Our client We Don’t Have Time is a tech startup and a green social media company based in Stockholm, Sweden. We Don’t Have Time is a provider of a social media network aimed at raising awareness about environmental issues. It is designed for people who understand the impacts of human-caused climate change and believe in sustainability. The company provides a platform for interpreting, communicating, and sharing ideas about environmental problems within a strong community of climate change advocates.
Shaping the environmental future begins with the analysis and discussion of the current situation and the underlying causes. At this point, the debate is welcomed and encouraged. But for these ideas to form and become a part of the more common beliefs in society, they need a platform where a community could carry them forward. Social media can be a perfect format for this conversation. Thus, the founders and backers of We Don't Have Time have decided it was time to stop being passive and start taking action.
Our cooperation with We Don’t Have Time began after Vilmate was recommended to them by one of our previous clients. They had a vision of a dedicated social network that would play a crucial role in shaping the future without the unpleasant climate change effects. As a new startup, We Don’t Have Time received a tech investment and started to plan on developing software for the project from scratch. Vilmate became the company of choice whose reputation by then was well-established and made us a qualified candidate for the development, implementation, and deployment of the WeDontHaveTime social network platform. Our skill set and track record aligned well with the proposed requirements and so we began working together to define the right business model for the project and build the platform in accordance with it.
Vilmate’s cooperation with the client started in August 2019. From the outset, it has relied on our standard outstaffing model. This method of hiring remote tech talent provided the client with more control over the product development process, tracking, and reporting. It has also increased the flexibility to recruit remote professionals and developers as needed. In the early stages of our partnering, the Vilmate team managed by our Head of Development and in collaboration with the client were deeply involved in product design that was subject to constant iterative refinement. The project team was constantly growing as it was reviewing ideas and testing solutions. Finally, We Don't Have Time and our team were able to reach a consensus on the product specification so that it was aligned with the operational business strategy and all requirements were defined accordingly.
The project team composition was steadily growing throughout the product development phase, so now it includes 1 React Native developer, 2 Python back-end developers, 1 React.js front-end developer, 1 QA engineer, and a DevOps Lead. Together they worked on creating a mobile application for Android and iOS and a web application.
All the steps of the software development process involved the ongoing rethinking of how to build applications that were not only cross-platform, but also were well-designed, versatile, and properly organized. On top of that, our team decided to focus on finding the right technologies for our client’s product, which resulted in the following program optimizations:
A microservice architecture: an application that had been at first developed as a monolith was then decomposed and migrated to a variety of microservices, each of which independently handled one specific type of business functionality.
React Native: once it was resolved that the We Don't Have Time mobile application will be cross-platform, we settled on developing it using Cordova. But later on, we moved it to React Native due to the numerous benefits of the latter over Cordova for the project particularly.
Asynchrony: we started with writing a traditional synchronous program in Python for the web app back-end. However, the team rewrote the system afterward so that it was asynchronous and we could leverage all the powerful tools available to the benefit of our client.
That said, we have achieved a whole new level of user experience and productivity as a result of bringing these new tools to our client.
React Native for mobile development
React.js for front-end development
Python for back-end development
API Gateway for building microservices
The Elasticsearch, Fluentd, and Kibana (EFK) logging stack
RancherOS for running Docker containers
Drone CI for automated software testing and delivery
The aiohttp library on top of asyncio
MongoDB, Redis, and PostgreSQL
Fastline
Docker
Flask
Vilmate’s cooperation with the client was successful. We supported them throughout the product design and development process, which resulted in a quality social network platform for climate action that became instrumental in building a mass movement. Our involvement in the project has allowed the client to create mobile and web applications from the ground up. The mobile app for iOS and Android was launched on Earth Day 2019 and is currently free to download and use. The web app is available in the beta version and is being refined for the final release.