EXPERTLY TRAINED, BATTLE-TESTED, ELITE SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS ON DEMAND
+1.801.656.0470
488 East Winchester St., Suite 450 Murray, Utah 84107
Subscription-based SaaS development for smart entrepreneurs
"“I feel like DevSquad is an extension of our team. When we first met them, it made me realize, the resources, the time, the cost…everything that would come along with a group like this would be far more advantageous than trying to do it on our own."
Austin Miller
CEO, Iso Talent & T-Launch
We support our teams at every step, so you have a winning process without making a dozen new hires.
Our small team of dedicated, vetted developers have launched successive products for returning clients. Our product managers see the pitfalls of entrepreneurship and partner with our clients to launch valuable products quickly, with none of the confusion, distraction or delay that befalls entrepreneurs who attempt to make product decisions and manage dev teams all on their own.
Our smooth code and beautiful interfaces are just the beginning. We also help SaaS entrepreneurs prototype and validate their concepts before building so that they create MVPs with a real market need. Plus, we manage top talent from Latin America so you build a product your customers will love, at a cash flow friendly development cost.
Everyone on our team is super passionate and loves what they do. We stay current not only with the best technologies and frameworks but also the product management decision-making processes that our entrepreneur clients need to win.
BRING YOUR SAAS IDEA AND INDUSTRY EXPERTISE, WE’VE GOT DEVELOPMENT COVERED
Your product manager is your point of contact to your DevSquad. They’re there to guide developers and communicate with you.
Our vetted developers have 4+ years experience and each one works on our internal projects before they touch client products.
We don’t cut corners. We work with top Latin American talent, cut unnecessary features and use the best tools and frameworks.
We’re very confident in our work building SaaS prototypes and applications. You pay month-to-month and can cancel at any time.
Laravel makes it easy for developers to write lightweight, readable code, plus it has tons of ready-to-go modules that reduce the cost of your project.
Vue.js is the top JavaScript framework for web applications. Vue.js is simple to write and maintain for skilled JavaScript and HTML developers.
Node.js makes JavaScript quicker, in order to eliminate wait times between requests. The result is a faster, smoother experience for your end user. You also get the ability to use JavaScript as a unified programming language for the server side and client side of your application.
Powerful for both web applications and mobile applications, React helps us create intuitive and simple user interfaces at a much faster speed than other UX options.
Developed primarily by the Angular Team at Google, Angular is the platform that allows Google’s largest applications to scale across the globe to millions of users. It’s an important framework for fast-growth SaaS products.
Electron is a framework for creating native desktop applications using languages designed for websites, primarily HTML, CSS and JavaScript. By enabling developers to use these widely known languages to build web apps, Electron allows developers to save time and write code that works across multiple operating systems (iOS, Windows, and Linux).
When looking for a partner to help you build your SaaS, it’s easy to just consider the technical part. As long as the developers have the experience in the language or framework you want to build with, that’s enough right? Wrong.
Here are the really important elements to look for when vetting any SaaS development partner.
Too often, you’ll meet with a traditional software development company only to find that while they understand software, they don’t get SaaS.
As a SaaS entrepreneur, you need to build a lightweight MVP that will get you to market quickly. What you don’t need is a big, clunky platform that costs you $1 million to build and that has features your customers don’t even want.
The partner you choose should be willing to find ways to work with your budget. Of course, software development is expensive, but there are always ways to make it more affordable.
For example, DevSquad offers the following to help keep in your budget:
» Using frameworks that make development faster (and thereby more affordable)
» Reducing features down to the most necessary for the initial launch
» Differing levels of seniority of developers
Do you have experience in SaaS development? Do you know how to keep developers progressing through the backlog, collaborating together, testing for bugs, and synching user experience UX with backend calls?
Truthfully, managing a SaaS build is a full time job. Too often, entrepreneurs and executives attempt to do this themselves and then end up wasting resources.
