MentorMate

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the principal designer and design manager for a tech benefits broker. We help broker different benefits plans for various startups.

What challenge were you trying to address with MentorMate?

We hired MentorMate to help build a CMS and marketing site for us back in 2017. 

What was the scope of their involvement? 

MentorMate helped build out a WordPress CMS. We provided the general look and feel for the marketing site through Sketch files, putting them on InVision to do some prototyping. Their team was responsible for the staging site for the marketing site where we’d test out WordPress and the actual HTML responsiveness. They put together the raw design files from our prototype and developed some of the frontend.

In terms of the tools integrated, there was PathFactory, which helped clients understand what our company did and how we helped people. They also did our web forms through a Marketo integration.

What is the team composition? 

Our main point of contact was a project manager left in the middle of our project. We were reassigned another manager from there. Also, there were 3–4 developers working on the project — one might’ve been handling certain pages while another might’ve been doing the contact form. It felt more random than I would’ve liked.

How much have you invested with them?

It was about $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in early 2017 and ended the engagement in late 2018.

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

Both PathFactory and Marketo helped us communicate with our customers, but I don’t know the exact numbers off the top of my head.

As for the development, the feedback loop was basically going over the code or the look and feel on the browser as well as troubleshooting WordPress. I should note that a lot of our internal team had not used WordPress previously besides as a traditional blog. Using WordPress for an entire site was different — and it was difficult for some of our team members to wrap their heads around.

How did MentorMate perform from a project management standpoint?

I wasn’t as thrilled about their performance here because we had to switch project managers in the middle of the project. I’m used to working with 1–2 main points of contact, and when that person left, I remember having to work with the new project manager to get them up to speed. I had to remind them of everything that we’d done, which wasn’t a great experience for me. In the end, we still got the site up.

We primarily communicated through Trello, Jira, email, and Google Meet. They were pretty good at responding to emails. However, there were some things that I had to follow up on more than I liked. For example, they might say that they’d get a component done on Friday, but nothing would change on the staging site. I’d end up having to send a follow-up email that night, and then I’d usually get a pretty quick response after.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were a larger organization, so they were definitely staffed well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

My number one comment is keeping the project manager down on the project from end to end. I also think they could’ve stuck to the timelines a bit better.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be really clear and upfront about your goals and timeline. Maybe we didn’t do as good a job early on there, which might have led to a couple of bumps in the road. Setting up more calls might also be helpful in getting the project off the ground.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the miniatures manager for a tabletop miniatures game company.

What challenge were you trying to address with MentorMate?

We hired MentorMate to help us rebuild a platform that we use as a gameplay aid. That particular app allows players to pick and choose from the collection and create squadrons to play against their friends in a tabletop strategy game.

The app was originally developed by another company, but there were some significant issues with the UI/UX. It was difficult to navigate the menus and the features weren’t great. Although users could access the app through the web or through their mobile devices, there were significant problems with the mobile platform.

What was the scope of their involvement?

MentorMate overhauled the platform, making it more user-friendly and less prone to bugs.

We sat down with Jake (Senior Experience Designer) and discussed the project. We even played the tabletop game do he had a better understanding of how the game worked and how all of the gaming materials in the app relate to the tabletop experience. From that point, he worked with the rest of the team to redesign and develop the platform. Now the app can be accessed through an iOS or Android device or the web.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Jake and Suzanne (Senior Project Manager). Designers and developers in Europe. We had a point of contact in charge of different aspects of the project. One individual focused on graphics and visuals, while others worked on the database and backend, UX, and menus.

How did you come to work with MentorMate?

The previous company we worked with was solely located in Europe, which created some language barriers and time zone challenges. When we started looking for a new partner, we wanted a local company so we could go to their office and communicate freely with them. Although a lot of MentorMate’s team is located in Europe, their local points of contact were just across town. We looked at several different options nearby, but at the end of the day, MentorMate was the team we wanted to work with.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Development took about 11 months, lasting from December 2019–November 2020.  

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

Overall, I was pleased with the results. The quality of their work was good. It was really important that different aspects of the app looked or functioned a certain way for the game, so it would have been challenging to design it if you weren’t an expert in the game itself. MentorMate did a good job of asking questions in order to figure out the best solution.

