Devathon

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I have a consulting firm called Shabuta Corp. It's a technical consultancy to help with engineering product management for startups that need something built like web applications, websites, and mobile applications. I’m the sole proprietor and managing director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Devathon?

I approached them for a couple of different projects for a client. I wanted to offer Silicon Valley-quality service and products without having to pay my own bill rate, but I would manage the work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first one wanted a custom web app with integration with Twilio for their business operation. (We actually still engage with them for add-on work.) It was a project management tool that kept track of deployments. The contractors that would interface with my client needed functionality with non-smartphones. That's why there was a reliance on Twilio to have SMS functionality for that. The client had everything specced out to a fair amount of detail. Devathon has previously worked with technical teams before, so the experience there was really great, especially for my end where I am unequipped for all the work. There was also a component of support. They were providing almost 24-hour support during critical weeks of their deployment because it was mission-critical that things went smoothly. They offered support during US hours, as well as extended hours and through the weekend. They did a good job on that, and my client was very happy. Devathon was able to deliver, and I barely had to get involved at all in that project.

For the second project, the client was a first-time startup founder wanting to develop an online consumer website game. He had worked in a marketing function primarily before, with minimal experience managing a product in the development cycle. What ended up happening with that project is that we were able to deliver the web app relatively smoothly. And during that time, Devathon—even though this client was guilty of a significant amount of scope creep—continued to work towards making the client happy, even up to the point of where it became unreasonable, so I had to step in and start to help them manage the app. There was a slight miscommunication early on regarding the responsiveness of the web app and how it’s going to be delivered, but Devathon did everything they could to work that out on their end. They went above and beyond what was expected.

How did you come to work with Devathon?

I had previously talked with some colleagues that had used offshore development teams, and this particular friend had mentioned she reviewed several of them, got bids from several of them, and this one, Devathon, was referred by one of her friends from her business school who had used them before. She then opted to use them and said they weren’t the cheapest, but extremely professional and prompt. After hearing those experiences, I decided to work with them, and I'm very happy with the result.

How much have you invested with Devathon?

The first business project was originally $45,000. But with the add-on work, it became $50,000-$60,000. The second project was $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

I began the first project with them in June 2016. The second project wrapped up in January 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

I don’t keep track of metrics. The first one has limited use as they’re not trying to have a lot of users, and the second one hasn’t been messed with. But in general, they're pretty good for delivering work. The better scoped out the work is, the more efficiently they can get to that goal. The development process for the products was pretty smooth, although there were some minor things with the second project. It could be because it wasn't initially specced out fully, but they supported it without any additional charge, so I think they were very reasonable with that.

How did Devathon perform from a project management standpoint?  

They are quite responsive and available and use the latest tools not only in communication but also technical tools that I would use as well in my own projects. Since our projects were on the smaller side, we were working directly with engineers, so there was no project manager on their side. Communication is generally up to the client—email for the first project and Slack for the second one. There was also use of Trello for some story writing.

What did you find most impressive about Devathon?

I enjoyed working with them. They definitely worked hard to make the clients happy. They're good for building prototypes or even a mission-critical transaction website. I would absolutely use them again.

Are there any areas Devathon could improve?

Granted it was supposed to be my responsibility to product manage, but when the scope creep became an issue for the second project, it would have been nice if they had a little bit more ability to push back on the client when features were being requested outside of the scope instead of trying to do anything to make the client happy. There was also feedback from clients in that clients would send an email, and Devathon would address it but not necessarily reply back to the email saying that they have. It’s just closing the loop on communication. They've already have that feedback, and I'm sure they're doing better on that, so I’m not really worried about it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Devathon was doing work for a company I worked for that was a literature platform. I was the general manager. It was an e-commerce site that was geared toward helping people find their next great listen. It had two sides. One was a services side where we provided a fact-based solution book recommendation engine to other companies. The other side was just selling on the site itself. We had a team of editors who would make book lists, and then we would help to drive sales on our own sites or on other people’s sites.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Devathon?

