An answer as a goal. JustAnswer in Ukraine

At the time, when a break is considered a defeat and any location is just a temporary point on google maps, it is vital to find answers worth relying on.

Current times and thunder of informational junk whirl our days mercilessly, only tossing greater doubts and questions which are becoming more and more difficult to answer.

But not for JustAnswer. American online platform creators felt people need not simple advice on the Internet, but specialists who can “take your hand” and guide you to a successful solution.

We discussed with the Director of International Management, Nadiya Semen, how one of the biggest product companies in Lviv (Ukraine) works.

How did it all start? Why is it this platform?

Everything began 15 years ago in the United States. An idea came to our founder Andy Kurtzig that there are certain services offline, which people need. So why not take them online?

His wife was pregnant and a couple had continuous questions to doctors, and they had to wait long for the answers.

“It is how the idea was born — to bring professionals to a single platform available 24 hours”.

For example, if you need to consult a lawyer, why should you go somewhere, spend time on your commute and money on parking, come at a fixed hour, stay in a waiting room and the most important is to pay $200 for services of a cool lawyer. Everything can be done online. Same with doctors.

How many people are using JustAnswer in the world?

There are about 400,000 visits a day.

These are striking numbers. What is a difference between your platform and search engines or from a know-it-all woman always having ready answers to all questions in the world?

These are answers prepared for individual inquiry. A specific question, for example, about your heart hurting lately, will be handled by a verified expert, who is certified and experienced, and you will be given a competent answer. The platform works like Uber, meaning an online marketplace (the third party between sellers and customers — ed.). All willing experts register, prove their professionalism and start helping people. In our turn, we do not limit them, they work conveniently for themselves. There are around 10,000 registered professionals of different categories and it allows providing consultations 24 hours a day. By the way, Google tried several times to launch a similar service, but it was no good.

Why did it fail?

Different reasons. JustAnswer is successful due to fifteen-year experience and development, which is based on lean-approach (an approach of process improvement by eliminating steps during which value is not generated or a thing customer is ready to pay for — editor). There was no situation when we worked on an idea for a year and, after launching it, we saw the outcome. We usually work very quickly, analyze the customers’ and market reaction, and based on these aspects we continue processes in that way and correct them. It is a significant component of success.

You`ve managed, it is obvious…

I am not sure if we managed 100 %, in the USA we are estimated only as a startup, however, we have worked for 15 years and our revenue per month is several million dollars. We have not filed for IPO yet (initial public offering — first public selling of private company shares –ed.), as for now it is one of the ambitions of our founder, so we are going to do this in a year or year and a half. But, for sure, we`ve managed a lot. We have grown and responded to the needs of the audience. The specificity of the marketplace is such that we are influenced by both user and his/her expectations, which rapidly change concerning Amazon, Google, eBay and other offers.

“Probably, success depends on building of cooperation and organization of teams in JustAnswer. This helps to respond flexibly to different changes”.

We use a classical iterative approach for development. Every week we make small releases; it is possible due to the well-established synchronization of all teams. We`ve got 19 delivery teams, each of which is responsible for a single functionality and has its product manager. We can flexibly change a certain part of products independently from others. There were no situations when we had worked on something for a very very long time, then we made a release in a year and realized that we were late.

Generally, which markets are you presented in?

We also work as a platform in Japan, Great Britain, Germany and Spain.

And the main market is in the USA?

Yes, around 75% of revenue is generated in the USA.

Ok, we understand that it is an American startup, but, in fact, all technical base is in Ukraine, right?

80% of production, namely engineering direction, is in Ukraine. There we have 170 people; the first developer started working in Ukraine 8 years ago. By the way, he is still working in our company. Today, the structure of the company has changed in Ukraine. Once we had partners who facilitated our work, now we are fully independent.

As I understand, startups and product companies are more “sexy” now, than pure outsource. How things with hiring are going today? Do people come from outsourcing and who are you looking for as your team member?

There is always a need for professionals since the company develops very dynamically. There are developers, QA, designers, business analytics, DevOps engineers in our multifunctional teams. And we all must understand what we are working for, what products we create. It is not a simple list of tasks to be fulfilled, and it is important to realize why we are going this, what certain changes on the website will do. Mutual understanding helps to expedite the process between releases and to move towards the goal. It has a lot of positive results: company develops, revenue grows.

Who do you need in your team now?

Today, we are looking for several software developers of different levels. Also, there is a great focus on automatization. We shift to continuous delivery, because we want to be able to roll out our software to production not monthly or weekly, but daily if needed. And this requires certain obligations. We have to test quickly, that is why we are more focused on automation testing. We are also looking for managers, as many teams grow, and analytics who would study test data on our production website.

So there are rather many vacancies, that is why one can contact you. How would you define the difference between work in outsource and product?

I worked both in outsourcing and product company.

“A product company is different, as everyone is concerned with a product. You feel you have an impact on the result, you realize it is your idea which can improve your company”.

And when your proposal was not very effective, you can redo it. There is a client in outsource, there are certain liabilities towards him/her, a client defines certain budgets and the process goes, and you do not see it. At the same time, a new project for you starts and you do not know what project you will do in a year.

So, do you feel you can really decide something in a big project?

Sure, you see a relation between your efforts and the product. You are autonomous, but the outcome prevails over budget limits. Of course, such things as deadlines are important for us, but if there is no sense to do something, we stop and re-perform.

What are your global plans? I know you’ve got a very good performance. But how do you want to grow?

Our goal is to file for an IPO. And public stock offering imposes additional obligations which you have to prepare for. These are an audit, change of some systems, and a company should be able to take responsibility for revenue and so on. These economical indexes are the goal of the company.

Good luck. Finally, why did you choose JustAnswer?

I’ve got bribed by the great social mission of the project. A feeling that you can be involved in real help for millions of people daily is cool. It was also interesting to work in product development and at the stage of teams’ creation in Ukraine.

Every minute we save a lot of time and money of our clients, providing professional and, what`s important, quick advice.

“And it happened that we saved lives.

Yes, JustAnswer is about people”.

Photo: Iryna Sereda