Chili Labs

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the co-founder of a unique pathway to home ownership solution for young renters, that would be likely renting indefinitely. We are looking to solve the housing affordability crisis which is a global problem through innovative technology

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Chili Labs?

We hired Chili Labs to undertake an innovative design of our B2C tenant mobile app. Industry and User research and analysis, User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design and App branding and style guide

SOLUTION

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

We were introduced by Erik G. who is a part of Chili Labs. We are very fortunate we trusted his judgement as the results Chili Labs produced far exceeded our expectations.

Describe the project in detail and walk through the stages of the project.

Planning: We defined the project's objectives, requirements, and scope with guidance from Chili. Chil then identified the resources, timeline, and budget required to complete the project. The team may use Atlassian project management tools (confluence, Jira), slack for constant communication and figma to undertake the design.

Analysis: Chili went far above and beyond to identify user needs, trends, and competition in the Australian market. They confirmed their research with our team along the way. Design: Chili designs screens, wireframes, prototypes, and visual designs for the app. They created a style guide that defines the app's visual identity, including colors, typography, and graphic elements.

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

We had five people cover our project throughout the process. The main three personnel were; Aleksandra K. (lead designer), Guntis K. (project manager) and Vjaceslavs K. who made a huge effort to guide us through the process.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

We have continued to receive positive feedback from all of our customers. What we built as an MVP is definitely not considered an MVP by users because of the sheer quality.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We have built strong lines of communications, collaboration, and a shared understanding of goals, roles, and responsibilities. Our weekly meetings were always productive and progressed the project each week.

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

Chili had the ability to bring our concept to life. It was far fetch and it had not been done before in this particular space. They were able to successfully bring ideas from other industries as per our vision. It was quite surreal seeing the end product.

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

Nothing we would have done differently.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the founder & CEO of Evntly, LLC and I am located in New York

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

My previous developer team company had dissolved and was no longer able to work on my app. They had developed the first version of my mobile application. Chili lab was brought in to work on my app and do a revamp of the UI and UX design.

SOLUTION

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

After reviewing over a 100 companies and getting a quote from a few. Chili labs seemed like the more solid company with accredited apps and good reviews. What sold me was that they were able to work within my budget and the previous projects they had worked on.

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

Originally my app was designed using MVVM Kotlin and Kotlin Multiplatform for releasing the app in both the App and Play store. After having a conversation with Chili they had recommended that I redesign the app using Flutter and Dart. Due to the nature of my redesign concept, Flutter was recommended because Flutter paints the UI pixel for pixel and would work in my use case. Also it would transform the app development process faster and easier for their team.

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

I was assigned a Project Manager, two front end developers, a designer to fix up any issues that I had with the redesign, 1-2 back-end developers (depending on the scope of the project) and a QA.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I want to give a big shout out to the team. They worked diligently to create what I presented to them which was the redesign of my app. They are hardworking and have been committed to my project. I think they are as excited as me and it's something that I appreciate. They finished up the app in 7 months and I have received so much excellent feedback for the new redesigned app.

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

The team used slack in which we all communicated through. Everyone had great communication skills and the language that was used was English. I was able to view everything that the team was working on using Jira. It was great to see the things that were in progress, in code review, tested and completed. Everything is documented and can be reviewed. This is something that my old developer team lacked and I'm glad Chili can offer this!

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

Their team was great and always up to date with the newest technologies. If they did not know the answers to something they would figure it out. If you want anything from new UI/UX designs, want to clean up your back-end, a clean architecture, or want to start a new project, Chili is the team for you.

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

They're is a time difference between us, but that was no problem. I had learned how to send my messages ahead of time using Slack. Overall the team and I were in sync and delivered exactly what was requested of them and more!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Product Owner at Bondora AS. Bondora was founded over 11 years ago in the height of the global financial crisis. This was a time when the world was in need of fair finance and a technological revolution. Today, Bondora has served over 200,000 customers around the world who’ve earned more than €60M in interest.

