ITCraftship

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My name is Aga Osytek, I am a Project Manager at SEXED.PL Foundation. I am responsible for IT projects, IT tools and for social impact data.

SEXED.PL is a platform that provides young people, parents and adults with comprehensive, age-appropriate, agenda free education on human rights, gender equality, relationships, reproduction, consent. 

We inform about risks connected to sexual behaviors, but also 
present sexuality with a positive approach, emphasizing values 
such as respect, inclusion, non-discrimination, equality, 
empathy and responsibility. 

The SEXED.PL Foundation was founded in 2018 by Anja Rubik. She created the project with a view to exposing her community 
to a healthier understanding of modern sexuality.
 
By 2021 SEXED.PL was recognized by the most influential global institutions such as the UN and UNFPA. SEXED.PL has shared 
experiences and know-how at international events around the world.

What challenge were you trying to address with ITCraftship?

We wanted to change our website into an interactive and functional platform. We wanted this platform to become a space for our users where they can find everyday educational content served in a very interesting and easy-taking way. 

Additionally, after rebranding SEXED.PL, we wanted this site to sync with our visuals and reflect our vivid look. The visual aspect is what helps us reach the right audience on social media.

What was the scope of their involvement?

ITCraftship developed our new website based on our ideas and design mockups. They looked at our previous website and helped us in making a list of new sections and functionalities. We worked step by step to prepare the graphics for each page, and ITCraftship was in charge of the development.

They built our platform on Heroku, and they did research and advised us on implementing IT tools for the functionalities that we wanted, such as tawk.to for chatting with our users and Prismic CMS for the articles and other content daily updates. We have PayPal and PayU integrations for donations as well.

What is the team composition?

Maksymilian (CEO) made the initial analysis and prepared the implementation plan. He introduced us to two developers, one of which handles the site’s management. We also work with an SEO specialist who, among other things, implemented Google Tag Manager.

How did you come to work with ITCraftship?

We shared the same WeWork space in Warsaw. When we lost contact with the agency that built our first website, ITCraftship gave us some friendly advice. Then, we started talking about a regular collaboration.

How much have you invested with them?

For building the new platform with all integrations needed and for ongoing updates, we invested about $6,000 USD. ITCrartship gave us a special discount as they support the mission of our Foundation.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first met ITCraftship in November 2019, and we started working together three months later. They started implementing improvements on our previous website. In June–August 2020, they developed our new website and the collaboration is ongoing.

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

Since the implementation of the live-chat tool in January 2020, our experts (psychologists, sexologist, and medical specialists) have answered nearly 9,000 questions from our users. This implementation has had the most important impact.

How did ITCraftship perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re very happy with how their CEO has managed the project. We’ve had some misunderstandings, but Maksymilian always offers quick solutions.

We were using Zenkit, but we got back to using email after our organization grew. We find it to be more effective in our case. We also have Zoom calls when we need to have deeper discussions.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Compared to our previous provider, ITCraftship is very communicative. They understand how to communicate with a partner who doesn’t have a CTO on their team, and they can explain IT projects to people who don’t know the IT language.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been situations where ITCraftship could have done more, especially about SEO. It would be good for them to remember that they know more than us in this area. Additionally, we could get more consultation on solutions and tools that we could use, not just to make the platform more beautiful, but also to get valuable information for analyses.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Plan the mockups and graphics before starting the implementation. We didn’t plan with enough time ahead of this.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the global people organization and acquisition lead for the amusement business unit of a travel company. My division delivers a digital platform that offers tickets for travel activities and experiences.

What challenge were you trying to address with ITCraftship?

They’ve helped us recruit developers. Working on a digital platform, we needed people to implement features as necessary. We wanted someone who could truly assess the technical skills of a candidate.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They worked with our hiring manager to understand the requirements of the positions we were trying to fill.  They would advertise the positions on several platforms, including their own database. Their team would also actively search out ideal candidates. They utilized custom tools they had built internally to aid in the process.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three people on our team, with one of them serving as the project manager.