Our focus was on delivering a book recommendation engine to drive more book purchases for three of the top six publishers in the world.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Devathon provided a team that focused on Ruby on Rails, SQL, NoSQL databases, and JS frameworks. They also worked with us to do Scala development to augment our team. We had a small team in New York, and Devathon was basically a larger software team that built out the product user interface based on our design, working with our e-reader and e-commerce teams to customize the site for better user experiences. Some of Devathon’s input was valuable on the design decisions we would make and on the tradeoffs we had when adjusting for aggressive delivery schedules. They also gave us input on security holes and our e-commerce funnel, and they watched out for man-in-the-middle attacks. We integrated between ourselves and over 30 different publishers in the data alone, so we were cleaning up the data ingestion and parsing publisher data to make a better recommendation engine.

How did you come to work with Devathon?

They came in as a recommendation from another company that I had worked with in the past. They had Ruby on Rails experience, which was key at the time. Not everybody has Ruby on Rails experience. Their pricing was aggressive, which fit into our budgetary needs to ship a product quickly.

How much have you invested with Devathon?

We invested over $300,000 with Devathon.

What is the status of this engagement?

We probably started working with them in April 2010. The company probably continued to work with Devathon after I left, which was in June 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We didn't really hire Devathon to drive our performance or metrics; they were delivering on our design. They always delivered on time, even for tight deadlines, and they were able to scale their team up and down depending on our needs. They could also shift around their day—they were in India and we were in New York—to accommodate our schedules and our daily stand-ups. When things arose that we needed to get done, they’d be willing to stay late and do the work on their end.

We didn't have to do a lot of rework. The work that they delivered was great, and we didn't have to keep going back to them and asking them to redo work or fix a lot of bugs. We spent more time moving forward than rehashing what already existed. The quality of the code was up to our expectations. There weren't bugs in what they programmed. We had another house working for us, and we actually replaced them with the work that Devathon was doing in other languages because of their higher quality of work.

How did Devathon perform from a project management standpoint?

I think there were probably 14 to 15 people from Devathon working on our project. We used Agile, we had an online Scrum board, and we did daily stand-ups with them over video conference. We filed tickets for the Devathon team on the Scrum board, and they would pick up those and do them. The deliverables were done on time.

What did you find most impressive about Devathon?

I visited their location twice. I sent people there to work with them in their offices, and they were easy to work with.

Are there any areas Devathon could improve?

Devathon’s process is fine. I think they have a new office, which should help them. In the past, the communication between us would get disrupted sometimes because of Internet issues. Now that they’ve moved to a new location, I don't think they have that issue anymore. For instance, with their old location, we would have problems with the line quality during our stand-up meetings, and we would have to do audio-only meetings instead of video.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is a travel booking website for hotels. We build a lot of our own platforms, and we work with dozens and dozens of partners across the world. I’m the creative director for our partnership marketing. I guide and create a lot of the marketing that goes out between us and our partners.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Devathon?

We were working with some of our partners to do a large social media campaign using Vine. We wanted to use Vine at the time because it was a newer platform that a lot of people hadn't experimented with, and we were using that and tying everything to Twitter. We were basically setting up a big landing page to encourage people to enter and win a prize. We needed Devathon to create the landing page while we dealt with the social media.

The landing page had eight videos on it. Each one would play through for about six seconds and then stop, and then the next one would play, kind of like a clock. We hosted all of those videos on our Vine account, but Devathon helped us get them on Vine in the correct dimensions and then they pulled them from Vine through to the landing page. Once users reached they landing page, they clicked their favorite video and entered the contest. Afterward, they had the option to share the video to Twitter.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Devathon didn't have a ton of creative input. We provided them some mockups and showed them some other examples of how we wanted everything to look. They said yes to almost every request, with little to no resistance. They were always able to figure out how to do what we asked of them. I know there were some concerns when we were building the project, and some of it wasn't as easy. I think we also updated a few things.

How did you come to work with Devathon?

I had a friend who worked with Devathon before. I trusted her, so I thought we’d give them a go and see how it went.

How much have you invested with Devathon?

We probably did four campaigns with Devathon, and each one cost around $1,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Each campaign took anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks. The first one probably took closer to 4 weeks, and then after that it only took us about 2 weeks to reproduce everything and change out the elements for a new partner.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Our partners absolutely loved Devathon’s work. We had tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of entrants through the project, so it did really well.

How did Devathon perform from a project management standpoint?

Devathon did really well from a project management standpoint. I think there were a few slip ups with timing on both sides. We weren’t clear on our deadlines and how we wanted something to work. When you're working with someone who’s not in the same office as you, it’s a little harder to make all of that work. As far as reliability, Devathon always gets the work done. There was no pushback, and the quality of the final product was amazing.

