User Personas
In order to create a truly customer-centric product, we need to answer the critical question: who is your customer? We’ll use data to build a representation of your target group: buyer personas and understand your audience’s needs, behaviour and choices.
Design Thinking
During our product discovery workshop we’ll be utilizing different techniques (brainstorming, prototyping, testing and experimenting) to generate and evaluate different concepts. Our approach to shaping human-centered products is based on design thinking (and a lot of sticky notes).
Design thinking is a creative process, but it’s an insight-driven creativity: once we really understand the customer, we can come up with plenty of fresh ideas that are actually relevant to the audience.
Design Sprint
The design sprint, pioneered by Google Ventures, is a framework for answering business questions in five days. Rooted in design thinking principles, it is one of our favorite approaches to product ideation and evaluation.
Technical Consulting
Make use of consulting services, if your product idea is not yet at the “I want to build it” level. We’ll help you understand different technical possibilities and limitations. Pick our brains about eCommerce implementation, progressive web apps or back office systems.
product discovery & scoping
aligning your business goals with your audience’s needs
Whether you want to create a new digital product or expand an existing one, product discovery is vital to your project’s success. During this stage we make sure that we’re about to build something valuable to the target audience.
The discovery phase is all about empathy: we’re trying to see the product through your customers’ eyes. With that insight, we can challenge our initial ideas and find the right solutions. Evaluating your product early, before you commit time and resources to implement it, greatly reduces the risk of launching any new product.
This is why product discovery workshop became a standard element of our product development process.
Scoping Session
Once we have a pretty good idea of what we need to build, it’s time to think about how. Scoping sessions allow us to use our experience and figure out the best tech solutions for your project. We’ll look at all elements of your future product, and map out an optimal strategy of implementing it. On top of that, you’ll get a ballpark estimation of your project’s budget and timeline.
MVP & Product Roadmap
At the end of product discovery phase, we’ll have an understanding of your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and the direction of your project over time (Product Roadmap). You’ll know what actually needs to be implemented in order to satisfy your customers. Thanks to discovery workshops, we won’t be wasting time on unnecessary bells and whistles, but instead focusing on a set of features that solves real users’ problems.
Digital Transformation Workshop (+ All wins)
It is often the case that, while part of a company is operating at the forefront of innovation, the organization as a whole hasn’t fully embraced the idea of going digital. We’re supporting our clients in this challenging journey by organizing digital transformation workshop with our team
UX Audit
A user experience audit allows us to understand the current state of your product, whether it’s an eCommerce or an app. We’ll be able to reveal what is working and what needs some improvement. This stage is critical when we’re building upon existing services.
User-centered design backed with analytics
In order to put your customers at the heart of the process, we need to know how they behave online. The most reliable way to do that is to look at the analytics and draw insights from conversion reports, heatmaps or visitor recordings. Tools like Google Analytics, Hotjar or Adobe Analytics will help us better understand the needs and challenges of your target audience.
Usability Testing
Evaluating the design before implementing it is a proven way to create a more successful product (and save some money in the process). From early concepts to UI designs, we’ll ask users for feedback regularly: it’s also a key aspect of our iterative approach to software development.
UX / UI Design
We design eCommerces and apps that tick both boxes: they look good and deliver value to the customers. That’s the result of paying attention to user goals and UX best practices when creating an interface. On top of that, we aim to add some delightful brand moments to your product. Your brand has a personality that should be conveyed online as well.
product design
unleashing the data-driven creativity
Design defines how the product looks but also how it feels to use it. It’s time to map out the structure of your digital product, design interactions and the interface. Every step of the way is accompanied by usability tests, making sure the UX is on point. The result? An engaging digital experience that reflects your brand personality and delivers the best customer experience to your clients.
Product design process at Macopedia is based on a profound understanding of your customers’ needs. See, when it comes to designing high-converting apps, being informed is as important as being inspired. We aim to be both, for the sake of your project’s success.
Information Architecture
Our goal is to organize the content of your app so that it feels natural to the customers. There’s no denying it: the overall user experience often depends on good information architecture, especially in eCommerce. This is why we make sure to carefully plan your app’s IA, based on your business goals and the data we gathered.
High-fidelity Prototypes
We usually develop high-fidelity (hi-fi) prototypes quite early in the process. See, lo-fi wireframes are great for sketching things out during the discovery workshop, but we prefer to create colorful, interactive prototypes during the product design stage. It’s efficient, especially when we’re working with brands that have an established CI. Such prototypes allow you to better visualize the end result, so the feedback process is extremely efficient.
Product Backlog & Milestones
Alongside the design efforts, we’re working on defining your product’s backlog and identifying milestones in the development process. You’ll have a clear plan of action that can be shared with the stakeholders together with the UI of your product.
Integrations
It’s hard to imagine a B2B or B2C app without integrations. Web analytics, transactional emails, payment operations–you name it. We’ve worked with hundreds of different integrations, so we can recommend reliable apps and feasible ways to connect them.
