minic studio

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the member of the management team.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The goal was to build a service that would help businesses to handle expenses in a simpler way. With flexible card budgets and receipt software.

SOLUTION

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

We needed a dedicated and fast team with a high level of agility and a can-do mentality. The minic was a good fit and it was clear from previous projects that we did together.

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

The project started with an initial design, and design system which saved a ton of time in the process. The minic continued the development using Laravel as a backend framework, and React as a frontend framework, for mobile development they used swift on iOS and Kotlin on Android. The whole project was deployed on the AWS network for reliability and scalability.

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

We worked with one lead developer that held the mobile and web team together. On the web app, we worked with 5 full-stack developers, and on mobile with five additional developers on IOS and Android sides. Besides the developers, the minic provided a tester and a dedicated designer as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The minic studio had met all the requirements on time and budget.

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

We worked in agile, using Atlassian products, Jira for tracking & planning & project management, Confluence for documentation and tha minic had daily standups in order keep everything on track. For daily communication, we used Slack and Google Meet.

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

They have not been working in the fintech space before. However they we able to quickly learn so we could pass all certifications and security tests before launching.

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

In a remote setup there are always phases around miscommunication. We improved this in the course of the project with mandatory sharing sessions to ensure understanding on both sides.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I was the founder and CEO of an influencer marketing SaaS plaform with AI / ML capabilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Basically Minic were our external development team, handling 80% of our development requirements.

SOLUTION

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

We have a few talks with one of the partners, and decided to go with them as they seemed very competent and understood our business from the beginning.

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

Our platform was pretty complex utilising a stack of MySQL, Node.js and vue.js. On top of that we hooked several external technologies and services to the platform, e.g. a quite complex affiliate service that worked on multiple layers, or cross-device technology based on Machine Learning.

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

Approx 6 from jr. developers to Sr. data scientists.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Basically the platform was built from scratch and we managed to keep all deadlines and deliverables. Any errors or unforeseen issues were handled effectively and right away.

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

Our CTO and the Minic team had daily scrum meetings which secured a constant flow of communication. Apart from this we also used Click-up and slack for instant messaging.

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

minic studio was very proactive in their approach, and always had good input on how to solve a problem. Many other vendors will only deliver what has been requested by the customers, but with Minic we felt they were always a step ahead.

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

Sometimes it could be hard to get the resources from one day to another, but that is understandable since developers were dedicated to other projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My organization is the county museum of Satu Mare, Romania. I’m a Ph.D. historian, and I work here as a researcher.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with minic studio?

We needed IT support and development to create an online encyclopedia of our city. My boss and friend is the mastermind behind this project. We were discussing how awesome it’d be if our historical archives were lifted into the digital era.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had 2–3 video conferences in the beginning and met their CEO. We started developing the WordPress site from there. They were constantly asking for our feedback on what we wanted in terms of page colors and other details. Their team gave us demo versions for review and corrected any errors we found. The process was a never-ending circle.

The site is responsive and has multiple functionalities. Its aim is to popularize local heritage — historical buildings, maps, archives, and other material — that’s important to the local community and that not many people would get to see. Normally, these documents would only be seen by historians and researchers and we thought they should be made available to the public. We have very interesting documents, photos, postcards, and so on.

The site is multilayered. There’s a section for the average viewer, who’s only interested in photos, and then there are layers for researchers and Ph.D. students. It’s structured so that anyone can get something interesting out of it.

What is the team composition?

The project manager from minic studio was our go-to person. He reported to the CEO and worked with the designer and developers. I was in contact with 5–10 people from minic studio, but I assume there were 15–20 people working in the background. I was in constant discussions with the WordPress developer and the designer.

How did you come to work with minic studio?

They’d worked on another big project with our museum. minic studio created a site with our archeologist colleagues, who were very satisfied with how quickly they did the work and with how good the communication was. They were effective and efficient at creating these types of web pages.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around June 2020. The web page had to be ready by December of that year to present it to a small group of people and the creation phase of it was finished. The main phase is underway now. We need to upload the content so the fun part starts now. I’m working on that part as well.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The best thing about the site is that we’ll have Google Analytics so we’ll know exactly how many visitors we’re getting. Our colleagues in other institutes are starting to like this project idea, and they’re willing to upload content to our database. This will bolster its capabilities from a local to a regional web page. It’ll be a very successful project. Thanks to minic studio, we have a very catchy, appealing website.

