Category: Uncategorized

Raising capital as a pre-seed or seed-stage startup can feel like scaling Mount Everest in flip-flops. Forget the tired VC circuit – the funding landscape is evolving, and there’s a treasure trove of opportunities beyond the traditional path.

2024 promises to be a game-changer for early-stage startups, with these 7 innovative trends offering fresh avenues for securing the fuel you need to launch your rocket ship:

1. Revenue-Based Financing: Growth Without Dilution

Tired of sacrificing equity for a shot at growth? Say hello to revenue-based financing (RBF). Platforms like Clearbanc and Pipe offer loans based on your future revenue, not your company shares. Imagine borrowing $50,000 today, repaying it as a percentage of your future sales – no equity dilution, just pure growth leverage.

According to CB Insights, RBF deals in the US grew by a staggering 278% in 2023, proving its growing popularity among bootstrapping startups.

2. ESG: Investing with a Conscience, Building a Better Future

It’s not just about profits anymore. Investors are increasingly seeking startups with strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. Got an eco-friendly cleaning solution or a platform empowering marginalized communities? Shout it from the rooftops!

A 2022 Morgan Stanley report states that global ESG assets are projected to reach a staggering $53 trillion by 2025, highlighting the immense potential for ventures with a positive social impact. Remember, doing good can also lead to good funding.

3. Embedded Finance: Turning Your Platform into a Funding Powerhouse

Think outside the funding box. Your fitness app could offer microloans for gym memberships, your music platform could connect fans with artist investment opportunities – with embedded finance, the possibilities are endless. Platforms like Stripe and Square let you seamlessly integrate financial services within your existing platform, creating new revenue streams and strengthening customer loyalty. Imagine offering custom insurance plans within your e-commerce store or micro-investing options within your social media app.

A 2023 McKinsey report predicts that embedded finance will generate $1.2 trillion in revenue by 2026, showcasing its massive potential for innovative startups.

4. Data-Driven Decisions: Your Algorithm Ally

Pitching based on gut instinct? So 2023. Today, data is your secret weapon. Platforms like PitchBook and CB Insights aggregate vast amounts of startup data, providing insights into market trends, competitor analysis, and even investor preferences. Use this intel to craft data-driven pitches that resonate, predict growth trajectories, and make informed decisions like a seasoned pro. No more flying blind – data is your roadmap to attracting the right investors for your startup.

5. Global Collaboration: Crossing Borders, Cultivating Connections

The world is your oyster. Cross-border investments are on the rise, and platforms like AngelList and Gust connect you with investors worldwide. Don’t limit yourself to local VCs – tap into global talent pools, access new markets, and diversify your investor base.

A 2023 Global Startup Ecosystem Report by Startup Genome revealed that cross-border venture capital deals saw a 48% increase in 2022, underscoring the growing importance of global collaboration for early-stage startups.

6. Micro-Investing Mob: Crowdfunding for the Modern Age

Forget million-dollar rounds – micro-investing platforms like Figment and EquityZen are democratizing the game. Now, anyone can own a tiny slice of your high-growth startup, not just the venture capitalists with fancy suits. Imagine raising capital from a passionate community of believers, fueled by excitement and shared purpose.

A 2023 PwC report estimates that the global tokenized assets market could reach a staggering $13.2 trillion by 2027, highlighting the immense potential of micro-investing for early-stage ventures.

7. Sustainable Growth: Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Hypergrowth? Meh. Sustainable growth is the new mantra. Investors are prioritizing profitability, customer retention, and positive unit economics over burning through cash in a race to unicorn status. Focus on building a solid foundation, optimizing your operations, and delivering real value to your customers.

Remember, long-term stability and profitability are the keys to attracting investors who see your vision and believe in your journey, not just a quick exit.

Fuelling Your Startup Journey with Galaxy Weblinks

These are just the launchpad. The key is to explore, experiment, and find the perfect fit for your unique startup. Galaxy Weblinks can help you navigate this dynamic funding landscape and turn innovative trends into tangible results. Our team of experienced developers and MVP specialists works alongside you to optimize your platform for embedded finance or leverage data insights to craft powerful pitches. We understand the challenges pre-seed and seed startups face, and we’re here to bridge the gap between your vision and your first round of funding.

