How we develop KashFlow and what happens to your suggestions
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on January 13, 2010
When KashFlow was first available back in 2005 it was a very, very basic invoicing tool. It produced invoices with sequential numbers and you could mark them as either “paid” or “not paid”. Nothing more. This was intentional. We (or “I” as it was then) didn’t want to make assumptions about what businesses wanted from what was to be a fully functional accounting software
The Approach
We were lucky with our timing. There weren’t any other web-based accounting apps worth mentioning at the time and we weren’t under the level of scrutiny new entrants in this market place are today.
So we took our time and asked our customers to tell us what they wanted added. Once we’d covered the main bases we’d only add new features it if they passed 4 tests:
1) Customers must be asking for it – so not just something we think would be cool to have
2) It mustn’t distract from the simplicity of the software
3) It shouldn’t remove any existing functionality
4) Wherever possible it should be off-and-onable, defaulting to off so as not to confuse or distract customers
Rule 4 can cause a problem as people taking an initial look at the software today can be fooled into thinking it doesn’t have many features when in fact there’s probably no other accounting app, online or offline, with the depth of functionality we now have.
This is why we tell people that if they think it can’t do something they need, they should get in touch with support as it probably does do it.
The Result
The result is that we now have an application that’s got lots of features that are of genuine use to small business owners, rather then lots of confusing menus full of jargon and options you never use – the main thing that put me off other programs available when we started.
We’ve kept our approach the same over the years; actively soliciting suggestions and sticking to the rules above. You’ve not let us down. We have a list of great feature requests and we’re constantly improving the software based on those suggestions.
Until relatively recently we’d pick the features we (myself and one other developer) were going to work on and just go for it. This meant we’d get new functionality released very quickly and this kept us ahead of the emerging competition.
And now
Now we have thousands and thousands of customers and a team of developers (they rarely let me touch code these days) we needed to implement a more methodical approach to developing the application. So this is how one of your suggestions goes from initially being received to being live in the software.
Your suggestions
The suggestions we receive from you are all logged on a database, nothing is discarded no matter how silly or complicated.
Once every 4 weeks I sit down with the development team and let them know which suggestions I want implemented over the next 4 weeks.
The way I decide what I want them to do is based on how many people are asking for a particular feature and how complex it is. I’d be lying if I said I don’t take into account who’s asking for it too. We have some Partners who spend tens of thousands of pounds a year with us and I’d be silly not to give more weight to their requests than I do to others.
They go away and develop the features on a development server we have in the office. Once they’ve finished, the new features are copied to a separate test server we have here and it’s tested by non-technical end users. Assuming the features work as planned they then go on to the “live” system where you get access to them.
This works really well and means we can still get new features out quickly and regularly.
The down-side is that if you make a suggestion for us, it’s virtually impossible for us to tell you how long it’ll be before it’s available. It may be a great idea and we plan to add it in the next development cycle. But as requests flood in each week, the list changes all the time so your suggestion may get put back if other requests become more popular or more pressing.
Pricing
An observation. The basic invoicing tool we launched with cost £13.99/month. Since then, despite going from a basic tool to a full accounts package that’s winning awards all over the place, and spending 100′s of thousands of pounds developing the software and infrastructure, we’ve only upped the price once – to £15.99/month. And that was only for new customers. If you joined us back when it was £13.99, that’s what you’re still paying.
20 Responses to How we develop KashFlow and what happens to your suggestions
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We’ve used a very similar model when adding features and planning new releases. We’ve found with external clients in particular, that they really like the ability to plan and launch new features every month – certainly using Scrum has worked for us in this respect.
How have you found your change of role from developer to Product Owner? Probably like us it’s not a big deal for a small organisation, but it must be difficult sometimes not to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in?
As Matt says, there is mileage in exposing your roadmap to customers using something like UserVoice or Get Satisfaction. It’s a great way to let them know they’re being listened to and keeps the fresh ideas coming!
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Another vote for UserVoice
“Tracking ideas for 32,496 organizations.”
There’s even some kind of open source version:
https://uservoice.com/for/opensourceOr, use the KashFlow forum poll feature for more control your end.
These things also help avoid idea duplication, as none of us have any clue if our own ideas are new or already submitted/planned.
