STRV

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m in officer development for e-commerce. I’m also a software developer, working as part of our internal development team. We manage all the products and orders on our website that have custom bags.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed help with creating a mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided the core information to them. They optimized it for mobile, and they’re designing an iOS app for us.

The design was a collaborative effort with input from our team and recommendations from them. The app is a replica of our desktop e-commerce site. There are standard templates, which users can choose from, or they can put their own design on the bags. They can manage their orders on the app too.

What is the team composition?

There are 7-8 people on the team including a project manager, four developers, and two UI designers.

How did you come to work with STRV?

We found them online. They had good reviews on Google, and we found them to be the best choice of the companies who work in Agile development.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $100,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around May 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We work in Agile. We also have a board with all the tasks and milestones, from start to finish. They follow that, which helps them work well. We haven’t had any issues so far.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

From a project management standpoint, they’re doing a good job. They’re also working within a set timeline. We use Slack and email for communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their team overcomes many challenges found in development projects.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could lower their prices a bit.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Go with the flow. I don’t think you will have any issues with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work at Wilson Sonsini, the leading law firm representing venture-backed companies. I’m the Marketing Manager for their Emerging Companies Practice.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We wanted to build a robust website to provide valuable resources to the early-stage startup ecosystem.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We provided STRV with the idea of what we were hoping to build, including the outline of the different pages, elements for each page, and some of the branding guidelines. We then worked closely with STRV on the rest.

They started with the design, helped determine the structure, and did the full development. They did all the engineering, QA, and everything else necessary to complete the site up until the launch.

They used DatoCMS as our CMS. I had never used it before, but it's terrific and was a great choice. It also had built-in SEO elements that STRV helped set up. They used Vercel for hosting the site and Figma for design.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one project manager, who was there throughout the entire process, overseeing everything and making sure we were on time and budget. We also worked with a key designer, two developers, and a QA person.

How did you come to work with STRV?

We interviewed a lot of web development firms and found a lot of great companies, but we were very impressed by STRV and their team, so we chose them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in the second week of November 2020 and finished the project by the end of March 2021.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The product that STRV helped us develop spoke for itself. Since launching recently, we’ve already had thousands of visitors to the site and terrific engagement rates.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

STRV’s project management was amazing — they were very well organized. We had weekly or twice-a-week calls where the project manager went over the plan and the goals. We had a few team member changes over the project, and all the transitions were very smooth.

When STRV came in, I was very specific about how we couldn’t go beyond the scope. I told them the amount of money we had, and the date we needed to get this project done — they nailed those goals. We didn’t spend a dollar more than what we wanted.

STRV was really helpful with sticking to the scope, even when we were asking for more. They were able to figure out how to make things work within the budget and deadline. Apart from the calls, we communicated via Slack and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

STRV’s team was incredibly nice and great to work with. They were extremely polite and dedicated to the project, answering messages at all hours — they went above and beyond.

Even after the project ended, they’re still answering my questions and being very gracious about it — that’s the best part.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Genuinely, there’s nothing STRV could improve on. The process was very smooth, and the product was great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very well organized and have a clear vision of what you want from the start. It’s something pretty tricky to do, but take the time to have that vision and scope really clear.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a health and wellness platform called Still Life. We’re focused on providing inspiration, support, and general wellness content for anyone who’s trying to succeed at work, play, or life. Specifically, we have a meditation app and a facility for off-sites and community events in Los Angeles, California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We didn’t have a CTO or any engineers on our founding team. After COVID-19, we accelerated our desire to get our platform into the hands of everyone at any time or place. Therefore, we hired STRV to be our arm of engineering and technology.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV built an app that’s both on Google Play Store and Apple Store. They didn’t do our website, but they helped a lot with the design and worked on the front- and backend, using data and AWS.

Also, they built us an administrative dashboard for us to control any issues outside of what Apple or Google Store may offer to developers.

What is the team composition?

We worked full-time with two backend engineers and a frontend engineer. Around half percent of the time, we also worked with a project manager and a QA tester, and when we needed it, we worked with a designer on their side.

How did you come to work with STRV?

We used Clutch as the main source to find them. In the beginning, we called about five different companies, but STRV really stood out. I did a call with someone more on the business development side and I met Lubo (Co-Founder & CEO). I really liked him and got along well with him.

Overall, it was a matter of relationship and personal development. They understood our vision, what we wanted to do, and how we were going to differentiate from the ocean of meditation apps right now.

How much have you invested with them?

