Sudolabs

Please describe your company and your position there.

Faros is a seed stage startup focussing on enterprise software in the engineering productivity space. Our team is very technical and is made up of mostly engineers. The product we are building enables engineering leaders to get a holistic view of the engineering processes in their organization.

This is accomplished by plugging into the various systems engineering teams use, connecting the data from these disparate sources, and generating easily consumable insights. Faros allows leaders to measure everything from productivity to quality to speed of development. I was brought on as head of frontend engineering to design and develop the user experience that sits on top of all of this functionality.

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

Faros began as a command-line tool. We brought in Sudolabs to build out the front-end portion of our product. We wanted to contract this work out instead of building it ourselves because of the flexibility this provided us. Using Sudolabs meant it was easy to scale our frontend efforts up or down depending on how the project grew. Additionally, our in-house engineers have more backend experience.

This move allowed us to focus on the complexities of the underlying system while knowing the front end is being built out by strong front-end engineers. This original project was to develop an intuitive user experience on top of the existing functionality but our partnership has quickly expanded to parallel development as the product continues to grow in size and complexity. Our in-house developers focus on backend development, customer support, and the architecture of new features. Sudolabs complements this well by providing front-end expertise and brilliant engineers.

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

We decided to go with Sudolabs because of a recommendation.

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

To begin, we had initial meetings with the Sudolabs team to walk them through the prototype we had as well as the functionality of the APIs at that time. From there, we set up weekly meetings to sync about the progress that was made and resolved questions through quick calls and slack messages. Once the initial site development was complete we were so happy with the result we asked them to stay on and continue developing the UI side of the enhancements we were adding to the product.

Sudolabs also provided the talent we needed as our requirements changed. They brought in a fantastic designer to help us envision the customer experience of these new features and an incredible project manager. Our weekly meetings have now shifted to encapsulate a status update, design review, backlog grooming, and defining and scoping future features. The work is ongoing but in the last few months, the team has built out a beautiful responsive UI in React and Typescript, discovered and leveraged many libraries, built complex products involving nextJS endpoints, integrated with our BI tool, solved issues around authentication and JWT tokens, seamlessly integrated with our auth provider, added support for on-prem deployments and so much more.

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

We've had 2 engineers consistently on the project as well as a project manager and a designer. In addition to building out the features we describe, the engineers have helped us discover and assess third-party solutions, and worked closely with our engineers and architect to brainstorm solutions to bugs and innovative ways to solve complex technical limitations. We have had 2 designers from Sudolabs, when the rate of our development didn't match the availability of the first designer the Sudo team was able to bring someone else in who had the bandwidth to meet our needs. The problems we are trying to solve are quite complex, so having a clean and intuitive UI is not an easy feat.

We've been very impressed with the domain research and iterative designs for everything from color pallet to first-time experience flow to a complex schema mapping UI. In general, we interface with the project manager. Since his joining the process is incredibly smooth. Within the first week, he had organized the work into epics and defined a much more streamlined process for us and the engineers. He provides in detail status updates, weekly and check-ins whenever needed. Additionally, he works with us to prioritize work and define the scope of features. His vast knowledge of our product, the problem we're trying to solve and the engineering details allows us to work with him as a partner. I often notice him catching bugs or edge cases before we do.

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

We've had great feedback from customers and investors on our website. 

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

We have used Zenhub to track epics, bugs, and tasks but will be moving to Jira this month. We use Figma for designs and communicate via slack, our weekly standing meeting, or any sync-up meets we need throughout the week. We at Faros work with the project manager to prioritize the backlog. This prepares it for the weekly sprint planning the Sudolabs team does. The project manager then updates us with any questions that came out of that meeting, and with what will be accomplished in the following days.

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

Their flexibility as we continue to make changes and decide where we are going is most impressive. Their ability to grow to what we need and the expertise of everyone we've worked with stood out to us.

