thoughtbot

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

We’ve only worked with a couple of other development firms, but, from our perspective, the thing that worked well for this engagement was how dedicated they were. We had both a designer and a developer from thoughtbot that were singularly focused on our project. This brought a level of focus that was critical to making our time with them successful. The designer and developer were also both incredibly talented and diligent in their workflow. 

For example, our developer was excellent at documenting every single change that was made. As a result, we now have a codebase that any other developer could step in and quickly understand because it’s so well documented and organized. That level of professionalism was extremely refreshing and distinguishes thoughtbot from other providers.

The other element of the engagement that helped a lot was the level of collaboration between the designer and developer. There was a constant flow of communication, and every time the designer worked on a deliverable, they confirmed the feasibility with the developer. If there was ever a moment when the design was a bit off, they could make adjustments very quickly. It was amazing how in-sync they were.

How did thoughtbot perform from a project management standpoint?

We had an exceptional working relationship with them. thoughtbot follows an iterative design and development process, meaning that they didn’t lay out a schedule for the whole engagement at the very beginning. It’s a week-by-week process.
    
We used different tools, like Slack and Trello, to stay in constant communication. We were tracking progress with them all day, every day. Because we were always on the same page, we were able to test out features that they had developed in real-time. Having a small team also helped with this.

There was a tight feedback loop that we maintained throughout the engagement. Every morning, we’d have a standup meeting to plan out the day, and, at the end of the week, we’d have what they called a “retro” meeting. This was typically 45 minutes of discussing the successes and challenges of the week with some planning to improve the following week. Those meetings always brought the week together in a thoughtful, organized way, and we always felt prepared going into the next week as a result.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The standups and retro meetings were helpful because they provided an open forum for us to look critically at our performance. They also gave us the chance to make adjustments as needed, relative to our timeline and budget. Whenever we were falling short in an area, we were able to make the best decision to get us back on track.

Working with thoughbot was, overall, a wonderful experience. I can’t say enough great things about the entire team, their process, their workflow, and the quality of the code. They have an excellent team of developers working there.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There were a lot of unknowns coming into the project that ended up delaying our timeline. I don’t know if these could have been avoided; I think that’s just the nature of working with an existing codebase.

They struggled to make accurate predictions at times, despite their best efforts to review and dissect the code at the beginning. In that regard, the timeline did slip, but it wasn't due to a lack of effort or a lack of programming knowledge.

In general, they had a great sense of what could be accomplished in a given week. They were also very helpful in guiding us through pivots that we had to make because of new content or information that we encountered along the way.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Getting the most out of working with thoughbot will come from having a tight feedback loop between your company and their team. That’s one of the things that we did well, and I’ve been told that it doesn’t always happen with their clients. Usually, clients take more of a hands-off approach, whereas we—my business partner and I—were working alongside them all day long.

That created a strong working relationship and allowed us to maximize the output during the time we had with them. I would highly recommend maintaining that level of engagement when working with thoughtbot.

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

Their designs were impressive. They had listened to everything we discussed in the collaborative design sprint as well as any feedback we provided.

Their team also facilitated the user test well. As a result, we have valuable feedback and constructive criticism that can guide our development efforts. That’s what we wanted: a clear picture of what we needed to build for users. Our work with thoughtbot will save us time during development as we won't be creating a platform that isn't focused on user needs. Their team has enabled us to be more efficient.

How did thoughtbot perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated well via Slack. I was impressed with how quickly they responded. We also did a lot of co-location work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re relentless in their focus on user needs and outcomes. Their team's not afraid to ask challenging questions, making sure the project hones in on one question or outcome that will shape the product. They were more collaborative than any other provider, listening and acting on any feedback. thoughtbot were creative thinkers. Their team approaches challenges with creativity.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Have frank conversations and give thoughtbot a call. Before we started the work, they came to our office to understand the cultural fit and work styles. The experience was incredibly valuable.

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

thoughtbot gave us all the tools and guides to be able to overhaul our whole test suites. We had more accurate tests that ran less time and were more dependable. We found the evergreen projects and the new development that was outside of our core business regular path to be a really fantastic way to leverage thoughtbot's value. They could deliver on a lot of things in that regard.

