Pieoneers

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of GameSheet Inc., a sports data platform. My business partner and I are coaches and managers in minor Hockey in Ontario. My business partner was a convener for his son’s hockey league. He went to the convener’s meeting and found out all the work that a convener has to do. It involved collecting all of the semi-illegible paper score sheets from all the games scored over the week or the weekend, taking that home, and entering all the data onto an Excel spreadsheet and getting that into the league before midnight on Sunday night. He realized how much work that was for conveners. At the time, the iPad had just been invented and we wanted to digitize the whole process.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pieoneers?

When we moved from the second to the third version, we had to rebuild it. There was nothing wrong with it. It was an excellent system but it wasn’t scalable. We had landed some big contracts and were at the point where we could patch it together with duct tape but if we were really good at selling and the product was taking off, it wouldn’t be sustainable.

They had a very short window of time to build it and get it up and running. We had a tremendous amount of time pressure on them from April 2018 until the fall of 2018. We had to have a system that could handle the capacity. Then we went out and sold and signed up dozens and dozens of leagues and onboarded hundreds and hundreds of new managers, coaches, etc.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They rebuilt our platform from scratch. The whole tech stack was JavaScript, Node.js, Kubernetes, and Go. It was hosted with Google Cloud.

They also recommended that we take a look at our branding. They created all of our branding strategy, the logos, all the branding assets, the colors, and the whole schematics top to bottom. We’ve got a dashboard, an iPad app where they build the games, and then once the game is done, they upload it to the server. We have the webserver application, the admin area, and the API. They all work seamlessly together. There’s multiple applications on each.

What is the team composition?

At any given time, there was a total of 12 people. There were two designers, seven developers, the CTO, a QA engineer, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Pieoneers?

We were quite lucky in how we ended up reaching Pieoneers. We ended up working with a group prior to Pieoneers and then the product manager who we worked with moved to Pieoneers and brought us with them as a client because he had been with us from the first phone call. It was a lucky break for us. Once we started to scale this, we needed somebody with the expertise that Pieoneers had to take it to the level we’ve taken it to.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $1.5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2015 and there’s ongoing development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve been able to onboard 4,000 teams in the fall of 2019, showing that it’s really user-friendly. We’ve tripled our revenue year over year for the last three years. We’ve created some videos online for people to get trained. It’s intuitive to people who use it. We’re moving into the U.S. market and they are even crazier about it. We were ahead of our time.

We couldn’t be happier with their ability to deliver the technology for us and our customers. They always delivered for us.

Whoever uses our system, become raving fans because it solves so many problems and it’s so intuitive. I have thousands of testimonials from people. Most of our support calls start off with telling us it’s an incredible system and that they can’ believe how easy and intuitive it is, that it saves their volunteers tons of time, everyone loved it including the managers, the coaches, the conveners, the time keepers, the referees, and every stakeholder.

We even had a guy come on board to have another set of eyes on our system. He had been a CTO of Ticketmaster in Canada when they launched their digital app that I love. He went in and did an audit of our system and he was blown away by how clean, smooth, and intelligent all the systems work together.

Now we get probably a couple calls a week about the app from the U.S., and we have four leagues in Germany using it.

We’ve had a couple glitches. We did an update that messed something up and we had to switch it and go back to the old way or do a patch. There are possibly thousands of games over a weekend that they were able to work through problems and fix them while those games were being scored and played and uploaded. Our uptime is 99.99% for over two years with the new system.

We get compliments all the time on our branding and our logo and our colors.

I was blown away by what we got and what the value was for what we paid. It happened in such a quick timeframe.

 How did Pieoneers perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is exceptional. We’ve always felt we were their biggest client whether we were or we weren’t. It’s collaborative. Once you are dealing with a development company, you’re in a symbiotic relationship. If we struggle, they’re going to struggle; vice versa. If we’re successful, they’re successful. It’s been the latter. I couldn’t speak enough to their abilities to deliver for us especially when we needed them to deliver it. We’re in the U.S. and dealing with USA hockey and a whole different set of penalty codes, etc. We’d reach out to them last minute and ask them to have it ready and tested to be able to present in a meeting in seven days. They’d always say yes and they’d figure it out.

They had teams working almost around the clock. They did what they had to do to make sure when a puck dropped on a game on a Friday night in September, everything worked.

