我们如何帮助这家金融科技初创企业成为利基市场领导者

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这篇赞助文章是由我们的内容合作伙伴BAW Media创建的。 感谢您支持使SitePoint成为可能的合作伙伴。

Here at TMS, we see promising companies with amazing ideas and huge potential on a daily basis. Unfortunately, they often get stuck on technicalities and SOS emails just keep flowing in our direction.

在TMS ，我们看到有希望的公司每天都有惊人的想法和巨大的潜力。 不幸的是，他们经常卡在技术上，而SOS电子邮件一直在朝着我们的方向发展。

However, that is actually a good thing. If we can help them reach their full potential and get to their goal, it is a win-win situation.

但是，这实际上是一件好事。 如果我们能够帮助他们发挥最大潜力并实现他们的目标，那就是双赢的局面。

Some of the startups we have seen truly have ideas that could change our world for the better. So rather than seeing them struggle, we are here to help them in any way we can.

我们见过的一些初创公司确实具有可以改变我们世界的想法。 因此，我们没有看到他们挣扎，而是在这里尽力帮助他们。

And that brings us to the common problem that numerous startups get stuck on; the technical implementation of their SaaS or other web applications. So let's talk a bit more about the TMS solution.

这就把我们带到了众多初创公司陷入困境的普遍问题。 他们的SaaS或其他Web应用程序的技术实施。 因此，让我们进一步谈谈TMS解决方案。

挑战来了 (Here Comes the Challenge)

It is one thing to talk about it in theory, but things often work out quite differently in practice. To best describe how exactly we help startups deal with their app development, let's take a look at a case study.

在理论上谈论它是一回事，但是在实践中事​​情往往大不相同。 为了最好地描述我们如何帮助初创企业准确地处理其应用程序开发，让我们看一个案例研究。

Four years ago, we were contacted by a British FinTech company who came to us with a great idea that included a very complex web app development.

四年前，一家英国金融科技公司与我们联系，他来了一个很棒的主意，其中包括非常复杂的Web应用程序开发。

From custom design to multiple user roles and complex user flows, we knew this would be a complicated project.

从定制设计到多个用户角色和复杂的用户流，我们知道这将是一个复杂的项目。

In addition to that, they needed constant maintenance and support since they already had some disappointing experiences in the past. They had to give up several unfinished apps that simply weren't up to their standard and they ended up losing a lot of money.

除此之外，由于他们过去曾有过一些令人失望的经历，他们需要不断的维护和支持。 他们不得不放弃一些未达到其标准的未完成的应用程序，最终损失了很多钱。

TMS解决方案 (The TMS Solution)

To get things off to a good start, we had to understand what went wrong with their project before they decided to reach us.

为了让事情有个好的开始，我们必须在他们决定联系我们之前了解他们的项目出了什么问题 。

We listened carefully to what they had to say to identify the problems that were the root cause of the issues they faced in the past. It appeared that the previous contractors skipped through a lot of basic steps and went straight to development without the proper planning, wireframing, and estimating processes.

我们仔细聆听了他们所说的话，以找出是他们过去所面临问题的根本原因的问题。 以前的承包商似乎没有采取适当的规划，线框设计和估算流程就跳过了许多基本步骤，直接进入开发。

It sounded like a good offer; a low hourly rate and less working hours. Unfortunately, it turned out to cost the FinTech startup a lot more down the road.

听起来不错。 每小时费用低，工作时间少。 不幸的是，事实证明，这使金融科技初创公司付出了更多的代价。

We explained that we would take an entirely different approach; a systemized, step-by-step process with every developer focusing on their part while having a good grasp on the whole picture, instead of working on multiple components of the project at the same time and feeling no ownership on the delivery.

我们解释说，我们将采取完全不同的方法。 一个系统化的分步过程，每个开发人员都专注于他们自己的部分，同时对整体情况有很好的了解，而不是同时从事项目的多个组成部分，并且对交付没有所有权。

Since we had a lot of experience with app building, especially with the apps we created for our own company (mostly SaaS), we felt pretty confident about our capabilities to deliver the best product possible.

