FAQ

Fishtail Product Lab is a boutique software development business that has been creating mobile apps & web apps since early 2023. We're a collective of global product experts and tech talents. We offer tailor-made and cost-effective solutions from scratch for clients who want to kickstart their app business. Most recently, we have successfully cooperated with startups and private clients for the development of end consumer apps for Healthcare, Food and Fitness in Germany. 

Our approach is centered around prioritizing flexibility, delivering outstanding customer service, and unwavering dedication to providing user value. We are deeply committed to understanding the struggles and needs of your users. With a dedicated team, rigorous quality assurance from the outset, and innovative problem-solving, we strive to enhance our client's business model and strategy through our products.

Our headquarters is situated in Munich, Germany, while our talented designers and developers are based in Kathmandu, Nepal. Together with our partner companies, we have assembled a diverse team of around 35 professionals, spanning from seasoned experts to promising juniors. We prioritize cultivating a rewarding work environment, fostering a culture of motivation and growth. Our goal is to nurture each team member's skills and expertise over time, ensuring their long-term commitment to delivering excellence for your projects.

Fishtail Product Lab’s team works hard to hire only the top tech talents: best graduates from specialized universities and experienced developers from top companies. Moreover, many of our team members had successfully undertaken internships at our partner companies or at Fishtail Product Lab to become full-fledged team participants.

Our collaborative approach involves partnering with companies for specific project needs. Our Fishtail Product Lab headquarters in Munich manage the core business and fully own the product discovery part of each project. Design, development, and delivery tasks are delegated within our network of trusted partner companies who only work with in-house professionals. It's important to note that the professionals within these partner companies work closely with us and are considered part of our in-house team, ensuring seamless coordination and high-quality outcomes.

Our average developers’ level of English in the company is at least intermediate. Anyway, you will have a Project Manager as a single contact person who will lead communication with you. These specialists are fluent in German & English.

At our core, we specialize in two key areas of software development:

1. Web Development: We craft user-centric web applications tailored to your specific needs.
2. Mobile Application Development: We excel in building cross-platform mobile applications that deliver exceptional user experiences across all devices.

Most importantly, our expertise extends beyond mere coding. We focus on bringing new app ideas to life from inception to delivery. Our comprehensive services cover product discovery, UI/UX design, development, and deployment.

Since our focus is on product discovery and developing initial product versions rather than ongoing operations, Fishtail Product Lab itself currently does not provide system admin services. However, we are happy to refer you to one of our partner companies to ensure your project's smooth operation. Of course, we are also more than willing to collaborate with a system admin provider of your choice.

Yes, Fishtail Product Lab specializes in building custom applications from the ground up. Whether you need a cross-platform mobile app for Android and iOS, or a web application tailored to your needs, we've got you covered. Our experienced team, led by dedicated project leads, will guide you through every step of the development process, from shaping your initial idea to launching the first product version and continuously enhancing it over time.

Yes, we're here to assist you. Our team of product leads, designers, and developers are adept at quickly grasping your needs and possess a diverse set of professional skills. Here are the services we offer to enhance your app:

• Development of new features
• Creation of a new version of your app for a different platform
• App redesign
• Modernization of software developed using outdated technologies
• Project recovery (helping you revive and complete abandoned projects)

Fishtail Product Lab specializes in guiding brand-new app concepts from idea to launch. With our end-to-end services encompassing product discovery, UI/UX design, development, and delivery of mobile and web apps, we ensure a seamless journey for startups aiming to bring their first product to market. As product entrepreneurs ourselves, we bring firsthand experience and insights to every project, providing honest advice and guidance throughout the development process.

Working with Fishtail Product Lab comes with several advantages:

• Transparent budget pricing for new app businesses: We understand the importance of managing costs while launching your app business, which is why we optimize the project budget to fit the needs of aspiring app entrepreneurs.. Our pricing is calculated with transparency, flexibility, and always remains reasonable. Plus, our customer leads are available to provide a free rough estimation of your project, helping you kickstart your app journey with confidence.
• Focus on greenfield apps: Fishtail Product Lab specializes in guiding brand-new app concepts from idea to launch. With our end-to-end services encompassing product discovery, UI/UX design, development, and delivery of mobile and web apps, we ensure a seamless journey for startups aiming to bring their first product to market.
• Experienced product entrepreneurs: Our team has firsthand experience in building and launching our own products end-to-end. We know the pains and pitfalls of the process and provide honest advice, making decisions, finding solutions, and guiding you every step of the way.
• Full-service coverage: We offer comprehensive development services, including the Discovery phase, UI/UX Design, QA, and DevOps, ensuring a seamless and efficient development process.
• Personal, customer-centric approach: We prioritize excellent customer service, truly living it by being there for you personally in person, calls, whenever you need us.
• Flexibility ingrained into our culture: With an international team from diverse backgrounds, flexibility is inherent in our approach. We adapt to your needs and preferences, offering flexible solutions to ensure your project's success.

Our partner companies have successfully launched products in e-commerce, fintech, and education, while Fishtail Product Lab has recently focused on industries such as healthcare, fitness and food. We have a clear emphasis on developing B2C end consumer apps within these sectors, ensuring that our solutions directly cater to the needs and preferences of individual users.

Our software engineers are constantly improving their professional level and expanding their technology stack and development tools. At the moment, they most often use (including but not limited to):

Frontend

• React JS
• Next JS

Cross-platform mobile development

• Flutter 
• React Native

Backend

• Node JS
• Java
• Spring
• Scala 
• TypeScript

Database, Deployment & Infrastructure, CICD

• MySQL
• Docker 
• AWS
• Firebase
• Github Actions

APIs

• DeepL
• Pubnub

These technologies enable us to deliver modern, scalable, and secure solutions tailored to our clients' needs.