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

When issues have come up the team has been very quick to resolve them. For example, when communication was becoming an issue they brought on a project manager, a similar experience with the change in the designer. 

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the technology director of an angel-funded startup focused on building communities around musicians.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sudolabs?

We hired sudolabs to develop a react native mobile application as well as to the develop the api for our platform.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal for the project was to develop an mvp which could be used to show product market fit to investors.

How did you select Sudolabs?

Our team vetted about ~15 other agencies and selected sudolabs because they by far seemed the most knowledgeable about how to build out the product.

Most other companies project managers basically put together giant documents that completely missed the mark where as sudolabs asked very good questions about our product requirements and even pointed out many things we were missing. They also seemed most up to date from a technology perspective.

Describe the project in detail.

The first 2-3 weeks were spent setting up the project, iterating over the designs that we provided them and configuring all of the infrastructure. After that, we spent ~2 months building out the mobile application and api. From there, we did a closed beta test for qa for about a month ironing out the bugs and then 1 month later released the product to the app stores.

What was the team composition?

The team was composed of 1 lead full stack developer who also worked as the project manager as well as a full stack developer and a react native developer.

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

We are still working on solving the chicken and the egg problem for our platform, but the application is beautiful and of our 100 downloads, we have only heard great things about how the app looks and feels.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I am 6 hours behind the sudo labs team so this was definitely an adjustment for me. We used zenhub / click up for project management which worked well. From a communication perspective, we have had some trouble with communicating work that was underestimated in scope, but I think this is somewhat to be expected.

We recently added weekly retrospectives which have greatly improved our communication. Additionally, all 3 developers spoke amazing english.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They did a great job at providing feedback on the platform and problems with the work we were giving them. They would constantly provide constructive feedback on how we can make a screen better or an animation smoother.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The main area for improvement would definitely be in communication, but I think this is pretty standard for every working human being. Some work ended up taking longer than expected and wasn't communicated until I asked about it.

While these were just small misses of 1-2 days, these things do add up. Additionally, some components in the application became extremely bloated, in part due to pressure on our end to get the application finished quickly, and we have refactor tickets in the backlog right now to account for this.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of FastFlatFee.com, a real estate platform. It’s a DIY platform for sellers to list their property.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sudolabs?

We hired a vendor to build us a website, but the engagement wasn’t successful, so we brought Sudolabs on board to replace them.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sudolabs took over the development of our web application. We wanted a professional platform, including the backend and a user dashboard with a dynamic form engine. They worked with React, Node.js., and MongoDB.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two people from their team.

How did you come to work with Sudolabs?

A good friend recommended Sudolabs.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $10,000 on the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from May-July 2019.

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

They’re really good at what they do with React. They finished roughly 50% of the total web application in those two months; whereas the previous company took over a year. In fact, Sudolabs fixed a lot of mistakes the other company made originally. They really know what they’re doing. The team is very smart. 

They were able to jump in, look over the code base, estimate how much time it would take to fix and finish. They were right on point with the estimates they gave me. I’m very satisfied.

Sudolabs also took it a step further and tried to understand exactly what we were trying to do. They came up with a lot of great ideas that helped our business processes significantly. 

How did Sudolabs perform from a project management standpoint?

Richard (Full Stack Developer) managed the project really well. We worked via Trello mostly. Sudolabs gave us a detailed, itemized report for time spent on the project. They were very transparent with how many minutes they worked. We defined specific tasks or features that needed to be fixed or completed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re really good at and comfortable with the technologies that they use, but they’re also able to pick up new ones and implement them well.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re really good. We’ll continue working together here and there.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They were awesome getting me out of a bind and the mess that I was in. I wish I would have known them earlier to start with them from the beginning. If anyone is considering Sudolabs, get them involved very early. Don’t spend a lot of time trying to come up with specs and designs without their involvement. They will contribute a lot.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the general manager of the European region at Panoramic.

What challenge were you trying to address with Sudolabs?