How did MentorMate perform from a project management standpoint?

Generally, they were very professional. Suzanne maintained organization, kept everyone up to date, and coordinated everything. We worked in sprints, so we set weekly goals and they focused on immediate deliverables. Then, as they completed each task, we would move on to the next one.

They had some general systems in place to track each task. Because there were so many different aspects of this project, they had to be very detail-oriented. They did a very good job of keeping things on track and providing us with updates. They were transparent about the cost and often gave us several different solutions to choose from to keep the price low.

Overall, correspondence was on-point, but we did run into some snags due to communication and efficiency issues. However, the team was eager to help out and fix problems.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were eager to find solutions and were very flexible. We faced several challenges, and they were able to identify several different ways to resolve them. At one point, we had a massive spreadsheet with tons of data points that needed to function together, and they were able to handle it. Even in those situations, they were efficient and maintained their composure.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Of course, things fall apart every once in a while. There were some instances when they didn’t communicate how difficult it would be to achieve certain deliverables. A few times, we were surprised by hidden costs. Had they focused more on that during discovery, we could have avoided that. This was uncommon, though. Generally, I was very happy with their work.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a partner at a boutique consulting firm. We focus on the education industry, primarily in the K–12 public sector. We do HR consulting and work with educators on the teacher-principal-leader spectrum. 

What challenge were you trying to address with MentorMate?

We’re developing a mentoring platform called Torace. At the time, we’d completed an in-house proof of concept as well as a prototype and felt that we were ready to take things to the next step. We opted to go with MentorMate to develop a scalable, potentially widely distributed piece of software for us.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

MentorMate developed a mentorship management solution for educational institutions. Initially, we came to them with a prototype that we’d implemented in a few places, talking them through what we’d done and what we wanted to do. That included some code that we’d developed, screenshots of our rudimentary platform, and customer research.

MentorMate then guided us through their design phase. We went through journey mapping, developed user personas in much greater detail, and created wireframes. Once we transitioned into full-scale development, they built a cloud-based app in AWS and released the product. We also had them design and develop our marketing website, which was a Jamstack solution.

What is the team composition? 

At the peak of their involvement, there were around 15 people who rotated in depending on our needs. They assigned a business analyst, a project manager, two backend developers, a frontend developer, a full stack developer, three QA specialists, a designer, and a software team lead.

How did you come to work with MentorMate?

When we made the decision not to staff up internally, it was a natural step to start looking at companies that specialized in this kind of application development. 

There were a lot of US-based companies that did impressive work in this space, but we were drawn to MentorMate because of their unique value proposition. They followed an integrated offshore model where they had a team in Bulgaria that was part of their main group. The potential value there coupled with our due diligence on their references and past work led to our decision.

We didn’t jump into the engagement on the development side immediately. Instead, we worked with them from a design perspective to build confidence in their understanding of the solutions that we wanted to build and their ability to execute on them.

What is the status of this engagement?

After our initial conversations, we made it up to Minneapolis for an in-person working session sometime around January 2020. The initial MVP development lasted from March–September 2020, which was a major milestone for us. Then, they did our marketing website between September–November 2020. We’ve since transitioned into continued production and engineering support.

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

We’re in the midst of rolling out the product through various soft launches. Anecdotally speaking, we’ve received feedback from non-tech-savvy educators who’ve found the UI to be very intuitive. Our core administrative users have also found the feature set to be compelling.

As we talk with both current and prospective customers, the solution’s flexibility has been really positive from a technical standpoint. We’ve had no bugs come out due to the system nor any downtime. It’s just been solid and reliable in its performance.

How did MentorMate perform from a project management standpoint?

They managed the entire project really tightly but not in a way that felt overly restrictive or unnecessarily process-driven. It was one of those scenarios where we knew where the project was on any given day. We understood where our sprints sat within the larger time frame. 

That level of professionalism was impressive. We knew what to expect going into every meeting, and it was clear that they had internal stand-ups prior to our meetings because they always seemed prepared. There was never any wasted time, and they took advantage of the Bulgarian work schedule well. 

