Polidea

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the product manager at Inventorum, a POS software development company. We offer an iPad solution that connects business processes for small and medium retail businesses. The app also provides an ERP system and an online-shop connection.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polidea?

We were about to refactor our existing app, including its architecture, as it had been written some time ago. We tried working with another company before Polidea, but it didn’t work out because our product is quite complicated with a lot of unique business processes.

The app is mainly used by retailers, and it needs to run all day on location. So, it’s crucial that the app will be stable and convenient to use. People using the app are from 18–88 of age, so it needs to self-explanatory, including for those who aren’t familiar with Apple products. It also needs to be compliant with EU and German fiscal laws. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The app design was 80% finished, so Polidea already had the business requirements and designs. Backend coding was done on our end, so Polidea’s task was to build the iOS app by handling the full architecture and coding. The app communicates with external hardware and enables payment transactions.

What is the team composition?

We started with three developers and one project manager. 

How did you come to work with Polidea?

They were referred to us by a business partner, and we started working with them after our first attempt with the other developer. Polidea had a good reputation on other projects, so we got in touch with them for setting up a roadmap. We gave them our requirements, and they came up with a concept. 

Our first impression was that they were professional and honest. When we’ve worked with outsourcing agencies in the past, we’ve gotten the impression that everything would be possible and easy to accomplish. In contrast, Polidea explained what would be doable and what wouldn’t—they gave us correct estimations. 

How much have you invested with them?

At the moment, we’re somewhere in the €300,000–€400,000 ($200,000–$999,999) range. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Polidea in May 2018, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We did a silent launch of the app just a couple of weeks ago, so I can’t compare it to the previous launch. However, we’ve had a feedback gathering phase, and the general impression is that the app is more stable, looks more up to date, and behaves like a state-of-the-art app.

What made a huge difference for me (compared to our in-house team or other agencies we’ve used) was the fact that Polidea didn’t wait for QA testing to fix bugs. The features they shipped were stable from the very beginning. It saved a lot of time on our end, and we didn’t experience the typical ping pong that happens during development. Even though it was a longer development period compared to other apps, the solution was much more reliable than our old one from the beginning.

How did Polidea perform from a project management standpoint?

Our current setup involves sprint reviews and planning on a weekly basis. We’re connected via Slack, and we provide requirements and designs via Trello. They translate our requirements into more technical elements and enter them into Jira.

As a product manager, it’s easy to drop incomplete feature requests as Polidea will take them the rest of the way. Also, communication is really direct. If they have a question about our backend APIs, the developers get in touch with us directly. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They point out issues with the logic in our requirements or our backend system, and then they come up with solutions immediately. These solutions don’t always require us to pay extra; they also suggest solutions we can implement in-house.

Polidea aims to ship a good product. They only push solutions if they are truly needed, and this has allowed us to keep overhead low on our end. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Polidea isn’t the cheapest company out there. Also, their only office is in Warsaw, Poland, and I would like it if they had locations closer by.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Clients should review their project requirements with Polidea. It’ll help sort out logic issues upfront and make the work easier for both parties.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CTO at Humon. We empower people with actionable insights about their body, allowing them to be the best version of themselves. Our first product measures how muscles use oxygen, which is the best metric of physical exertion. With this data, our algorithms prescribe the perfect pace and workout intensities in real-time, provide post-workout analysis about how the body is responding, and suggest future activities based on this information.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Polidea?

Our company hired Polidea to aid our in-house team in developing our iOS and Android mobile application. Currently, they’re working to improve its robustness and add features. They also provided development support for our web application.

What were your goals for this project?

We set out to release a mobile application to support our hardware offering, a wearable oxygen sensor. Once released, we wanted to respond to our users’ needs and requests.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I first interacted with Polidea via Github, where I found open-source code they’d written. Everyone I interacted with responded with helpful feedback and comments quickly and demonstrated strong knowledge and professionalism. After such a positive interaction, I decided to contact them to retain their services. We’ve worked together very productively since.

Describe the project in detail.

Once we selected Polidea, their team integrated seamlessly into our in-house team and worked to meet our launch deadline. Explicit processes were somewhat lacking in the early days, but the Polidea team demonstrated great flexibility in adapting to our rigorous pace without a perfect structure. Since the launch, we've grown the team, implemented several processes, and continued to work together as a cohesive unit.

