Hashrocket

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is a management tool for youth sports organizations. We help with rostering, scheduling, communication, and collecting payments. I am a product manager with the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hashrocket?

We were interested in building a customizable store for our sports teams. We wanted to offer the ability for our teams to design clothing and gear that would include their team’s name, colors, and logo.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We built the store from the ground up using React and Elixir, and Hashrocket was involved in that process from the very beginning. They met with our development team and helped us put together our requirements for the project. From there, they helped guide the design and the direction that we would go in based on those requirements. 

The application we built allows our customers to go through a setup flow that auto-fills their team information based on our collected data and make any necessary edits. They can design a logo on the site using a real-time, updating image and apply that to any number of pre-made items. The site also automatically notifies everyone on the team once the store has been created, leading the user through a simplified checkout flow that forwards any orders through an API to our printing partner.

What is the team composition?

We started with two developers named Brian (Senior Developer, Hashrocket) and Vidal (Software Engineer, Hashrocket). Once we resumed the project after a pause, Vidal was joined by Dorian (Software Consultant, Hashrocket), a new developer. 

How did you come to work with Hashrocket?

Our CTO made a few recommendations on contractors and we interviewed a couple of different firms, but we really liked the way that Hashrocket handled the interview and proposal processes. They were very professional, engaged, and excited, so the decision was fairly easy from there.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started the project in August 2017, and it’s ongoing.

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

The tools Hashrocket developed have delivered about 100% growth in almost every metric that we’re tracking. That improvement includes purchases, store startups, and store visits.

How did Hashrocket perform from a project management standpoint?

They are great. From the beginning, they sat down with us to clearly define our goals for the project. Hashrocket is very proactive in reaching out to different teams across our company to consult with, and they take ownership of writing most of the requirements themselves. They manage their time very well and are a pleasure to work with from that standpoint.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are extremely knowledgeable and move quite quickly, so we never felt like any part of the process was a waste of our time.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything they could have done better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Potential clients should definitely work with this company.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a development and branding agency. Clients come to us when they’re looking for ways to reposition their brands or develop corporate identities. For this project and in our involvement with Hashrocket, I’m the product manager. My primary responsibilities are to connect with our client and discuss their needs and wants. We frame the details of those requirements into tasks that I assign to members of our teams so that they can build out those features.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hashrocket?

They augment our developer workforce. Our company was going through a period of accelerated growth. Because of recent opportunities with a client, we had a huge need for additional developer help in a short time. When we signed on with this client, we decided to go with an advanced programming language, Elixir. It’s incredibly powerful but also not well known. After several months of trying to recruit help, we couldn’t find anyone with the relevant skill set to help us. So, we started looking for contractors to fill the gap.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They walked us through their process and helped us understand gaps in ours. They’ve provided mentorship for how we develop software and run our teams in an agile development manner. They’ve been invaluable to us in ways not solely related to the project we’re building.

We’re building a marketing and enrollment platform for our client, a charter school district. Our client is using what’s currently available on the market, and they’re dissatisfied. As they grew, they realized that the existing tools and software weren’t good enough. They decided to hire us to build an in-house system. 

The platform is a system for collecting new student leads and communicating with the people submitting those leads. The client’s schools are in high demand, so there are always more applicants than there are available seats. The system accepts applications, and it can run a lottery to determine who gets to go and who doesn’t. It sends out offers to the winners and registers them as students.

We spent a lot of time working out mock-ups. Things started to get much more specific after that, designing buttons on pages and deciding what the data model for sharing information looks like.

What is the team composition?

They assigned a developer by the name of Chris Erin. We were thrilled that Hashrocket assigned him to us. He’s been amazing. He is helping us write code and bring features to fruition. We also work with Suzanne Erin (Project Manager, Hashrocket), who’s also been invaluable to us. Suzanne provided a lot of process mentoring. She’s a phenomenal project manager—incredibly intelligent and well-versed in getting projects from ideation to completion. She checks whether our current processes make sense, whether we’re running our stand-up meetings efficiently, or whether our sprints should be shorter or longer. When we write the story cards for the features we’re trying to develop, she checks to see if the cards are granular enough. We address all questions about the process of managing software development with her, and she’s been an incredible resource for us. I feel as though I’ve gotten a Harvard Business School course from Suzanne. They have been huge assets for us, and they’ve made us a better company.

