Headway

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a marketplace lending platform which helps small businesses raise capital from private investors. We also run enterprise software solutions, licensing our technology to financial institutions. I am a co-founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Headway?

We were looking to expedite the development of our application and needed some talented senior developers which could be plugged into our teams and brought to speed efficiently.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Headway got up-and-running quickly in order to provide development for our Ruby on Rails app, acting as an extension of our in-house engineering team.

We worked primarily with one developer from Headway, but did interface with 2 other people on the team occasionally for frontend WordPress development.

How did you come to work with Headway?

One of the founders of Headway had worked with us in the past as an engineer, so it was an easy transition into the organization. He was always able to provide good quality.

How much have you invested with Headway?

The total cost of our project was between $20,000 and $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our project has been completed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Qualitatively speaking, Headway provided top-notch work. Their team collaborated closely with ours, and we performed code reviews on each other. It was a true partnership, we'd definitely use Headway again, and we recommend them. I have no bad comments.

How did Headway perform from a project management standpoint?

Headway was very organized, delivered work on time, took our directions and gave opinions on whether there were better approaches to certain issues, which ultimately weighed on our opinion of how we wanted something to get done.

What did you find most impressive about Headway?

Headway truly cared about the work done. It wasn't simply another project on which they were looking to work the minimum number of hours and churn something out. Headway treated our project as if they were stakeholders in it, which was refreshing.

Are there any areas Headway could improve?

I don't think so. I would hire Headway again if we ever needed to expedite the velocity of our product.

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

Not particularly. Headway was easy to work with, so there are no tricks of the trade in engaging them. Headway will come in, understand the business needs of what needs to be delivered, and act as an extension of the team.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our startup company has developed a private social network which allows users to share memories with family and loved ones. Our platform allows people to create family trees and preserve their content for generations.

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Headway?

In the first phase, we needed resources for developing our mobile and web apps. It was my first time trying to start a company and getting my vision across to others.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Headway has been involved in the design process since day one, understanding our concept, features, and how they could be applied for user market validation. Headway has been involved in our project from the early development phases, to pre-launch and onward. They decided what the tech stack should be, and made decisions for the whole development life cycle.

Early on, I only collaborated with the principal from Headway. We designed the general scope of the platform, and went through some market validation. I handled user interviews in the beginning.

Headway created a pre-launch page for me, which is still live, since we haven't launched the network.

After the initial phase, Headway assigned a lead developer, a designer, and a project manager to me. I have conversations about every feature with my designer. We brainstorm, hash things out, and develop all the backend components at the same time. We've been working through a 2-week Agile life cycle. We decide what will be needed for the next cycle at the end of the previous one. We also have product, strategy and design meetings, discussing what each of us needs to do.

So far, the collaboration has been good. I am a very outspoken, upfront person; whenever I felt that I didn't know what was going on, I contacted Headway either through Slack or by email, and expressed my concerns. We had meetings, clarified every issue, and found what we could do better. Honesty and trust are the biggest factors in a project like this. I've known Headway's principal for a long time, and I have a comfort level with him.

How did you come to work with Headway?

I conceptualized my social network back in 2014, and started to look for a technical partner. I interviewed many people, and it started to seem that it wouldn't work out. I also looked for someone who had a lot of startup experience, and could help with the whole process. I explored outsourcing opportunities, but it didn't seem like a god fit for my kind of startup. I was always involved in the design community, but I didn't always bring my ideas with me during meetings. I came to know Headway's principal via a local entrepreneurial network. We came to get together and have chats. I asked him if he could help out with a shortlist of good companies that could work with my concept. He eventually told me that he appreciated my commitment, and that we should work together. I never knew that he owned a development company, and they were perfect for me.

How much have you invested with Headway?

I had no idea how much this project would ultimately cost. I'm an IT person, but my specialization was within Oracle databases. I can understand technical issues, but I'm not a developer. I had no experience with the web world. I had some initial conversations with Headway, telling them about my vision, and used them as my guide.

Even though I was given an hourly rate, I didn't know how many hours it would take to get from point A to point B. The initial estimate given by Headway was between $20,000 and $40,000. We ended up spending more on pre-launch strategies and complexities which we didn't anticipate, especially with the family tree piece. Nobody had done that before.

I did have a special agreement with Headway, giving them 5% equity in my company as part of the deal. 

Headway was very flexible in deciding which features would be developed in the first phases, due to my budget constraints. We performed some A/B user testing. If there was enough interest in a specific feature, we continued work on it.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Headway in August 2015. Our project is ongoing, but I exhausted my budget in April 2016. Headway told me that they wouldn't be letting go of my project. The team would continue the work for 6 months after the final payment. So far, I estimate that they have invested $60,000-80,000 into the project. I will eventually end up giving them more equity.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The platform is still within the alpha phase, and we're doing user tests. Three hundred people have signed up for early access, and I've been pretty happy with the general design. There have been many complexities, which we talked about collaboratively. During development, many unexpected issues popped up, which we had to consider. Headway has been very open in this respect.

How did Headway perform from a project management standpoint?

