Stellum

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the VP of Product of IssueID

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

IssueID is a Proactive Site Management Solution. We create more value for the properties our customers manage by easily capturing, collaborating, and closing more work with a simplified process.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

• Frontend Development
• Q/A

SOLUTION

How did you find Stellum?

Online Search

Why did you select Stellum over others?

• High ratings
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Stellum were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

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

The scope of work for the IssueID software development project encompasses both FrontEnd development and Technical Q/A Engineering, focusing on delivering a robust, user-friendly application tailored to the needs of the Trades Industry. 

• FrontEnd Development Technologies: React, Node.js, and Tailwind CSS 
• Key Tasks: UI/UX Design Implementation, State Management, API Integration, Responsiveness and Cross-Browser Compatibility, Accessibility and SEO Best Practices, and Technical Q/A Engineering. 
• Key Tasks: Test Planning, Manual Testing, Bug Reporting and Tracking, Continuous Integration, and Deployment (CI/CD). 
• Key Deliverables: Frontend Application, Testing Documentation, Bug Reports, Deployment Strategy, and Maintenance Plan.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The IssueID project achieved significant milestones, including a 40% increase in user engagement through a responsive, React-based UI, a 30% reduction in load times with optimized Node.js backend integration, and a 95% success rate in automated and manual testing, indicating robust application performance and reliability. 

Tailwind CSS implementation enhanced UI flexibility, leading to a 25% quicker development cycle. These metrics demonstrate the project's success in improving user experience and operational efficiency.

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

The project management for IssueID was efficient and responsive. The team ensured on-time delivery and swift adaptation to evolving needs using agile methodologies. Communication was key, with regular updates and proactive problem-solving via tools like Asana, Zoom, and Slack. Their approach facilitated adherence to timelines and strong responsiveness to feedback and challenges, ensuring the project met its goals with agility and precision.

What was your primary form of communication with Stellum?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

Stellum's innovative use of technology and a profoundly customer-centric approach sets them apart. Their adoption of advanced technologies like React and Node.js, combined with agile management, underscores their commitment to excellence. Most impressively, they demonstrated genuine care for our project, taking a personal interest in its success, which speaks volumes about their dedication to innovation and genuinely impactful customer relationships.

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

Enhance scalability planning for future project expansions. Improve risk management to address potential challenges preemptively.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director and founder of a nonprofit organization. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Stellum?

We needed a web platform that could run our organization’s activities. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Stellum is developing a web platform from scratch based on my guidance. Their team has helped me put together the UI/UX design and organize the platform. 

What is the team composition?

I work with a project manager, who oversees four developers and a UI/UX teammate. 

How did you come to work with Stellum?

I found Stellum on Upwork — they replied to my job posting. I interviewed four vendors that answered the posting, but after those interviews, I decided to hire Stellum. Stellum’s team spent time learning my business goals and then found ways to improve my initial plans, which I liked. 

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested around $12,000 with Stellum. 

What is the status of this engagement?

My partnership with Stellum began in November 2021, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re a month out from the project’s completion. I’ve worked with other developers in the past and wasn’t satisfied with their work. However, with Stellum, I finally see results. They’ve done just as much development, at a higher quality, in three months as our previous developers did in a year. 

How did Stellum perform from a project management standpoint?

Stellum provides project updates in our weekly meetings— they have impressive project management. We use Trello to manage the project and Slack to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Stellum has invested time in understanding my project goals. They’re not just checking boxes and moving on — Stellum is collaborating with me to improve the overall project and their deliverables. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything Stellum can improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d advise customers to go into a partnership with Stellum with an open mind. It’s important to listen to what Stellum’s team says because they’re dedicated to improving customers’ projects. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the project manager and content specialist at TINT. We are a digital company providing premium yoga content on-demand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to build an online tool, integrated with our TINT platform, which helps our users to build their own yoga sequences. Stellum helped us to build a rather sophisticated MVP of the product in just about 4 weeks time.

SOLUTION

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

We have worked with Stellum before and were satisfied with their services. After doing a couple of other interviews, we decided for Stellum because their offer was fair. They were available and proactive in regards to how to make the product better.

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

The scope was building two pages for a canvas area and a form of pose library. The application was planned to work for web, mobile and tablet viewing. So the project was to build a complex web application delivered from scratch with Stellum handling PM and QA alongside with the development itself.

Steps on the way:

• work with business requirements and provide estimation
• run quick weekly iterations with tangible increment and regular communication
• deliver app fully within dedicated budget and time

Key Deliverables:

• interactive web application with Drag & Drop feature, add, move and delete poses, export PDF function, embedding tutorial video and a comprehensive pose library with search bar and tag search logic.