How did you come to work with Hashrocket?

When we searched for contracted development help, we located only two companies in the entire US with the relevant skill set and experience. When our developers had questions about Elixir or the Phoenix framework that’s based on Elixir, they repeatedly found articles written by Hashrocket developers. There didn’t seem to be a better place to go for that expertise.

How much have you invested with them?

The contract value so far is $50,000 or more. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Hashrocket in February or March 2019. The project began in September or October 2018 and the collaboration is ongoing. We initially contracted them for about six weeks of work, but they’ve been so valuable that we contracted them for the rest of the year.

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

It’s hard to provide metrics because the platform isn’t finished.

They introduced us to their software development processes, and they helped us drill down to a level of detail that we hadn’t considered. We relayed that information to the client and got better clarity on the kind of product they wanted us to build for them.

Before we began working with them in earnest, we were managing the project and getting by, but there wasn’t as much specificity, and we didn’t know how to capture that specificity in the processes we were using. Suzanne, in particular, has taught us their story carding process. Because of it, I’m able to write story cards with much greater efficiency and specificity. The developers on our team have remarked that we’ve become much more efficient. Now, instead of asking me 50 different questions about the feature, we can move through it quickly. That kind of procedural attention to detail is something we’ve learned from Hashrocket, and we’re incredibly grateful.

How did Hashrocket perform from a project management standpoint?

Hashrocket has been valuable to us as a partner because they have outstanding project management practices. They’ve been doing software development work for a long time, and they have incredibly experienced developers who don’t just code but also know the ins and outs of setting requirements for that code and figuring out what questions to ask to determine what kind of product the client wants. 

Chris always provides suggestions for better ways of doing things, but he’s 100% a team player. He’s brought in great ideas for improving workflows. Any pushback we’ve gotten from Chris or Suzanne was constructive. I wouldn’t change anything about our relationship with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The way they’ve taught us their project management processes is especially valuable. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t come up with anything that Hashrocket, Suzanne, or Chris could do better.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients looking to work with Hashrocket should trust the team’s processes. They spend significant time talking with the client about the project. Their process might seem slow or unproductive initially, but it’s incredibly productive. They take care of problems that we would’ve run into down the road at the beginning of the project. Once they have a detailed plan for the work, they’ll produce miracles. There are few questions or bumps in the road. It’s a smooth development process because they’re disciplined enough to take the time at the beginning of the project to figure out everything they need to do and do it right. This is something that might seem a bit strange or off-putting for clients looking to work with Hashrocket, but it’s something I strongly encourage them to go through.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

DentalPost is the leading job board for dental professionals in the US, and I am the CTO.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hashrocket?

Our website was over 10 years old and needed a major overhaul. We reached out to Hashrocket to help us rebuild the frontend of our web application using React and GatsbyJS. The Hashrocket team rebuilt the frontend while our internal backend engineers rebuilt the backend and API.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hashrocket collaborated with our product team to design wireframes and user flows, wrote the majority of the React code, and integrated the new frontend with our new backend APIs. 

What is the team composition? 

We worked with 2-3 engineers, 1-2 designers, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Hashrocket?

I wasn't involved in the selection process, but our team conducted a broad search and interviewed several different firms. Compared to others, they felt Hashrocket offered the best services. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from around October 2017–January 2019.

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

Hashrocket helped us successfully launch the web app on time with minimal errors. It was also usable right away, which was a huge win. They performed at high velocity throughout the process, and their development capabilities were expert level. 

How did Hashrocket perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very easy to work with and always available to answer any questions as needed. They were reliable, responsive, and provided great feedback throughout the engagement. We held daily standup meetings through Zoom, as well as longer planning meetings each week. We could also reach them through Slack as needed throughout the day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their developers' communications skills are excellent. It can be common for developers to struggle with communication, but the Hashrocket team was very talented at clearly communicating their needs and issues.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their approach to having separate web designers write the HTML and CSS code and handing it off to the developers working in React could've been streamlined. We had to address issues with the styles they implemented to properly incorporate them into the React app.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

National Comfort Institute is a training organization which teaches HVAC contractors and their technicians how to measure the performance of a heating-and-air system once it’s installed in a home or office building. This goes above and beyond what they’re typically taught in trade school, and teaches them to actually measure the performance of a system, and tune it to its optimum ability. It provides contractors an opportunity for differentiation in their business.

