OakTree Apps

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief experience officer (CXO) of Helios. We have an app called #lovework. 

What challenge were you trying to address with OakTree Apps?

We needed someone to transition into our lead developer role because our CTO found a full-time job elsewhere.

What was the scope of their involvement?

OakTree Apps helps us with mobile app development for iOS and Android. They work on the app’s front- and backends using Firebase. They’ve written scripts and done hotfixes for us. 

What is the team composition?

We work with three developers: one for the frontend, one for the backend, and one that does both.

How did you come to work with OakTree Apps?

We were working with a CTO who found Pratik (Founder) from OakTree Apps on Upwork. Their skillset matched what we were looking for, so we chose them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $30,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with them since January 2021, and we continue to use their services. We started using their services for a few hours, and we’ve probably tripled the amount of time that we use with them. 

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

We’re still in beta mode. About 10 of our main clients and 150 users have access to the app. However, our app is paid for by employers; we’re not targeting everybody in the App Store. 

I’m very happy with the services that OakTree apps provide. They do great work and are very detail-oriented and helpful. They are always available to help with hotfixes if anything breaks randomly. 

How did OakTree Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

OakTree Apps’ team is really good at meeting deadlines; we haven’t missed one in months. They’re great at communicating whether something will take more time than they thought it would on the frontend, which has helped manage our team’s expectations.

Whenever they say they’ll do something and they think it will take more time, they put in extra effort to meet deadlines. If the hours go above what we agreed to, they don’t charge us for those hours. We communicate via Slack.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really go above and beyond to help me as the product manager get things done so that our users don't have to experience any issues. They're pretty good at jumping in whenever we need them to, which I appreciate a lot. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have constructive feedback to give them. If anything, I wish that we had more resources to dedicate to app development. However, they’re great.

Any advice for potential customers?

With any development company you work with, try to set the expectations of what you will need from them. Communication-wise, make sure that you let them know what tools you are going to use. For example, we use Slack instead of email. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

CEO and Co-Founder

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

We needed an extremely competent team that could help us build our MVP. The project entailed detailed layering of geo-focused push notifications, simplicity and design. The goals were to build this in a manner that presented an intuitive front-end UI that could keep customers engaged.

How did you select OakTree Apps and what were the deciding factors?

OakTree Apps was far and above the most competent team we looked at. We knew the scope of this project required experience, and OakTree clearly articulated that they had all of the right know-how in full stack mobile-app development.

Though it is hard to measure how one's development process and work ethic will be during a hiring process, it turned out this is by far OakTree's most significant customer advantage. Their availability, punctual delivery of results, troubleshooting of bugs / issues is likely the most important deciding factor even over their technical competence. And as mentioned before, their technical competence is superior.

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

Main technologies used included Flutter, OneSignal API integration for push notifications and others. The scope of work began with getting the device to simply send push notifications, then eventually layer the remaining geobased qualifications we were looking for.

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

We primarily worked with 2 people, the graphic designer and the lead programmer, who had a more robust team that he managed in order to meet customer goals.

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

The project was completed comfortably on schedule, and on budget.

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

We used Zeplin for sharing ideas / themes with the Graphic Designer and moved to Click Up for development project management. As the developers sent out new versions, the co-founders would measure that version against the scope of work, and identify issues in Click Up. From there, you could see the lead developer delegating tasks to his colleagues, who quickly delivered solutions.

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

OakTree is truly a unicorn of software development teams. They are extremely competent, extremely professional, punctual on product delivery and deliver products at or below average market cost.

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

Stop being so successful so we can use them more often! But I think OakTree might also help to remember that younger companies might not be as familiar with all things considered 'industry standard' while building mobile / web apps. For example, guide the customer during the Scope of Work development phase to make sure they're accounting for all things like password reset, normal dashboard functions etc.

They're likely common things to most in the tech world, but worth a conversation educating the customer on what is common place and common development requirements to build out the true underlying framework of the product. Fortunately, our relationship with OakTree only grew and our communication with one another became seamless by the end of the development cycle on this current project!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of a medical services company.

What challenge were you trying to address with OakTree Apps?

We brought them on to develop our mobile application.

What was the scope of their involvement?

The solution is a mobile app for iOS and Android and it has symptom-tracking capabilities. It tracks COVID-19 symptoms. There are many features related to COVID-19 prevention and early outreach.

At first, we were working with set dates and milestones. Then, we shifted to a more flexible schedule. Every two weeks, we’d come up with a list of assignments comprising tweaking functionalities or building new features. At the end of the two weeks, they’d turn it in and I’d review everything.

What is the team composition?

I worked with one of the owners, and he had a team behind him.

How did you come to work with OakTree Apps?

We searched online for app developers. They seemed competent and assured us they could do the job. It was vital that they develop the app for both iOS and Android.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested a little under $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in May 2020. We’ve currently paused things because of financial constraints. We will finish the project in the future.

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

Our main success metric is obtaining new clients. At this time, it doesn’t appear that we’ve obtained the client base we were looking for in terms of enterprise clients. That’s not to the fault of OakTree Apps though. It might have been on our internal side when it comes to sales and marketing. Their team did provide some advice on how to sell and market enterprise-level apps and that might be more helpful in the future.

How did OakTree Apps perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is good; they’re prompt at meeting deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They worked quickly and were willing to adapt to new tests that were completely unrelated. I appreciated the flexibility and patience they offered.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Often times, I felt that some of their work could’ve been completed better. In these cases, the quality wasn’t as high as I would’ve wanted. However, overall, they did an incredible job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I advise potential customers to set timelines and commitments with them. They appreciate commitments for a specified time period. If you’re willing to work with them on that, they provide a wonderful service and do a great job.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We specialize in skill based assessments for job seekers. My position is Founding partner

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

Help develop the protoype and integration between offline and mobile platforms

How did you select OakTree Apps and what were the deciding factors?

I was referred to Oaktree through a friend, they were able to jump in the project and obtain real understanding of the projecting the vision to the stakeholders and delivering an outline to completion.

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

Organizing wire frames, UI and UX then transitioning into a functional prototype.

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

We worked with a team of 3 people. Project Manager, API intergration and a UX/UI specialist

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

Made a presentable outlook for investors and recieved a great response of the apps functionailty at a high level.

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

Very hands on and detailed

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

We were impressed by how much the team gave this project more personal attention.

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

As with any company there can be improvement, but for the project and scope of this project I was satisfied.