SWEHQ

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a statutory director of 1st Cloud Republic. We develop and operate a communication and project management platform for small and medium sized teams. Our uniqueness is bringing a communication platform to teams, accelerating the start of use and connecting to the internal systems of each commercial workflow entity and their users.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

In the course of our cooperation there were several tasks. The most interesting ones are: interfacing the Common Tongue communication platform with the internal system of our client (a pan-European network of hypermarkets), displaying datasets of atmospheric and biometric sensor outputs in a project involved in the development of an on-board system for the training module of analogue missions in space research, or developing a new search tool in the too fast growing databases of the communication platform.

SOLUTION

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

Years of personal knowledge. Quality work in the past. Good references.

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

SWEHQ team developed several key modules and features of the Common Tongue web app, secured the whole app based on a rigorous penetration testing report, and based on profiling improved performance (remove bottlenecks in a few key routines). Proposing a reasonable UI and technical approach was a natural part of their role.

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

During several years of collaboration, we have been in touch with 7 software engineers and 1 team lead.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The results were as expected. The use was private under strict security requirements and therefore sharing is not possible, but I don't find it necessary either. The supplier produced everything as specified.

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

Brief > debriefing > Regular meetings > test version on acceptance environment > testing > deployment to production environment. We use our own project management system. The supplier met the deadlines, with exceptions that were justified, announced and approved in advance.

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

Precision in debriefing. Demanding maximum understanding of the product issues to the point of necessity, which in the end proved to be necessary.

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

no comments

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a financial analyst based in New York City who was, at the time, taking a year off to focus on non-profit projects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had a prototype of a web-based computer game designed to help the general public to form a better understanding of Covid-19 pandemic. This game picked up interest of scientists involved in Covid-19 public policy, however, we needed a better user interface usable by non-technical public. Our goal was to save lives by improving public awareness and by direct impact on "influencers" and public policy makers.

SOLUTION

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

We were looking for professional developers willing to volunteer their free time into this "public good" project. SWEHQ came up highly recommended by my former classmate. After some initial discussion, SWEHQ saw the value in our project and they agreed to donating complete new UI to the project.

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

During the initial meetings we specified required functionality from the user perspective. Together we iterated on a detailed project specification which was later turned into technical tasks and time estimates. SWEHQ was good at starting from minimal product and adding more functionalities based on the feedback from our testers. The project was implemented in Angular, the backend database was MongoDB. Caching layer was provided by Cloudfare. Project was managed via shared Google documents, Google chat and gitlab. All code was covered by automated tests.

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

We interacted mostly directly with the owner of SWEHQ who also personally contributing to the code base. In total, 5 other developers were involved.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The game was prominently mentioned in Czech media (including major evening TV news). Internationally, it was organically mentioned on YCombinator forums and popular blogs. In total, the game was played by >100k users. Importantly the game was played by prominent government and opposition politicians in Czech Republic and, based on the feedback, it helped to achieve a consensus by demonstrating the seriousness of early 2021 winter Covid-19 wave.

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

The project management style can be best described as "agile", "proactive" and "pragmatic". SWEHQ was very good at identifying challenges (it clearly showed that they are professionals while I am mathematical modeler with minimal experience at UI design) and prosing the most direct way forward. There was a quick feedback loop, product specification and deliverable lists were shared real-time using Google tools. The code itself and low level tasks were organized using gitlab tools.

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

SWEHQ was a professional team that genuinely cared about our project. They regularly improved the code because that "was the right way" to do it even when other companies might be tempted to take short cuts. Their projects are designed for the long term maintainability.

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

It is certainly a good "problem" to have but after the launch and every subsequent major media mention we had unexpected large spikes of new users. SWEHQ had to quickly optimize the system to deal with long loading times of the application. I wish we were optimistic about the number of concurrent users.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company that specializes in financial services intermediation. We sell loans, insurance products, and investments. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with SWEHQ?

We wanted to build an app for our financial advisors that would help them navigate sales dialogs with their clients. Essentially, we needed an app that could analyze the financial health of our retail clients. It would conduct financial analysis, and our advisors would talk to clients about their financial goals. To create this app, we engaged SWEHQ. 

For further context, another vendor worked on developing the app for almost a year. However, we had a fight with that vendor and had to switch to SWEHQ after the project’s initial phase. In other words, SWEHQ had to jump on board, take over the other team’s source code, and start from there. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our team got to the initial pilot phase while working with the original vendor. SWEHQ came in at that point, and we’ve since been working with them. 

At present, they’ve dropped the last bit of the original code, and what we have right now is 100% their work. The SWEHQ team has worked on the app’s front- and backend sides; they’ve used Django and Python on the backend and Angular on the frontend.

What is the team composition?

The team composition is compact; we work with 3–4 people. We mainly talk to Jan (Founder & Lead Software Engineer), but I also meet with their programmers from time to time. 

How did you come to work with SWEHQ?

