SambaSafety
Getting Crafty with SambaSafety
Crafted had the privilege of engaging with SambaSafety to help build out its enterprise software solution. SambaSafety is an industry leader in driver risk management. Their B2B solution helps companies better manage and assess the risk of their driving fleet through the monitoring of driving records and algorithmic insights derived from those reports.
Crafted began the partnership under the premise that the SambaSafety team was being challenged to add an entirely new initiative on top of existing roadmap priorities. This demand emerged from a scenario that is all too familiar to us all, the need for a bonus sales-driving feature to hit aggressive company metrics. Not only was this project deemed high stakes due to the pressure to deliver something to help the company achieve its goals, but also we had limited time and resources to accomplish this goal as it was being worked simultaneously to existing priorities.
Ultimately, this is a scenario that is not uncommon and once this cycle begins, it becomes nearly impossible for teams to break out of these reactive roadmaps. Product development teams must work twice as hard to establish the trust of other departments in order to regain control of their priorities and roadmap. While working to deliver the newest addition to their software platform, our team also focused on helping the product development team regain autonomy over their roadmap. Crafted’s engagement strategy focused on three main areas to help them do so:
Establish best practices with a balanced team
Initiate consistent stakeholder alignment and collaboration sessions
Deliver lean, iterative, and incremental progress towards the larger goal
By using these three strategies, we were able to help the SambaSafety team hit their delivery deadline as well as build trust and confidence with other teams.
Establish Best Practices within a Balanced Team
THE COMPOSITION AND ROLES OF A BALANCED TEAMThe first big change that we initiated was establishing a balanced team with a product manager, designer, and a couple of engineers right from the kickoff. The SambaSafety team was in the process of hiring their first designer as they were aware they were missing this crucial perspective. While building software, the designer represents the user’s wants and needs and ensures that the product is desirable. By adding in this third discipline we increased the overall efficiency of their output. We were able to decrease risk and shorten feedback loops by iterating and testing on low to medium fidelity designs early with input from the entire team. By doing this, we reduced product risk by validating assumptions prior to development. Additionally, by demonstrating visual progress to key stakeholders early and often, we ensured that the product would also meet their needs and expectations.
“Crafted showed us the value of the Balanced Team. I had not worked with a UX Designer prior to the Crafted engagement. The designer brought a much-needed perspective to the team. She was always focused on the user, workflows, and validating our assumptions.”
THE EVOLUTION OF DESIGN ITERATIONS FROM COLLABORATIVE DESIGN STUDIO TO MVPInitiate Consistent Stakeholder Alignment and Collaboration Sessions
“Partnering with Crafted helped us refresh the way we communicate to internal stakeholders, increase transparency and clearly report our progress toward goals, putting more control in the product management team’s hands.”
From the initial kickoff session, we made it a priority to include key stakeholders and product advocates in early collaboration sessions. Our strategy was to create allies in various departments across the company. Our transparency built empathy and trust across the company rather than questions and skepticism. Many times, product development teams disappear while they are building the product and build distress among stakeholders and supporting teams. We wanted to ensure that the teams who would be using, selling, and marketing the product felt that their opinions were heard and were confident in the work we were doing. This also ensured that these allies would evangelize the product to their teams prior to launch. To execute on this strategy, we invited key representatives and stakeholders to various collaborative sessions such as design studios, interview syntheses, and prioritizations. Additionally, one of our largest triumphs was to use these key stakeholders as testers in user testing. They were able to give their opinions on the product in a trusted way and we were able to demonstrate iterative progress in each round of testing. We garnered buy-in for both the product and the process by demonstrating how their feedback was incorporated into each iteration of the product.
Deliver Lean, Iterative, and Incremental Progress Towards the Larger Goal
“Throughout the Crafted engagement we heard from multiple internal stakeholders that they felt like a part of the development process and that we were on the same page.”
Finally, the main way that we helped the product development team improve transparency with adjacent teams was to help them consistently deliver lean and incremental slices of valuable product. For these stakeholders, we outlined the vision and the scope early and we consistently reinforced this vision so that they knew what we were building towards. With that vision in mind, we then began to ship lean, iterative, usable slices of product that they could begin to sell towards. This strategy increased confidence that we were on track to deliver the product on time and also allowed supporting teams such as product marketing to prepare their materials far earlier than they were used to. Bringing supporting teams along throughout the entire process further built the trust between teams that is essential for product development teams to succeed. By delivering iteratively, they are able to give these teams a usable product much earlier than the “deadline” and build the confidence that the team can deliver products on time.
“We added a new project on top of existing roadmap commitments, Crafted helped us quickly ramp up a balanced team to define the problem, frame the solution and execute on the concept in weeks instead of months.”
Overall, by imploring these three strategies with SambaSafety we improved the trust and confidence of supporting teams and stakeholders while also delivering the bonus feature which allowed the company to hit their sales targets. Working cohesively as a balanced team strengthened the output of the individual disciplines as well as increased the collaboration and communication across the team. This improved cohesiveness, allowed the team to quickly and efficiently move through our product development process while transparently including the rest of the company so that they were confident in the product and prepared for the launch. Using the strategies further helped the product development teams continue to build their roadmaps and get ahead of the needs of the sales teams so that they continue to stay ahead of market competition.
“Working with the team at Crafted gave us a leg up through the definition and execution of some of our new and innovative products. Utilizing the Crafted team helped to flesh out the opportunity in the market place and bring alignment across all of our internal teams.”
