From Launch to Impact: Measuring Metrics That Matter

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When investing time and money into a software system, it’s important to put a measurement strategy in place. While this may sound obvious, many teams, after months of building the software, tend to overlook the necessity of tracking its performance post-launch. Teams that are failing to set and evaluate measurable outcomes are often:

  • Enamored by features, constantly discussing the next “excitingly cool thing” they want to build.
  • Conducting large re-factoring projects, trying to ensure their code is written properly.
  • Struggling to recall the last time they gathered feedback, looked at that feedback and actually did something with it.

 

Establishing plans to measure outcomes before launching a new software system will ensure that your team collects the data it needs to make informed decisions. Not only will measurable outcomes give insights into your current project, but they’ll also offer valuable feedback and data that can be leveraged when embarking on subsequent projects.

 

Why Do Measurable Outcomes Matter?

When starting a new project, it’s easy to envision new features while neglecting to build what you’ve truly gained insight into. While the project may originate from great ideas, it’s crucial to direct long-term focus towards achieving desired business outcomes, such as increased revenue or a larger user base. Before introducing new software, it’s important to identify the metrics you need to demonstrate success. By thinking through the data your team needs to collect, you can justify further expansion into new features, and critically evaluate whether the investment is worthwhile.

 

Throughout the process, teams should continually ask themselves what decisions they need to make now based on insights from previous data. This ongoing feedback loop facilitates testing and iteration, driven by the crucial learnings uncovered at each stage. In some cases, the data may prompt a pivot, leading your team to reconsider the project, conduct additional user research or prioritize digital marketing and sales over the pursuit of the next groundbreaking productivity feature.

 

Failing to establish these measurement strategies prior to launching your product is akin to steering a car while blindfolded. While you may get lucky once in a while and manage not to crash your car, the odds are not in your favor. Without measurable outcomes, there’s a high risk of squandering time, effort and resources, impeding your team’s progress and hindering the collection of feedback that will help strengthen your product going forward.

 

Which Metrics Matters Most?

Teams often consider a project successful if it delivers all designated features on time and within budget. However, the true measure of success goes beyond feature completion; it lies in the delivery of substantial business value. Merely ticking off feature checkboxes doesn’t guarantee success if the project falls short in providing meaningful impact.

 

If you’re unsure whether or not your product is delivering business value, you may need to change your notion of “done.” Teams should shift their focus from rigid adherence to deadlines and time sheets to prioritizing customer satisfaction and fostering usage growth. Implementing a robust measurement strategy empowers your team to evaluate the product’s success and establish goals that yield meaningful outcomes. Successful software projects are those that measure the actual business impact achieved, going beyond conventional measures of schedule, scope and budget.

 

Software teams should consider a project incomplete until the product is measured and validated. When determining the most relevant metrics for your team and business, ask key questions such as:

  • Are you increasing revenue?
  • Are you attracting new users and receiving positive reviews?
  • Are you driving down support needs?
  • What is your customer retention rate?
  • Are your acquisition costs justifiable in comparison to revenue?

 

Addressing these questions allows you to identify pain points and devise a plan to enhance product results. Establishing a measurement strategy from the start equips your team for a successful launch and validates the product’s value against broader business objectives.

 

Whether you’re already implementing measurable outcomes or are new to the concept of a measurement strategy, Augusto can seamlessly collaborate with product teams to achieve true business success. Contact Augusto to explore how we can help add value to your business.

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Optimizing Sprints and Cycles to Achieve Your Business Goals

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One of the greatest challenges in product management is team alignment. With a plethora of tasks, priorities and goals, maintaining a unified front and steering everyone towards a shared objective becomes a difficult task. The struggle to meet deadlines and goals often stems from team members immersing themselves too deeply in the intricacies of the project, losing sight of the overarching vision. A remedy for this disconnect lies in embracing the sprints and cycles model. This framework serves as an effective means to realign your team and establish clear objectives, offering a pathway toward reinvigorating collaboration and focusing on broader business objectives. By implementing sprints and cycles into your workflow, your team can maximize its budget efficiency, maintain a predictable rhythm of value production and adjust for flexibility and scalability.

 

What are Sprints and Cycles?

