LambdaWorks

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am one of the co-founders of the el3ment app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

LambdaWorks has helped develop our entire vision so far.

SOLUTION

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

I was very new to the tech space when we came up with el3ment. We were deciding between three different companies at the time and what I appreciated most about LW was how thorough they were in their proposal to us. They really broke down everything into simple terms so that I could understand each part of the project, the sprints, and their proposed plan of attach for tech stack etc.

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

We have worked on everything together from the beginning exploration call to now being in beta. LW is so easy to collaborate with and enjoyable to work with. We really feel they are on our team :)

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

We work with one project manger, couldn't do it without him he truly is our glue. We started with 2 FE and 2 BE but has evolved with the project. LW is good at distributing resources and focusing on what we really need while being flexible to work with us to find the best fit.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

App has 5 star ratings on app store to date. Our users love the design and usability so far.

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

We use slack throughout the day and have a weekly meeting put in place as we are in a growth stage of our company. Our team at LW is super accommodating to host a weekly with us so we can stay extra aligned.

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

They are highly collaborative, and that's what we enjoy the most. They are great problem solvers and work quickly. I also appreciate them understanding our business model so that they can help us think through how to reach our goals most efficiently. They also provide suggestions to help us get better.

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

We changed our communication cadence and how we were tracking things from switching away from a google tracker into trello and have gotten into a really good routine there. This of course just required all of us to work together for a few months to figure out what was best.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Get into Gear app, the self-help tool that helps people with depression function.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LambdaWorks?

We’d shared Get into Gear with people who had depression and many people wanting to make a change. After validating our idea we were looking to make an app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

LambaWorks has built the app for us. They’ve worked well with the designer that we hired, and we’ve designed each section on the go. We started with smaller parts of the app, and then we went into the more complex backend development.

To jumpstart the project, we gave them a detailed RFP.

What is the team composition?

We work with five people. We have two frontend developers, one backend developer, and a product manager. They’re all brilliant.

We wanted to manage the project ourselves, so we decided not to go with a project manager. However, the backend developer ended up being our point of contact.

How did you come to work with LambdaWorks?

We started the process by looking for an individual designer, software developers, and development companies. My business partner reached out to developers and sent them a sign-up sheet. I did the same with the people I knew. We shared our RFP with about 20 developers.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost is about €35,000 (approximately $41,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started to work with LambdaWorks in February 2021, and they’re now providing continuous maintenance.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Without them, we wouldn’t have a business. LambdaWorks has been instrumental in bringing our idea to life. They’ve done a great job with the turnaround time and custom features.

How did LambdaWorks perform from a project management standpoint?

I don’t have to worry about LambdaWorks. They have a great way of allotting their hours to manage the project. Everything has been really smooth, and they’re flexible and accommodating.

Communication is great in general. We have weekly meetings, and they always respond within minutes or less than an hour. If they’re not going to meet a deadline, they communicate it, and it’s often because we asked for more work.

Additionally, they are responsive when we find bugs.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We spoke to many developers, but what initially struck us about LambdaWorks was the people. They ask great questions, challenge things, and let us know when we ask to do something unfeasible or out of our budget.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You don’t have to do anything; LambdaWorks sets up everything for you. They’re quite proactive, and they let you know how everything works and what’s the process like.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Lifelogs, a digital product that is an autobiographical guide of one’s life.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LambdaWorks?

We were looking for a software development partner.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The goal was to build an MVP to show our users a glimpse of our vision and capabilities. They built the iOS and Android app. They worked on the front- and backend using React Native. The app has multimedia, storage, and security.

What is the team composition?

We had a dedicated project manager and collaboration with additional members from their team as needed.

How did you come to work with LambdaWorks?

We found them through social media. We went through our hiring process and they seemed to be the best fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together beginning in September 2020. We’re still working together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their sense of ownership and accountability made the project a success. We’re still working on the project, but I’m very satisfied with their initial work. They had excellent attention to detail.

How did LambdaWorks perform from a project management standpoint?

