STRV

Please describe your company and your position there.

iOOi™ brings a unique value proposition in that its Socialpedia™ platform is designed in a manner that encourages users to stay immersed on the site and in the content. I'm CEO of iOOi using my advanced strategic & organizational abilities to lead the development of iOOi ™ with STRV engineerings.

For what projects/services did your company hire STRV?

Since I visualized a user-generated-content-focused platform that effectively combines learning, search, multimedia, and shopping all contained within a single site, I have no software engineering experience and found that STRV is best fit to develop iOOi's platform from scratch to finished development.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals for this project is that iOOi™ is easily distinguishable from other websites that have:

• singular focus (ex. social networking vs online publishing)
• suboptimal layout and design
• low ability to captivate users
• high bounce rates

Also, one of our goals is to have users who can view all user generated content in an elegant way with no clicking-through to other websites, therefore keeping them on iOOi™ longer. Another goal is that our platform strengthens the searching and knowledge-sharing experience by encouraging high quality user-generated content for users to explore. In other words, as the length of time that a user remains immersed on the site increases, so, too, do the opportunities for monetization.

How did you select this vendor?

After contacting several potential vendors, we met up and received their initial pitches. We narrowed it down to 2 vendors and then we shared our visualization/concepts with them. It was very excited to select one because we foresee that they will help us to see our product become live!

With being said, we selected STRV based on their quality of their final proposal, their willingness to work with us on how to interact with the website.

Describe the project in detail.

After we selected STRV, we had a series of discovery/brainstorming meetings to discuss our visualization of iOOi platform. Within first 12 months, we received mockups and initial designs for the main page on the site.

After alpha and beta testings, we re-vamped & provided our improved design layout and flow on how we wanted the rest of the site to feel and look. The vendor came back to us with final iOOi platform - we were blown away!

What was the team composition?

Initially, we were assigned a project manager to support iOOi's visualization & platform and serve as the main point of contact throughout the project. My team and STRV's project manager and two frontend and 2 backend developers met up weekly via appear.in. After first 12 months, especially with wireframes & concepts being completed, it was down to 1 each of frontend and backend developers.

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

After first round of iOOi platform is completed, Alpha testing was launched with around 50 users. In May 2018, we saw & collected many feedbacks. After revamping all designs, the new design of iOOi looked much more visible and friendly on the site.

Last May 2019, we launched Beta testing at one of university with around 150 people. Their feedback was very positive on the usability, flow, and look of the site. However, I saw few opportunities to improve and impact much more so currently we are working on it. Hopefully we will do a final test - Gamma before hard launch will be in early 2020.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Although the project manager was replaced twice, currently project manager was much easy to communicate with and provided us frequent updates. The project manager, 1 frontend developers and we connected via appear.in at least once a week and use Slack & Trello for all communication. Overall, I'm impressed by the timeliness of the team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I was blown away by their abilities to complete my visualization and concepts. Frankly, with my no background software experience, I've learned so much more than I thought possible. I appreciated that they were patient and thoughtful while we came up to speed. They are particularly collaborative and positive experience for us. I will certainly engage with STRV again for next project such as App, Admin System, etc...

Are there any areas for improvement?

Naturally everything can always be done faster, but overtime we realized that patience and persistence are very important. In the end, quality is more important than speed and we ended up with a powerful & beautiful product. We will be next new platform what will shake the world!

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of engineering for a media-tech company that automates the generation of local news. We currently produce more than 8,000 local news stories a month.

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

Our initial idea was to build a local social network in which to distribute our content, so we hired STRV to help us create the MVP of an iOS app to get in front of our users.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We had the idea and a few specific functional requirements, but they collaborated with our designer to finalize the wireframes and then took over and developed the actual app.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked in different configurations over the years, but the most common one is a project manager on our end who communicates with an account manager on theirs, and that person is in charge of assigning personnel from their team of front- and backend engineers. Occasionally we will work with a few designers from them directly as well.

