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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 drawback 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 shoppers had been typically glad with our technical work. But we remained what I might name a “storage firm” — unable to interrupt via to sustainable development regardless of our technical capabilities.
The technical excellence lure
Like many software program firms based by builders, we would fallen into a standard lure: believing that technical excellence would naturally translate to enterprise success.
We would 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 inside processes had been creating friction that technical talent alone could not overcome.
Key warning indicators we frequently ignored:
- Consumer relationships beginning effectively however changing into tense throughout undertaking development
- Working in reactive mode relatively than a proactive communication
- Working arduous however not getting referrals
- Problem predicting timelines regardless of technical competence
Figuring out course of gaps
We began analyzing our processes systematically and found that one among our massive 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 shoppers about progress, setbacks or modifications.
This created a sample the place shoppers felt disconnected from their very own initiatives, and sometimes had mistaken expectations. In accordance with Venture.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 abilities, but we had been optimizing purely for technical outcomes.
The partnership administration resolution
Somewhat than implementing commonplace undertaking administration methodology instantly, we centered 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 growing templates for frequent eventualities reminiscent of scope modifications, delays and onboarding.
The impression exceeded our expectations. Purchasers 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 shoppers, creating constant undertaking kickoffs and milestone evaluations, establishing clear processes for dealing with scope modifications and technical points, including common undertaking evaluations that integrated consumer suggestions and monitoring each undertaking supply and the general well being of consumer relationships.
These modifications helped be sure that each engagement began with a transparent framework and continued with structured checkpoints to maintain initiatives on monitor.
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 shoppers skilled our work, determine potential points earlier and strengthen the belief and transparency which are crucial 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 more durable. We saved techniques versatile whereas sustaining consistency, and once we noticed early enhancements, we made positive to acknowledge them. Coaching everybody on the brand new communication and undertaking administration approaches took a while, however individuals regularly noticed the advantages.
What I discovered attention-grabbing was how course of enhancements affected our inside tradition. Having clearer techniques lowered day-to-day confusion and freed up psychological area for extra inventive and strategic pondering.
Measuring success
The modifications did not occur in a single day, however we began seeing significant progress that accrued over time. Consumer satisfaction improved dramatically, our undertaking timelines grew to become way 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 developed from a struggling storage firm into a corporation that caught the eye of potential acquirers. Our technical abilities had been nonetheless essential, however it was the strong operational basis — mixed with different strategic enhancements we would made — that actually made us engaging to potential companions.
Ideas for rising software program firms
Our expertise means that course of innovation could be as vital as technical innovation, significantly throughout development phases.
Listed below are some beginning factors for comparable instances:
- Audit consumer expertise from their perspective, not simply technical supply
- Determine communication gaps in your present undertaking workflows
- Implement common check-ins and reporting techniques to maintain everybody aligned on progress
- Assign relationship administration duties
- Measure consumer satisfaction alongside technical metrics
- Create templates for frequent eventualities to make sure consistency
Probably the most helpful lesson could also be that constructing sustainable enterprise processes is itself a technical drawback value fixing systematically — it simply requires totally different instruments and approaches than writing software program.