If there’s a problem or glitch, we hear about it immediately. I don’t think we’ve ever been down for longer than an hour. I hold them to the highest standard because we have to. We’re a fledgling company growing and you’re only as good as your ability to keep it going and making it smooth and easy. We pride ourselves on being able to get back to the clients and be there for them when they call. We’ve also seen, in this space, there’s a lot of complaints about technology companies because they don’t hear back for a week or they send an email and you can’t reach the people. We give them our phone numbers. With that, we need a company that does the same thing. When we answer the phone, we need to be able to get somebody at the other end to answer the phone and fix anything.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have a genius inside their company, Andrew (CTO). He understood what we were trying to accomplish and he took it on as a personal challenge. It became personal to him. He came up with ideas, concepts, and ways to make the system work. He wanted something to work in 1/15 of a second. I was on the other side saying if it happens in a second, we can work with that. He held himself to the absolute highest standard that geniuses hold themselves to sometimes. We were the beneficiary of that type of daily, hourly, minute by minute thinking and actions to build our system.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could charge me less but we got the very best talent.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Look at all that they offer. We were going from mom and pop shop with our sales and our volumes to global, number one position. We are the number one hockey and lacrosse digital scoring system in the world. I suggest anyone make sure they look at the whole suite of services.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We help companies embed sustainability into their operations and decision making – I am the communications manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pieoneers?

Our previous web developer of ten years decided to go in a different direction, so we needed a new developer to manage all of our technology needs. We were keen to get a team of people who were local to Vancouver.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were in charge of bringing the web app up to modern standards in terms of UX and technology. Our website was on Ruby on Rails, and we weren’t sure if it would be the right choice to keep the legacy tech stack. After completing the Onboarding phase and reviewing our product needs, Pieoneers suggested that we use a new tech stack, so they implemented GatsbyJS and Contentful. It was also important to us that they were able to integrate the platform with Tableau, because a lot of our tools are built using that software.

One of the biggest challenges was recreating our interactive wheel—a major feature on the site, and navigation. The wheel has 60 different pathways that researchers and change agents can click on and explore. Each of those pathways has 1–8 resources. Pieoneers implemented the new interactive wheel and content infrastructure in modern tech stack using JavaScript, GatsbyJS, and Contentful. A large improvement for us is the addition of mobile UX and making the wheel mobile-friendly which is very important for our users.

Since we finished development, they’ve worked on ongoing tasks like adding new tools and Tableau integrations, and maintenance. They created a staging environment for us to approve new features, integrations, and pages, and then they push that to our production server once we give our approval.

What is the team composition?

I have two main points of contact but have also met other people on the team. They include the Project Manager, the UX/UI Designer, Web Developer, DevOps Engineer, and occasional support from their CTO.

How did you come to work with Pieoneers?

We wanted to work with a local team, to avoid the issue of time differences. We came up with four potential web developers in the local area. We interviewed all of them, and decided that Pieoneers would be the best fit. It was also important to us that Pieoneers is familiar with an array of data visualization tools, especially Tableau.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $120,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in March 2019 and it’s ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

People who use and engage with the site regularly have commented on how user-friendly the site is, the navigation is intuitive and a lot better. 

How did Pieoneers perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve managed it well, and we’ve had no complaints so far. We operate out of Basecamp and if we need to make changes, it all flows through there. We really haven’t had an issue. During active development phases, we have weekly calls on Google Meet, and daily updates on Basecamp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Our team are not developers, so we weren't sure about operations in the backend or what might be the best tech stack for us going forward. It felt like Pieoneers really guided us. Based on our needs, they’ve been very honest and have been able to give us great recommendations.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Maybe some of the onboarding could have been improved, but we operate seamlessly now. The onboarding workshop they did with us was great, this was the first time we got to see our system at all levels from individual screens to a flowchart. This helped us reveal issues in our content structure and define the direction for improvements. We were able to discuss the pros and cons of keeping the legacy technology stack vs moving to a modern tech stack. Pieoneers helped us understand both the limitations and the benefits and point us in the right direction.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Tell Pieoneers exactly what you need, and invest time in the beginning describing project scope, project goals, audience, etc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder and CEO of pledgecircle, an educational startup. We will operate as a digital marketplace for the K-12 sector.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pieoneers?