What was the team composition?

Initially, the team was comprised of two engineers and a part-time project manager. It was made up of six members at its largest point. We've even leveraged Polidea's design team.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We met our initial deadline and had a successful launch. Now, we’re continuing to improve the app’s robustness, fixing bugs, adding features, and improving its design. As a young and growing business, we’ve faced many challenges, but our software hasn’t been a bottleneck.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Overall, our workflow has been seamless. Polidea's project managers are pleasant and professional to work with, providing a single point of contact to handle questions and concerns. I've also communicated individually with every engineer on the team. They’re all a pleasure to interact with, and I consider them both members of our team and friends. Our successful collaboration wouldn’t be possible without the excellent communication between our team and every member of their team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Polidea is incredibly knowledgeable about many aspects of software engineering. They have command of the many languages we work in, as well as with IoT/connected hardware. This is necessary as our mobile applications communicate with our custom hardware via Bluetooth low energy. Beyond their technical skills, I'm further impressed by Polidea's client service and the great relationship we’ve built together. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

Things can always be done faster, and no software ships completely bug-free. There've also times when communication wasn’t perfect, but working seven time zones apart didn’t help. Despite some miscommunications leading to missed deadlines, we worked together to continually improve. I have full faith in Polidea’s ability to help us succeed.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the Head of Program of LEO Innovation Lab. We have a product called Klikkit. It’s a smart Bluetooth button that connects to a mobile app and allows users to take ownership of their medical treatment. Patients can assign a button to each medication or instrument that they need to use and caregivers can go online and access a treatment dashboard, progress report, and participation sheet. If a user skips an exercise, the button will send light and sound alerts. If multiple activities are skipped, a caregiver can remotely intervene through the app and buttons.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polidea?

We were having some issues with Bluetooth connectivity for Android devices. We needed to enable the connection between the phone and the Klikkit without compromising the device’s battery life.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Because there are so many different Android manufacturers, managing efficient communication between the button, the app, and the mobile devices was complicated. We brought in Polidea to develop a strategy for an optimal tradeoff between battery life, battery consumption of the buttons, and collecting each button click. We documented these requirements and shared them with the team. They went through several implementation iterations, resulting in the button’s firmware and a new API. They primarily worked with the Bluetooth stack in their development process.

What is the team composition?

We mainly spoke with the CEO, a business developer, and Pawel (Senior Software Engineer, Polidea).

How did you come to work with Polidea?

Our investor recommended Polidea after working with them at other companies. After a first screening, they seemed to be the right partner for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2017–March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They delivered what we asked of them. They solved our Bluetooth connectivity issues. According to my developers, the quality of their work was very high. It’s clear that they have a lot of skill and experience in this area.

How did Polidea perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very reactive and accommodated any changes we made to the specifications. Their flexibility was key to this collaboration. In terms of communication, we had a constant flow of information through Slack and over the phone. Initially, I was concerned about the time difference, but it was never a problem.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were extremely supportive when we had any issues or requested any new features. They stayed on top of the work. Their communication is strong from the top to the bottom of their team. They delivered everything included in the initial scope. Overall, it was a great experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be very clear about expectations. They work quickly, so be sure to provide them with strict requirements early in the engagement.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of online programs for an international nonprofit dedicated to promoting social inclusion for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We’ve got a number of different programs, including supporting employment for people with disabilities, in-school friendship programs, and community-based friendship programs. Our leadership development programs include public speaking and advocacy for people with disabilities to speak about disabilities, raise awareness, and challenge people to recognize the abilities and inherent value of people with disabilities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polidea?

We wanted to increase engagement with our high school age participants. The goal was to have more of a community feel. We wanted to build an app in order to enhance and deepen people’s experience with our programs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They came in and scoped out and designed the app in its entirety. Every summer, we have a conference where we bring all of our chapter leaders together and train them to get them psyched up for the upcoming year. Polidea came and did some focus groups there, as well as some one-on-one interviews with staff. They worked with different demographics like high school, college students, and so on, and tried to get a sense from the tech side what the population wanted out of an app.