API & Microservices
The microservice software architecture means that your system is divided into smaller, independent services. As a result, your product is more flexible, scalable and maintainable. At this stage, we’ll design a structure of those microservices and APIs that make them communicate with each other.
Business Ecosystem Consulting
Navigating your way through a complex network of digital tools can be a major challenge, regardless of your role. We’re here to help you figure it out and find the best solutions for both: your digital product and the processes around it.
digital ecosystem analysis
designing for quality and scale
Whether you ask us to build upon your current software or create something from scratch, you’re future product will not exist in isolation. There’s a whole ecosystem behind it: from platforms it needs to be integrated with, to the daily logistics of your business.
At this stage, we’ll carefully analyze the current state of your platform and explore different options for creating a smoothly-running operation. We’ll design the tech structure of your product, verify potential integrations and plan for fitting it seamlessly into your ecosystem.
This step is of utmost importance for eCommerces, where we have to figure out a network of multiple components (ERP, CRM, PIM, payments, accounting etc) but any customer-facing app will benefit from such an analysis. While the scope of this stage will depend on the complexity of your business ecosystem, it’s essential to create a good plan and design software architecture before any code is written.
Whether you ask us to build upon your current software or create something from scratch, you’re future product will not exist in isolation. There’s a whole ecosystem behind it: from platforms it needs to be integrated with, to the daily logistics of your business.
At this stage, we’ll carefully analyze the current state of your platform and explore different options for creating a smoothly-running operation. We’ll design the tech structure of your product, verify potential integrations and plan for fitting it seamlessly into your ecosystem.
This step is of utmost importance for eCommerces, where we have to figure out a network of multiple components (ERP, CRM, PIM, payments, accounting etc) but any customer-facing app will benefit from such an analysis. While the scope of this stage will depend on the complexity of your business ecosystem, it’s essential to create a good plan and design software architecture before any code is written.
SEO Audit & Strategy
Visibility in search engines, a priority for any digital products, can be boosted as early as during the development stage. We’ll perform a SEO audit of your current platform and prepare a plan for covering all of the technical SEO bases. The plan is to maximize your website’s findability from the get-go.
Ecommerce
Not all online shops are created equal. Implementing eCommerces for clients across different verticals ( healthcare, education, fashion, beauty, luxury) has taught us that each industry comes with a specific set of needs or regulations and different buyer journeys. We get them: we’ve been building B2B & B2C eCommerces for over 10 years.
Progressive Web Apps
For the ultimate mobile-first experience, we’re committed to Progressive Web Apps (PWA), that are tailored for both: eCommerces and web apps. They’re combining the editing flexibility of web apps with great browsing experience of native mobile applications. PWAs are also praised for their business value: improved customer experience equals higher conversion rates.
Web Development
Customers want to achieve their goals fast, with minimal hassle and on any device that’s at hand. This is why, when working on web apps, we’re thinking mobile-first and suggesting solutions that feel lightweight to the end user. Working with a powerful CMS, TYPO3, we’re able to implement custom apps of various scales, including multi-language enterprise services.
software development
translating design into digital
When choosing a technology partner for your brand, you’re probably looking at a variety of aspects, but technical expertise will always be at the very core of your analysis. Add to that some industry experience, a dose of creativity, plus a low-turnover, motivated team, and you’ll have a winner right there.
Over 100 companies have chosen Macopedia to be their technology vendor for the long haul. One thing that often tips the scale in our favor is the fact that our team is really versatile technology-wise. We’ve delivered eCommerces, PWAs or AI-driven solutions. Need to create a whole digital ecosystem? We’re no strangers to ERP, PIM, WMS, or CRM systems.
Here’s what we have to offer when it comes to software & apps development:
Back office Systems
In order to streamline the operations, you might need a set of additional tools to manage different aspects of your business. Whether it’s managing product information with PIM, storing business data in ERP or transmitting data between systems with a service bus: we can help you integrate and customize these solutions as well.
Mobile Development
When we’re tasked with building a native mobile app, we suggest a cross-platform approach. Working with Vue Native allows us to create apps for iOS and Android devices with a single codebase. It’s a major time & cost saver during the development stage.
AI Development
AI-driven solutions can enrich your digital product in a way that feels natural to the users. Recommendation engines, localized experiences or virtual assistants will improve customer experience and delight your target audience. That level of personalization has been reserved for brick-and-mortars, but it’s now available to online vendors as well. Don’t miss out on that opportunity!
quality assurance & devops
thorough testing and smooth delivery
Creating quality software is based on established procedures that allow us to take the surprise element out of the equation. We reduce the risk of unexpected problems by running a series of tests, both automatic and manual, throughout the development of any feature. Our delivery process is predictable, as we follow DevOps best practices and utilize the most reliable tools. What’s in it for your customers? New features are shipped fast and they’re of excellent quality.
Quality Assurance
Our quality assurance process starts early: we’re evaluating potential difficulties when planning the development of your product. Later on, as code is being written, we test individual snippets as well as complete features.