I work for a section of the company which is devoted to building and maintain what essentially amounts to a calculator tool/software that assists technicians with their diagnostics based on measurements of static pressure, temperature, and airflow of the HVAC systems in the field. The tool generates customer-friendly reports which explain what’s happening, and which can be used to communicate findings.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hashrocket?

We commissioned Hashrocket for the development of our web-based application, ComfortMaxx. Until ComfortMaxx was developed, the burden of calculating results of complex scientific formulas rested on the shoulders of the industry's technicians and salesmen, armed only with a generic paper form and a pencil.

NCI recognized the opportunity to not only make things easier for the techs and salesmen but to gain valuable insights into the industry and how well HVAC Systems are actually performing as installed in homes, office buildings, schools, restaurants, and other structures across the country. ComfortMaxx gives HVAC Contractors the ability to "see" how well (or not) a specific system is performing without their having to understand complicated physics calculations. This empowers them to provide solutions to their customer that result in a safer, healthier, more comfortable, and more energy-efficient HVAC system.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Hashrocket has developed our application. We are planning to create mobile apps for the same purpose. We wanted the app to be responsive, so that, no matter which device the end-user wanted to open it on, it would look good and function well. We looked for a bit of polish on the frontend, making sure that the app had a consistent look-and-feel.

I, as the administrator of that system, wanted the ability to create new types of tests. The app is a big testing engine which can accept new procedures through its admin panel. I can also completely customize reports using its frontend, without getting into the code itself. Reports are dynamically populated based on measurement results.

The app is written in Ruby on Rails and is hosted on Heroku cloud servers. Other technologies involved in the project included Haml, jQuery, JavaScript, and PostgreSQL. We are using a template plug-in called Liquid, created by Shopify. The app generates HTML reports.

How did you come to work with Hashrocket?

Being a small business, we were looking for a firm that would give us and our project the same respect and interest they would give a Fortune 500 client/project.  With their reputation preceding them, we felt Hashrocket was big enough to deliver what we needed but small enough to really truly care about our project and the success of our business.  They're not an impersonal factory that just pumps out apps; they develop a real relationship with their client's business and future.  We loved that everyone in the company knew what was going on with our project team at any one time and could pitch in to offer advice or feedback (even the CEO!).

We had an initial three-day story session and proceeded from there. Hashrocket got a good understanding of what we were looking to do and put me in touch with their product manager.

How much have you invested with Hashrocket?

The cost of Hashrocket’s work has been several hundred thousand dollars in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Hashrocket in the Fall of 2013, probably September or October. The first engagement had a six-month runtime. They fully developed our (rather complex) MVP within nine months and continued to build the next couple of versions for us sporadically over the following 18 months.  They never left us with an unfinished product and helped establish all aspects of the app from codebase to version control to hosting solution to additional/continual app management tools and techniques.

We’ve had an off-and-on collaboration until April 2016, when we hired a developer. Hashrocket was brought in to get him up-to-speed.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I was in charge of approving any new features submitted to Pivotal Tracker. Hashrocket delivered work to our staging environment, and let me know what I needed to review. Since we had an Agile process, it’s hard for me to come up with metrics.

Looking at it now, the cleanness of Hashrocket’s code is unbelievable. They really do know what they’re doing! In many cases, they leverage the "magic" of Ruby on Rails to write efficient, yet effective and understandable, code. What might take some developers 3 or 4 lines of code, Hashrocket can many times make happen in 1 line. They put together the most complex parts of our application, delivering a completely dynamic and customizable calculator tool that allows us to create and adjust without having to write a single line of code ourselves.

How did Hashrocket perform from a project management standpoint?

We use Pivotal Tracker for our requirements management and communication. I was in touch with the project manager on a daily basis through Google Hangouts. He was fully devoted to our project and made sure that we were aware of what the developers were working on. If we had a question over the course of the day, we could reach out to Hashrocket via Slack, and they also contacted us for clarification. It was a very transparent and involved process. I felt like a part of the team and found Hashrocket’s people to be incredibly talented. I was fairly new to development in general, so I appreciated the detailed communication.

What did you find most impressive about Hashrocket?

