Perfectial

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

We’ve measured Perfectial alongside our internal team in terms of the efficient and effectiveness of their development. Perfectial has performed well so far—they’re very good at delivering on our requirements. We’re currently in the pre-launch stage.

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

As I said before, Perfectial is upfront about what they can and cannot do based on our requirements and expectations. They’re careful to outline potential gaps or risks. We keep in touch with our project manager regularly, who’s been very helpful in managing the whole process.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’d name several things. First, the breadth of technology that Perfectial can work with is impressive. Running a startup, we don’t necessarily have a lot of time to manage multiple providers to cover our technology stack. Having a single vendor that flexibly offers resources to meet our requirements is incredibly valuable. 

Second, their ability to deliver on commitments stands out. Third and finally, because we’re relatively close to each other—we're both in Europe—it’s much easier for me to work with Perfectial than with other providers located elsewhere.

Are there any areas they could improve?

More communication on the project management side can be helpful. That said, when things haven’t gone exactly as I expected, Perfectial is quick to adjust their team or processes so they can still fulfill their commitments.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear, especially with the project manager or account manager, what your requirements are. In any remote collaboration, communicating your needs can be somewhat challenging. You need to interact more with a project manager so that they understand precisely what you expect.

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

We’ve been really happy with them. Compared to other firms we worked with in the past, Perfectial had really stellar project management. The project manager kept things well-structured, and she was also quite technical and knowledgeable. She replied quickly and always came up with solid solutions when we came to her with requests. She also was good at estimating the time and cost for each task. We felt super comfortable having her as our project manager. 

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint? 

The project manager was the key component to both the project’s success and us being happy working with Perfectial. She was excellent at understanding the business requirements and translating them into technical requirements. She also was quite proactive at making decisions about what could or could not be done based on our requirements. 

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Their flexibility was most impressive. Perfectial was able to tackle unexpected problems. They could cope with different situations and still always deliver good quality. We would often come up with questions or tasks that were urgent. We could count on them to help us brainstorm to find solutions, and then ramp up or down resources as needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes there was a slight misinterpretation because of the language barrier. The project manager was crucial to making the project work despite that challenge.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers? 

Make sure you have a good rapport with your assigned project manager. When working with any company from another country, try to work with them in person as much as possible. That definitely improves efficiency and minimizes the language barrier.

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

We were able to QA and penetration test the platform’s high priority areas within our tight timeline and were confident going into our launch. Following the launch, we were able to continue with the remainder of the testing needed to have a thorough effort.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We really enjoyed working with Perfectial. The team was very organized and communicated very well and regularly. We were also able to bridge a big time difference, being on the West Coast in the US while they were in Lviv. We used Slack and Jira for daily communications and task management, and email for more management and executive-level communications.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Perfectial was very professional, clear in their communications, and organized. They followed through on their commitments and worked seamlessly with our team. They have a clean process and do high-quality work. It was a pleasure to work with them.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Our communications around future work beyond the initial contract did suffer from some misunderstandings, but we also had our role in this due to not knowing exactly what our needs would be post-launch.

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

Week upon week, Perfectial produced the promised deliverables we needed to achieve as we built certain features. We could roll back into the seventh-month view and see all the work we accomplished on a monthly basis. The team’s success lay in the impressive number of features we managed to build together successfully. They resolved all the issues we experienced and met our deadlines on time. 

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management was great. They maintained good communication at all times both towards us and within their internal team. Since we're based in different countries, corresponding could be difficult at times. Overall project management was well-coordinated. The team thoroughly understood our priorities and what needed to be done. We were well-matched. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Perfectial's method of working was quite reliable. They were responsive, available, committed to our project, and always willing to go the extra mile. Rather than treating us like just another client, we felt that their team fully contributed to our project. They considered aspects beyond our exact requirements. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Perhaps they could form a better approach to working with startups. They used generic pricing and packaging that could be stretched across the average stencil of a company. I think it would benefit them to take on a more case-by-case mentality. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

No, not particularly. 

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

Everyone who’s tested the software loves it. We still need to change some of the functions, but Perfectial has done a great job. The prescription process is highly fragmented and complex, and Perfectial has been instrumental in making sure we have a product that streamlines the process and is developed for specific stakeholders in mind.

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

I worked with them on a weekly basis for about five months to get the product to where it is today.

We use JIRA and a couple of other software systems to manage communication, but we mainly use email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m not very knowledgeable in the technology field, and Perfectial was great at helping me understand some of the more intricate aspects of this work. They can help someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience in software to understand the process and how things will be developed and accomplished.

