Miquido

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the Founder & CEO at Hearty Foundation. Our main aim is to fight social inequalities through education and knowledge sharing. Our efforts are focused on children in need: with disabilities, those living in orphanages, and students from small villages.

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

Miquido designed and developed a custom web application form for us aimed at recruiting new volunteers. What we also needed was an intuitive internal management tool.

The Miquido team suggested creating a dedicated multipurpose CMS, which they developed later on. As a result, the solution simplifies our volunteer registration procedure. We wanted to recruit volunteers more easily, organise their teamwork better, and manage our events more efficiently.

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

The Miquido team reached out to us and offered their help. They did the project pro bono as one of their CSR activities.

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

Miquido created a custom web application for us. Their team took care of the design, front-end, and back-end development.

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

Two Frontend Developers, two PHP Developers, one UX/UI Designer, one QA, one PM.

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

The project became successful. App users are praising it for its easy usability and functionality. Compared to the previous method we used to have, now we can save up to 50% of the employee’s time. Using the new solution, we’ve already recruited 25 volunteers to date.

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

Miquido has a strong internal team led by an experienced PM & Scrum Master who facilitated the overall communication. In our project, the work was based on Agile methodology. We had weekly sprints and meetings to attend when necessary.

We're impressed by Miquido's great communication during the whole process - they are genuinely well-organised.

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

The commitment to delivering the solution was the most impressive thing about Miquido. They are a very easy company to work with. You can rely on them even if you do not have a strong technical background.

We did not have previous experience with a software development firm, but Miquido guided us through the whole process. They have a lot of experience, a good team and a proper structure in place.

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

There has never been anything that concerned us in terms of cooperation with the Miquido team. Our experience with them is very satisfying.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a senior project manager at BNP Paribas Bank Polska. I’m responsible for mobile banking development.

What challenge were you trying to address with Miquido?

We worked with them to speed up our mobile banking development. We had an external vendor already, but we weren’t satisfied with the pace of development. Once we launched our app, our aim was to ensure that it was consistent with general mobile banking standards.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Miquido provided Swift and Kotlin frontend development for the iOS and Android versions of our app. They did Java development for the backend. Our initial vendor built the first version of the app, and Miquido was brought in later on to work in parallel with them.

We were behind the market when it came to mobile applications, so our roadmap was crowded. There were lots of features Miquido needed to implement, including mobile external and internal transfers, mobile onboarding, notifications, and personal finance management.

What is the team composition?

Miquido gave us a team of nine frontend mobile developers for Android and iOS, along with backend developers, a scrum master, and testers.

How did you come to work with Miquido?

They were one of the companies we had in mind when we were initially looking for a vendor, but they didn’t have a very large portfolio of mobile apps at the time. We checked out their portfolio a year-and-a-half later, and we found that we could ask them for support. We had some discussions to learn about their skills.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $1.5 million with them across the 20-month collaboration.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with Miquido between January 2019–October 2020. We stopped the collaboration because of the COVID situation and some budget cuts. 

The project is ongoing, but we’ve had to cut down the team. We still have a valid contract with Miquido, so we can quickly onboard them again if the need arises.

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

Our main metric was user-story delivery per sprint, which varied between 80–90%. Miquido was the second vendor, and they had to adjust their pace to the first one, which is why they couldn’t deliver everything. However, their performance was definitely better than that of our initial vendor.

How did Miquido perform from a project management standpoint?

Miquido had good experience on the agile methodology, and that’s how we worked with them from the beginning. This was one of our reasons for choosing them. They were very open to communication. 

They were located in Krakow, where we have offices as well, so our team visited Miquido a lot. We had a lot of face-to-face interactions and virtual workshops. They had a nice startup vibe, with a lot of fresh ideas.

