Community Connect — Interconnecting Local Communities in Australia

Nonprofit

months to deliver an MVP

years of cooperation

5000

downloads in the last 30 days

Connect with Your Local Community

Started by a team of enthusiasts, Community Connect aims to help LGAs (Local Government Administrations) in Australia connect citizens to their communities.

Technologies:	React Native AdminJS Node.js Expo
Team:	1 Project Manager, 2 Developers, 1 QA Specialist
Timeline:	2 years of cooperation
Location:	Australia

Challenge and Solution

Challenge:

The customer asked us to develop an MVP for a complex community connection app in conditions of long stakeholder chains.

Solution:

We deployed our expertise to act in conditions of indirect information flows, helping the customer adapt their product to the evolving needs of their stakeholders in a brand-new field.

Result:

We finalized the MVP for the project within 2 months, giving the customer team an opportunity to test their ideas in real-life environments and arrive at a perfect solution to user pains associated with the lack of community-oriented tools.

months to deliver an MVP

years of cooperation

downloads in the last 30 days

Solution 1: Adapting to Long Stakeholder Chains

Our customer had no access to immediate feedback from the potential users due to temporal, geographical, and institutional constraints, so our team had to take long stakeholder chains into consideration before and during the development process in order to adapt the project towards the needs of diverse users in Australia. In this regard, we established an efficient communication schedule with our client and an advanced data collection system. During various meetings, our goal was to review the then-current project progress and agree upon the future data requests. After those meetings, the customer team’s aim was to gather data from Australian citizens during various conferences and present it to us, guiding the next product iterations and, hence, creating a steady product improvement mechanism.

Solution 2: Incorporating a High-Quality UI/UX

One of the main areas of focus for the customer is a high-quality UI/UX capable of satisfying the needs of users with different computer skills. Active data collection efforts on the part of the Community Connect team helped us establish a sound user experience. In order to further improve the UX offered by Community Connect, we also started collecting real-time usage metrics through Mixpanel. So far, we have created several anonymized and private custom product statistics that will help the customer make future decisions regarding the user journey within the product not only based on qualitative but also on quantitative data.

Solution 3: Simplifying Processes for All Stakeholders

In cooperation with the Community Connect team, our experts created a user-friendly notice board where local citizens can share information about various events (including emergencies) and requests. Moreover, our experts crafted a robust administration panel that allows LGAs to publish a wide variety of custom content without requesting new product features. Using it, they can support organizations dedicated to community well-being through jobs, production, or volunteering with minimal effort. Lastly, the Community Connect team was empowered with complete knowledge of all key product features through a clear project transfer document prepared by our team during the final stages of MVP creation.

Let's Discuss Your Project Idea

What Does Cooperation With Us Look Like?

Step 1. Idea analysis

Analyzing the customer’s goal of creating a communication system for local government agencies in Australia and its feasibility, assessing potential risks, creating mitigation strategies for them, and outlining the main strengths of the project.

Step 2. Product design

Creating a clear roadmap for development, establishing prototypes to test key assumptions, and selecting the best technologies for final implementation.

Step 3. Product engineering

Designing a user-friendly interface, creating the core map integration features in the frontend and backend, digitalizing local government requirements, and communicating with the customer to ensure smooth interaction.

Step 4. Testing (in conditions of long stakeholder chains)

Gathering feedback from the customer and various government and non-government stakeholders in Australia, performing manual and automatic testing, and optimizing the functioning of the product.

Step 5. Post-launch support

Launching the product, providing dedicated support to ensure smooth functioning, and developing new features upon the customer’s request and based on stakeholder feedback.