They came back with a comprehensive recommendation, identifying a couple of areas that people consistently mentioned. The number one was picture sharing and event notifications: they wanted to be able to build community within their chapter as well as to be able to network with other chapters.

Polidea spent a couple months making designs and running those and the scope by us. They conceived an app that was a social platform designed specifically for our members, and built native apps for both iOS and. They used a lot of the same resources and libraries for both because React Native provides that cross-platform flexibility. That made it a lot easier and a lot quicker to push out an Android client once we decided to move forward with it.

What is the team composition?

They had two designers who were very involved, and they stayed involved once we brought in the tech team. There was a backend specialist, a frontend specialist, and testing. At any given time, there were 4–5 people involved. Once the design was done, one of the design people stepped into the project manager role and I handled project management from our side.

How did you come to work with Polidea?

Jakub (Founder/CEO, Polidea) knew someone in one of our development teams in California. They got talking and found there were mutual interests, which were passed onto our CEO.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $200,000–$250,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from July 2015–February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They set us up with some analytics using Fabric and the results seem pretty good so far. On the iOS side, we had 14,000 downloads and for the Android, a couple of thousand in total. We’re pushing 20,000 downloads in total at this point.

The app does what we wanted it to do and it does it pretty well. We haven’t had that many issues. They had a team of people who did QA and testing, and were good at making sure things were working the way they were supposed to.

How did Polidea perform from a project management standpoint?

I really appreciated working with them. We tend to underestimate what’s involved with technology, in terms of our own projects and outsourcing. They offer full-service web development, including doing research, talking to stakeholders, and gathering opinions. They designed an app for us that met our expectations, but also was based on user feedback, rather than the thoughts and whims of our team.

I appreciated that they had a design focus before the engineering began. As far as engineering goes, they did a really good job working through everything smoothly. They enhanced and tweaked it along the way. We don’t usually get that level of expertize so I was very happy with the collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really merged the design and engineering aspect together. They made real recommendations in terms of the UX that benefitted the project and were necessary, given our lack of expertise as a client.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re always looking for cheaper alternatives, but that’s not a negative on them—they did give us a discount. We just invested more than we typically invest in a project. In the end, it was worth it.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I had a good experience with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am a board member in a small startup in Warsaw, Poland. We are introducing a modern mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in Europe. The solution is fully digitalized and based on a mobile app.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polidea?

Our biggest challenge was that no one had done this before, so we had nothing to compare our product to. We were supposed to build it from scratch, but didn’t have any benchmarks. Telco is generally a complicated business, and this was a tough endeavor. Implementing the solution as an app was quite a challenge.

All operators currently have mobile apps, but none used an app as their only touchpoint with the customer. That’s what we were building.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Polidea developed our mobile app from scratch. It’s the lifeblood of our company. The operator was based on the app, which is our only touch point with the customer.

In the beginning, they worked with our UX designer to draw what the application would look like and design its screens. After we established a solid scheme, they started development. Polidea put together a team of developers, for both Android and iOS, and handled the entire development. No part of the app was created without them. They were with us from the very beginning, before we even established the company.

They created a lot of the UX design and look-and-feel, with which they had high-level expertise. Since we’re telco specialists, we had the business knowledge and knew what kind of usability we wanted. They knew how the app should look and how it should be presented to customers.

The app was launched in the App Store and Google Play, where it could be used by anyone. Our target group was the Y generation: people between 35–40 years old who live in big cities and use smartphones for everything from shopping and finance to transportation and entertainment.

The app used a couple of APIs, including one for a popular ride sharing service. We started a collaboration in which their drivers delivered SIM cards to our customers. We also have an API integration for Adyan, a large Dutch payment service.

What is the team composition?

We started with one of their high-level project managers. They also assigned us a UX designer and a team of developers, testers, and other resources. At peak, we worked with a team of 9-10 people, including mobile developers and testers, a backend developer, and a supervisor, for a six-month period.

How did you come to work with Polidea?

We found them through coincidence. Rather than launching from a garage, we grew within one of the four big telco operators in Poland. We were an experimental project inside the company, and there were no official rules about how we picked partners. The project was incubated in our parent company, but we had a different idea in the beginning. After 8–9 months, our shareholders decided to launch it as a separate business. We had to change a lot, including our IT systems and code.