How did you come to work with STRV?

They were recommended by my co-founder based on previous work with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in February 2015 and our work is ongoing.

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

We were very pleased with the product we received, as well as with the fact that it only took about 3–4 months of work before we launched in the app store. If we need something delivered fast, STRV can onboard more engineers to get it done.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is pretty good. They’re really good engineers, and the quality of the code they deliver is high. If you have a good process for code reviews and practices, the STRV engineers will follow your process and the final product will be good.

The only caveat is the time difference, but their engineers are always willing to join in our morning standup sessions which pretty much mitigates the problem. They are communicative on both Slack and Trello, so the integration between our teams is smooth and transparent.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are able to perfectly tailor their team to our needs—onboarding or relocating engineers depending on whether we have more or less work to do. Additionally, they are good at incorporating your feedback and will even switch engineers around if you have any problems.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There have been times where they hired more junior engineers, and we realized pretty quickly that it wasn’t going to be a good fit, but they have always been good about correcting those issues when they arise.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Even if you only have a basic idea of the requirements, they will be able to work with you end-to-end to get to a product; the important thing is that you have good processes in place. STRV can recommend a process, but if you’re not on top of the relationship and directing the work I could see things getting off course or going more slowly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a catering company.

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We wanted additional validation on our product’s direction and design.

Additionally, we aimed to ensure we weren’t in an echo chamber, in terms of what we believed about the market and our customers. We aspired to translate only the best elements into our product.

What was the scope of their involvement?            

STRV helped us get an early MVP of our product established. Specifically, they helped us with our need-finding and problem validation phases. They made sure we were approaching our issues correctly.

Once we were comfortable with the feedback data we received on our product challenges, they were able were able to help us get some early designs organized.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four people from STRV. Our team consisted of two designers, one project manager, and one product manager.

How did you come to work with STRV?

We were referred to them on two separate occasions. The first time was by a well-known design firm in the Bay Area, and the second time was by a colleague of mine from business school. Both of these recommendations lent ample support to our decision.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in August 2018, and we wrapped up in April 2019.

We brought more of their assigned responsibilities in-house, as our company grew. We’re still in contact with STRV as it relates with needs that may come up in the future and we would certainly work with them again.

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

It’s difficult to assess the accuracy of need finding and problem validation in their early stages. However, six months removed from the project we found that many of their hypotheses were correct. Their process helped ensure that we didn’t diverge too far from our plans, which saved us time and money.  

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

Our teams worked well together. Our product manager even came from the Czech Republic to visit for a week, and we had a chance to work together in person.

Our project manager took a lot of responsibility and leadership in running the project. Because they were in Europe, we’d go to sleep with discussion notes, and wake up with an outline of what was worked on, with next steps. It was impressive that they managed the process so efficiently; it allowed us to focus on other aspects of our operations, such as technology development and fundraising.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We felt we were getting great value for what we were paying, which is important to us as a small business where every dollar is so precious. The team understood our financial constraints and helped us to craft a plan and realistic milestones. Outsourced teams usually charge as much as they can, but it felt very different with STRV. They reflected the same level of efficiency with our resources that we would expect from ourselves, internally. They made sure we had a successful outcome, even though it didn’t necessarily translate into more income for them.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It took us a little longer to familiarize their team with our industry. It would have been better if we could’ve gotten them up to speed quicker, but I don’t know what we could have done to help that process.

There was also a period where we needed to change designers, which was actually a great shift for us. Unfortunately, there was some time wasted with the first iteration of designers. We would certainly work with them again, even with some of those challenges.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

In general, it’s best to be clear about desired milestones and to have check-ins to remain on track. It’s definitely easy to have someone else come in and manage the process, but it’s important to keep a close watch on how much work should be outsourced and how much should be internal. I would suggest assessing what stage of competence your company is in; sometimes it’s crucial to the learning curve of your business and your team to keep certain responsibilities and jobs inhouse. Finding that balance with STRV was key, even though they were providing high-quality services for us.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CMO of a company that is about to launch what we see as a groundbreaking financial application aimed at everyday banking. It also includes significant rewards programs that nobody else is offering at the moment.

