SolveQ

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am working as a Product Manager at HYPE Innovation. HYPE Innovation is one of the market leaders for innovation management platforms, and delivers a holistic innovation management ecosystem with an end-to-end process to SMEs and large private and public organizations all over the world.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Software development of the module for the visual representation of innovation data and planning of operational activities in a roadmap format. The overall challenge in the project was to develop, test and deploy the solution according to continuous customer feedback and market requirements.

SOLUTION

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

We were introduced to SolveQ by our investor after which we established the initial relationship. SolveQ was therefore recommended to us with a successful track record on quality, speed of delivery and a potential culture fit, which all were influential factors to the success of the project.

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

A dedicated SolveQ front end team worked together with me and our back-end team. The work was conducted according to agile development principles, following up the work with daily stand-ups and bi-weekly sprint reviews. The complete team on both sides was responsible for the implementation of the whole module.

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

2 senior developers from SolveQ covering Vue.js front end development.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After the module was implemented, we were able to create a new offer for two lighthouse clients in the automotive industry, which immediately resulted in significantly raised ARR.

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

The project was driven according to the Scrum framework. The whole development team from both SolveQ and HYPE Innovation were working on delivering incremental business value with each iteration. We implemented an MVP first which continuously iterated into a first production-ready version as the end result of the project.

We primarily used digital communication tools (primarily Microsoft Teams) to coordinate all communication (messages, online meetings etc.), and also to maintain a Kanban Board to plan Sprints efficiently. The Board listed all increments which were estimated related to effort and priority and assigned to Sprints. Regular retrospective reviews were conducted after each Sprint.

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

SolveQ showed willingness, ability, and commitment to solving technical challenges quickly with the necessary quality.

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

No specific suggestions here.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there

I am a project manager at a sports solutions company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with SolveQ?

We needed help with app development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed one of our apps for both Android and iOS. It’s a mobile app that allows live tracking for sports coaches via sensors attached in an athlete’s clothing. The app allows users to monitor live information from trackers such as heart rate, sprint time, and other training results. It also allows users to upload that data into the cloud.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two senior developers from their team.

How did you come to work with SolveQ ?

I contacted four companies, and they reached out to us. From the first moment, they established a good relationship and showed great availability. I really like how they think about the client's needs; it was clear in the proposal they sent.

How much have you invested in them?

We spent around €65,000 (approximately $78,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2020, and we finished the project in May 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our leads have increased after we launched the app so we know our customers like the system. The platform is solid and easy to understand. Overall, our feedback has been very positive.

How did SolveQ perform from a project management standpoint?

The team was always very clear. We had follow-up meetings where all milestones established were met. We used Jira for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their transparency and approach to the project stood out. Out of the four companies we interviewed, SolveQ was the only one that provided a clear project plan, schedule, and steps to follow; it made us feel like we could really trust them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

One developer left during the project. In these kinds of projects, we’d prefer having the same team the entire time; it ensures we won’t don’t have to go through the learning process more than once.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Work with them to find the right solution. If you work together, it will also be their idea and they’ll make sure it’s accomplished successfully.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am working as Business Development Manager in Telenor Norway. Telenor is market leader in the Norwegian/Nordic market, and deliver full range of telecommunication services to business and consumer customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

SW development of Telenor pet tracking service "Mitt Spor". The overall challenge in this project is to develop, test and improve this IOT based solution according to continuous customer insight and need.

SOLUTION

How did you select SolveQ and what were the deciding factors?

SolveQ was recommended to us by WTS, a swedish iot/tracking solution partner.

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

A dedicated SolveQ SW team is working together with our inhouse Telenor iot product team according to agile work principles, where we follow up the work with daily standups and bi-weekly sprint reviews.

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

6 people from SolveQ covering:

• iot firmware development, senior level
• iot backend sw development, senior level
• app sw development, senior level
• scrum master coordination, senior level

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

SolveQ has successfully solved development challenges in the project, and based on this we have successfully launched a Telenor B-C pet tracking service for dog owners in the Norwegian market.

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

The SolveQ team continuously work together with our Telenor product team by using Slack, Jira and digital meetings. We also have strategic meetings and follow up between SolveQ and Telenor management. This is working very well based on joint trust and ambitions.

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

SolveQ showed willingness, ability, and commitment to continuously solve new and challenging needs. SolveQ also show a true partnership mentality with continuous management follow up and support.

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

No spesific input on this.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the managing director of a software company that creates mobile applications. When we need to implement a project beyond our competence, I build strategic alliances.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SolveQ?

We were building a complex mobile application with a highly modular architecture, but couldn't deliver the modules that were essential to the system. We needed to build a flexible communication platform and an image recognition mechanism based on machine learning. 

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to create self-contained modules operating in a microservice architecture and providing the key features of our application. We needed a backend that was loosely coupled, highly maintainable and organized around business capabilities. 

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Microservice architecture has several drawbacks. It's definitely harder to manage than traditional, monolithic systems, and it's hard to find companies that can work with it. I approached seven software houses that specialized in Node.js. We confined ourselves to local companies because we needed close cooperation and in-person meetings.

SolveQ showcased advanced projects in the areas we wanted to pursue. They were also the most friendly and understanding. Since all the companies had similar prices, we chose SolveQ because of their competence and character.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

SolveQ's programmers became acquainted with the technical documentation of the project. Using open source libraries and proprietary code, they prepared Docker containers with ready-to-use software modules. Everything integrated with our mobile application.

