What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The business product isn’t launched yet, but we managed to put out a prototype in a matter of weeks. That facilitated the whole discussion and planning process. After that, they built a working version three months into the project. We reviewed what extra features we wanted, and we started the whole cycle again.
Even though we haven’t launched the app yet, we recognized their ability to move fast and respond to the needs of the customer. They worked over holidays and weekends in order to release what we needed on time. The user feedback has been positive for the part we’ve completed so far. We think we’re ready to launch, but we’re not ready with other things.
Sunflower Lab fixed bugs promptly, and there was never a moment of them disbelieving us or acting like it wasn’t their problem. They’re always very responsive and supportive. We stayed within the agreed scope boundaries, and we met our deadlines for 90% time.
Another piece of evidence is that we’ve continued working with Sunflower Lab on other projects.
How did Sunflower Lab perform from a project management standpoint?
We used various channels, which can sometimes be annoying even for my own team members. We used Slack, email, Confluence, and Jira, so we had multiple options to confuse ourselves. However, both written and verbal communication were clear, and everything went well.
One of the other interesting aspects is that they’re present in multiple time zones. Sunflower Lab has teams in India, Ohio, and New Jersey, and we’re based in Boston, Eindhoven, and Shanghai. Our team is partially in the United States and partially in Europe. They’re partially here and partially in India, which made it ideal for continuous workflow beyond the working hours of our local team.
Distance can be an issue, but we worked in such a way as to make use of this time difference. We plan reviews and standups in an efficient way. They deliver their work review; we meet and test the app. They pick up more feedback after they wake up. It’s worked pretty well. When we’re close to deliveries, they will work on both their and our schedule. They’re very accommodating.
What did you find most impressive about them?
It’s their speed and flexibility. They’re a discussion partner, but they’re also doers. We can plan for the long-term, or we can start doing things. We’re able to implement our ideas and see how they look at a pretty fast pace, without losing an arm for it.
Are there any areas they could improve?
We’ve had regular retrospectives, and, for most of the time, we came back agreeing with what the improvement points were. They made fixes and we went on.
Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?
Clients should understand what they want clearly. Once we start rolling, the clock is ticking and the work gets done, so it’s harder to change our minds. Make sure you know what you want to achieve, and also break it down into iterative steps. We didn’t try to implement too many things at the same time—most work was done feature-by-feature. That helped with verification and testing, but also with figuring out what we wanted.
Sunflower Lab's work was tested by a group of college students and given a 5-star rating. They managed the project effectively with a software system and they always kept the client updated.