DayOne s.c.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the manager of software development at an online travel agency that sells flight tickets.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with DayOne s.c.?

We wanted to build a new OnePageCRM frontend application and needed a strong professional to help us do that. I also wanted to raise the level of technical skills and knowledge of my staff for JavaScript, React, and just overall software design. I thought that the best way to do that would be on-the-job coaching.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

DayOne s.c. provided developers that worked as part of our teams to co-deliver the OnePageCRM frontend application. They were dispersed into teams that developed various components including search engine and value-added services. On the coaching side, they delivered day-to-day training, checking our developers' code to ensure it met high standards and working with them to make improvements if it didn’t.

What is the team composition?

Our main counterpart was the CEO, and we had three people working in our teams.

How did you come to work with DayOne s.c.?

I found them through a friend of mine.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent close to $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2018, and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They trained my staff who, as a result, can deliver more. As such, our company can now build more features and achieve more. I can’t put numbers on it, but the financial benefits are real.

How did DayOne s.c. perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via Slack and check in every week. They manage things very well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very professional, committed, and responsive. They didn't mind working after hours even though it was sometimes unpaid. I would highly recommend them to other companies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had one issue wherein one of the developers left our project with only a few weeks’ notice. They could have communicated more clearly with us about that given the long-term nature of our assignment.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

While their frontend work and the OnePageCRM application are great, they’re also very good with Java and general software design at both strategic and tactical levels. I would recommend companies to take them on for the full stack.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of Cherry Wood Software.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with DayOne s.c.?

I was looking to hire someone for development work so I could focus on other business areas.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The initial version of the product I’d built had users, but I needed to deal with some technical scaling issues because they were stopping me from advancing.

Initially, we were experiencing scaling issues and unclean code due to loading all the data from Trello, as well as issues with trying to get it out to customers in real time. I needed DayOne s.c. to get involved on the backend to get servers up to eliminate those issues. I also needed them to rewrite everything and improve the backend Java code, as well as restructure a few things on the database.

Afterwards, we moved on to improving the initial code I’d written on the frontend. I had them do a complete review of about 90% of that. They migrated all of it from jQuery to React. It really improved the quality of the code and gave us a more solid foundation to grow from. They added a few improvements while they were working on it and made everything look and work a bit better. They also improved the UX for my customers. There were smaller jobs for individual features involving adding certain capabilities thereafter.

What is the team composition?

I primarily worked with Marek [CTO, Day One s,c,], but other people were occasionally involved.

How did you come to work with DayOne s.c.?

I found Marek on Upwork. We had a fairly quick chat online and then I looked at some of their work. We talked through how he would change things and go through development. For the price, it was easier just to have him show that he was capable of doing it and then make a decision after a week or two if it all went well.

How much have you invested in them?

I spent around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in March 2017 and wrapped everything up in January 2018. I expect to be back in touch if I have projects for them in the future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Initially, they fixed and sorted all of the scalability issues I was experiencing. In the first few weeks, they managed to reduce my server costs from £2,000 [$2,828 USD] to £1,000 [$1,414 USD]. They reduced the size of the servers, which was an immediate and significant performance improvement. The number of emails I’m getting from customers complaining have reduced as well. The software looks and functions better and also has new features.  

How did DayOne s.c. perform from a project management standpoint?

Marek and I did have to stay up very late one night debugging the server, but for the most part, we didn’t have a lot of problems. I took the blame for those issues because I didn’t validate the code before deployment.  

They were responsive to communication and we often had a daily call. We also had a Slack channel, so it was always easy to get in touch with them on any issues. We used Trello for project management and were on Google Hangouts every morning. We also used email if we had to send things to each other.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technical skills were fantastic. In many ways, it was beyond what I was expecting to receive. Marek only had a few days off last year, and one was to go and talk at a conference about React. I knew I could leave decisions to him when it came to using the latest and greatest technology. He was also really nice to work with and interested in coming up with the best solutions for my users.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There was a lack of communication when it came to my code that he wasn’t very happy with. He wasn’t completely honest about it, and I’m guessing this was because he thought I would tell him that we didn’t have time to rewrite the code. It would have been nice to have understood that because it wasn’t fully clear why he was reluctant to do things in those areas. We talked about it, and I’m confident that he’s taken it into consideration.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Hire them and keep the communication going every day. Be as open as possible about what the project needs and let them get involved in working out the best solutions. Let them figure out what degree of engineering each area needs. They are capable of doing all of this stuff, and it would be a shame to not let them help.