I’d also say that the communication was really fluid. It wasn’t limited to one point of contact, but rather, we could Slack anyone on the project team at large. It was clear that people could communicate with us as necessary, and there were regularly recurring structures around our budget and testing plans.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were really impressed with the steps that they took to understand exactly what we were trying to accomplish. It went beyond understanding our requirements. Instead, they’d ask themselves, “If I were this type of user, what would I try to do? What would be the pain points?” That really allowed them to point out potential unintended consequences, thinking through if we needed to test a functionality because there could be downstream implications. 

It really felt like every team member was bringing their expertise and creativity to the floor. They weren’t just delivering to our user acceptance criteria but rather pushing us during the development to consider other cases. It really helped us achieve an outcome that we believed in and felt good about.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, this really was a great experience, and we’re still working with them now. We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to work with them again on another sizeable enhancement to the product.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more time you put in at the front of the project, the better. It always takes a little bit of time for a team to reach optimal efficiency, so you should try to make yourself available or get another decision-maker involved in those early design calls to sync up with their team. That will help as you convey what you’re trying to do, and it allows them to be solution-oriented.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the SVP of a sports organization that organizes and displays live sporting events, specifically in the media operations and technology group. My team is responsible for broadcast operations and engineering all the way through to digital products. The latter applies to software and development for our owned and operated direct-to-consumer products.

What challenge were you trying to address with MentorMate?

As part of a new initiative, we’d signed a partnership with Microsoft to rebuild our owned and operated platforms. The project would help us refocus on our direct-to-consumer side with the end goal of better supporting and enhancing our customer base. Ultimately, we wanted to have a direct relationship with our customers.

MentorMate helped us reevaluate the DevOps processes, tools, and services that Microsoft had to offer as part of their cloud environment while we transitioned from an open-sourced methodology to a more Azure-centric experience. They acted as an independent voice in the project, sharing the pros and cons of a Microsoft toolset versus other tools in the market. 

What was the scope of their involvement? 

For this analysis project, MentorMate compared the Microsoft Azure DevOps tool that we had in place against other competitors, both open-source and commercial.

The first step was to understand our requirements and needs from an internal standpoint. There was a lot of greenfield in what we wanted to do going forward, so they needed to know that what we were doing at the time shouldn’t necessarily govern what we’d do in the future. Frankly, this was an opportunity to reinvent our processes.

From there, MentorMate evaluated various tools across 4¬–5 DevOps toolchain components, including repositories, pipelines, artifacts, agile boards, and test plans. They created a weighted Pugh Analysis Matrix across each item based on the features and functions that we deemed important. Then, they did the hands-on work of going through the tools to see if they did what they said they did and how well they met our division’s specifications.

MentorMate’s final presentation covered the results of the Pugh Matrix along with a set of recommendations that showed us where Microsoft’s DevOps tool stood among others in the market. 

What is the team composition? 

We worked with 4–5 resources depending on the project cycle. An on-shore executive oversaw the program, and there were 3–4 domain experts from their Bulgaria office. The combination of on- and off-shore teams allowed us to have a little bit more cost containment.

How did you come to work with MentorMate?

MentorMate had done some fantastic work for one of our member teams, so their name came up a couple of times during our discussions. It was an easy decision because they were a preferred Microsoft partner, provided end-to-end software delivery, and had the experience and capabilities to deliver this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project lasted from May–August 2020. The hand-on work ended in July, but the final presentation didn’t come until later.

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

The quality of their output was exactly what we were looking for, from the methodology to the groundwork and final output. In many ways, they’d approached the evaluation from angles that we wouldn’t have thought of ourselves. That’s why we brought them in as consultants — to fill out the gaps where we didn’t have that internal expertise.

How did MentorMate perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well. The executive touchpoints were once a week, and we had direct Slack channels with the engineering team. That allowed for constant communication between our questions and answers. We also used Confluence for the more formal deliverables. Because they had an off-shore team, they accommodated us by shifting some of their work times to better match ours on the East Coast.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It was the quality of the output. They were professional throughout, and, quite frankly, we received exactly what we asked for (with a bit more than anticipated) on time and within budget.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Had we had the foresight of what MentorMate’s approach would be, we might have included a few more things earlier on. We would’ve expanded the scope to include cybersecurity tooling, looking at how it relates to our DevOps pipeline.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let them share their full capabilities and describe what they have to offer. They’re a full-service organization that can tackle anything from design all the way through to deployment support. Even though we only did a short-term project for one particular discipline, I suspect that they’d be equally competent in all of the services they offer based on the success we had with them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

CIO for a manufacturing company that manufactures custom products for homes and businesses.