I worked with the scrum master on Miquido’s side, and the collaboration was very good. They had a can-do attitude and didn’t create any unnecessary problems. It was a pleasure to work with Miquido.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Miquido was professional. They merged with our internal team very quickly and were able to collaborate effectively with both our bank and the second vendor. Working in a large collaboration with a bank isn’t the easiest thing to do, but Miquido had had experience with another bank. I was impressed by how smoothly they entered the project and how quickly they started producing results.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would’ve been better if Miquido had come to us with more ideas and improvements, but, since they were the second vendor, they might not have felt like we were looking for that. The ideas that they did bring were good, so we would’ve wanted more emphasis on this.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Going back to what I mentioned before, I’d encourage Miquido to be as active as possible in proposing ideas from the beginning. I had the feeling that they were kind of shy sometimes, but Miquido is a professional company, so it’s worth listening to them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of Indutree, a recruiting app startup designed to accelerate the recruitment process.

For what projects/services did your company hire Miquido?

We have hired Miquido to devlop our MVP while we were at a very early stage.

What were your goals for this project?

The first goal was to have a fully functional MVP available in the App store to start growing users (candidates and recruiters). The second goal was to create enough traction to attract investors to scale the product and develop more functions

How did you select Miquido?

I have searched and interviewed multiple vendors in Los Angeles, France, India, Poland and Ukraine. Miquido was the most responsive and organized team with a constructive approach. Trying to build a useful product (no matter the size of the project) while other vendors were trying to build useless features or were not interested by an early stage startups.

Describe the project in detail.

Although we had to work with a 9 hours difference as we were in California and Miquido in Poland, Miquido has put in place a robust organization with a project manager using Asana to assign and manage all tasks and deceisions. We went though multiple loops to define the UX/UI and overall MVP.

What was the team composition?

We were assigned a project manager who was our main point of contact. At each step, the project manager would organize the right meetings/talks with designated experts.

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

The app was designed and built according to schedule and budget. We have had great feedback from candidates looking for jobs. However it was difficult to onboard recruiters. Further developments would have been necessary for that but funds were raised and the project lost momentum.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow was very easy. We took advantage of the 9 hours difference by having regular short meetings and work done on each end with defined deadlines and an efficient drumbeat.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The organization and the involvement of everyone assigned to the project was impressive. Working with a major time difference can be challenging but Miquido made it smooth and efficient by keeping an efficient drumbeat and achieving each deadlines. Unlike other vendors they also didn't hesitate to challenge our concept only to make it better and bring new creative ideas and technical options we were not necessary aware of.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They could possibly have more presence in the US. With the quality of the work and the great organization, a US project manager could only hep them manage more projects and grow even faster globally.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Eat & Joy — a food subscription service. 

What challenge were you trying to address with Miquido?

We wanted to outsource the development of our web and mobile platforms.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Miquido initially held workshops to capture the scope in its entirety. Their team developed the infrastructure for the web and mobile products, which they designed and developed.

The mobile app allows users to order and pick up meals from restaurants at reduced rates with a monthly subscription. The web app features an administrative panel that enables users to manage data as well as edit user and restaurant information.

What is the team composition?

We worked with 7–8 people from Miquido, including a salesperson, an account manager, a product manager, a backend engineer, a frontend engineer, a QA engineer, and a UI/UX designer. There was also a person dedicated to the mobile app and a person dedicated to the web app.

How did you come to work with Miquido?

I found them on Clutch along with several other companies. However, Miquido offered the best price and a favorable timeline estimate. I felt confident that they would deliver a quality product.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €80,000 (approximately $95,000 USD) on this project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between June–September 2020. We hired them for the second phase of development to add new features.

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

Miquido finalized the first scope and then successfully delivered it, which enabled us to launch the MVP two months ago. Feedback has been positive, and the product functions smoothly. They delivered high-quality results in a timely manner. We only encountered a few issues that Miquido quickly fixed.

How did Miquido perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly calls via Slack during the design and development processes. They were honest about timelines and delays but always respected the deadlines. Their team is organized, efficient, and responsive. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They didn’t feel like an outsourced vendor; they feel like part of our team. They’re collaborative and personable, which fosters a productive engagement.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t have anything negative to say about Miquido.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Explain your project and goals in detail to avoid any miscommunication.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Product Manager at SBAB which is a major, Swedish bank which focuses mainly on private mortgage loans.

For what projects/services did your company hire Miquido?