How did you come to work with ITCraftship?

We found them through Google searches. We felt they would be the best fit for us due to their ability to assess candidates’ technical capabilities.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve worked together since October 2020. We put the project on hold in December 2020 because we’re merging with another company, but we plan to ramp it back up in the near future.

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

They helped us onboard two people in two months. These people are now effective members of our team. Their manager has spoken highly of them. We see this as a direct reflection of ITCraftship’s strong recruiting capabilities.

How did ITCraftship perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. I loved their flexibility. They consistently shifted priorities and adapted processes according to our requests. We communicated via Google Chat, Microsoft Teams, and Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They communicate quickly, clearly, and comprehensively.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They weren’t always understanding of the challenges we faced due to our company’s reorganization.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be transparent about your process and clear about your expectations. You can be confident in their skills.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of MOSEA Technologies Ltd. We facilitate payments. If someone is hosting a party, a fundraiser, an event, or need to split a bill, really anything that involves group collection to a single account, we facilitate that on our platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with ITCraftship?

We needed to fill a senior software engineering role for a competitive price. We reached out to them to find the right candidate.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Max (CEO) came in, looked at our codebase, wrote strict notes, and came up with an entire report that was more in-depth than any other company. Right away, they found four solid candidates for reasonable prices. Throughout the whole thing, I’ve been impressed by how professional the process was and how exceptional the candidates were.

They worked with our existing code base to improve the UI/UX, add new features, fix bugs, and create the next iterations for our end users. An iOS platform, one of the features they built for us helps users decide how to collect the money. For example, they can collect $10 per person, and set a ticket price,  or if they need to raise $1,000, that could be split evenly between everyone who joins.

The tech stack is pretty modern — we’re using Amplify and GraphQL. The software developer that ITCraftship found for us was incredibly experienced in these already, even though the newest versions have only been out for a few months.

What is the team composition?

I worked primarily with Max,  Maciej (COO & Tech Recruiter) and Jakub (software developer) was our point for administrative stuff.

How did you come to work with ITCraftship?

I saw the CEO of ITCraftship speak on a webinar panel and reached out to them. In total, I reviewed 15–20 different agencies who reached out to me on LinkedIn or because I contacted them. Max seemed to know more than anyone I met personally. He knew exactly what we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $11,000 CAD (approximately $8,100 USD)  

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2020 and we hired a candidate in May. We still work with them.

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

So far, everything they’ve produced has been functional and has worked very well. We don’t have any real metrics, though, because our platform is based around hosting events and gatherings, we’ve had to shut down during COVID-19.

How did ITCraftship perform from a project management standpoint?

The developer we hired is based in Poland, so there are 4–6 hours per day that we need to be able to reach him. He has been very responsive, has joined all of our stand-up meeting, provides feedback, and mentions different ideas he has. Overall, it has been a really harmonious relationship.

We use GitHub, PivotalTracker, and Zepplin. Then we have an excel sheet with a Gantt chart and a waterfall framework,

What did you find most impressive about them?

I admired their process. They went through about 30 different questions and probably spent 15 hours reviewing each candidate to make sure they were the perfect fit. They read our entire codebase and made custom problem sets based on our code. He conducted three personal interviews for each candidate they presented us. They made sure we had the absolute best partner we could find.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There has to be, but there’s nothing worth mentioning.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be afraid to share all the information with them. The more code you’re able to share with them, the better the candidate they’ll be able to find.

Please describe your company and your position there.

As the founder on the project, my role is to enable and defend. To identify the problems, lead conversations on strategy and source people who can help us solve the unique challenges that we are solving in both a macro and micro capacity.

For what projects/services did your company hire ITCraftship?

Software, and IT components are a key piece of the delivery vehicle for our staffing solution. In our case, the business goals, and technical goals were both demanding. I needed to find people who could move fluidly between those two spheres of the business. I was also working directly with customers on the application as well - from day one, so I needed all members of the team to be comfortable with the customer led product development.

