Build for Change
Our world-class team of agile developers, product managers, and designers works alongside you to build and deploy software differently than you have before. In the process, you become enabled to do this work self-sufficiently in the future. Your team learns cutting-edge technology and best practices the best way possible: by doing it. The knowledge you absorb while working with Pivotal Labs is just as valuable as the finished project itself.
What we do
Balanced Teams Build Exceptional Products
We hear frequently from prospective clients that it takes forever to release new features, that users aren't adopting products, and that finished work hasn't met their expectations. Our response to these widespread issues is what we call “balanced teams” which can build truly exceptional products. Balanced teams are small groups that bring varied skills to the table and focus on collaboration, consistent communication, and transparency in working toward a shared goal: a great product.
Master the Key Components of Modern Technology
The Pivotal approach unifies development, design, and product management to create exceptional products. Pivotal Labs practitioners (we call ourselves Pivots) provide you with expertise in these three key areas, in addition to strategic business advice and planning.
Development
Extreme Programming
Building working software at a consistent speed and quality in the face of changing requirements.
Pair Programming
Test-Driven Development
Short Iterations
Continuous Integration / Deployment
Design
User-Centered Design
Ensuring the software solves a real problem for real users in a desirable and usable product.
User Interviews
Ethnographic studies
Persona definition
Prototype creation
Product Management
Lean
Reducing the risk of building the wrong thing while comfortably changing direction.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) definition
Lean experiments
Identify & test assumptions
Data driven decisions
How we do it
How Labs Works and Lives
To engage with Labs is to learn by doing. Your team members pair with Pivotal team members, working side-by-side as much as possible to collectively build a great product. We practice test-driven development, pair programming, short development cycles, and continuous verification and integration of code. One result is high-quality, flexible software delivered efficiently and cost-effectively. The other result is that your team is now ready to do the same high-quality work all on its own.
Stand-Up
Each workday begins with a brief team stand-up meeting to discuss what you did yesterday, and what you plan to do today.
Planning
The product manager leads the team through the backlog during the Iteration Planning Meeting. Team members collaborate to clarify items and ensure consistency.
Iteration
The product manager oversees prioritization, while prototypes are managed by the designer. Throughout, user research eliminates unnecessary features.
Retrospective
The team meets weekly to decompress, identify issues, and discuss areas for improvement, leading to iterative improvement. That’s the agile method. We adopt a culture of constant feedback and learning. (Also: We take breaks, ping-pong tables included.)
Test-Driven
As we begin to build a product, we employ Test-Driven Development (TDD): we write tests that assert the application can do what we want it to do. We do this before we build the functionality. A piece of code or functionality isn’t done until it passes the test.
Pairing
Pair programming is the practice of having two developers work together at the same computer to complete each task. At Pivotal Labs, we pair all of the time. As pairs rotate, knowledge is spread rapidly through the team, avoiding silos of knowledge and allowing for team growth.
“The impact of the partnership with Pivotal Labs is far greater than just shortening the application development life cycle. They’ve helped us foster a culture of organizational product experts, designers and engineers working together, face to face, where people can be themselves.”
Antonio Melo Practice Director of the Humana DEC
Start with One Project
Let's re-imagine your business by making software together pairing your organization’s core expertise and goals with our modern infrastructure and development mindset. This could be a mind meld with a handful of your engineers, or a complete rethink of an entire department.
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