We built a mobile application for both Android and iOS. We hired a complete cross functional team consisting of developers, QA, UX and project manager.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to outsource app development to see if it could be a viable option to gain more speed in our development without affecting our other prioritizations.

How did you select Miquido?

We looked at countries which were a match from a cost and cultural perspective. We decided that Poland was a viable option and then selected Miquido from a number of options.

Describe the project in detail.

We had a start up meeting in person and after that worked remotely. A team was then assembled by Miquido based on our requirements and project scope. A project plan was put together and our projected started.

What was the team composition?

We've been working with around 6-10 people simultaneously from Miquido, consisting of project manager, UX, QA and developers.

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

Miquido has the ability to understand our requirements and preferences and based on that are able to quickly initialize the development.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have had agile ceremonies such as sprint planning, refinement, and retrospectives on a bi-weekly basis. As the Product Manager, I've had weekly meetings with the project manager. We mainly worked in Jira and Sketch.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Flexible with their approach. They are able to adapt to our preferences and work independently without having to involve us in all the details. They have a skilled workforce with great skills when it comes to design, development and QA.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We would've have liked to have a more fixed team with less rotation. This was partly because of a break from our side between phase 1 and 2 in the project, so some responsibility falls on our side, but it's always challenging to add new people while keeping the speed and knowledge in the project.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Company: Nextbank Software What we do: We provide cloud core banking systems to financial institutions. Role: Chief Commercial Officer and Country Manager for the Philippines.

For what projects/services did your company hire Miquido?

Miquido provided for us the complex services of Web and Mobile Development, Artificial Intelligence, as well as Design. As a result, they created an innovative banking solution - a full software package for running various financial institutions. The final product covers a cloud-based core banking system, mobile and web Internet banking, loan origination, and credit scoring application using machine learning.

What were your goals for this project?

The key focus was to create a bank-in-the-box solution for Southeast Asia, where there are still plenty of countries where people are financially excluded since they live in remote and hardly accessible locations. The far-reaching goal was to gradually introduce financial inclusion by delivering a secure and easily accessible digital solution even in the low connectivity zones of Asia.

How did you select this vendor?

We have shortlisted three vendors from Eastern Europe with strong experience in banking. Then, we have analyzed in detail some of their projects and read some of their articles on industry topics to better understand their expertise. Their clients' feedback was superb and they seemed to offer an excellent quality-to-cost rate, which proved to be true after they delivered the project.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They were responsible for the full software development process including: UX/UI design, development, manual testing, automated testing, devops and cloud deployment.

What was the team composition?

Resources: We had a dedicated team of 20 specialists that consisted of 3. Android developers, 3 iOS developers, 6 backend developers, 2 data scientists, 3 testers, 3 UX specialists, and PM/scrum master.

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

Over 25 banks in the Philippines have already implemented our core banking solution. AI-based credit scoring, and the core banking solution was shortlisted as Singapore FinTech Awards finalists two years in a row and recognized for their impact, practicality, and innovativeness.

It has also helped streamline the businesses of our client banks from an operating cost and efficiency standpoint. Even during this pandemic we are getting a lot of inquiries and interest from other potential bank clients. IT has actually exceeded our goals and targets

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We developed a stable working relationship with the team. Miquido people are truly agile and definitively have a can-do attitude. After reaching out to them with any suggestion or query, they always do the relevant research and come back to us with the response. They also give suggestions as to how better we can implement certain features.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We're impressed by the Miquido attention to detail and their transparency in everything they do. During every sprint, the team always communicates with us about how things would be expected to proceed. They have also a very well-organized and professional process.

Are there any areas for improvement?

A few times we had to wait 3-4 weeks when we requested team extension, but looking at the fact how busy they are it is understandable.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a technology company creating software products for global players in the investment management industry. I am a Product Manager for the project being reviewed.

For what projects/services did your company hire Miquido?

We hired Miquido for UX/UI support (product strategy, workshop, UX&UI design, user testing).

What were your goals for this project?

The main goal was to create innovative and easy to use portal for investment management companies. We wanted to replace extensive reports and Excel files with one UX-oriented application. The challenge was to present all the data in one place and allow fast-check for users.

