Feedback Driven Development
The Bidlogix team uses Agile principles and feedback driven development - but what does that look like in practice?
This article explores how feedback drove the development of a brand new feature, which was released within 11 days and popular with users within just one month.
Outdated tech and poor user experience? Time for change
With the release of BidJS V4, scalability and user experience were put at the heart of development decisions. As is always the case with agile development, identifying features that need improvement is a continuous process.
It became clear that the My Bids feature was not delivering adequate value to BidJS V4 clients and users. My Bids was using outdated technologies, so it was not scalable and offered a subpar user experience that did not tie into the general look and feel of V4.
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
Just trying to keep the customer satisfied - and fast!
Feedback from clients highlighted their users’ needs as follows:
- Users can see lots they are winning or are currently the highest bidder for
- Users can see lots they have bid on but are not winning
- Users can see lots they have starred
- Users need this new feature quickly
- Users need to be able to find and use staring, winning and losing filters easily
The aim was to get something out there and usable as quickly as possible, counting down days rather than weeks to release. This was enabled by the improvements made as part of our V4 upgrades, such as our modular architecture, which you can find out about in our V4 Webinar.
As part of this process, early iterations of how Starring, Winning and Losing filters within the auction view would work, look and feel were shared with some volunteer clients, who provided feedback before further iterations were made.
The result? Only 11 days to launch
Fast feedback and Agile approach meant the new feature was made available to BidJS V4 users within just 11 days of identifying the weakness in this area.
Within 1 month of release, usage of the starring filter more than doubled from its initial location within the filter section. On top of this, around 25% of bidders were engaging with the new filters straight away where use of My Bids was only at 5% for BidJS V3.
When the stars align, a new feature is born
Having a new feature move so quickly from conception to release came down to three important aspects converging: Modern technology, an Agile approach and fast feedback loops with clients. This example has strengthened the Bidlogix team’s mission to ‘live’ fast feedback and embody agile principles.
If you’re able to provide feedback at short notice and have an insight into what your BidJS V4 users want to see then we need to hear from you!
P.S. Still on V3? Time to upgrade to V4! Get in touch for more information.