I also appreciate that I’ve had the same team throughout this entire process. They’ve all helped me translate my ideas and feedback into meaningful output as it relates to the software. Perfectial has a comprehensive and effective workflow, which makes them a great partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any issues with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

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

We got to the point where they were generating their own ideas. As they’re building the platform, they make suggestions to improve it. That’s been awesome. The first engineer we started with is still with us, and she’s a trusted leader of the team. We have a high level of trust and communication.

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

They start work about midnight or 1:00 am our time, but I’m up until 3:00–4:00 am, so we have a high level of communication. It’s been a lot of fun. We use Jira, and that’s been pretty good. I haven’t managed that very heavily until recently, as the team has grown. It was very much unstructured. We would talk about feature sets through emails, and they would manage themselves to get the work done.

More recently, we’ve gotten into using Jira because the team has grown a lot, and the informal approach is a little harder. That has gone well too. I get to throw stuff in there, putting in as much detail as I can. I talk with them daily, and then we have a weekly, longer meeting. That’s an opportunity for me to voice priorities. They always have a big log of work they can be doing—little bugs and tweaks that they’re more than encouraged to look at when they have downtime. We also use Skype for communication and Bitbucket for code management.

What did you find most impressive about Perfectial?

They do very well with ambiguity, which I like. I don’t want to tell them how every detail has to look and act. I like to tell them what we have to get onto a page, and they figure out the best way to do it. More often than not, they do a great job at that. I like having that flexibility.

Are there any areas Perfectial could improve?

I don’t think there’s any area for them to improve. I think they’re doing a fantastic job. 

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

We’ve continued with them because we like their work, and some of the success factors are that they’re responsive, they’re technical skill level is good, the aesthetic skills among their artists are excellent and my staff enjoys working with them. I frequently hear from my team that they’re easy to work with. The two products that are in the market that have their content in it were existing products, and the change in the user interface was very positively received and well accepted by our user base. The new branding effort resonated well and it improved the quality of our brand as it’s seen by the outside world. And the cost is reasonable. I don’t want to say they’re inexpensive because they’re not, but they’re reasonable.

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

I have outside contractors and individual contributors, but they’re really the only outside agency I’ve worked with.

What did you find most impressive about Perfectial?

Their developers are all in Eastern Europe, so their differentiating factor is that they have the quality level of a San Francisco agency at half the price. The reason we picked them was not for the price: the quality of their UI work was judged superior to other options. But the price difference made it possible to work with an international agency, whereas if their price had been the same as a Silicon Valley firm, it would have been very difficult.

Are there any areas Perfectial could improve?

When we ask them to do something, they always say yes. We ask them for a pretty broad range of things, including very technical things like a WiFi data transfer solution. They ultimately solved everything, but they didn’t have the expertise from the beginning. They had to go develop it. Which was okay. They really did tell me that at the beginning, but that may have been the one weak thing. They’d solve the problem, but it might take six weeks instead of one. I’m struggling to find something that could be improved, though: they really did pull together the correct solution.

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

We have had a functional build at the end of every sprint, with well-known features being added according to plan. We also had a well-known set of issues that were very clearly managed. I’ve had quite a lot of experience dealing with external entities, extended parties, and partners. There are a few things that really caught my attention. They are very good communicators, which is absolutely a must, especially if you’re not in the same building, let alone in different time zones. If they’re facing an issue in a design area, they will have a very well-written JIRA ticket with concise information. It’s very natural and straightforward to understand what they want and to then respond. I’ve had situations with other suppliers where it would take 3-days to finally understand exactly what we needed to work on. The clarity of communication and their use of tools is amazing. They use very good processes and are very much on top of it. That’s why we keep working with them and will continue to work with them. The more budget I have, the more work I can award to them.

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

Their discipline is amazing. Speaking of discipline, they are truly agile when it comes to development. They really understand the way to go about it, breaking down stories into small, realistic user points. They understand the velocity to the point where if somebody gets sick or goes on a leave, they understand that if we had 60 points, for example, we’re only going to do 56. They’re usually right within 5%. Projects are dynamic. If you have very disciplined short stories, you’re at the top of your game. You understand how to manage the developmental organization and the project itself. If you communicate effectively, you can very quickly correct the course and adjust. We use Google Hangouts to communicate. Although not everything was right, it was very quick to see when things were not going right and very easy to adjust. That’s a basic principle of being Agile. You want visibility and the ability to react to it.