Technologies:

• Frontend: React, Tailwind
• Backend: Next.js
• DataBase: Mongo
• Cloud: AWS, Mongo Atlas

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

We had a task force of three people consisting of project management, one developer and one QA engineer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The deliverables were on point and everybody in the team was very happy about the outcome and impressed by the short amount of time in which the project was developed.

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

We are very happy with the overall project management, communication, keeping on top of tasks and sticking to timelines. We mainly used Slack for direct communication and jour fixe calls.

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

They always came up with suggestions and different options how to approach and solve a problem. Also, they had a great ability to explain the technical process in a way that is understandable also for people who have not so much expertise in this area.

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

There were some minor bugs along the way, mainly on the design side, but they were very quick to fix all of them.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of Menudget. It is a smart menu app with an AR feature that includes a set of restaurant software solutions for small and medium resuarants.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We started working with Srellum because we needed a full stack developer and continued working with them while creating a mobile app and web platform solutions such as a content management system.

SOLUTION

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

We've decided to choose this particular agency because of their communication and willingness to contribute and help us reach our goals.

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

Stellum helped us to create and publish the mobile app including some of its features, creating a content management system, and united all the variables into one working system. Along the way, they were also fixing bugs that were made by previous developers and were improving solutions which were already implemented in the past

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

We were constantly working with Roman, the leader of Stellum and Vlad, the senior developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

It can be said that the Stellum team have successfully faced all deadlines on time and working process have never been slown down due to our collaboration, only've been facilitated

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

We are using slack and Trello as main management and communication tools, including google docs for the information exchange.

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

They were very flexible and I am impressed. Always ready to contribute to the overall success

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

can't state a specific point here

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the owner of Membia which is a service to enable clubs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to manage their club and club members.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Stellum to develop the MVP of Membia and create the web application based on our design. The goal was to have the MVP for testing purposes as fast as possible and reflect all necessary features.

SOLUTION

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

We searched for freelancers on upwork.com and I shortlisted 3-4. After several calls with different agencies and freelancers, I decided to go with Stellum. The main deciding factors was the good portfolio of Stellum and also a very good and easy communication which was important to me.

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

We had a kick-off meeting and from then on we used to talk twice a week to discuss the next steps and possible problems. Before we started developing Stellum consulted on the way to structure the application and also brought their way of thinking to the table. This really helped because it's essential to have a partner who also thinks and tries to find the perfect solution. The key deliverable was the MVP and from there we will iterate in smaller steps to provide more features.

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

From Stellum there were 3 people involved: A project manager, a QA engineer and a developer.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

For now there are no measurable outcomes because we've just released the MVP and onboarded the first testers.

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

We had update meetings twice a week and communicated mainly in a slack channel. For task management we used trello and for documentation we used notion.

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

Their most impressive parts were the communication and trust we built in such a short time I always feel that Stellum does everything to make me happy and always acts reasonable when problems appear.

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

I think Stellum can improve at delivering a given design exactly as it should be and should pay more attention to details. But they are already working on it.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The Quantum Daily is the leading resource dedicated exclusively to making Quantum Technology accessible through news, information, media and data.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We appointed Stellum to develop a new, feature-rich, web UI to deliver data-driven business insights to our users.

SOLUTION

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

We selected Stellum based on skillset, experience and project price estimates. Stellum were responsive, helpful and professional throughout the selection process.

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

Initially, Stellum was tasked with developing the new front-end UI from scratch, making use of existing APIs. The UI development was delivered on time, on budget and to spec. We then expanded the scope of the project, to include changes to the back-end required to deliver new functionality.

Stellum were able to accommodate the requests for this second phase of development, which was managed as a lean/Kanban project working through a prioritised backlog of features. The tech stack included React, Python and Django. The key deliverable of the project was a successful go-live of the new site.

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

Three people from Stellum worked on the project (front-end developer, back-end developer and project manager). We worked directly with the project manager, who coordinated all development activity, managed the Kanban board, communicated estimates for approval, and provided regular updates.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Although we expanded the scope of the project partway through, Stellum were able to flex up to meet our requirements, and successfully delivered the new site, including new features. The new site launched successfully in October 2021. Based on their professionalism, reliability and talent, we hope to work with Stellum again in future.

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

Communication was excellent throughout, and Stellum provided frequent and clear updates. We used Slack, Trello and Figma extensively to collaborate, respond to blockers, prioritise activities and clarify design principles. Stellum did well to accommodate our stakeholders across multiple time-zones.

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

The quality of the software developed by Stellum was excellent, and the pace of delivery was very impressive. I’ve really enjoyed working with Stellum, and I found them to be reliable and professional in their approach. They went out of their way to help us through unforeseen challenges, and they now feel like part of the team.

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

I can’t think of anything.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder of the company and responsible for the initial MVP mobile application.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

The goals were to clean up the mobile app code (React Native) and get it to the point where it can run on my personal device for testing and regular use.