A six-week cycle consists of three two-week sprints. Sprints, characterized by their short-term nature, are focused activities and goals that collectively contribute to achieving the broader goal of a cycle. While developers are drawn to the sprint format due to its emphasis on specific and manageable deliverables, an exclusive focus on short-term tasks has the potential to divert the team from their long-term objectives. Integrating sprints into cycles is crucial to maintaining alignment with overarching objectives, ensuring that short-term projects align with broader business goals.

To plan sprints and cycles for your team, consider a multi-year perspective to identify a specific outcome for each calendar year. Then, use this overarching goal to establish a smaller set of objectives. Breaking down goals into yearly and quarterly intervals helps set more manageable expectations and outcomes for teams, ensuring better alignment with your business’s rhythm and providing a roadmap of actionable steps toward long-term goals.

 

Leveraging Sprints and Cycles to Maximize Your Budget

When starting a large project, one of the first things you’ll likely consider is the budget you’ll allocate for the development of the desired software or digital product. While this kind of endeavor can pose a significant financial commitment, you don’t need to front a substantial budget right from the start. By organizing your timelines and priorities into sprints and cycles, you can maximize results within your budget and secure more budget as you demonstrate proven value.

 

The natural rhythm of business breaks time into quarters, with two six-week cycles in a quarter. Product management becomes more streamlined when thinking in these clearly-defined and manageable chunks of time, ensuring the delivery of high value every six weeks.

 

Getting to a place where all parties buy into this method of working takes time, but delivering results within a set timeframe will allow you to build trust and earn increased financial investment in the project, if needed. The reality is that the full scope of a project is uncertain at the outset, but prioritizing the delivery of immediate value enables you and your team to iterate toward success.

 

Adjusting for Flexibility and Scalability

Flexibility and scalability are crucial elements in product management, as each product is variable. The sprints and cycles model works well because it can accommodate the natural evolution of product development and problems that may arise. Sprints and cycles provide a versatile approach, allowing for intermittent slowdowns between cycles for milestones, demos, discovery and feedback discussions to ensure alignment with business goals. While you may need to pause between cycles or make adjustments to your timeline, sticking to sprints and cycles will help your team fall into a predictable rhythm of producing value.

The primary advantage of operating within six-week cycles is the ability to tailor the system to suit your team. As your team undergoes growth and evolves, your sprints and cycles can adapt accordingly. Similarly, when faced with roadblocks, you have the flexibility to adjust your timeline without losing focus on your overarching goals.

 

If your team is tackling a large project or facing challenges in meeting deadlines and attaining objectives, contact Augusto. Let’s explore how we can assist in setting up your team with effective sprints and cycles to achieve your business goals.

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React Native vs. React with WebView Wrappers: Pros and Cons

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In the fast-paced world of mobile app development, choosing the right technology stack is a crucial decision for startups and established companies alike. Two popular options often come up: React Native and React with WebView Wrappers. Both have their strengths and limitations, and making the right choice depends on your project’s specific requirements and goals. In this article, we’ll explore the pros and cons of these two approaches to help you make an informed decision.

Understanding the Basics

Before diving into the comparison, let’s start with a brief overview of the two options:

React Native: React Native is a framework for building mobile apps using JavaScript and React. It allows developers to create mobile apps with a native-like performance and appearance, offering access to device features and a single codebase for both iOS and Android.

React with WebView Wrappers: On the other hand, React with WebView Wrappers involves building a web app using React and rendering it within a mobile app using WebView components. This approach leverages web development skills and potentially allows for cross-platform compatibility.

Pros and Cons of React Native for Mobile App Development

Pros

  • Native-Like Performance: React Native apps provide a user experience similar to that of fully native apps. This is crucial for applications that require high performance and a smooth interface.
  • Access to Device Features: React Native offers direct access to native device capabilities and APIs through modules, making it a suitable choice for apps that rely on hardware functionality.
  • Single Codebase: You can write one codebase and deploy it to both iOS and Android platforms, saving development time and resources.
  • App Store Presence: Apps developed with React Native can be published on app stores like the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, giving them broad exposure.

Cons

  • Potentially Higher Development Cost: Developing a native app with React Native may require more specialized skills and, in some cases, more development effort compared to a web-based solution.
  • Learning Curve: If your team is not already familiar with React Native, there may be a learning curve to overcome.

