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The day we calculated we had 40 days left earlier than chapter, I spotted we weren’t simply combating gross sales — we had a elementary course of downside that was undermining the whole lot we would constructed.
It was 2014, and our customized software program improvement firm had been working for seven years. We had gifted builders, we delivered high quality code and our purchasers had been typically happy with our technical work. But we remained what I might name a “storage firm” — unable to interrupt by way of to sustainable development regardless of our technical capabilities.
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The technical excellence entice
Like many software program corporations based by builders, we would fallen into a typical entice: believing that technical excellence would naturally translate to enterprise success.
We might spent years perfecting our coding practices, studying new frameworks and delivering strong software program options. Our assumption was that good work would communicate for itself. What we hadn’t realized on the time was that our inner processes had been creating friction that technical talent alone could not overcome.
Key warning indicators we regularly ignored:
- Shopper relationships beginning effectively however turning into tense throughout undertaking development
- Working in reactive mode relatively than a proactive communication
- Working laborious however not getting referrals
- Problem predicting timelines regardless of technical competence
Figuring out course of gaps
We began inspecting our processes systematically and found that one in every of our large blind spots on the time was consumer communication throughout improvement. We had been glorious at understanding technical necessities and delivering options, however we hadn’t developed efficient methods to align with purchasers about progress, setbacks or adjustments.
This created a sample the place purchasers felt disconnected from their very own initiatives, and sometimes had fallacious expectations. In accordance with Mission.co’s 2025 survey, 68% of individuals have stopped coping with an organization and moved to a competitor as a consequence of poor enterprise communication expertise, but we had been optimizing purely for technical outcomes.
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The partnership administration answer
Somewhat than implementing normal undertaking administration methodology instantly, we targeted on what we referred to as “partnership administration” — actively managing consumer relationships alongside technical supply.
Our partnership administration technique included assigning devoted relationship managers to every undertaking, implementing proactive communication relatively than reactive updates, translating technical realities into enterprise language and vice versa, specializing in alignment relatively than simply reporting standing and creating templates for widespread situations comparable to scope adjustments, delays and onboarding.
The impression exceeded our expectations. Shoppers started expressing better confidence in our work, even when initiatives encountered technical difficulties.
Making a construction that works
As communication processes improved, we addressed different operational areas that wanted construction. We adopted Scrum methodology however tailored it to incorporate common consumer involvement relatively than treating it as an internal-only framework.
Key areas we improved included standardizing how we onboard new purchasers, creating constant undertaking kickoffs and milestone opinions, organising clear processes for dealing with scope adjustments and technical points, including common undertaking opinions that included consumer suggestions and monitoring each undertaking supply and the general well being of consumer relationships.
These adjustments helped make sure that each engagement began with a transparent framework and continued with structured checkpoints to maintain initiatives on observe.
We additionally started measuring a broader vary of metrics, together with consumer satisfaction, communication frequency and relationship well being. We had been capable of higher perceive how purchasers skilled our work, establish potential points earlier and strengthen the belief and transparency which are important to long-term partnerships.
Overcoming challenges
The transition wasn’t with out difficulties. Some crew members initially resisted extra construction, viewing it as forms.
The important thing was displaying how the brand new processes truly made their work simpler relatively than tougher. We saved programs versatile whereas sustaining consistency, and after we noticed early enhancements, we made certain to acknowledge them. Coaching everybody on the brand new communication and undertaking administration approaches took a while, however folks regularly noticed the advantages.
What I discovered attention-grabbing was how course of enhancements affected our inner tradition. Having clearer programs decreased day-to-day confusion and freed up psychological house for extra artistic and strategic considering.
Measuring success
The adjustments did not occur in a single day, however we began seeing significant progress that gathered over time. Shopper satisfaction improved dramatically, our undertaking timelines grew to become rather more dependable, and referral enterprise grew considerably. Our crew appeared genuinely happier and extra engaged, too.
What began as operational fixes regularly reworked how we labored. By 2018, we would advanced from a struggling storage firm into a corporation that caught the eye of potential acquirers. Our technical expertise had been nonetheless essential, but it surely was the strong operational basis — mixed with different strategic enhancements we would made — that basically made us engaging to potential companions.
Ideas for rising software program corporations
Our expertise means that course of innovation might be as vital as technical innovation, notably throughout development phases.
Listed below are some beginning factors for related circumstances:
- Audit consumer expertise from their perspective, not simply technical supply
- Establish communication gaps in your present undertaking workflows
- Implement common check-ins and reporting programs to maintain everybody aligned on progress
- Assign relationship administration obligations
- Measure consumer satisfaction alongside technical metrics
- Create templates for widespread situations to make sure consistency
Essentially the most precious lesson could also be that constructing sustainable enterprise processes is itself a technical downside price fixing systematically — it simply requires completely different instruments and approaches than writing software program.
