Mind Studios

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a hospitality platform, and our goal is to make it easy for people to book on-demand, personalized services in vacation communities. I’m part of the executive team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

We wanted to create an online presence, but we didn’t have the technology or development capabilities to build a website. Hence, we hired Mind Studio to develop one for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mind Studio developed our website from scratch. Initially, we held discovery calls with them, during which we discussed the scope of work in detail. Then, they came back to us with a proposal based on our requirements and budget and explained the next steps of the project. From there, they proceeded with the work, handling both the development and UI/UX design process. They also integrated a payment system into the site and provided maintenance and hosting services.

Their team used Figma to create the designs and various technologies for development, including PHP and Ruby.

What is the team composition?

We worked with several people from their team, including Dmytro (Co-Founder & CEO), a project manager, front- and backend developers, and a UI/UX designer.

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

They were recommended to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $50,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together on the project from February–June 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In terms of metrics, we were really focused on the number of bookings and total revenue generated. After launching our website, we managed to hit our revenue goals by September 2022.

How did Mind Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They stayed on budget and met most of our deadlines. We used Jira and Confluence for managing tasks and communicated via Slack, email, and WhatsApp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with Mind Studios’ ability to get things done quickly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It took a lot of effort to communicate with their team effectively due to the language barrier; we really had to spell things out in order for them to understand what we were saying and not waste time. That being said, it would be helpful if they had an English representative or someone from the US working with American clients, especially on the UI/UX design process.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a marketing specialist at a leading ad fraud prevention and detection solutions that helps marketers reaching their acquisition and growth goals.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Mind Studios?

Our website was created about two years ago by Mind Studios and we wanted to bring some freshness and reflect the experience and knowledge we had gained in the past two years.

SOLUTION

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

Since we were satisfied with our previous experience with Mind Studios, it made sense that we wanted to continue collaborating with them within the scope of this new project.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

The project started with agreeing on our objectives and deadlines, and what changes were required for each existing and new webpage. We then provided more detailed guidelines including the new copies and inspirations for the design. During the first stage of the project, the designer made a draft version of the home and main webpages.

Once we reached an alignment and considered it was exactly what we wanted, the designer continued with the rest of the webpages. The work consisted of several meetings during which we would provide our feedback to the designer.

During the second part of project, the frontend developer implemented the work of the designer. That part was particularly smooth since we had already agreed on the entire design. Overall, Mind Studios demonstrated a good organisation and made sure that the process remained as transparent and fluid as possible.

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

I collaborated with 4 actors, the head of business development, the project manager, the UX/UI designer, and the frontend developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We reached the objectives we had agreed on and are very happy with the final result. Our developer were also able to implement the code easily.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We communicated through Slack, Figma, and by mail with the different actors involved. The team was pretty fast to react and receptive to our feedback.

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

Their team was very flexible and organized. Each one of them would always stay on the top of things and know about the latest updates.

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

They should include more time for changes made based on our feedback. It is normal that this kind of project includes back-and-forth and it seemed sometimes like they were surprised we were providing such detailed feedback and asking for changes in the design.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Founder & Chairman of a group of companies that make up an ecosystem supporting the development of fitness technology companies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We have happily worked with Mind Studios on a many projects over multiple years. All projects are focused on creating custom development of fitness technology software.

SOLUTION

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

Mind Studios offers a very attractive combination of professional project management, quality custom software development, at a competitive cost.

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

We have successfully worked with Mind Studios using an Agile methodology. A typical engagement consists of:

• idea evaluation
• UX Strategy
• Concept Validation
• Design & Development
• Product Growth

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

Ivan Dyshuk, the Co-Founder, is our primary contact. A typical engagement involves working 2-3 project and technical team managers supporting a development team of 5-10 people per project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our work with Mind Studios has resulted in high-quality, fast, and cost-effective development of custom software that exceeds our customer's needs and results in high ROI.

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

The Mind Studio team is very professional. We use project management tools that set out clear deliverables and allow both our teams to always be in sync. The Mind Studio team is always very responsive to communications and adept at quickly responding to our needs.

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

Mind Studios has an exceptional ability to understand customer needs and deliver a high-quality product. They create results that exceed customer expectations, on-time, and within budget.

