SaaS Redesign for Photography Management Firm
- Other IT Consulting and SI
- Confidential
- Dec. 2016 - Ongoing
- Quality
- 5.0
- Schedule
- 4.5
- Cost
- 5.0
- Willing to Refer
- 5.0
“We’ve stayed loyal to Gearheart.io, and ... we consider them to be such an integral part of our process now.”
- Arts, entertainment & music
- United States
- 11-50 Employees
- Phone Interview
- Verified
Gearheart.io transitioned Legacy code to Django and Angular frameworks for multiple front and backend augmentations, including booking and proposal platforms.
Gearheart.io’s team continues to leave a positive impression with their consistency and high attention to detail. Even as non-native English speakers, communication is excellent and there are no lapses in project management. Their dedication to problem solving is also commendable.
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
BACKGROUND
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I manage the technology projects of a business workflow management software for photographers that’s been around for about 10 years. We’re one of the top solutions in the industry for photographers to manage their business. We’ve been in the process of modernizing our software stack and moving our Legacy code into a new architecture, which means rebuilding the front and backend of the application. I’ve been facilitating the process between our company owner and both the internal and external teams.
OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE
What challenge were you trying to address with Gearheart.io?
We had a substantial amount of technical development and business logic from our old application. Rebuilding a 9-10 year old piece of software is no small feat, and we’re not a huge business with dozens of developers, so we needed external resources.
SOLUTION
What was the scope of their involvement?
It’s a complicated piece of software, so there was a lot involved. Initially, they were doing small feature development on the site. The first thing they did for us was the citing process for a type of text editing interface where you can offer a contract and variables, then render that to a final client ready contract that can be sent to customers. They then moved onto the proposal process, which involves a contract, payment schedules, and discounts, all of which are presented to the client. There’s also a sort of mini-website where customers can access this information to review it.
Gearheart.io did the photographer proposal frontend and they also did the booking site, which is the interstitial application where the client is presented with the proposal. They actually did the post booking site as well, which is where the client reviews and signs the contract and becomes committed to payment. This element was crucial, and probably the thing that impressed me the most when working with Gearheart.io. They were very consistent with both their timeline and assessment.
The software was built with a Django backend platform and an Angular frontend.
What is the team dynamic?
Gearheart.io has around 4-5 developers at any given time, as well as their project manager, Anna [Business Analyst, Gearheart.io]. We have our internal team, including some QA people, a couple developers, and myself. We’ve never had any conflict with Gearheart.io. There’s a lot of moving parts, which means there’s a lot of code commits that come in. The only thing that ever happens is that we step on each other’s toes with code commits and need to fix certain things. This is just a normal part of development when you’re dealing with multiple people on a big application.
How did you come to work with Gearheart.io?
We had tried out some other companies along the way, as well as worked with overseas development shops in different locations worldwide. We found Gearheart.io through Upwork. We started small with them, and after seeing the quality of their work and project management skills, we expanded our engagement over time. I had two development teams at one point of equal size working on the project. I ended up firing the other development team and doubling Gearheart.io’s workload after I saw what they were capable of.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together in December 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Our application isn’t in production yet. We did set some aggressive timelines for getting our MVP application finished, which was important to our customer base who were anxiously waiting to use it. Gearheart.io remained consistent in sticking to our timeline and not letting anything slip up.
How did Gearheart.io perform from a project management standpoint?
Their communication skills are excellent. Everyone, including their senior project manager and company owner, speak excellent English. We communicate primarily over instant messaging applications. We write to each other more than anything else, and there hasn’t been any issues.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They employ mostly full spec developers, which is extremely nice when building this kind of application. If you have people that only either do front or backend development, it puts a real strain on productivity because someone is always waiting on someone else. There’s always this huge communication buffer that you need to keep filled to make sure everyone is on the same page. Having developers who are able to look at the entirety of the software makes the process fairly autonomous, which is very nice.
Their project management is their most valuable asset. Anna [Business Analyst, Gearheart.io] is very impressive because of her amazing attention to detail and ability to never miss a beat. Every step of the way, she has validated our assumptions on some of the design and technical decisions. She’s offered alternative ideas and solutions, and has contributed to the overall health of the project outside of a normal development relationship. She’s definitely helped us think through complexities within the app. It’s like having another person who can analyze and deconstruct to point out flaws. This is one of the biggest reasons we’ve stayed loyal to Gearheart.io, and why we consider them to be such an integral part of our process now.
Are there any areas they could improve?
My only pain point is that they use their own project management software heavily. I understand why they do it, because it’s tied into their process, but it would be nice if the entire process had been done in JIRA. They’ve also been using our project management system, so it’s not like they completely ignored our process.
Do you have any advice for other potential customers of Gearheart.io?
I believe there should always be 80% design and 20% implementation. There should always be time or money spent to come up with a thorough application design or document that is in-depth and capable before engaging with companies. These companies will allocate a lot of resources and will move faster than you, so you have to be completely prepared. When you’re not, that’s when things slow down and you end up having to figure things out on the fly, which is how mistakes are made.
RATINGS
-
Quality
5.0Service & Deliverables
-
Schedule
4.5On time / deadlines
"I feel nobody should get a 5, so let’s give them a 4.9."
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Cost
5.0Value / within estimates
"We got a lot of bang for our buck. However, they’re a little more expensive than your everyday overseas developer."
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Willing to Refer
5.0NPS
"The only reason I wouldn’t want to recommend them is because I don’t want them to split their attention with someone else. I have zero hesitation recommending them to anyone.