Twenty Ideas

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the CTO of a digital productivity platform. We provide a software solution to help organizations better utilize their Microsoft 365 subscription. Our solution tells them which programs they are using, which they should be using, and helps them develop digital skills using the Microsoft 365 technology.

What challenge were you trying to address with Twenty Ideas?

We faced challenges finding enough developers in our local region and were looking for outside help. Additionally, we didn’t have anyone in-house with UI/UX expertise.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Twenty Ideas provided development and UI/UX design services for a couple of projects. When we initially started development on our project, they place a long-term front-end developer on our staff. They served as a consultant for a little over a year. All of our front-end work is done in React, with a JavaScript and HTML back-end.

During that time, they also designed the UI/Ux of our application Their team was responsible for the look and feel of our solution. After our product was completed and launched, we worked with Twenty Ideas to make the application more accessible.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one front-end developer, three UI/UX designers, and a project manager. When we worked on the accessibility, we worked with two developers, a QA engineer, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Twenty Ideas?

They are a local company, so we were familiar with them before working together. We like to use local resources when it’s appropriate, so they were a natural fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested about $275,000 total.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement with Twenty Ideas began in September 2018.

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

The product makes both the owners of the company and our users happy, which I consider a success. We certainly reached our goals.

How did Twenty Ideas perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re pretty well organized in terms of project management. They have a dedicated project manager who coordinates with their team and schedules periodic check-ins with us. We provide them with regular feedback.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We really appreciated being able to see them in person, since we’re local. I was never dissatisfied with the team from Twenty Ideas. Every member of their team is knowledgeable and personable. They would ask questions, provide feedback, and make sure they understood what the requirements were. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t have any real criticism. If they wanted to improve, they could grow their team to be able to support more projects. I would sometimes have to wait to meet with them because they have so many clients, which is a good problem for them to have. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The key is communication. Make sure to make your needs well known and to get feedback from whoever you work with. Twenty Ideas was very good at asking for more detail when it was necessary.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of products and technology at Avant Assessment. We’re a language assessment company that delivers online language assessments to measure the proficiency of test-takers. In my role, I work closely with our engineering team on the technology stacks and products we deliver.

What challenge were you trying to address with Twenty Ideas?

We brought on Twenty Ideas to serve as our engineering team.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our company’s software is all web-based custom delivery software. When Twenty Ideas came on, they took about 14 years' worth of different developers and different approaches and unified all of them into a single code base. That was a very big task. That project took about a year.

They supported our current testing as well as simultaneously worked on unifying the code base, while we were continuing to deliver our tests and business. Twenty Ideas set up our AWS server and now manages it. They also manage the day-to-day operation of the software, including all the bugs and support issues.

Their team supports our users in the field; Most of our users are K–16 institutions. When it came to networking issues that were blocking parts of our tests, Twenty Ideas stepped in as a network specialist that helped the schools and institutions troubleshoot their network and get things working.

Mike (CEO) took on the role of being our CTO for a number of years. He sat in on our management meetings and helped guide the direction of our future growth as it relates to our tech stacks and everything connected to it. In the last year and a half, we brought our engineering efforts in-house.

What is the team composition?

We started with Mike and Trevor (Director of Engineering) and it grew from there. At one point, we had 4–5 developers as well as a network and IT support specialist.

How did you come to work with Twenty Ideas?

Mike is very active in the IT networking groups in our local area, as is our CEO. They met on a number of occasions at these tech meetings and started talking. Our companies made a connection through those associations.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested a couple of millions to date.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in January 2016. We do contract work with them now.

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

Having our systems with a 99% uptime says something about Twenty Ideas’ ability to manage all of the servers to ensure they’re successfully running. Our uptime statistics were incredible. We can give them direction then they work on it and produce an accepted product on a tight timeline. They’re very skilled and committed.

How did Twenty Ideas perform from a project management standpoint?

That was the one area we initially had to work on. Initially, Mike and Trevor served as project managers and that approach worked when it was just 2–3 team members. As soon as the engagement got larger, they brought in a project manager. That helped to communicate timelines and communicate flow.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Twenty Ideas has a good balance of approaches to technology that are very important today. They don’t just code away, they have an incredible vision and ability to connect with the client. They pull out the real vision, take it, and communicate it to the coders so it helps them develop the right thing. That’s the magic of Twenty Ideas — their ability to hear and respond to clients in a way that’s unique and powerful.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Bring Mike and his team into the early discussions of the vision, ideas, and concepts you have. Trust them with that vision and understanding so they pay attention to it in each of the steps they go through. Don’t just send them a list of specifications and screenshots, that won’t allow you to receive the greatest benefit of what they can bring.