How do we prioritise what developments we do?
Every year, the R&D team work on multiple projects across different areas, from legislative requirements like Brexit to 3rd party integrations, fixing issues and providing enhancements to the Platinum software.
However, have you ever wondered how we build up our product roadmap and decide what development work we do and when we do it, in order to deliver maximum benefits to our customer base? In the last issue of the Catalyst Chronicle, we told you all about the introduction of the new Product Team function and their remit of deciding what the Development Team should work on. We thought you might be interested in understanding more about this challenging and complex process.
First, where do all of the project ideas come from?
- ideas@catalyst-uk.com – all customers have access to this email address and use it to submit ideas for enhancements to the Platinum System. These get discussed at a weekly meeting and any considered to be good additions are added to our backlog for future consideration
- Customer Advisory Board – this is a group of customers that are representative of our entire customer base. We will be sending out surveys a couple of times a year to ask for their opinions on a variety of topics, which ultimately help shape our Platinum software. Examples could include asking them to vote on a scale for 10 potential manufacturer integrations or asking for their thoughts on a brand new module idea
- Technology – we always have to ensure that our software is kept up to date with technological advances. 3rd parties also have their own technology roadmaps and often dictate when changes will happen that we need to comply with
- 3rd parties – manufacturers, suppliers and other 3rd parties constantly come to us with ideas on how our systems can be linked together to provide benefits to our mutual customers
- Customer meetings and training sessions – ideas for improvements can come out of any customer meeting or training session
- Internal teams – our Sales, Support and PSG teams are a continual source of ideas as they are speaking to our customers all the time
- Legislative – some developments are done following directives given from the UK Government. In these cases, it is imperative that our software, and therefore our dealers, are compliant. Examples include GDPR and Brexit requirements
- Other companies within Constellation – we have lots of opportunities to share ideas between other dealership software businesses within our group. If a company has implemented a new solution with great success, it is a fantastic opportunity to apply this solution to our own customer base
- Competitor and market research – we are always on the lookout for the ‘next big idea’, seeing how we can stay ahead of the competition
Each idea is assessed. Some will not be progressed, some will be put on the backlog for future consideration, and some will be actively worked on. Each item will fall into one of the following areas:
| Area | Examples |
| Infrastructure & Technology | ‘Behind the scenes’ work to keep our system up to date, compliance with security protocols, performance improvements |
| Enhancements & Fixes | Enhancement requests from ideas@catalyst-uk.com, the Customer Advisory Board, customer meetings and training sessions and internal teams; fixes for issues raised via our Support Team |
| New Features | Enhancing an existing feature in Platinum to expand the functionality and provide increased benefits like Unit Ordering or Warehouse Picking through Platinum Online. |
| 3rd Party Integrations | Projects to link our system with the 3rd Party systems like Honda, Triumph, Autotrader etc. |
| Legislative | GDPR, Brexit |
| Initiatives | Projects that have wide appeal across our entire customer base. They strive to include features that will provide significant improvements to your business operations. An example is Platinum Online |
Every year, the business decides what percentage of time we should spend against each of these areas so that the projects can be planned in accordingly. To help us prioritise, we consider the following for each project:
| How popular will the idea be with our customers and how long will it take to develop and implement? | Can the scope be split into smaller, more manageable, phases that can be delivered separately? | For 3rd party integrations we need to be sure that we are all working to the same roadmap timelines. | What are the benefits to you and when will you see a return on your investment? The same comments apply to Ibcos too. |
As you can imagine, juggling the multiple requests that come in from the numerous sources is very challenging. We try to be as fair as we can when prioritising projects with not too much emphasis on any one area. For enhancements and fixes, the decisions taken on which tickets to work on are collaborative between our Support and R&D teams.
Over the course of 2022, the team will move into working more on New Features and Initiatives projects.
If you have any further questions on how we prioritise projects, please contact product_team@catalyst-uk.com. Please note that we cannot help with any queries on specific tickets that you have raised.