SOLUTION

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

We search via Upwork and found several vendors. Stellum stood out with their previous experience developing similar applications and quick response time.

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

React Native app was designed and partially implemented. Looking for someone to fix it, clean up the code, and finish the remaining features. App is for personal management of a specific health condition. Includes these primary components: test result and history chart, daily dose and dose scheduler, pill inventory, community activity feed. App should function offline and sync when possible.

Currently implemented with Firebase and Google Cloud Functions. Serverless approach is critical. Hi-fi designs are complete and available as well as existing codebase. Expect weekly updates from the developer.

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

A primary developer and QA tester were assigned to the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The original code (done by a previous vendor) was very bad quality. Stellum was able to take this and vastly improve it by converting it to TypeScript. They were then able to find bugs via QA and fix the worst ones quickly and help me get the app into TestFlight.

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

Roman was very easy to work with and we had regular meetings to review the project progress. They were able to organize the sprints and help define the deliverables.

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

They were able to work with terrible code, fixing it and creating a working prototype very quickly. Clearly, they are experts in mobile React Native apps.

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

No complaints.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am one of the Co-founders and we provide services to Companies to create spaces of informal connection for remote teams

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired them as co-creators of our platform. We started to develop a MVP version to start

SOLUTION

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

We selected them because they had valuable experience with startups and since the beginning, they were giving us ideas and building with us.

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

The goal of this project was to develop a complex web application that will include the following: HTML5 multiplayer games, video/audio/text p2p and group chats, shared drawing canvas for two and more users, authentification via Linkedin

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

Project Manager, QA engineer, and two developers (frontend and backend)

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

After the MVP was ready, we had 1,000 connections in our platform, with 4 games developed. Solution was ready to sell to first customers

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

They are very client-oriented, opening to listening, and contribute with ideas. We even had tests late in the evenings (even Fridays), and they were fully committed to join.

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

They are an amazing partner to work with and really feels like they are part of the team. They were good at thinking about optimal and creative solutions to overcome challenges.

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

Nothing that I can think of

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We design and create educational and engaging experiences, both offline and online

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired Stellum to varry out web development of a completely functional MVP of a new online one-on-one networking platform. The goal was to create a web-app complete with the set of features ready to be tested with real paying clients.

SOLUTION

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

We chose Stellum based on a combination of the following factors:

• Project price estimates: their estimates were transparent and seemed fair, and they offered a competitive hourly rate
• Experience: the team was small but had the relevant experience for this project - Attentiveness and communication: the communication on the interviews stage was pleasant and easy.

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

We used the following technological stack: Node.js on the back-end; React for the web; Phaser for game development. Connectycube for real-time audio and video communication; Aws for hosting and deployment DynamoDB as a database. We worked out a comprehensive roadmap, that we followed and adjusted along the way, as requirements were better defined in the course of the project.

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

Stellum team for Peer Square project consisted of 4 people: three developers (front-end, back-end and devOps + gamedev) and a project lead/manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have successfully completed the set goals, and haven't exceeded the budget that was originally allocated for this project. The project was not only completed successfully, but also benefited from the input of the team, that shared their knowledge and experience to suggest alternative solutions, which in many cases were better than the original ones.

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

We used Slack for communication and Jira for project management. communication was always smooth and pleasant, the team was sharing updates regularly and was always available for discussion.

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

They have great communication and the willingness to work hard when needed (ex. before the first paying clients checked in the platform). Fair and transparent pricing.

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

The team is not huge, so naturally they can't cover every area of expertise equally deep for a project with a broad tech stack.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I own a healthcare technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Stellum?

We needed help developing our patient-facing mobile application, and one of our provider portals

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built our app for iOS and Android, using React. We had an existing platform that we were adding to on the provider side, so we were able to give them very specific instructions for what needed to be housed in the patient-facing app. The team worked on the user interface, as well as the backend database component, as well as the testing and deployment. We’re going to continue working with them to further build out the app and add to its functionality.

What is the team composition?

We worked with five people from their team.

How did you come to work with Stellum?

They were a referral from someone else that I’d worked with. I trusted the referral and Roman (CEO) is awesome to work with, and he’s committed to the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The application is currently live, and the feedback has been great from everyone who’s interacted with it. The patient-facing piece of it is intentionally easy to use, easy to understand, and simple. It’s not complex or intimidating at all.

How did Stellum perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re awesome. We communicate via Slack and three other collaborative project management tools. We also talk on the phone twice a week to go over project updates.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The talent, in terms of their ability to execute and deliver on everything they said, is definitely a strong point. It also feels like Roman and his team are invested in my project. They truly want to put out a high-quality product, which I appreciate as a business owner. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Honestly, I have no complaints whatsoever.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to have a clear understanding of the project’s scope. It’s more so to be efficient when it comes time for development.