What was the team composition?

We worked with two senior developers, who were directly supervised by our project manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

They completed our mobile application on time, delivering the full scope of required features.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

As their developers became part of our team, we had a great time working together. SolveQ was a good partner, ready to do their best and make the project a success. We used the same tools for communication and project management.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were hard-working, friendly, educated professionals with cool ideas. 

Are there any areas for improvement?

I have nothing worth mentioning, because they couldn't improve.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CTO of Keylime Toolbox. We provide SEO metrics and analytics.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SolveQ?

We wanted a client-side solution, using ReactJS. We needed a walkthrough to gather details about the server logs we would be analyzing and the properties being covered by the logs.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted the solution to allow customers to add new properties for Crawl analytics tracking. We wanted the customer to be able to access a questionnaire that would send the results back to our service to be solved. We needed it to be fast, responsive, and have cross-browser support.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

My colleague had worked with the Kamil Biedrzycki (Co-Founder and Technical Leader, SolveQ) and recommended him to us for the project.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

We provided Kamil with design documents and provided details on other aspects. We gave Kamil feedback on all documents to make sure our goals were understood. Kamil wrote the code, including layout and styling. He also provided regular updates and opportunities for review.

What was the team composition?

Kamil completed this project alone.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We don’t have any metrics yet as this project was the first step in a larger project that we haven’t completed yet.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Kamil was generally responsive and made an effort to respond at appropriate times, despite the time-zone differences.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Our contact was an outstanding developer and architect who worked well with us.

Are there any areas where they can improve?

Though we discussed this in advance, the scheduling was a challenge. There were stretches of time where Kamil wasn’t available–while this was expected for a project not driven by a deadline, it would have been great for him to have had a more consistent focus on our project.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO and co-founder of a logistics startup. We have a team of 110 people, including 28 technical employees.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SolveQ?

We needed help with developing our software. The project could easily be outsourced since it doesn’t require an in-depth knowledge of our domain and our business.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

SolveQ built integrations with third-party services for our platform using Node.js. They are working on an hourly contract and are part of our agile processes.

What is the team composition?

Marcin (Founder and CEO, SolveQ) is our main point of contact. SolveQ’s team is integrated with one of our tech teams and works directly with our in-house developers.

How did you come to work with SolveQ?

I know Marcin through other channels, so I contacted him when we had a need for development services.

How much have you invested in them?

So far, we have invested $10,000–$50,000 on their services. We pay $16,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in January 2018, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We are very happy with their work. It has been a fruitful collaboration, so we are thinking of extending our workforce in the future.

How did SolveQ perform from a project management standpoint?

SolveQ's developers are part of our day-to-day processes, including the daily stand-ups of our in-house team. We make sure that things are delivered when we expect them. They are also using our GitHub.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Kamil’s (Co-Founder, SolveQ) work has been very impressive. They have a strong and committed work attitude. They were also very flexible in the beginning.

Are there any areas they could improve?

SolveQ could still improve their onboarding process and communication. At the time, we had calls when they needed something, but I personally prefer to have more frequent check-ins and video calls. They could also improve the way they report their work hours. While this is difficult, it would make it easier for a client to accept the hours that they are billed. Other than that, everything has been good.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the CTO of a smaler eLearning Company im Berlin, Germany. In this position I'm responsible for development, operations and product management. Our eLearning Tools and Materials are used by several bigger corporate organisations throughout Germany.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SolveQ?

SolveQ was helping us out in the development of a specific component for the CMS used to feed our applications.

What were your goals for this project?

The project was to be delivered within two month and we were setting ourselves the goal of delivering even faster.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

SolveQ was introducing itself actively.

Describe the project in detail.

The CMS of our system is managing content components for which we need a very detailed control of visibility and access. The parameters influencing this are situation, history and context of the elements on the device of the user (including sensor information about the environment). We developed an easy to use editing component, which enables also not so tech-savy users to understand and configure the complex boolean expressions necessary for this control.

What was the team composition?

We hand on employee of SolveQ on site for two weeks. After this he was working from SolveQ's offices in Gdansk. The rest of the team was composed of one frontend developer and one backend emploeey.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The developed component has been delivered and is well received with our clients.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The initial on-site onboarding in our office made the cooperation frictionless.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

SolveQ is actually the first such company I work with, who understands the issues of a development team. No business chit-chat - just plain good cooperation between people who know whats going on. Very (!!) relaxing. My team was impressed with the code quality delivered. These guys also simply say simply "no" when they can not deliver to their quality standards in the time the ever impatient client wants delivery. Quality first!

Are there any areas for improvement?

maybe - I do not know any.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I work for a corporate investment and incubation firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire SolveQ?

We needed to increase our developer capacity.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They were referred by our network.

Can you go into detail about the services they provided and the scope of the project?

They tested the feasibility of a platform.

What was the team composition?

They provided a Ruby on Rails developer who had a good skill set.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our initial contact was good. We appreciated their willingness to find a good candidate for our project.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

The project manager was from Berlin while the developer worked remotely. It was suboptimal but doable. They made sure we had ongoing communication.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They were flexible and responsive. It was a good experience, given the current business model of intermediating.