I was seeking an organization that could act as my interim CTO. We were looking for a company to validate the platform’s viability before we invested money into actually executing it. Primarily, I was looking to verify the functionality and novelty of the computer logic of my new graphic UI. I needed assistance in confirming that my system architecture and design were truly original.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Together, we collaborated on confirming and developing a system schema and architecture. We then constructed diagrams of architecture options that could be utilized in my patented product. Since I’m also building a substantial digital marketplace, Pieoneers ensured cross-channel integration by taking into account web, mobile-web, and mobile-only functionalities.

In the last few months of our engagement, they’ve developed an extensive game plan, which culminates in a prototype of the platform. Working with GV, they developed an effective system schema and are now working on strategizing the platform’s actual development.

They demonstrated a keen insight into the various marketplace models and the role of SaaS workflow tools in today's collaborative environment. With a seamless UX/UI in mind, they collaborated to explore what toolsets and frameworks would be best for my product vision. They even assisted in my logo design.

How did you come to work with Pieoneers?

Back in 2011, I did some research on companies that offered the development of graphic user interfaces. We spent a day together, and I decided that I felt comfortable enough to move forward with them. They validated my vision and demonstrated that they had the resources to make it a reality.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent somewhere under $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2012, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’ve been instrumental in our growth and development. Pieoneers has demonstrated an impressive understanding of my criteria, as well as the various components of what’s needed in a digital marketplace. They seem to just get my vision, and they’ve always been one step ahead of putting together the necessary resources.

They’ve been able to address my technical questions (I approach them from a marketing background, not a tech one), and give me solutions regarding security and cloud services. They have so much knowledge of the marketplace—from the latest technologies to different toolsets and frameworks. With them, I’ll be able to launch into rapid development.

How did Pieoneers perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been excellent communicators, despite being a remote team. They almost feel like an in-house team. They’re committed, and they always perform within budget. They typically deliver what’s required of them, which makes me very happy.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their knowledge of both the marketplace and my personal vision is just outstanding.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I’d have them improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

While I want to keep them all for myself, I’d strongly recommend them. They have robust resources and can handle rapid development.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a marketing leader at Squadex, a US-based cloud consultancy. We offer expertise in DevOps, data engineering, and machine learning.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pieoneers?

We needed help with web development for some of our projects.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They created a website from scratch for desktop and mobile users. We began with understanding and defining our target audiences with them. Our core objective was to match market expectations. That goal required research on market insights as to how US-based consultancies behave, what their core target audiences are, and how users behave on those websites.

The first goal was to build a smooth desktop version of the website. The mobile option followed that. We initially researched the project together through an iterative process. They worked on wireframes, UX, and design templates. After that, we did several design concepts that we tested with a target audience in the United States. We basically did AB testing with selected players within the industry, and then we went through to implementation.

What is the team composition?

We were in touch with several people from their team. Indirectly, there were four to five people involved. We directly collaborated with three people. There were a project manager and a marketing strategist who explored UX and user behaviors within the target audience. We also had a copywriter and a designer.

How did you come to work with Pieoneers?

We found them through Clutch. I’m originally from Europe and wanted to find a provider that culturally fit with the company

How much have you invested in them?

We spent under $100,000. I cannot recollect the exact amount.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from September 2018–March 2019. We have done some website improvements since then.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We tracked the results through Google Analytics. In the six months since the launch, with a brand new website and domain, we have managed to grow from zero to 3,000 unique users per month. That correlates with what we have received through the contact form.

How did Pieoneers perform from a project management standpoint?

It was a smooth experience. They use the same tools that we do, which was a major factor in hiring them. For design, they use InVision and Figma which was very convenient for collaboration. For communication, we used Basecamp to get all the stakeholders together for that project, which was important as it is a distributed work environment. I work in Vancouver, my headquarters is located in Palo Alto, and part of my team is in Ukraine. We also used Meet or Zoom for video calls.

Sometimes working with someone in a common language makes things much easier, and in this sense, Pieoneers did a great job. They’re multilingual, so we can all work with our US stakeholders while speaking English and still work with them on a daily basis in Ukrainian.

We easily got in touch with anyone that I needed within their teams such as the designer, marketing people, or copywriter. They were very fast when it came to feedback which is also important. We tested something, provided feedback, and quickly rolled out the version that performed better. Although there were many iterations, the cycles were very short which helped us move fast.