I assume that by August we’ll have spent close to $450,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project kicked off in December 2020, and we’re continuing our partnership for the foreseeable future.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

In general, we’re deadline-oriented, so we’ve focused on deliverables and timelines. All of the specific milestones were achieved, and we had frequent check-ins to track everything they did.

We had a beta test group before the public release, and we had various internal metrics to rate that success. They hit all of them, and all were correlated to the overall technology development. We’ve been really happy with the general feedback from that.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

For project management, we use Slack, emails, and Google Drive. We talk pretty much every day, and we have a weekly call with all the team.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They really understood the vision and goals we were trying to attain, and then they were able to take that information and put it into a successful app.

Also, their communication has been one of their greatest strengths. I’m not a tech-savvy person, and having the project management side explained to me in layman’s terms was something that stood out to me. They made it clear from a tech perspective and helped me understand what it takes to actually develop and manage a software like this, and I’m really happy about that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t really have much to say about that point, they’ve been pretty solid.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be specific in what the end goal should look like, but be flexible throughout the creative process because you’ll learn so much — especially if you don’t have a CTO or an internal engineering team. The end product may be different than what you may have imagined, so you have to work back and forth in a cohesive way and be open to taking advice and feedback.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Ben Soleimani is a luxury home brand. We sell luxury handmade rugs and other products like furniture, décor pieces, and upholstery. I’m the e-commerce director of the company, so I manage our website, e-commerce, and other digital efforts and internal marketing initiatives.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

When I started working for the company, we needed to ramp up our efforts to improve the overall UI/UX design and functionality of our website.

The company started with just selling rugs, and our site was based on a Shopify template at the time, so we had a lot of way-arounds, custom solutions, and exceptions done to make the template work.

The website was running really slow; it would take 30–40 seconds just to load a product page. It was time to do a redesign and improve the overall experience, so I reached out to STRV.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV redid our whole website experience, from UI/UX design to the infrastructure itself. The redesign project took a month, during which they worked with our internal redesign team to create the look and feel, decide on fonts, and work on the overall layout.

We started with the development phase after that. STRV helped us fix and maintain the website we had at the time while we were working on the new one. We fixed the site as much as we could, and we worked on fully developing the new one after that.

Our new site has a headless architecture. We’re using Shopify only for order and inventory management, and we also use their checkout system, but the frontend is Maplify.

We have a lot of features on our wishlist, and we’re releasing them a bit at a time. For example, we’re working on a 3D AR piece, and we’re improving pages for specific product groups.

What is the team composition?

The team has adjusted depending on what we need. We started working with a project manager, a graphic designer, and a developer to maintain our old website. Then, we ramped up to three developers and added a QA tester when we started working on the new site.

We’ve scaled up and down after the launch, depending on the need. Right now, we have three developers, and we don’t need to have a project manager. I’m dealing directly with the development lead.

Apart from those people, we have contact with a salesperson and an account representative, who make sure everything is okay. We’ve also worked with Lubo (Co-Founder & CEO).

How did you come to work with STRV?

I’d worked with STRV at my previous company, and initially, they were referred to us. The scenario was similar: we had a website that we weren’t happy with, and we reached out to them. STRV was happy to jump on board and help out.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $290,000 so far.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2020. We launched the new site in March 2021, and we’re working on enhancing it now.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project has been incredible overall. When we started working together, our conversion rate was very low at around 0.58%. Thanks to STRV’s efforts, it has gone up to 1.15% — that’s an increase of 98%. We’ve also had a 50% increase in transactions and a 28% increase in average order value.

In terms of pure website metrics and performance, we have a bounce rate decrease of 27% and the response time for pages load increased by 25%. Comparing the numbers from the beginning of our collaboration to the ones from the last 30 days, the work done by STRV is clearly reflected in our metrics.

Working with them is an absolute pleasure. They bring high-level expertise to the table, and they’re always available. Even though we’re in different time zones, they’re always there for whatever we need.

I'd never worked with a more reliable and experienced company — that’s why I reached out to them when I came to this position. I knew the quality of their work, and I trusted them.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

We manage the project in Jira — we can keep track of everything through it. If I need to address something in the middle of the night, I just go on Jira and put it in a queue.

We use Slack for quick communication. We have a channel with everyone in it, including the salesperson, the account representative, the developers, and even Lubo himself.

We communicate as needed. For example, we used to have weekly calls during the main development, and now, we have them every 2–3 weeks to touch base and see where we’re at.

What did you find most impressive about them?

