ProductDock AG

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Director Technology of mobile.de (part of Adevinta)

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Our company is a global specialist in online classifieds for general goods and verticalized for specialized areas like vehicles or real estate.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ProductDock to accomplish?

• Operate (Improve, Maintain) E2E a piece of our business
• Enrich existing business areas with a team covering either knowledge or bandwidth gaps

SOLUTION

How did you find ProductDock AG?

Online Search

Why did you select ProductDock AG over others?

Great culture fit, Good value for cost, Company values aligned

What was the size of ProductDock AG’s team?

6-10 Employees

What was your primary form of communication with ProductDock?

In-Person Meeting, Virtual Meeting, Email or Messaging App

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

The ProductDock team was/is the main development team for a specific area of our seller business. In this role, they were/are responsible for the whole development lifecycle from discovery to delivery.

They interact close with business and other functional stakeholders outside of product and technology. In this role, they are empowered for technology decisions within our companies constraints set by our platform team and architects. The technology space they are mainly working with Java,Typescript, Kafka,AWS, React, MySQL, MongoDB

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Time to Market
• Sprint Goals

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

We have two main points of contact in the team for Product and Technology. We are working with agile methodologies (in this case SCRUM) and this is also used to measure deliveries important for the business stakeholders. The ProductDock team is always very helpful and engaged and brings in their expertise whenever possible.

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

Their culture and the way they take care of their employees. This was a major point for us, since we strongly believe in a culture centered around people first.

Are there any areas for improvement or something ProductDock AG could have done differently?

We try to keep the work and tasks always as interesting for the development teams as possible. However, sometimes business demands results in work that is less challenging than others. I would wish that ProductDock manages this internally more directly to mitigate frustration in the development team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Our company is a global leader in online classifieds and we operate multiple marketplaces (many of them being #1 in their country) under different local brands and an international global umbrella. I'm responsible for managing an international team with more than 125 developers, designers and product managers that is building a global motors marketplace to facilitate transactions between private buyers and sellers and professional car dealers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ProductDock, and what were your goals?

ProductDock helped us scale our software development by providing cross-functional teams (incl. software engineers, designers, product managers, agile coaches and cloud engineers) that would become responsible for certain parts and aspects of our platform and develop them end-to-end from product discovery and design to implementation, test and release.

The ProductDock teams also helped us in stakeholder management and communication as well as second level technical support to achieve a zero-downtime, 24h-standby incident management for our colleagues and customers residing in different timezones on the planet.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We conducted a search for a suitable outsourcing/outstaffing partner in 2019 that would be able to provide fully staffed cross-functional product development teams experienced in agile software development and yet be close to our timezone and willing to travel to improve collaboration and ensure close alignment with our internal teams. Next to required skill sets, experience and quality, cost played a significant role which had to be lower than hiring in Germany or leveraging an army of freelancers.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The ProductDock teams delivered, deployed and operated software in accordance to our platform technology guidelines mainly leveraging Java, Javascript (esp. React), MongoDB, Kafka, Kafka Streams and Elasticsearch in a microservice based architecture. During our engagement the platform was migrated from an on-premise infrastructure to Kubernetes on Google Cloud.

The ProductDock teams were owning parts of the professional seller experience like the flow to list and sell vehicles, integration with Salesforce and marketing tools and several features in a responsive modern web application leveraging a design system and a modular architecture.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with 3 cross-functional ProductDock teams supported by an Agile Coach and a Cloud Engineer. In total around 20-25 people with profiles ranging from Full Stack Engineer, UX Designer, Product Manager to Cloud Engineer and Agile Coach.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

The outcomes and quality of the work of the ProductDock teams were on par with those of our internal teams. Defect rate and resolution time was the in line with our internal teams as well.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

ProductDock's Product Managers and Enginering Managers were responsive and available to chat in fluent English. We used Slack, Jira, email, Zoom and Google Workspace to collaborate and for our stakeholders it would have been hard to tell the difference between internal colleagues' answers and those from the colleagues of ProductDock.

ProductDock engineers also participated in our 24/7 second level technical support and on-call roster working against the same SLOs and expectations as our internal colleagues.

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

The genuine interest in and engagement for the product and platform success made working with ProductDock really feel like an extension to our internal teams without having to compromise on anything.

