Introduction
MGBC were setting out on their mission to make building practices in Malaysia more sustainable by 2025. Their roadmap aimed to raise awareness about the CO₂ emissions from buildings, encourage zero-carbon building methods, and align with the WorldGBC's goal of fully decarbonizing construction by 2050.
A key part of their strategy was creating a carbon scoring tool for building owners, developers, and similar groups. This tool helps users understand their buildings' carbon footprints and offers practical steps to reduce them. By focusing on this, MGBC aimed to spark a nationwide shift toward greener building practices and play a part in the global effort against climate change.
Problem: Navigating Building Carbon Scores and Securing Early Funding
MGBC noticed that building managers didn't have an easy way to understand and improve their buildings' carbon scores, which was slowing down efforts to make buildings more eco-friendly across the country.
To tackle this, MGBC came up with the idea for a user-friendly web app to help building managers check and manage their buildings' carbon emissions.
They knew getting quick feedback was important, so they aimed to launch the app early to attract potential partners and secure funding. This meant developing the product quickly to get it out there, gather user input, and make improvements to achieve their goals.
Discovery: Collaborating to Define MGBC's Objectives and Solutions
When MGBC sought to develop a web application for assessing building carbon emissions, they partnered with us to align with their desire to develop their product through an iterative and exploratory process.
Through in-depth discussions, we identified MGBC's primary business objectives:
- Roll-out the assessment to a target batch of Beta users to establish a baseline for carbon emissions as form of fast feedback.
- Secure additional funding to support future product enhancements and organizational growth.
By clarifying these goals, we aligned our development strategy to meet MGBC's needs. Our collaborative approach ensured that the resulting application was user-centric and effective in promoting sustainable building practices.
Planning: Initiating the Project and Establishing a Remote Collaboration Strategy
Hivekind prioritized a thorough project initiation process, setting clear paths for communication, document procurement, and synchronization with third parties. Following our Hivekind Approach, we used Scrum to organize our team and our work. The cadence of fixed-length Sprints would provide regular progress in predictable increments. Sprint Reviews would provide a time for stakeholders to learn about project developments.
Being a remote team and working with remote clients and third parties, Hivekind placed a high priority on effective written communication. A central document became the main source of project information, including:
- Project charter outlining the project's high-level purpose and current state.
- Project roadmap, product backlog, and sprint roadmap and sprint board.
- Communication method with the team.
- Primary stakeholders for keeping tabs of key metrics to measure success.
- Links to relevant documents.
The team updated this document continuously, ensuring that anyone with a question could refer to it for comprehensive, up-to-date information. We prioritised complete transparency in our dealings with MGBC. Throughout the product development process, MGBC was kept abreast of the progress made and any challenges encountered via our weekly email update. This is a standard at Hivekind - we believe in fostering an environment of open communication with our clients. Our transparent approach facilitates swift resolution of issues and empowers the client to mitigate risks effectively.
Implementation: Agile Iterative Approach
Defining the MVP Roadmap and Development Strategy
Hivekind outlined a clear roadmap based on the process flow, adopting a functionality-first approach that prioritized operational features over aesthetic ones. The team followed the key milestones below:
Starting the Project: Involving project brief, high-level process flow, and decision on the technical approach.
Sprint 1: Focused on core flows in a functionality-first manner.
Sprints 2-3: Undertaken for full development of each feature (per Epic).
Sprints 4-5: Utilized for refinement and wrap-up for MVP release.
Refining the High-Level User Flow
Before starting development, the team meticulously refined the high-level user flow, covering every aspect of the customer journey. Each swimlane - customers, admins, manual processes, and data storage and retrieval - was incorporated, ensuring a clear understanding of the project's approach with the client.
Leveraging Rails for Rapid MVP Development of CarbonScore
To efficiently develop CarbonScore, Hivekind selected Ruby on Rails (Rails) as the framework due to its alignment with MGBC's requirements. Rails facilitated rapid prototyping and streamlined the creation of both Admin and Customer portals. For instance, the administrate gem was utilized to expedite the development of the Admin portal, significantly reducing development time. Additionally, Rails' built-in testing framework ensured the delivery of a reliable and high-quality application. This strategic choice enabled Hivekind to meet MGBC's objectives effectively and within the desired timeframe.
Engineering a Scalable Form Application for MVP and Future Iterations
Recognizing that MGBC's in-house tech resources were limited, Hivekind suggested using a Platform as a Service (PaaS) for hosting. This approach would be cost-effective and easy to manage without needing deep technical expertise.
PaaS provides a full hosting setup where the provider handles servers, storage, and networking. This lets organizations like MGBC focus on developing and managing their applications, leaving the complex infrastructure tasks to the experts.
The Hivekind team carefully weighed the pros and cons of different hosting options. The goal wasn't just to find the cheapest solution but to choose a platform that offered a good balance of cost, scalability, reliability, and ease of use. This thoughtful approach ensured that MGBC could manage the hosting environment with minimal hassle while supporting CarbonScore's growth and performance.