We would jump on calls every now and then to talk about how the project was going and what the progress update was. Email was the second way we communicated, and then the third way was Trello boards where we listed tasks and then sort of moved projects along by marking what was up for review and what was finished. We did a lot of communicating that way too.

What did you find most impressive about Devathon?

I think Tarun leads almost everything at Devathon. He’s a great guy and he’s straightforward with what he thinks they can and cannot do. I think the best thing about them was their lack of pushback. I’m sure if we had asked for something completely outrageous, Tarun would have said something because he’s a straightforward guy, but they always figured out creative solutions to whatever we were trying to do.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with Devathon?

I would recommend that future clients make sure that Devathon is clear about deadlines, what they think the actual deadline is going to be for them, how much work is going to be involved, and being thorough on the QA process as well. We definitely refined our process over the four projects we worked on together. We watched each other grow over time; there were a ton of improvements on both sides. It wasn’t a real issue for us in the end, but I know that when we first started, we had a few little hiccups, but both our sides picked it up and we evolved together.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Superble is a marketing and social community platform that enables users to discover products by interacting with each other. Someone with specific questions about a product can locate it on our platform, along with people ready to answer those questions. I am the founder and CEO of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Devathon?

I approached Devathon at the very beginning of my journey. I only had a concept and wanted to develop a mobile application for testing it with real people. Since I wasn’t a developer, I needed to create a minimum viable product [MVP] for my platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, Devathon developed an Android application. We didn't want to develop on more than one platform since that was not necessary for testing the concept. From there, we decided on the development language and other factors. First, I defined feature requests for the app. Devathon assigned a team consisting of a product manager and three developers for putting it together, including an architect, a backend resource, and a frontend resource. Devathon didn't have a large involvement in terms of business requirements. They developed whatever I asked for. Devathon definitely contributed by providing feedback on the feasibility of each feature and how difficult it would be to create.

Key features include the ability to upload new products from a mobile device, like and dislike existing ones by swiping right and left on the home feed, and look into the details of certain products by clicking on them. The details page contains a description and related products in the category.

How did you come to work with Devathon?

Devathon was referred to me by a close friend, which is what convinced me to choose the company.

How much have you invested with Devathon?

The cost of Devathon's work was between $40,000 and $60,000 for both development cycles combined.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with Devathon in June of 2015. We've had two major development cycles; the first ended a year later, and the second was completed in December of 2016. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

Since the platform was only launched in February of 2017, we haven't accumulated a large user base or seen significant traffic. We have between 100 and 200 daily users at the moment. I'm definitely happy with the platform. It's responsive and performs well. I’ve since put together a team for continued development on it. It's not the same platform now as it was in December of 2016, but it was already quite stable when Devathon delivered it. The feedback we've received from early adopters is very positive in terms of usability, speed, and responsiveness. The same goes for the concept itself.

How did Devathon perform from a project management standpoint?

I can’t complain much in this respect. The initial communication was not that great, but Devathon's overall project management is satisfactory. We never went over by a month for any deadline. I'm fine with this, considering that we changed a few things during the development.

What did you find most impressive about Devathon?

The overall quality of the code was definitely satisfactory, not just for an MVP but also for a public website or application that needs to handle a lot of traffic.

Are there any areas Devathon could improve?

Devathon could improve the level of organization and communication with clients. More regular and structured communication would definitely be beneficial. Also, Devathon's work still needed some curation after deployment in order to be scaled to the next level. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Founder of Octane info Services

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

We are Real world learning platform that focus on medical and patient education and comparable to other platforms like networking platforms

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Devathon to accomplish?

• Software development work for our platform

SOLUTION

How did you find Devathon?

Clutch Site

Why did you select Devathon over others?

• High ratings
• Pricing fits our budget

What was the size of Devathon’s team?

Bunch interns

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Supposed to deliver the code in good quality, Maintain a good communication with the client, bill the amount according to the work done and delivered. But, all of them are in expectations. Not in reality

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

• Never met any milestone in time or quality.

What was your primary form of communication with Devathon?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

No timely response (Takes 2 months to reply mail or chat) No quality team --- only bunch of interns and idiots with frequent replacements My data in the app was lost (They did not bother to offer an explanation to that).

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

How could this company survives with this bunch of rogues

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

Better wind up and get lost... so the clients will not feel this pain