Outline

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CEO of an insurtech company called BeforeYouGo based in Warsaw, Poland. We serve clients traveling all over the world on business or private trips.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Outline?

We already made an app for iOS and we needed a company to develop the same app for Android devices.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to reach more customers by making an app for Android users.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

My team was looking for an Android developer in Warsaw. We found three companies that fit our requirements. We choose Outline as the best fit for our project.

Describe the project in detail.

After selecting Outline, we met together in person to discuss the scope of the project. We discussed features and the project timeline throughout the project. They developed and delivered the Android app with the functionalities we requested.

What was the team composition?

The team consisted of three people, a graphic designer and two app developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In only three months, our Android app was ready to download from the Google Play store and boasted a 4.0 rating. Outline met our deadlines and the app did not have any flaws or bugs.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Our workflow has been very precise and fast. We communicated through Slack and their team implemented all of our changes very quickly. At the end of each week, Outline sent us the updates on the work and how far they were along the project timeline.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Outline are professionals who predicted my needs to create optimal solutions. I have cooperated with many IT vendors and Outline has simply been the best. They are really open to changes and react quickly to notifications about eventual errors.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, I have no reservations towards their work. They made the project both quickly and with good quality.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CTO of Kourts, a multi-national tennis tech company that is disrupting the world of tennis. Our headquarters are located in Silicon Beach with technical operations based in Europe, consisting of world-class developers for iOS, Android, and the web. Our tech team is based in Warsaw, Poland.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Outline?

We hired them to create our Android app for tennis players. We had already built the iOS app with in-house developers but had no Android developers on the team yet, so we got started with Outline to create the architecture and build the Android app from scratch.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to create an Android app as soon as possible since we had already released iOS version months earlier.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I researched different consultancy agencies in Poland and after performing interviews and code tests, Outline was the best fit for this project. They particularly have strong Android architectural skills.

Describe the project in detail.

When we selected Outline, we set the start date for a week later and they were very flexible with that. We already had the technical scope since we already had done the iOS app, so the first task when we actually started was to sit together and do a full scope planning. We split up the project into several modules, did time estimates for each, and got an initial deadline for the project.

What was the team composition?

They provided an Android developer that had the responsibility of building the app from scratch. After a couple of weeks, they also provided a user interface developer to boost the speed of the project. Halfway through, two newly employed in-house Android developers joined the project. All the project management was done in-house.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app is not yet released but a very good success story is that the deadlines for every module have been kept almost to perfection.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The communication has been outstanding. We created a group channel on Telegram where we discuss daily problems that occur. We also have daily standups with the entire team so that Outline can listen in on the other things happening in the tech team and can give continuous status reports.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They’re definitely very technically competent, which made the initial phase of the project easy in comparison to other similar projects we've had. The lead architect had a very clear vision of how to build the app, and after some discussions and adjustments, it was clear what we were paying for very early on.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Outline has worked on multiple modules at the same time instead of working on one module at a time, which has made it a bit harder for us to manage the project since it doesn't give a clear vision of how fast we are working on every module. But after discussing it with them, this style of coding was corrected according to our wishes.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Chess.com. We do online chess.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Outline?

I have worked with many development firms. I was looking for a new provider for additional talent. We needed Android development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us with our Android app using Android code.

What is the team dynamic?

I worked mostly with Sebastian [Solutions Architect, Outline].

How did you come to work with Outline?

It could have been on UpWork or we may have posted to our Chess.com community looking for Android developers. I interviewed several companies and Outline seemed the most capable.

How much have you invested with them?

More than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2015 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our app is launched. We have about 1,000,000 users. We have a 4.5 rating on the Android app store.

How did Outline perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform fine. They communicate through email, Slack, and Jira.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're great. They do their job. They care and produce good code.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they're great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the application development manager for Techtronic Industries, a multi-national, multi-billion-dollar company. We manufacture tools under license from a wide range of brands like Ryobi, Ridged, and Hoover. It is my job to make sure applications get architected correctly, and are then built to specification.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Outline?

We wanted to be able to build apps for our products. All the apps that are produced are connected to a physical piece of hardware. The app development cycle is not continuous, so we didn’t want to build an entire internal team. We wanted to develop a small team internally, and then have an outside resource for further development when we had a surge in development work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We just launched an app for a connected generator. They did both the Android and iOS development, and they did a fantastic job. We do all the design internally, and they interpret those designs very well. Their level of communication is fantastic. They work very fast, and the code is always clean and runs well.

For Android, they use the Kotlin programming language. We also provide them with a continuous integration service so that every build is tested as soon as it’s checked in. They do a great job with source control. They always have a pull request, and then a second developer to review and approve that request, so their workflow is outstanding. For iOS, their ability to write Swift 3 Code is at a very high level.

I take the project manager role and work directly with the development team. They have a large Android dev team and a small iOS dev team. They also have their own project manager, who I work with daily. I’ve probably worked with five or six different people there.

How did you come to work with Outline?

They responded to a request for developers that I put on Reddit. I looked at their past work, which was very good. We did a small project with them, and that went very well. We’re now on our fifth or sixth project with them.

How much have you invested with Outline?

We’ve spent between $100,000 and $150,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in July of 2016, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The defect count is extremely low, and we track that using Fabric.io. Their turnaround time is very fast for fixes, and they’re highly available. Their code is compact, not overly verbose or terse. They tend to do things in a usable way rather than a clever way. I don’t like clever developers; they just make things difficult for everyone.

How did Outline perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re very good. We communicate daily via Slack and weekly via phone calls. They do a very good job of writing their pull requests so that we always know what’s going on. They do an outstanding job with project management.

What did you find most impressive about Outline?

They deliver, and always in a timely manner. The code they produce is very, very good.

Are there any areas Outline could improve?

No. It’s very easy to work with them.