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We initially hired them for web design, but our engagement has since grown to include a redesign of the financial app we are introducing to the marketplace.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Taking a mobile-first approach, STRV designed our primary customer website by refreshing our existing content and presenting it in a new way. We wanted our site to be much more contemporary and clearer in terms of getting key information across to users. We have an in-house development team, but when we’ve needed extra help, their dev team has been very willing to step in.

They have also assisted with dev elements of secondary sites, including aspects of our corporate member program, which requires customized templates. More recently for our mobile app, STRV has orchestrated a complete redesign and representation of the material in the app, which takes up well over 250 pages.

What is the team composition?

Our primary contacts are our project manager and a designer, but we also communicate with their business and financial representatives at times.

How did you come to work with STRV?

We looked at competitive sites that we admired, and we researched who designed and built them. STRV was frequently the common denominator, so we contacted them and picked them.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement began in January 2019 and remains ongoing.

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

We anticipate a full launch of these redesigned products in about a month. STRV’s work to this point has been a significant upgrade from where we were previously.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve had no issues from working with their design team in the Czech Republic. We have regular check-ins, and they run those meetings well. STRV always offers rationale and justification for their design decisions. I only have high praise for how they’ve handled the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are well-equipped to give recommendations within the design or development parameters. Also, they worked well with our expedited timelines, first for our website and now for our mobile app. Working under those time constraints has been a definite point in their favor.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not yet. I think we could have improved by having only one source of feedback, as opposed to multiple sources. And we could have done a better job of alleviating the time pressures we placed on them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend that future clients review STRV’s capabilities and the success they’ve had with other clients. That was our process, and it worked well.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the engineering managers at a cloud storage and content management services provider. My team is responsible for providing third-party APIs and software development kits (SKDs) for our platform’s features.

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

My team had inherited a set of iOS and Android SDKs that another in-house department had developed. However, we didn’t have any mobile experience in our group, so we needed a contracting partner to help us ramp up while also solving pressing customer issues with our previous SDKs.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

STRV is working closely with my team to develop new mobile SDKs for both iOS and Android. Most of the work has focused on the iOS side. The previous iteration was written in Objective C, so we wanted to rewrite it in Swift. We’ve just released a private beta to our customers this past week. 

As for the Android side, customers requested the SDK to be Android X and 64-bit compatible, so we’ve updated the kit accordingly.

What is the team composition? 

We work with about four resources at any given time, split between the iOS and Android teams.

How did you come to work with STRV?

One of our customers who works with our SDKs actually recommended STRV to us, so I contacted them. Their engineers did well in our interviews, so we decided to hire them. 

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent about $300,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started talking to them in February 2019, and they still work with us today.

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

Our primary goal has been to deliver the beta iOS SDK and to fix bugs across both versions, and they’ve been successful there.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

We mostly manage the project from our side, working with their engineers in daily stand-ups in a large team format.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the engineering is excellent, and their staff is very engaged with our project. Rather than telling them what to do and expecting a final product, we share a real collaboration. They work with us to figure out the best approach and provide a lot of suggestions when tackling engineering problems.

In terms of business logistics, I appreciate that they’re willing to work within our budget and timelines. That sort of participation has been very proactive from their side.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The toughest part of working with them is navigating the time zone differences because they’re based in the Czech Republic. Occasionally, their engineers have visited for a few weeks so that we could work on projects side by side, and the team is pretty flexible about our schedules. But having more in-person meetings would be great.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
 
There’s a huge number of engineering companies out there, but STRV has high-quality engineers. If you’re looking for good work, they’re the ones to go to.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the COO and co-founder of Ecomi, an app that helps users manage digital collectibles.

