Selleo

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

I’m really happy working with them. We are a fairly young company and still in the exploration phase, meaning that we move fast and do a lot of lean product development. We are still in the startup phase in some aspects. We’re really happy to give them free rein to follow their instincts when solving things. They are very much on the same page as us when it comes to requirements and we feel like they are within our team. They have very good judgment and the things they have built come back well executed. They have surprised us in terms of code quality or breakages. I feel like I can trust them as I can my own team, which is important to me.

They’re good developers, which is a baseline minimum that I want with anyone I am working with, but they are also compatible from a cultural point of view. They take a lot of responsibility — you can leave an open request to them and they will come back and ask questions if they need to. I have not had them come back with a wrong solution, nor have they made a bad call on anything, so I feel we’re very much aligned.

How did Selleo perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform well. I’ve never had to push them or make them work faster in any way. I believe they do exactly what I expect them to do, and there are no surprises, which is what we look for in a team.

We track work in Pivotal for issue management and tracking, as well as GitHub. There is never a problem with the level of requirements set. If there are any questions, they will ask. Most of our communication is through Slack, which we have a daily buzzer on. We also have daily stand-ups since we’re in different geographical locations.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are very sympathetic to work with. For example, we have a process where we do code reviews internally. We have a lot of young developers here in our local office and have a senior person on Selleo’s team who is really appreciated by our members. In doing reviews, he has a high level of integrity and makes sure to not put anything through that shouldn’t go through. He is also super constructive and helpful in giving feedback. They are really easy to work with and never complain.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I had a team member replaced, which was unexpected to me. It was slightly annoying as we had started to build the team. It was a one-time thing and having worked with both people, I know they switched because one got the opportunity to work on a piece of technology he really wanted to work with, and from a personal level, I am fine with that.

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

I’ve been quite impressed with Selleo’s work — they built a beautiful product with outstanding code. From what I’ve been hearing, the app has received a lot of accolades from the industry during conference demos. Selleo takes care of any issues along the way. They are constantly striving to use the latest technology, and the designers followed good standards.

How did Selleo perform from a project management standpoint?

For a project of this magnitude, things are going smoothly from a development and management perspective. Our company follows the Agile approach, with daily stand-ups and updates. As part of the standard process, we have 2-week sprints, retrospectives, sprint planning, and reviews. Selleo’s people are familiar with all these steps.

Selleo’s team is professional, and they follow our timelines. They’ve put together the resources necessary, changing specialists as needed. For example, they reassigned people when we moved away from design work towards backend coding.

What did you find most impressive about Selleo?

I’ve usually struggled with making sure that international teams understood requirements, especially ones outside of English-speaking regions. Many times, the wrong thing is built or not enough questions are asked. I’ve not seen this at all with Selleo, even though the team is based in Poland. The majority speaks English well, and they would tell me if I’m speaking too fast or if something isn’t clear. This is valuable for us since communication is key in dealing with different time frames.

Are there any areas Selleo could improve?

Towards the end of the project, it would have been better to look at allocated resources sooner. There aren’t too many indications on our side that Selleo is winding it up, though.

Some of Selleo’s developers are very ambitious, which may be more of a positive than a negative. By this, I mean that they want to fix the product and code in order to have the highest-quality product. They are constantly trying to add more tickets for refactoring, which may push out time to delivery. While that’s a good thing, there’s a need to balance getting the best version out while maintaining the delivery cost and getting the tool into customers’ hands. From a consulting point of view, I can see that Selleo would want to keep our project going.

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

The company is a good choice for anyone looking for an alternative to a U.S.-based solution, at a lower price, if they’re willing to deal with the distance and language barrier. Selleo is essentially a frontend Ruby on Rails and JavaScript shop, not a place where someone could build an iOS app. Selleo recommended another company that could do that. We appreciated them not attempting to do something they are not capable of.

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

As the code is written and engineers make pull requests, that code will be reviewed by multiple individuals within my team, who are not a part of Selleo. Overall, the quality of the code has been consistently high. The lead engineers on their team follow the patterns that were laid down by the other lead engineers and architects, but they’ve also done a nice job of providing feedback and suggestions about improving the code quality. As we add more folks, not everyone will follow the same approaches and paradigms.

SquadLocker offers a unique type of service. Through customer feedback, we’ve seen how easy the platform is to use, and how much they’ve liked the solution. Aside from customers, we’re also engaging with a variety of brands in the marketplace, as well as large apparel distributors. Every time I’ve talked to these people, they were amazed by our easy platform and clean UX.

Selleo has certainly contributed to our recognition as a market leader by customers and strategic partners. They’ve done this by showing up to retrospective meetings and offering constructive feedback on the process, the design, and the development. As someone who has worked in global software development for a number of years, this is a rare occurrence. Most agencies tend to focus on what they’re being asked to do without offering constructive feedback. Selleo treats this project as if it was their own business, offering great feedback on an almost weekly basis.

How did Selleo perform from a project management standpoint?

Software is a tricky area, and deadlines are often based on rough estimates. As we start the building process, we have to adapt based on new information. In general, I think that Selleo did a good job of hitting the dates we targeted. When that didn’t happen, it never came as a surprise. As soon as there was an issue, Selleo was forthright in bringing it up. They’ve consistently gone above and beyond to finish tasks when we needed.

They’ve influenced our process and tools, as well as the design and development of the software. Selleo is a user in our JIRA environment. As we started to grow our local team, we were trying to find the best tool and went from Pivotal Tracker to Trello and JIRA. Selleo was helpful while making these jumps and offered suggestions as we were building workflows. We use GitHub for a repository and have adopted some of Selleo’s efficient practices. Their team suggested something called Prettier, which assists with some of the JavaScript linting activities to keep everything consistent.

What did you find most impressive about Selleo?

We engage with a lead engineer named Thomas from Selleo’s team, who is responsible for the other resources on their side. For all intents and purposes, he has reorganized his life around this project. There is a 6-hour time difference, and we often have calls at 2–3 p.m. Eastern Time. He consistently takes part in those calls, including some that occur at 11 p.m. his time. Selleo treated this engagement like more than a project and a paycheck. They are emotionally invested in what they’re doing, which, to me, is unique.

Are there any areas Selleo could improve?

As we scale teams, increase the amount of code being built, and extend the offering for the market, some growing pains may take place. Certain choices required Selleo to adjust and adapt. In hindsight, I would have made some different decisions, but I wouldn’t have expected Selleo to change. They’ve done everything I expected—being forthright, offering opinions, citing sources, and prioritizing the best interest of the project. 

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

They did a good job, produced high-quality work, and were cost-effective. So, they allowed us to get more work done faster and for a lower price. Their work was reliable and stable. In a certain area, we had to grow staffing faster with more experienced people. Selleo was limited with their senior people, which eventually led to our disengagement. We needed a lot more senior people much faster than they could provide, so we went a different direction. However, we were incredibly satisfied with their work. They delivered to the highest level of quality.

How did Selleo perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed very well and did what they said they would. We used Pivotal Tracker during our collaboration.

What did you find most impressive about Selleo?

They were less expensive than most places in Poland, maybe because they’re located outside of the major metropolitan areas. They were able to give us a lower cost than their competitors.

Are there any areas Selleo could improve?

I recommend that they acquire more senior talent.