SWARM

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the former mobile product manager at a data insights company. One component of our service was providing usage and download insights for mobile apps based on data from various sources. One of those sources was our in-house portfolio of mobile apps and SDKs, for which I was responsible.

What challenge were you trying to address with SWARM?

We engaged Swarm for the engineering and design requirements and development of our portfolio of mobile apps and SDKs.

What was the scope of their involvement?

SWARM helped us strategize for growing the user base for our portfolio of mobile apps and SDKs. Their work included user research, mobile design and development, as well as assisting with issue resolution and bug fixing. We occasionally also leveraged their expertise in defining and executing our marketing strategy for the mobile portfolio.

What is the team composition?

We worked with about five senior employees, including UX designers and mobile engineers.

How did you come to work with SWARM?

SWARM was engaged by our chief product officer prior to my joining the company. As such, I inherited the engagement, which was very fortunate for me as I could hit the ground running with their help.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $16,000–$20,000 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We partnered in January 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

We relied on them exclusively for our mobile needs because they were such a great partner. They helped us overcome roadblocks and were instrumental in our success.

How did SWARM perform from a project management standpoint?

They used Trello and Jira to track tasks and accomplish goals. The team was nimble and agile, and everything was well documented.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They helped us with projects outside of their purview, such as our marketing plan. We had a great working relationship.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Oral communication was occasionally an issue. But their written communication and meticulous documentation more than made up for it.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If your organization is new to mobile development, work with SWARM to determine your needs. They can help you build out your mobile project and meet your goals in an agile and iterative manner.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a new social platform currently available on iOS. We provide a couple of new features which differentiate us from the other social platforms on the market. The main ones are that users can post in their own handwriting and create their own emojis. We're trying to add extreme personalization for our members.

I am the founder and CEO of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with SWARM?

We knew that the fundamentals of messaging could be done easily, but we didn't know whether the two unique differentiators we were trying to add were technologically feasible. They were able to answer an incredibly important question, product viability.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our challenge hadn't been done before, but SWARM did a superb job of testing our platform over a quick one-month run. I've worked with overseas contractors, and there was not a lot of transparency upfront in terms of discovery processes. SWARM prioritized the most important part for us, which is viability.

The second phase was a general wireframing and information architecture process, during which we saw how all the pieces fit together. We went into a design and actual engineering phase, followed by quality assurance and upkeep, making sure that all features were working within industry standards. SWARM provided full services for the production of our app. Our platform is iOS-exclusive.

How did you come to work with SWARM?

I work in New York City and have been involved in past tech startups. I reached out to local connections and got some recommendations. SWARM was referred to me by a successful NYC tech startup founder.

How much have you invested with SWARM?

The full scope of the project was between $50,000 and $200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with SWARM in March 2016. The project was finalized in October of the same year.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The app has five stars on the App Store. We've received some brief write-ups in publications including Product Hunt, which is focused on new products, and reached the front page of Reddit. We've seen a mix of traditional media attention and generic user review feedback, which was also positive.

How did SWARM perform from a project management standpoint?

SWARM assigned a project manager for us and set up tools for keeping us up to date on the design and development progress. We were brought in for every stage and could post feedback on what we did and didn't like. We knew what our deadlines were for each task, and could communicate directly with each team member.

What did you find most impressive about SWARM?

SWARM was able to undergo a technological feasibility/discovery process. They have a lot of depth in terms of tech talent, and I don't believe that another firm would have been able to tackle many of our more technical questions.

Are there any areas SWARM could improve?

No. It was a seamless, straightforward process, and I'm satisfied with SWARM.

Please describe your organization.

EmojiFace is an app startup that allows users to take a photo of themselves and turn it into an emoji that looks like them. Users are able to send this emoji on any application.

What is your position?

I am the CEO.

What business challenge were you trying to address with SWARM?

I needed help improving the app. What I had built was very basic and wanted to bring them in to design and build out a better version.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They did both design and development on iOS. I didn't want to do Android yet.

How did you come to work with SWARM?

I believe I found them on Clutch. I called and had a great conversation with the founder of SWARM. I had the most faith in them because they were high-end without being incredibly expensive. I felt it was the best deal for the price I was paying and the quality I could get out of it.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I'm working with them on one-off projects now. I'm currently in the process of raising money to build out a new version and will be using them when I have that money.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We had a lot of growth after we released their version. We were probably at 100,000 downloads before and now we're at 400,000.

How did SWARM perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great with regard to project management. SWARM was the best among any firm I've worked with. Their scheduling, response time, and general communication were all great.

What distinguishes SWARM from other providers?

Their design is above and beyond anyone else I've seen in New York. That's their strength.

Is there anything SWARM could have improved or done differently?

No. It was very smooth. I didn't have any issues.

Please describe your organization.

Our company is called Matchbook. We have an iOS app that lets users save restaurants – either restaurants they love or want to try. It's about closing the gap between the restaurant owner and the patrons. 

What is your position?

I'm the lead software developer.

What business challenge were you trying to address with SWARM?

We were having problems with user retention. We wanted to find ways to get users back into our app. SWARM has been really great and helpful in improving our retention rate.

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

SWARM provides mostly strategic guidance and a little bit of UX/UI [user experience/user interface] design help for us. 

How did you come to work with SWARM?

We are actually based in a co-working space with SWARM. We both are in the same area. After talking with them, we were sure they could help us.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

I don't have those numbers for you.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We are rolling out some emails to the users. We've been getting good responses. We actually submitted the second one yesterday. The first one we sent was around 20 percent. That was a month ago. We have more than 20 percent this time. It's improving already.

What distinguishes SWARM from other providers?

SWARM is a great small team. It's great to interact with them. 

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve or things you might do differently?

From the experience we had with them, we're happy.