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed additional qualified resources to help us quickly complete the frontend and some of the backend of our mobile app. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV provided mostly frontend development resources to help our team build our app from scratch, using React Native. They also provided some short-term backend support and tracked user analytics. 

What is the team composition? 

We worked with about five people, including one backend developer, three frontend developers, and a user analytics resource. 

How did you come to work with STRV?

I believe they were introduced to us by a mutual contact who had worked with them before on a similar project. After speaking with their team, we felt they'd be an ideal partner for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We've invested around $225,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from January–July 2019. 

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

STRV has done a great job of providing high-quality development resources that have successfully helped us develop our app quickly. Their work has been received well both internally and externally. 

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

They had a fairly limited role when it came to managing the project. Initially, our main point of contact was somewhat lackluster but, after a few conversations, they improved their involvement to a satisfactory level. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were very impressed by their robust recruitment process, which is one of the main reasons we chose to work with them: They have a strong team of highly qualified resources.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not in particular. They met our standards of quality and timeliness.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Different resources on their team are located in different countries, so just be aware of potential time zone differences or try to request resources available during ideal hours. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Bonder.me, a next-generation platform for people to connect with each other.

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We needed to create the product and make sure the code is done right. Our company received a patent within two years, which validates our idea, but we needed to find a team to help us build it. Because we’re on the innovation side, we didn’t have the necessary technical experience.

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV did all of the strategy and development for our platform. We went through an R&D process with them, conducting focus groups and going through redesign phases. Their team made the necessary tweaks as we went through this process together.

After this strategic and research phase, STRV developed the product. This process is ongoing, so they’re building both the front- and backend of iOS and Android apps, along with performing QA testing. 

What is the team composition?

We worked with 10–15 people from STRV, including a product development director. The amount of people fluctuates based on the intensity of the project at that time.

How did you come to work with STRV?

I have a friend who is a lead at a popular ridesharing service who told me about STRV. He said that when a company gets stuck and needs something done quickly, they call STRV. After completing some research, I decided to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested between $200,000-$1,000,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with STRV began in July 2017.

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

Everything STRV has created has been really well received by our team. The quality of the code is excellent, and they’re involved in the process from start to finish. Their team is always able to execute on time and really understands the task at hand. 

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

STRV is fantastic at project management, bringing my team into the fold. They have high standards for how the process works. Our product development director was very assertive. She has a very extensive background and it made our collaboration successful.

Our teams communicate through Slack and email. Despite the distance, they’re exceedingly responsive. The speed of their response time is unwavering. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

STRV is all about the relationship and the partnership. They’re good at achieving because our product matters to them too. It doesn’t feel like they’re outsourced, it feels like they’re part of our team. That isn’t something that’s easy to achieve in this space.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything they could improve on. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The instinct, especially if you’re in the startup business, might be to find a team who can get it done for the least amount. I’d advise against that. If you’re spending a little bit more, you’ll actually save in the long run. That has been my experience with STRV.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of sales & solutions engineering at an IT solutions company for enterprise companies.

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

One of our clients was looking for a company to help develop an application quickly.

What was the scope of their involvement?

STRV sat with our client, asking questions about what they want. It helped the client get a clearer idea for the app. Then STRV took a couple weeks to create wireframes with a properly designed UX/UI. After developing the application for two months, it was launched.

Since that project ended, we’ve continued working with STRV. We had one project where we needed to refresh the design of an existing application. They worked with our project management team to come up with the right product direction for the UX/UI. Another project was for a customer’s product strategy. The client wanted to come up with an Excel product to demo potential projects. STRV was not only involved creatively with development but also in figuring out the whole ideation phase.

What is the team composition?

Depending on the project, we have anywhere from four to eight engineers that specialized in design, front- and backend development, and QA.

How did you come to work with STRV?

STRV was recommended by a friend of ours. When he worked with them before, he had a good experience.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $500,000–$1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with STRV started in October 2017.

