How to Speed Up Product Delivery: Lessons From Wolt
We connected at the Disruption Talks, Measuring Success: Aligning Customer Value with Profitability.
If, somehow, you’re not familiar with Wolt, it is a company that has made its name through top quality delivery services. They currently have the number one rated delivery app across all the app stores, powered by over 10,000 employees, with 110 different nationalities, serving 27 countries.
Alina’s first insight harkens back ten years when Wolt began a food delivery business. In this industry, speeding up product delivery while maintaining quality is an essential competitive edge.
Streamline processes and speed up delivery
Plan ahead and frontload
A study by Harvard Business School found that having a clear project scope combined with thorough upfront planning can cut project delivery time by as much as 30%. Preplanning is your competitive advantage.
However, even the most motivated businesses now often operate with smaller teams than desired to maintain operational efficiency. Therefore, it is key to plan ahead and strategically deploy your available personnel to maximize their impact.
Alina suggests that it is essential to simplify your processes and adapt based on new insights.
"Frontload your plan as much as possible—have the product brief and design (at least at the wireframe stage) ready before starting development. Apply the same approach to developmental discovery as you would to product discovery," she advises.
"By having a detailed product brief and design prepared before development begins, teams can avoid time-consuming rework," Cahill adds.
We should adopt the practice of breaking down projects into deliverables, drafting detailed Requests for Comments (RFCs), and addressing questions early to ensure alignment among all team members. This comprehensive preparation enables more accurate time estimates and early identification of timeline deviations.
Break down silos and encourage communication
What I see happening here is the breaking down of obsolete information silos, i.e., the way businesses have operated well back in the 1990s. Yet, some organizations are still clinging to them which leads to delays, misunderstandings, and duplicated efforts.
Failure to share information company-wide cripples growth, customer service, and financial flows.
By encouraging communication, we can speed up product delivery, improve information sharing, and enhance collaboration between teams.
It also helps teams align their goals, identify and resolve issues quickly, share resources efficiently, and innovate together. This reduces bottlenecks and accelerates the overall development process.
Alina highlights the importance of getting everyone on board early, and maintaining continuous collaboration throughout the development process. She notes that adapting designs to accommodate engineering constraints and leveraging the expertise of each team member can significantly enhance the efficiency of product delivery.
An article by Deloitte underscores this, revealing that organizations with strong cross-functional collaboration are more likely to deliver projects on time and on budget.
Verify and validate your user and market assumptions
User and industry research
To align with customer needs and market trends, Alina advises conducting extensive research on both the user and the business sector. Understanding customer interactions with products helps in making well-informed decisions, avoiding redundant or pointless work on elements that lack value.
This principle is not limited to retail companies. According to Gartner research, 89% of companies compete primarily on the basis of customer experience. Firms that invest in user and industry research prior to product development experience a 20% increase in successful product launches.
Indeed, the Interaction Design Foundation has demonstrated that organizations investing in user experience (UX) research during the concept phase can reduce product development cycles by 33 to 50%.
This investment is critical, as a 25% delay in product market entry can result in a 50% decrease in ultimate revenue.
It is important to note that user research does not always need to be large-scale, and often doesn’t require significant time and investment. Some companies successfully recruit customers from specific user segments or those meeting particular criteria for interviews, thus conducting effective research with relatively small and low-cost resources.
Early feedback and MVPs
Integrating early feedback through the development of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP, sometimes also referred to as the Minimum Loveable Product, or MLP) can enhance the efficiency of product delivery. Releasing MVPs allows teams to obtain real-world feedback early, enabling them to identify and address issues or feature gaps during development. This iterative approach not only reduces unnecessary work but also mitigates the risk of significant revisions later. It ensures that the product aligns closely with user needs and customer expectations.
Team Engagement and empowerment
Fostering buy-in and ownership
When team members feel personally invested in a project's success and have a sense of ownership, they are more likely to actively seek collaboration and commit to high-quality work. This approach helps overcome obstacles, lets workers make better informed decisions, and maintains momentum, ultimately leading to faster and more efficient product delivery.
Alina highlights the importance of treating development teams as vital contributors rather than just cogs in a machine. "By involving them in discussions about timelines and empowering them to shape solutions, teams become more invested and committed to the project", she told me.
Supporting statistics from Gallup research indicate that organizations with high employee engagement are 21% more profitable and see a 59% higher likelihood of project success.
Balance workload and provide flex time
Back in 2018, an Australian office of a financial company decided to do away with the 9-5 routine and told its employees to get the required work done and then enjoy their time off. Most folks ended up working a 25-hour work week, or just five hours per day. Productivity rose; profits increased; employees didn’t take sick days off; and job satisfaction, well, it went through the roof.
In contrast to this, another study by The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, comprising 37 democracies), noted a tendency that longer hours reduce GDP created per person, per working hour.
For example, Mexico with workers averaging in excess of 2,200 hours per year had the lowest GDP/hour, whereas Ireland averaging about 1,600-1,700 hours had the highest GDP earned per hour.
It is well-established that flex time is unrivaled for enhancing work-life balance, which increases job satisfaction and morale. Embracing flexible work hours can be a game-changer for both companies and their teams. It’s all about finding that sweet spot where work gets done efficiently without pushing people to their limits.
When team members can balance their workload comfortably, they’re able to bring their A-game to the table, producing top-notch work without feeling overwhelmed. This approach keeps everyone motivated and on track, creating a positive buzz throughout the team.
The result? A group that can keep up a steady pace, meet deadlines with confidence, and actually enjoy the process along the way. It’s a win-win that keeps both the business and its people thriving.
People are not citrus fruits. You don’t squeeze harder to get every drop of juice and then throw away the rest. Alina strongly advises against this approach. “Churn”, or the rapid turnover of employees from burnout, affects the stability of the entire company, along with its productivity, and bottom line.
Speeding up product delivery calls for careful planning
What I want you to take away from all this is the idea that speeding up product delivery involves a combination of careful planning, continuous verification, and fostering a collaborative and empowered team environment. Alina has given some great advice and brings a lot of experience to the table. Here at Netguru we’re always thrilled to listen to experts, accumulate knowledge, and share it with our clients to make their ventures more successful.
Don’t forget to include the other influential factors where they are practicable, such as flex time enhancing productivity. It may not be possible where there is reliance on responding to real world events in real time. But developers, service providers, and office workers can see improved health from less stress, more “ownership” of tasks, greater efficiency, and better work-life balance.
And happier personnel make better decisions, keep customers coming back, and best of all, bump up your bottom line.