Pros and Cons of React with WebView Wrappers

Pros

  • Reusing Web Development Skills: If your team is experienced with web development, building a web app and wrapping it in WebViews may be a more straightforward approach, as it allows you to utilize existing skills.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility: The same web app can potentially run on both mobile and desktop web browsers, reaching a broader audience with minimal additional development effort.

Cons

  • Limited Native Features: Web pages in a WebView component will have limited access to native device features. Certain functionalities that require native capabilities may not be available.
  • Performance Considerations: WebViews may not provide the same level of performance as a fully native React Native app, especially for graphics-intensive applications.
  • App Store Limitations: App stores have specific guidelines, and apps utilizing WebViews may be subject to more restrictions and scrutiny during the app submission process.

Direct Comparison

To help you compare these two approaches more directly, here’s a side-by-side comparison:

Additional Considerations

Apart from the pros and cons, you should consider other factors when making this decision:

  • Development Speed: React Native may provide a quicker route to mobile app development compared to creating a web app and wrapping it in a WebViews. On the other hand, if you already have a mobile-friendly web app, wrapping it in WebViews may be faster.
  • Scalability: Consider the long-term scalability of your project, as React Native may offer better native performance and scaling potential.
  • Updates and Maintenance: Think about how updates and maintenance will be handled for your chosen approach.
  • Appropriate Target Audience: The nature of your app and its primary target audience will play a significant role in your decision.

Making the Decision

The choice between React Native and React with WebView Wrappers depends on your specific project’s needs, development capabilities, and target audience. If you prioritize a high-quality, native-like user experience with full access to device features and you have the necessary resources and expertise, building a native mobile app with React Native is a solid choice. On the other hand, if your app’s functionality can be effectively delivered through a web app and you want to minimize development effort while reusing web skills, the web app wrapped in a viewport approach may be more suitable. It’s essential to carefully evaluate your app’s requirements before making a decision.

Conclusion

When it comes to mobile app development, the choice between React Native and React with WebView Wrappers is a pivotal decision. Both approaches possess distinct strengths and limitations, making it essential to align your choice with your unique project requirements. By carefully considering factors such as performance, access to device features, development cost, and target audience, you can make an informed decision that aligns with your startup’s goals.

Related Articles

Additional Resources

For further information and resources, check out the following links:

React Native DocumentationReact Documentation

 

 

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Why You Need a Graph Database To Analyze Population Health

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Being able to effectively work with health data is key to care coordination, relationship analysis, predictive analysis, and outbreak detection and response. But health data is complex and relational in ways that can be difficult to capture in a traditional SQL database. Physicians, patients, payers, and care facilities interact in complex and varied ways. We often simplify these rich interactions in order to fit them nicely into our limited data models. By using Graph databases, we can keep much of the data’s natural richness and complexity. In this article, we will explore how graph databases can revolutionize the analysis of population health outcomes and unlock valuable insights. Let’s dive in!

Understanding Graph Databases

Graph Database

Graph databases store and analyze data differently from traditional relational databases. They represent entities as nodes and define relationships through connected edges. Nodes and edges include labels and attributes that describe what they represent. Teams query these labels and attributes to extract information from the graph.

This richer representation offers power but also introduces risk. As databases grow, added complexity can quickly escalate, making thoughtful data structure essential. The way teams structure graph data directly affects database performance and determines how they construct queries.

In graph databases, queries take the form of traversals. A traversal moves from node to node along connected edges. For example, to list physicians who treated a patient, the traversal starts at the patient node and follows edges to connected physician nodes.

Advantages of Graph Databases in Population Health Analysis

Relationship Mapping

Graph databases excel at capturing relationships from data, making them ideal for modeling the interconnected nature of healthcare data. By representing patients, care team members, medical conditions, treatments, and outcomes as nodes, and the relationships between them as edges, we are building up a descriptive model of a population’s health care usage.

Complex Queries

Queries in a graph database are called “traversals”. Traversals describe how to move through the graph from some starting point to an end point. The nodes or edges at the endpoint are the result of the query. As an example, say we want to look at the incidence of diabetes by zip code. We could use a graph traversal to start at the node representing the disease of diabetes, follow edges from that node to the patients who have been treated for diabetes, and then obtain the zip code of each of those patients.

By connecting patient data with their corresponding locations, you can identify hotspots or areas with higher rates of diabetes. This information can guide public health initiatives and resource allocation.