We approached Polidea after talking to their project manager, whom we knew through an acquaintance. We knew that they were one of the best—if not the best—developers in Poland, so we had no problem selecting them. We started informally. Since the collaboration was good from the beginning, we decided to go with them. It looked like the work would be professional and high-quality.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent 3 million Polish zloty ($825,000 USD) on their work. The cost was quite a lot. Polidea was obviously not cheap, but they are one of the best developers in Poland. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Polidea in May 2016. The project was finalized in February 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We received an award for biggest innovation in services, mostly because of the app-based telco operator solution we provide. The app was a huge part of this success.

Our customers liked the app very much. It looked nice, ran smoothly, and didn’t have any stability issues. I was very satisfied in this respect. The app had a high rating of around 4.6 on the App Store and Google Play.

We haven’t finished working with Polidea. This project has been completed, but we will surely go back to them. This is a difficult time for us, since we’re a startup. We already have a long backlog of changes to make on the app, but we will likely not build an in-house mobile development team.

How did Polidea perform from a project management standpoint?

They were very responsive and professional. The biggest advantage of working with Polidea was that they offered a smooth collaboration. We didn’t have any hard times with them during almost two years.

They helped us a lot and did more than we expected. They met with our backend developer and found solutions for us. It felt like their project manager was a part of my in-house team, rather than working for a vendor. They did a good job.

We mainly used Jira and Slack for communication. We also met their team in person multiple times a week. Their office is close to ours, so we didn’t need to use Google Hangouts or other tools. We had a demo session once a week, where we discussed the next week’s work and they presented all the new features they had implemented into the apps. We also met outside of those times if we had any issues.

What did you find most impressive about them?

As head of the project, I mainly appreciated the hassle-free collaboration. I always knew that they would do their best to help us, even if they hadn’t been briefed for a particular task.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Polidea could be a bit cheaper. High quality costs a lot of money, so this is not necessarily negative. 

I’ve collaborated with multiple companies, and it was sometimes hard to only work with the cheapest options. In most cases, it didn’t end very well. With Polidea, the work was expensive, but I knew what I was paying for.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Let Polidea do the job. If we been stricter in this collaboration, we probably wouldn’t have ended up with so many good solutions. We were open to the suggestions and solutions they brought. Other companies strictly want to implement their vision, no matter what other people say.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the telemedical director at Braster, a telemedical services provider. We provide medical examinations with dedicated devices and an internal mobile application. I’m responsible for our services to end-users.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polidea?

We needed a partner to deliver full mobile application and to design our communication protocols between our device and app with a limited budget and fixed scope.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Exams via the app featured user logins, screening surveys, and privacy protection features. Women were able to use our device for thermograms preparation and sending them to the app via Wi-Fi. The app would guide through examination then validate the data, compress it into an AVI movie, and send it to our central system. They did full-stack native development for Android and iOS platforms using Java and Swift, respectively.

The engagement started in March 2016 with several design meetings to acquaint Polidea with our medical devices. Development started in May 2016. They had a September 2016 deadline, but some milestones were delivered earlier to allow testing before the commercial launch in October. Bug fixes and improvements continued through the first half of 2017, at which point we started transfer of the work to internal resources.

What is the team composition?

The team included graphic designer, UX designers, and iOS and Android developers. We interacted with the CEO directly, mostly about milestones.

How did you come to work with Polidea?

Our previous vendor didn’t perform well. We searched for a replacement, made a list of four candidates, and checked their references. We decided some companies couldn’t deliver. However, Polidea had enough resources and a good portfolio of past work.

How much have you invested with them?

We prefer to keep the cost confidential. They gave us a discount because we’re also a Polish company.

What is the status of this engagement?

Work started in May 2016 and ended in January 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The team was collaborative, skilled, and responsive. They produced high-quality designs.

Users were happy with the app. It had an intuitive UI that’s never crashed. Our only problems occurred with the stability of data communication, but this area was shared with other vendor (device designer). 

How did Polidea perform from a project management standpoint?

We worked in agile and sprints, which were effective and adaptable to changing requirements. We met on a weekly basis to review results, progress, and upcoming tasks.