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

When times got tough and stakeholder demands kept rising our ProductDock colleagues sometimes struggled with saying No and had to compromise on quality in order to reach overly ambitious delivery goals. I would have loved to have an open and honest discussion/escalation about this instead of realizing the trade-offs a bit too late sometimes.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a product owner at an automotive company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ProductDock?

We hired ProductDock for their custom software development services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve defined some processes in the planning and controlling KPI landscape that can be digitalized. We’ve collected data from various areas and had a huge amount of data. We work with our data and analytics department, and ProductDock is our counterpart for the whole backend.

Their team has helped us develop our application from scratch. They take care of the front- and backend, and we enrich their software with our algorithm for the data we collect. We use many open-source technologies, and the application is hosted in our internal cloud.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with five people and are currently working with two full stack developers.

How did you come to work with ProducDock?

ProductDock had worked with our counterpart in Germany, so we reached out and asked them to extend their services to us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent over $3 million.

What is the status of the engagement?

We began working with ProductDock in January 2019, and our partnership is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are happy with ProductDock’s services. We have a good work atmosphere with their team across accounting and other organizational processes — it’s very fast and non-bureaucratic, and we enjoy it.

How did ProductDock perform from a project management standpoint?

They work in a very cool, agile way, which greatly helps us because we are a huge company. Moreover, they meet our deadlines and are great at communication. We communicate via Google Meet, Zoom, and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re impressed by how quickly they integrated into our team. They’re also very transparent, and having them on board has been very beneficial for us because they’re experienced in a lot of technologies.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They should have one main contact person who deals with all problems.

Any advice for potential customers?

Make them a part of your team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a partner of a business consultancy and managing director of a subsidiary that offers software products in the financial services sector. Our group employs 250 people.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ProductDock, and what were your goals?

Our project, the development of BankingGuide 2.0, aims to develop a consulting application for a German banking group. Our goal is to develop this consulting application as flexibly and configurably as possible in order to be able to adapt it quickly and easily to new use cases by business experts.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Our group of companies has been working with ProductDock for a long time. So it was not a question for us with which provider we implement our project.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The core task was and is to develop a scalable advisory application for a German banking group. The architecture in terms of scalability was a particularly challenging task in which ProductDock supported us. In addition, the software had to run in the vicinity of the data center and meet the formal requirements.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

On the part of ProductDock, 3-4 developers were always part of the SCRUM team. Among them were frontend and backend developers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We were able to roll out the consulting application according to plan. Since then, we've continuously been developing the product based on customer feedback. The collaboration with ProductDock is long-term and the ProductDock developers are part of the overall SCURM team.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The operational project management in the team was always supported by the ProductDock developers. The use of the common tools Jira, Confluence and MS-Teams is part of the standard repertoire.

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

We included the ProductDock developers as part of our SCRUM team, and that's exactly how the developers embraced this role. The developers are completely and partly long-term - for about 2 years - part of the team. This is very important to us, both professionally and personally.

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

Not all developers could be made available to our project in the long term, as desired.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the MD for Product and IT. Kerberos makes money laundering prevention feasible and easy for everyone combined with a digital experience. We help our customers in complying with all the requirements of the Money Laundering Act. As an innovative company, we provide customer-friendly, digital, and legally compliant solutions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ProductDock, and what were your goals?

We have had a stand-alone Know Your Customer (KYC) App that needed a reengineering due to lack of integration into our AML Desk / platform. We needed additional tech expertise for developing a product and not yet another dev project.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

Right from the start we wanted an expertise in product development instead of project development. ProductDock immediately understood our needs and provided highly skilled developers for our needs.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

ProductDock ramped up our tech-product expertise and redesigned the architecture of our KYC app, integrated the microservices into our Anti-Money Laundering (AML) platform. All developments for conducted on Google Tech Stack and in the cloud.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

There were 8 developers (6 full stack, 1 dev ops, 1 backend developer), 1 solution architect, 1 product manager and 1 agile coach supporting us since early 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We were able to launch 8 out of 10 sprints in time and quality. The 20% not too successful sprints were caused by outside reasons the team could not influence. In general, all developments were delivered in high quality.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

As cloud natives we work in sprint mode with 2 week sprints. We use the full Atlassian suite for documenting. As Kerberos is using MS Office, we used Teams as communication tool.

