AgileEngine has been working with innovators and disruptors of early stage startups and Fortune 500 corporations. We make sure a new idea is turned into a well-functioning live product able to boost our client’s business and wow their users. Here’s how we turn ideas into products:
1. Idea
Together we brainstorm the idea and come up with a 1-page document providing high level description of the idea, MVP scope and goals for the next 1-2 years. Short and sweet, it provides context for all team members.
2. Napkin UX
Speed and feedback is everything when it comes to iteration. What’s the fastest way to sketch the UX and run it by the users? Hand sketches on a napkin, of course!
3. Clickable wireframes
After brainstorming napkin UX we create wireframe in UXPin and add simple events such as clicks to give a feel of the UI. Changes are still very easy to incorporate and online collaboration of UX allows everyone to chime in.
4. Design mockups
Once UX is finalized, we engage some of the best designers your money can buy to come up with a stunning design that will wow your users. Yes, we are perfectionists when it comes to design. We’ll ask you about sample designs you like and then offer 2-3 styles to choose from for further iteration until you absolutely love it!
5. Interactive protoypes
With UX and Design finalized, we’ll often implement a highly interactive prototype that looks and feels like the real web site or mobile app. It will still have the mockups but users would be able to type text into key fields and press buttons, moving around at will. With just a few day’s worth of work these prototypes can be made fully realistic to be used with investor pitching or user feedback solicitation.
7. Development Backlog and Planning
The right architecture is key because it is the foundation of the future software. We recommend the best technologies, frameworks and deployment options that allow for rapid MVP development, quick iterations on the vision, and scalability as the usage grows. We keep the tech lean but guarantee that no rewrites are needed and change is easy to incorporate.
8. Coding Iterations
That’s where the real fun starts! With UX, design and architecture defined, we roll up the sleeves and start coding. Agility is our DNA so you can expect weekly demos and continuous deployment so you get to see the software as it’s taking shape. And guess what? We love feedback and you are free to suggest changes. Our philosophy is to show the product to the users as it is being built, while the changes are still easy to incorporate.
9. Go Live!
This one’s easy. We subscribe to continuous deployment so you’ll always see the latest version. Our devops engineers automate deployment so pushing to prod is easy and reliable. Automated tests ensure that the backend and UI do not regress and usage metrics monitoring provide an additional safety net.
Conclusion
We adopt the best practices known to Man. We experiment with new ideas and keep the ones that provide true improvement. We love to provide thought leadership but you are always in the driver seat.