Get your MVP ready to impress. Whether you’re building a fitness app with microloans or a social platform brimming with micro-investment opportunities, Galaxy Weblinks can bring your vision to life with agile development and expert guidance. Remember, the future of funding belongs to those who dare to innovate, who leverage data, and who prioritize sustainable growth. Let Galaxy Weblinks be your partner in navigating this exciting new terrain and securing the fuel you need to launch your startup towards the stars.

Ready to unlock your funding potential? Contact Galaxy Weblinks today for a free consultation and let’s make your innovative idea a reality.

With a commitment to vaccines and the hope of smiling without face masks, 2021 was indeed a year to remember. Even in its second year of working remotely, Galaxy clocked a growth of 97% in revenue over 2020. This growth spurt paved our way into the INC 5000 list that showcases America’s fastest 5000 growing companies. 

We were fortunate enough to be able to continue doing what we love and are passionate about! We were all very excited about what 2022 would bring for us. Brimming with new ideas, now is the time to review and ponder how the year went by and be proud of it. 

Here is a look back at 2021 in the form of numbers, milestones, and learnings.

At Galaxy, our employees are our greatest strength. We added a whopping 219 talented techies to our family, taking our overall number to 570. We are also big on recognizing the contributions of our employees and have promoted 41 of them as a reward for their hard work and commitment.

Galaxy added 44 new clients to our rapidly growing list and an impressive 140 new projects. Our areas of specialization include 

• User Experience
• Product Engineering
• Mobile Development 
• Cloud and IT Security
• Web Technologies
• ERP 
• Digital Marketing

The year 2021 was also full of industry recognitions and accolades.

We also gained some valuable life lessons and valuable learning.

• Businesses are beyond B2B or B2C. It is about H2H, i.e., human to human connection.
• We are committed to remaining transparent and approachable to our clients. 
• Galaxy is a close-knit family where the well-being and growth of our employees are our biggest commitments. 
• Leadership is about creating more leaders. 

Another feather in our cap is Sanjeevani, our corporate social responsibility initiative. We raised INR 200,000 from our employees in 2021, which was matched equally by the organization. We used this amount for various philanthropic initiatives like providing financial assistance for medical expenses, donating at old age homes, donating clothes to the underprivileged during festival season, and so on. 

2021 proved to be a fruitful year for Galaxy, and we look forward to more growth, learning, and experiences in 2022! 

At Galaxy Weblinks, we build high-performing software solutions that help teams scale. And write about it in the process. You may have spotted us on some of the popular platforms such as Hackernoon, The Startup, Level Up Coding, and Muzli to name a few.

In hopes of helping you fine-tune your design and development strategy, we fetched this blog list to help designers, developers, project managers, or decision-makers with:

• Tips on automating the redundant tasks and improving the productivity level using tools that worked wonders while collaboration.
• Best practices in design and development processes for building apps that scale and perform better.
• Give updates on best in industry trends for website and app development technologies.

Here are Galaxy’s most read and interesting Medium pieces from 2020. This is an opportunity to learn from the best in the design and development processes, so feel free to peruse our comprehensive list!

1. Migration Plan to the All New Vue JS 3 

Published in: The Startup Main topics covered:  Vue 2 to Vue 3 upgrade, app migration process, new features.

If you have been involved in building a custom or single-page application with Vue.js, you will find its development nitty-gritty interesting for your project. If you want your Vue.js application to become faster, smaller, more maintainable, you should check out this blog that focuses on upgrading to Vue 3 with an easier approach to target native.

In this article, you’ll get a comprehensive insight on how you can upgrade your Vue.js 2 application into Vue 3, and what are the breaking changes you should expect in Vue 3.

2. 6 Productivity Tools that all Developers Should Try

Published in: Level Up Coding Main topics covered: Code editing, collaboration, development tools.

A developer’s life is filled with many unknown errors and glitches waiting to pop up at the most inconvenient times. The blog entails some interesting tools focused on keeping your developers’ productivity levels at their peak while assisting you in improving your project deliveries and turnarounds. The tools it vouched for include Typora, Codernotes, Mindly, and others.

There are numerous software tools available to assist and streamline the development team and decrease their cognitive load. These tools mentioned will help you as a developer to concentrate more on creating robust solutions quickly.

