InRhythm CEO, Gunjan Doshi, recently completed a Bar Raisers Training Bootcamp at client site in Phoenix, AZ. Bar Raisers are the people who are able to transform any team they join with passion, drive, and the innate ability to influence those around them to achieve new heights. #BarRaisers bootcamp outlines and identifies actionable steps for companies to recognize and hire top-notch talent!
InRhythm News
InRhythm 2016 Year in Review
As we look to 2017, we would like to share InRhythm’s most memorable, interesting and fun facts from 2016. Wishing you success in the new year!
The Key to Product Management? User Experience
Product Managers (PdMs) are the advocates for the business and for the end-user of a Product, and in this sense, they not only own the vision and requirements for the product, but also the user experience. In a small startup with limited resources, the Product Manager role can potentially be executed by a single individual. However, perfecting the Product Management framework demands strong comprehension of divergent skillsets, the ability to execute, and the time to do so, which one person typically does not have. To be successful, PdMs must align and engage closely with User Experience professionals, rather than tackle everything on their own.
As owners of the user experience, Product Managers must have complete understanding of the users. The insight required goes far beyond answering simple questions such as “who the users are”, “what they need,” “what their pain-points are,” and the eventual creation of moss-covered personas. PdMs must work with User Experience Researchers, experts in investigating (identifying potential causes of the issues) and triangulating (validating user experience findings with quantitative analysis), to gain 360 degree insight into the users. Without complete awareness, the vision (and eventual roadmap, objectives/key results, and backlog) cannot be genuinely validated, and the chance of building the product that your users need greatly diminishes.
On all but the easiest and most straightforward products, it’s impossible to jump directly to creating wireframes and diving into the sprints. To ensure that the user experience aligns to the user needs, PdMs must team and align closely with User Experience Designers to create the information architecture, taxonomy, interaction design, libraries of design patterns, and content strategy. Skipping this step is a surefire path to creating a framework that does not align to the user needs, and also ensures eventual rework, increasing the overall chance of product failure. This effort must be done in advance of the sprints, as Designers will not have time during sprints to think through the end-to-end solution while at the same time creating wireframes for stories, which will reflect poorly on the Product Manager, not User Experience.
Following the release of features, the PdM must then measure the success of what has been developed using both traditional analytics and the User Experience Research framework, to answer the following questions:
- Do the features meet the needs of the customers?
- Do our customers use the features as expected?
Regardless of the answers, the PdM must figure out how to translate them into action, deciding to either continue with the current plan/backlog, or to pivot. Maximizing return on investment is key; pivoting takes a great deal of time and effort (sometimes completely returning to the drawing board). The only way to combat this risk is to engage with User Experience early, and at every step of the process. Without this bond, it’s very difficult to validate that you’re building the right product, in the right way, and to truly be an advocate for your users.
InRhythm Named Fastest Growing Company Four Straight Years in a Row
InRhythm is proud to announce that we have once again earned a coveted spot on Inc. 5000’s Fastest Growing Companies list. We have become a strong leader in the industry and a trusted partner for enterprises seeking to experience modern software development. Using cutting edge technologies to develop highly scalable and secure web applications and platforms, InRhythm is at the forefront of delivering incredible value at the highest velocity.
Over the past four years, InRhythm has witnessed tremendous growth in its consulting practice areas: modern software engineering, lean UX, and enterprise Agile. In the last year alone, we have welcomed several new high profile enterprise clients to our portfolio.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Gunjan Doshi, credits InRhythm’s team of inspirational and hard-working thought-leaders and their customer-centric focus with the company’s 165% growth. In his words, “Thank you to everyone at InRhythm and our clients for helping us achieve this important milestone. Our team is focused on creating a value-driven, high-growth business. We take great pride in knowing that more and more enterprises are choosing InRhythm as a preferred partner in their journey of building modern software development centers of excellence. Our thought leadership in the world of Agile, Lean UX and design thinking, and modern engineering makes us a strong and reliable partner.”
According to Vice President of Engineering, Jack Morgan, “The focus on modern engineering practices is what makes InRhythm such a success. Our engineers are helping to bring new centers of excellence to our clients, and they are regularly seeing delivery results at a much faster pace and higher standard of quality than ever before. InRhythm has doubled in staff this year and we look forward to continued growth in 2017.”
Vice President of Business Development & Agile Practice, Gary Scharf, adds, “Our growth is aided by the fact that our focus is narrow but deep. We work in partnership with our clients from the Application to the Organization in helping them transform by taking advantage of technologies and processes that help them compete in their markets.
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To those of you reading this, thank you! Thank you for supporting our vision and constantly coming back to read our content. We couldn’t have done it without you!
Self-Improvement Is The Key To All Success – How InRhythm Is Moving On Up
At InRhythm one of our values is to learn and grow daily. We believe in order to be at the top, you must always be moving. Over the past couple of months we have been working hard on re-defining our focus and offerings. Self-improvement is the key to all success and it is important to take a critical eye to yourself every once in a while. That critique brought us to update and bring some life back into our brochures and handouts. We use our handouts as a quick “InRhythm Guide” for ourselves, clients, and potential employees. Each handout clearly explains our mission and includes examples of the work we have completed. Many of the handouts go into detail about our Agile framework with nifty visuals. We are excited to keep moving forward and hit new milestones every day.
Take a look and immerse yourself in our world.