由于我们在应用程序构建方面拥有丰富的经验，尤其是为自己的公司(主要是SaaS)创建的应用程序，因此，我们对能够提供最佳产品的能力充满信心。

For us, this project felt like an exciting challenge but was still right up our alley.

对于我们来说，这个项目感觉像是一个令人兴奋的挑战，但仍然在我们的小巷中。

应对挑战 (Dealing with the Challenges)

We have done this numerous times before but the bottom line is that every app is different.

之前我们已经做过很多次了，但最重要的是每个应用程序都是不同的。

With this one, we were new to the business domain of capital raising, we weren't familiar at all with the FCA classifications and legal regulations etc.

有了这个，我们才是集资业务领域的新手，我们完全不熟悉FCA分类和法律法规等。

An additional challenge on top of that was trying to untangle the work of the previous development team. We were warned about the confusing UX and the bugs that would appear at the worst moments, especially on demos.

除此之外，另一个挑战是试图解散以前的开发团队的工作。 我们被警告了令人困惑的UX，以及在最糟糕的时刻出现的错误，尤其是在演示中。

So our first step was to build a proper team led by a Tech Lead and a Product Owner. This would allow us to create the ideal team structure, a good project architecture, and a suitable project delivery strategy.

因此，我们的第一步是建立一支由技术负责人和产品负责人领导的适当团队。 这将使我们能够创建理想的团队结构，良好的项目架构以及合适的项目交付策略。

Forming a reliable team initially takes more time than just engaging a group of random developers – but it always pays off! Not only are the productivity and quality better, but it also results in lower costs over a 12-18 months range.

最初组建一个可靠的团队要花更多的时间，而不仅仅是让一群随机的开发人员参与，但这总能带来回报！ 不仅提高了生产率和质量，而且还降低了12-18个月的成本 。

With every project, the team is formed differently according to the specific project needs and requirements. It sometimes requires just a project manager, a QA engineer, and 2 intermediate full-stack developers. Sometimes, we need additional UI/UX designers, security engineers, front-end engineers etc.

对于每个项目，根据特定项目的需求和要求，组成不同的团队。 有时只需要一名项目经理，一名QA工程师和两名中级全栈开发人员。 有时，我们需要其他UI / UX设计师，安全工程师，前端工程师等。

独特的解决方案：介绍我们的全应用程序生命周期方法 (Unique Solution: Introducing our Full-App-Lifecycle Approach)

Once the team was formed, we were ready to get started with our own customized approach – the Full-App-Lifecycle approach.

团队成立后，我们准备开始使用自己的定制方法- 完整应用程序生命周期方法 。

It is based on a simple fact:

它基于一个简单的事实：

Errors are much easier to avoid if the team of developers understands the big picture of the application instead of just focusing on small tasks. From the initial pitch to the final round of feedback, it is important to start every project with a core assessment and a proper analysis.

如果开发人员团队了解应用程序的全局，而不是仅仅专注于小任务，那么更容易避免错误。 从最初的建议到最后一轮反馈，重要的是要开始每个项目并进行核心评估和适当的分析。

We always talk with the business' marketing and development team and get answers to the basic questions first: What problem are we solving with this product? Who are the target customers? Who are the competitors? What risks are we facing? What are the budget and the timeline?

我们始终与企业的营销和开发团队联系，并首先获得以下基本问题的答案：我们用该产品解决什么问题？ 谁是目标客户？ 谁是竞争对手？ 我们面临什么风险？ 预算和时间表是什么？

All of these questions and more have to be covered in a good analysis, along with Impact Mapping and Story Mapping sessions. At that point, we are able to suggest the best development strategy and product rollout plan.

所有这些问题以及更多问题，以及“影响映射”和“故事映射”会话都必须进行良好的分析。 到那时，我们能够提出最佳的开发策略和产品推出计划。

We need to stay flexible throughout the process to be able to adapt to changes, but we always start with the clear vision on the team structure, software architecture, project phases, features priority, and other little details that we keep in mind.