3. Atom vs Sublime: Which text editor to choose in 2020?

Published: Internal release Main topics covered: Text editor, code editing.

Developers are familiar with code editors that contain features like quick navigation, syntax highlighting, automatic indenting, etc. This blog focuses on the side by side comparison between these two popular text editors, Atom and Sublime.

Both Text Editors offer a more familiar code editing experience without an integrated terminal and debugger. It will help you in understanding the core differences between the two to choose from, depending on your development needs.

4. How To Decide The Right Tech Stack For Web/Mobile App

Published: JavaScript in Plain English Main topics covered: Frontend and backend technologies, web and mobile app tech stack.

A well-chosen tech stack gives a competitive advantage and helps your mobile or web application grow, whereas the wrong technology can set you back by months. This blog focuses on things you need to know about choosing the right tech stack, and some clues for making smart decisions for the same.

The decision will determine whether your mobile and web application will perform well and be scalable. The blog also involves some useful resources for frontend and backend technologies. A checklist for choosing the tech stack is a must-check.

5. A Practical Checklist for Quickest App Release

Published: Bits and Pieces Main topics covered: software development process, app development speed, best practices.

In this blog, we have churned out best practices for ensuring that your software development and deployment takes place within the set timeline. Practical tips like avoiding technical debt and investment in automated tools will help you shorten your SDLC.

These best practices will help you immensely in taking your product to the market faster. Your team will be able to save time, work on more complex tasks and increase their knowledge base.

6. 5 Alternatives To WordPress that You Should Try

Published: Dev Genius Main topics covered: CMS platforms, website development.

In this blog, we curated CMS platforms that are tried and tested by our team. We have worked on them, so we know where they trump and where they lack. It will be a great piece for you if you are planning to switch your CMS platform or looking for a new platform other than WordPress.

The list will prove to be a huge deciding factor for you to choose the right CMS platform for you according to your business requirements.

7. 10+ Best UX Practices For Your Ecommerce Store

Published: Muzli Main topics covered: Ecommerce, UX design, website development.

In this blog, we have covered some best practices that we employ while designing our client ecommerce stores. From optimizing your website’s loading time to streamlining your checkout process, we have mentioned design hacks that will help you improve your website traffic.

All the mentioned practices will get you closer to your growth goals. And since the online marketplace is a crowded one, you can either nail the fundamentals perfectly or do something out of the box.

8. Why should you build a UI Component Library?

Published: Design + Sketch Main topics covered: Design system, UI component library, Collaboration, and design tools.

Building a component library is an optimized way to reduce the overhead that comes with maintaining multiple repositories for multiple components. This blog focused on the benefits, and the practices to build a component library for your design system that will facilitate tighter integration between design and development.

From building and distributing components, documentation, and leveraging the right tools, this piece will help you collaborate with your team smoothly.

9. How to improve your design workflow with Zeplin and Sketch?

Published: Design + Sketch Main topics covered: Design system, UI design workflow, web, and app development.

The designers need to transfer their ideas or designs of a digital product for development. Tools, such as Zeplin enable this handover, while also supporting design tools like Sketch. In this article, we guided through how the winning combination of Zeplin and Sketch can improve the transition of design towards development.

This blog will help you identify the similarities between projects more quickly to help plan out how code or designs should be managed.

10. 11 Collaboration Tools for Designers, Developers, and PMs

Published in: Level Up Coding

Main topics covered: Collaboration tools, Design tools, Productivity tools

We curated a list of tools for all our fellow designers, developers, and project managers to help them find the best-suited one for their team, including the ones that meet your remote collaboration requirements.

Our teams use all the listed tools for smooth collaboration, and many industry experts vouch for them too.

These are some of the most-read pieces of 2020 curated for you. Do read our other blogs here and on our Medium as well. And in case you have some 2021 revamping plans for your online product, we have got a team for you. Just drop us your details here, and we will connect with you.

Galaxy Weblinks

We specialize in delivering end-to-end software design & development services. Our digital product experts are creative problem-solvers with a decade of experience in all facets of digital and interactive design and development. We create compelling and human-focused web and mobile experiences delivered through clean, and minimalistic UI.

Unless you’re the only developer on your team, you must be spending a lot of time in technical discussions or communicating about design docs, and code reviews with other developers and non-developers.

