Dima Dobrinsky

KindGeek provides full-stack development for a mobile app, which includes a web frontend, a backend algorithm, and a mobile developer. They collaborate with an in-house team but serve as a home base.

Feedback summary

KindGeek delivered results within two weeks of beginning work, launching the first version of the website. The team strives to meet deadlines in the shortest time possible and often works long hours to complete a task. They foster a dedicated relationship and have been proven trustworthy partners.

Challenge

What business challenge were you trying to address with KindGeek?

We were looking to build a mobile app for our business. When we started to think about an outsourcing company for our needs, we actually had trouble hiring good quality programmers here in Israel, so we then decided to offshore the work.

Solution

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

KindGeek was involved in the development of our mobile app. It's full stack, which means we have a web front-end, back-end algorithm, and mobile developer. KindGeek takes care of all development. The decisions, planning, and design we are doing in-house. The execution and the actual writing of the code is done there.

Everything actually starts from the technology stack. Since we chose [a group in] Ukraine as our development team, it was easy for us to find PHP developers and iOS developers – part of them are Android, too. In our organization, we have  team leaders here in Israel, and the developers are in Ukraine. We decided to make a dedicated team that is controlled from here, but everything is done there in Ukraine. We are doing a lot of PHP and Node.js. All the back-end, front-end, and mobile development is done there.

How did you come to work with KindGeek?

Since I speak Russian, the guys there speak English, and there is a lot of good professional skill that we found in the company, we decided to go with them. We had three companies involved at first, and we decided the guys from KindGeek were the best for us.

What is the status of this engagement?

KindGeek acts as our home base. We will continue working with them. We are going to increase the team. We have two R&D centers: one here in Israel with mostly team leaders, architects, and so on, and the working hands in Ukraine. They have good engineers, and we are satisfied, so it's going to last at least one year.

Results & Feedback

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

Everything is working great. We had results after two weeks working with KindGeek. Our first version of the website went out after two weeks.

How did KindGeek perform from a project management standpoint?

We don't need them as project managers because we use KindGeek as a dedicated team. We have our team leaders here who are in charge to schedule and control everything. We have dealt only with developers who are controlled by team leaders. It is part of the job of team leaders to control and give them tasks internally.

When you plan it correctly, then you can expect the team will meet the deadline. Sometimes, they do it successfully and sometimes not. However, what I can say is that they did try to get results in the shortest time possible. For example, two days ago [July 2016], we were working until 2 a.m. because we had deadlines, and we just finished. When something has to be done, it's doable. KindGeek always does everything they can to get it done.

What distinguishes KindGeek from other providers?

There's always struggles and there's always problems. However, you can always figure out how to work it. This is a major part of our partnership with KindGeek. We have great communication with KindGeek. We trust KindGeek, and when they say something, they mean it. The trust in our partnership is the more that I can expect from the company that I'm working with them. I trust them – that's it.

Is there anything KindGeek could have improved or done differently?

I'm not sure if they can do it, but the problem is that I think they are using a very specific stack of technology – PHP. They're working with tools on the back-end, on the databases, and on the front-end. Sometimes, when I want to implement a different stack, it's hard because they're mostly oriented on PHP stack. Maybe they have a few Java developers, but usually just one. Sometimes, for not real big issues, I have to ask them to find someone who can develop some algorithms in a different language. It's hard for them to find relevant programmers to do it, but we work it out.