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

To develop an solution that would allow our customers to easily order our customized products, plus be easy to maintain and provide real-time visibility of orders.

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

We wanted to use modern web-based technology with a current and fresh look and interface. We did not have the internal staffing and expertise to build this, so we developed our requirements and met with several companies. MentorMate had the expertise, the available staffing, and were able to show us other solutions they had developed for other clients that were very impressive.

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

We had ancient existing systems that handled some of this, but they were limited in their functionality and expensive to maintain. We wanted to replace our internal system and that of a 3rd party vendor with a single system, which would reduce our complexity as well as maintenance.

We followed the agile methodology, with daily stand up meetings, two-week duration sprints with reviews of the application, requirements gathering and review meetings, and user involvement. The key deliverable was a single web application that provided all the functionality and could handle different user roles as well. Main technology was C# with a SQL Server database, plus integration of Azure AD to provide integrated single sign on.

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

About 10. We had a Project Manager, Architect (early in the project), Senior .NET lead, several .NET developers (back end and front end), a QA lead plus another QA person when needed, plus a business analyst.

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

We were able to completely sunset our old order entry system plus not renew a contract with a 3rd party that was giving us headaches. Our customers were able to quickly learn the new application, and we have received numerous accolades.

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

We used Jira to track all tasks, timelines, and deliverables. A sprint planning meeting was held every two weeks as well as a backlog review. We were able to know what was being worked on each week, plus we had the opportunity to suggest changes based on our observation and testing of each release of the application. The PM we had kept everything on track, and challenged the team to get key components done when we ran into some challenges.

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

They have a great staffing model and were able to understand our issues. They were able to provide excellent staff members (developers, PMs, analysts) and not just bodies lacking key skills. When we had to replace a person they found just as good of a candidate to replace the person leaving.

The PM did an excellent job understanding what we were looking for in a solution, and asked a number of hard questions and gave his input. We ended up changing our approach on a number of items after hearing and thinking about his input and ideas.

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

We had some issues with our requirements not being captured and organized, and we had to scramble to find our copy and resupply them. Once we paid more attention to make sure we were providing everything we stopped having this issue.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of education delivery and technology solutions for an education nonprofit. We’re focused on supplemental education for k-12. We help students own their own economic success by providing course on financial literacy, work and career readiness, and entrepreneurship. We build programming and solutions for hundreds of nonprofits across the country. We use a unique volunteer model, in which volunteers come in to create content that enriches the learning experience.

What challenge were you trying to address with MentorMate?

We were redeveloping a virtual program from what used to be an onsite program. The program helps students learn about what they need to be an adult, such as budgeting, spending, and balancing budgets on a monthly basis.

What was the scope of their involvement?

 We’ve also done some technology architecture with them. They helped us figure out what our long-term technology infrastructure would look like to help us evolve and meet future goals.

They’ve also built an evaluation engine that allows us to do real-time, data-driven, evaluations through student assessments and surveys to measure impact. Now they’re helping us with virtual volunteering to help us through the COVID-19 crisis.

Our infrastructure is based on Azure and .NET.

What is the team composition?

Lucille has always been the project manager and Clint is the account manager. The team changes things based on the sprint cadence and what we’ve needed. So we’ve also worked with some QA people, engineers, and designers.

How did you come to work with MentorMate?

We went through an RFP process and MentorMate was th3 best company we came across.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $1.5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2019 and the work is ongoing.

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

They finished up delivery, but we’re beginning continuation engineering as we roll that product out. They’re a great organization. They listen well and have helped us figure out the best solution. They’re intent is really to guide their partners and foster a good relationship. They’ve bought into our mission and have engaged in our success.

How did MentorMate perform from a project management standpoint?

They followed an agile project management process. They’re constantly looking at how we’re building out our technology. We’ve had multiple projects with them in which they really stepped up to be the partner we needed.

If there’s an issue and we need a resolution, they’re always calm and roll up their sleeves to solve any issues.