No matter how great your technical skills are, they alone just wouldn’t cut it! To develop winning software, you have to be an effective team player.

It’s not always easy to work and collaborate efficiently with people in your team. People have different temperaments and varied perspectives, opinions, or experiences. However, it takes empathy, maturity, and acceptance, along with superior technical skills and a winning attitude to be a value-add to your team.

Read our blog to know how you can be the best team player.

Here is how you can shine on as an effective team player that everyone would look up to – whether you are coding in a physical office or remote work environment.

Appreciate suggestions and feedback

Research indicates that the ideal ratio of criticism to positive comments should ideally be 1:5.

You must try to build a rapport and trust within your team. This would ensure that any suggestions made you would be taken in the right spirit and not as blatant criticism. Offering genuine praise along with constructive feedback will help you make inroads within the team.

Is your teammate killing it with the feature they’re working on?
Did they square away some part of the codebase as part of their peer review that they didn’t have to?
Did they slog through your 800-line code review with you?

Tell them you appreciate it!

Whereas, while receiving the feedback or criticism, avoid triggering a fight-or-flight reaction by asking, “How could we achieve a mutually desirable outcome?”

In its Aristotle Project, Google explains the first team effectiveness pillar, psychological safety as:

Within team members, it matters that they should feel safe in terms of offering a new idea, seeking clarification, asking a question, or admitting a mistake or weakness.

Such behavior helps you and your team members build the ability to take risks and be vulnerable in front of each other.

Anticipate your coworkers’ questions

At some point in time, you’ve all had to commit code that you’re not proud of or must have thrown problems over the wall to QA.

If you are asked to read your own after a few months, you may find several flaws in it. Perhaps working with a rough API or an impending deadline made you do some questionable things.

That’s a habit of making excuses which may lead you to a series of questions while code review from QA and other senior or junior developers, like —

“Does this code comply with client specified coding standards?”
“How does the system behave in this particular scenario? Will failure be logged for this particular scenario?”

You can anticipate other’s questions. For this, you need to be in their ‘proverbial shoes’ to understand the other person’s perspective and then asking yourself the questions beforehand like –

“What would be the stage where my code may not work?”
“Should I be reviewing pull requests?”

“Coding is a form of communication. Communication is rooted in empathy. So software engineers have a lot to gain from leveraging empathy as tactical skill.” — Andrea Goulet

As a good team player, the responsibility of basic level bug checking rather than passing chaos. Be proactive in documenting the sacrifices in code quality you’ve had to make, and why. Leave comments with answers to questions that you know your reviewers will have.

So, we can say that proper documentation with high-quality/maintainable code is a by-product of being an empathetic developer.

Be the go-to person for ‘that’ topic

Whether teaching yourself a new framework, availing an online course, or reading over an answer on Stack Overflow, your brain is consuming knowledge nonstop.

You constantly try to become an expert in your field, and if you’re really good, then through sharing it, you can become the go-to person for other developers.

“In today’s environment, hoarding knowledge ultimately erodes your power. If you know something very important, the way to get power is by actually sharing it.” — Joseph Badaracco

Exchange more creative ways to add to a project, be it through pull-request reviews, project management, facilitating discussions about GitHub issues, documentation, design, or code walk-throughs for other contributors.

The same opportunities can be offered to remote developers.

In fact, to make the most out of remote working, you can give them the updates on virtual developer conferences, write tech blogs, or split the costs of technical workshops or webinars, depending on common career paths you and your team members want to take.

You can also create a community or group to do remote mentoring sessions together in place of in-person mentoring. Encourage conversations and creative thinking to become a much more valuable team member.

One of the recent examples we’ve seen around knowledge sharing is where developers, UX designers, and product owners came together to vote on the topics they wanted most to discuss around frontend development — Enjoying their hot beverage at the same time!

Take a humble approach to other’s bad code

Developer’s work on another developer’s code – this is done all the time in every organization. Either mostly working on legacy code or as a peer review.

Most of us are guilty of writing it ourselves from time to time. How do you flag that up when the bad code was written by your teammate or your senior?

The issue with code, in general, is that there are multiple ways to write it. There isn’t a right or wrong way to do it. So, evaluate what is wrong in the code before you approach your colleague.

