Synechron is a fast-growing information technology and consulting company focused on the financial services industry. Their expertise ranges from capital markets and insurance to banking and digital.

When building a new task management app, it is important to ask yourself if there are already solutions out there that could be close to your users need and then figure out what you can keep from these apps.

Understanding the client's processes

I had the amazing opportunity to work on a project for a French investment bank looking to build a tool to help them manage workflows and tasks. As the sole French native speaker on the team, I was in charge of managing the project from the start.

After meeting with our client in Paris, the first challenge presented itself to us: our client knew there was an issue with the way their workflows were organized, and they needed us to come up with a solution. They wanted us to build a task management tool—but unlike any others on the market. We needed to first understand their philosophy, how their workflows worked, and what they actually needed the tool to accomplish.

It's really important to have an understanding of how your Client works, a good understanding of the processes and the hierarchy are crucial.

Finding what works

There were already plenty of task management tools available, but none of them quite met our client's expectations and needs. Did that mean we had to build everything from scratch? Of course not!

By meeting regularly with the client, I was able to understand what they actually liked about other tools, what would work for them, and what wouldn't. I also conducted extensive research, including competitive and comparative analysis, as well as analysis of the feedback and preferences of task management tools users. This allowed me to flesh out a tool that would actually meet their specific needs.

Sometimes the solution you come up with will look familiar. It's all about tailoring and fine-tuning it to the specific needs of your client.

Tailoring experiences

We couldn't just build another Trello or another Jira for our client. That wouldn't have worked. Some of their needs and way of completing a task were specific to their philosophy.

We had to make sure the app would do what everyone came to expect from a solid task management tool, but would also work for very specific use cases. We could only achieve this by asking our client for regular feedback on what we were building.

Working in close relationship with their project management team as well as their top-level managers was definitely crucial. Don't just build another version of a tool for your clients. If you have to build something, tailor it to their very own needs!