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

I wish Mind Studios had more resources available to concurrently work on multiple projects as their services are often in high demand.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a company and platform that specializes in real estate.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

We were trying to develop our front-facing MVP that would be received well by the end consumer as well as the real estate agents that would work with it. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked together to identify what I needed, and what business challenges we needed to overcome. Adhering to a sprint schedule, we then launched into the design phase. We reevaluated our progress at the end of every sprint.

The scope of work included Stripe, Twilio, and Calendly integrations, and the team coded in JavaScript to create the single-page application (SPA).

What is the team composition?

The team size fluctuated throughout the process, but the team consisted of an initial designer, front- and backend devs, and two project managers. I’d say that I worked with around ten people in total.

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

I found them through Clutch. I liked the reviews that I saw so I held meetings with 4­–5 of their teammates. Anton (Co-Founder, Mind Studios) really impressed me, so I decided to go with them.

How much have you invested with them?

The project began in July 2019 and the work is ongoing. We’ve completed our rough MVP and are putting in the finishing touches. I plan on engaging them long-term.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve spent around $100,000–$120,000.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve done an amazing job. While I’d heard horror stories about outsourcing, I’ve had no issues at all with development or general output. While we haven’t launched our product yet, the platform has received great feedback, and the process of working together has been very smooth.

How did Mind Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They were flawless. They kept me in line the entire time and there was very little miscommunication. They did a good job of prioritizing certain tasks over others. We used Slack, Skype, and Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their services are extremely fairly-priced for the quality of the development you’re getting. They’re truly top-notch.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything negative. I’ve just had a really good experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d encourage you to have a strong relationship with your project manager. Make sure to communicate effectively with the team lead so that you can be successful in your end product.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of BonApp Ltd, we’re developing a mobile poker odds calculator.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

I hired Mind Studios when I realized I had an idea, but no programming skills. I wanted them to help make my app idea a reality.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mind Studios developed my app for Android and iOS. They developed the native app using Swift and Objective-C for iOs and Java for Android. Their team was involved from the discovery stage to the end. They helped with the market research, finding any demand for the app and identifying competitors. From there, their designer created a prototype and then they fully developed the app with the statistics calculator features. They also helped make improvements based on user feedback. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with Alexandr (IT Project Manager, Mind Studios), one designer, one iOS developer, and one Android developer. Mind Studios also had a marketing department in their agency that helped with that aspect of the project. 

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

I used Clutch to research the agencies I was considering. I was mainly looking in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, and Bulgaria, and I made a list of several agencies, based on Clutch. From this list, I went to each of the websites and contacted the teams to ask questions about their portfolios.

I considered 10–15 agencies and chose Mind Studios because I was impressed with their portfolio. I’d also read some articles and heard from friends that Mind Studios was good in terms of quality and price. I’d tried some of their previous apps and thought their UI/UX elements were strong.

How much have you invested with them?

The total came to $84,000. We used agile development, so we made payments every two weeks.  

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Mind Studios from December 2018–September 2019. Our first launch was in March 2019, but the paid launch was at the end.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since our first launch, we’ve had around 3,500 downloads in total: 2,200 downloads on iOS, and between 1,300–1,500 on Android.  I’ve received some positive feedback and made improvements to the app based on other feedback. 

How did Mind Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They were well organized. We had an agile development process with two-week iterations. We’d have a team meeting at the beginning of each process to estimate the time and cost of each task. Later on, they’d send me invoices along with a plan for the next week. We had video calls every two weeks and I could call them whenever needed. Whenever either of us had a question, we could message or call each other, but we mostly communicated through Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their iOS developer was fantastic. He was really responsive and the communication was always professional. Their developers understood our requests clearly and easily, so we never had to give additional information. The iOS developer was comprehensive, understood quickly, and worked well with us.

I was worried that a vendor could try to mislead me and use technical terms to extract more money from me, but Mind Studios showed great integrity. They were transparent with their schedules and estimations.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our project manager’s communication could have been improved since he acted as a bridge between our teams. When it came to specific topics, communication was occasionally a challenge. 