They use a lot of project management tools. I particularly liked Jira to track stories. They have daily stand-ups that we’re invited to, and they have monthly management meetings. If I raise a flag when there’s an issue, they respond right away. The cadence of our communication is great.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The most successful vendors are willing to spend the time with their clients and are really engaged. MentorMate really listens and focuses on our mission and shows how they can help. For example, they adjusted our project to incorporate a new design that would improve the engineering and help us meet our goals.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We did face some challenges with a few resources. With any organization, I think there may be some communication issues. They do outsource some of their stuff, and communicating across language barriers was tough sometimes. I think we could get ahead of some of those things. Whenever we raise an issue, they deal with it quickly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of a social benefit corporation that helps people with their processes and system failures. We have a methodology that can help identify where the system is failing and work on quality improvement, categorize and work on quality improvement projects in healthcare. We’ve recently started expanding into other industries.

What challenge were you trying to address with MentorMate?

We needed a piece of technology to build a product that would record and capture the process and, over time, help learn from failures. We worked with another vendor first, but it didn’t meet our expectations. So we asked MentorMate to help us make the product what we needed it to be.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The product itself was developed on Ruby on Rails. It’s a cloud-based product hosted on AWS. Now the project has been extended to understand compliance rules and regulation around health data privacy and move the platform to a government cloud environment.

The platform has high-security access, and entire system administration and the tool for the end-user supports workflow management and case management. In addition to that, it has analytics, reporting, some bells and whistles for communication amongst users, and some document storage for learning.

What is the team composition?

We’ve had about five people on the team. Some come and go depending on the expertise we need. We’ve worked with a project manager, a system architect, programmers, and information security expert.

How did you come to work with MentorMate?

We initially reached out to them for this project, and they declined to work with us because we were a startup. After working with the other vendor, we went back to MentorMate to ask them to reconsider.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $750,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in 2018 and it’s ongoing.

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

 The project is ongoing, but we’ve been able to see the value of their output in a quick and iterative way.

How did MentorMate perform from a project management standpoint?

We follow an agile methodology. We needed a  very flexible project management in that we needed a project manager that could ebb and flow, but yet keep track of all of that change. And so I think from a standpoint of doing change, management is an absolutely phenomenal. They’re flexible when we make changes, and they’re still able to stay organized and keep going.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate that they stay current in our space. They’re always presenting me with options and they do challenge me. Sometimes I think I have the right solution, but they’re able to help me if there’s a more modern solution.

They’re truly invested in our project, so we call them our partners. They believe in what we’re trying to accomplish. We’re in a challenging industry during COVID-19, and they’re always there to work with us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There isn’t a whole lot. They continue to improve their understanding of security features.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They don’t just dump into the technical. We always explain our thought process, which has made it a seamless relationship. They’re willing to listen, and that prevents thing from going wrong.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of blackriver.cc. It’s a digital cycling platform aimed at riders, bicycle retailers, bicycle suppliers, and corporate partners.

What challenge were you trying to address with MentorMate?

I’ve worked with MentorMate on a variety of engagements.

What was the scope of their involvement?

MentorMate worked on the first major version of our web application. They also created both iOS and Android mobile applications, which are native. We also used their services on a couple of longer engagements to produce the core of all our technology.

They’re currently working in an ongoing engineering capacity. Their team does maintenance, upkeep, and small projects in between these larger sprints. They work with .NET and Java primarily. Their team does soup to nuts technology for us.

What is the team composition?

During our first engagement, our team included about 15 people. The next engagement involved a smaller team of 10–12 people. Our current engagement involves five people in total.

How did you come to work with MentorMate?

A colleague recommended MentorMate.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our engagement in 2017. In between our larger engagements, we had a 4–5-month gap when we weren’t working on anything. After the second engagement, we’ve stayed working together through their continuation engineering program.

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

I essentially license the software to the bicycle industry. If we say success is the ability to continue growing your business and adding high-value clients, then it’s been a successful partnership. We’re a strong, growing platform. We’re continuing to grow users and customers.  

How did MentorMate perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management’s one of MentorMate's strengths. At the beginning of the engagement, they said that we could be as involved as we wanted to be. They prefer the customer to be involved with their team directly.

I’m a hands-on person, so I’m on the phone with the project manager and the team a couple of times a week. I also communicate with the project manager one-on-one.