How did you select this vendor?

We were looking for a company with experienced UI/UX designers and expertise in fintech. The strong portfolio and recommendations were crucial for us to make a final decision.

Describe the project in detail.

We didn’t have a UX/UI specialist on-board, and we were looking for support in these areas. Our primary goal was shaping our product’s vision. Product Designer from Miquido organized a discovery workshop during which we fully defined the scope and set objectives. The next stages of cooperation were: wireframing, prototyping, and usability testing. Miquido was also responsible for UI Design.

What was the team composition?

Our team consisted of a Project Manager, Product Owner, Business Analyst, Developers, and Product Designer (UX/UI) from Miquido.

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

A very positive feedback was received from 6 presentations of the product to prospective clients.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The workflow between team members was really effective, even though we collaborated partially remotely. We held weekly sprint planning meetings where we got updates about what had been done and what we would be working on in the following weeks. We could always rely on them to meet deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We enjoyed the work attitude in Miquido. Even though we collaborated only with one person, we felt the company’s vibe. Their can-do attitude made us feel like they were part of our internal team. The discovery workshops held by the Product Designer helped us to understand what we wanted our product to look like.

We were lucky to find a company with excellent technical skills and open to change and doing things differently. They captured our vision and turned it into an attractive interface.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Only minor not worth mentioning.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Brainly is a global platform where students get personalized learning help and access to world's best educational products. My role is Director of Content. I am responsible for processes, tools and reporting in content operations department.

For what projects/services did your company hire Miquido?

We needed to scale our operations 4 times over couple of months. Previous infrastruture was not stable, didn't allow for good supply/demand planning and execution. Processes required lots of manual work, and were a burden on our data infrastructure.

What were your goals for this project?

Improve speed of answering. Improve focus of answering. Reduce time spent by internal employees on proceses by:

• creating multiple mechanisms of routing tasks
• user Management system
• enable automated reporting of performance, business impact, costs

How did you select this vendor?

Through recommendation from our partners and employees, considering also availability, technology and price.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Our company has prepared initial plan of deliverables. After initial sync with Miquido and discussion on features' shape and result which we are hoping to achieve, Miquido did estimations of complexity and possible delivery times.

Based on this information we've defined our go-to delivarables and timing. Both parties were heavily involved in defining the final shape of product.

What was the team composition?

Team consisted of front-end and back-end engineers in changing proportions (up to 7 Engineers in total), also a Designer and Project Manager.

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

We are not in liberty to share details, but the outcome outperformed our initial estimations in terms of the measured KPIs.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Project management was done by Miquido, with them responsible for delivery of solution and us responsible for delivery of well defined backlog (in a form of problems to solve) and priorities. It was a continuous cooperation from one iteration to the next one.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I don't know if we were super lucky or if this is a standard in Miquido, but they were able to put together very strong team on short notice. All people involved from Miquido, both Developers, PM, Design, QA or Account Executive were very pro-active and open for discussion regarding the project.

After delivering them well defined backlog, they were able to deliver functional, ready to ship piece of code almost after first iteration, despite the fact, that team was just starting to learn how to work with each other.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We are aware, that initial estimations done for the project were based on some assumptions that did not turn out to be true or be feasible, but they were partially inaccurate and did not take under consideration the effort needed for the team to fully form and learn how to deliver fully.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a medical software startup that's building a reporting solution for radiologists. Our goal is to create more accurate and detailed medical reports.

What challenge were you trying to address with Miquido?

At the end of 2018, we had a very large partner start to do business with us. Because of this new agreement, we started to see a significant amount of development work come through to us. We were worried that we couldn’t scale up our development team quickly enough, so we searched for an outsourced partner to augment our staff.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Miquido provided developers that were integrated into our team. They worked remotely and helped develop our software. The main distinguishing features of the software were speech recognition and text production. They worked with React and TypeScript on the frontend and PHP and Symfony on the backend.

What is the team composition?