What were your goals for this project?

My goal for the project has been and continues to be to create better work opportunities and experiences for medical professionals and hospitals.

How did you select this vendor?

In my search to find individuals that would be a good ongoing fit for the team, I came across Maks and Maciek, who were both owners at IT Craftship. They expressed interest in the project, and we started working together on it in a limited capacity. We've expanded the relationship as we've hit goals and milestones together.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

IT Craftship has been critical throughout the duration of the project in providing development services, stable software environments, technical and strategic oversight, as well as QA, and CI deliverables.

What was the team composition?

The team started with 2 members, but has grown over time due to consistency in performance and delivery. The team now consists of an average of 10 people, and includes full stack developers, QA, CI/CD, SCRUM Management, and Project Management roles

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Sourcing talent is hard. Delivering in a start up is hard. Sourcing talent to fill a variety of shifting roles AND having those people consistently deliver is very hard. IT Craftship continues to deliver people and product that surpass anything we have seen stateside.

Each team member is mission driven, centrally focused and trained in a variety of skills, and disciplines. They are careful in their recommendations, and support their product suggestions, and their hiring recommendations with data. Every time. Their impact on the project has been immeasurable to date.

You simply won't find a more cost conscious, qualified and intelligent software development team anywhere else. They are dedicated to their craft, and I am reminded of that dedication and brilliance everyday as I'm using the products they have helped deliver.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management on our project has been very impressive, especially compared to the quality of the output I have seen historically across a variety of different teams and individuals. Team members responsible for timelines, deliverables, and communication of such have been remarkable assets to our project and need very little oversight. Show them where you want to go on the horizon, or what your goals are, and they deliver within the scope and timeline.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I have never met a team of people with the consistency of output that IT Craftship has. As they have helped us find additional team members, their hiring has been spot on every time - without fail. When those team members are given deliverables, there is clear communication with the intent to reach a point of mutual understanding, and then they deliver day in and day out.

They are delightful to work with, sharp as a tack, and consistently seek to raise our vision of what is possible with a development partner. They are the first team that has ever sought to come to us physically in an effort to better understand their role, and how we could continue to work together. Working with them continues to be a gift.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Very little improvement needed. Small items come up now and again, but improvement is a consistent part of the delivery with IT Craftship - Each team member receives ample investment in time and energy from the companies leadership team - They are in this to make your project better, period.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Head of Engineering at the company building a suite of easy-to-use security products for the connected world. We are the team behind CFEngine and Mender based in Oslo and San Francisco, with remote team members all around the world.

For what projects/services did your company hire ITCraftship?

At Northern.tech we built a different workplace compared to most traditional hierarchical organizations. With a strong focus on self-organization and autonomy, the goal of minimizing the number of rules and regulations and desire to automate as much as possible our recruitment process is considered to be challenging.

On top of a strong technical focus, it has an extensive cultural alignment track making it even harder. We engaged with ITCraftship to help us securing backend development lead role in Europe.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to secure the backend developer role either in Oslo or remotely in Europe within a three to six months timeframe.

How did you select this vendor?

Our team worked with several recruitment agencies both in Norway and in Europe without satisfying results. We tried to extend the number of recruiters we worked with to increase our chance of success and engaged with ITCraftship. We fouds them through the job board as their job adverts stood out from the rest as very modern and high-quality ones.

Describe the project in detail.

During the initial call, we discussed our needs and process/experience so far and we started with creating a matrix of both hard and soft skills required for the role. After a fairly short initial calibration phase, most of the recruitment process was run by ITCraftship (including most of the technical and cultural parts) offloading us almost completely.

On our end, we run only the last two parts of the process which were video-conference meet-and-greet call and then final on-site interview in our office in Oslo. They provided a lot of modern tools and integration with the tools we've been already using making communication and providing the candidate's status very easy to follow.