Since the team was distributed, we have support beyond regular working hours here on the west coast. There was a 16-hour overlap between Europe and the US which is a very strong point.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I think their personal touch makes them stand out from their competition. Once a company grows beyond just a studio, they try to scale their business and forget their emotional connection to the work. It is important that when a studio grows, it remains a studio by spirit.

Are there any areas they could improve?

More transparency on the technical side would be better so that we can see what happens under the hood. Admittedly, there are some differences in a project depending on whether a client wants all the details or is more hands-off, but they could definitely cater to more perspectives.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Pieoneers are a very good choice for midsized businesses because you will get flexibility, an agile approach, and improvements along the way. They will not say no. Some bigger companies that work in this space tend to provide cost estimates for every little thing they do, but when you work with a smaller studio, it is always negotiable and agile. The machine learning side is also important. Their system ensures you will get information from the app through machine learning, which leads to improvements.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a strength and conditioning coach, and I own my company. I have been the head strength and conditioning coach for Speed Skating Canada leading into the 2014 and 2018 Olympic Games.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pieoneers?

I’ve always had a passion to share my knowledge and experience with other athletes as well as people who want to find their way to better sports results, health or long life. After having worked with Pieoneers on a completely different initiative (researching to create a mind mapping software for application in the biochemistry industry), they helped me see my passion in a new light and as a solid business opportunity. With help of Pieoneers, I realized, I needed to get my name out there online. I also needed guidance in terms of creating a brand, launching an online business, this is why I wanted a website and help with social media strategies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pieoneers helped with a lot of things, starting from strategy to implementation. They helped me decide between launching a company brand vs a personal brand. They interviewed my clients to get real-life insights and identify my strength and present my services through the eyes of real people in the way that would be easy for them to understand and clearly address their needs. They researched competitors and showed other inspiring businesses. They created visual branding for me and helped me refine my message which was then transformed into a WordPress site.

The website is a handy tool for me to maintain my business and share the valuable content. It allows me to upload different types of content. It has a contact form so potential clients can reach me. It also syncs with my social media accounts, particularly Twitter and Instagram. Pieoneers helped me with my decision to start using my Instagram professionally to start acquiring followers and potential customers even before the site launch. They’re providing me with strategy and direction for social media, I create the content myself. They keep staying involved and share valuable advice on a regular basis.

What is the team composition?

I mainly communicate with three people, Olena (CEO, Pieoneers) who acts as a talented strategist, Shane (Project Manger, Pieoneers) who is insightful and thorough, and Aleksey (Lead Designer, Pieoneers) who was invaluable in guiding me through the branding and site design process. But there are a few additional people working on the backend, including the frontend and backend developers.

How did you come to work with Pieoneers?

I found them through a Google search. My preference was to work with someone that had a local presence near me in Canada. I looked at the projects on their website and thought they were creative and professional. I didn’t want to just choose the least expensive firm; I decided I would be better in the long term if I invested in quality.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve spent around $55,000 CAD (approximately $42,600 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2018, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Nothing quantitative yet because the site isn’t live yet. It's been ready to launch for a while, but I've held back because of issues on my end. I enjoy the coaching work that I do, but websites and social media aren’t my strong suit. What they’ve done is give me direction around running my business for the short and long term.

How did Pieoneers perform from a project management standpoint?

Most of our communication is through Basecamp, which makes it easy to keep everything organized. They do a really good job of keeping things on track. One of my two main contacts works in Vancouver, so we were able to meet a few times in person. Other members of the team are in Europe but there aren't any language barriers.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I haven't worked with many other companies, but they’re able to find a really good balance of collaboration and doing things on their own when I want to be hands-off.

Any advice for potential customers?

Having a clear vision always helps.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of Cannabis Data Science Inc. We’re creating an informational platform to provide consumers with objective, science-based information regarding various cannabis strains and products.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pieoneers?

We were in a conceptual phase so we wanted to scope the technical development of our online ecosystem including a consumer-facing app, an embedded web application, and an interactive website.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pieoneers is going to implement our customer engagement tool in an extremely low-friction environment. Our competitors gather this data in a quite cumbersome way, so our system has to be user-friendly and intuitive. Currently, we’re in a design and development phase, so we're not particularly settled on exact technologies. In terms of deliverables, they've produced a Game Plan for us, created a brand identity, designed the application UI and the logic flow.