SWEHQ was referred to me by a friend as we were looking for a vendor to build our website. We were looking into three potential vendors for that website. At that time, we were going after designers and developers, and we didn’t give SWEHQ the go. However, we had a strange vibe from our meeting with Jan — we felt we needed to do something with them. 

A couple of months later, we decided to drop our app development vendor, and I immediately called up Jan and told him that we had a deal that could work out for the both of us. In other words, they left a great first impression, and that was the start of our engagement. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $1 million. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2019, and the engagement is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

This is an innovative project — we’re not even sure where we’re going in various stages — so we essentially measure success by having a weekly meeting. Meeting our weekly goals makes us aware that the project is in action. Moreover, this will sound strange, but we’ve had a good vibe with them while doing the entire project; as long as we have that, we’re happy. 

How did SWEHQ perform from a project management standpoint?

SWEHQ’s approach is informal in a good way. Everything has been completely open and on track since day one. There are no project management bureaucracy layers — we immediately talk about the issues at hand and how we can solve them.

For comparison, other vendors try to excuse themselves whenever they do something wrong. By contrast, whenever SWEHQ resources do something wrong, they call us up and tell us the situation and how they plan to fix it. I truly like that; it’s an informal and friendly process. 

We use Jira to manage the project, and since they’re in Prague and we’re in Brno, most of our communication is done digitally. We have frequent standup meetings, and they iterate calls and meetings online. Moreover, our teams meet every few months in person; these are larger meetings where we discuss the past two months, how we’ve advanced, and how we plan to do better. We also talk about how to fix potential issues. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

SWEHQ doesn’t stick to just one tool. They don’t cram us into their niche, and they’re not afraid to use various technologies. The team has a broad sense of how they can use different tools for different tasks. In other words, their resources are open to anything that gets the job done. I also admire them for their open communication. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can be more precise in terms of goals — this also applies to any other developer. To be fair, it’s sometimes next to impossible to be precise when it comes to some projects. Sometimes, teams can be overly optimistic in assessing certain goals. In any case, this problem only happens from time to time; it’s not something that I hold against SWEHQ.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re looking for a partner that will be on your side throughout the entire project and a team that can communicate with you openly, choose SWEHQ — you’ll have a good time working with them. They’ll tell you exactly what they feel and think. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Vice-chairman of the BoD in company Gepard finance. The company is mortgage intermediary.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We needed professional software to compare price conditions of mortgages by different lenders (banks). Also we needed system to evaluate client's chance to get the mortgage. For years we developed similar application "in-house" as an Excel VBA application, so we had a good overview about all necessary procedures, calculations, algorithms. Bud needed a professional web based app with professional look.

Inputs for such application have no usable structure. Every lender uses specific procedures. So the input consists of hundreds non-structured data. Also the knowledge of some specific procedures depends on me so much, that it was necessary find system which allows me to define some algorithms. I am quiet experienced in Excel & VBA, but not in Python.

SWEHQ prepared system able to "translate" all the definitions, relations and computations to Python and run on dedicated server. It is excellent solution, as I can still use my specific knowledge of the market anb bank procedures to develop the softwer.

SOLUTION

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

We got good reference from our business partner. After first meeting we made sure, that SWEHQ can offer very goodf ability to understand our needs and deliver great ideas to meet them.

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

We had several meetings with devs, whera I showed and explained, how our Excel based software works. I explained requirements. SWEHQ suggested several possible solutions, check them and suggested one (translate Excel file to Python).

It whowed to be perfect solution as I can still develop the application. The programmer has generally no detailed knowledge of mortgage market and bank conditions and procedures. I do. I I am able to define all necesary calculation, verify them, keep them up to date,but I am unable to write it directly to Python code.

If I do not write it, I would loose my involvement and would be unable to develop it further.

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

I personally was it touch with 4 programmers and 1 UX/UI specialist.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

SWEHQ delivered software, which I was sure for years, is not possible to be developed. The application won a prize as the best martgage advisor's tool in financial conference in 2021.

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

We arranged rugular weekly meetings to summarize work, define new goals etc. The communiation with all team members (SWEHQ) grew to rather friendly than formal level which I appreciate a lot.

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

SWEHQ is perfectly managed group of people, who listen to ou needs a can communicate with me on the level which allows me to be involved deeply in the project even though I am not a proffesional programmer. The company owner always made sure that the project was running smoothly.

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

I am aware of the fact that there is always something what could be improved, but frankly, I am unable to define even the only one suggestion.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm CEO and Chairman of the Board of a Fintech company based in Prague.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Custom development of Fintech platform with several API based services. Development of UX/UI of client facing side as well.

SOLUTION

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

Great quality of work. Highly experienced team. Good communication.

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

Python, Angular & other technologies were used.

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

4 team members in total.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They exceeded my expectations.

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

Slack, Jira

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

I was impressed by their team-based environment and good ethics.

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

None.