Mooncascade

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a local fixed telco operator in Europe, with ~1200 employees. At the time of the project, I was the IOT business manager.

For what projects/services did your company hire Mooncascade?

Creating an MVP version of customer IoT data dashboard on top of our LPWAN network services.

What were your goals for this project?

We had 2 goals:

1. to have the first version of the IOT dashboard and software architecture up fast to validate the business assumptions;
2. to train our freshly hired software development team to be able to continue the platform development going forward.

How did you select this vendor?

Previously Mooncascade helped us to shape and implement our Data science strategy from the ground up, helped to hire our team's very first data scientist and choose the first pilot projects. Their ability to train our internal resources on the go was instrumental for this case.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Mooncascade helped us to build the first version of our IoT Dashboard communicating through APIs with IoT hardware & sensors. The work included the design and development of the front-end and back-end architecture. The main point of the cooperation was to work in a joint team format.

Our developers were working in Mooncascade offices at times, they helped train our team in React & Redux stack, and introduced an agile approach for product development (Scrum sprint planning, standups). They also helped us to start using GitHub flow for peer-reviews and introduced continuous integration (CI).

What was the team composition?

2 developers from our team and then 4 engineers from Mooncascade team: 2 frontend developers, 1 back-end developer, and 1 quality assurance engineer.

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

This was sort of kick-off for our Product development practices and team - later we scaled this experience into a number of products and teams.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

There was a PM from our side who was in direct contact with Mooncascade’s CTO who acted as a PM for our project on Mooncascade’s side.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They think alongside you and keep their promises and our internal development team grew significantly over a short time span through the peer programming approach.

Are there any areas for improvement?

They are quite expensive, thus as their role in the project was focused to get the MVP out quickly and internal team ready to take over.

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Global Hack is a global initiative which unites the Hack the Crisis movement and the 40+ hackathons organized in the frames of this movement. This is truly a global effort and movement involving communities and organizers from all over the world. The Global Hack happened 9-12 April and was created battle the problems we are facing globally in the midst of the crisis as well as creating solutions for the post-crisis world. I was working as head of marketing for this project.

For what projects/services did your company hire Mooncascade?

Mooncascade developed a website based on the designs we provided along with the CMS so we could manage the content ourselves.

What were your goals for this project?

As our goal was to host the biggest online hackathon - we needed a beautifully and functionally crafted website that would carry our mission with ease and excitement. Our website served both as inspiration to take action in the crisis and to give necessary info and proper onboarding of the hackers.

How did you select this vendor?

Suggested via connections.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Mooncascade came on board knowing that the Global Hack project had extremely short timelines and many moving parts but with a mission in mind they was not phased by it. They built the website based on the designs we provided along with the CMS so we could manage the content ourselves. The result was not only a beautiful front end as a simple and functional CMS. Thanks to their smart solutions, adding info on the site was a flawless process. MC put tremendous effort into actively thinking along with us to fill all our wishes, give suggestions and help prioritize. They gave invaluable insight to us as clients of what can be achieved within a short timeline with the biggest impact.

What was the team composition?

We were working with a project manager and four developers.

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

Our website collected 250 000 clicks in 2 weeks of an active marketing campaign. It was the main contact point for news, for inspiration, for hackers, for media etc.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Due to the extreme timeline of 5 days from design too finished website - we were in contact pretty much every day, all day with multiple check-in's. Definitely not something of a normal, but had to be.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

MC team was always there for us - asking the right questions, setting priorities and offering creative solutions on the go. A project born out of the global crisis, calling thousands of hackers together needed matching energy and MC was exactly that. By truly being there to understand and reflect back our vision we could build something that is a strong cornerstone for a bigger movement to come.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, MC is a team with undeniable internal motivation and workflow set in place to execute any challenge given to them.

Please describe your company and your position there.

TransferWise is a global technology company, building the best way to move money around the world. Whether you’re sending money to another country, spending money abroad, or making and receiving international business payments, TransferWise is on a mission to make your life easier and save you money. I am an Engineering Lead at TransferWise.

For what projects/services did your company hire Mooncascade?

Designing the UI/UX and backend API, and developing the iOS and Android native applications as our mobile product offering at the time.

What were your goals for this project?

Our product was initially web-only. We initially didn't have a mobile engineering team inside the company, but wanted to get closer to our customers by bringing the product onto mobile platforms.

How did you select this vendor?

Mooncascade is a well-known software company in the region. In addition, TransferWise and Mooncascade founding teams have a personal prior history of working together on Skype.

Describe the project in detail.

Mooncascade helped us build the first versions of our iOS and Android applications. They created the initial UI/UX design, the backend API design, and implemented the applications (including coding and QA). They helped us to reduce time-to-market at a time when we were only starting to build out our internal mobile engineering team for both iOS and Android platforms. In addition to just technically implementing the project, they also helped us with onboarding internal mobile developers by establishing the best practices and rhythm for high-quality app development.

What was the team composition?

Mooncascade provided the UI/UX designer, 2 iOS developers, 2 Android developers, QA engineer and project manager. On our side we covered the product ownership from the beginning, and later gradually transitioned the other development roles into inhouse team as well.

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

As the project unlocked mobile platforms for our product offering, it has contributed significantly to our continuously increasing customer base. It did so by allowing these products to get to the market significantly faster than the alternative path of waiting to staff an internal team and their delivery. As well, Mooncascade really helped us with getting the internal team to hit the ground running.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Project management was handled in tandem by the product manager on our side, and project manager provided by Mooncascade. The product development was following a well laid out roadmap, implemented by incremental deliveries and keeping a strict eye on quality and testing.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Mooncascade team had a distinct ability to handle the complexities of our financial service with all it’s regulatory-drawn KYC features and other nuances. They are a mature and professional team of experienced developers.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Their higher than average quality of work comes at above average price level as well.

