Flatirons

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

 I am the CEO of a healthcare company 

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We use Artificial Intelligence to analyze personal health data from electronic health record (EHR) systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Product development of new A.I. platform

SOLUTION

How did you find Flatirons?

Clutch Site

Why did you select Flatirons over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Referred to me

How many teammates from Flatirons were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

We created a web platform that integrates with various Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems. This platform used AI to summarize and analyze data from EHRs, providing healthcare professionals with key insights to improve patient care and operational efficiency.

Scope of Work

• EHR Integration: Connect to leading EHR systems via HL7/FHIR for data ingestion and normalization.
• AI-Powered Summarization: Use NLP to summarize clinical notes and extract key medical information.
• Predictive Analytics: Analyze patient data to predict health outcomes and identify trends.
• Interactive Dashboards: Provide real-time, customizable dashboards for patient data and insights.
• User Interface: Develop a user-friendly, responsive web interface for medical professionals.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our platform is in early adoption and the feedback from healthcare providers on the AI has been very positive.

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

Flatirons followed an agile development process, with daily stadnups, bi-weekly sprints and weejly check-ins to review progress. Flatirons is very communicative about the roadmap and deadlines, and they met all of them extremely well. We get a detailed weekly report noting all progress made & project status.

What was your primary form of communication with Flatirons?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Flatirons exhibited a deep knowledge of healthcare technology, HIPAA-complaince, security, and AI. Their ability to consistently deliver on time while maintaining a high level of flexibility and quality was a standout trait.

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

Nothing I can think of right now.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO of an information technology company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are a B2B SaaS company that helps businesses improve their customer relationships.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Development Velocity
• Improved Usability
• UX/UI Design

SOLUTION

How did you find Flatirons?

Online Search

Why did you select Flatirons over others?

• High ratings
• Close to my geographic location
• Pricing fit our budget
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Flatirons were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

Flatirons designed and built a B2B SaaS platform and provided ongoing maintenance. They created the UX/UI design for the entire platform, The Flatirons UX/UI design team is great. They carefully crafted every aspect of the user experience. The design reflects our brand identity and has significantly enhanced the overall user experience of our platform. The platform is very stable and has received only positive feedback. 

Deliverables include: 

1. UX/UI design 
2. Brand identity 
3. Brand style guide 
4. Ongoing development

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We brought the product to market within six months. The platform now has more than 100 customers.

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

Project management is done in Jira, Slack, daily standups, and weekly sync. The project managers did a good job of sticking to the roadmap/schedule and bringing up any potential for delay ahead of time.

What was your primary form of communication with Flatirons?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Flatirons has a great UX/UI design team. I felt that they were very vested in the success of my business.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a technical recruiting firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our company is a services company, but during COVID we experienced a surge in demand that was hard to satisfy with our manual operations. Our goal with Flatirons was to increase internal efficiency with the use of custom software.

SOLUTION

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

I interviewed a number of firms and felt that Flatirons was the best fit due to their ability to quickly understand my company and the challenges we faced. They were focused on understanding my situation and being creative about solutions to my problems.

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

We use custom technologies, including React.js. Our applications are hosted on AWS. We started with a series of discussions about my business and the goals that I had. From there we established a series of milestones and a monthly retainer under which they helped our team create tooling to improve our operations.

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

We worked with the founding team, project management, design, and development. We also had a QA.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don't have hard numbers on the improvements made, but I can tell you that our teams were able to handle much more client-facing work because they spend less time on manual work. Overall I am very happy with the investment and the outcome.

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

We communicate on Slack and have weekly meetings.

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

Flatirons was very quick to understand the inner workings of my business and brainstorm solutions to our bottlenecks.

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

Nothing at this moment.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I own a marketing service firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I hired Flatirons to build our a competitive analysis tool for my firm. My goal was to build something that my firm could use to easily compare metrics of different domain names.

SOLUTION

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

Ultimately I felt that Flatirons understood my business best. I didn't have to explain to them a lot of the domain concepts as they seemed well-versed in the topic and that mattered to me.

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

After I signed with Flatirons we put together a go-to-market strategy for the tool I was building and we formed a roadmap around that. They used React.js, Node.js, Heroku, PostgreSQL, and some open-source tooling to build my platform.