Their communication and responsiveness were great. The project manager was incredibly involved, hosting daily standups, detailed breakdowns of the progress, and weekly overall updates.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They present themselves excellently. They show ownership of their work and consistently go above and beyond.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I hope to meet them in person someday, but we haven’t been able to because of COVID. They’re a great team.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them your full vision and prioritize product discovery, they will guide you and consult you from there.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We design and develop WordPress themes and we wanted to build an additional service for our customers, a system that can speed up and ease the process of creating WordPress sites and using our WordPress themes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

After careful planning and thorough cost calculation, we decided to partner with a super cool team (that is located in our hometown) 一 LambdaWorks. Our team worked on the design and front-end development of the system, while the LambdaWorks team took care of the AWS architecture and end-user application.

SOLUTION

How did you select LambdaWorks and what were the deciding factors?

Past projects, team skills, and team location.

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

Hosting WP websites on our system is based on Kubernetes, an open-source container orchestration system.

What is particularly interesting about our system is that each website represents an isolated set of containers. Those containers consist of WordPress, Nginx, Redis, and MariaDB. Isolation of the websites is done through the Kubernetes namespace, which means that each website’s data is private and protected at all times.

AWS is used as a cloud platform, which proved to be more effective and efficient than both Google Cloud and DigitalOcean during the initial testing.

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

We work with four to six people on their team, which includes software developers, a project manager, business analysts, and consultants.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

LambdaWorks successfully launched our product with minimal bugs under a tight timeline and within budget. They continue to respond to any issues with a sense of urgency.

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

The project manager we work with is great about holding ongoing meetings. We had weekly meetings throughout the process to keep everything on track. They immediately got us set up on Slack and Github. They’re super organized.

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

LambdaWorks operates with a high level of efficiency, transparency, and responsiveness. They launched the final product with minimal bugs and continue to respond to issues and make updates quickly.

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

I can’t think of anything they could’ve done differently.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Rizk Media builds consumer-focused utility applications, such as a CRM tool, an information aggregator via email such as Birdseye, etc. I am the founder/CEO and LambdaWorks was contracted to develop the Birdseye web application.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire LambdaWorks?

We hired LambdaWorks for end to end development of the Birdseye web application. This included frontend and backend development.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to build a newsletter aggregator powered by Twitter. The specifications were mocked up in Figma, a prototyping tool, as well as product functionality requirements. Specifications required responsive design and intelligent tracking of newsletter performance.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We had worked together on a project called SuperPhone. I then approached them about building the MVP of Birdseye. After delivering rudimentary materials including design specs in Figma and product functionality requirements, the team planned a 2 week sprint for the development of Birdseye. There were some adjustments after the sprint. In total, we paid $10K for the development of Birdseye.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They helped with planning in addition to development. We provided initial guidelines including wireframes and high fidelity mockups, and then had a couple of planning sessions to communicate specific functional requirements. LambdaWorks was responsible for the full stack development of the web application, in addition to setting up analytics around usage.

What was the team composition?

We worked with a team of 2-3 people at LambdaWorks, a couple of engineers and a product manager. They were very responsive and clear in their communication during the development process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I was impressed with the granular breakdown of task to time completion. We were able to go to market a month earlier because of LambdaWorks steadfast commitment to the project.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was handled by a senior dev at LambdaWorks. We had daily standups and then a couple of calls regarding iteration. All in all we always felt in touch during the development process.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Direct access to project manager for discussing progress and communicate feedback was the biggest differentiator working with LambdaWorks. Additionally, they set up expectations clearly, communicating a date and delivering on it.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Maintain the strong culture around communication as you scale up!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Novak Djokovic Foundation focuses on improving the settings and conditions of early childhood education and development for preschool aged children from socially disadvantaged municipalities throughout the Republic of Serbia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire LambdaWorks?

We had a lot of issues and challenges in gathering and obtaining the statistical data showcasing all of the primary indicators for the current state of children's well-being in different regions of our country.

In order to pinpoint locations where the needs of children have reached an alarming level, we needed to gain access to different data sources, and organize them in one place.

What were your goals for this project?

