5 Ways Lean Startup Should Be Applied to Every Business
Earlier this year, I’d say mid-pandemic (are we going to start measuring time like this?), we started a Book Club here at City Innovation Labs. (Here’s my 2020 book list). Most of us are avid readers anyway and we’re all inherently curious. What was our first book? Lean Startup by Eric Reis. I’m not here […]
3 Important Things We Learned from Conducting Project Retrospectives
During COVID times, companies are familiar with pivoting. Analyzing what will help them keep moving forward during these strange times is imperative. Our company is not immune to this and we have taken time to be critical of our own process and experimented along the way. Project Retrospectives are a tool we have used in […]
Why is Agile Software Development More Effective?
Agile Software Development Agile Software Development is a quick and compelling way to respond to change. It is incremental and iterative and allows for a fast turnaround. Solutions come from collaboration and allow the development process to be customer-centric and proactive to the ever-changing environment. At City Innovation Labs – we use agile software development […]
How To Build An Impressive Product Vision Board
A lot of businesses have a vision statement – a memorable sentence that expresses the core aim of the company. However, not many lay it all out on a product vision board. When City Innovation Labs facilitates workshops with our clients we like to ask if the business has a vision statement for itself or […]
What is the Importance of Lean Software Development?
What is Lean Software Development? What does lean mean and why would we use it in our software development process? Lean Startup is important to us here at CIL because it is a core belief in how businesses should be run and software should be built. Lean means we follow a build, measure, learn cycle […]
How to Build Real Time Search with RxJS and React.js
Real time search is a common feature that is included in products. A typeahead is a common example of that. The idea is that as the user types, search results return in real time. Slack does this when you first start to mention a user. This post looks at how to build a robust real […]
How to Create an Effective Internal Journey Map
Most companies have a goal to always provide the best experience for employees and customers. When working in Human Resources, employees and potential employees are the focus. One area of improvement for us is our hiring and onboarding process. I took some time to learn and apply a journey map to this process and here’s […]
How to Get Started with Postgres Full Text Search
Search is a common feature in many products today. The time to build and deploy a fully realized search feature can take weeks. If your product already uses Postgres the time to build a search feature can go from weeks to hours by using Postgres’s built in full text search features.
Are You Wasting Time in Your Software Development Process?
The minutia of your software development process is problematic. It wastes time under the guise of being productive or enhancing the quality of the software. Unfortunately, many developers personally identify with certain designs or tendencies. This causes them to defend their position while not recognizing or realizing that it doesn’t matter. Here are some of […]
How to Contract the RIGHT Software Development Company
I wish I could say these pitfalls rarely happen when choosing a software development company. However, in my 15 years of experience, they are more frequent than not. To give your business the best chance of success you must be aware of these pitfalls. They can cause catastrophic financial problems or leave your software system […]