot of data since the product has not been rolled out yet, but we have been pleased with all of the work done so far.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

CognitiveClouds has managed the project very well. They put together a progress spreadsheet where we could see the action points as they accomplish them and stay up to date that way as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very flexible and understanding of the needs of a small startup.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there isn’t anything that I would have changed.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would just suggest to either come to them with a prototype already designed or to do the project end to end with them so you can avoid any errors in translation or hand-off periods.

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

I measure their performance in the same way that I do my own team—completion time and similar factors—and find the collaboration to by typical.

The feedback on their work has been positive, and the few unsatisfactory resources were either retrained or replaced.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

We don’t use them for project management as they’re integrated into our team. We set very high standards.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their people is impressive; they do a very good job of training them. Though most of their team work from our office, they go back to CognitiveClouds almost every other week. They’re doing a good job on their end to keep people happy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a couple of people who could’ve performed better, but that was to be expected. Overall, I’m happy with them.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Trust them and don’t try to micromanage the collaboration. As long as the requirements are clear, they’ll do what’s expected.

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

We launched the mobile app to the iOS App Store, which is a clear metric of success. It’s impacted both our internal and external customers as we’re able to bring in many more features and make our processes more efficient.

Our internal sales team meets advertisers everywhere, so a mobile app allows them to quickly show how ads look and how campaigns are performing. The mobile-first approach is a lot more efficient, and it helps drive business.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

We work collaboratively with them, meeting almost daily. We give them weekly milestones of what we want to achieve, which gives the developers a clear focus. They give us daily code drops so we can build the software. validate it, and make sure the quality and functionality are there. It helps us keep a close eye on the progress they’re making.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their ability to listen, take feedback, and try to do what’s best is impressive. Complex development is never a straight line, and they’re always willing to take the time to make sure that any challenge is looked into and addressed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We continue to coach them on how their processes fit in with ours, in terms of coding guidelines and automated testing. This is to reduce the time we spend reviewing their code.

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

R1: We’re almost done, and we’re extremely excited to see the final results. We’ve gotten good feedback from our employees too. CognitiveClouds has fulfilled all feature requirements within our scope and budget. Overall, we’re quite pleased.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

R1: They’ve been excellent. We email back and forth, and video chat while sharing screens.

R2: We also have conference calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

R1: They pay detailed attention to technical specifications, which is important for a company dealing with customer requests.

Are there any areas they could improve?

R1: If we find something we don’t like, they’re able to make changes. We haven’t had any issues with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

R1: Prepare your scope of work and be specific about what you want, to cut down on the time-consuming back and forth.

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

We don’t have anything fully released or used full-time yet; everything is still in demo piloting stages. The feedback we’ve received from clients has been very positive. They were impressed with the app’s overall UI/UX. We’re very impressed with what they built.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

They have a development team lead who is responsible for making sure they’re getting the information they need and communicating information to us. The lead verifies features and requirements with us and arranges times to chat. They are good at keeping us in the loop. Since they’re in India, they schedule conference calls once or twice a week. They go through a demo mode and show us what they’ve accomplished. They've nailed communication. They do a good job of completely understanding what’s required before moving forward.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re open to feedback and are very responsive. If we tell them something needs to be changed, they fix it quickly. They’re eager to make sure that what they’re building is exactly what we need. Since they’re not in our office, it’s important that they have their finger on the pulse. If we need to call after hours, they’re willing to adjust their schedule. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. It would be cool if they were not in India because that would make things easier. But considering that constraint, they do a good job of making sure they’re in constant communication with us.

The Cognitive Clouds team delivered the product to my satisfaction, though it took longer than originally estimated. They followed through on their promise to meet some fairly extensive and complex requirements. I was able to release the app on the app store and use it reliably at real live events. I obtained useful data on MVP usage that led to refinement of the concept and roadmap.

The main reason I was happy with the engagement was their flexible attitude and willingness to follow through on promises, though it became more complicated than originally estimated. I also thought the quality of the work product was good, and the code I received on Github was well organized.

Areas of improvement include better QA; there were many many bugs that I had to find and document myself. This should have been done by a QA engineer. Perhaps a more structured methodology, i.e. project management, in how work is scheduled would be useful as well. There were no documented sprints, so I wasn't sure what to expect on which dates during the project.

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

I am very satisfied with CognitiveClouds and feel that it's been a very good project. We don't have any metrics for the app yet.

How did CognitiveClouds perform from a project management standpoint?

The US office manager of CognitiveClouds has been very good. They made our communication process easy, taking the lead for most of our work.

Are there any areas CognitiveClouds could improve?

CognitiveClouds could make more staff available in the US. Other than this, they've been phenomenal.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with CognitiveClouds?

Clients should make sure that they communicate with CognitiveClouds' lead. I am good at business, but this was my first app project. Having a contact like ours for communicating our needs has been an advantage.