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

All of the projects they’ve worked on have been excellent. STRV not only develops projects for us but know what to or what we should develop. My colleagues and I are happy with their work.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve established a great working relationship with the project manager. She’s dedicated and creative.

What did you find most impressive about them?

STRV maintains their competitive advantage by keeping their engineers up-to-date with the latest technologies. Their entire team is motivated. They not only develop what we want but suggest what technologies can better the project before making it happen.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Traditional vendors provide a fixed rate for a support contract for startups on a time’s basis. It’s different with the enterprise market. When we use their service, they charge us. It’s something they’re transitioning to change for the enterprise market.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CEO of Flikflix. We offer an iOS and tvOS mobile app that helps people discover movies they love faster than they typically can now.

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We were trying to create an interface for the tvOS portion of the app that allowed users to swipe through—like Tinder. Our coders were running into difficulties with the task.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I shared a Sketch file that detailed how I envisioned the interface with the STRV team. After examining the document, they browsed our databases and put together a plan for a backend that would make the UI look and feed as it should.

Their team provided valuable feedback and suggestions to help us improve the app, and they made our requested changes without any issues. The project was completed within five days.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of four people, including a project manager.

How did you come to work with STRV?

In a former role, my CEO had asked me to look into STRV for a project we were working on at the time. When I started researching companies for this project, I was surprised to find that their team had cold called us. I looked through their brochure, website, and portfolio of successful past projects and was very impressed. Their skills rivaled some of the dev shops I’d known for 15 years, and their pricing was reasonable. Hiring them seemed like a no-brainer.  

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent between $100,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started in April 2018 and still have some ongoing projects with them.

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

Our team spent weeks trying to figure this out, and STRV finished the full project in five days. I can count on them to get the job done and get it done quickly. For example, at one point we had a hard two-week deadline on a task that could have a huge impact on our company. It required the STRV team to work on code they’d never seen before. Long story short—they came through. They’re dedicated to getting the job done. Confident and competent, STRV strives to deliver what’s necessary for our projects, and they don’t get caught up in frivolous details.

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. We held standups with developers at the end each day, so I could track their progress, and I had two meetings per week with the project manager. We were in touch on a daily basis, and I was always able to chat with the team if needed. I appreciated that latitude.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They took on our project as if it were their own, and working with them has been easy. We have great experiences with outsourced vendors from time to time, but it’s really rare for me to find a company that stands out as much as STRV has. On top of their knowledge and commitment to our project, they make me feel like I’m their only customer. They’re not concerned with money; they genuinely want to deliver a solution that fits our company’s needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s not a single thing that I would change about working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Hire STRV—don’t look anywhere else.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of product testing at Opkix. We're a relatively new player in the event-capturing market.

What challenge were you trying to address with STRV?

We were experiencing some issues, so we needed more development resources to help us produce a high-quality app.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to relaunch our app for iOS and Android. STRV shared their vision with us and provided a lot of guidance. Then, they evaluated our code and refactored some of it. They also developed some of the code from scratch.

What is the team composition? 

I've worked with their CEO, a project manager, and two engineers. 

How did you come to work with STRV?

I joined the company after the relationship had started. 

What is the status of this engagement? 

We started working with them in April 2019, and the relationship is ongoing. 

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

They provide us with a weekly build so that we can see the progress. They're not only executing the plan, but they're also helping us navigate through the challenges. I've worked with a lot of vendors, but I've never seen this level of execution. 

How did STRV perform from a project management standpoint? 

They're able to effectively communicate what they're going to do and where the project is going. We use Asana to keep the project on track and make sure we hit our milestones. They've also established an interactive communication portal using Slack. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're paving the path for us to help us reach our goals. They embody the concept of a trusted partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can't think of anything. I've been impressed throughout the entire engagement. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust their guidance–it works out incredibly well. Also, keep an open line of communication.