Instead, look for a company that offers all the skills required to launch a SaaS product:
» Product managers
» Software engineers
» User experience UX designers
» QA testers
» DevOps engineers
Does the company offer services that will help you validate your SaaS idea? If not, they’re probably just another SaaS development service that is happy to take your money.
The company you choose should bake validation into the process. For example, they might help with prototype creation and user testing.
Do you have experience in SaaS development? Do you know how to keep developers progressing through the backlog, collaborating together, testing for bugs, and synching UX with backend calls?
Truthfully, managing a SaaS build is a full time job. Too often, entrepreneurs and executives attempt to do this themselves and then end up wasting resources.
Instead, look for a company that offers all the skills required to launch a SaaS product:
» Product managers
» Software engineers
» UX designers
» QA testers
» DevOps engineers
Here’s a further look into DevSquad’s SaaS development process. We’ve strategized and built over 100 apps, including for profitable startups and large enterprises.
We start off with a 2-day workshop that is part of our 10-day Design Sprint. During this workshop, we create a Story Map of the problem your users face. Then we come up with multiple solutions to address these problems, and pick the most critical features together.
You get our decades of experience building and exiting SaaS products.
After the 2-day workshop, we work independently to create a low fidelity prototype. You can see a basic version of how your app will look and offer feedback.
Depending on your budget, we can run user testing and user validation, or you can present your app to target customers yourself. Either way, getting real feedback from users is invaluable towards saving money and building the right features from the start.
Next we create a high fidelity prototype that looks very similar to what the final version of your Sacs MVP will be. Before we get started building, you can offer any final feedback on this and show it again to your target customers.
With an approved prototype, we create the backlog required to build that app. This lets us estimate a very accurate quote for the cost amount and the timeline. Depending on the SaaS, we can build MVPs in 4 to 9 months, which is much shorter than most Seas developer.
Next, it’s time to build. We offer product management, UX design, engineering, QA, and DevOps under one roof. We’re a fully managed agile SaaS development team. This way, you can breathe easy. You’ll have access. your product manager whenever you need, but you won’t have to manage individual contributors.
We also help you prepare your Sass for launch. This means testing the sign up flows, user logins, upgrade flows, and payment processors. We can handle testing for you, or offer guidance on how to test it yourself.
When you’re building a new SaaS or mobile app, it’s very easy to make mistakes that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not only do these mistakes cost money, they also can keep you from going to market, driving revenue, and building a profitable business.
» Choose a development partner that will help you think smaller. Make sure that the company you work with encourages you to build a smaller MVP, not a bigger one. You can vet for this during sales conversations.
» Go through a prototyping process to validate your idea and your commitment to it. Do not skip the prototyping phase. Do not work with a company that doesn’t offer this. Otherwise, you run the risk of investing thousands of dollars into a complete unvalidated concept.
» Stay true to your MVP to keep your project on deadline and under budget. You’re also in charge of keeping your project under budget. To do so, don’t pivot unless it’s important. Stay grounded and stay focused on the vision for the SaaS MVP. Don’t add new features because you’re freaking out about launching a new product and want it to be a success. Be strategic.
Do you need SaaS development help for an existing business? Maybe you need extra engineers, or management for a new SaaS solution. You’re aiming for scalability, improved UX, and better market penetration.
» Consider whether you need full product ownership or only additional developers. DevSquad specializes in taking ownership of a new product, such as an API or a separate SaaS application. We don’t just give you additional developers because you’re behind on hiring. Make sure you pick a company that provides what you need, regardless of what that is.
» Determine the skills that the development company needs to provide. What skills do you need? Do you only need Laravel development, or product management and DevOps as well? This is connected to the item above, but it helps to also list out all of the technical skills so you make sure they are covered.