我们需要在整个过程中保持灵活性以适应变化，但是我们始终要从对团队结构，软件体系结构，项目阶段，功能优先级以及我们记住的其他一些小细节的清晰愿景开始。

“TMS worked well with our team, and acted on behalf of our business in various situations. This helped us create a world-class team and grow internationally together.”

“ TMS与我们的团队合作良好，并在各种情况下代表我们的业务。 这帮助我们创建了世界一流的团队，并在国际上共同成长。”

金融科技应用开发 (The FinTech App Development)

The best way to start a cooperation is by establishing each other's trust. With the FinTech startup, we knew that it would take some time to earn their trust after their previous experiences.

开展合作的最佳方法是建立彼此的信任。 对于这家金融科技初创公司，我们知道他们的先前经历将需要一些时间来赢得他们的信任。

They agreed to our approach and we decided to start with just 2 developers working on their project in cooperation with the project manager provided by the FinTech startup. Once we were off to a good start, we added other key members to get the prototype done on a tight deadline.

他们同意我们的方法，因此我们决定只从2个开发人员开始，与金融科技初创公司提供的项目经理合作从事他们的项目。 一旦有了一个良好的开端，我们就增加了其他关键成员，以便在紧迫的期限内完成原型。

We had a WordPress-based prototype, using different database management plugins with massive PHP customizations, ready for them to show to their clients in less than 3 months. At that point, we were ready to start building a fully featured application using an MVC framework on the backend (Symfony, DoctrineORM), and AngularJS on frontend.

我们有一个基于WordPress的原型，使用了具有大量PHP自定义功能的不同数据库管理插件，准备在不到3个月的时间内向客户展示。 到那时，我们准备开始在后端(Symfony，DoctrineORM)和前端的AngularJS上使用MVC框架来构建功能齐全的应用程序。

We gradually added more team members including the QA and QA Automation engineers, front-end developers, full-stack developers of different seniority, and more. Then we divided the team into smaller sub-teams, each with their own project manager.

我们逐渐增加了更多的团队成员，包括QA和QA自动化工程师，前端开发人员，不同资历的全职开发人员等等。 然后，我们将团队划分为较小的子团队，每个子团队都有自己的项目经理。

The app was growing together with our team and we knew we were on the right track. The current version now uses Symfony 4 on the backend for the API core with Doctrine ORM to work with the MySQL database. Some services run on Node for leveraging web sockets, Vue.js on the frontend as a web app UI, native mobile apps for Android and iOS, and RabbitMQ as a message queuing system. Redis and Varnish are used for caching, the failover infrastructure, backup and monitoring systems are based on Amazon AWS services.

该应用程序与我们的团队一起成长，我们知道我们走在正确的道路上。 当前版本当前在API核心的后端使用Symfony 4，并使用Doctrine ORM与MySQL数据库一起使用。 一些服务在Node上运行以利用Web套接字，前端上的Vue.js作为Web应用程序UI，适用于Android和iOS的本机移动应用程序，以及RabbitMQ作为消息排队系统。 Redis和Varnish用于缓存，故障转移基础架构，备份和监视系统基于Amazon AWS服务。

All the way, we participated in the overall product development and our clients know that they can count on our full support even today.

一直以来，我们都参与了整个产品开发，我们的客户知道，即使在今天，他们也可以依靠我们的全力支持。

Here are some of the most important results that we brought for our client:

这是我们为客户带来的一些最重要的结果：

• After months of working with us, they fully freed up their time to work on scaling their business and only joining us for Agile sprint reviews.
  经过与我们几个月的合作，他们完全腾出了时间来扩展业务，只加入我们进行敏捷冲刺审核。
• Geography of usage expanded from the UK to the rest of Europe, while other markets are "on the waiting list".
  使用地区从英国扩展到了欧洲其他地区，而其他市场则“在等待中”。
• Client range grew from small startups looking for small investments to large companies that need serious investment deals.
  客户范围从寻求小型投资的小型初创企业到需要认真投资交易的大型公司。
• The mature product managed to attract several millions of dollars of investments.
  成熟的产品成功吸引了数百万美元的投资。

On our side, the product development team dedicated to this project grew from 2 to 25 people and keeps growing.