We make sure everyone can access the world of investing and earn a reliable net return, without all the complexities.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to develop a mobile application for out investment product, to make investment experience for our existing and future customers super easy and super convenient.

SOLUTION

How did you select Chili Labs and what were the deciding factors?

We have searched online for the companies which are specializing in native mobile app development. The factors we were looking at: - experience / reviews - cost - team capabilities (front-end, back-end, design) - availability (i.e. when they could start) - location - ideally, the agency should have based in Estonia or nearby (Baltics/Nordics) so we can meet in the office if necessary.

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

We had several discovery meetings to discuss our project goals and KPIs. Afterwards, we have provided Chili Labs with the backlog (user stories) and designs, and discussed the estimates. After setting up the formalities, they have started working on the project. The app is being developed for both iOS and Android (native mobile applications).

By now we have been launching the new versions of the mobile application regularly, and the app is used by over 50k of investors.

How many resources from the Chili Labs team worked with you, and what were their positions?

A CPO (Vjaceslavs), 1 developer (additional resources were added if needed - e.g. Senior developer at the beginning of the project), 1 QA. If needed, our internal team was supported with the second opinion from the designer and backend developers. There have never been an issue with the developers' vacations - Slava is managing resources pro-actively.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Since the app launch in September 2021 we have >50k downloads. Chili Labs integrated Firebase for the tracking, and are reviewing the Crashlitics on daily basis.

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

The whole team is very helpful and knowledgeable, and support you with any request or idea. It is easy to soundboard new items - Chili Labs have a vast experience in mobile development, and can either advise or make a research on any topic. We have changed scope several task (re-prioritized and added new items, based on the customer feedback / our vision) and they always supported us on the changes.

They have adopted the tools we are using for the communication and ticket tracking (Asana, Slack), and processes (Scrum/Kanban mix).

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

Chili Labs are highly recommended for the partnership. Experienced, collaborative, agile and flexible. We have also recently started building a mobile application for another project with them, and this means something, right?

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

We had some miscommunication on the designs implementation between Chili developers and our designers in the initial stage of the project - took a bit of time to resolve. A learning for future - involve your Chili PO in all implementation discussions and you won't run into the same issues. Nothing else to add, we are very happy with our cooperation!

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of development for The Sun Finance group, a fintech company involved in online lending. I am responsible for launching products and business entities in Southeast Asia.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Chili Labs?

We needed to develop a mobile app for one of our products in Vietnam.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Chili Labs developed our Android app according to our existing customer journey on the web. However, they completely redesigned the platform and added some features here and there.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Vyacheslav (CPO). He discussed everything with us and relayed it to his internal team. We also had some direct communication with the developers.

How did you come to work with Chili Labs?

We announced a competition between some suppliers we knew or found, and Chili Labs was one of them. We did some research, and went back and forth with the contenders, and they all presented to us. We chose Chili Labs because of their price and the attention they could give to the project.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Chili Labs in November 2019 and finished in early February 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve just launched the app on Google Play, and customers have started using it. We’ve seen an increase of just 2% so far, but we haven’t done any marketing. At this rate, we predict sales to increase by at least 10–20%.

Chili Labs gave us a tracking tool for app crashes. The percentages are so low that we can’t even measure them. We’ve had 10 crashes from a few thousand users and we’ve only had to fix 2–3 minor bugs. I’m very grateful for the work they delivered. The app is excellent.

How did Chili Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We had zero experience with mobile apps, so Chili Labs led us through the project. They were very constructive.

They set up delivery dates and broke everything into steps. They had a sprint-based approach, and they delivered a clickable outcome at least every two weeks. Once we approved or changed the work, they moved forward.

Chili Labs connected directly with our internal IT team, using tools like Jira and Slack. They created a Jira board with tickets for all the tasks and distributed those to their team. We had full access to it, so we could always see what was being done.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They don’t overcharge the customer. They charge for the actual work they do, and there are no unknown or unclear charges. This was super important to us because they were remote and were working at an hourly rate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They tend to focus on making the technical solution work, rather than looking at the bigger picture. Chili Labs could have improved the partnership by investigating our particular industry and suggesting some solutions. However, they still did a great job, and I wouldn’t say that there are any significant improvements needed.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

It’s important to define the project. With mobile apps, it can development could go on forever. In our case, we were super determined and knew what we needed. Chili Labs gave us a cost ballpark, and they matched it almost one hundred percent.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT business solutions manager for Dynatech. There are three businesses within the larger company: travel, financial, and entertainment.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Chili Labs?