What was the team composition?

Throughout the whole process, depending on the stage, we had two/three cont persons available on top of two persons assigned on our side.

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

Within a little bit more than three months we managed to secure the role we've been looking for.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The cooperation was really smooth and swift. By using modern tools we always knew what was the status of the candidates, what the next steps were and what was expected from our side. At the same time by integrating with the tools we've been using already it was extremely easy to follow the whole process.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The whole process was maintained excellently, with the level of automation and transparency we have never seen before, fully supporting the way we try and like to do things. On top of that, they managed to offload most of the technical and cultural alignment parts (including reviews of the home assignments we sent to candidates) letting us focus our day-to-day business.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything was perfect, and our best experience with the recruitment company so far!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Auka AS, a financial technology company that offers a mobile payment platform.

What challenge were you trying to address with ITCraftship?

We were opening a location in Bucharest and needed support with the staffing process for our new office.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Once we provided the job description, ITCraftship sourced and screened candidates for our open development roles. The team developed and administered comprehensive competency tests.

What is the team composition?

We had two points of contact who supported us throughout the project. 

How did you come to work with ITCraftship?

ITCraftship was referred to us by a colleague.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $10,000 on this engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from February-August 2019.

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

The job candidates that ITCraftship were able to procure were highly skilled, and the competence testing they provided was very thorough. ITCraftship’s efforts greatly reduced the amount of time we would’ve had to spend on recruitment internally.

How did ITCraftship perform from a project management standpoint?

The team at ITCraftship were very diligent in terms of keeping us updated on their progress throughout the project. We communicated with them through Slack and held meetings as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

ITCraftship’s skill in screening candidates is unique to any other recruitment agency I’ve ever used. The team was dedicated to understanding our own business in order to judge candidates with that much more accuracy.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I can think of.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I recommend working with ITCraftship, as they really ease the process of recruitment. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Tomasz Styk and I am COO at Sundose. Our goal is to help everyone to achieve better health and well-being by creating the most efficient, science-backed personalised supplement.

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

We hired ITCraftship to help us develop the Sundose mobile app and to integrate it with our back-end. We also take some help in other areas like front-end and back-end development.

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

Max, the itCraftship CEO, was one of the first Sundose clients. We meet accidentally and it turned out that he’s heading the Recruitment and Dev Agency. We’ve been really lucky to meet him, so he knew our product very well and also had lots of technical experience we needed. And so we started the cooperation.

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

Everyone is unique, and so is Sundose. Based on the detailed health survey, diagnostic tests, and other sources of health data, we craft an individual formulation for every single client. Mobile apps are the natural and most convenient way to interact with. That’s why we decided to develop the Sundose app. The app allows user to edit their formula, buy another one, mange their account and other.

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

We usually work with 2-3 Flutter Developers. That team cooperates directly with our internal back-end and front-end team.

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

In only 3 months we delivered the most critical functionalities on iOS and Android platforms. Now few thousand clients use Sundose, and we didn’t receive any stability issue feedback.

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

Working with Agency is usually a bit different experience than working with the internal team. But in this case, we have the same developers aligned to the project from the beginning, so we feel like one team.

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

I think they’re taking care of every client with a very personal approach. We were always given help and advice during tough situations. Also, I must admit that itCraftship developers give a very high engagement to the project. They always strive to find the most effective way to achieve the goal. They help us to make better even strategic decisions in terms of technology, so we develop our platforms with confidence, always keeping in mind the scalability.

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

Noting comes to my mind. I strongly recommend them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Sum builds a consumer app combining social media and contact management. We are in an early startup phase but with global market. I am founder and CEO and responsible for our recruitments.

For what projects/services did your company hire ITCraftship?

For recruit developers to our app teams.

What were your goals for this engagement?

We needed help to quickly recruit our first developers to get started on building our product and had both high requirements on seniority, cultural fit and inner motivation as the team was just being formed.