STRV is very trustworthy. Most agencies out there will favor the most expensive solutions, the ones that are most profitable for them. However, I can trust STRV in this regard. We’ve always worked together to find the best solution at the best price — they’re part of our team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

STRV allocates resources based on the project. If we need a developer for a short period, either because we have an urgency or want to launch a new feature, they may not have a resource available, and we’ll have to wait 3–4 weeks for it. It would be good for them to keep a couple of developers available to jump in if there’s any urgency.

However, we’ve had a lot of last-minute requests, and STRV has always found a way, either by having a developer work a few extra hours or another solution like that. There was just one instance when we had to wait three weeks to find an additional developer.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I lead the engineering team at CampusLogic, which is an EdTech company. We built a product to help create transparency throughout the financial aid process for students.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We had a web app but didn’t have a mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV developed an iOS app that mirrored our web app for high school students. The platform allows students to create profiles and follow colleges. On the app, students can also list accomplishments on their profiles to earn micro-scholarships from colleges.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two iOS developers during the first year of our engagement. We now only work with one developer from STRV.

How did you come to work with STRV?

I wasn’t part of the hiring process that brought STRV on board. Although I’m not sure how we found STRV, we tried to hire an in-house iOS developer but couldn’t find one. We then started searching for companies that we could contract. Ultimately, we chose STRV.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between $500,000–$700,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them around February 2017, and it’s an ongoing engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The app has 990,000 downloads,14,500 reviews, and a 4.8 rating in the App Store. During its first six months in the store, 50% of our sign-ups came from the platform. Now, 20% of our sign-ups come from the app.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

STRV’s well integrated with our engineering team. We’re still working with a developer who comes to all of our meetings. They’re great at communicating and meeting deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their engineers have been at least as good as any in-house engineers I've worked with. When you contract a third-party company, you may not access high-quality resources. STRV has high-quality engineers. I’m impressed by how fast they’re able to complete tasks and the quality of their code.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve had rough contract negotiations. Their team has been inflexible with making changes to how many hours we need without losing access to them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Treat the resources STRV provides as members of your team. Fully integrate them into your team and communicate with them as often as you communicate with in-house engineers to support real-time information sharing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of a software company that makes mobile apps.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed help with the development of our products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV provides us with engineering services that help us develop our mobile apps. We currently work with them on two mobile, native apps for iOS and Android.

We started the project with specifications and used wireframes to help STRV understand what we wanted to build. We then worked with them to identify the right team to transform our ideas into products.

As it’s our wheelhouse, we mostly designed the products ourselves. However, we’ll work with them to iterate on the products’ designs depending on customer feedback.

STRV helps to build an interactive game, which is almost complete. Their team built the product’s architecture from the ground up. They’re making the code modular and creating interactive elements. For example, a user can move their phone and then the screen melts to an image behind it. Their team’s creating a lot of heavy animations for the game.

STRV is also building a native iOS app in the Swift language. Their team also uses Realm DB, MySQL, and Metal — a 3D animation framework. They engaged Elasticsearch for the backend too.

On the Android side, they started with Java. Their team’s now using WebSocket and Rest API architecture. They used Firebase for real-time database and push notification features. On the backend, their team engaged Node.JS, MongoDB, DynamoDB, and Redis.

What is the team composition?

Three developers from STRV work on one project and two developers from their team work on the other project. We occasionally interact with a designer and frequently interact with their project managers. There’s heavy communication between us and their engineers. We also have a main contact and connect with Lubo (CEO) a lot.

How did you come to work with STRV?

When I was with another company, we engaged STRV to build an Apple TV app and a web app. That’s how I came to know and like them.

How much have you invested in them?

In total, we’ve spent about $2.5 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2017, and it’s an ongoing engagement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Although we haven’t publicly released the interactive game, it has received amazing feedback for its level of detail and polish. I’m picky but believe STRV has done an amazing job making the game. It’s polished and immersive. They built 11 different interactions that enable users to unlock different puzzles. Everyone loves the puzzles. We’ve received a lot of great feedback on the interactions too.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

Unlike many agencies, STRV acts as an extended team. They uniquely integrate with internal teams. Depending on the project and its timeframe, STRV has a wide range of available engineers who figure out our needs.