Our main goal was to cross-reference all of the data sources within our country (and the differing results they were showing), so that we could calculate and measure exact indicators, and create an overview of the state of well-being of children on a national and regional level.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

LambdaWorks were first consulted on a recommendation from one of our closest associates, as they had great experience in working with them. We were considering a couple of other companies, which we had the experience of working before, but felt that the team at LambdaWorks understood best what our need was, and how to create a product which would suit us.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Our team provided them with some of the data sources we were using up to now, and directed them towards additional sources which could be useful. Afterwards, their team created the platform based on our input on what we required both from the data side and the functionality of the future product.

What was the team composition?

Their team consisted of three people: one member who was negotiating and communicating with us, and two other members who did the technical part of the job.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are very satisfied with how the product can be used right now, as we have access to data which was very hard to find and cross reference before. We've been using it for strategic planning of project locations for 2020, and the research we do before establishing projects within various municipalities.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project management side was very precise in communicating how they envisioned what the product could look like based on our input, which steps and deadlines they are setting, and which information they initially require in order to start their work. They were very respectful of all of the agreements we had, and successfully delivered the product on time.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were dedicated to making this product work, and they were very open to listening to our initial input, as well as the feedback we provided on each step. They catered to our specific needs, which is what we required from the start.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We wouldn't be able to focus specifically on what they could improve, as this wasn't as complicated a project, and was pretty straightforward in terms of the goals set and work required.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of a B2B SaaS startup.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with LambdaWorks?

At a startup, there are various stages of developing a product. We were looking for good senior-level engineers to build out those stages based on our business goals.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

LambdaWorks serves as our product team. They’ve built and are continuing to work on our evolving SaaS platform. It’s an enterprise-grade data solution that relies on AWS as a database as well as having messaging systems. 

What is the team composition? 

The team changes based on the task at hand. I have two main points of contact: Bojan (CTO, LambdaWorks) and Filip (Product & Business Development, LambdaWorks). When we’re building the product, we usually bring on two other resources.

This model allows us to pay for what we need and still get high-quality work without wasting resources. For example, we could switch in a Salesforce AppExchange developer only when working on our Salesforce app.

How did you come to work with LambdaWorks?

They were on our radar. I’d worked with product engineers in the area before, so I knew the landscape pretty well. After talking with Bojan, they were the clear choice. He was able to clearly lay out a lot of our requirements — not to mention, they’d already scaled another product in the US.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $60,000 to date, and it’s about to be another $40,000. They’re one of the best deals for the level of engineering that they provide.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in November 2018, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of work is so good because they’re brilliant engineers. I used to ask some of my high-level product connections to oversee LambdaWorks’ output, but I don’t need to anymore. Their team doesn’t take any shortcuts either, which has helped us avoid creating technical debt. 

How did LambdaWorks perform from a project management standpoint?

When we’re in our routine, they set the schedule and provide weekly updates in a concise way, which is nice. The team communicates over video conference meetings, and we’re all in the same Slack channel.

I’m now able to trust a lot of decisions that they make because I realized that I was inevitably saying yes to most things. That has allowed us to define levels of importance for certain requirements because they know what we’re doing and can bring their own level of creativity.

What did you find most impressive about them?

At the end of the day, it’s their quality that sticks out. They could charge a lot more if they were based in the US because their skills are that good, and they produce work relatively fast. I’ve worked with numerous levels of engineering, and their resources of some of the best I’ve ever seen.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Outside of the time difference, I don’t really have anything to add.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

LambdaWorks specializes in scaling quality early-stage products. That means that it’s important to really give them detailed requirements — not just on short-term goals, but also looking at where you see the product five years from now. Keeping that in mind will help them build in the right flexibility into your product, which saves time and costs.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

MANILO is a combination of high quality men's shirts of the brand Einhorn and the possibility to create your own individual shirt through various personalization options. I am Founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

To build the webshop (front-end and API to backend).

SOLUTION

How did you select LambdaWorks and what were the deciding factors?

I know a employee from LambdaWorks, with whom I worked together already before. I know about his huge quality.

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

Contact me for details

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

A project owner and a team of developpers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

There is now measurable outcome yet, however the Go-Live of the shop will be soon. For me the work of LambdaWorks is just great. I love the webshop frond-end design and technically-wise everything works just perfectly.

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

Contact me for details.

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

The agile spirit.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Everything's fine.