We needed to outsource mobile app development for the entertainment department of the company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Chili Labs developed our mobile app from scratch for iOS and Android. It was our third version. They used Objective C for iOS and React for Android, as well as Flutter.

The app allows casting directors to list parts and talent to apply to casting calls. They can connect with one another to negotiate.

What is the team composition?

We work with six people, including Tairs (Lead Developer), a QA specialist, Maria (Chief Designer), and several software developers.

How did you come to work with Chili Labs?

They were recommended to us by the travel department of the company.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between €30,000 - €40,000 (approximately $37,000 - $49,000).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together around August 2020, and it’s ongoing. The Android app was completed in November 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Each sprint was successful, with the exception of a few issues on our side. The iOS app is still in development because our APIs weren’t ready. Chili Labs has done a great job, and we are quite satisfied with their work.

How did Chili Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We have daily standups. We use Trello and Slack for collaboration and communication.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Tairs showed his experience, asking the right questions to gather necessary information from us upfront. He was prepared.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Chili Labs should probably hire more people to better handle all their projects. They had to rotate some of the people working with us in order to allocate them to other projects.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would definitely recommend working with them for mobile development.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of IT for a fintech solutions company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Chili Labs?

We needed someone to develop our mobile app.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed our mobile app for iOS and Android using Flutter. We did all of the design from our side. We provided some specifications for the API and screens. We’re just finishing the first version of the application.

What is the team composition?

There are two developers, a QA person, and a project manager.

How did you come to work with Chili Labs?

We found them in our local market and chose them over multiple other companies. They’re experienced, good developers.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent less than $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2020, and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They’re very professional and have provided a good solution for us. They think ahead about what could be better or improved upon. They estimated it would take about three months to complete the app, and they’re almost done. They almost met our goals with estimates, time, and budget.

How did Chili Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

They use Jira. We have daily standups to go over our progress and to plan the work for the next day. We have sprint reviews and sprint planning, and then we do a demo of what has been done. Communication is good. They use Slack for communication between our side and theirs. Everyone is open to communicating.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They ask really good questions. We provided a link to documentation that wasn’t very readable, but they got through it and understood almost everything. They do their job very well without asking many irrelevant questions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing specific they need to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You can trust them. We did a lot of preparation work before, but I believe another customer could probably give the full project cycle to them, and they’d professionally complete it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of IntelligentBoardRoom. We provide technology that enables an executive to understand if the team can execute the business strategy.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Chili Labs?

We run a technology platform. The development of our technology is outsourced to Chili Labs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Chili Labs is our technology partner, and they build the technology for our platform. We started off by running our solutions on an iPad. We are now in the process of migrating to SaaS. Chili Labs is our technology partner in this important migration.

What is the team composition?

There are six team members involved, including a project manager.

How did you come to work with Chili Labs?

I started the journey of going from an iPad environment to a SaaS environment in the summer of 2019. I made the wrong choice of technology partner, so I canceled the project in November of 2019.

I had to start fresh and fast. I was searching for a progressive and young company that had done some out-of-the-box things, and I interviewed 4–5 candidates.

I could’ve gone to more established players, but I had much fresher discussions with the Chili Labs team on how to tackle functional and technical problems. That's why I choose them.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we have invested $175,000 with Chili Labs.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 2020, and we’re planning the first release for late-August. We will convert all our clients from the iPad version to the new SaaS solution. We plan to continue developing the technology with Chili Labs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My measure of success is quite simple, consisting of two key metrics: the first is that we need to have better functionality in the new SaaS solution compared to the iPad solution, and the second is that we need to have a very smart user management system.