By opting for PaaS hosting, we made sure MGBC could maintain and scale their application smoothly. This meant they didn't have to spend resources building and managing a complex hosting setup, aligning perfectly with the project's agile and MVP-focused approach.
Streamlining Development and Client Control Through Excel Parsing Automation
To keep things simple and align with MGBC's existing workflow, we decided to use Microsoft Excel; a tool they were already comfortable with, for the new web application. MGBC had been using Excel to define and calculate carbon scores, so we saw a chance to automate this process within the app. Our past experience with similar projects made this an easy choice, allowing us to speed up development without getting bogged down in complex technical discussions.
In our technical implementation, we created a mechanism to parse the Excel sheets, read the inputs and then display the corresponding forms on the web application. This method significantly simplified the development process. By directly translating Excel sheets into interactive forms, we removed the need for hardcoding each individual form.
This method also gave MGBC more control and flexibility. They could update the forms by simply changing the Excel sheets, and our team would help upload them to the platform—no extra coding needed. This made it easy for them to manage form updates.
Automating form creation through Excel parsing not only made our development process more efficient but also empowered MGBC to maintain their platform effectively. This shows how tailored solutions can enhance the MVP development process, resulting in a product that's user-friendly and ready for future needs.
Verification: Sprint Review and User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
In our agile development approach, the Sprint Review serves as the cornerstone of our verification process. During these sessions, we collaborate closely with clients to assess the outcomes of each sprint, ensuring alignment with project objectives and gathering valuable feedback.
In the case of MGBC, the Sprint Review highlighted uncertainties regarding user data input outcomes. Our proposed POC feature aimed to alleviate this issue by generating different form options derived from the Excel input. These forms would dynamically adapt based on user selections at the early stages, displaying only relevant fields corresponding to the user's previous input.
By proactively addressing these concerns during the review, we identified specific pain points and devised experimental solutions tailored to MGBC's needs. This iterative process not only validated our development efforts but also ensured that the solutions effectively addressed the client's challenges. Following the successful validation of the feature's utility and effectiveness, it was promptly integrated into the application during the next sprint.
The collaborative nature of the Sprint Review also facilitated a shorter and more seamless User Acceptance Testing (UAT) phase, as MGBC was closely involved throughout the process. This close involvement ensured that the final product met their expectations and allowed for a smoother transition during the handover phase.
Handoff & Empowerment: Enabling Independent Operation
In the concluding phase, we executed a thorough handover process encompassing wrap-up meetings, detailed documentation, and final training sessions to empower MGBC for independent operation. This stage ensured a complete transfer of knowledge, leaving MGBC confident, well-equipped, and prepared to advance without our continued support.
During the final stage, we provided an all-encompassing handoff featuring wrap-up discussions, thorough documentation, and concluding training sessions, preparing MGBC for self-sufficient operation. This phase was pivotal in transferring complete knowledge, ensuring MGBC was confident, adequately equipped, and poised to continue without our ongoing involvement.
Our approach empowered MGBC by:
- Providing a solution that allowed them to modify forms by simply altering Excel sheets, without requiring additional coding intervention.
- Delivering a user-friendly and adaptable product that MGBC could maintain effectively.
- Enabling MGBC to start collecting feedback from their existing customers and build a case for securing additional funding
To accommodate MGBC's limited in-house technical resources, Hivekind proposed adopting a Platform as a Service (PaaS) for hosting. This solution was cost-effective and manageable without requiring deep technical expertise, allowing MGBC to focus on application development and management while leaving infrastructure tasks to experts.
Post-Engagement Support: Sustaining Collaboration and Growth
At Hivekind, we prioritize building ongoing, collaborative relationships with our clients. In line with this philosophy, we offer post-engagement support to ensure clients have continued access to our expertise and guidance. For MGBC, we provided a 12-month post-handover support period, allocating hours as needed upon request. This approach allowed MGBC to implement user feedback and make further changes to the product with our assistance, ensuring they felt supported without the need for full-time involvement. Additionally, this flexible support model enabled MGBC to manage costs effectively by prioritizing feature enhancements and product modifications.
Conclusion: Achieving MGBC's Strategic Objectives
Our collaboration with MGBC was a journey that began with strategic planning and a focus on building practical, user-friendly features. By leveraging existing technologies and truly understanding MGBC's needs, we developed CarbonScore, a significant milestone for both teams. This achievement is just the beginning, paving the way for ongoing improvements and exciting innovations ahead.
The delivery of the CarbonScore MVP within two months was a significant milestone. In the months preceding the launch MGBC were able to achieve the objectives we identified during Discovery:
- Their target batch of Beta users all completed their building assessments
- They secured additional funding for their initiative
These outcomes reflect the successful realization of the objectives identified during the discovery phase, underscoring the effectiveness of our partnership in advancing MGBC's mission.