We work together every day via Zoom and share a Trello board. We also use Slack for communication and have weekly sprint stand-up meetings. The process works because their engineers integrate with our team. They’re also responsive.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I have a long history in the tech industry and know it’s rare to find an agency like STRV. Their approach to team integration is special. They hire extremely confident and competent engineers. I visited their home office and found that their whole team was engaged, focused, and happy. STRV built a vibrant community, which is how they attract great talent. They have a great reputation.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any constructive criticism. However, I would like to see them have more locations and grow their footprint. I want them to be more visible and more successful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Look no further than STRV. I always refer people to them because they’re great. Don’t look at them as a normal agency; look at them as an extended team and trust their engineers. Roll up your sleeves and engage them because they will be able to get you wherever you want to go.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the founder and CEO of Cinnamon. We are building video streaming platforms and toolkits for creators. We offer mobile and desktop apps at the moment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

Right after receiving seed investments from our investors, we had to make a decision as to whether we wanted to build our mobile apps ourselves or choose an agency that could deliver the apps to us within a certain period of time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

As a startup, we have to move quickly. We picked them to do the work on our Android and iOS mobile engineering as well as on the emotion detection AI.

What is the team composition?

There were 10 people that we worked with, including three Android developers, three iOS developers, one QA, one project manager, one AI specialist, and one backend developer.

How did you come to work with STRV?

Our engineering team is based in the Czech Republic. STRV is based in multiple locations, but they started off in the same city. Their track record made them pretty well known in this industry across the country.

We had a couple of options, but after a few calls and the technical specifications, we ultimately chose STRV for this project.

How much have you invested in them?

We have spent exactly $275,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2020, and it is an ongoing relationship.

Most of the work had been completed by the end of August 2020. Now, we are only using their AI engineer for our needs and purposes because we managed to hire our own mobile engineers in-house.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They have a sharp team. Not only are they eager and energized to commit to our projects, but we also admired how they proactively requested specifications from us.

They have been very helpful in guiding us through Apple and Android requirements for store approval. The entire team that has been working with us has remained focused on the quality and delivery of the solutions. Overall, we are super excited that we have had this experience–it has been educational for us. 

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

I think the job has been done pretty well. Anytime they needed something, they communicate immediately without friction points. We've slowed them down a few times.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The scope of their abilities is exceptional. They know exactly what clients need and can adjust anything to adapt to those needs. The team moves companies from point A to point B.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We once gave them a challenging, vague request that we thought should've been completed more quickly. However, we should have been more clear about our needs from the start to avoid the resulting misunderstandings.

At the end of the initial project, I forgot we had any issues because our success overshadowed those negative feelings.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would definitely choose STRV because they shape ideas into functioning solutions that convert customers. They have the experience to advise and guide companies on the way. They've built hundreds of apps, so their expertise speaks for itself.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the Product Development Lead of heybaby. heybaby is the first dating app that puts the kid conversation front and center. Whether you see children in your future or have them already, heybaby helps family-minded people find each other.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire STRV?

We partnered with STRV in the very beginning, armed with little more than the concept and a basic wireframe. STRV was brought in to help bring our vision to life by shaping it and giving it direction.

We needed them to take us through their Discovery Phase, which means that they worked with us to define heybaby by establishing the foundation of what we wanted to make and where it would fit in amongst the competition. From there, the team tackled the design and development of the entire app, all led by their product managers, who worked with us to make sure no decisions were made without our own team.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to create a dating app that would breathe life into the dating game. There are tons of niche dating apps, but we felt there was nothing out there for family-oriented people who didn’t want to waste time with empty conversations or casual meetings that may not lead to anything.

SOLUTION

How did you select STRV?

We were looking for a company that has made beautiful dating apps in the past and could bring unlimited expertise to the project. And we needed someone who had a set, proven process for bringing an idea to life from scratch. STRV was the clear choice. Because STRV has tons of experience with dating apps, we knew that the team was skilled and creative enough to help our app stand out.

Describe the project in detail.

Once STRV joined the project, we set up regular meetings, defined everyone’s role and scope of involvement, and worked together to analyze the user experience, crucial features that would cater to our target audience, etc. When everything was defined, STRV’s designer and developers got to work.

Apart from a detailed onboarding experience, the main focus was on security. Thanks to their prior experience, STRV knew which data analysis tools needed to be implemented to keep user information and the entire community safe, and we began working on eliminating scammers during the verification process.

What was the team composition?

We’ve had STRV’s product managers, developers (iOS, Frontend, Backend) and a designer all working on the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project and cooperation are still ongoing. The app has been available in the App Store since March 2020, and the launch campaign is focused on the San Francisco Bay Area region in California - USA. So far, the reception from the users and the media has been very positive, and the app will gradually be promoted across all USA, and hopefully internationally.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

communicate everything clearly, with zero delays, is something we found incredibly valuable. From design aspects to the next steps in development, we always felt that our input was heard and taken into consideration.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

STRV really took on our project as their own, approaching even the smallest tasks with great care. They wanted to understand our motivations, our goals, our worries...everything. In terms of design and development quality, they’re absolute experts in what they do. The product manager is always thinking many steps ahead and evaluating each detail from all angles.