Education and communication were especially good. Hashrocket stayed in touch with us every day, so I had a hands-on approach on the client side. While it was a bit of pressure, it was my full time job, so I wanted to help out with anything I could. Hashrocket was finishing features quickly, and putting out clean and productive code, so I had to be ready to verify those features and not become the bottleneck. Even though I was not doing any programming, I was still taking full ownership of the product and felt like I was integral to its successful development.

Having engaged Hashrocket for almost two years off and on, we wound up working with a couple different development teams within the firm. I can tell you that no matter who they plug in on a project, they are all incredibly talented, smart, and fun to work with and deliver a consistently excellent product.  A lot of that has to do with the excellent process that Hashrocket has perfected and a lot has to do with the leadership from the CEO to the project managers and even to the developers.  They all take ownership of their projects and feel fully invested in its success and the client's success even after the engagement is complete.

Are there any areas Hashrocket could improve?

Project duration and cost estimation would probably be the only point that I can think of. But then again, with software development in general, requirements change in the middle of the project pretty regularly so it's hard to put that on the development team.

Their hourly rate is a bit high, and there are a few people working on a project at the same time, but Hashrocket delivers a premium product, so in my mind, it’s a pretty good trade-off.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Hashrocket?

Be prepared with a clear vision of what you want, going into the engagement with Hashrocket. Otherwise, you risk spending a lot of time running in circles, racking up a huge bill, without much to show for it. This is true for any development project. Applied labor is key; clients should want the development team constantly working towards the end-product. That’s important for saving everyone’s time, money and sanity. I also recommend assigning one person from your company who is willing to be fully engaged with the Hashrocket team throughout the process. This person should have complete expertise and ownership of the scope and be knowledgeable enough to answer any questions the development team may have.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a small company in Dallas, Texas that sells high-end watches. I’m the communications manager of the company, but I wear many other hats. We’re a small office with only five people, so I’m also considered the IT person, tasked with making sure our website is as efficient as possible. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Hashrocket?

We’ve used many individual developers in the past who have done work for us on their own. They were usually out of sight, out of mind; if they weren’t in the office, no work would get done until we started hounding them. We had a list of things to get done and contacted Hashrocket. They not only started right away but also did more work for us in three weeks than any of the other developers did in years.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were having issues with our online ordering. Our frontend is Ruby on Rails, while the backend is PHP, and Hashrocket dug into both systems and figured them out quickly. The two parts needed to talk to each other, and they were able to do that quickly. Our ordering system was one of the first things Hashrocket fixed.

We also had some issues with our photos and a long list of other problems. We had standing phone calls at 8:00 am each day with Hashrocket’s team and talked about where we were and what we needed from them. We would see our issues fixed in a matter of hours.

How did you come to work with Hashrocket?

I googled “Ruby on Rails developer” or something similar. Hashrocket wasn’t the first option, but their website looked like what I wanted. The first person I talked to was one of their solutions consultants. She asked me some questions and got in touch with the development team right away, I believe on the same day. One day later, Hashrocket was already working on our stuff.

How much have you invested with Hashrocket?

The cost of Hashrocket’s work was around $96,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Hashrocket in July 2016. They finished everything we needed to do almost two months ago, but I go back to the team for minor tasks. 

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

I don’t think that our traffic has either increased or decreased, but this is more of a business and economy issue than anything Hashrocket did or didn’t do.

Before we started working with Hashrocket, our website was only able to show one photo at a time. Hashrocket gave us the ability to upload multiple photos, which has helped customers see our watches and decreased the number of overall questions we received. Being able to see what an item is really alleviates some of our customers’ fears.

How did Hashrocket perform from a project management standpoint?

The everyday communication was great. Besides daily phone calls, we also communicated through Basecamp and Pivotal Tracker, where we posted to-do items along with screenshots. Hashrocket went through that priority list on Pivotal Tracker and communicated with us on Basecamp. Everything was in writing, and I could go back to previous conversations, see what they needed from me, and keep track of the projects.

What did you find most impressive about Hashrocket?

Hashrocket is incredibly organized. Whenever we talked about something on the phone, our developer was writing everything down and making recaps at the end of the call. Nothing fell through the cracks while working with Hashrocket.

Are there any areas Hashrocket could improve?