In our first tests, our clients loved the new Saas platform. The new platform comes across as very strong and has a great UI/UX. There were no technical issues in the pre-production versions, which showed the quality of Chili Labs' work.

We looked at which sprints were going to be difficult at the beginning of the project, and I’ve tracked the team's progress with those. I find them to be extremely responsive.

Of course, we’ll always come across things we hadn’t thought about, and navigating those hurdles shows the quality and agility of the team we’re working with. 

There, I’m extremely happy with Chili Labs, and so are my clients. We have preproduction versions that our clients are actually working with, and we have no technical issues at all.

How did Chili Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We do everything in Slack and through a series of design tools. We have one project leader, and 90% of my communication is with him. Chili Labs is a young, creative group of people with very structured mindsets. 

The team is extremely interested in building an excellent UI. They’re UX-focused, and they combine that with their structured thinking on the backend.

Their project management is very strong, and they do their work on time and within the budget. There are no surprises.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What really sets Chili Labs apart is their teamwork. They work seamlessly together, and there is no ego and no politics. They are creative in their solutions and very responsive. You can see that they have their hearts in everything they do.

As a client, I will envisage how I want things to look, but not everything I’ll come up with is smart or translatable into software. They are very comfortable coming back and telling me when I get something wrong or if there’s a better way to do it. 

We talk about it and we move on. This is important to have in a software building team. Without it, we’ll get our mistakes integrated into the software. I like their technical solutions. They produce sound and good-looking UI/UX.

They’re also deeply concerned about the structure of the backend and frontend and about the governance structure of the system — the relationships between administrators and the different levels of users we have in the systems. That’s very important because we work with a lot of personal data.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

To really get the most out of the partnership, the client needs to be open to constructive feedback. If they’re just looking for a team that will do exactly what they’re told, they shouldn’t go to Chili Labs. 

If you are looking for a partner that thinks with you and, in the interest of a better solution, will always give you constructive feedback, you should work with Chili Labs. They are a smart bunch of people who are fun to work with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a software contracting company. We bring in certain clients and build out whatever technical items that they need, such as websites, apps, and platforms. I recently became product operations manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Chili Labs?

The overall project was to design and develop a mobile app for an architecture firm.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Chili Labs developed the app for iOS, and there’s a possibility of doing an Android version in the future. They coded in Swift. My team built out designs on Sketch and InVision, and Chili Labs implemented those designs into the app. Once development was completed, they helped us with the deployment to the App Store. 

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with three people.

How did you come to work with Chili Labs?

They were brought in by my boss before I joined the company, so I’m not sure how we came across them. I do know that we’ve worked with other iOS teams on other projects, and for something that was of this scale, Chili Labs was the best route to take based on their experience, team size, and capabilities in general.

How much have you invested with them?

It’s a big project for a sizeable client. We’ve spent between $50,000–$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on the project in 2018 for a bit, and then it was put on pause for a while. We started working on it again in late summer 2019.

The project is ongoing; the majority of it is completed, but Chili Labs is still doing maintenance. If anything comes up, we reach out to them, and they resolve it pretty quickly.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re extremely happy with everything that they’ve done. We were supposed to release the app to the App Store at the end of April; however, with everything going on with COVID, our client really wanted to expedite the process so that people working from home could have access to this app. That moved our deadline up by a month-and-a-half, and Chili Labs absolutely crushed it. They were great about being flexible and understanding of the situation. They worked with us on a daily basis to ensure that the earlier deadline was met.

How did Chili Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We had daily standup calls. Chili Labs coordinated with us to make sure that everything was implemented with the most detail possible. They understood everything as best they could and were extremely fluid. Some teams need everything spelled out, but Chili Labs was flexible. For instance, if we wanted to move a button, they would just know what we meant, and we wouldn’t have to redo all of the designs. They even did some designs on their side. With the App Store submission, they knew what designs would help us get approved, so they were extremely helpful there.