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

There were about 5 people on my team. We have two engineers, a project manager, a quality assurance tester, and a designer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I am really pleased with the results. My platform is B2B. I am currently using it internally for my own company. It has made my own business more efficient.

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

We use Jira for project management, slack and Google Meets for communication, Figma for design. They might use other tools internally but those are the ones we mainly collaborate in.

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

I was most impressed with the way that Flatirons organized my ideas into a strategic roadmap. After I braindumped everything on them, they created a very thorough strategy of what we should build, an when. It was clear from the beginning that they really "got" my business.

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

Not right now. I am very satisfied with the results and would recommend Flatirons.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a ride-sharing service for people who live in transit deserts. We’re based in New York City, and we primarily work in the outer boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. Our product is used by a group of commercial drivers transporting hundreds of passengers every day along fixed routes in the outer boroughs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Flatirons Development?

We wanted to build a new product as quickly as possible. We had a new route and were expanding to a new territory, and to prepare for that, we needed an updated mobile app. 

However, our in-house team didn’t have the time to build the app and do it in a way that would be up to par with our standards. We needed someone to support and accelerate our product development. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Flatirons came on board to augment our staff. They have gradually transitioned as our core engineering resource. We’ve maintained a staff augmentation model, but we heavily rely on their team and treat them as if they’re our team members.

They use React Native, AWS, PostgreSQL, and other technologies to work on our app.

What is the team composition?

We work with Michael (CEO), four developers, one project manager, and one designer.

How did you come to work with Flatirons Development?

We had engaged with Flatirons eight months before this project started. Because that turned out to be such a positive experience and they impressed us, it was easy for us to choose them again to work on a longer, extended project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $150,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How did your relationship with the vendor evolve?

Flatirons has become an integral part of our Product development efforts, such that our core product team is nearly all Flatirons personnel. Having worked with Flaitrons for almost 2 years, I’ve noticed improvements in all regards of our relationship including product development, design, management and delivery. As a result, we’ve increased our monthly investment with Flatirons and planned for more budget increases as we embark on a new product line in 2023.

How did Flatirons address the challenges that arose?

We experienced a challenge in our business that required us to manage cashflow more tightly, while also onboarding a new development/engineering team. Flatirons demonstrated impressive professionalism and faith in our partnership by allowing us some flexibility on payment terms, as well as remarkably smooth transition to new tech personnel. The new team was motivated, positive and able to contribute to our product development within a few weeks.

What could have been a disastrous process was successfully executed with grace. We can certainly attest to Flatirons’ ability to adapt and be responsive to their customer’s needs.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was published on October 4, 2021. 

CEO, Ride-Sharing Service

IT Services

1-10 Employees

Brooklyn, New York

$50,000 to $199,999

Sep 2020 - Ongoing

Project Summary

Flatirons Development is the development partner of a ride-sharing service. They use React Native, AWS, PostgreSQL, and more to build an app that facilitates transportation in transit deserts.

Feedback Summary

Flatirons Development has received praise from the client due to their impressive design and product development processes. Their team facilitates a collaborative environment through regular meetings and feedback sessions. They are responsible, personable, and accountable. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a ride-sharing service for people who live in transit deserts. We’re based in New York City, and we primarily work in the outer boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. Our product is used by a group of commercial drivers transporting hundreds of passengers every day along fixed routes in the outer boroughs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Flatirons Development?

We wanted to build a new product as quickly as possible. We had a new route and were expanding to a new territory, and to prepare for that, we needed an updated mobile app. 

However, our in-house team didn’t have the time to build the app and do it in a way that would be up to par with our standards. We needed someone to support and accelerate our product development. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Flatirons came on board to augment our staff. They have gradually transitioned as our core engineering resource. We’ve maintained a staff augmentation model, but we heavily rely on their team and treat them as if they’re our team members.

They use React Native, AWS, PostgreSQL, and other technologies to work on our app.

What is the team composition?

We work with Michael (CEO), four developers, one project manager, and one designer.

How did you come to work with Flatirons Development?

We had engaged with Flatirons eight months before this project started. Because that turned out to be such a positive experience and they impressed us, it was easy for us to choose them again to work on a longer, extended project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $150,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re delighted with Flatirons’ development and processes. Our users have given mixed reviews for the app, but their complaints are not because of Flatirons’ work — it’s mostly about our product decisions and the app’s lack of features at this stage. These are things that we plan to fix with Flatirons as we continue working together. 

