HireNinja

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m product manager at a company that does advertising and digital for the relocation industry, mainly auto transport and moving companies. Our services include lead generation, software development, and product placement.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with HireNinja?

We’ve outsourced frontend developers to supplement our in-house team. We needed work to be done fast while producing reliable and stable results. Recently, we did an internal project that required an external developer with backend skills.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We hired Asif, a freelancer, through another staffing firm. We worked with him for this backend project and subsequent others. After first few projects, we engaged him directly as freelancer, at which point he sourced other developers through HireNinja. We planned to outsource frontend work for sites with lower traffic volumes.

Asif started his engagement with web development. His work, which relieved our in-house developers, focused on increasing speed and overall performance. For the backend project, Asif built a standalone API for our lead distribution system and integrated it with our existing APIs and software. The API plotted area codes on Goolge maps, which helped movers select which areas to service routes. This function subsequently required Asif to create a lead acceptance filter for our system. He designed the API to gather map data and display it at other points in the user experience. The API also created filters that accept leads to the client in our client management system.

This project also had a frontend component, which Asif worked on as well. He designed the framework based on design mockups we provided. We edited his work on a daily basis; he then integrated those revisions into the backend. Testing periods have followed all design work Asif has done.

What is the team composition?

We staffed task management to Asif and then he delegates to the team he hires. One person he brought on has become our main freelance frontend developer.

How did you come to work with Asif?

We used HireNinja with Asif because he could oversee teams working on multiple projects. His delegation helped offload management responsibilities.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $70,000 - $80,000 on the backend project.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started April 2017 and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We had a $250,000 return on the backend project. Asif accomplished all set goas by creating stable sites that have optimized our overall digital performance. Google speed tests are up and browser testing is stronger than ever.

Asif is highly communicative and has a dedicated work ethic. He’s willing to work beyond normal operating hours on time-sensitive matters. The frontend developer has performed well, too. We assigned him designs – we normally do not give to freelancers – because he produces quality results. He and Asif work different hours, which increases their accessibility.

Our internal team is very happy with their work. However, the team occasionally voices suggestions to improve their coding. But many code projects are componentized to the forms we use. Given those circumstances, we’re completely satisfied with the results. They function well and look good.

Since our engagement is still in its early stages, we can’t offer more qualitative assessments. Many in-house developers haven’t had a chance to review their codes fully.

How did HireNinja perform from a project management standpoint?

We agreed for Asif to use HireNinja if he acted as the main freelance developer. He does dynamic staffing to increase productivity. As a result, we consider him part of our team. Asif participates at our weekly standup meetings and we communicate daily via Slack.

His developers have performed well, applying extra effort to meet expectations. They execute everything we give them via Sprint Burndowns in a timely manner. However, it’s not clear how Asif has assigned work to individual developers. We’d like more visibility on who is doing specific tasks.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They want to make the client happy. I can count on Asif to be there any time of the day. Most freelancers do not bring that dedication.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have designs completed before initiating development on a frontend project. They work better that way.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Tecademics is a company that’s focused on training entrepreneurs and internet marketers. We’re focused on e-commerce and provide a number of training programs for our customers based on their interests in creating successful e-commerce ventures that range from how to set up a Shopify store on up to advanced advertising on Facebook and marketing. I’m the chief operating officer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with HireNinja?

We are trying to build an enterprise-level system to run our whole business. We did not have the ability to scale up a Laravel team quickly and cost-effectively on our own.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were involved with our enterprise software, which is developed in Laravel with a MongoDB. And the skillsets they had to have were advanced PHP with Laravel, and they had to have MongoDB knowledge. There were a lot of features. We needed pages where orders could be placed as well as reports for our accounting staff. It was a full scope. Everything was customized and designed around our business process. We have to track affiliate links and we have to be able to provide affiliate links to our affiliates which can then be tracked all the way through to a completed sale. HireNinja had to develop the technology to allow us to track our Facebook pixels and our affiliate links so that advertising campaigns that we’re running could be traced back to success. We had between six and eight resources from HireNinja working on the project. We have another four internal resources. They used Agile sprints to develop the product.

How did you come to work with HireNinja?

They came as a referral because our VP of engineering had worked with one or two of them in the past. When we connected with them, we found out that they had a very impressive vetting process for their people that went well beyond what most offshore teams have. We were impressed with that and with the skill levels that we were seeing. We’re developing on the leading edge, and it was not easy to find local people for anything under $125,000 a year who had the skillsets that we needed, and even those people were few and far between. We looked at two other firms and we also tried to hire internally. We went through three different processes to try and meet our needs and weren’t able to do that successfully.

How much have you invested with HireNinja?

We spend between $20,000 and $30,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2017, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I think it’s necessary with all offshore teams, including HireNinja even though their skill level was high, to have a very tight rein on what they were doing and to drive to task completion. We have fairly detailed project planning. If you’re not able to do that, then you’re operating at a disadvantage. Even a very skilled team that’s offshore needs careful management.

We would have daily sprints, and we would assign tasks out, and those would be checked the next morning. We had two people devoted just to code review of what the team of six people was turning out. There is a substantial delta between the people at the top of the skillset and the people at the bottom, and we found ways to work with that so that our most skilled offshore resources were working on the stuff that really required the most skill. For the most highly skilled resources, their work was exemplary and I’ve been in software development for 20 years. Their work was superior. For some of the other resources, the amount of bugs was what I expected.