Having more details on the invoices about what projects they were working on would be good. For example, we received bills for four hours and questioned whether a particular task was really worth that amount of time. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

It’s a digital platform called MOSH. It’s built for brands to have brand engagement with their customers and with their audience since those engagements are very important to monetize their base. The definition of engagement for us is that they can have a social interaction with their customers. I’m a former chief marketing officer at a Fortune 500. What we learned there is if you thought you can do that on Facebook, you can’t. Facebook only allows you to get to 1% of your customers and there are reasons behind that. And you have no idea who’s in the 1% because it’s controlled by Facebook and their algorithms. So, on MOSH, they can access 100% of their customers all of the time. They can share any content. We’ve done 2-hour videos and live streams with the United Nations. So there are no restrictions to the content brands can post, which is different for a social platform. The brands get 100% of their customer data. It’s all for purpose built brands to do engagement really well.

I am the chief executive officer and co-founder.

What challenge were you trying to address with Hashrocket?

We had an existing platform but the original developers weren’t available to work on it further. We had a whole bunch of small things that needed to be done. We had some bigger development projects that needed to be done too, so they basically took on the platform from the previous developers and they figured out how it all worked. They fixed all the small things really quickly. We did some big projects together as well.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lots of new stuff came up along the way, which always does, and they did all that for me as well. They gave me some really good advice about what the previous developers had done, what was best practice, and where they could fix things or change things to be better.

They also gave me a broader perspective of what it would take from their point of view to get the whole thing up to another level. It was our first run at building a platform, so there was always stuff that needed to be done and things that needed to be improved. They were great about pushing things forward as much as they could while they did the work.

How did you come to work with Hashrocket?

I found them doing a search for Ruby on Rails developers online. I hired a couple of other smaller companies first and worked with them for a week or two and then fired them because they kept screwing things up. I’ve had enough experience working with developers to know what “good” looks like. The original developers were awesome, so I had high standards. I think I got to Hashrocket third. They were awesome right from the get-go. They did a code audit first, which I thought was a really professional way of understanding the platform and giving some value back to me to say where the issues were. They were really professional about the way that we engaged. We did a stand-up every day at 2:00pm. The engagement letter, contract, and payment cycles were really well handled. We used Slack and all sorts of tools. They set me up really quickly and really supported me to get to use those tools effectively. They were so great about the way they introduced the tools to me that I was happy to take them on and I did use them every day. They’re very respectful and diplomatic towards the previous developers, even if they thought there was something screwy in there. They didn’t say so in a critical way. They were really polite and diplomatic.

How much have you invested with Hashrocket?

We have invested $150,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we started in April. Our first round finished up about 6 weeks ago. We’re not working with them right now because I don’t have any development needs. They are my first place to call and I’m not going anywhere else.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Traffic has doubled every month since January, especially in page views and unique visitors. There’s more content being uploaded all the time. The variety of content is really diverse – whether it’s videos, podcasts, or even virtual reality. You could not think of a broader set of content if you tried.

We’ve tested and had in production almost every sort of content. That’s the other thing I should say. They’re really good about the staging platform and the sandbox, and about stuff getting signed off before pushing things live. Production only went live on certain days. We’d never do a push on a Friday afternoon because if it fell over, we’d have to work on the weekend. There were always smarts that went into their processes. The volume of work on the platform has increased dramatically. We’ve not had technical issues whatsoever.

How did Hashrocket perform from a project management standpoint?

They always have two developers on a project. I had Josh and Josh. They were absolutely fantastic. Cameron was the UI/UX user interface/user experience] guy. Chris was the project manager. It was the exact same team from beginning to end. I probably missed more stand-ups than they did, collectively. We are all really committed to the process. The guys were so awesome. Sometimes, I would bounce business issue ideas off them that would then become a development consideration.

What did you find most impressive about Hashrocket?

Their development standards are really exceptional. I was at a conference a couple of weeks ago with world class people doing stuff that they think is cutting edge. Some of the stuff that they were saying they could do, the Hashrocket guys have already made in my platform. That’s bloody impressive for a small shop.

Are there any areas Hashrocket could improve?

They’re the fourth group I’ve worked with and I would choose them again every day. I just want them as they are.

Please describe your organization.

We are a new mobile media platform where businesses and individuals create, buy, and follow customized hashtag sites based on their interests. These hashtag sites are also registered in certain categories, whether it’s business, tennis, travel, or food. It’s all highly contextualized so that businesses can search for people using different hashtags. We feel that with the way we’ve architected the network, it’s going to be the most efficient way for businesses to monetize in mobile media.