Please describe your company and your position there.

Monese is a digital banking alternative that provides mobile-only, multi-currency accounts for those who are underserved by the traditional banking system. We launched in 2015 and are now available in 31 countries and in 14 languages across the European Economic area. Our proprietary “Know Your Customer” technology can validate a customer’s identity in real-time, allowing accounts to be opened in a matter of minutes, from a mobile app. I am the CTO and one of the founding team members.

For what projects/services did your company hire Mooncascade?

When Monese was first founded, we were a small team of a few engineers and some business and marketing people. We had only just raised our seed round and figured that it would be too risky to try and hire in-house mobile developers to build the Android and iOS applications.

We hired Mooncascade to bridge the hiring gap and help us launch the platform quickly, so that we could focus our efforts on the core of our business and building the backend systems.

What were your goals for this project?

We started off with the Android app development and the goal was to launch the MVP in about 6 months. We needed the application to be compliant with the banking regulation and as we were the very first mobile-only banking company in the UK, there was a lot to figure out technically.

As the application was going to be the primary touch point of our customers to us, it needed to be reliable, fast and free of major bugs. The architecture of t also had to be built in a way that would allow for rapid feature development right after launch.

How did you select this vendor?

Mooncascade was recommended to us by one of our team members. We met with the team at Mooncascade and because of their strong track record in mobile development, general ways of working and a great attitude, they seemed like the team who would be able to deliver.

We ended up forming a great, transparent and trusting relationship with Mooncascade. Exactly what we needed to launch the apps in a short amount of time and in a high-stakes environment.

Describe the project in detail.

We prioritised the building and launch of the Android app first, as Android was the operation system of choice of our target users and most widely used in general. We started with a team of Android developers, QA testers and a Project Manager from Mooncascade’s side, while the backend development, UX/UI design and product management were done on our side.

Throughout the project we alternated between 1- and 2-week sprints. We needed this flexibility because although our backend team was in the same city as the team of Mooncascade, our business side and UI/UX design were based in another. This flexibility enabled us to do longer sprints for bigger chunks of work and shorter ones for smaller bits, all the while sharing progress regularly. We would have our planning, retro and demo meetings over a video bridge and we would always have a good understanding of the progress on Mooncascade’s side, as well as any blockers.

As a startup team, you start to really appreciate anyone who can bring order into chaotic situations and Mooncascade did just that. Not only did the PM always have a velocity chart at hand and could say by heart which developers can manage which tasks in a given amount of time, but they would also test the whole solution as they were testing the mobile app, including our backend and admin interface.

Therefore, they would always have feedback and pointers to give to improve the system as a whole.

What was the team composition?

At first, we had a Project Manager, 3 Android developers and 1 QA engineer on the project. When we moved on to the iOS app development, we had 3 iOS developers in addition to the Android developers on the project, as well as an additional QA when the need arose.

We used the agile scrum methodology which helped us be really flexible and progress with the product development quickly.

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

We wouldn’t have been able to launch the Monese platform without Mooncascade’s help. Their level of expertise, their willingness to work flexibly and their proactivity and ownership was what we most needed in these early days. It would have been a risky choice for us to try and hire the right developers and get them working together at an optimal speed.

With Mooncascade, we had a great team of experts who were used to working together and delivering client projects and who were ready to deliver.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Mooncascade’s project manager was highly professional and diligent. She had a grip on everything that was going on in the project - how much work each developer had and was able to take on at sprint planning meetings, what were the blockers for each developer and where we were in terms of delivery timelines.

She was also very analytical and would build funnels in Mixpanel to troubleshoot where the customers could get stuck at onboarding. We communicated via Slack, Jira and Bitbucket.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were incredibly proactive. You could see they were working on the product as if it was their own - they would raise issues and suggest fixes across the whole system, not just mobile apps. They would also question some of the design decisions from both a user experience perspective, as well as a technical standpoint.

They would give us feedback around how much time a certain feature, designed in a certain way, would take to develop and as speed was important to us, we would often end up adjusting our designs. The whole team felt as if they were a part of our team, rather than an outsourced resource somewhere far away.

Are there any areas for improvement?

There is truly very little they could improve. Perhaps the documentation of the application architecture could have been mapped out a little better, but it was down to the time pressures of the whole development as well.

Please describe your organization.

My company is Biometrics.com. We do biometric authentication through mobile devices by using many different biometric procedures simultaneously including voice, facial recognition, and fingerprint.

What is your position?

I'm the founder. 

What business challenge were you trying to address with Mooncascade?

We needed a development partner that could help us to create the platform that also had the expertise to include the intricate details to include biometric verifications.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Mooncascade managed the complete project, and it ran spotless. 

How did you come to work with Mooncascade?

A good friend of mine who is a professor in information technology, connected me with the company Mooncascade. He knew them, and they had a good relationship. He advised me to speak with Mooncascade and right from the first meeting I gained confidence with their team and carried on with the project with them.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

Our work with Mooncascade has been more than $200,000.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We were able to grab some initial interest around the concept. We were featured on a technology segment in a television broadcast shortly after launch. The sad part is that the biometric market isn't quite mature yet and has not truly taking off in certain fields. My process was meant to be for high-security needs like corporate authentication, the market is still OK with using passwords. 

What distinguishes Mooncascade from other providers?

The Mooncascade team is made up of a bunch of talented individuals who are easy to work with. I was impressed that they know their stuff. When I was in discussion with them, they frequently came up with suggestions that improved my thoughts. That was an extremely positive aspect of working with them.