The Android developer did some great work too, but the first version presented some small bugs and mistakes that we fixed through an additional sprint. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of Fitr. We’re a remote, client-to-coach delivery mechanism that’s looking to apply our technologies to various industries. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

We were trying to develop our apps and platform but our code was horrendous—unusable—and we were in a really sticky situation. We said we would give it another roll of the dice with a development house that knows what they were doing or try something else. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mind Studios provided end-to-end development services. At the first call, they provided excellent advice about whether or not we should carry on with the code that we had or if we should scrap it. We decided to take the good ideas from the original business, get rid of the stuff that wasn't working, and build a platform that was designed to take us where we wanted to go.

After we scrapped the old code they gave us some advice about rebranding the company with a fresh start. They were very much concept-based and got involved in the business analysis, even before going anywhere near design or code. They helped us learn from our customer experiences and think about the features with which we wanted to go back out in the market.

The next step was building an outline or concept of what this might look like. We went from the Ferrari model with all the glitz and glam to the Audi model, which still had the nuts and bolts, and finally to a minimum viable product (MVP) version of Fitr. They were very instrumental in helping us understand what could wait. Ideally, you want to put everything in, but that’s just not possible. We came up with ideas internally, but Mind Studios helped us put the apps on hold and start by focusing on building a web tool and having that optimized for phones.

What is the team composition?

I mainly deal with two people: the project manager and the team member who sits underneath him. I’ve had some involvement with one of the founders, who was my original point of contact. Other than that, there’s a team of between eight and ten designers and front- and backend developers.

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

I had terrible experiences with two other development houses, so I decided to give it one more chance. I was recommended to Mind Studios by a friend of my brother who had used them before.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $50,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We've released the beta so we're not fully-fledged, out there in the market, but it's been well received. It might sound really obvious to say, but the stuff just works. Going from the experience of broken code and buttons not working and coming to a set of guys who are excellent designers and having stuff work is amazing. It makes it a lot less stressful. Rather than spending huge amounts of time trying to fix bugs we can look to how our user base is using the platform and make tweaks.

How did Mind Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

Mind Studios is currently four weeks behind schedule, however this does include some small additional work that was not originally agreed.

The main tool we use is Slack and I think it’s excellent. All the team members are on Slack, but I also have communication with two main contacts. They’re always very attentive and are always online the whole day. Slack is really useful because if I'm out and about I can be on a laptop and open up the app on my phone and everything works directly from there. It's very handy if I'm traveling. If we need to do chats, which we do occasionally, we use Skype.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The two team we previously worked with jumped right into design and coding and would get stuck. Mind Studios will set the designs and think at a high-level before touching even a single line of code. 

The quality that I've seen coming out of their development house is outstanding. Not just that, but they've built a beautiful design and it works – which you'd expect should be the norm with development houses, but, in my experience, it hasn't been. Overall, just end-to-end, I’ve been very impressed with all stages. If I tried to do the whole thing in the U.K. it would be three or four times the price no doubt. It was very cost effective for me to get something up and running.

They really think about the problem; they're not yes men. They'll challenge the client, which I see as a huge benefit, especially coming from a startup position. It's great to have people to bounce ideas off rather than just developing what I say I want to develop. I don’t see them as an external development house that's developing my code. I very much see them as the Fitr team—as if they're sitting in the office with me.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Overall, as you can tell, I am happy with their performance. However, occasionally there has been a lack of communication with progress, as we’d originally agreed to be complete in five sprints, however, this was unexpectedly extended to seven, adding on four weeks of delay. Being fair, some of this was due to some improvements not originally planned.

Due to these delays, I needed to release further resources to pay for the development work. This took longer than expected. Although I made Mind Studios aware of this and was greeted with a ‘no problem’ response, without warning the work was stopped immediately and there was an unfortunate further delay. Whilst I understand work has to be paid for, I was very unhappy about the lack of warning and even though the invoice was cleared Monday morning, work stopped for the full day.

A week prior to this, two members of the Mind Studios team left the business which caused the quality of work to deteriorate and be slower. We understand this is part of the course of working with an external party, and Mind Studios apologized and tried to rectify the lost time, but it was not taken into consideration when ceasing work. This was the first major issue with the Mind Studios team.