Polidea kept costs stable with a fixed-price agreement. However, we were able to revisit the contract when our needs changed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They communicated in an effective and professional manner. They delivered everything as promised and were honest when requests were unrealistic. The team admitted that costs were higher than expected – we weren’t able to plan everything upfront – but we never had conflicts.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We requested minor changes near the end of the engagement. We were willing to pay extra, but they were less responsive. Polidea said building those functionalities wasn’t possible in terms of their profitability. Consequently, we built our internal development team, which did execute the changes. I believe Polidea was politely suggesting building an internal team for small changes. 

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Provide clear requirements in the beginning. That will lead to a successful collaboration.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Tiemeular, a startup with a time tracking solution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Polidea?

We ran a crowdfunding campaign. We needed a software development team to deliver a complex product, both hardware and software, within four months.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

At a kickoff workshop, they clarified our needs and tried to understand the user experience that we wanted to provide. They helped us with our UI/UX design at the beginning, then implemented a desktop app, a mobile app, a public API, and a scalable backend. Both apps use Bluetooth to communicate with our hardware device. They helped us with the full scope of development and implementation.

Our product helps people get their timesheets done and tracks their time at work. The Bluetooth hardware device has eight sides. People can assign different tasks to each side, then flip the device to show the activity they want to track. The device connects to the computer or smartphone using Bluetooth. They developed the desktop app, the mobile app, and the whole backend system. The apps track time, manage the device, assign activities, manage activities, create reports, export reports, and filter data.

The mobile app was made for iOS and Android, and the desktop was designed for Windows and Mac. The two main technologies are Electron with React. All software development has shifted to our in-house team. Polidea now provides quality assurance support and dedicated software testing.

What is the team composition?

They ramped up a team of eight people to help us to deliver the product within four months. At the beginning, we interacted with the CEO and CTO. The CTO acted as our project manager and main contact. On our side, we had a CTO and project manager. Our CTO spoke directly with the developers.

How did you come to work with Polidea?

Before the crowdfunding campaign, we launched a beta version of our desktop and mobile app that we had developed on our own. We used an open-source React Native filter library that Polidea maintains. We found that library on GitHub. When we had more development support needs, we decided to ask them for help.

How much have you invested with them?

Between $250,000 and $500,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in November 2016 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything was fantastic. They met our target date and milestones, and the quality is great.

How did Polidea perform from a project management standpoint?

Communicating with them was very simple and easy. We used Jira, email, Slack, Google Talk, and Google Spreadsheets, along with Zeplin and Sketch for design files and GitLab for code maintenance. They’re very reliable, loyal, and flexible. Whenever we faced big challenges or needed more resources, they didn’t hesitate to add more people to the project.

We’ve met them in person four times. Once we held a release party together.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They cared about the project and our users. They didn’t feel like a service company. They felt like a team within our company, which you don’t find a lot.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s harder to communicate if you’re collaborating remotely. That can always be improved.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Don’t be intimidated. They aren’t as emotional as you would expect people to be, especially as a U.S. client. Culturally, Polish people show very few emotions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We're a manufacturer of high-fidelity sound equipment. We specialize in guitar amplifiers and recording equipment.

What is your role at the company?

I'm the software engineering manager, in charge of QA [quality assurance].

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Polidea?

We wanted to allow our customers to be able to control their amps with their phones. We had already developed an iOS app, and we decided to work with Polidea to develop the Android version.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

The only scope of the work was end-to-end Android app development.  

How did you come to work with Polidea?

The person who found them for us is no longer with the company, but I believe we selected them based on their experience developing for Android, and the fact that they are one of the more "high-end" offshore developers.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked directly with Polidea for about six months in early 2015. However, we still work with them to update and maintain the app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

You know the app isn't really a product we're selling. It's more of an add-on for people who buy our amps. However, I will say that all of the reviews that we have in the Android Play Store are very positive. People love the app, and there have been no major bugs or issues with it.

What distinguishes Polidea from other providers?

Polidea was incredibly easy to work with. There was never a language barrier, and they were always very intuitive about what we wanted the app to be.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve or things you might do differently?

No. I would highly recommend Polidea to anyone who was looking for quality, cost-effective, app development services.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

My company is Peercisely. We're a peer-to-peer referral platform for hiring. People can refer their friends or colleagues for jobs, make money for a charity of their choice, or potentially receive a referral bonus themselves. Our goal is to make it easier for companies to hire top talent.