» Know what needs to be built by your company, and what can be outsourced or purchased. Not every feature needs to be built. For example, you can purchase Flatfile for a CSV importer or Mautic for certain white-labeled marketing automations. Do your market research to find out if there is a ready-made solution before assuming that the SaaS element needs to be built from scratch. At the same time, be strategic about what your company builds in house (your essential intellectual property) and what would be best served by outsourcing (an API for example).
When building a new SaaS app or implementing upgrades, you have options. You can hire in-house developers, outsource to freelancers, or outsource to a fully managed team.
In-house development can be worthwhile in the long term, but it’s hard to hire skilled developers and you do have to manage them. If you don’t know how to manage a team of software engineers, this option won’t be cost effective.
The same goes for freelance developers. You need to manage them. Unless you’re certain you have the time and skill to do this, it’s a non-option.
For SaaS startups and for executives looking for management of a separate SaaS product, working with a fully managed team is typically the wisest move. While you will pay for the product management services, this is ultimately cheaper than attempting and failing to do it on your own.
Steer clear of dev agencies that weigh you down with massive contracts and freelance marketplaces that have you putting out fires around the clock.
The project manager is responsible for day-to-day project management and SaaS development process. This person must be competent in managing different aspects of SaaS projects, such as finance, schedule, scope, quality, risk, and resources. Project managers should be among the first hires, as they craft specific SaaS product development projects with definite time limits, outcomes, and budget requirements.
Ideally they will have previous experience with SaaS models and may have experience with specialized tools, such as Azure SaaS development kit or project management software for SaaS projects. They should also know how to use ordinary tools in specific ways. For example, SaaS project managers should know how to use CRMs like HubSpot and communication tools like Slack for software development tasks such as agile sprints and code reviews.
Well-orchestrated SaaS development services bring enough project management expertise to the table to ensure you don’t need to make this a full-time, in-house position in many cases.
Business analysts use data analysis to improve SaaS development processes, services, products, and software. Bridging IT and the SaaS business interests, business analysts ideal have experience with SaaS collaboration tools to help improve efficiency and understand how to read the project manager’s roadmap.
Business analysts help at the initial planning stage of SaaS products by creating requirements and are also instrumental in optimizing, and capitalizing on user feedback so the development team can make meaningful improvements to user experience.
UX and UI design are both important pieces of the customer experience. A UX designer helps ensure there is a path leading to the product that is logical and flows well, and a UI designer sees that the path is communicated visually throughout the SaaS platform. Some designers work on both UI and UX, but either way, the UI/UX designer joins the team at the design stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
Backend development includes development on the server-side focused on databases, website architecture, scripting, and SaaS-based application architecture. Backend developers ensure that the tech stack is functional and help browsers, data warehouses, and cloud platforms communicate. They should also understand the pros and cons of single and multi-tenancy backend systems. Any SaaS developer should be able to handle multi-tenant systems and all of their complexity.
Consult the backend developer around the design of the backend and things such as the selection of a cloud service provider. The most popular offerings include the Microsoft, Google Cloud computing, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) platforms. The right cloud provider depends on the needs of the business and the features of the SaaS product.
A frontend developer connects the utility of backend technology to the appeal of the world of design in an interactive way for users. They convert the UI/UX design files into CSS, HTML, and Javascript code, core frontend development programming languages. Ideally, your frontend developer will have experience with various kinds of web apps including SaaS applications. You don’t want to teach a developer about SaaS web application architecture if possible, or have them learning on your app.
A quality assurance engineer prevents production defects and improves the overall software development process. They do this by documenting bugs, developing test plans, and identifying areas for improvement in the web app. Hire a QA engineer at the testing stage of SaaS development, even if you’re engaging in rapid development.
That concludes our look at the different roles of a SaaS development team structure and how you can set up a team to deliver the best SaaS platform you can.
EXPERTLY TRAINED, BATTLE-TESTED, ELITE SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS ON DEMAND
+1.801.656.0470
488 East Winchester St., Suite 450 Murray, Utah 84107