As a development consultancy, we help our clients beyond common development. We are a company of experts, and, as such, we are trusted by our clients to advise them on how to do things.
There's a myriad of ways we can help our clients. In fact, most clients praise us because we're not just excellent coders, but we also give outstanding delivery. Delivery includes communication, reporting, dealing with conflicts and setting expectations, among other nuances.
As a company of experts, our clients trust us to be proactive in giving them advice on how to improve their projects. What's more, we also trust you.
We cannot compete with cheaper companies who only offer standard development, because their clients only value getting code for money.
Our value proposition is to add this layer of expertise for which our clients pay this premium price. We don't just obey orders, we look for the best outcome of the project as if the project were ours.
We should let the client know if:
- They're requesting an unreasonably big change that changes the course of the project.
- They're requesting excessive definition changes that can make the project last longer than expected.
- The client is taking a bad functional decision, even if you are not asked to give your opinion.
- They don't understand why our preferred way of deploying the application is the best for the project.
- There's a new tool/framework that can be brought into the project to bring a significant improvement in any given area.
- We spot security or legal issues with the requested functionalities.
- Etc.
Every Monday, the tech lead or the project manager (if there is one) will send a report to the client over email. All the people involved in the project have to be CCed. We will send this report by default. If there is a project in which sending the report is not needed, it will be explicitly specified.
This report is not only for the client, but also for the MarsBased team, so everyone can be in the same page and we can have a reference of how the project is going. Also, thanks to this report, we can notice if we need to pay extra attention to anything and if there are issues such as delays, not enough budget, etc.
We have created a template with all the required sections and information: Report template.
Every week, the project manager or tech lead will organise a follow-up video call with the client. If possible, it needs to be always scheduled at the same day and time of the week and should be done with video enabled. These video calls should never take more than 30 minutes, and as it happens with the weekly reports, we will do them by default, except stated otherwise.
The rest of the communication will be conducted through Linear or Slack, and we will arrange other video calls whenever they are needed.
Finally, remember that most of the communication between the team and the client needs to be in Slack public channels (never in private ones).
- Explain what we will do this week. Ask feedback about the tasks (in order to see if everything is clear and we understood them properly).
- Ask about each blocking issue.
- If there has been any visual or functional progress since last week, showcase it and ask for feedback.
- Discuss any deadline or budget issue. If there is any delay or budget issue, let the MB management team know in advance.
It is advisable to create meeting notes for the meeting and prepare them in advance, in the Meeting Notes folder within the project on Google Drive.
We avoid daily meetings to maximize development time. However, we maintain constant communication through Slack, Linear, and video calls.
At the beginning of the week, we will hold a project internal meeting with everyone involved. The meeting should not exceed 30 minutes. We do not conduct daily meetings, as we believe they are an inefficient use of time. However, you will be asked to respond to a brief automated Slack message at the end of your workday, summarizing your progress.
The task management tool, Linear, requires daily updates. As a fully remote company, we rely on trust and effective communication to advance our projects. This is non-negotiable and involves everyone on the project, from the developer to the project manager.
We will always try to plan three-week development cycles. If it’s not possible because the client doesn’t know what we’ll do, we will skip this guideline.
All the credentials, environments and sensitive stuff have to be added to 1Password, and kept updated.
Also, the project README will contain the setup instructions and it needs to be always up to date.