Small business owners often face the daunting complexities of planning and operating their businesses with limited resources and support. An agency we’re working with has taken on the challenge of centralizing crucial information and resources for different kinds of small business owners to help streamline processes and opportunities such as permitting, taxes, and funding. Paired environment work presents an opportunity to overcome the odds.
Since August 2021, Coforma has been working with prime contractor Fearless alongside our client in a paired environment to deliver a modern solution that provides clear, impactful, and actionable information to the business owners served by the agency.
Pair programming is an agile software development concept where two programmers work together to complete programming tasks on the same build. The paired environment we’ve been working in extends this approach across the entire cross-functional project team, with each set of content designers, UX designers, developers, and product managers composed of a member from the client side and a member from the contractor side.
Below are four of the many benefits of working in a paired environment, with context about how the unique team structure adds to the success of our client’s initiative:
1. Direct collaboration in a paired environment positively impacts the approach.
One of the great things about working side by side with our client is the opportunity to collaborate as one team. The ability to regularly exchange insights, processes, and priorities across disciplines has given the project tremendous momentum and regularly assures us that we’re building the right thing and building it right from the start.
The opportunity to work together and iteratively refine our process has given us the chance to try new approaches and explore new processes and tools that enhance our joint effort to create a tool that brings value to the user through a thoughtful approach to design, content, and development.
2. Pairing promotes transparency.
In a paired environment, all work is visible to everyone at all stages of the project. It’s a scary thought to share less-than-finished work with a client, but it has benefited our iterative approach immensely. Having drafts, explorations, insights, and priorities on the table creates room for discussion and deepens our understanding across all areas of the project. This has helped us push forward not as individuals making progress on our single piece of the puzzle, but as one team pushing this entire initiative forward.
3. Paired environments structure feedback and clarity.
Design progress can be difficult when stakeholders’ availability is limited. Working in a paired environment with the client provides direct access to stakeholders and removes the speed bumps associated with scheduling constraints.
Because this effort is as much a priority to them as it is to us, we can count on their feedback from the start and continue with clarity through design iterations knowing there’s a constant feedback loop to inform our work. This level of access to our client minimizes rework, eliminates delays in the approval process, and allows us to iterate on the product more efficiently.
4. Pairing facilitates communication with other stakeholders.
The information centralization effort is a huge feat involving many moving parts from other organizations and partners. Having our client embedded as an integral part of the working team simplifies and expedites the process of connecting with subject-matter experts (SMEs) and identifying new stakeholders and SMEs as exploration and discovery continues throughout the project.
The availability of sources for insight, feedback, and information has helped us build and iterate at great speeds to refine our product and ultimately better serve business owners.
Though an uncommon and sometimes intimidating experience, working in a paired environment with Fearless and our client continues to bring a wealth of information, creativity, and resources to a massive initiative that aims to assist countless small business owners. The momentum and the progress we’ve made so far has only been possible because of the alignment and understanding we gain by collaborating.