Reading an app development company's portfolio properly

What case studies routinely omit

The most common omission is scope of involvement. A studio may have designed three screens of a product built entirely by someone else, and the case study will not say so. Ask directly: what did you do, what did others do, and over what period?

The second omission is outcome. Renders and adjectives, no numbers. Ask what changed for the business — conversion, retention, cost, cycle time — and whether the client will confirm it.

• Scope: design only, build only, or end to end?
• Duration and team size
• What the client's team did versus the agency
• The measurable outcome, and who can confirm it
• Whether the shipped product still matches the case study

The ten-minute verification

Open the App Store and Play listings for three portfolio items. Check the last update date, read the one- and two-star reviews, and look at whether the developer responds. Then install one on a mid-range Android device and use it on a poor connection.

This single exercise separates firms that ship and maintain from firms that produce launch-day screenshots. Nothing in a proposal is as informative.

Depth versus breadth

Twenty logos with no detail is a weaker signal than four products described in specifics. Look for at least one product in your regulatory or operational context, and at least one that has survived multiple years and OS migrations.

Also look for evidence they have inherited someone else's code and improved it. That is a different and harder skill from greenfield work, and you will probably need it eventually.

Questions that expose real involvement

Ask about a hard technical decision on that project and why they chose as they did. Ask what broke after launch and how they found out. Ask what they would build differently now. Anyone who was actually there answers immediately and in detail; anyone who was not gives you the case study again in different words.

• What was the hardest technical decision, and why did you choose that way?
• What broke after launch and how did you detect it?
• What would you do differently today?
• Who on your current team worked on it?
• May I speak to that client?

Our portfolio

WVE Labs is a digital product company founded in 2015. Product strategy, design and engineering sit under one roof, and mobile has been at the heart of the studio for more than a decade — it remains one of our deepest areas of expertise. We have delivered for startups, growth companies and established organisations including Sony, Honda, Guardian, Marriott, USC, Maui Jim and California State University. Engagements start at $25,000.

We are happy to walk through architecture decisions on any of it, including the ones we would make differently now — and to introduce you to the engineers who made them.