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

They understand the difference between product and project developers, helping us a lot right from the start. Often, extended workbenches for developments are hired as project developers which hardly understand the product itself. AML compliance is complex and we wanted developers who identify themselves with the product and know, how the product works. It was very impressive how the dev team embraced this different approach and helped us to speed up the development as such.

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

Leading the nearshore team in the way that they have someone to look over their shoulders in a more formalised way, e.g. code reviews, and/or unit testing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Our company is called Kamax; we produce fastening solutions for the automotive industry. I’m the digital product manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with ProductDock?

We're working on digitizing our shop floor management. We want to help our employees be more productive and effective using different digital solutions and supporting them in their daily work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We commissioned ProductDock to build a digital dashboard where employees could see, in real-time, the status of all the machines that we produce. The first step in digitizing and supporting our employees was to bring transparency. With the digital dashboard, the employees can see what’s running in each machine, production and sequence planning, next steps, and other processes.

ProductDock also built a KPI board for supporting employees in their daily routines, like checking the last day, what went well, what didn't go well, and what measures we're taking to ensure that we don't have these negative deviations again.

What is the team composition?

In the beginning, we were working with a team of four developers, plus the UI/UX designer. In the last iterations, we worked with two developers, a scrum master, and a part-time UX designer.

How did you come to work with ProductDock?

We checked different possibilities, but their methodology convinced us. They also put a lot of effort into the pre-interviews, giving us a good image of how it would be to work with them and how the process would be going from the business requirements to the final solution.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $60,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in September 2020, and the partnership is still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product has not been globally rolled out yet because we had some issues, not with ProductDock itself, but with some of the layers and interfaces to our MES systems. Overall, I can say that they do a good job, and I'm satisfied with their work.

How did ProductDock perform from a project management standpoint?

In general, they’re very structured and organized, and it's pretty easy to work with them. I'm not the only project manager; they also work with others in my company. 

In terms of communication, we have daily meetings if we are in the middle of a development sprint. If not, we have other gatherings with the product owner to define all the features.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their methodology is what stands out the most about their work.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes there are more job rotations than we wish because some developers decide to part ways. They put a lot of effort into making it as smooth as possible, but of course, it would be better not to have so much job rotation because the longer these developers stay with us, the more they know about our processes.

Any advice for potential customers?

They're in good hands with ProductDock.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Equity Partner of an IT consulting company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Product development, software engineering and consultancy services mainly for the financial industry and the public sector.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire ProductDock AG to accomplish?

• Native app development (iOS + Android)
• Native SDK and API developmen (iOS + Android)

SOLUTION

How did you find ProductDock AG?

Referral

Why did you select ProductDock AG over others?

• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me

How many teammates from ProductDock AG were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

What was your primary form of communication with ProductDock AG?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Key deliverables:

•  mobile iOS app
• mobile Android app 
• mobile iOS SDK for retailers 
•  mobile Android SDK for retailer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

• Delivered product increments

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

Very hands-on and motivated team that met most important deadlines. Transparent issue tracking via Jira.

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

I was amazed at their agile mindset, company culture, and motivated and experienced team.

Are there any areas for improvement or something ProductDock AG could have done differently?

Better active alignment when dev goals or prioritization are unclear. Delivering working product increments regularly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm responsible for the MuleSoft Integration Layer a multi national fashion retail company operating brick and mortar stores in more than 18 different countries across Europe and a growing ecommerce platform

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire ProductDock, and what were your goals?

We are in a big digital transformation and chose MuleSoft Anypoint Platform as the central integration layer for all interfaces within our company. During that digital transformation - which is still ongoing - the number of integrations to be build increased do to different business directions given. Additional Mulesoft capabilities were needed.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

ProductDock was a partner/sub-contracter of our well known partner Codecentric. We did a POC with them and were very convinced about their skills after that.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

They designed and build several APIs using the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

2 senior developers 2 junior developers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Not able to share. Sorry.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

The project management style is lean and flexible. ProductDock was able to adapt their style when needed. Communication tools used were MS Teams, Jira, Confluence. This was our preference.

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

The team had very good communication skills and felt like part of our team.

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

no