UPDATED REVIEW

This review was updated on October 22, 2018 by the client. The original star ratings were: Overall - 4, Quality - 4, Schedule - 3, Cost - 5, NPS - 4. New content is below.

Mind Studios has installed a new designer into the team who has been excellent, producing first-class designs and getting up to speed with the project rapidly. With regards to timing, the team installed a new process; they organize each new sprint, which has helped visibility for all parties on what’s expected in each development sprint and expected timelines. This has helped the smoothness to which we are moving forward.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder and CEO of MCFit/Fitify, a company that created a decentralized platform to bring fitness to gamers. MCFit rewards gamers for exercising and having a proper diet. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Mind Studios?

We wanted to integrate the MCFit app with Minecraft servers, fitness apps, and cryptocurrency. We also required a server solution, an administrative app, and developer platform. 

What were your goals for this project?

We needed the MCFit app to be functional with other technologies and be able to regulate and update it. 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We were recommended by a trusted partner.

What was the team composition?

We worked with the founder, project manager, and three-to-five engineers. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

MindStudios develops the applications that are core to our business. They have an outstanding development team.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Their project management was outstanding and exceptional. MindStudios consistently under-promised and over-delivered. They are very professional and a pleasure to work with. Their exceptional management allowed for excellent execution and delivery.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We were impressed by their willingness to accept challenges and ability to find solutions to complicated tasks. Their team consistently delivered quality work, on-time and within our budget.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

MindStudios is the best-outsourced development firm I've worked with. I highly recommend them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of qWaqq, which is an app we developed and launched for hidden-gems songwriters. Songwriters are pretty much unknown entities. Artists are the faces of their music, and that makes perfect sense, but almost every song you know and love may have been written by the artist in part but was also written primarily by a songwriter behind the scenes. For every song that becomes a hit, generally, songwriters also have a big back catalog of other stuff that never gets released for various reasons, many of which have nothing to do with the quality of the songs. qWaqq is putting those hidden songs out there.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

We needed some great tech people to develop several different technologies. We needed a website to be built with 2 specific areas. One was a marketing section of the website, which would incorporate some technology as well as a lot of text. Then, there was a completely different section of the website to allow songwriters to upload their content—lyrics, videos, pictures, stories—to qWaqq. We needed people to design those aspects on the marketing side and also to design and build the app. We had designers assist with the creation of other aspects of qWaqq. Mind Studios was involved with the design to a certain extent, but they mostly handle the complete build and app experience. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mind Studios is our go-to provider for all aspects of technology. They set up the server and storage systems for all of the content. They created all the technology for the different sections of the website and the app itself. We had some designers involved along the way, but as we started building, things had to be tweaked. Mind Studios handled many of those design tweaks along the way.

They’re also extremely astute, particularly Anton [Co-Founder, Mind Studios], who I deal with almost exclusively. He is the face of the company, at least for us. He’s very skilled on a business level and tackles problems head-on. I am very instrumental in setting our goals. But, this is always a collaboration in terms of both technology and end goals. How can we twist the technology to entice more users, to get more songwriters involved? How can we make it easier for the users and the songwriters? Answering these questions has been a constant tweaking process. We wanted to find ways to scale our idea and make it easier technologically as well as on a design level. Mind Studios has been fantastic about brainstorming about that and making the changes.

They have been really helpful in terms of marketing suggestions, as well as with the technology stuff. Anton is really in tune with the app world. He was the first guy that came to us, for example, and told us that the App Store is now doing ads, and we should try that. They were running a promotion for free advertising for a month at a fairly low cost. Of course, App Sore ads are going to explode in terms of cost once people realize their effectiveness. We put together a little promotion, and Mind Studios assembled the ads and choose the keywords.

The app is just for iOS right now, but that is not due to any technological limitations on their part. We just have a limited budget and little time.