Across our team, we all appreciate and value working with Flatirons and want to continue the relationship. For us, they are the best choice we have for augmenting our team and building a product. 

How did Flatirons Development perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate daily with them through Slack, and 2–3 times a week, we have group calls through Zoom. In addition, all our engineers have daily stand-up meetings, and outside of that, we have larger meetings twice a week with their designers and CEO. There’s a lot of communication and feedback that’s given and shared.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

Flatirons’ design and product development processes are very encouraging and impressive. Most people are impressed with how our product looks like. Flatirons’ mockups and prototypes always exceed our expectations. 

Michael holds his team accountable, and they all have a great attitude. In addition, they meet our expectations about deadlines and work quality. The success of their team is a testament to Michael’s leadership. Their engineers are also responsible and have a sense of pride in their work. I’m pretty happy with our partnership with Flatirons so far. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We recommend that they come to our meetings with an agenda aligned with our company’s progress. We meet about twice a week and follow a product roadmap. As a result, everyone’s default is to just come to the meeting and wait for me to ask questions and poke around. 

It’ll be more helpful if Flatirons can drive those meetings and move the conversation about how to be more efficient and effective as a product team. I understand that’s not fully their job, but I want to feel that our teams are aligned and moving in the right direction. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

To maximize your engagement with Flatirons, you need to have a clear idea of what you’re trying to build or accomplish as early as possible. They’re good enough to help mold loosely formed product ideas into something actionable and deliverable. 

The clearer you are on what you’re trying to build, the better Flatirons can be at directing you and creating the product. Have your own clearly defined road map and discuss that with their team. 

Engage with Flatirons on an ongoing basis, so there are no doubts, uncertainties, or miscommunication about the next steps. Once the engagement starts, you still have to remain highly involved and responsive so that Flatirons never has to guess what to do next. 

STAR RATINGS

Overall rating: 4.5

Quality: 4

Cost: 4.5

Schedule: 4.5

Willing to refer: 5

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I own a sales consulting business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Flatirons?

Flatirons provided us with simple, clean, and beautiful UI design for a website and digital asset we were building.

SOLUTION

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

We looked for a founding team with a proven track record of delivering exceptional results, and a company with a body of work that spoke for itself.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

We were looking for a partner to help us conceptualize, design, create, and distribute a digital asset in the sales education space. The team at Flatirons helped up design and productize years of intellectual property as we built multiple assets to help attract and educate prospective customers.

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

In total, we worked with:

• a Lead Product Designer
• a Product Designer
• Flatirons' CEO
• Flatirons' CCO

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Thousands of social interactions and hundreds of new connections interested in the work we are doing for the tech sales space.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Incredibly effective. The team was prompt, professional, and chock-full of direction and expert recommendations. It was clear from the first interaction that their team was operating in unison with ours.

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

The people. Intelligent, humble, friendly, and some of the most talented design and development professionals I've ever engaged with.

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

I would be grasping at straws to find any material critiques of the service or quality of work we received from the Flatirons' team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am starting a new business in the Travel space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I worked with an offshore company before coming to Flatirons, and felt that work was consistently overpromised and underdelivered. Working with Flatirons has been night and day compared to my previous experience. Flatirons took over my project and organized it into clear timelines that they stuck to. I honestly felt that my project was doomed and now I feel it is in a good spot. I paid the cost of trying to save money upfront.

SOLUTION

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

I chose Flatirons because they are very transparent with their team and process, and they seem to have a lot of experience in the SaaS space. They put forth the best proposal and were able to talk to the pain points that I had with my previous development team.

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

Initially I contacted Flatirons and discussed with them the situation I was in with my project and the fact that my development team seemed to never deliver on time. From there, I discussed what I wanted out of the next release of my product, and they put that into a proposal with milestones and a launch date for my new features. The team communicates on Slack and they have standup every day, but I usually jump in once per week to get updates and answer any questions.

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

There were five full time resources on my project. Project management, quality assurance, design, and two developers. I also had many discussions with the owners throughout the development process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I don't have any business numbers as I am still launching my business but I can say anecdotally that Flatirons delivered my product with 2x the quality in half the time when compared to my previous development team.

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

There are daily stand ups, the team uses slack, and the project lives in Jira. They work in two-week sprints.