在我们这方面， 致力于该项目的产品开发团队从2人增加到25人，并且还在不断增长。

为什么我们的方法有效 (Why Our Approach Worked)

Our Full-App-Lifecycle approach has proven itself quite successful and the main reasons for that are careful planning and management. These were implemented in our every move throughout the process.

我们的“全应用程序生命周期”方法已被证明非常成功，其主要原因是精心计划和管理。 在整个过程中，我们的一举一动都实现了这些目标。

When a team is tailored according to a specific product and when every team member works on their specific task, all of them eventually see the product as their own. Not only it helps improving productivity and quality, but it also switches the employees' focus from the fee to the product itself.

当团队根据特定产品量身定制并且每个团队成员都在执行特定任务时，他们最终都会将产品视为自己的产品。 它不仅有助于提高生产率和质量，还可以将员工的注意力从收费转向产品本身。

In addition to that, the integration with the client's team and industry, the ongoing analysis, and in-depth planning also help increase the quality as well as the delivery pace.

除此之外，与客户团队和行业的整合，持续的分析以及深入的计划还有助于提高质量和交付速度。

It is important to add that our team is always encouraged to try all the new technologies and follow the latest development trends, to participate in conferences, and to keep up with the industry's highest standards.

重要的是要补充一点，我们始终鼓励我们的团队尝试所有新技术并紧跟最新的发展趋势，参加会议并保持行业的最高标准。

The success we achieved with the FinTech project isn't a one-time success story but an example that shows exactly how our approach works.

我们通过FinTech项目获得的成功不是一次性的成功案例，而是一个确切说明我们的方法是如何工作的示例。

We are looking for long-term partnerships rather than quick on and off projects and we are happy to join in later phases as well. The point for us is to build teams dedicated to the product and evolve together with it over time.

我们正在寻找长期的合作伙伴关系，而不是快速启动和关闭项目，我们也很高兴在以后的阶段中加入。 对于我们来说，重点是建立致力于该产品的团队，并随着时间的推移与之一起发展。

结论 (Conclusion)

If you have recognized any of the mentioned problems as your own including the struggle to find a reliable development company, feel free to reach out to us and we will be happy to help you find the right solution.

如果您已意识到上述任何问题，包括为寻找一家可靠的开发公司而付出的努力，请随时与我们联系 ，我们将竭诚为您找到正确的解决方案。

We have a lot of experience in the field which can be easily proven by the projects that we have successfully completed so far, the 20.000+ paying customers of our own developed products, several millions of end users, and an average annual growth rate of 50% since 2014.

到目前为止，我们在该领域拥有丰富的经验，可以很容易地通过到目前为止我们已经成功完成的项目来证明，我们自己开发的产品有20.000多家付费客户，数百万的最终用户，并且年均增长率为50自2014年以来的百分比。

Here are some of the technologies we used on different parts of the project: PHP, Symfony framework, JS/ECMA6, AngularJS, React, Vue.js, MySQL, Doctrine ORM, Redis, Varnish, Swift, Java, Node.js, SASS/LESS, PHPUnit, PHPSpec.

以下是我们在项目不同部分使用的一些技术：PHP，Symfony框架，JS / ECMA6，AngularJS，React，Vue.js，MySQL，Doctrine ORM，Redis，Varnish，Swift，Java，Node.js，SASS / LESS，PHPUnit，PHPSpec。

Besides using those technologies, we also applied these methodologies: Agile SCRUM, Test-driven development (TDD) and Behaviour-driven development (BDD), Domain driven design (DDD).

除了使用这些技术外，我们还应用了以下方法：敏捷SCRUM，测试驱动开发(TDD)和行为驱动开发(BDD)，域驱动设计(DDD)。

翻译自: https://www.sitepoint.com/how-we-helped-this-fintech-startup-become-a-niche-leader/