Let’s imagine you’ve made it this far: your FinTech idea is rock-solid, the market research is an all-night read and you’re on first names terms with the most wanted VCs. Having gone far and beyond in shaping your vision and giving your business a head start, it’s high time you covered all bases by exploring the why’s, what’s and how’s of product development. The five FAQs below should give you more insight into the intricacies of product development with the peppery flavour of our custom approach. With a pinch of Agile and a drop of Lean, it might be that acquired taste you’re looking for to give your product an edge.

Frequently asked questions about product development

FAQ #1: How do you estimate budget and project duration?

Try as you might, estimating cost and timeline of development resembles a contortionist act and the end result is often a forecast (or range) rather than a fixed number. Rest assured, we’ll never leave you hanging and keep you updated as soon as new data arrives. Experience in building FinTech applications helps us avoid missing the mark and offer reliable quoting solutions. Yet, we make it our mission to approach every project with a fresh perspective to nurture the game-changing aspect of your product.

Source: Mountain Goat Software

Great expectations

Looking at the modern FinTech ecosystem, it seems like embracing uncertainty to leave room for innovation is what sets apart unicorns from wannabes. On that note, Code & Pepper helps you address the MVP (Minimum Viable Product) challenge, while keeping priorities in check and resisting over-engineering. This way, show-stopping features are ready for field testing asap.

We optimise the solution based on direct user feedback rather than hopes and predictions.

Scoping to perfection

You better get ready to fine-tune that brainchild of yours… Once we prioritize functionalities, each element is analysed with surgical precision. Why? Simply put, certain technology choices might be irreversible (or ridiculously expensive to redo).

Please, bear in mind that your role during product discovery is vital: we will spare no face time to keep all team members on the same page. Before giving you even the roughest quote, we make sure the scope is described in enough detail. To that end, we opt for a collective scoping workshop (in-office or online) to generate a comprehensive picture of your target market and competition. Estimation takes into account all effort necessary to build, test and adapt the product to the specific market and budget circumstances.

FAQ #2: What’s your development process and product strategy?

Another scenario (often discussed in parallel with estimation) is dividing product development into stages. For instance, depending on your particular needs and business development strategy, we can deal with design and development separately. Similarly, many queries from both startups and scale-ups involve: independent UX design / UI design, refactoring or developing a particular system extension (or microservice). Task segmentation might not only prove time and cost-effective but also optimize resource allocation & unlock attractive billing options.

From the ground up

Such terms as ‘Agile’, ‘Scrum’ and ‘Kanban’ are not just catchy keywords but clear-cut methodologies helping us achieve standardized workflows. Our teamwork strategy aims to motivate and inspire through effective and dynamic interactions. Mind you, we are far from being dogmatic in this respect: project management methodology is always adjusted to the scope and goal of the project. A full-fledged Scrum might impress you with its events and artifacts, but would be an overkill if applied to a limited-scope MVP.

There’s a fine line between adaptation and falling prey to industry trends: we make sure not to cross it.

FAQ #3: What’s the team structure and culture?

Being one of our core values, transparency forms an all-encompassing objective with far-reaching consequences. Open communication via selected tools (e.g. Slack and Jira), collective online databases and a dynamic list of requirements provide quick access to information. Moreover, all team members are encouraged to contribute their knowledge, feedback and skills during regular meetups.


LearnedLovedLacked
Project Managerdesign specs before implementation: a mustprogress in defining scopetesting scenarios
Senior DeveloperPostman app servicefinal product solutionsupport from DevOps
UX/UI Designerbigger release = bigger issuesfunctional scopestable release
QAbackend testingfeedback from the clienttime for accurate testing
Sample “3L chart” filled in by all team members after each retrospective.

Decisions, decisions…

Flexibility and transparency can never be achieved at the expense of ownership. Therefore, although teams might be scaled up and down to fit the purpose of each project stage, chaos is not welcome. A project-based Delivery Plan provides a clear direction in terms of work to be completed and individual engagement. Quick and continuous decision making is fundamental for the CI/CD (Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment) process, enabling automation of crucial activities:

  • tests
  • code verification
  • security audits

Small decisions as part of rapid cycles guarantee an early access to the results: so your product is literally being built right before your eyes!

FAQ #4: What about the outcomes and post-launch policy?

Product development doesn’t end with the product itself. Whatever handover policy you choose, we’ll give you real options:

  • Do you need to integrate with the existing system or a third-party provider? We’ve got your back. Integration and deployment to the preferred environment (server, cloud etc.) is accompanied by technical documentation.
  • Every contract includes a warranty period to cover critical post-launch fixes & adjustments.
  • If you like the experience, we’ll be happy to stay on board for maintenance.

FAQ #5: What’s my (client) involvement?

It is for us to know and for you to find out that very little happens without your input. Since our role is to guide you through the nitty-gritties of product development, we in turn rely on your vision of the final destination.

This takes us to the notion of ‘three amigos’. In the Agile universe, they refer to three fundamental perspectives:

  • Business (identifying the problem the product is solving)
  • Development (building the solution to that problem)
  • Testing (defining acceptance criteria)

Hold that thought: we make it our mission to never lose sight of those three overlapping domains. From collaborative scoping, through dynamic feedback and tracking progress, up to the finishing touches of integrations and testing: we are in it together!