Automated Testing
Software testing is an integral part of our development process. Our programmers write unit tests that verify the performance of different components of their code. When these tests are passed, they combine units into larger groups for integration testing, making sure that they work well together.
Manual Functional Testing
All elements of your product are manually verified against the requirements before they’re greenlit for production. Acceptance testing helps us make sure that the product is not only functional, but also exactly what we agreed on during the design stage.
Load Testing
Something that needs to be tested before your product is launched, is how it behaves when hundreds or thousands of people are using it at the same time. Such scenarios can be simulated during load testing which helps us prepare your app for any traffic peaks.
Continuous Integration
Continuous Integration (CI) means that developers merge their code with the shared branch regularly, usually a couple of times per day. Such integrations are then tested with an automated build, so if there’s an issue, we know about it right away. This approach saves a lot of debugging time and makes the delivery process smoother.
Continuous Deployment
Continuous Deployment (CD) is yet another practice of a lean DevOps process. The main premise of CD is that, once a feature has passed its acceptance test, it’s automatically deployed to production. There are two main benefits of this process. Firstly, your customers receive a steady stream of improvements, without having to wait for a big bang release. Secondly, the development process is less risky and faster, as there’s no need to pause everything for releases.
Cloud Computing
Cloud-based infrastructure is reliable and very flexible. We work with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure to create an ecosystem for your app that is secure and allows for simple deployments.
agile project management
keeping the project under control
Managing the project is a crucial aspect of successfully delivering digital products. Time and time again, effective project management helped us to meet tight deadlines, successfully deliver concept-to-product projects, and maintain a great relationship with our clients in the process. We pride ourselves on our flexibility when it comes to project management. We understand the advantages of utilizing Scrum in software development, but we’ve learned how to tailor its principles to different cases.
Our Approach to Agile & Scrum
We come with strong theoretical background and plenty of PM experience, so we’re able to propose an approach that is well suited to your product and your business needs. We rely on transparent communication: regular status calls allow everyone to be on the same page. It’s all about a client-team understanding, otherwise the process may turn out to be less than effective.
Scrum Workshops
Seeing the effectiveness of our Scrum-based approach, some of our clients decide to implement it in their internal projects. If you feel that you or your team could benefit from embracing this powerful methodology, we’re ready to guide you through the process.
Dedicated Project Managers
Our PMs’ dedication and skills are reflected in the regular praise they receive from clients. Project Managers know you product’s requirements inside out and make sure that the project is delivered successfully. They’re able to step up and support you in the Product Owner role if needed.
Agile Software Teams
When allocating a team to your project, we take into account their technical expertise and experience with similar products. You end up with a cross-skilled team of engineers who genuinely care about your project and its quality.
Backlog Management
In a true agile fashion, we depend on a product backlog to prioritize and plan our work. The backlog itself often evolves throughout the project, so it needs to be properly managed to prevent confusion. We’re using JIRA to store and manage your project’s backlog, maintaining full transparency about the actual progress of work.
support & maintenance
taking care of your app post-launch
Most of our projects don’t end with releasing the product. We’re supporting our clients by means of post-launch development, optimization or performance monitoring. Support & SLA services are fundamental to make sure your customers receive consistent experience 24/7.
SLA: Application-level & Server-level
We offer two types of Service Level Agreements. The server-level SLA states the guaranteed level of uptime we agree on. Thanks to our monitoring and alerting tools, we’re able to react very quickly to any server-related issues. The app-level SLA means that we will be available for any application-related fixes, even outside of our standard working hours. Your bug reports will receive priority treatment from the engineers that are allocated to your project.
Bespoke Hosting
We’re able to provide you with custom-built infrastructure hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure. Working with these or other private cloud platforms, we’re prioritizing high availability (HA). Some of our favorite tools include: Varnish, Redis, HAProxy, Elasticsearch and Docker.
ITIL-Certified
We follow the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework which outlines the best practices for managing IT services. Having adopted this approach allowed us to optimize and standardize our processes.
SEO Audit & Strategy
Visibility in search engines, a priority for any digital products, can be boosted as early as during the development stage. We’ll perform a SEO audit of your current platform and prepare a plan for covering all of the technical SEO bases. The plan is to maximize your website’s findability from the get-go.
cooperation models
partnership models
Full Project Lifecycle
We start from an idea (of a new product or improving an existing one) and work our way to the launch through discovery, design and development. This kind of relationship allowed us to build some of our best work (like this one or that one).
Single-service Cooperation
Say you need us to create a design for your upcoming product. Or you have the PSDs, but you need a solid team to bring them to life. We can partner with you for such a limited-scope relationship as well.
Development Outsourcing
The project itself is delivered by you in-house, but you need a team of software developers experienced in eCommerce implementations, PWAs and web apps. We can form a team of programmers, led by a Project Manager, to bring valuable expertise to the table and boost your project as a result.