Predictive Analytics

Leveraging the relationships and patterns within a graph database, predictive models can be developed to forecast population health outcomes. Machine learning algorithms can be applied to identify risk factors, predict disease progression, and estimate the effectiveness of different interventions. For example, using a graph database, you can develop a predictive model to identify individuals at high risk of developing diabetes based on factors such as age, family history, socioeconomic status, and comorbidities.

Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing

Graph databases facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing among healthcare professionals and researchers. Multiple stakeholders can contribute their expertise and insights to a shared graph, leading to a collective understanding of population health outcomes. This collaborative approach fosters interdisciplinary research, accelerates discoveries, and improves healthcare delivery.

Examples of Population Health Queries

Incidence of Diabetes by Geographic Area

By querying a graph database, you can analyze the incidence of diabetes in different geographic areas. This can help identify regions with higher rates of diabetes and focus efforts on preventive measures, targeted interventions, and healthcare resource allocation.

Number of Care Team Members as a Function of Median Income of the Zip Code They Live In

Another example is querying the number of care team members in relation to the median income of the zip code in which individuals reside. Physicians that the patient is actively seeing constitute a patient’s care team. The US government provides a dataset of median income levels per zip code. Combining the information in this dataset with our graph database allows us to generate maps of patients based on median income. Specifically, we can compare median sizes of care team members across different geographic and socioeconomic regions. This query can reveal insights into healthcare utilization patterns and access to care based on socioeconomic factors. It helps identify potential disparities and informs strategies to improve equitable healthcare delivery.

Graph databases offer a powerful and flexible framework for analyzing population health outcomes. They capture intricate relationships in healthcare data, enabling teams to run complex queries, build predictive models, and foster collaboration. Teams can analyze diabetes incidence by geographic area or evaluate care team size against median income to reveal practical insights. By leveraging graph databases, healthcare leaders inform decisions, improve patient outcomes, and address disparities in care availability and delivery. Using graph databases moves healthcare toward a more data-driven and healthier future.

 

 

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How to Lead a Software Development Team

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Your project manager just called and told you that the application you’re developing is delayed; just yesterday, you were assured everything was on track, and you’ve already been talking to funders about the product’s potential.

 

What do you do? Do you sit back in a show of blind faith in your team and trust that the software will get back on track? How do you assess if the team can deliver the application you are looking for or if more delays follow?

 

Many companies start with the concepts in “The Flow’s” four-phase cycle approach to quickly assess the situation. The flow is described in this video by Steven Kotler.

 

The flow breaks the development work into four phases:

1. The Struggle

This stage is where tasks are challenging and confusing, requiring extra concentration.

 

2. Release

The release phase is when you move out of the struggle phase. You let go of the complexity and try to get tasks done. We notice this phase when we have identified a path, and we’re just starting to work down it. The inner critic settles, and your focus switches to trying to accomplish tasks.

 

3. Flow

Once you realize the prerequisites to flow, you’ll find yourself here more often! Time starts to disappear, and your focus, solution understanding, and productivity are at their highest. This is the flow state.

 

4. Recovery

Recovery comes when you slip out of the flow. Your ability to solve problems slows down, and you become less productive. Things like bugs or other complexities begin to show up more often. Unfortunately, it won’t be long until struggle arrives again, and the cycle continues.

Together, these processes foster the rhythms that help you and your teams spend more time in the flow.

Once you have assessed where the team currently is you need to develop appropriate processes to get the project back on track and ensure the appropriate early warning systems are in place to achieve your plan by your due date.

 

The five steps to be able to sleep at night:

Assess The Team

Based on the reason for missing the deadline, assess your team. Do you have enough developers and programmers? Do you have the skill sets you require?

 

Contingency Planning

Team assessments are complex, and we usually want to err on the side of our team. We want to believe that things will get better, even when we have our doubts. If you proceed with your current team intact, now is the time to determine your options and create a backup plan. This can include hiring more people, hiring contractors, or a hybrid.

 

Shorter Development Cycles

We have found the best results with the two-week sprint format because it hones the team in on specific, nitty-gritty, manageable deliverables. Sprints are where the development work actually happens.

 

Connect the Sprint Cycles

We connect three sprints linked by a theme and set of goals. You can see how much easier product management becomes when we think in clearly-defined and manageable chunks of time. This strategy offers the incredible benefit of delivering high value every six weeks.