We tracked the project using Trello. Headway performed well overall. I don't have any previous experience with which to compare them, but the communication has been decent. There are days in which I feel that we're not talking enough, given that I have a day job, and Headway also has other projects. I'm also not disappointed at all in them. We've been working together for over a year. Any issues that came up, were addressed.

What did you find most impressive about Headway?

I don't have a benchmark, given that this was my first time working with an agency. I've had a very good experience with Headway. It's important for the technical team to understand the vision behind a project. Headway understood my long-term and short-term goals. They provided input and suggested ideas for improving my solution, maturing it, and figuring out who the target audience was. This was the biggest plus.

Are there any areas Headway could improve?

Cost estimations could have been improved. Headway could have given me a better breakdown of each task, and deadlines have also been missed almost all the time. The platform was supposed to go public in April 2016, but it's been rescheduled 3 times. We did run into issues, and it's just the nature of the beast. Communication and project cost estimations could have been better. Headway didn't think enough about how complex this startup project was, and what issues could surface. The way in which Headway handled these problems going forward made up for this though.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Handshake has built a college-level career network. We work with universities, employers, and students in order to help them connect. We help students find their first internships or full-time jobs.

I was the Director of Customer Success for the company, running implementations, post-sale account management, and customer support. I also ran our sales group for 6 months and am currently working with our engineering team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Headway?

Our number-one challenge was to do with engineering bandwidth. We have many aggressive timelines and projects which need to be completed from a product perspective.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Headway was used as a staff augmentation company on the engineering side, helping expedite our timelines and bringing resources with more frontend experience than our engineering team.

Our engagement has changed over time. Headway was initially brought in to work on an internal tool used by my company for data ingestion. When we implement a new university, we will import a lot of data from backend student information, which is done through a tool meant to automate the process and augment our customer success team.

Another project with Headway involved student-side features. Many of our features are heavy in terms of user interface and frontend interactions. Headway has been working on this extensively, revamping much of our onboarding process. They also built a feature called Career Interest, which collects extra information from the students logging into our system, asking about the types of industries and positions that would suit them.

Headway also helped us transition from a Knockout.js architecture, to a React.js one, also working on the backend requirements for building these features.

How did you come to work with Headway?

I personally know most of the Headway team, having worked with them at previous companies. A few of them actually worked for me within a previous position, so I have a pretty good relationship with the team, and know what they're capable of. I have a lot of respect for Headway's skillsets, but it was also very easy to integrate their members into our team. We have a long history and understanding of what each member's skillsets are. Our lead developer from Headway is basically treated like a fulltime member. There's no drop-off between a fulltime person working on a feature, and him. This was the big win from our perspective. We've worked with consultants from other companies, and there was always a disconnect between the fulltime resources and them. With Headway, this was never a problem. They hold themselves accountable to tasks and deadlines, without having us use an internal project manager.

How much have you invested with Headway?

The total cost of Headway's services has been above $100,000 over the last year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been engaged with Headway for around one year. The work will be ramping down over the next 3 months, but it's still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Headway has worked on our Career Interest feature, as well as one called First Destination Surveys. Our lead programmer is also in charge of student onboarding. The feedback that we've gotten from customers for all of these features has been that they're all a step above any other feature that we'd built up to that point, from a user interface and frontend perspective. They're more aesthetically-pleasing, easier to use, and more thought-out. This comes from a mixture of Headway's involvement and our lead programmer's skillsets in terms of frontend development. On the backend side, our design and product management teams have also been putting in more effort in order to polish some of these features, but without Headway's ability to implement these features, we probably wouldn't have been successful.

Headway has been involved in many of our bigger initiatives, which have received good feedback. 

How did Headway perform from a project management standpoint?

Headway has been the first consultant that has handled its own project management. We didn't have to ride them every day and keep track of what they were working on. There were no long periods without feedback. From the perspective of our interaction, the work with Headway has been great. From a project management perspective on their end, every feature built by Headway has been delivered on time. We sat down, came up with timelines, figured out rough implementations, roadblocks, and risks. For the most part, everything played out as we anticipated, without delays.

What did you find most impressive about Headway?

The biggest advantage to us has been the level at which we could integrate Headway into our fulltime development team. By bringing in our lead developer, we get access to a skillset which we wouldn't necessarily have within our fulltime team. He was able to come in, up our game, and individually build functionalities which wouldn't have been possible just by using our fulltime team. This also translates into our fulltime team seeing those features being built, including the code written by Headway. They had the willingness to work with our engineering team and train them in various areas, working as a fulltime member of the team, which included making sure that our team was up-to-date.

Are there any areas Headway could improve?

We've worked with our lead developer for a long time, and we've also used other members of the Headway team as short-term staff augmentation. Most of these engagements have gone very well, so I'm struggling to think of anything.

Had we been a smaller company outsourcing all of its efforts to Headway, we would have been more nitpicky about their technology choices, but because we use them mostly for staff augmentation, Headway hasn't been driving a lot of the decision making. They've been involved in strategy discussions, but we've decided the way in which Headway works.