Surf

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the business project manager in charge of the development of a bank’s new mobile application.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Initially, we wanted to improve the native app we already had. Besides, we intended to implement test automation in the app and infrastructure for the tests as it reduces testing time and allows developers to fix bugs quickly.

During the detailed discussion of the project, we understood that it would be easier and less expensive to create a new Flutter application from scratch and lay the foundation for its further scaling than modify the existing one.

SOLUTION

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

Surf has a wealth of expertise in banking projects. In addition, we appreciate the level of their Flutter skills. Important was the fact that the company has a fully functional team covering all the roles we need: designers, PM, developers, analysts, and QA.

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

Within nine months of collaboration with Surf, we have developed a Flutter application with automated tests and infrastructure for them. The app is available for smartphones and tablets.

The first release covered a large set of features:

• 4 methods of authorization
• 2 ways to register
• Product review and management
• Setting up products: cards, accounts, deposits
• My Finances module allows you to understand your financial situation in terms of all banking products
• Payments and transfers
• Automatic payments
• Favorite payments
• Operations and activities history
• Expenses analytics
• Chat for customer support
• ATM and branches review
• Personal data management

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

1 designer,1 PM, 2 analysts, 4 Flutter developers, 2 QAs.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We successfully launched the first version of the app. Users like it and rate it highly. We have done a lot of work to update the design for the bank’s app:

• We brought the design up to date and adapted it to Flutter development.
• We improved UX: all solutions suggested by the bank were analyzed, taking into account Surf experience with banking apps.
• Some options were suggested, to make the app more user-friendly.

For example, improvement of the interface variant for small screens: to arrange the elements in a way that allows avoiding unnecessary scrolls. Now the app development continues, new features are released every month.

One more significant point is that based on the code of this app, Surf is currently developing an app for another bank, which is also a part of our group. It has a different design and set of features, but reusing the code will reduce the time and cost of the project to 70%.

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

Surf has efficient communication processes. They consider all wishes and comments, the stages are transparent, and it is clear what result is to achieve at each stage. The team is easy and ready to communicate, offers efficient solutions based on their experience, and proves them with reason. In general, I believe, in a short time, we have implemented a great scope of tasks.

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

I am impressed with Surf's expertise in developing solutions, both for banks and other industries. I like that the team strives to dive deep into the product, go thoroughly through each stage, and offer the best possible solutions. Surf's commitment to constantly improve the product is impressive: now we continue to work together on the app and improve it.

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

We continue to develop the project with Surf and we are satisfied with the level of expertise, proactivity, and well-organized processes in the team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am a Producer at Medium Quality, an entertainment video content company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We wanted to develop our own mobile video platform that would make it easier for subscribers to access our content, make us less dependent on YouTube as a content distributor, and would also allow us to monetize views and publish new content formats.

SOLUTION

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

Surf is the first and only company we have partnered with in mobile development. As soon as we started discussing the project, it became clear that Surf is the best choice in terms of resources and process management. The company had everything we needed: designers and expertise in both front-end and back-end development. In addition, we quickly came to a complete understanding of how the final product was supposed to look and function. Therefore, we had no need to look for other contractors.

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

Surf has provided us with a video streaming service, giving our users access to more than 40 shows. We have implemented many additional features for users: they can subscribe to their favorite actors and comedians, get access to exclusive content or paid previews of the shows a week before their official premiere. The mobile app is developed with the Flutter framework.

This helped us shorten the time to market and launch the product as quickly as possible. With its help, it was possible to reduce the development time by 30%. Surf has developed a platform with all the infrastructure: backend, CDN, and admin web interface to help manage content and monitor statistics.

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

On the Medium Quality’s side, the team consisted of a creative director, a product manager, and content managers. Surf provided 2 designers, 1 front-end developer, 2 back-end developers, 2 DevOps, 2 QAs, 4 Flutter developers, 1 manager, and 1 systems analyst.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have successfully launched the MVP. Users like the UX and quality as well as how fast the player responds and downloads the videos. The definition is adjusted to the Internet speed, the videos are cached. The videos can also be streamed to a TV screen. The mobile application has a user-friendly interface. Now we are actively upgrading our product together with Surf: we are working on user engagement and expanding our audience.

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

Surf has mature and streamlined communication processes. The project manager, analyst, and designer worked with me directly. There is a general channel to which all the team members are added. Once a week we had a mandatory conference call, where we discussed progress, our plan of action, deadlines, user analytics, and the backlog. In general, it has been a positive experience. Their team is always easy to reach, quickly responds to feedback, and adapts to process changes. All communications are extremely transparent: at each stage, we knew what was happening, where we were going, and when we would come to it.

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

What surprised me was that Surf has deep expertise in everything related to mobile development, is dedicated to their projects, and able to constantly improve the product. Even after the release, we continue to work on the application together, updating and improving it.

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

We continue to cooperate with Surf and we are completely satisfied with the level of competence and the way processes are perfectly aligned within the team.