Techs

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Polstrat is a political consultancy. We provide resourcing strategy for politicians in India. I’m the director, and I look over almost everything in the organization. We’re a three-year-old organization with a team of nine people.

What challenge were you trying to address with Techs?

We focus a lot on business and strategy, and we’re trying to get into tech solutions for our clients. There aren’t a lot of tech solutions available in the Indian political landscape. A lot of things are done manually, in terms of communication and data collection, and analysis.

We were trying to automate this, and give politicians access to all the data through a single solution, and cut down on the time and resources they need.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Techs is developing a proprietary dashboard for our clients. We started with a small proof of concept, which was mostly backend work. One big feature is virtual maps of constituencies, displaying electoral and demographic data, grievances, and so on. The tool also does data collection.

That was a two-month project, and we spent the next six months figuring out how to take it forward. We’ve made a lot of changes since the beginning.  

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked mostly with Igor (Founder & CEO) and with a UI/UX designer. As I understand it, Igor has done most of the work on the project.

How did you come to work with Techs?

We found them on Upwork. We spent a lot of time looking at companies in India, and it was very difficult to find a professional one with the right coding skills. The bigger organizations would be too slow, and we didn’t want to go down that path, especially when testing the concept, so we decided to find a freelancer.

We spoke to a few people, and Igor stood out. He came with a lot of ideas on how we could implement the ideas we had.  

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested around $11,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first project ran between August–October 2019, and the second project started in June 2020. We’re almost done but it is ongoing for now.

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

The quality of work is really good. Igor was very good at creating everything we discussed. He went above and beyond to make sure we were happy with the work. We kept milestones for different parts of the platform, and we tested each one. 

How did Techs perform from a project management standpoint?

We had regular conversations about the work, and the communication between teams was clear. We had a project manager on our end, who had a technical background and managed a lot of the communication with Igor. We tracked time through Upwork, and I don’t think there were any other tools used.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a young team. Techs is very enterprising and professional in their approach to the project. I’m really happy with the work we’ve done overall.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They’re in Sweden, and I’m based in India, which has made communication and time management more complicated. I would’ve wanted to have someone local that I could sit down with, but that’s not their fault. That was the only limitation of the project.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Be very clear about what your requirements are. It’s important to break things down and explain everything right from the beginning. We learned from phase one, and we were clearer in phase two.