What is the team composition?

I have three main points of contact, a project manager, Shane, a designer, Richard, and Olena, the CEO, as our go-to-market strategy advisor.

How did you come to work with Pieoneers?

I was doing a thorough exploration online and was impressed by their website. I had initial calls with a few vendors and saw that Pieoneers were willing to go the extra mile and bring original ideas to our business concepts.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $80,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since January 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since we’re in the design and development stages, it’s too early to have numbers, but they've been a fantastic team to work with. I would highly recommend them.

How did Pieoneers perform from a project management standpoint?

The project manager has been a fantastic resource in terms of defining the scope and identifying particular challenges along the way. He helped to define the process and the deliverables and lay out the various tasks that to delegate them.

They also have fantastic project management abilities. We have a thorough project management tool in Basecamp, and they bring up points that I wouldn't have caught myself.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're also able to provide marketing expertise, which has made them particularly valuable to us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide a local news website where people can post their own content on a community and regional basis. We seek to eliminate the middleman as it pertains to the news media and allow people to take their message directly to the community. We're still in startup mode and haven't fully initiated operations. We plan to do so in the next 1–2 weeks. I’m the founder of the website. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pieoneers?

I have a lot of experience in terms of communications, public relations, and news media, but I'm not a developer. I had a detailed concept of what I wanted to do and how the site should operate, and I needed someone to do the technical coding work. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I put together sketches, and I knew how I wanted the site to be structured. Pieoneers helped me understand what was possible with the budget I had and what my options were, realistically.

Pieoneers customized a WordPress site for me. They could have created a custom website, they told me, but my cost would have gone up significantly. What I was trying to do was a bit more complicated than a basic WordPress site, and I wanted it to look professional, so Pieoneers helped me understand some of the tradeoffs.

I worked with a number of different people from Pieoneers' side, but I couldn't say what the specific size of the team was. I mostly interacted with Olena, their CEO, and with the primary developer to a lesser extent. Much of the work was done over the summer, so a few people went on vacation, but it was a seamless process overall. I was asked relevant questions and gave the team answers.

How did you come to work with Pieoneers?

They were referred to me by another company in Vancouver.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Pieoneers in June 2016. The website has been finished. I took a two-month pause at one point and have recently re-engaged Pieoneers for additional changes to the site. It was launched in October 2016, and it's now only a matter of actively promoting it. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The site is live, there are stories published on it, but it's not strictly open for business yet, so to speak.

The site is very easy to use. The few people who have engaged with it found it to be very straightforward. One of the main goals was to make the process as easy as possible because my target audience is not necessarily the most computer-literate group. They're used to using typical sites like Twitter and Facebook, which make the process easy, so I wasn't looking to target tech-savvy, mid-20s people but rather people in their mid-30s and 40s, who have varying degrees of technological sophistication. Pieoneers has made the process very simple, enabling users to post something with only two clicks.

How did Pieoneers perform from a project management standpoint?

For the most part, Google Docs and email were sufficient for our needs. Pieoneers also used Basecamp, which I'd never used before. I was somewhat surprised at how easy it was to use.

What did you find most impressive about Pieoneers?

Firstly, when I first started going down this road, I had a streak of paranoia, which I subsequently learned is common among inexperienced entrepreneurs; we don't want to tell anyone our ideas because we're scared of it being stolen. When I first met with Pieoneers, instead of looking at me like I was crazy, they agreed to sign an NDA and do whatever was necessary to make me comfortable with having a discussion. When Pieoneers' principal heard my idea, she found it to be a viable business. This wasn't what I was asking, but it was surprising to see how selective she was in terms of the projects being undertaken. They're passionate about what they do and don't want to take on projects that won't turn into anything. It was an initial verification of my idea, and I found it interesting.

I also found Pieoneers' CEO to be straightforward. It's not always common to find people in the consulting world who can tell it to you straight, but Pieoneers did. It may have been tough to hear at times, but I appreciated it. I was asked about what success and failure would look like so that I would not keep pursuing something that wasn’t going to work. For me, it meant gaining 5,000 daily users for a single geographic area over six months.