What is your position?

I am founder and CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Polidea?

I had a very clear idea of how I envisioned the Peercisely app working, but I needed help bringing that vision to life.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Everything was built on Heroku. On the front-end side, we leveraged HTML5 compatibility for mobile and web as well as a native iOS app. We have not yet developed a native Android app.

How did you come to work with Polidea?

In my previous job, I worked for a large app development company that outsourced a lot of work to Polidea because their work was always spot on and their communication and project management expertise was phenomenal.

Based on experiences and the quality of work, and knowing that I needed to get things off the ground fast, I knew that was a great choice.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was in the $200,000 to $300,000 range.

What was the timeline of this project?

We started development in October of last year [2014] and we had everything up and running by May [2015]. Probably around six months to get the whole back-end, front end and mobile app developed, from concept to actual product, which is great.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

From a schedule and release perspective, they were always right on track. The quality was great. While there are always going to be bugs throughout various stages of the project, Polidea's testing process was great, and all is issues were solved promptly and there wasn't much rework that needed to be done. I think the number one metric that they hit is that they weren't late. We hit all of our target dates, which rarely happens in projects of this size.

What distinguishes Polidea from other providers?

There's actually a couple of things. First, Polidea has a full UI [user interface] design team that has worked with their internal development teams forever. This made things very smooth, and cut out any red tape. If I sent information to the design team, they would make sure the developers got the message, and vice versa. Throughout the project, it felt like they were an extension of my team. Communication was flawless, and things moved quickly.

Is there anything Polidea could have improved or done differently?

One thing that is always going to be difficult working with any agency, onshore or offshore, is the stages of the project after the bulk of the work is finished. The main work is finished, so they begin to rotate people off your project, but that means it takes longer for your requests to be completed when you need something.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

NAMU Systems is a FinTech startup based in Poland. I am CEO and cofounder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Polidea?

We're operating off the premise that mobile is the future of banking. While the majority of banks have begun to create their own apps that allow their customers to track spending and such, we still felt there was a huge opportunity to create a better experience for the customer. Our app, NAMU, brings in aspects of social media to mobile banking. Customers can add pictures and geo-location services to track their spending better as well as join social circles of friends to hold one another accountable to making wise financial decisions. Obviously, for this type of company the quality of the app is tremendously important. Although we have a few in-house developers, the size of the work necessitated that we bring in outside help as well.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

Actually, we already had a general idea of the static design when we approached Polidea, but we didn't have any concept of what the UX [user experience] would be like. We started off with the branding and the design, then we went on to work with the UX and actual development of the app. Those were the two phases that Polidea took on for us.

They first completed the iOS app and, about two months later, we did the Android app. We were working on a tight schedule because we wanted to have the finished product in the fall of 2014 to make sure we could feature the app in some of the industry's big trade shows.

How did you come to work with Polidea?

Polidea was recommended to me by several different friends of mine in Warsaw. After meeting with them, I was confident they could get the work done.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was about a $100,000 project.

What was the timeline for the work?

We started in March 2014, and the app was fully completed in November 2014. We had weekly progress meetings and followed the minimum viable product approach. We made sure to complete the core issues first. Then, we started expanding a bit.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The app has been won several industry awards, including being named one of the top innovators at the 2015 Citi Mobile Challenge.

What was the best thing about working Polidea in your mind?

I think they were very responsive, I'm in Poland and have two partners based in the United States, and we never had any trouble with communication. We didn't have to tell them anything twice.

I think as clients, we were managed properly, and they allowed themselves to be managed as well. It was a very active relationship – intense but active – and I felt satisfied. We got the right blend of talent, I would say. We also received good advice in terms of discipline: when to stop, when to add more functionality, and what the trade-offs and the risks were with the app. Lastly, it should be said that they were coding a very tricky app, and they did a beautiful job building a great-looking app that still functioned well in terms of speed.

Is there anything Polidea could have improved or done differently?

I think down the line we did realize that some of the architecture decisions could have been better. When you're following the lean development model, you end up making a lot of trade-offs that pay short-term dividends, but don't pay off long term.

When you say architecture, are you referencing the design and the code or more the project?

I think with these types of projects there are many things that you wish you had done differently.