How did HireNinja perform from a project management standpoint?

They were willing to bring a project manager onboard more, but we needed to have our VP of engineering and one other resource allocated full-time to managing the project and managing their team. The work was delivered on time and within budget. They are a little bit more expensive than what you can find if you go on your own, but the advantage of having people very well-vetted made that well worth our additional cost. We use JIRA for project management. We use Slack for team communications and they are very responsive.

What did you find most impressive about HireNinja?

The level of skill and the technical sophistication that we were able to garner.

Are there any areas HireNinja could improve?

They can improve on consistency. I think if we could’ve had more consistent top-level performance from our top of the staff down, that would’ve been great, but we weren’t able to find that with local hires either. It’s very hard to find really gifted programmers, and they’ve managed to find some of them.

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

You need to maintain tight controls over the tasking and project planning. On a daily basis, you need to ensure that tasks are getting completed and that the code is being written to the standards that you expect. Because there are variants in the skill level, it’s important to vet the specific team that you have supplied to you, and be willing to swap out people if they don’t appear to be making the grid.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is a web application or program for psychologists, connecting them to their clients. I'm a designer at the company, but I'm also one of the co-founders. There are three of us in the startup: the other co-founder (who’s a psychologist), a statistician, and myself.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with HireNinja?

Mohammad [Asif, Founder] and his team are developing the web app for us. He's been working on the API and the backend of the client and clinician-side web apps.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The API is set up in Laravel, and he's been really great with the architecture of our MySQL database, which the API is reading from. He's been doing a really great job of using all of the upper setups. He helped us with the architecture of the database and then has also been building the API that connects to it. From there, he's also been working with the frontend and doing some of the side work as well.

We have two Angular apps on the frontend, both running with a combination of gulp and npm. We have package managers and SaaS running on those for the CSS. His team has been able to help us manage everything: from the frontend requirements to the connections, from the frontend to the backend, then the backend requirements, and a connection with the backend to the database. It's been really great.

At any point in time, we have one full-time developer working with us. We've been scoping out our project on a fairly slow lifecycle. We're not trying to do everything at once. Part of the reason for that is because we're doing this on our own funding instead of VC funding. We've been keeping it to having consistent work of around 30–40 hours a week for the developer for the last year.

How did you come to work with HireNinja?

I used to have a web agency of my own, and I had worked with a developer who knew of him in the past. We got connected and ended up working together. So when I started this project, it was a good chance to really get them involved in it.

How much have you invested with HireNinja?

We're in a retainer with him, but we've invested $60,000–$100,000 on development.

What is the status of this engagement?

March 2016 sounds like a reasonable ballpark for when they started; it's been about a year and a half from now that we started the build process. We've been really happy with the results and success of it so far, so we’re definitely planning on continuing with him for at least a year more.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They haven't been doing anything related to marketing, so we don't have any metrics on that aspect. But in terms of the quality of the work, from a development standpoint, it's been really good. We had a time when we had a new developer come on, and he didn't have quite the same standards as the previous one; that was quickly resolved. The new developer was just not using the correct packaging tools: the new developer was coding CSS instead of coding SaaS, coding direct database calls instead of Eloquent calls, or coding insecure inputs instead of secure inputs. These were fairly simple aspects but with very complex and large implications on a larger system, especially when you need to have a system that's secure and dealing with secure information. HireNinja has been really great with making sure that that aspect of the project has been cut and dealt with. The code has been really solid, and everything has been done in a way that’s built for scalability in the future.

How did HireNinja perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed really well. They're adaptable in terms of the way that we've been working. We have an internal Slack channel that they're heavily involved with. Even though their team tends to use JIRA, they’ve transitioned to Asana just to accommodate us because that's what we've been using. They were really accommodating and willing to make the change. It's been a really solid process and workflow. Also, they're very active with not just filling out the resultants request but also having a voice in the equation of things. Instead of just being a developer that says, "Here is my A to B that you need," they'll add that extra little bit and go all the way to make sure it works the way that it needs to.

What did you find most impressive about HireNinja?

I think the biggest aspect would be the willingness to take the time outside of the normal nine-to-five that we've set as our work hours, especially Mohammad himself, who's running HireNinja and is behind everything. He's always had that personal line open to me. We've had a couple of situations where I've made mistakes. For example, the SSL certificate ended up expiring, and it shut down the entire site and everything. I was on vacation and he helped, on his family time, to resolve that issue. That just speaks to the commitment on their side.

Are there any areas HireNinja could improve?

Not a lot comes to mind. My own critique is against myself: if I don't have something that's clearly defined enough in terms of a scope of an aspect of the project, then sometimes it won't be immediately flagged as something that I need to fix. They'll continue to try to build it anyway, even if they know they're missing information. On that front, sometimes that extra attention to it doesn’t actually fit in the way it needs to into the system. I can't necessarily fault them for it. It's an aspect that if I haven't developed something fully, then I can't fault them for not developing it the right way.

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

They're a great team to work with, and they're very adaptable. If anything, have a real conversation with them about the best way to approach your project instead of just saying, "This is how I want to do it." Have it be an actual conversation, because they have a lot of great feedback, criticism, and suggestions on the process of a project.