Community Connect — Interconnecting Local Communities In Australia

Nonprofit

months to deliver an MVP

years of cooperation

530

LGAs covered

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 and with consideration for diversity in standards among Australian government organizations.

Solution:

We established advanced project management techniques and 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:

Several versions of the product were adapted to the evolving needs of the market, 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

LGAs covered

Solution 1: Adapting to Long Stakeholder Chains

We had no access to immediate feedback from the potential users due to the time and distance constraints, so our team had to take long stakeholder chains into consideration before and during the development process. To solve this problem, 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 would 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 Different Government Organization Standards

LGAs in Australia are significantly differentiated: they use a wide variety of standards for information exchange that are not always compatible. Our research and the assistance of the Community Connect team helped us overcome the problem. For example, we collect real-time usage metrics through Mixpanel, having created several custom product statistics, to refine our current integration of the LGA standards.

Solution 3: Simplifying Processes for All Stakeholders

In cooperation with the Community Connect team, our experts have created a user-friendly notice board where local citizens can share information about various events (including emergencies) and requests. Moreover, our experts have 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.