What is your position?

I am the Chief Executive Officer and founder.

What business challenge were you trying to address with Hashrocket?

We were about two-thirds of the way through the process of building our product. We were using a company that was a pretty good shop, but we weren’t getting high level guidance. On the other hand, Hashrocket gives much greater input and competency which has been a big uptick for us. When they send us a bill, it’s pretty clean.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in greater detail.

They built us a solution with Ruby on Rails.

How did you come to work with Hashrocket?

We’re in Jacksonville, which is not a tech hub of the world. There’s not a lot of folks that you hear about. We’d heard about Hashrocket and had used them to build our website about 18 months ago. So we had a prior relationship with them and we had stayed in touch. We knew they could do all the stuff that we’re doing now. It was an easy decision to choose them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It’s cost more than $200,000.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Our product has evolved and the scope, the vision, and the functionality has changed as it has evolved. I think that when we first engaged Hashrocket in the fall of 2015, there was some skepticism on how this was going to end up being different from other social media networks that are already out there. When we started to bring in the Hi-Fi marketplace - just like when you go to GoDaddy or Web.com and buy your own website, here you buy your own hashtag site. We just added a feature called tag casting which is live streaming, but it’s not just live streaming like you do on Facebook. You don’t know who’s engaged there. In our site, you’re tag casting from your hashtag sites so you have a really focused audience that’s following your tag topic and it all just lives there.

What distinguishes Hashrocket from other providers?

As you know, when you have an agency relationship, there is still that us and them mentality. They do lots of projects. I would just wish that sometimes we had our own team because we need stuff done during the weekends or at night. Regardless, the work is always really strong.

Is there anything Hashrocket could have improved or done differently?

Not really. It’s just expensive. Agency rates are expensive, but you get what you pay for. If you were paying half the price and you were outsourcing it to India or Pakistan, you might get a lot of stuff that’s really bad, so you end up wasting time and money. I would say that although it’s been more expensive, I think you end up getting it right the first time, so it’s all balanced out.

Please describe your organization.

We are a networking products company. As of late, we're very focused on creating products for the Internet of Things.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm the vice president and I lead up all the Internet of Things products and projects.

What was your goal for working with Hashrocket?

We were developing a new product, which was a series of Wi-Fi connected centers. We knew a critical piece of that was going to be a software platform to monitor and interact with that hardware. Having a history as a hardware company, we don't have a lot of capabilities in doing Web-based software. I looked at the technologies out there and decided that Ruby on Rails is what we wanted to do and started looking at development shops.

What was your process for selecting Hashrocket?

I looked at a couple different firms and went down the interviewing path with a couple of them. Ultimately, what stuck out for me about Hashrocket was their expertise, process, and way of doing work. It seemed like a good marriage between our two companies and would facilitate a good working relationship. That was further cemented once we – we got an initial proposal, but nothing's official until you go down and start story carting with Hashrocket. Story carting being a three-day process cemented that we were going to be very compatible and work well together. I found Hashrocket by Googling "Ruby on Rails shops in Chicago." It turned out that their Chicago team was not available to work on our project so we worked with their Florida-based team. While I do like having somebody in town, it didn't really end up being an issue at all.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

It was about $50,000 to $200,000 for development of the platform.

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

By the end of the project, we were able to launch our product, which is now for sale on the Amazon home automation store. It's a product called Connect Sense. We've gotten very good customer feedback and results from the product and have been able to improve it from there.

What differentiates Hashrocket from other partners?

Hashrocket's communication style makes them unique. Their process is something we've adopted internally since partnering with them. We would do daily video standup calls with them. I've worked with software development teams before, and we never had that close connection with another team. Even though they were in Jacksonville, and we were in Chicago, we had a very close tight-knit relationship with them because of those calls. It felt like they were part of our own team. I met with one of the engineers. We spoke at a conference after our product had launched together. Even though it was my second time meeting him, we had a ton of rapport because of those very regular video calls.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

In any project, you come up with new requirements along the way. Something I've seen work well with other software development teams is any time a new requirement gets thrown into the mix, they'll pause, do an estimate, and give you a clear indication whether they can do it, what it's going to cost and how long it's going to take. I didn't feel that happened at Hashrocket. There weren't any surprises with billing, but it's nice to understand when you make a decision to add or change something how that's going to impact the cost.

