What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
We’re approaching 1,500 investor members on our platform who are looking at our property investment opportunities. We’ve listed over £5 million (approximately $6,576,025 USD) worth of properties with the average price of around £200,000 (approximately $263,041 USD). We’ve also transacted on about 10–15 properties, though it’s still relatively early in terms of the evolution of the whole business. The platform that OAK’S LAB built has allowed us to do all of this despite being only being launched since May.
The experience we provide to investors is very tailored and customized. Customers can choose how much mortgage they want to take on and select from various furniture and design options. OAK’S LAB built our whole customized experience, which has been key for transacting properties. They’ve been there from start to finish and feel like they’re part of your in-house team.
The quality of the overall build has been great, without any major bugs or glitches. OAK’S LAB has addressed any minor issues right away. I can’t speak highly enough of them and we continue to rely on them.
How did OAK’S LAB perform from a project management standpoint?
Their team has always been very receptive and helpful to any issues or challenges. OAK’S LAB is available on the weekend and late at night, and they go the extra mile. We use Slack to communicate on a daily basis, and clients can be as involved or uninvolved as they want. We tend to be very involved and we work very closely with them. We have set processes in place and we always know where everything is in the process.
We also have a GitHub board for all the tickets and for tracking work. We use Google Hangouts for a couple of weekly calls we have together. Together with OAK’S LAB, we do a sprint plan every two weeks and have a monthly call for going over the previous month’s work and catching up on our business goals. We’ve pushed them quite hard on several occasions and deadlines are always met. Several members of their team have had to work late nights to meet particular deadlines for new feature launches.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their professionalism is pretty awesome and the work they’ve delivered is amazing. The manner in which OAK’S LAB goes about their work really stands out. They feel like an in-house team, which is really good when you’re at a very early stage and you’re going through a lot of changes.
When I’ve spoken about the technology stacks we used with other developers, they’ve been impressed with OAK’S LAB and have said that they’re using the latest technologies that most large organizations would be adopting.
Are there any areas they could improve?
Sometimes when projects are in the testing environment, some things can get a little bit lost in translation. This could be improved but it has nothing to do with the actual technical build. For instance, it could be a label that’s spelled incorrectly. It’s just small details that are missed but that’s mainly because they’re focused on development.
The platform has over 1,500 investors signed up and has transacted about 15 properties to date despite being relatively recently launched. OAK’S LAB produced high-quality work and their team is willing to work out of office hours in order to reach deadlines. They’re also very receptive and helpful.