Working with Headway

Here’s what you can expect from our teams. Learn about the process and tools we use for every project to stay aligned and on track.

Diagnose before prescribing

Your participation from start to finish is crucial. We rely on your expertise and feedback throughout the process to understand your business and growth challenges. It’s all powered by partnership.

Understand your

current state

Align on

key constraints

Fixed investment and timeline

Scope is flexible, but we guide to specific outcomes based on the MSCW prioritization, continuous discovery, and design along the way.

Fixed scope

Scope and business outcomes are fixed, but the investment and timeline are flexible. Typical for Healthcare, Fintech, and other compliant applications.

Continuous agile team

We work alongside your team as an embedded extension to prioritize and execute on the shared mission.

Discovery

Collaboration and goals

Every project starts with discovery. We learn everything about you, what you care about, define the project, set goals, and align on the metrics that matter.

Where did you start?

Where do you want to go next?

What do you value?

Who are your customers and why do they care about you?

Team needs

It’s nothing personal, it’s practical. We're not here to judge, we're here to help you be the best you can be. Think of us like your startup coach, here to help you level up.

What are you doing well?

Where are you struggling?

How can we assist?

Competitive analysis

After we learn about you, we learn about what you’re up against. We dive into your industry through observation, research, and analysis.

Who is your competition and what are their strengths?

What opportunities exist for you to differentiate?

User empathy

Involving customers in the process is where the gold will be found. We must understand their emotions, experiences, and desires to know what matters to them.

Who is your audience and how do they think?

What problems are they having that your company is excited and able to solve?

How can we validate assumptions along the way?

Experiment, measure, learn

Our goal is to bring new ideas to market and keep them there. But the reality is, most new products fail. We believe in continual testing and validation. Because you don’t want a product, you want a business.

Experiment

Create testing vehicle

We find the best way to test our hypothesis together. These are a combination of no-code prototypes, surveys, and user interviews.

Measure

User testing and data collection

We track user activity to understand who is using your app and how they are using it. It’s about gathering evidence.

Learn

Analyzing outcomes

Looking for patterns in the data helps us decide if our hypothesis was true and what we should test for next.

Early experiments that drive validation

Validate assumptions

How do we know if we’re on the right path? We use customer interviews and data from testing prototypes to validate ideas. It’s about using qualitative and quantitative testing together, not alone.

Continuous Impact Loop™

Our dual-track agile process solves key business and customer problems to deliver consistent results.

Step 1

Explore

• Customer Data and Feedback
• Customer Interviews
• Opportunity Identification

Step 2

Prototype

• Solution Design
• Prototyping
• User Testing

Step 3

Pilot

• Experiment Design Build
• Limited Release
• Data and Analytics

Step 4

Scale Up

• Full Feature Build
• Release and Promotion
• Support at Scale

Sprint Overview

For most projects we run our sprints in two week cadences. Let’s walk through what they look like and how it goes down.

Sprint Planning

Sprint planning helps create clarity around what can be delivered each sprint, and thus what the overall project will be able to achieve. We leverage MSCW to prioritize next steps.

Daily Standups

Hearing from every person on the project each day, or being able to read an absent member's update, keeps everyone in the know and feeling like a part of the team.

Backlog Refinement

Mid-sprint backlog grooms help confirm or re-set expectations with the team and with clients. We allow our learnings and interactions with customers to inform and help us adapt.

Sprint Shareout

Showcase the hard work of the design, development, and product strategy teams over the prior sprint and highlight the value that was added to the product over that period.

Sprint Retrospective

Take time and review how we can improve our work together. What’s been working well? What’s not? What can we change moving forward to make us more effective?

Pricing and billing

Bi-weekly billing

Our billing cycle is synced directly with our 2-week sprint cycle, so you know exactly how your investment was allocated.

Predictable investment

We bill based on the number of crew that are active on the effort during the previous sprint.

50% back guarantee

We stand behind our team, our processes, and the out-sized value we can bring you. If you don’t think Headway is the right partner to get you where you need to go within the first 45 days of the project, invoke the guarantee and you’ll be refunded 50% of your investment to date. No questions asked. You keep everything we’ve created to date.

Client testimonial

"From beginning to end, top to bottom, Headway has not only taken on every aspect of software development for our latest standalone mobile app product, but has done so with great organization, strategic thinking, and attention to detail."

Joscelyn Daguna
Biosensor Launch Lead at One Drop

Toolkit

Notion

This becomes our source of truth. We use a project dashboard to manage notes, tasks, and documentation.

Zoom

"Can everyone see my screen?" Yes… We use Zoom for calls and collaboration sessions. When we do, our cameras are turned on and we’re ready to rock.

Slack

We create a private channel just for you to connect with Headway crew members involved with your project. Have a random question? Lay it on us.

Figma

Our design tool of choice because of its powerful capabilities and collaborative nature. This is where the magic happens.

Loom

Don’t feel like typing it all out? Can’t make it to a meeting? Ask a question or share an update asynchronously with the team with a Loom screen recording.