WeDevelop LLC

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are a wholesale distributor of construction materials, leaders in the field in Argentina. I am in charge of marketing and new technologies.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We hired We Develop LLC with the intention of developing a sales APP for our customers and internal vendors. We aim to be the first in the field with technology of this type, and continue our work together to innovate.

SOLUTION

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

We worked with them previously on another project which turned out excellently. There are two decisive factors: the excellent quality of the product, and the predisposed work team

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

We had a clear scope of work. We knew the features we wanted and together with We Develop we analyzed them in depth, and after 2 weeks of analysis we started development. They integrated the app with our ERP, and there our clients can place orders, budgets, see their checking account among many other features. Approximately 1 month ago we launched with the test app for internal use of the company.

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

we had a clear scope of work. We knew the features we wanted and together with We Develop we analyzed them in depth, and after 2 weeks of analysis we started development. They integrated the app with our ERP, and there our clients can place orders, budgets, see their checking account among many other features. Approximately 1 month ago we launched with the test app for internal use of the company.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our app is still in testing, but so far we have received very good reviews.

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

We will always be grateful to our project manager. He was a great guide throughout the project, achieving excellent communication between us and the development team. They have good team dynamics, and they deliver work quickly. And very important, he always spoke to us honestly regarding working times.

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

The work team. There was an incredible work synergy between all of us, we always treated each other with respect, understanding each other's times.

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

If we stop to think about it, there are no improvements to propose, they are a company that has everything measured and adjusted.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the investor and one of the three Co-Founders of InJob Online. We are a group of entrepreneurs from Argentina that started creating this proyect in the beginning of 2020 as a job marketplace that seeks to connect freelancers who want to have a space to offer their services with clients who seek to create new projects. Currently, we are at the final stage of the proyect and just started with a two months testing made up of a selected group of users to receive feedback from them.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We had this business idea that needed to be detailed and brought to reality through software development. As a result, we started working with WeDevelop to develop a custom website that could handle our needs. Our goal was to develop a MVP of job marketplace, which is intuitive for our future users, where Freelance workers can offer their work, and clients can find those talents they need in a simple way.

SOLUTION

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

We met them through the recommendation of a friend, we had a first meeting with a part of their team and we instantly wanted to work with them. They understood our business instantly, provided us with solutions, and were clear and honest with their way of working. We knew very little about agile methodology, we let them know and they even offered us training on work tools.

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

When we started working with them, we had a rough MVP backlog ready. From this, they began a first stage of "planning" that took them 2 weeks, where they estimated and planned all the features of this MVP version. Then, the second stage of "develop" began, where we already began to participate in more demand for daily meetings with them, to stress all the user stories. The project had 12 sprints of duration of 2 weeks each, once finished, we began a stage of "Support" (2 weeks ago), which accompanies us in the testing stage in which we are today.

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

"Planning" stage PM 10 hs / weekly TL 20 hs / weekly "Develop" stage PM 10 hs / weekly TL 40 hs / weekly FE Dev 40 hs / weekly BE Dev 40 hs / weekly QA 10 hs / weekly "Support" stage

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We launched the project with a delay of 1 month because additions and changes were emerging in the middle, all typical of the agile methodology. As a business strategy, we decided to take 3 months of testing. We put together a group of selected testers to receive their feedback, and so far it has been very positive. The vast majority agree that it was easy for them to understand the general operation of the platform and many processes were intuitive. This is a very good feedback since the simplicity and ease of use is something that we worked a lot together with WeDevelop when developing InJob.

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

The proyect managament was incredible and precise, especially compared to another company we've worked with. They always met deadlines and gave us the space to talk about any doubts we had. We communicated through Slack, Jira, Trello and email.

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

We had open communication channels with the entire team, which made things simpler and more direct. They are very understanding with us as it was our first time working with agile methodologies. They offered us trainings and took the time to explain any questions that came our way. Excellent accompaniment!

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

They could improve your communication regarding development bugs. In our case, it was not until sprint 4 that we noticed that they were not being reported. But they fixed it immediately and created a way to present them so that they are registered accordingly.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a technology company that provides white-label offerings for the health and wellness industry. Starting in 2017, we work with a variety of boutique fitness studios, personal trainers, and military organizations. I’m the founder and CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WeDevelop?