We needed temporary development help when we were understaffed.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Sudolabs is an engineering company that provides skilled developers, and we brought them on to help with a project and outsource part of the workload. Their primary engagement and mandate were to help out as additional team members on a wider engineering team.

What is the team composition?

We worked with four engineers at most.

How did you come to work with Sudolabs?

They were referred to us by a mutual friend.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested over $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from June 2019 until October 2020. The project has finished but we will consider working with them again in the future if needed.

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

They were on par and engaged with us as if they were our direct colleagues. The team dynamic worked as if we hired them internally.

How did Sudolabs perform from a project management standpoint?

We provided the management guidelines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Communication worked well. It was easy to be flexible around deliverables and scale the capacity of their help up or down as needed. They cooperated well with us and cared about what they were producing.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Initially, there was a little bit of back and forth between us in figuring out which people from their team should work with us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Vet the individuals so that you find a proper fit with Sudolabs.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a Product Manager at Beneko. We are a start-up full-remote company working in a sector of consumer electronics. I am responsible for the development and further success of Beneko project at the market.

For what projects/services did your company hire Sudolabs?

Since our company didn't have developers with a required technology stack we have chosen Sudolabs to perform all required development work.

What were your goals for this project?

The goal was to deliver to the market a fully functional and scalable e-commerce solution with a Mobile APP for iOS and Android and Back-office management system.

How did you select this vendor?

SudoLabs was chosen by recommendation

Describe the project in detail.

The Initial version of the APP and Back-office was designed and presented to Sudolabs for technical analysis and estimation. Sudolabs advised us to develop APPs using a React native technology that would allow us to achieve fast time to market delivery and easier further maintenance of the applications. Based on research done by the vendor we have agreed on the initial scope and budget. During the project with constant changes in the scope, we have moved to time and material type of contract what allowed us to be more flexible in terms of deliverables. On every step of project development, Sudolabs provided us with an in-depth technical analysis and alternative solutions based on project constrains.

What was the team composition?

At the project we had the following team: 1. Project Manager (Sudolabs) *1 2. Back-end developer *2 3. Front-end developer*1 The team was well balanced in terms of required skills, we never had issues with lack of resources and missing skills.

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

All our requirements were met. The apps don't have serious bugs in production.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Sudolabs were very organized in terms of project management. All work was estimated and analyzed. We didn't experience any issues related to the remote nature of the team set-up. Team members were available and eager to collaborate. All the project documentation and task management were done in Jira and Confluence. Daily comm - Slack. Video calls - Zoom.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The biggest advantage of Sudolabs is their extremely high level of expertise. I never worried that they will not be able to solve the problem, technical solution followed described requirement in 100% of cases. Another huge favor of Sudolabs is the dedication and empathy of the team to the project this helped to build trust and overall healthy relationships.

Are there any areas for improvement?

All good!

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a traveltech hospitality startup. I'm a chief executive officer.

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

We hired Sudolabs to cover all our development needs. Our goal was to build a functional minimum viable product for testing with our prospects.

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

We have had everything to move forward with our project except much needed development. We were considering options to hire in-house developers or outsource development.

After thorough research and evaluation of risks and benefits we decided to go for later option and chose Sudolabs as a regional leader with a good reputation.

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

React, Node .JS, Implementation of multiple API services, online research

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

Initially there were 3 developers, which we scaled down to 2 and back to 3 when needed. We really appreciate the flexibility.

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

We were happy with the output and final solution met all our and our clients' expectations.

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

Throughout the partnership, Sudolabs provided extremely useful information and was very responsive. In addition to completing the tasks on time, they were engaged in the project, and their communication skills were exceptional. The team’s extensive knowledge of their field was also noteworthy.

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

They truly care about understanding the required product, customer, what are we building and why. They work seamlessly with our designers and rest of the team.

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

There were some minor bugs in the first version, but it was swiftly resolved upon request.