My project manager has always been based in the U.S. and the development team’s in Bulgaria. That communication chain has been strong. The projects have run on time and on budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

MentorMate’s been able to quote work accurately from the beginning. They built a team to make sure that we got the expected work done. I worked with another provider that gave estimates that weren’t realistic and overly aggressive. Ultimately, we had a hard time getting tasks done within the budget. It’s not common to have the kind of success that I’ve had getting complicated projects done on time and on budget with MentorMate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

To be honest, I don’t have anything substantial for them to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure that they have a chance to dig in on the project management structure to make sure that it’s comfortable for them. I describe success with them and a large part of that is because I’ve been engaged with their team. It’s important for whoever’s making the decisions to understand the time requirements and commitments MentorMate asks them to make. Stick with the project and work as a team.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company that develops a flexible module for automation of farm equipment.

What challenge were you trying to address with MentorMate?

We hired MentorMate to assist us in the development of a mobile app for iOS and Android.

What was the scope of their involvement?

MentorMate works closely with our onsite development team to build the product. Their team helped to develop the app’s UI and functions. They created an interface with our cloud backend and linked the product with our electromechanical controller. Their team also provided assistance with the development of our website’s UI.

What is the team composition?

The number of teammates from MentorMate who support us varies. We’ve worked with up to 15 people. Lately, around 5–6 people from MentorMate are assigned to our project.

How did you come to work with MentorMate?

We found MentorMate through a referral. We liked their thoughts on the app’s direction and UI. We engaged them with a longer-term development contract.

How much have you invested with them?

In total, we’ve spent probably $700,000 with MentorMate.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our collaboration started in 2017, and it’s ongoing.

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

We track sales and user feedback to measure their team’s success. So far, the user feedback’s positive. Sales continue to go up month over month.

How did MentorMate perform from a project management standpoint?

MentorMate works following Agile methodology. Their team uses tools that allow them to collaborate with our onsite team successfully. They document and communicate the scope well. They interacted with our team effectively to define an executable schedule. They look forward, so the engagement’s fantastic overall.

What did you find most impressive about them?

MentorMate provides better communication than other agencies. As well, they’re more flexible when working with an integrated team. Other providers prefer to have a completely separate scope rather than working with our engineers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could increase their team’s skill sets. We would expand our use if they had engineers with more backend infrastructure capabilities or regional support.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go through their ideation session and define their requirements upfront. The more time that you put in to bring the MentorMate team up to speed and set the sprints forward, the faster their team will work and the better the outcome will be.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re an online education provider that caters primarily to the K-12 market. We provide a variety of educational products for the use of schools as well as a fully accredited online academy. I’m the VP of development services, so I work closely with our software development teams. My group is responsible for QA, product continuation, Scrum Masters, and everything that supports the direct development of the product. 

What challenge were you trying to address with MentorMate?

Primarily, we used them for software development and QA purposes.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We embed them directly on our existing sprint teams rather than packaging work that specifically for them. They’re participating directly with our team members. We’re dabbling in using their skills for product ownership as well. They’re mostly handling custom software development. 

What is the team composition?

We’re working with a group of 13 developers and QA teammates. 

How did you come to work with MentorMate?

Our current CEO worked with them previously in a prior role of his. We had worked with them on a one-off project several years ago as well, but they had really expanded their abilities with custom offshore development. We started off with just a couple of developers to see how our collaboration would work, and our team was impressed. We decided to keep them on and work them into our sprints.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested about $2,000,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together at the start of 2018 and are continuing our collaboration.  

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

Our internal team has always been very impressed with the work that they do. They’re closely tied to their operations and have consistently favorable responses to it. 

How did MentorMate perform from a project management standpoint?

Because we have them embedded in our workflow and operations, we’re handling much of the project management. However, the team member have performed well and up to our standards. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of their team members has really impressed us. They’re technically proficient, creative, and able to work both independently and on teams. We would hire any of them on a permanent capacity based on their skill level.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The demand in this market is very high, so it can be difficult to find people when we need them. But, they bent over backward to help us find the right people. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Embed them directly into your team and treat them as such. They’re great at working both independently and on teams. They can take your requirements and figure out solutions.