littlecode

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a software company.

What challenge were you trying to address with lilcodelab?

We needed to develop our SaaS platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They provide us with C# developers. The platform enables communication between energy market participants and transmission system operators. They use our existing platform, which was developed using C# and .NET.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with 2–3 backend developers. 

How did you come to work with lilcodelab?

They contacted us, and we chose them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around two years ago. The partnership is ongoing.

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

We are happy with the developers' experience and their ability to understand the specifications and our business.

How did lilcodelab perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was as expected. We use YouTrack for project management. They work remotely, and we mostly use Zoom or an equivalent video conferencing platform for meetings.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are serious, flexible, and highly skilled.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, though I’m not privy to their day-to-day activities. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I don’t work with them daily, so I don’t know.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the lead developer at BeerMenus, an online platform that connects craft beer lovers with craft beer vendors.

What challenge were you trying to address with lilcodelab?

We already built our iPhone app and most of the mobile web portion using Turbolinks, a system that helps build hybrid apps across multiple platforms. We wanted to build an Android app as well, but had no in-house Android experience.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Lilcodelab developed feature parity across both platforms and built the Android app from scratch using Turbolinks, Java, and JavaScript. They oversaw setting the priority of features, implementing features, and relaying design decisions.

Their team gave us advice on how certain UX would work better on Android or how certain functions would feel more native. We gave them feedback on the nuances of the different features and they made the necessary changes.

They also built a custom push notification interaction to show detailed information about certain beers and their availability—a new feature exclusive to Android.

Lilcodelab also succinctly integrated a location-based service which lets users know how their location tracking is being used. Then, they helped us launch the app to the Google Play Store and took care of any bugs.

They currently work on any new features we come up with and migrate them to the Android app.

What is the team composition?

We work with two of their Android developers.

How did you come to work with lilcodelab?

A co-worker referred them to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $10,000 and $49,999 USD on the engagement thus far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in May 2014 and the engagement is ongoing.

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

Users continue to praise the app and say it feels very intuitive. They say that the app’s UX flows and using the app doesn’t feel awkward—more adherent to Android configurations. Our customers love the push notification feature and lilcodelab’s design choices are highlighted through the app’s usability.

How did lilcodelab perform from a project management standpoint?

When we were working with them daily, they conducted weekly check-ins with us to scope the priorities for the week. They communicated very clearly if the work was going to be too much or too little. They made sure to be upfront about pushing back deadlines if other work was going to take longer and gave honest estimates.

At the time, we used Basecamp to manage the projects, Skype video calls for meetings, and chatting on Slack for small bugs that arose. We currently use the same communication methods for new projects. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Lilcodelab's team really feel like they care about the product which was a huge welcome. They want to create the best product possible which was very refreshing to see from outsourced work. We go back and forth to find out what’s going to be optimal or what's best for the users. They are insightful and give us valuable feedback from an Android perspective.

They are always a pleasure to work with and I meet with them in person. They were very friendly— we bonded over beer and technology.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We oversaw the entire communication process in the beginning, which made us fumble a little bit to figure out the right way to communicate with them.

If they could provide the best communication method for them from the start, it would help start projects faster.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Ask them what they think of everything as they are reserved until you ask. They have a ton of great opinions on things in terms of product, UX, and code style. Make sure that it's more of a dialogue, this is where their value lies.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Sarahah has been a top Apple Store app in the U.S. for 2 consecutive months. We’ve also topped the App Store in more than 30 countries. I am the founder of the app.

What challenge were you trying to address with lilcodelab?

We needed a partner experienced in ASP.NET, Microsoft Azure, and SQL databases, for the web portion of our product.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We didn’t actually contract lilcodelab directly, but rather their founder, Nikola Peric. We worked through Toptal [Top Talent contracting website].

We needed help with the usual database tasks, but not to a great extent. We also needed to add caching, in order to reduce the load on the existing database, and basically make our site scalable. Nikola handled these tasks, which involved building multiple ASP.NET features. He also added a number of features to our existing API.

What is the team dynamic?

The communication was done between me and Nikola directly, as well as between him and our CTO.

How did you come to work with lilcodelab?

We went on Toptal.com, looking for candidates which would be a good fit for our product. We were shown other developers as well, but based on our phone call with Nikola, we became excited about a collaboration. His communication skills were good, and he seemed to be quite able in his field. We also reviewed his CV, previous work, and Twitter account.

How much have you invested with them?

He worked full-time based on an hourly contract, over the course of a month. I cannot provide a figure.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with lilcodelab in August 2017. We hired Nikola again a few days ago, also through Toptal. We’ve given him some more challenging tasks since we believe in him and appreciated his past performance. We didn’t even look at other candidates.

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

My CTO and I felt satisfied with Nikola’s work. What I like about him is that he gives his full attention to tasks and is a good communicator, humble, and respectful. He has worked on weekends and was always there to support us. He has extremely good technical skills.

I am a programmer myself, but I’ve left all tasks related to the product to Nikola. He handles anything web-related or around the user interface [UI].

How did lilcodelab perform from a project management standpoint?

I don’t believe there was a management part in our agreement, but Nikola adapted fast to our workflow and handled any tasks posted on Trello, communicating directly from there and labeling them appropriately after completion.

I am currently dealing with the head of the Microsoft SQL Server and the head of Microsoft Azure, but I have also deferred the communication with these engineers to Nikola himself.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I didn’t give him full access to our resources until our contract with Toptal was verified. Nikola mentioned that it was hard to make modifications without having full access, but he also was trustworthy enough to tell me when I forgot to remove the keys from the code. This is something I’ve valued a lot, as well as the respect he’s shown in communication.

Are there any areas they could improve?

He might need to give more attention to code documentation. Other than this, I don’t have any comments. We’ve hired him again.

Please describe your company and your position there.

CTO of ETRM/SaaS company

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

Contigo's workload is incredibly variable as in addition to developing the core products, we do a lot of bespoke implementation work for customers. Hiring Lilcodelab has allowed us to flex our capacity for development work up to meet the need during periods of high demand.

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

Lilcodelab were recommended by another company in the same group.

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

Lilcodelab were given full responsibility for a module within the wider project. Specs were provided by Contigo's BA team which Lilcodelab delivered against. Technologies involved were primarily c#/.net and SQL.

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

Two developers.

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

The personnel provided by Lilcodelab have worked to an excellent standard and integrated well within the Contigo team.

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

Lilcodelab have been happy to integrated with Contigo's own internal project management structure and participated with our standups.

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

Lilcodelab has always been professional and enthusiastic about delivering for the project.

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

I have no suggestions for change, it has been good working with Lilcodelab and we intend to continue the relationship into the future.