AlphaLine
Do like the AlphaLine team and visit us in Ukraine
February 17, 2024
The collaboration between AlphaLine and EKTOS became even better after meeting the development team
”We have tried outsourcing of software development before, elsewhere, and it was terrible! We anyway decided to outsource this project to Ukraine, but the fear of something going wrong was there.” This is how the two Belgian entrepreneurs and founders of AlphaLine, Nancy and Quentin, expressed concerns that you might also have experienced, if you ever tried outsourcing. When Nancy and Quentin paid a visit to their engineers in Kharkiv, however, their concerns went away.
Does it really pay off, to pay a visit?
AlphaLine’s product is a portable, powerful, and beautiful docking station and power bank for laptops and phones. As real entrepreneurs Nancy and Quentin developed their product idea themselves and raised the money for it via a crowdfunding platform.
Because the product is cutting edge, new technologies enter the market while the engineers are in the process of designing it. In order to work efficiently in this mode, the engineering team and the client need to be flexible and possess the will and ability to adapt to changes as new circuits and technologies pop up. This requires very good communication and a high level of trust between the developers and the client. This was achieved after Nancy and Quentin met with their engineers in person.
”It changes a lot of things to meet the team in person,” Quentin said, ”The office is really professional and you can see that good work is being done here. When you are a start up, you have no money, but coming here early in the project would have been money very well spent.”
”When you are a start up, you have no money, but coming here early in the project would have been money very well spent.” Quentin, founder of AlphaLine
Sergii Shavshyn, project manager at EKTOS, also sees a real value in having gotten to know Nancy and Quentin in person, “We understand each other better now and we communicate very openly. For example, if I disagree with one of their suggestions, I tell it to them straight up without hesitation. I think they appreciate that.”
“We understand each other better now and we communicate very openly.” Sergii Shavshyn, project manager at EKTOS
That the engineering team has been good at recommending alternative solutions and showing Nancy and Quentin how different approaches would affect the project schedule and budget, is definitely something Nancy and Quentin appreciate. They conclude that such kind of discussion and advice is “outstanding and extremely valuable for a startup like AlphaLine.”
Shared excitement
The AlphaLine team has visited the engineers in Ukraine several times since their first trip in April. After a particularly intense weekend trip when the first prototypes were being finalized, we received an email from Quentin thanking the engineers for their effort, ”These two days have been quite stressful and intense but I really enjoyed it. Working with smart, funny and passionate people like you is a great source of motivation.” Sergii and the rest of the engineering team enjoy being a part of an interesting project, but Sergii adds, that it is even more interesting being close to the clients, because he can feel Nancy and Quentin’s excitement about their product.
While the team is working hard to get the first units ready for mass production the rest of us are cheering – like Nancy and Quentin, we are looking forward to seeing the product in the shops!
Gør ligesom AlphaLine – kom og besøg os i Ukraine
”Vi havde prøvet at outsource softwareudvikling før et andet sted, og det var en meget dårlig oplevelse! Alligevel besluttede vi os for at outsource dette projekt til Ukraine, men frygten for, at det skulle gå galt, var der stadig.” Sådan beskriver de to belgiske entreprenører Nancy og Quentin den slags bekymringer, som du måske også har haft, hvis du har prøvet at outsource et projekt. Da Nancy og Quentin lagde vejen forbi Kharkiv, blev der dog lagt låg på de tanker.
Betaler det sig virkeligt at investere i et besøg?
AlphaLines produkt er en kraftfuld, bærbar power bank til både telefoner og computere, som samtidig fungerer som en dockingstation – og så er den lækkert designet. Nancy og Quentin har udviklet konceptet fra bunden og samlet støtte til projektet via en crowdfunding-platform.
Fordi AlphaLines produkt er baseret på den nyeste teknologi sker det ofte, at nye muligheder bliver udviklet mens ingeniørerne arbejder på designet. For at kunne arbejde effektivt under sådanne forhold, er det nødvendigt at kunden og ingeniørerne er fleksible og har viljen og evnen til at tilpasse sig ændringerne som nye kredsløb og nye teknologier dukker op. Dette kræver god kommunikation og tillid mellem udviklerne og kunden, hvilket opstod i AlphaLine-projektet da Nancy og Quentin og deres udviklingshold mødte hinanden i Kharkiv.
”Det gør en stor forskel at møde holdet ansigt til ansigt,” sagde Quentin: ”Kontoret er virkeligt professionelt, og du kan se, at folk arbejder godt her. Som start-up har du ingen penge, men det ville alligevel have været en god investering for os, hvis vi var kommet her tidligt i projektet.”
”Som start-up har du ingen penge, men det ville alligevel have været en god investering for os, hvis vi var kommet her tidligt i projektet”, sagde Quentin, stifter af AlphaLine.
Sergii Shavshyn, projektleder hos EKTOS, ser også en reel værdi i at have mødt Nancy og Quentin personligt: ”Vi forstår hinanden bedre nu, og vi kommunikerer nu meget åbent. Hvis jeg for eksempel er uenig i deres forslag eller ideer, så siger jeg det til dem med det samme uden forbehold. Det tror jeg, de sætter pris på.”
”Vi forstår hinanden bedre nu, og vi kommunikerer nu meget åbent.” Sergii Shavshyn, projektleder hos EKTOS
Nancy og Quentin understreger, at holdet af ingeniører har været gode til at foreslå alternative løsninger og til at fremhæve, hvordan forskellige løsningsmodeller ville påvirke tidsplanen og budgettet. Den form for kommunikation og rådgivning, siger Quentin, er: ”fremragende og ekstremt værdifuldt for en start-up som AlphaLine.”
Fælles entusiasme
AlphaLine har besøgt deres ingeniører flere gange siden det første besøg i april. Efter et exceptionelt intenst weekend-besøg da de første prototyper skulle færdiggøres, modtog vi en e-mail fra Quentin, hvor han takkede holdet for deres indsats. Han skrev bl.a.:”De sidste to dage har været meget stressende og intense, men jeg nød det virkelig. At arbejde med intelligente, sjove og passionerede folk som jer, er en enorm motivationsfaktor.” Sergii og de andre ingeniører nyder at være en del af et interessant projekt, men Sergii tilføjer, at projektet bliver endnu mere spændende, fordi han kender kunden og kan føle deres entusiasme omkring produktet.
Mens holdet arbejder hårdt for at gøre de første enheder klar til masseproduktion, hepper vi andre – vi glæder os ligesom Nancy og Quentin til at se deres produkt på hylderne i butikkerne!
