Building a World-Class Software Project Team in an Unstable Talent Market

team

Trends of Staffing in Software At City Innovations, we are constantly trying to refine our process for the better of our customers. These process refinements range from kickoff to closeout on our projects — and some even outside of our project process like staffing.  Historically, software development teams have largely adopted an idealistic “Stable World” […]

5 Easy Steps To Accomplish Your Spring Goals

Accomplishing Spring Goals

Springtime is upon us, which means it’s time to tackle those spring goals! It is the ultimate season of symbolism. Rains bring life and rebirth, plants begin to bloom, animals awaken from a cold slumber, and everything else begins to renew. The word spring means to “burst forth, or to leap”. I don’t know about […]

What Is A Workshop? And Why Do I Need One?

What is a Workshop?

What is a Workshop Episode Summary I’m thinking Spring today, I don’t know about you guys. It’s sunny and all the snow is melting and I’m here for it. I’m also here for this next episode of AAI which is all about workshops. What is a workshop? How can they help us deduce the product […]

How to Build an App the Right Way

Episode Summary Getting ready to build an app can be a lengthy and expensive experience. So how do you do it the right way? Last week we talked about the Product Validation Funnel. Testing, validating, and understanding your target market are essential before building anything. How do you know when you’re ready? When you’ve done […]

What is the Product Validation Funnel?

Product Validation Funnel Episode

Episode Summary On the podcast today, Josh and I discuss the Product Validation Funnel, a term we coined here at CIL. It is a method of building software, a way to discover where clients are in their process and help them to the next part of the funnel. Product validation is inherent to how we […]

What is the True Cost of Software Development?

Cost of Software Development Podcast

Episode Summary We build software. Great, so what is the actual cost of software development? There are plenty of reasons you may want to build custom software, but you probably have some questions about how much money you’re going to have to throw in to get exactly what you want. We go through how we […]

5 Ways Lean Startup Should Be Applied to Every Business

Lean Startup for 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

What can we learn from 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 Development Feature Image

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 […]