 

Build Trust and Confidence Through Transparency

Project management tools are available to team members and stakeholders, plus “check-ins” at the end of every sprint or cycle keeps everyone on the same page.

 

No one plans for project delays; sound systems and processes will help entrepreneurs achieve their desired results by utilizing progress reports at short intervals to confirm expected results or offer early detection of potential problems. With good processes and good contingency planning up front, you have the best chance for success.

 

About Augusto Digital

At Augusto, we help clients succeed with digital transformation and custom software solutions. We offer consulting, software development, UX design & application management. We specialize in AI, mobile, web, IoT, data, analytics & dashboards. In addition, we are experts in Healthcare and Health Tech.

 

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Is your Custom Software Application Being Properly Supported?

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Your application’s performance directly impacts your business’s performance, which is why proper application support is so important. So, is your custom software application being properly supported? Let us pose a few questions:
  • Do you know what your tech stack looks like?
  • Do you have an updated IT architecture diagram?
  • Do you have a ticket system implemented to manage applications?
  • Do you understand the critical pathways of data across business segments?
  • Do you understand the interdependencies between your API ecosystem?
  • If you’ve contracted out your app development, what is the after-deployment warranty period?

     

Most businesses today are powered by an entire ecosystem of applications. Some of them are third party software as a system (SaaS) platforms, some are custom built, and many are a combination of both. Having a comprehensive understanding of how these applications operate and are connected will save you time and money.

Don’t let your hard work developing a custom software application go to waste.

It’s hard to tell if your app is being supported properly, when you may not understand the system fully yourself. We don’t blame you at all! Apps can be highly technical and challenging to grasp.

 

But we’re here to help. Call Augusto for fast, convenient, and seamless application support. Our expert team is willing and ready to ensure your application is properly supported.

 

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The Real Software Investment

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Imagine you are appointed the responsibility of building software. Where do you begin? How would you allocate your team’s time and budget? Do you have enough resources and the right talent?

It’s a challenging assignment, and one you want to get right. I’ve learned that many managers phrase their request along these lines:

“I want to accomplish X. How much will that cost and how long will it take?”

 

Essentially, they’re asking about budget and scope. However, budget and scope for software products are highly variable. While it’s an appropriate question for a supervisor to ask, I’ve learned that answering it directly as its presented is not the wisest thing to do. Budget and scope are incredibly complex, and the approach to how you actually invest in software development should be much more phased.

Fortunately, I learned this lesson the hard way early in my career.

For example, I was once asked to produce a multi-app B2B and IoT platform and, following the precedent of my company, went to my vendor partner and asked: “How much will this cost and how long will it take?” Over several discovery sessions, the vendor and I discussed desired features and capabilities to form the basis of our scope. They provided me with the cost and length of the project, which I then reported to my supervisor.

 

At that point, I had committed myself to being held accountable to that specific budget and scope. As you can imagine, we quickly realized just how complex the product would be. Three-quarters of the way through our set budget and time, we were nowhere near the end of the project. Eventually, we delivered the software – far over budget. Worst of all, it didn’t accomplish the key items we needed it to do well. At that point, I realized there had to be a better way to build software.

 

I wanted stronger consulting and leadership from future vendors—someone to tell us from the very beginning a better way to invest. Someone to save us from the question “How much will that cost and how long will it take?” This lightbulb moment contributed to the creation of Augusto, alongside my partners Jim Becher and Joel Ross. At Augusto, we coach clients to remain agile and invest smarter.

 

Our core piece of advice comes down to this: Until you build tangible software and release it to the marketplace for validation, invest the smallest amount possible.

 

Following minimally viable product (MVP) best practices, don’t try to build the entire product at once. Simply identify the one or two most important features that create immediate value for your audiences. By making the smallest investment possible, you’ll deliver immediate value.

 

Value builds trust, which leads to longer runways for the remainder of the product life cycle.

 

Throughout my new blog series, I’ll dive deeper into three critical components that contribute to what we call “the real software investment.”

The Real Software Investment

1. Compose a team that can scale as your product grows

 

2. Prepare key business processes for continued work after your initial product launch

 

3. Reinvigorate your team culture by removing the pressure of fixed budget and scope

 

Our goal is to adjust your mindset regarding investing in software, so that you always build the right software for your audiences.

 

We start our engagements with an intro call. Schedule one today to learn more about how our approach may apply to your business goals.

 

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