Designers take great pride in their work and aren’t satisfied with “good enough”. And engineers are clear masters of their craft. From day one, you really feel that your product is in safe hands. But despite all this know-how, they always ensured that every decision was a conversation. That’s a rare find.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The price is relatively high compared to some competitors. But of course, we knew this from the get-go and always felt that the quality coincides with the price. So it’s less of an “area for improvement” and more just something that inspired us to ask additional questions before closing the deal.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO of a fintech startup. We focus on offering digital banking to smaller credit unions and banks.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed someone to help us develop a mobile solution for our next-generation platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV developed our mobile banking app. It includes all of the features you see with digital banking, such as login, transfer functionalities, and transaction history. They used Swift and Kotlin to develop the app, which is native iOS and Android.

They do have good designing sense, but we had hired a designer before we handed the app over to STRV for development.

What is the team composition?

We hired two senior iOS developers and two senior Android developers.

How did you come to work with STRV?

They were recommended to us. We used them before for our first-generation platform, and now we’re doing the second generation. They have the expertise.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The quality of the code is really good, and the team is very good and experienced. They care about their work. They don’t generate sloppy code.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

I manage the project. We follow an agile methodology and use Jira to check on the progress. They deliver on time and are very well structured. They know how to prioritize things. We have daily standups and use Slack to talk regularly. We use email occasionally.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re more experienced than I am in mobile development. They don’t just do the work; they go above and beyond and provide suggestions to make the product even better.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They did a really good job. We’re very happy with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you check the developers’ resumes for the experience level you’re looking for. Work with the manager to lockdown the scope of the project and make sure it can fit into your budget.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Daytrip, an online platform. Our users can book private drivers for leisurely trips all over the world. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed someone to develop our iOS app. We also wanted a company that could master project management and development and really deliver on the product, as opposed to hiring cheaper competition or doing it in-house ourselves.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We initially hired STRV to design our app. Then, we were choosing between different agencies to develop the app after the design phase, and there were benefits to having the same company develop it. 

They developed our iOS app, and they may develop an Android version in the future. Our customers will be able to use the app to book trips, manage bookings, find inspiration about tourist destinations, and get information during their trip. The app will have various safety features, such as enabling users to share their location with friends and family.

During the design phase, they shared the designs with us through InVision. They used Swift to program the app.

What is the team composition?

We had one UX designer and a project manager during the design phase. For the development phase, we had the same project manager and three assigned iOS developers.

How did you come to work with STRV?

We really wanted the final project to be full-service and to stay on budget and schedule. We trusted that STRV had the process in place to make this happen. They had the experience to give us a clear expectation of what we could expect for the 3–5 months of development, what the final product would look like, and how much it would cost. We chose them because of this. Their portfolio also showed us they could deliver really nice and functional products.

How much have you invested with them?

The design was €20,000 (approximately $22,500 USD), and the development was about €180,000 (approximately $203,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2019, and the main part of the development was finished in May 2020. Now, we’re finishing up some details on our part, such as supplying the backend and making sure that APIs fit well together. The app isn’t released yet, but we’re testing the beta product and finishing up the API communication with the app.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We got a nicely designed and working product within the scope and budget. They fulfilled the expectations we had for them.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is one of their biggest strengths. We don’t have it in-house, and it’s important for an external agency to have. They were very proactive in communication. We had frequent meetings. We communicated with the team through Slack, and they also used a project management tool. 

We knew what they were doing at all times. The project manager was there to step in if the developers weren’t on the same page or needed something. When the project manager sensed that the communication between our developers and their developers wasn’t ideal, she’d step in. They’re really thorough and know what they’re doing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

STRV really cares about the product as a whole. They want it to be usable. They pay attention to detail so that the end-user can enjoy using it. They work on it as if it were their own.

The project management is really good. The communication was very open, and we could quickly go through any questions or concerns on either side.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The project manager changed midway through the project. It would’ve been better if the new one didn’t have to come up to speed on the project. Our developers had to get used to working with a new person. However, the new project manager did successfully take over, so it wasn’t a big problem after all.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have really clear goals in mind when you start the project. Know what the project should achieve, and give the designer a lot of freedom in getting the design to a state where it can achieve those goals. They’re really good at designing mobile apps. It’s very beneficial to give them freedom in designing the user flows and the UI.