Olena is also pretty smart. She's well-read and had different discussions with me about what successful entrepreneurs do and how the iPhone had been taken over by engineers more recently. She's a smart, engaging person who knows more than just development. She can consider things from multiple angles and can tell people what they need to hear, not necessarily what they want to hear.

Are there any areas Pieoneers could improve?

I don't know if I have enough [technical] sophistication to identify improvement areas. I had a great experience working with Pieoneers, and nothing's coming to mind.

Pieoneers helped me, a person who knew nothing about programming, navigate this project in a way that made me trust what they were doing. They delivered what I asked for and did a good job. They were persistent in a good way, helping me take the product to the finish line.

At one point, someone from outside Moscow logged into my Facebook account, which made me a bit paranoid. Pieoneers has a team in Russia, and they needed access to my Facebook account. That was just a surprise, not a negative aspect.

I find Pieoneers to be expensive, but I'm not sure how their prices compare to the market. I'm happy with the site, and I would do it again in a heartbeat, but it's challenging to use Pieoneers for small, incremental changes. The price is the price, though. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company has built a software platform helping organizations measure employee happiness. I am the chief executive officer of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pieoneers?

In order to make analyses, we need to collect data. One of the ways of doing this is through a mobile app, which is why we hired Pieoneers, since we did not have the resources to develop the solution ourselves.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pieoneers has developed our mobile app for iOS. As we started working with customers, an Android version became necessary, so we also contracted Pieoneers for this, after the first one was finalized. Pieoneers also took care of the publication process for Apple's App Store and Google Play.

One of the complexities of our app is on the back-end. We had discussions and made changes along the way. It wasn't a self-contained system, and most of the intelligence exists in the back-end servers.

We worked with one developer for iOS and another for Android from Pieoneers's team. They were both senior developers based in Russia. We had a few direct interactions with them in order to approve changes. I was always copied for discussions but mostly worked with Pieoneers's project manager.

How did you come to work with Pieoneers?

I talked to a few mobile development shops. A friend had been involved in a project developed by Pieoneers and recommended that I talk to them. I contacted Pieoneers and had a very good impression. They seemed to understand our goals, so we chose Pieoneers. 

How much have you invested with Pieoneers?

The total cost of our project with Pieoneers has been around $90,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started our iOS project in March 2016, and the Android version was started in May. We went live with customers at the beginning of August, but our work with Pieoneers was only officially concluded in September.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our app is quite good. A big part of the project was working on the design. Pieoneers's designer was very good, in my opinion. We had many interactions with him. The development itself was a bit more difficult. The developers involved were very opinionated about the design and tried to change what we had agreed upon. The process wasn't very efficient at times. Overall, I'm happy with how the app turned out.

What did you find most impressive about Pieoneers?

I don't have any prior experience in working with a mobile developer, but Pieoneers's team was always available and responded to requests quickly, with the exception of a 2-week vacation time taken by our project manager. The project stagnated during that period.

Also, Pieoneers's designer is very good. I've appreciated the fact that Pieoneers was looking to improve the customer collaboration process. They were open to trying things and hearing feedback about what tools we wanted to use like Basecamp or InVision.

Are there any areas Pieoneers could improve?

It wasn't clear at the beginning of our collaboration with Pieoneers that we'd be working with resources in Russia. The time zone difference was a bit challenging for us, creating a lag in our discussion. Whenever we needed to talk about an issue, it had to be done by email, so we had no brainstorming sessions.

Many corrections were handled as change requests from our side, and we ended up paying more than what we expected, which I didn't find fair. We could have continued to work with Pieoneers for ongoing iterations, but we won't do that. I came to consider the process as being less than transparent.

When we work with a customer, if their requirements aren't made clear from our side, the customer shouldn't be made to pay for additional services. We ended up paying for Pieoneers's mistakes, which isn't fair. Pieoneers is a good company, provided that they make some improvements in the areas that I mentioned. I haven't found a better alternative yet.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

The Database of Religious History is an academic project. It’s part of a grand work on the evolution of religion. I'm a director. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pieoneers?