More and more people are interested in it, especially experts who are willing to upload valuable content for researchers and Ph.D. students. We will start to popularize the web page to the general public as soon as we have enough content uploaded. Currently, we have around 1,000 entities on the site and want a lot more. The site is already live, but we haven’t promoted it beyond social media posts.

How did minic studio perform from a project management standpoint?

minic studio is professional, swift to resolve problems, and has very good communication. They are understanding when we have a problem or don’t understand what they were saying to us. We have a general idea of things, but we’re not IT people. They’re the experts at that and they’re very professional at what they do. We’ve become friends with them.

We would’ve met face-to-face but it wasn’t possible because of the pandemic. We’ll go visit them in the spring of 2021 if the restrictions are lifted. We mainly had online conversations through WhatsApp, Google Meet, Zoom, as well as occasional phone calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re quality people, and they’re professional at what they do. minic studio is very swift in fixing problems, mainly bugs with the web page. When we signaled them that something wasn’t working, they’d instantly tackle the problem, either that day or the next. They immediately offered solutions to our problems.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Any company can improve, but I’m satisfied with the work we’re doing with minic studio and I didn’t encounter any major problems. Maybe they need to grow and bring more people into their company. They’re planning to expand, from what I heard.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should be open-minded with them. minic studio is eager to help and bring innovative solutions and ideas. They’re youthful, creative, and talented. We wanted a more basic site, and they told us that it was so 10 years ago. minic studio gave us demos of various WordPress pages they could create, which were very detailed for just being demos.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of an IT Software Solution Provider firm, with clients mostly from the telco and financial sector.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Our client needed a solution for organizing contact-related information in az accessible way, including different organizations and the connections between these, also having extended event and document management capabilities related to input data.

SOLUTION

How did you select minic studio and what were the deciding factors?

I searched for possible subcontractors given the specific business goals and technology assumptions (Worpress/PHP). The quick response and our first online meetings as well as their references convinced us to chose them as the first candidate supplier.

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

First, we discussed with them the business goals, then we broke down each goal to specific epics and user stories. After estimation, we concluded a base scope and price, and also agreed on the number of sprints for the delivery of the first version.

While delivering the first version parallel we discussed and prepared the second release. After successfully launched we ordered also the next version of the application from them.

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

We have worked together with a project manager, and a team of 3-4 web developers, according to the needed specific skills of the actual sprint or project phase.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After handing over the first version, and demoing it to our client, they were really satisfied, and they ordered the next delivery package, within weeks.

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

We used tools like Jira, Confluence, and Git for the project, and also had daily standups. They provided a PM for the project also, who could raise and escalate any issue during the development. All preset timelines were met, even if they needed to work more or involve additional resources.

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

They could face new challenges in a very proactive way. And this is by seeking out industry experts on niche fields, or by raising team size even before we saw that there might be some timeline risks involved.

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

At the first sprints there were some bugs in the delivered system, however, this has improved after several sprints later on.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

LilBro shop is a children's clothing workshop. Im the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

To create a new webshop for the workshop.

SOLUTION

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

It was important to choose a local business. I chose them because of their communication style and because they are friendly.

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

Miro for plans, lots of google meet conversations, wordpress developments and test in the end.

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

3

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Im completely satisfied

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

I was completely satisfied with the communication. I think project management was one of their biggest strengths in the project.

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

We're impressed by their solution for everything. We also like their communication and project management

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

Maybe a little on speed

BACKGROUND

I was the product owner in the team from the side of the city, minic provided technical consultancy at the beginning of the project, then one ux/ui designer, and two developers and a project manager.

• One project manager
• One designer
• One frontend developer
• One backend developer

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

We achieved through this project to reach an age group that has usually not taking part in this kind of planning and therefore their voice is not taken to account. This project helped us to understand better the local needs and pain points. And helped us to gain more everness on the budget planning than ever before, in an engaging and creative way.

SOLUTION

We developed an interactive budget planning site to gain social responsibility and new ideas to improve the current budget allocation. The site runs on wordpress and has a backend where we can add different budget lines and limitations, and we can manage the whole system.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

The Minic Studio managed to deliver the project on time, and on specification, however on the process we requested some changes that had huge impact on development.

They helped us a lot, to refine the concept, and they delivered an exceptional design and development within a relatively short amount of time.

I recommend this team to anyone, who are looking for the best service!