How did thoughtbot perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was highly effective. We had weekly retros to get us all on the same page. We’d talk about the progress we were making and they would talk about any tension that might have existed. There were times when we needed to pivot based on the level of difficulty on our end. We learned that we can’t just throw any developer, regardless of how much of an expert they are, at our hardest business problems and expect them to solve it in a few weeks.

We also had video calls. Most of the time, everybody was remote with the exception of a few in-person arrangements. We communicated on Slack and Google Meet.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We already trusted them due to the fairly public persona of the standards and styles that their team works with. We already were getting inspiration from them. From the beginning, we were aligned from a philosophical perspective of how to build software. That gave them a level of sway that may have been more challenging for another agency.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We learned the best way they could help our team was providing assistance to our existing developers, who had a lot more knowledge than thoughtbot did on how the business works and the business use cases. Short term engagements on systems with complicated business logic wasn't as impactful.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

thoughtbot does really well if you have a team of engineers who are transitioning away from that small, scrappy startup model and are starting to take on a more standard approach to engineering. They’re great in leveling up an engineering team.

If that’s not a concern, thoughtbot can really own the whole development in building a new application. They have excellent strategies for how to start a project and deliver when something doesn’t exist. If some company is trying to use thoughtbot and has a very complex app, I’d advocate that you’d never want to do a short engagement for six weeks because it wouldn’t be helpful for anyone. The ramp-up time in a complex app is such that you can only deliver so much value in a short period of time, and thoughtbot needs a month or so to really start delivering.

They’re really talented developers, but they’re not magicians and it’s easy to forget that sometimes.

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

We have great feedback from our beta users. Several power users have really taken to it and use it for their jobs every day, finding the right people in Congress to talk to in order to move their legislation or gain support for their offices’ initiatives. We haven’t done much marketing at all other than in-person, grassroots-style outreach to individual offices. We’re focusing now on testing the user onboarding and marketing page experience and validating our work based on past user interviews. We’re very excited about how this polished experience will essentially sell itself.

We’re scaling up our thoughtbot team to launch our iOS app in the next few months, and then we will lean on thoughtbot to help us build our internal team. They allow me to focus on hiring people into an existing system, with an existing culture and robust practices and workflows. They way they built the app and maintained the code makes everything very transferrable to the next person who will work on the project. thoughtbot is increasing the breadth of knowledge across our organization about our project. They’re doing internal code reviews with the rest of their team before they deploy it to our QA site. Whenever we shift or move to a new developer or designer, it’s a seamless transition. Everything is done in a way that makes me feel very confident in the way they’re building the application and preparing for an internal tech team in the future. The last person we’ll need to hire is a CTO. thoughtbot plays the part of a really experienced, seasoned CTO and an entire technology team.

How did thoughtbot perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication is excellent and highly constructive. We have daily morning standups and retrospectives at the end of every week with thoughtbot. Even when there are tough decisions we have to talk about, we’re able to have those conversations with them in a very structured and beneficial. It’s never a drag to have to speak to them.

thoughtbot uses Trello and GitHub for project management and code management. We use monday.com internally, and the team joined our tool and could integrate nicely. They can view things that we’re working on and contribute when needed. The way they have set up their Trello boards is amazing. I’ve never seen a system so meticulously created and maintained. It’s extremely simple but incredibly developed. It’s seamless to use the tools they’ve set up. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The way that thoughtbot treats each other and treats us is something I want to emulate in our organization. The way they hire and develop their talent also stands out to me. For their typical hiring phase, they bring a new developer and a new designer onto their team and put them through an apprenticeship phase. I’m very impressed with the high level at which they are thinking about and producing their work. Everything—from the way they run their company to the way they organize their office—is set up in such a mindful, intentional way. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be fantastic if they had an office in Washington D.C. Working remotely with them has been seamless though. I don’t have any complaints.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Evaluate your project idea by doing a product design sprint with them. It’s a five-day process where you are in a room together and go through the process of structured brainstorming, assumption listing, mind mapping, and storyboarding. You start with these relatively amorphous ideas and assumptions, but those first 3–4 days are truly paradigm-shifting. thoughtbot then builds an actual design prototype that you can test with users during that week.