We're trying to put together an online qualitative and quantitative Wikipedia of religious history. This turned out to be much more challenging than we'd originally envisioned. We got into this almost accidentally after teaming up with another group at Oxford. We thought that they already had a database built, but it turned out that there was nothing but a wiki. We ended up building the database ourselves with the help of a graduate student who worked in his spare time. The project includes the interface and the back-end. At a certain point, it became clear that this wouldn't be sustainable, so we decided to hire a professional firm to help us out.

Our biggest challenge is that we rely on input from history experts. They answer a questionnaire on our site. We've discovered that, if the site hangs up or runs too slowly, they become frustrated and stop. Once this happens, it's impossible to get them back again. Answering such a questionnaire online is already a strange thing for a historian to do. If they run into any difficulties, they quit.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pieoneers has taken over every aspect of our project's management. They took the lead in refactoring the design and code. It had been spaghetti code up until that point. That’s not surprising given that it had been built by a grad student in his spare time, late at night. He also used people from Elance. The first thing that Pieoneers did was to refactor all of the code, making it look like a normal website. In the future, other people can come in and know what was going on.

Pieoneers has also done a lot of work on user experience, including signing up, creating entries, and adding religious groups. Their work allows people to move through the questionnaire in a way that can bring up sub-questions. Pieoneers has made moving through this logic tree a seamless experience. Users now understand where they are in relation to the other questions through a progress pole. Pieoneers made it look like a real website, compared to what we had before, which drove people crazy.

How did you come to work with Pieoneers?

Pieoneers was recommended by our admin. I put him on the task of doing research and finding some local tech firms. We talked to 3 candidates in total. It seemed that Pieoneers had done the kind of work which would allow them to make sense of our project. That includes who our users were and what it would require to convince them to use the site. It seemed like they understood what we wanted to do.

How much have you invested with Pieoneers?

The total cost of our project has been over $200,000 so far. Pieoneers has been good in terms of working out a non-profit, university rate. We receive budgets for individual projects from Pieoneers, like interface redesigns. Our payment is on a time-and-materials basis. We also have an ongoing budget for immediate tech fixes, which we track through Basecamp.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Pieoneers in November 2015. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

 Our site actually works. We had an unimaginable number of bugs in the early stages. Pieoneers has made it look fantastic. Everything works, people are happy with the site, and we've received great feedback. We haven't annoyed any experts yet. We feel so confident in the site that we're planning to have a major recruitment push at the start of the academic year. Beyond the technical aspects, Pieoneers asked questions that we didn't think of asking. Pieoneers helped us think through who our users were and what steps made sense in getting them to sign up. They helped us figure out what our user experience should be in terms of strategy.

How did Pieoneers perform from a project management standpoint?

We've appreciated Pieoneers not only for their technical skills but also their organizational know-how. Our technical director is the former grad student who initially built the site. He's interacted with Pieoneers through Bitbucket and Asana. We've interacted with at least 6 to 7 people from Pieoneers. We've worked directly with a project manager who relays our requests to designers, developers, and testers. We share a Basecamp conversation, so I can see him communicating with them. For certain design issues, including mockups, we will communicate directly with our designer. I've mainly used Basecamp for working with Pieoneers.

One of the big innovations made by Pieoneers was to streamline all the interactions that our historian team had. We were using email and Google Docs. That meant we had a generally confused line of communication. Pieoneers centralized everything on Basecamp, giving us a clear workflow. We have features which we want to see. These features are ranked in a certain order. We have separate Basecamps for our internal team so that we don’t need to provide every single step of the reasoning process to Pieoneers. We've got to-do lists, a running bug list, as well as an urgent one. The workflow has been great. We're academics, so it was great to have Pieoneers handle this kind of stuff.

What did you find most impressive about Pieoneers?

This is the only tech firm that I've worked with, so I don't have a point of comparison. It has been night-and-day in terms of clarity and efficiency, compared to working with anyone in academia, though. One of the things that attracted us to Pieoneers was that they seemed to understand the nature of our project. For example, the psychological profile of our user base isn't immediately clear. In many cases, we're interacting with older academics who aren't very comfortable with computers. Pieoneers' team have gone out of their way to design our process and make those people comfortable.

Are there any areas Pieoneers could improve?

The only issue we've had was vacation planning. If people become absent, it's not immediately clear what the chain of command is and whom we should contact. This happened over the holiday season when we had some bugs. We've cleared this up with Pieoneers. They've gotten clearer about communicating who the contact person is at any given time.