They supplied two people to work on the project with us. Our plan was to start with two developers in the beginning and then potentially scale up from there. However, our partner delayed the project and withdrew the time pressures that we had on our development team, so we just stayed with the two outsourced developers since the ramp-up wasn’t necessary.

How did you come to work with Miquido?

We went through a number of outsourcing candidates and interviewed potential developers. Based on this, we made the decision because they made the most professional impression during the interview. I think it was a good choice.

How much have you invested with them?

We are investing around $15,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

They came on board in January 2019. The project is ongoing.

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

I think it’s very high-quality work. We’re really happy with their services. One testament to their usefulness is that our company continues to employ them even though we don’t strictly need help anymore due to the removal of time pressure.

How did Miquido perform from a project management standpoint?

I think project management worked very well. The main challenge is that they are working remotely and most of our employees are on-site. Considering that, the situation has worked exceptionally well. We also visited their team in Krakow.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a high degree of professionalism in their interactions and good organization. Their team differentiates itself through its management approach; their developers stay a long time and have more experience than other partners we’ve had.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not really. I cannot speak to their long-term project development, but for us, they were very good.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would say you should try out their services. I'd advise visiting them in-person; seeing in Krakow was a good choice. It’s good to see them in-person every once in a while. That’s a good thing to have for a remote working relationship. It’s important to not cut off remote workers from important conversations.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am Director of Innovation Lab at insurance company headquartered in Warsaw. Our company has over 5000 employees and we serve individual and corporate clients in Poland. I am responsible for testing and implementation of innovative projects in insurance area.

For what projects/services did your company hire Miquido?

Our company wanted to develop an action on Google Assistant (we treat it like a new digital channel of contact with our customers). What is important to mentioned, we care about time to market, so as a result we have decided to outsource this project. We assume that we can learn new tools and technology much better with certified partners.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to show up to our clients that we are reactive company for new trends on a technology market. As a result, we gave our customers completely new channel to communicate with. We did not state any tangible outcomes, because we wanted to check if our clients are interested in this sort of solutions (we measured it by number of insurance-leads). What’s more our goal was simple to learn new technology.

How did you select this vendor?

We have gathered list of companies, which were recommended by Google in case of Google Assistant development. Google assure us that they have participated in certification programme and they have passed it. Based on that my team prepared list of 5 companies, which sent us response for RFI.

After that my team (one project manager and one data scientist) developed ordering algorithm which contains such parameters like:

• experience/portfolio
• size
• price
• time-to-market.

As a result, we chose Miquido.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we selected our vendor, we had to specify together logic of application and some technical (especially cyber-sec) requirements. During first weeks, we organized workshops on which we discussed above mentioned cases. After a few iterations and discussions with our business, we finalized the design and architecture of our application, then Miquido have implemented it. In the end we have proceed pentesting procedure. We have passed it and we published our new product. Our action on Google Assistant is available both for iOS and Android. Additionally we decided to add to action some extra futures like: calendar alerts, gathering clients email.

What was the team composition?

From the beginning, we were supported by Miquido’s: project manager, UX-designer, two developers and pentester. The people allocation has change over time (it has strictly depends on phase of a project), but we can assure you that Miquido made it really agile.

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

We evaluate this project especially by media/press converge. Our project was mentioned in expert’s newspapers from areas like insurance and technology. We are satisfied from the marketing side. We received some feedback from users (for example from Facebook). We hear from them that our application flow and look are decent and user friendly. They are satisfied on existence of new communication channel. What’s more application generated numerous sells leads. The final app doesn’t have bugs or flows. They were enchanted that we were able to deliver such communication channel.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The Miquiod’s project manager was easy to communicate with and provides us frequent updates. We used such tools like: e-mail, Slack and Skype to communicate. What’s more we connected over the phone if there was necessary. To manage the workflow we’ve used Jira. Miquido was responding to our feedback very well (they always applied adjustments very fast).

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Miquido presented a very innovative approach. They were always open-minded and capable to deliver reasonable solutions for nature business problem. What’s more they were very engaged in whole project. We appreciated that they were patient during our business proceeding and they were thoughtful while we came up to speed.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, we don’t see such areas.