How Kraaft opened the product black box and inspired a culture of transparency with Cycle
"Cross-collaboration at Kraaft has drastically improved. Now, we see people actively commenting and asking insightful questions about user interviews. Everything is accessible in Cycle, and people go to see the roadmap and what is going out in the next release. Cycle helps me inspire a culture of transparency in the company. I firmly believe everything should be public, and Product should not be a black box."
Christophe Colard - Head of Product @Kraaft
TL;DR
Challenges: Kraaft faced issues with collaboration, feedback organization, and the need for a user-friendly feedback management tool to cope with the increasing amount of feedback.
Solution: With the adoption of Cycle, Kraaft dramatically improved cross-collaboration on Product, improved productivity, enhanced product quality, and built stronger customer relationships.
About Kraaft
Kraaft is a versatile messaging and project management app tailored for public works, enabling image and object classification similar to tools like Notion or Airtable. The core mission is to foster collaboration between field teams and office personnel in the public works sector.
Person: Christophe, Head of Product
Industry: Public Works and Project Management
Headquarters: Paris
Founded: 2019
Company Size: 15
Kraaft's story & alternative comparisons
Christophe was using ProductBoard before and hated several things. On the big picture, the tools didn’t align with Christophe’s vision to democratize product development by opening the too-common “Product black box”.
"I had too many issues with Productboard:
- First, we never managed to onboard the teams, especially the CSM & Sales.
- Everything is made for an upgrade.
- Communication and collaboration were really hard for the product team. We wanted to work together, identify the opportunities, prioritize them, etc, but we couldn’t. I do not want the production to be in an ivory tower. I want everybody to comment, criticize, and contribute to our product development.
- Last but not least, the text editor is not collaborative.”
"PB is over-engineered. Cycle is easier and better suited for smaller teams. After implementing Cycle, my designer told me “I never understood PB, but I understand Cycle."
Christophe Colard - Head of Product @Kraaft
Christophe found Cycle cheaper and much more flexible to adapt to their needs.
He considered Notion due to its flexibility but ultimately chose not to use it. Notion's adaptability was attractive, but it lacked a crucial feature that Kraaft needed - the ability to highlight specific sentences in reports. This highlighting feature was vital for effective communication within the team, and without it, certain aspects of the product development process were not getting the attention they deserved.
How Kraaft uses Cycle
Feedback comes from two sources: a Teams channel where Sales & CS teams share user feedback and user interviews written directly in Cycle. Here is how they use the tool:
The PM classifies feedback every week. After interviews, they link quotes to relevant features. They also create Linear tickets and share Cycle Views in weekly meetings to provide the whole team with a clear roadmap of upcoming developments.
Kraaft uses "tech champions" as advisors for the product team on specific subjects, assigning those engineers to Cycle tickets for involvement in the discovery process. This ensures experts engage in vital discussions.
Kraaft’s favorite views are:
1. "Recent interviews"
2. "Initiative status" to simplify progress tracking
3. "Release Plan" view offers a high-level perspective of upcoming releases, which is particularly appreciated by the team, aiding customer success and sales discussions.
4. "CSM view" to identify topics relevant to announce to customers
Impact
Cycle has brought significant benefits to Kraaft:
1. Enhanced Collaboration: Cycle has made collaboration smoother, enabling everyone in the company to have insights into the product's direction.
2. Better Product: By centralizing feedback, Kraaft gained insights into customer pain points and improved both product development and sprint productivity.
3. Effective Feedback Management: Kraaft systematically collects and manages customer feedback, keeping stakeholders informed of progress.
4. Improved Customer Relationships: Effective feedback capture and contextualization have increased user satisfaction and confidence in the team.
"I definitely recommend Cycle, especially for small to medium companies seeking to elevate their collaboration and refine feedback processes. It's a game-changer that fosters transparency on what’s going on in the Product team and empowers teams to prioritize customer-driven decisions.”
Christophe Colard - Head of Product @Kraaft