How did you select ITCraftship?

We chose to work with ITCraftship as they have a very quick turnaround on recruitment process as well as a very diligent vetting process and a good understanding of how to approach developers.

Describe the engagement in detail.

Through a series of interviews ITCraftship sought to understand our need, our product and our culture and created a job description, sourced applicants and presented the best candidates for interviews.

What was the team composition?

Maks was our main contact but several others helpt during the process.

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

We successfully hired our first iOS developer with the help of ITCraftship, who has been a star recruitment, both in terms of skillset but also a great culture fit.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Maks and ITCraftship was a great help and boost in getting from recruitment thought/need to having a developer on board.

What did you find most impressive about this vendor?

The understanding of developers. Both from a developers point of view, what is a good employer, and also from an employer point of view taking into account both skillset, cultural fit and ability to work remotely.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I can think of as of now. I would not hesitate to work with ITCraftship again.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a very small software company, and I'm one of the co-founders. We are both technical co-founders who have a ton of experience doing professional software development.

For what projects/services did your company hire ITCraftship?

We hired ITCraftship to help us build more features/functionality for our customers more quickly.

What were your goals for this project?

We had a particular set of work items in our backlog that were top customer requests. We knew we wouldn't be able to get to them on our own as quickly as our customers were wanting them.

How did you select this vendor?

Maks and ITCraftship were highly recommended by an acquaintance who also builds software.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We had two part-time engineers build some additional ReactJS/Redux functionality in our existing codebase. We needed full-stack developers for this project.

What was the team composition?

The project consisted of myself and my business partner (we both had a day job and had been working on Senior Place in the evenings and weekends only at that point). We are based on the west coast in the US, but the software developers from ITCraftship had flexible schedules to talk with us earlier in the morning or later in the evening (since we were already working late at night). We provided the project planning/details, and they built some features for us.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

The team of engineers built some features that our customers had been asking for. We were able to ship the code and move on to build other features ourselves.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We did most of the project management ourselves, although Maks from ITCraftship helped coordinate with their developers given the time difference.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Maks knows his stuff technically speaking, and they were extremely focused on our satisfaction as their customer.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We were overly budget conscious and ended up trying to hire some of their less experienced engineers on a project that was a bit too complex for their skill level. That was more our fault that theirs, and Maks worked with our budget to help us get more skilled engineers at a reasonable price.

Please describe your company and your position there.

edChild is an EdTech company working for the UN Global Goal 4.2: "Equal access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education". After running preschools for almost 10 years, we decided to develop a digital tool that puts the preschool educator's practical work into focus. The tool, Fokus Förskola, is a collaboration between preschool teachers from Hoppetossa and edChild, and it is edChild's first tool. I am the CEO, and one of the founders, of edChild.

For what projects/services did your company hire ITCraftship?

Mobile App Development is a broad and challenging area, especially for a startup. We have gotten great support and coaching within various areas such as product management, UX/UI, how to build a happy and efficient product / tech team and efficient testing for a tech start-up.

What were your goals for this project?

Sometimes you find support and knowledge at the exact time that you need it, and that is very much the case here. Our goals and expectations were met and more!

How did you select this vendor?

I selected this vendor through the incubator that our start-up is a part of.

Describe the project in detail.

The project started with arrangements over e-mail, then we met on a weekly basis via Zoom. Everything went smooth and accordingly to plan.

What was the team composition?

I mainly worked directly with the CEO of the vendor, a very smooth and generous approach.

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

During the project we landed all strategic decision when it comes to our app development. We got help within getting our app on the market in a cost efficient yet qualitative way. We are more than happy!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Overall, I was impressed by the timeline. Quick, easy and knowledgeable feedback and discussions.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was blown away by the knowledge this vendor has on app mobile development, start-up development and overall tech development. They make any difficult task look easy!

Are there any areas for improvement?

Nothing that I could think of, I am very happy!