EndurantDevs

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a former executive of two tech startups that have been subsequently acquired and no longer exist independently.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with EndurantDevs?

We were trying to scale the tech team to be able to execute on the technical roadmap that we had put together. That involved web and application development and later expanded to include some project management.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did web development for consumer facing, enterprise-facing, web-based, PC based, and a bit of mobile. That included application development, website development, some system administration, and dev ops. When the team grew large enough, there was some more project and product management experience.

In the early days, they used a lot of Perl. That transitioned to Python, C++ for the Windows application development, and various dev ops and project management frameworks.

They worked on some software that we had built out to assist large loyalty programs with their administration. Later on, there was some more consumer-focused work. We had a service that would facilitate large volumes of software downloads. A large application provider with 500,000 downloads a day could have a widget made to make that process more efficient. They built most of that for us.

What is the team composition?

We had one main point of contact and there was a number of developers working on both projects. The lead developer, Dmytro (Technical Team Lead, EndurantDevs) was available after the project ended for help and consultation as needed.

How did you come to work with EndurantDevs?

We’d done a lot of ad hoc hiring on some talent platforms. We hired several different people for small projects to test them and to identify talent. One of the leads at EndurantDevs was a solid producer for us—he did great work and were responsible, accountable, and communicative. We trusted him more over time and that led to him managing the whole team for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $50,000–$199,999.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 200–February 2010.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The companies were successfully acquired. The nature of the technologies developed meant that they became absorbed into the larger amorphous ecosystem of technology.

How did EndurantDevs perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a great job. They were independent, self-managing, and held themselves accountable for meeting deadlines. They were also communicative, which sets them apart from a lot of the other experiences we’d had working with outsourced teams. We used Jira, Slack, different bug tracking and communication tools for standups, feature tracking, and weekly sprints. We also used Skype, phone, and had a few in-person meetings. There was free and open communication on multiple channels on a constant basis.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They had a great ability to understand the context of what we were trying to develop, even though they might not be familiar with the technology or the use case. Dmytro and his team were effective at understanding that, which translated into an ability to operate autonomously in certain cases. That accelerated the development of the product and saved us all a lot of time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They were the most effective overseas team we worked with over a 10-year period.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Put a lot of thought into what you’re trying to build, why, and how to communicate that to their team. They can then help make decisions. I’ve seen people make the mistake of providing detailed blueprints, but with no real business context, so they end up building something with pitfalls and having problems.