We built a product but were struggling to scale when customers were rapidly onboarding at the start of COVID-19.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their CTO had worked on our product in the past as part of our team before he became independent. For this project, he had to rebuild several sections of our technology. He was able to quickly wrap his head around our technology and determine a roadmap for bringing our product to market in a way to better meets customer needs.

We were originally an aggregate platform that allowed people to offer their fitness and personal training classes all in one place. When COVID-19 hit, customers wanted white-label options. They helped us pivot to that.  

What is the team composition?

We’ve had three core, consistent engineers. However, we’ve scaled their team up to 10 resources depending on the scope of our need. That helped us manage cost and allowed us high-quality resources on an as-needed basis. For instance, we may request an additional iOS developer when focusing most heavily on mobile app development.

How did you come to work with WeDevelop?

I approached their Abel (Co-Founder & CTO), who I had worked with in the past, to see if he could support our project. He quickly took it on to help us achieve our desired scale. 

How much have you invested with them?

On their services, we’ve spent between [confidential cost] on their work. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started collaborating around February 2020, and our work is definitely ongoing.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

When working with them, I had confidence that we could effectively deliver the product through sales and marketing pushes. We set shorter milestones to ensure that they were able to deliver our required features on time and on budget.

Because they’re innovative and expert communicators, they’re often able to help me find better ways to meet customer needs than we previously considered. That opens up conversations about customers,  allowing us to design better features on an agreed-upon timeframe.  

How did WeDevelop perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Jira and Slack as our primary communication tools. That allowed me insight into their progress and timeline. Additionally, we have a weekly meeting with them to review features and progress.

There, we set priorities as necessary. I’m able to track long-term features and goals in Jira without impacting the team’s day-to-day workflow. Jira is a robust platform, and they’re competent project managers that use modern tools to facilitate efforts. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re a well-rounded team, which is conducive to troubleshooting, having difficult conversations, and getting timely responses to urgent requests. They’re uniquely easy to work with because they’re true relationship-builders. It’s apparent that they work as a unit with respect to each other’s skillsets.

Especially during COVID-19, it’s important to be able to have conversations on a human level for understanding and efficiency. They’re great at being transparent in communication, which I’m very grateful for. They have a supportive, collaborative culture.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It took us a while to determine the limitations of using iOS for this project and should have made the call to pivot away from iOS sooner rather than later. That’s the only business problem we’ve run into with them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

RAFT is a search engine for ferry bookings. We’re located in Croatia. I’m the CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WeDevelop?

Ferry transportation is a pretty niche industry, and there is no search engine or metadata platform for it, either globally or in specific countries, so we had to build much of it on our own. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I had some prototypes made with another company, but WeDevelop built pretty much the entire product from scratch. It’s hosted on AWS and uses SQL databases.

What is the team composition?

I initially spoke with Ricardo (Chief Revenue Officer) and Abel (Co-Founder & CTO). The team was comprised of one frontend and two full-stack developers, a UX designer, two UI/UX designers, a project manager, and a QA engineer.

How did you come to work with WeDevelop?

I heard from a couple of friends and sources that they were really good and passionate about their work. I met up with WeDevelop, and we decided to partner. 

I was familiar with one of their past projects, which was a huge accomplishment for them, and, seeing the end results, I knew WeDevelop was the perfect fit for my company. They were resourceful, unafraid of problems and blockers, creative, professional, and fast.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent between [confidential cost].

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with WeDevelop in January 2020, and it’s ongoing. I’m definitely not looking at letting them go anytime soon.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The industry we’re in is volatile, and we’ve needed to be extremely flexible. Ferry lines, schedules, and rules and safety regulations are always changing, especially with the pandemic. It was a lot of work in a short time to bring them together, and they executed. I can’t overemphasize WeDevelop's execution rate.

It’s a huge season, with around 2.5 million people traveling through ferries, so it was definitely a challenge, but WeDevelop absolutely delivered.

How did WeDevelop perform from a project management standpoint?

WeDevelop was very flexible, and they went out of their way to accommodate me. The communication was top-notch, and there was never an issue. Any miscommunication was sorted out fast. They used Slack for communication. 

