BuildBuddy

What is BuildBuddy?

BuildBuddy is a specification tool that helps you budget, plan and specify your home renovation or extension project. By using the platform, users can relieve the headache of managing an extension.

Managing an extension is hard, it requires careful management of costs and a huge investment.

In recent years, there has been a growing trend of homeowners opting for home extensions rather than moving to a new property. According to the National Association of Home Builders, the demand for home renovation and remodeling projects has increased significantly. Furthermore, a survey conducted by HomeAdvisor found that 75% of homeowners who completed a home renovation project in 2020 chose to extend their living space, reflecting a growing trend towards making the most of existing properties. Despite the growing trendof home extensions, the planning process can present several challenges, including managing costs, finding the right builder, and properly scoping the project. These are all important factors that must be carefully managed to ensure a successful project.

What's the Solution?

A comprehensive specification tool that streamlines the planning and budgeting process for home extensions. It provides a step-by-step guide to help you consider all the finishing details and minimize the risk of missing a key element. With BuildBuddy, you'll have access to expert tips and insights to ensure you make informed decisions. Additionally, at the end of the process, you'll be able to get a more accurate quote from builders and better control your costs.

Key Challenges

• Develop a scalable web-based MVP, with a mobile-first mindset in 3 months
• Ensure absolute fidelity / eliminate misinformation and misunderstanding
• Develop the MVP whilst also doing incremental releases to allow for market validation and traction testing
• Develop an MVP without a fully developed product roadmap

How we did it

The development of BuildBuddy was approached with the aim of ensuring a smooth and seamless process for the client. Our first step was to gain a thorough understanding of the vision behind the project and the problem that the founders were trying to solve. This involved gathering all the business requirements and organizing effective communication channels with the project manager and development team on Slack. Our top priority was always to ensure transparent and seamless communication and access to all information and materials.

Speed to market was a critical factor for BuildBuddy, and we divided the work into sprints using the customer journey prepared by Makette. This allowed us to release the MVP in smaller chunks, allowing the team to start testing the platform and onboarding users even before all the features were complete, which eliminated the need to wait for the development team. As the sprints progressed, we anticipated and accommodated changes to the initial scope, influenced by evolving requirements and customer feedback. Meanwhile, our certified DevOps specialists and business experts were preparing a scalable server architecture. By taking full ownership of this process, we significantly increased our speed to market.

Finally, at the end of the project, we prepared a testing framework which allowed us to quickly update the platform and remove any remaining bugs. We ensured that we had the resources in place to rapidly introduce new features and modifications based on data gathered from early users. We are also actively assisting the BuildBuddy team, exploring further iterations of the platform and guiding the technical approach.

See it in action

Don't just take our word for it - click here to see it in action!

Key Features

• Scalable server architecture
• Comprehensive admin panel and analytics
• Klaviyo Integration
• Google Analytics integration
• User registration using SSO
• Comprehensive project planning module
• Comprehensive security system