Feel free to share your project idea and contact details with us, and our product lead will reach out to you to schedule a meeting to learn details about your project idea. We'll provide a personalized offer and quote to kickstart our collaboration swiftly. We also offer NDAs before you share your idea with us.

After our initial conversations, you'll receive:

• Expert vision of the future product's functionality
• Clearly defined project scope, timeline, and deliverables
• An individualized quote with a rough cost estimation (approximately 80% accurate, depending on scope changes during discovery)

If you come to us with robust discovery insights and concrete evidence about your users' needs, we may consider skipping the discovery phase. However, it's essential to note that we might challenge your discovery insights before proceeding to ensure alignment with our strong product mindset. At Fishtail Product Lab, user value is paramount, and our product leads, designers, and developers are committed to working on projects that have a trusted standard of discovery insights.

If you come to us with a UI/UX design that has proven its usability and feasibility within the constraints of budget and time, we may skip the design phase or make only minor adjustments to ensure it aligns with our product mindset and developer's standards. However, we'll thoroughly review the design to ensure it meets our quality and usability standards before proceeding with development.

We primarily follow a Scrum-inspired methodology with one-week iterations (sprints). Each sprint involves planning meetings at the start and concludes with reviewing the delivered product features. However, we prioritize flexibility and common sense over rigid adherence to frameworks. As a tightly knit team of hands-on professionals, we do not have a dedicated Scrum Master but instead collaborate closely to ensure effective project management.

Absolutely, maintaining continuity with the same team members throughout the project is our goal. However, we also acknowledge the human factor, especially considering circumstances like COVID-19 or potential team member illness. In such cases, we strive to minimize disruptions by seamlessly replacing team members. This can be easier with a higher budget as it allows for redundancies in staffing.

With a higher budget, you can expect full-time dedication from crucial team members. While our developers can be dedicated to your project as much as possible, other roles like product leads, designers, and QA testers may also be involved in other projects concurrently.

No, you won't have to manage the engineers. Our project managers, in collaboration with our product owners, will handle that responsibility.

We typically communicate with clients through one dedicated contact person, our product lead, who represents our entire team. This ensures that you have a single point of contact who is well-informed about the overall project progress and product development. You can reach your contact personally via calls, emails, or WhatsApp for seamless communication. Additionally, we may occasionally involve domain experts from our team to present their work or address specific questions. 

Fishtail Product Lab ensures the quality of engineering for your project through a combination of highly skilled developers, expert project management and product management, and dedicated QA testing. Our team, comprising graduates from top universities, is managed by experienced Project and Product Managers who monitor progress closely. Additionally, our dedicated QA team conducts thorough manual and automated testing, ensuring the system's performance and addressing post-release bugs promptly.

We offer 90 days of complimentary bugfixing post-launch. For new features or projects, we'll provide estimates and strive to offer competitive rates. 

Since our focus is on product discovery and developing initial product versions rather than ongoing operations, Fishtail Product Lab itself currently does not provide system admin services. However, we are happy to refer you to one of our partner companies to ensure your project's smooth operation. Of course, we are also more than willing to collaborate with a system admin provider of your choice. This will cause cost not handled by Fishtail Product Lab.

Since our focus is on product discovery and developing initial product versions rather than ongoing operations, Fishtail Product Lab itself currently does not provide system admin services. However, we are happy to refer you to one of our partner companies to ensure your project's smooth operation. Of course, we are also more than willing to collaborate with a system admin provider of your choice.

Once your project concludes, we ensure a smooth handover process. You'll receive:

• Source code and guidance on updating technical access keys and database credentials for full ownership and access to the code, data, and infrastructure.
• Guidance on removing or downgrading our user accounts from relevant platforms like AWS, Github, iOS & PlayStore developer console.

Additionally, we're here for any future needs you may have. Whether you're looking to scale your project, develop additional features, or anything else, we're always available to assist.

Certainly. As our client, you own all legal rights to the technology developed by our teams at Fishtail Product Lab. This includes any exclusive proprietary code and designs implemented in your delivered project, as explicitly stated in the contract.

We prioritize your project's confidentiality through strict NDAs with you and our partner companies. We're ready to sign an NDA with you even before our first conversation. Access to data and infrastructure is carefully controlled, with team members only having access to necessary details for their tasks.

Usually, after the proposal presentation, we need a week to sign a contract and allocate product leads to start the discovery phase. During this stage, we will assign our design & engineering team. We will start the design and development phase with you right after the discovery without delay. 

After thoroughly understanding your requirements in the initial phase, our team leads and developers prepare a comprehensive project estimation, considering factors such as budget, scope, timeline, and team composition. While our proposal includes all necessary information, timelines and budget are typically finalized to around 80%. Any adjustments may occur following the Discovery phase, where we gain a clearer understanding of the scope and work closely with your project.

The total project cost is determined by the efforts required in product discovery, UI/UX design, and development, factoring in project complexity, duration, and technology use. 

• Version One: 40-65K euros. Typically, this is ideal for getting started with your app idea. With this, we will create a first complete product with up to 4-5 key features. It can also include an admin panel web app along with your mobile app. 
• Upgrade: Individual offer. Typically, this is ideal for taking your product to the next level after the initial launch. With this, we will create a maturing product with up to 6-9 key features as our user insights evolve.

We accept bank transfers.

Unfortunately, we're unable to offer equity partnerships at this time.