The technology and communication approach they use is standard for the current tech industry. Even at late hours, if we had a big transition or were waiting for some news or press releases about something that could impact my business, WeDevelop would have a team ready, and we’d execute in an hour or so.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The biggest highlight I would add is their ingenuity and approach to situations and blockers. Not only did we change the main structure of the project, but WeDevelop helped me enhance the performance and overall workflow of the platform.

Not only do they have a great development team, they have amazing illustrators and designers in-house. I did some sketches with their design team, to use for general feedback. Once I saw the designs, I dropped everything I made with other providers and redid the entire UI/UX of the platform with WeDevelop.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. WeDevelop is an awesome fit for me and my company, and everything turned out way better than I expected.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I’m the CTO of a company that provides small installment loans to consumers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire WeDevelop?

We hired them to develop the Node.js backend of our system, set up our infrastructure in AWS, provide frontend design for our website, and implement the designs with Bootstrap.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goal was to develop a system that allows clients to apply for small installment loans and permits us to automate the underwriting and loan collection processes.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I’ve worked with their CTO in other projects in the past.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

WeDevelop helped with the development of our backend using Node.js. They also set up the CI/CD infrastructure in AWS as well as all our EC2 servers and databases. Furthermore, they provided UI designs for our front pages and implemented them.

What was the team composition?

We worked with two engineers and a designer over the duration of the project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

With WeDevelop's help, we were able to launch on time and start issuing loans immediately. The project cost about half of what it would have had we hired local engineers.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We used GitHub tickets to arrange tasks and had regular standups to discuss their status.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We appreciated their deep technical know-how and in-house design expertise. They were also highly adaptable to our changing requirements.

Are there any areas for improvement?

As WeDevelop grows, we’ll see them become more capable of tackling bigger and bigger projects.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the founder of a sports betting startup. We’re creating a software solution that will facilitate sports betting. At the moment, it’s just a data product, but we’re waiting to see how the legal landscape matures around the topic. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with WeDevelop? 

We hired WeDevelop to create an MVP of our sports betting solution to serve as a proof of concept. They’re responsible for both the design and development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

WeDevelop is creating the MVP of our sports betting software. As with other forms of fast-paced trading, latency is a big hurdle in the betting marketplace because we don’t want to have a user’s prices staggered behind real-time data. We needed to find a way to streamline the software so that it ran all of the information seamlessly without being clunky and slow.

Their team is focused on optimizing performance by implementing several technologies to ensure that we’re pushing out the data in real time. This involves using WebSockets, messaging queues, and an appropriate browser that can run all of the information. The technology stack also includes React, GraphQL, PostgreSQL, and Node.js.

What is the team composition?  

I mostly work with Abel (Co-Founder, WeDevelop) who leads the project. He’s backed by a UX/UI designer, a frontend developer, and about two backend developers.

How did you come to work with WeDevelop? 

My previous company hired Abel through Upwork, and I liked him a lot. He was hardworking and always genuinely tried to be proactive about problem-solving, which is rare for an outsourced developer.

What is the status of this engagement? 

The project started in February 2018 and is ongoing. We have a soft deadline to launch our MVP in June 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re still in development, so it’s too early to provide any hard metrics yet. But, so far, I’m 100% satisfied with their performance. They do an excellent job.

How did WeDevelop perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s been an enjoyable, productive experience. This might sound unconventional, but I’ve asked WeDevelop to break down any communication barriers between us; I wanted them to try to interface with me as if I were a part of their company, and Abel has gone to great lengths to make this request possible. We use a common Slack channel to chat, and I’ve also set up emails for them under my company’s domain, which they use quite often. In terms of the development process, they use an agile methodology.

What did you find most impressive about them? 

Beyond appreciating what they’re about, I like working with Abel and his team because they’re proactive. They’re willing to engage with a problem to figure it out rather than waiting to be told what to do.

Are there any areas they could improve? 

No, I’m satisfied with their work so far. Although there is a time difference, they’ve put in a good effort to overcome that.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
 
It’s helpful to involve Abel in your thought process to give him context. If you explain why you’re trying to accomplish something, he’ll be an active part of your think tank.