Faifly, LLC

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and managing director of Kinderheldin, a telemedicine startup based in Berlin, Germany. We provide a platform for expecting- and young children's parents. It facilitates calls with registered midwives, and it has video content, live courses, and a community for parents. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Faifly, LLC?

Initially, we were looking for developers to prototype and launch a small product. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Faifly has been developing our platform from its inception. They provide everything from front- to backend development work.

The first thing Faifly built was a prototype website that had a chat function for parents and midwives. From that, they developed it into a more holistic platform. We signed up with German insurance companies which paid for their customers' membership, and Faifly built separate login and landing pages for those users. They also added services like video content, where people can contribute courses. 

I’m not a huge techie myself, but I know that we’re using React on the backend, and standard web technologies on the frontend like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

What is the team composition?

They have a team in Ukraine dedicated to us. Over the years, our setup has undergone some changes, but we’ve always had the same project manager. Right now, we have two developers each for back- and front end, and one QA person. 

How did you come to work with Faifly, LLC?

We knew Faifly through someone in our network who previously worked with them.

How much have you invested with them?

I don’t have the exact number, but we have spent around $50,000–$199,999. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Faifly around June 2017 and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve adopted an agile development cycle in the past few months — with it, we are tracking completion times, completed tickets percentage, ticket turnaround, and similar performance indicators. These metrics are relatively new, but overall, Faifly has always performed to our satisfaction. 

They deliver on time and within budget, and their deliverables usually meet all our expectations. The overall quality of their work is pretty good as well.

How did Faifly, LLC perform from a project management standpoint?

There had been minor delays on some projects, but it wasn’t caused by Faifly’s project management. It’s a normal part of software development that some tasks will turn out more difficult than expected.

In fact, the project management from Faifly has been very good. They make estimates for their tasks, and there’s detailed tracking of how much time is spent on each activity — everything is accounted for and transparent. We’re happy working with Faifly.  

We’re using Slack to communicate. We used Trello for project management in the beginning, but we switched to Jira in early-2021.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Faifly is very flexible, and they have a can-do attitude. They can shift resources from their team as needed. For example, we recently launched a big product, and we needed more work on visuals. Faifly was fast to restructure their team and onboard new people so that we could complete the project on time.

We also like that they are customer-centric, and they hardly ever say that they can’t make something work. Since we’re a startup, we have short development cycles and our priorities tend to shift monthly. Faifly accommodates that very well, unlike other software development companies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s a minor issue, but Faifly’s time estimates are sometimes a bit optimistic. Tasks end up taking longer — however, that’s because of the unpredictability of certain variables, and not bad planning. This is the only concern that I can think of.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I would definitely recommend Faifly. Their team is very capable. We’re mainly using them for web-based technologies, but I know that Faifly is also competent in native iOS and Android development. I’d tell anyone considering working with them to just go for it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the COO of a healthcare start-up making remote physiologic monitoring available to patients and providers in medium to large systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Faifly, LLC?

Faifly provided us with the development of a smartphone app (iOS and Android) as well as a web-based dashboard that connected with the app and served as a reporting tool for the data the app collected.

What were your goals for this project?

We were looking to come to market with an elegant and intuitive platform for connecting patients to their health care professionals. We had limited funds and a short lead time in order to be competitive. Faifly helped us meet those goals and continues to support us as we learn and pivot to meet the needs of the patients.

SOLUTION

How did you select Faifly, LLC?

I had worked with Faifly, LLC on app development in my previous position with Health Monitor Network which was very successful. It was a natural choice to work with Faifly again on this project.

Describe the project in detail.

The RPM365 app allows patients to connected specific Bluetooth devices to their smartphone and upload data through the app to a dashboard in the hands of the healthcare professional. This remote physiologic monitoring is part of a new trend in medicine for helping patients stay healthy without needing to see them face-to-face.

What was the team composition?

We were a small team to start...but what we lacked in numbers we made up in dedication and enthusiasm. Our design and user experience expertise combined with Faifly's thorough understanding of the app development landscape, including available tools and plugins, made for a winning combination.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Within only 6 months we had a working platform, which given the complexity of the communications involved was an amazing success. Faifly has helped us, since then, to stay ahead of needed updates that have been informed by user feedback.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

In spite of the time difference, Faifly was easy to work with. They were available daily for progress reviews and seemed to work 24/7 as emails were often answered in the middle of their night.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

It is always impressive to find a company that understands the entrepreneurial spirit and is happy to work smartly and quickly.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Growth and experience mostly improve a company's performance...Faifly has always improved from year-to-year and I do not expect that they will stop doing so any time soon.