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

My partner worked with Mind Studios on a number of different projects in the past. He said these guys are fantastic, and I trusted him. We did talk about other options, but it quickly became clear that they were our best choice.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in September of 2015, and the project is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We just launched a few months ago, and we are just getting into our social media. The PR part is really starting to pick up steam. It’s been a total team effort, but everything Mind Studios has done has been incredibly helpful. We have hardly any crashes. We posted various iterations in our social media and have gotten fantastic reviews on the App Store, but we can’t find them because every time we do a new iteration, the other reviews go away. We have all 5-star reviews so far in the App Store. Then, we have informal user responses through comments on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with users saying how much they love the app. That all speaks to what a great job the whole team is doing, but in particular what Mind Studios is doing. I can’t say enough good things about Mind Studios.  

How did Mind Studios perform from a project management standpoint?

They are very organized and focused, and they are responsive and communicative. We have a great working relationship, but the time difference is a little difficult. We make it work, and it’s worth it. We Skype and email regularly about what we want to achieve this week or this month, and then they put together an estimate. We prioritize if we need to, they just start building and sending us versions, and we send suggestions. They are very flexible. They are also extremely positive all the time and give us great feedback about different ideas.

What did you find most impressive about Mind Studios?

I can’t speak to other providers because this is the first app that I’ve actually launched and developed. I researched other providers and got a feeling from them, but I didn’t actually work with them. I can address the relationship from a more global perspective in terms of working in different areas of life and business. I love the way these guys work. There is no ego involved. They are very smart and communicative. They’re open to trying stuff but also willing to say when something isn’t a great idea and why. They work really, really hard. They give a lot of their time at odd hours for them. We don’t go crazy and push it to unreasonable extents, but they make themselves available in an appropriate way.

Are there any areas Mind Studios could improve?

The only issue I have had occasionally with them is QA. I examine the app as best as I can, and then I’m relying on them to make sure it’s all going to work in the backend and that there are no hidden problems with text or misspellings. Occasionally, things like that pop up. If they were 5% better in this area, in terms of anticipating issues, that would be great. But, that’s a minor complaint. Overall, these guys are terrific to work with and very good at what they do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My husband and I run a full-service horse hospital in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We are classic coupleprenurs, and I’m the vice president of our company. We provide horse owners with educational information and tools via Horse Side Vet Guide. HSVG is built on a complex and constantly growing database of interlinked information. In essence, it’s a reflection of my husband’s brain after 24 years of exclusively practicing equine veterinary medicine. It has become a very important project for us. It was a bit crazy at first, but things improved when we figured out how to structure the categories in the database. HSVG is available on our website and as a mobile app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mind Studios?

We have always had a strong focus on client education. Specifically, we wanted to share information about equine health beyond our local clientele. In 2011, we decided to create a free website and mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Dmitry and a few others from Mind Studios’ team helped create the mobile app. It was built on iOS and Android. Dmitry was the main guy on Android. I believe some of his current employees were part of the iOS build too. I do not know what technologies were used, but they worked. Dmitry and his team inherited a jumble of half-baked coding that didn’t work properly. He and his team were able to discern what could be used and what needed to be redone. Ultimately, they created a mobile app that works.

We recently did a few more updates on both platforms. His current iOS team updated some of the coding to Swift, and we hope to continue that in another update. Since they inherited the project, much of the conceptualization was already done. However, we will be using Mind Studios to help with later updates, including design elements.

They submitted the app and updates to both app stores and ensured they were available to the public. We did not ask them to help with marketing or strategy. However, we are in discussions now with Mind Studios about how to monetize the app better.

How did you come to work with Mind Studios?

Looking back, I can understand just how risky software development was for novices like us who were inspired by a great idea. We went through 4 other development teams before we finally were introduced to Dmitry. That was even before he started Mind Studios.

How much have you invested with Mind Studios?

We’ve paid over $50,000 and counting.

What is the status of this engagement?

It’s hard to say. We went far beyond any reasonable deadlines, but that was not their fault. The first project started in January 2013 and was completed in August 2013. We continue to work with Mind Studios and have updates pending on both platforms. We just need to find the time to test them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

HSVG is the most highly rated equine health app in the world. It has been downloaded in over 70 countries. Our Facebook page is at 63,000.

What did you find most impressive about Mind Studios?

They are competent and capable. They are excellent communicators. They don’t shy away from issues with a mobile build. Instead, they engage in detailed discussions about what is needed to fix an issue.

Are there any areas Mind Studios could improve?

Nope.