You’ll be building a supportive work environment by giving reasons and opening the discussion, instead of just expecting the developer to follow your word blindly.

Ask for their opinion on their code by asking questions in the most possible humble manner.

Would it be better to structure the code like this?
I don’t understand this section of code, could you explain it to me?

Incorporate all the code review best practices that offers a great opportunity to suggest fixes or changes.

Best team players treat fellow team members with courtesy and consideration – without needing a push.

If you create such a sense of support for your own team starting now, you can expect to see more learning and development opportunities, and better performance for you and as a team as well.

When everybody is fighting for online presence and consumer’s limited attention, quality and scale of digital assets becomes time sensitive. You might have in-house digital production to address such needs.

But the question you need to ask yourself is, can they do it well on a large scale and in a time crunch? It’s a job for the specialists!

With the fields and scope of digital media and digital agencies ever increasing, it is highly improbable that an agency has individuals that are skilled in each field – expecting to get a large firm at your disposal!

Apparently, traditional titans in every industry continue to be disrupted by digital-first competitors. What most of the companies do not typically have is the expertise to build software and digital products at the quality and velocity that Silicon Valley-backed digital start-ups do.

Digital product agencies help such existing players “disrupt the disruptors”.

While at it, there are many questions and doubts that arise in the minds of entrepreneurs planning to outsource their product development. If you can also relate to this situation, this write-up covers everything you might want to know about outsourcing digital product development.

The first question that arises- Should I outsource digital product development or not?

Well, the answer lies in what you actually mean by outsourcing. If your definition of outsourcing is to just hire a company, share your idea, and expect them to come up with the final product quickly, we would recommend you to abort the idea of outsourcing at the very moment.

However, if your idea of outsourcing starts with explaining your product idea, doing the initial R&D around it, analyzing your target audience, and then approaching an outsourcing company for the product development work, you might just be on the path to success.

But apart from this, your understanding of the problem can help you decide when and why you need to outsource digital product development.

Common issues businesses often see:

• Critically, how customers engage is different with digital; it’s unpredictable because customers are closely coupled to the “Digital Product”.
• It may look like print media – but the development needs are very different, and needs to be approached in a different way.
• Digital runs on IT but it doesn’t run like many internal business systems.
• It’s difficult to allocate the in-house time and talent while supporting the agile culture, required to build the calibre of application needed.
• Internal teams tend to look at their business and users from the sidelines, lacking the connotation of being a true outsider with a different perspective.

How outsourcing digital product development can benefit you?

As software complexity increased, businesses started employing methods to emphasize control of development – expecting predictable outcomes. The process was: Start with a specification so you know what you will get, plan the sequence of development, integrate the components and then test.

Digital product development also involves best practices in design thinking and lean development of projects.

Analytics & Optimization

A digital production agency can help you advertise, commercialize and promote your product. Their work doesn’t end after wrapping up the development, they’ll continue to provide support with SEO and other guidance post launch.

Technology

All sorts of technology manipulations and implementations on the product including the software, mobile and web development, machine learning, computer engineering, etc.

User Research

It’s important to identify the users you’re making the digital products for. User research helps you know the users on a somewhat personal level.Thus, you will have the opportunity to understand your customers beforehand in an individualized way.

Consulting

By examining your business operations, a digital product agency can give you guidance when it’s not enough updating, promoting and building a digital product.

Strategy

They are involved in concept creation, planning, implementation, development, release, update, marketing, and maintenance. In short, an entire practice for the digital product.

Design

A digital product agency can maintain all the experience and visual processes (UI/UX design), apart from, visual design and art direction.

Inside the working of a Digital Product Studio….

Most of the modern digital product studios are helping turn ideas into products. And are using ‘Collaboration’ as a catalyst with the idea that good products and collaboration go hand-in-hand.

To get a real-world outlook and working process of a digital product studio, let’s talk about their USPs that can ultimately ensure scalability for your business.

Internal collaboration

Collaboration has always been an area of prime interest. Whether that is collaboration between agencies and clients, or designers and developers.

On the whole, different teams like developers and designers have their own working space but they also work together closely in project groups. The degree of collaboration between designers and developers is influenced by what kind of project the team is working on.

