Outcome Engine

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder of Same Seed Different Soil LLC

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We guide local youth to discover their strengths and connect the to real career paths through career coaching and skills building.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Outcome Engine to accomplish?

• Build a centralized web application to manage mentors, students, and activities efficiently.
• Improve reporting and visibility with dashboards and exportable data
• Ensure the system is accessible and easy to use across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.

SOLUTION

How did you find Outcome Engine?

Networking event

Why did you select Outcome Engine over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Outcome Engine were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Outcome Engine designed, developed, and launched a fully responsive web application for us, optimized for desktop, tablet, and mobile. The process began with mockups and design reviews to ensure alignment with our vision, followed by development of secure user authentication with role-based access for administrators and mentors, a dashboard showing key metrics and recent activity, and tools to manage mentors, students, time entries, and activity types. They also implemented reporting tools with filters and CSV export options. The application was delivered ready for production, thoroughly tested for usability and performance, and supported for 30 days after launch to address any issues

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The project delivered a complete, production-ready web application that equips us to manage our mentor and student programs much more effectively. We now have a centralized system with secure access, clear visibility into key metrics through the dashboard, and tools to track, report, and manage activities in one place. The application is fully set up to streamline our operations, improve reporting accuracy, and save time compared to our previous manual processes

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Project management was flawless. All deliverables met the timeline and they were very responsive when I had additional questions.

What was your primary form of communication with Outcome Engine?

In-Person Meeting

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

I came into the project with a grand plan for the finished project. They helped me realize at the first meeting that I did not need as robust a program to start. They helped build exactly what I need now with the scalability for the future so I saved time and money right from the jump.

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

None

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Assistant Professor of a research lab

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

I run a research lab that develops ed tech tools to track literacy growth in bilingual children from pre-K through 3rd grade.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Outcome Engine to accomplish?

• Create functional assessment platform for administration of Spanish language and literacy test items
• Implement computerized adaptive algorithm to guide order of item administration
• Create data visualizations that are accessible to and informative for teachers

SOLUTION

How did you find Outcome Engine?

Referral

Why did you select Outcome Engine over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Outcome Engine were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

The existing language and literacy assessments will be adapted to Spanish, and will gain new functionality to allow greater control of test progression and improved access to student test response data.  This work will require architectural improvements to the underlying structure of the assessments to enable the new functionality.

Tasks included or will include:

• Add support for Spanish-language text-to-speech voices
• Enable/disable adaptive test algorithms based on URL used to access the assessment
• Allow admins to select randomized or adaptive test progression; for randomized, allow specification of a set pool of questions
• Implement test response export
• Store test questions in MySQL database instead of current method of storing in hard-coded JSON file
• Backend code re-architecture and relocation into new stable data layer code base
• Implement student login screen and rewrite logic to replace current insecure URL parameter login method
• Create admin tools to modify questions
• To support new questions and narration, replace problematic and outdated jQuery-UI frontend code with modern ReactJS
• Add support for either current recorded audio files or Spanish text to speech to support live editing of test questions without re-recording
• Modifications and improvements from lessons learned during year 1 (e.g. improvements to admin tools, rare / edge case bug fixes, changes to test progression after calibration
• Assessment calibration for Spanish-language items and progression algorithms in all 3 assessments

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Stability of assessments in the field. 
• Accurate and immediate recording of data.
• Easy-to-use interface for administration. 

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

The team has always been incredibly responsive and has delivered items on time or even early. 

What was your primary form of communication with Outcome Engine?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

As someone who works in academia but on the creation of ed tech tools, I’ve often worked with tech teams who have excellent technical skills but limited content knowledge about the “why” of what they are working on. This is not true at all of Outcome Engine. This team is very knowledgeable about the importance of accurate assessment of language and literacy skills of young, bilingual children and understands the practical needs for implementation by my team.

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

None that come to mind