What did you most impressive about Perfectial?

They're fairly unique in their pragmatic use of Scrum and Agile techniques to run a project. Combine that with their communication skills and discipline of documenting succinctly, being clear, and having a very open and wide channel, and it’s really good to work with them. The real pleasurable thing is that they are genuinely nice people. They’re not abrasive or aggressive. It’s an open dialogue with them and they’ll always say what’s going on. If something is going to be blocking them, they take it in stride. They don’t get upset or bent out of shape. They are very much part of our team.

Are there any areas Perfectial could improve?

There were times when they would spend a large amount of energy making sure that we have a good definition. Sometimes, they would be lost. For example, in UX, we could see that sometimes there was a flaw. They wouldn’t be upset about it. They would go back and fix it. It would’ve been great if they had done it from the get-go, but it was a very small thing in a big way.

As we have been successful with them, we want them to be more a part of our extended staff and use our tools. Otherwise, it becomes a little more challenging when they’re developing an app and I find a bug or I want to do something specific, but they’re on a separate system than ours. We haven’t quite figured out how to make the integration better. They’re open to going either way, but there’s no one easy solution.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Perfectial?

There are two critical things. One is if you want to give something to anybody that’s outside of your office, make it as self-contained and well-defined a mission as possible. That makes it easier to build a team and to know when you’re successful. That also reduces the number of interdependencies. It’s really hard to say, “I’ll do development and you do testing,” or “I’ll do this part of the workflow and you do that part of the workflow,” because there’s too much dependency there. The second thing is having a good technical lead on your side to be a touch point. There’s going to be issues and challenges, so you don’t want five people exchanging emails. All you do is lose time.

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

 Our daily operations involved sending out close to 15,000 emails. Before the acquisition, we had around 20,000 listings on the platform. After that point, the listings grew to 200,000 and we were able to scale the platform quickly and easily. A lot of quality work was done in the back-end by Perfectial. That's where they really excelled. The platform was nicely done from a development perspective.

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

Because we had a fairly small team, we used the basic Google Drive suite for communication. We also used Pivotal Tracker at some point during our collaboration with Perfectial, but it was mostly an informal, Agile process. We wanted to get stuff done instead of managing it.

What did you find most impressive about Perfectial?

I received good feedback from a quality of work perspective. Perfectial was top-notch compared to other freelancers and companies that we dealt with prior to our engagement. When we started working with Perfectial, they didn't have a big UX and design team. But they came to grow as well, accumulating mobile and visual design resources. This came as a good combination with Perfectial's strong development team. It gave us access to a full scope, allowing us to build an entire product using the same company.

Are there any areas Perfectial could improve?

When we started, Perfectial didn't have a good UX team, so we had to deal with other people for wireframes and visual design. We felt that it would be good for Perfectial to have this, and it is my understanding that Perfectial has addressed it. 

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

I have had a number of experiences in the past with different software development providers, both nationally and internationally. Ultimately, I have ended up working with Perfectial more than with others because of their consistency and practical approach. I cannot remember any instances in which Perfectial promised something that they did not deliver or them managing expectations incorrectly. Unfortunately, I have found this to be a common issue with other organizations because of the remote nature of the work, or the type of relationship we had. Perfectial has a good, broad knowledge of different technologies as well as strong project management skills.

How did Perfectial perform from a project management standpoint?

Perfectial always delivered on time and on budget. We have worked through a mixture of project-based and time-and-materials engagements. We are currently working on a fixed-price project with Perfectial, but we are discussing other activities that will be time and materials because of the less-defined nature of the work. During our startup work, the engagement also leaned towards time and materials. We had a great scope, but it was not defined to a level that would allow Perfectial to maintain a fixed price.

We have used the Atlassian stack during our three engagements, namely JIRA and Confluence, for general collaboration. On a smaller project, Perfectial also used Pivotal Tracker.

What distinguishes Perfectial from other providers?

Perfectial's ability to work independently has been uncommon, relative to other outsourcers. Very often, in my experience, I had to give developers exact specifications. Perfectial can also work using this approach but, for our current project for example, there was no time for putting together a fully documented set of requirements. We went through a two-day brainstorming process around those requirements. Perfectial was able to start from there and deliver it.

Is there anything Perfectial could have improved or done differently?

Given my experience with Perfectial, an improvement would be in terms of even stronger project management. This depends on each project's requirements and they have been better than other providers even in this respect, but I would generally like for Perfectial to be more involved.