For projects that only include designing mocks or user research, concept development, the developers are less involved. However, they do advise the design team on the technological scope and intricacies of the project.

Design principles they follow

Their design decisions are coherent because they set up design principles – a set of statements that define what they want the project to be.

Design principles come in handy when working on micro decisions like UI interactions. It helps the team to stay aligned with their goals and on the same page. In order to maintain this vision across the project, decisions are discussed within the context of the principles agreed upon earlier. Other considerations are reliability, maintainability, and very importantly, how future proof would the approach be.

Project workflow: Advantage of modularity

Since digital product studios work with clients on different kinds of projects, having a modular methodology helps tailor the process to the needs of the client.

For each project type, they have some set deliverables and activities, but they mix and match the activities depending on what’s right for the project.

Having different project types is more flexible for their clients – you can work with them when you need them most instead of a “gotta buy the whole package” deal.

Working with clients

When it comes to working with clients, digital product studios adopt a clear and open channel of communication. Clients are invited for in-person meetings when needed and a dedicated online communication channel is setup for them. Having a tight loop for collaboration helps avoid misunderstanding and ambiguity.

They tend to avoid the process where you send off a chunk of design for formal approval and feedback. Most of the time they feel it’s better to bring some sketches and sit down with the client, bringing up questions and showing how you’ve reached conclusions. It’s important to get more valuable input from the client.

They make sure to pass on their knowledge to the clients’ in-house team so that they’re positioned to manage their product after their engagement has ended.

Emphasis on scalability

One of the points that digital product studios emphasized is the scalability that hiring the correct design and development agency can bring to a team. This is what makes them separate from a “app development firm”.

“Let’s assume you wanted to build an in-house tech team. A designer, minimum. You would need 2 developers, at least. An IT engineer, a CTO if you’re not technical, a project manager, etc. And that is a considerable investment for any company because you need all of these things to run a technology arm to your company, if not an entire technology company.”

A digital product studio doesn’t only build one aspect of the tech side or a product. They aim to fill the technical gap that creates an entry barrier for budding startups and established enterprises to scale up their operations.

Choosing the right digital studio is crucial to your bottom line!

Reputable studios seek to establish a strong track record and longstanding relationships with clients.

The wrong one can quickly drain your budget and negatively impact your product development process. So, here are some recommended strategies for finding a digital product agency that can help your business grow.

• When choosing the right digital agency for your business, full transparency should be the first criterion. Review an agency’s website and, if you don’t see a client list, bios and an address, then this agency is likely not worth your time.
• Be sure to determine the agency’s experience and credibility. Read through client testimonials on B2B rating and review sites and its website. Ask for client references, including one from an account that did not go so well, to get the idea how they dealt with it.
• When evaluating a studio, consider not only its portfolio, but the collective experience of its team. Are its team leads accomplished professionals with backgrounds in product development, design, and strategy?
• Ask to get a comprehensive insight on how they manage their project scope and budget with timelines, as speed-to-market should be a priority for any product studio looking to create a competitive advantage for their clients.

Although, a digital product agency’s job doesn’t end with a great product launch, but how to drive users to the product, and how to ensure there is data available to continuously innovate. Once your product strategy framework and user experience research are in place, the next thing they are involved in is to design a process that would ensure that legendary user experience and attractive customer experience are a core part of your product delivery.

Whether this is your first rodeo or you are expanding your product offering, expert digital product designers can steer you in the right direction as it’s always important to get the right guidance on a certain aspect of design. Having a team of diverse, professional experts with both theoretical and practical knowledge has been critical to the success of a product.

Moreover, you could be overlooking something that someone else would catch. They say that a writer can’t edit his own work because he’s too invested in it. You can apply that principle to product design too.

If you treat the development process as an investment, and expect the best quality and team collaboration from your next digital product studio, contact us.

If you’ve heard of what a user story is, that’s great. If not, then here’s a general understanding. It’s basically mapping out your ideal user’s end goal when using either your website or mobile app. Creating a user story will convey what your customer wants to accomplish, laid out in a simple way.

Why should I create a User Story?

A user story gets your whole team on the same page about why they are building a feature for potential customers as well as the value it produces for end users. This will really help you when it comes to improving your user experience (UX), guaranteeing that the user can follow through and complete the task they set out to accomplish on your software.

