Blackthorn Vision

I had the pleasure to work with a small team at Blackthorn Vision who assisted my company in the development of the first prototype of the project.

Delivering the first MVP/Prototype of a project I believe is a very difficult task. The team that Blackthorn Vision assembled was able to guide me to deliver the first few iterations of the prototype and have me focus on the key features necessary to then DEMO the prototype to identified prospects.

Along with UI/UX designers, the vision was well transferred to a working version.
I would recommend anytime the team for Prototype and MVP development.

I am a developer. I have created custom business information system for decades. I have been developing for my client in San Francisco for 15 years, and when we needed help in maintaining and developing new features for my desktop apps, Blackthorn Vision responded to my posting, and I began to work with Olek, one of their developers.

At first, we did pair programming, and I did code reviews of Olek's work. Gradually, I began to hand off small tasks for Olek to do on his own. As I became more comfortable with Olek's talent and skills and reliability, I gave him credentials to access and update the source code.

I was extremely impressed with Olek's ability to quickly understand the requirements of the new features and translate them into working code. He improved the app by refactoring the database access using a web service to replace the DAO client's direct access to the SQL database. I appreciate how he improved my old code with modern coding techniques. I remember he took a C#7 book with him on vacation to the Greek Isles!

When I began development of these WinForm apps in 2005, I chose to use VB.NET because the app would be using Visual Studio Tools for Office. Olek had never programmed in VB, but he picked it up quickly, and was productive almost immediately. I also appreciate that Olek and I share a preference to use as much of the Microsoft stack of technologies as possible.

It was a pleasure to work with someone so competent and friendly. We communicated in English, and his English language skill are excellent. I remember one time sharing a desktop and trying to solve a problem and opening a web browser to find a solution, and I could see that he was reading the page in English faster than me.

Olek often shared with me how he was taking time to go to Blackthorn Vision company retreats, where everyone in the company would gather to play games and bond and remember company values and priorities. I believe Olek might be representative of a company that is capable and delivers value to their clients.