Their communication is great, as is their ability to meet deadlines. There are times when outside factors affect deadlines, whether it’s on our side, Chili’s side, or the client’s side. They’re great at the work that they do. They use Jira and Confluence very well. When we gave them designs, they were great with InVision and understood how to use the markups. They’re also great with App Store Connect and TestFlight for iOS testing.

What did you find most impressive about them?

There are a couple of parts. When we first started out, it was a smaller project and wasn’t super time-consuming, but as soon as the deadline changed, they brought in a few more people to make sure that we could make that deadline. Their team size is definitely one thing that helps them stand out, as well as their technical abilities. When we ask them to do something different or out of the norm, they do their research and figure out the best way they can do it to save cost and time.

Overall, their understanding of the Swift platform as well as what it takes to get an iOS app through the App Store is great. Since they’re mainly a mobile studio, they have a lot of experience with uploading apps to the App Store, so they’re extremely helpful with knowing exactly what the Apple team is looking for as far as approving and denying apps. Chili Labs truly goes that extra mile to ensure the app will be accepted by the App Store. They let us know what we needed to change before we went through the whole process of submitting the app. They’re not in it to just build the app and be done with it; they’re in it to make sure that we fully cross the finish line, and they get us there as one big team. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there’s nothing I can think of. They’ve been great across the board.

Any advice for potential customers?

They were great, so my advice to somebody looking to use them would be to trust them. You can put a lot of work and responsibility on their shoulders, and they always take care of it and figure out how to get things done.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and chief strategy officer at Searchie. We use video and machine intelligence to help understand people’s behaviors and then how they’re going to behave in their organization.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Chili Labs?

We brought Chili Labs on to help us with mobile app development.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Chili Labs developed two native applications on Android and two native applications on iOS. They used features, including video, chatbots, and some APIs, to pull questions for the video interviews. Our team provided them with all of the designs and APIs. They did both front- and backend development.

What is the team composition?

I think there were five developers plus 1–2 QA people.

How did you come to work with Chili Labs?

We underwent a discovery process and looked at several different vendors. 

How much have you invested with them?

I believe we’ve spent about $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

My company started working with Chili Labs in January 2020. We’ve finished two phases, and we’re reviewing what we want to do next.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They hit all of the milestones on time. They have been very, very responsive. Everyone on my team is very positive about the apps.

How did Chili Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

We had bi-weekly catchups with the team, and we used Slack to communicate directly with them in the middle of those periods. We also used Jira. They were really communicative. We had a couple of changes mid-project, and they were very good about accommodating them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re really adaptable. The changes that we had in the middle of the project were quite significant, so they were very good at being agile with that and helping us to deliver on what we needed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Generally, they were really good. In the early stages, there may have been some confusion on communication; we might not have been clear, and they might not have asked some questions that could’ve provided clarity to them, but that was a two-sided thing.

Any advice for potential customers?

The more that you ask of them, the more they will deliver.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of a software house that builds software for companies and ourselves.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Chili Labs?

We had to develop a mobile application for ourselves.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re engineers, so we didn’t take a classic outsourcing approach. Instead of actually asking for business analysts or designers, we wrote the specifications. Our team provided unique analysis, designs, and requirements. Their team helped build the application for iOS and Android with the Flutter framework.

What is the team composition?

I was in contact with the person who manages the organization. At first, we worked with one engineer who was accompanied by an analyst. After a couple of weeks, we proceeded with just the engineer because we were comfortable with assigning tasks.

How did you come to work with Chili Labs?

My business partner had previous experience with Chili Labs. I trusted his advice and decided to work with them

How much have you invested with them?

We spent €20,000 (approximately $22,000 USD) on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our work started in November 2019 and wrapped up in March 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Based on our previous experience with different organizations, we're satisfied with Chili Labs' ability to create software. Their team was quite good. 

How did Chili Labs perform from a project management standpoint?

Chili Labs used JIRA, but we used GitLab to organize ourselves. It was astonishing. Their team was good and exceed expectations in some cases. We worked well together.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Chili Labs delivered quickly. They provided comments with valuable content and advice, which was highly appreciated.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not that I can think of right away.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re in our position, trust their expertise and go on with them.