Here are 3 benefits to user stories:

• User stories focus on a user’s desires and help your team remember that they’re solving problems for real people, not a generalized audience.
• Developers, project managers, stakeholders, and clients, all understand what’s expected and how best to serve the target audience, supporting better collaboration and understanding across all teams from client to provider.
• Stories foster more creative solutions. Instead of focusing on the “what” and “how,” your team can dive into the “why” customers do what they do, which helps when developing ideas for functionality.

When should I use a User Story?

Galaxy Weblinks recommends that you start forming a user story during discovery phase of your development project. It might be a good idea to have a business analyst, who is assigned to the project, develop the user stories in the discovery phase and maintain it throughout the agile project.

Once the discovery phase is finished, the rest of the team should contribute to create a product backlog of user stories. This backlog will fully lay out the functionality that needs to be added during the lifespan of the project. In an agile project, you can always add new stories to the product backlog at any time and by anyone.

Where to start? Here are our 4 steps in forming a great user story:

1. Recognize the needs of the users

Your client will have to clearly define the users who will use the application. This sets the tone for the whole process — you need to know the user, their pain points, needs, and goals. It’s advisable to have a strong understanding of your users, but even if you think you know them well, market research and interviewing potential users before and during the discovery phase will be your greatest ally.

This is a great time to encourage your clients to collaborate with you on the process and will show them that you care enough to do your homework on their target audience. Work with business analysts and UX researchers to deliver focus groups, perform interviews, and compile other findings to create data-driven UX maps and user personas.

2. Form Epics

An Epic is usually a large portion of work that has a single, common objective. These are usually formed before the user stories are written. They’re also continually developed as more user stories are identified. The user stories are then grouped into these epics.

Let’s say a user wants to fill out a contact form to reach you. The user will probably appreciate if your contact form is autofill-friendly. As you can imagine, this step really helps when planning what features developers need to build, in what order, and provides them with a high-level understanding of the features of the application.

3. Creating the actual User Story

Once you have narrowed down the users and started considering the epics, the business analyst on the project will start a draft of the user story. Along the way, the analyst may add and redefine some of the epics, and that will happen. It’s also a good idea to ask your clients if they’d like to contribute during this time — they may greatly appreciate being kept “in the loop.”

Most user stories follow this format – Define type of user and their role, user seeks a goal (to have pain taken away, to add happiness, etc.), and user seeks this goal for a result — will we be able to deliver their desired outcome?

Here are 6 guidelines to make sure your user story hits its mark:

• Should be autonomous. When the developers implement the user story, it should work with any sequence.
• Keep it flexible. Don’t fill it out with minute details. It needs to be adaptable for different user situations.
• Make it human. Remember that the user should get some value from the story.
• Plan ahead. Use project management to help your team plan project timelines.
• The shorter, the better. It shouldn’t be void of content or only have a few sentences, but smaller stories are easier to manage than large ones.
• Measurable. Your team should be able to know when and where the story “ends.” What’s the outcome/result for the user?

4. Define your acceptance criteria

This is used to layout the specifics of your user story in layman’s terms. This will help the developers get a better grasp for the requirements and details of the user story. Testers can also use this as a checklist when testing the application.

The business analyst defines acceptance criteria, and then once the project moves onto development, the entire team contributes in defining it. When the developers contribute along with the team, it guarantees that the details of the user story are doable and can be efficiently implemented.

Some handy tips:

• Define the acceptance criteria before development starts. It will help you to understand the user intent first before the development begins, rather than forming the user story around the development reality.
• Remove all ambiguity. It is important to consider edge cases and be prepared for possible scenarios, i.e., “What if they log out during a transaction?” You’ll be on top of UX and will give you superior test coverage.

What Should the User Story Look Like by the End?

At the end of the day, user stories are crucial in helping us form applications that solve real problems for real people. If you can research your users and truly understand their needs, you can create a great set of user stories that clearly lists the users’ goals/desires and how you can solve their needs.

We love working with clients to form user stories based on research and their knowledge. We conduct interviews and collect data that way when we work on your website or mobile app, we’ll have an advanced understanding of your customers’ needs.

Drop us message here and we’d be glad to answer any questions you have about our process and how it can benefit you, your business, and your clients.