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

The actual team that works on my project is what impressed me most. Everyone is super passionate about my project, everyone speaks English well and is super professional. I have never worked with a nearshore or offshore team that is of this caliber.

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

No

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the engineering manager of the mobile team working remotely for a technology company working in the healthcare space.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our goal was to build out a new mobile application in React Native that would work for both Android and iOS. Our current mobile application didn't have a lot of investment so starting on a blank slate with the assistance and expertise of Flatirons was the approach we took.

SOLUTION

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

We search for vendors that were within our budget and also provided excellent application development, design skills, and also had a strong track record.

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

The scope of the work entailed rebuilding the majority of the old screens in the new application in React Native with updated designs. The key deliverables were collaboration on delivering this early in the new year in addition to platform improvements by creating an automated deployment process for mobile builds.

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

We worked with two mobile developers, one designer, and one project manager for this project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The newly updated screens look phenomenal especially compared to our legacy application. Current beta users are extremely impressed and happy with the results. We are still on track for delivering within our expected timeline.

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

We worked in close collaboration with all the team members. We had daily standups and regular weekly check-ins. Additionally, we followed a two-week sprint cycle with a retro and sprint planning. If a deadline wasn't going to be met it was quickly brought up and we were able to collaborate to still meet each deadline.

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

Their mobile skills and design work are exceptional. It was truly a pleasure to collaborate with everyone on the team and everyone on my team absolutely loved working with everyone on the Flatirons team.

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

There aren't any improvements that come to mind. They were in tune with what the goals and deliverables were and communication and collaboration were top-notch.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of a startup that is currently in stealth mode.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Flatirons Development to bring our SaaS startup in the sales space to market. We didn't have all of the internal resources to bring our idea to fruition and their team has been very helpful in making that a reality.

SOLUTION

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

We chose to Flatirons Development as a vendor because they seem to have a lot of experience in SaaS, Stripe, and two-sided marketplaces. All of these characteristics fit our company so it seemed like a good fit.

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

Our project goal has been to bring our MVP to market. The project started with the Flatirons team putting together a Jira roadmap. We are working in two week sprints so we have goals for every sprint and epic.

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

Four. Project management, design, development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our product is pre-market so I don't have any numbers around our success yet, but I feel very good about the product and am excited to release it soon. In my opinion Flatirons is very talented at design and the product matches the design so far.

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

We use Slack and Jira to communicate. There's a standup every day and we meet once a week to review design and progress. The project is on time so far.

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

I feel the Flatirons team has really taken ownership of what we are building, and I can tell that they care about the quality of our product, which means a lot to me.

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

None right now.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a shipping logistics company in the furniture space. We are aiming to utilize empty space in existing moving trucks to solve the last mile problem for furniture companies. I am the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

I am building the MVP for my company and I hired Flatirons to build our web platform to automate bidding and connections between drivers and shippers within our industry. My goal has been to get something to market that I can start generating revenue on.

SOLUTION

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

We found Flatirons through Cltuch. I liked Flatirons because they have a startup mindset and I felt that they were more invested in my success than most of the agencies I talked to. They have been very helpful in determing what should and should not be included in our MVP.

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

We have only been working on one milestone which is to release our MVP. Based on my requirements for the MVP, the Flatirons team broke everything out into Jira with a roadmap that I watch all the time. From there, we had weekly meetings and talked on Slack. I know they had daily standups which they invited me to but I only took advantage of the weekly meetings (which was enough for me). The application is built in Ruby on Rails and React. 

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

The team is one project manager, two, developers, a designer, and a quality assurance tester. The majority of the Flatirons team is based in Latin America. I didn't have any issues with communication, everyone speaks English well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Flatirons has been great at turning designs into a functioning product. I have worked with a lot of software teams and I know that design pieces are often lost when translated to development. Flatirons really paid attention to detail. I feel very happy about the product we are releasing.

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

They had a Jira roadmap that they always showed me and talked about. We communicated over slack. There were deadlines broken up over the course of the project and each week the project manager discussed where we were in terms of meeting the next deadline.

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

Flatirons was very good at digesting the nuances of an old and antiquated industry and they put a lot of care into our product. The most impressive part of the project has been design. The design team is really talented, and the developers did a really good job of paying attention to detail when building the designs into the product.

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

None that I can think of right now, I enjoy working with them.