Please describe your organization.

TFS is an online payment processor for people in chapter 13 bankruptcy. It's a niche group of people that need to make payments to a court-appointed trustee once a month for three to five years. Our users have been previously locked out of different banking services. Their only other methods of getting these payments are by check or money order, which isn't private and is an inefficient way to process payments. My boss was a bankruptcy attorney. He knew a lot of the trustees and knew a lot of the problems that their clients had. He decided to make a better way for these people to process their payments.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm the director of operations. I've been here from the beginning when we had just a few lines of code all the way to developing what the site is going to look like structurally.

What was your goal for working with Hashrocket?

By the time we approached Hashrocket, we had previous developers that worked on part of the site. We had code that was somewhat there and it was close to being ready. Hashrocket was able to analyze our code, figure out what was missing, and bring it into what we actually wanted.

What was your process for selecting Hashrocket?

The code was already in Rails, so we definitely considered other firms, but we needed a Rails shop. Hashrocket was very quick to respond, very friendly, and very knowledgeable. They were able to get us a review right away of our code and then provide a game plan for how to proceed.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

Our project with Hashrocket cost $200,000-plus.

When was the work completed?

Our project was completed a while ago, but we iterate often. We want to make sure we get a feature release out, figure out what is good and bad and then improve on that. We've been on and off with Hashrocket to continue improvements. 

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

Our best feedback is from our users. The trustees that we send money to and our users love the site and love the ease of use and the less complexity of the process. Development-wise, it's been great.

What differentiates Hashrocket from other partners?

The Hashrocket team features great people. They're always responsive. They don't sugar coat something if it needs to be said. They're up front and easy to work with.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

No. Nothing with Hashrocket.

Please describe your company.

Transparentrees is a company that provides third-party crowdsourced information on the advertising and marketing industries.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the founder.

What was your goal for working with Hashrocket?

We knew what we wanted to build from a broad product standpoint, but we didn’t know whether certain aspects would be technologically feasible. We did not know how long it would take, we didn’t know what languages or technologies we should use to build, we didn’t know how much it would cost, and we didn’t have development skills to build it ourselves. So, we really needed a partner that could evaluate and do all of those things for us.

Please describe the scope of their work.

The majority of the work was development. We have a designer at Hashrocket that designed the site for us, with heavy guidance given from me. I came in kind of knowing broad strokes of what I wanted and where I wanted it to be. The pure aesthetics of it was our designer’s work at Hashrocket. I’d characterize the work as mostly lean product construction and very heavy development.

What was your process for selecting Hashrocket with which to work?

I interviewed Pivotal Labs, Hashrocket, and ThoughtBox. I had a three-stage process, an opening round where I had initial calls with each of the three firms, told them a little bit about Transparentrees. Then, the second stage, where I would go visit them. Then the third stage was the final selection stage. I flew down to visit with Hashrocket. Hashrocket moved a little quicker than everyone else, so I actually didn’t end up flying out to meet anyone from ThoughtBox or Pivotal Labs in person.

A few factors set them apart from the others. They were the smallest out of the three, so a little bit scrappier, which is good for us. They had an office in Chicago, which is where we are, so that was good for us. They had a great reputation in the development Rails community. I was comfortable with the development chops of all three shops, it was how some of these other factors played out.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

[It was] $200,000 plus.

What were the results of the project?

The project is mostly completed, but it’s an ongoing relationship as far as support and things like that. They help us when we need development help.

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

I’m not sure in terms of metrics, but I was very happy with the work they did.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

I can’t add a lot of color because I haven’t worked with other shops like Hashrocket. I only worked with the Chicago team, so I can speak to them, and I can say that they’re very passionate about doing development the right way, at the same time, they listen to what I need. Sometimes, those are conflicting goals. You can build something 110 percent bombproof, but the cost can be four or five times the cost of the “just get it done for right now” solution. I’d say overall they lean pretty far towards doing it the absolute correct way, but they’re sensitive to understanding that there’s often business concerns in these things as well.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

The only constructive criticism I have is that I think there could have  been a little bit better upfront communication from their upper level management on how Hashrocket’s system of developing works and what that means to a client.