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“Collaborating with your business users frequently” is one of the critical principle for any successful product development initiative. We follow this in our company on our product development quite a bit. You can collaborate on:
– product roadmap (listening to what your customers want and put them into a prioritized feature list)
– looking at customer support issue log to understand customer pain points
– usability aspects & importance of features from the customer perspectiveTo answer Pauls’ question on role of developers — we do gunslinger events where we make the developers play the role of end users…that really helps them to take up the real product ownership. Once they realize what they are building, that changes their thought process, approach to development. They start asking questions on what our end users would ask :).
I have also seen products having metrics implemented which tells the feature usage across the product. I think, this is one of the important stuff which helps the product managers to focus on their enhancements.
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I wonder if rule #1 will mean you miss some kind of game-changer that leaves everyone else in the dust?
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Frans
good approach. You can chitchat about it a lot and lose yourself in theoretical discussions etc. but most important is it works.
But if I might suggest the following ? With the app you are talking about two things: data that is already in it (and processed) and data that is not in it and you would like to have processed. Why not for example implement a way to decide yourself what kind of data you want to see in the reports ? Ok, you have one, but that only turns on or of a ledger account. I am talking about the information IN the accounts.
Just buy a nice asp.net webpart, link it and have us have fun with it.
So is for example the projects column not shown when you run general reports. I have of course contacted (btw your fantastic) support team but most of all I was a little surprised that it was not shown.
I am sure that you can agree if I state: if you deploy something, deploy it good.
(ok, it is good, I think I must say: deploy it the best). -
Pingback: New Features Released This Morning KashFlow Accounting Software
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andy
Good, so when was your last software update and when is your next?
I like updated software, it’s a far cry from the old days of rigid software.
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Hi Andy,
Changes are documented on our change log page at http://www.kashflow.com/changelog.asp
There were two changes today, but the last larger set of changes was at the end of January. We’re expecting the next big update to be within a week or two.
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Eugenie
Kashflow is brilliant – ever evolving and listening to the needs of it’s customers. The fact that new changes pop up now and then, for the better, puts it in a league of it’s own. Your competitors in the software arena were a nightmare as you either had to wait a year for a few changes (usually not in your favour) or pay some astronomical price to upgrade just to be able to receive a function like emailing invoices to your clients!
Keep up the good work -
Barry Richardson
Started to use it and it looks and feels very good, would use it for the church if it had budget facility
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Can we have ability to add Company FY start date please?
Also a pre-filled end of year based on template from Companies house?
many thanks -
I have been on Kaskflow for 12 months and only had 1 thing I needed adding, a new report, but after a year, nothing. I also have a major bug in paypal which I am told will not be done either as too many modifications to do. I am surprised mods come before bugs at any time, but what do I have to do to get 1 new report written?
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Duane Jackson - Founder & CEO
Hi Paul,
Bugs ARE prioritised over new features. What’s the bug?
The point of the blog post above was to explain exactly why you might NOT see the report you want in the system, even if it is a year since you requested it and it’s the only thing you’ve ever asked for.
If you can let me have the relevant support ticket number I might be able to see if it’s something we’re doing soon
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The paypal bug is ticket Ticket #20908 and this has been a long standing bug as Kashflow imports the wrong name sometimes from paypal, which can cause serious and costly issues for us. I do not have a ticket for the report I want, as no one ever takes the time to give me one or tell me. Yet I see the programmers have had time to change the log in screen and some colours etc, Who asked for those? A simple report is all I have asked for, to tell me which items are running out of stock, and need to be re-ordered, something that will save us a lot of time. I asked for this in March 2010 and several times since, but the bug in paypal has been put back for customer developments also.
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Would be great if there was a report to match HMRC CT600. That would seriously help us with required online submissions in UK.
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Rachel Lovett
Interesting to see how these development things get done so thanks for the info. Have been using Kashflow for a couple of years now and have been impressed with all the developments. Love the fact that you can have projects and the print packing slip option.
I agree with Matt would be good to see what is on the development list just to give customers the reassurance their development request is being looked at.
It would also be interesting from a customer perspective to see just how many people are asking for the same thing I have asked for a goods despatched coloumn on the sales tab as have no way of tracking what orders have been despatched through the system. Would love to know if someone else out there needs this too?
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We send all our customers a despatch email and that flags the order has been emailed and therefore despatched.
The only problem apart from 1 bug that never seems to be fixed, I have been asking for a development of a report that will tell me which stock is getting low, I can see this within the item, but it would be a great time to saver to print a report and then order from suppliers.-
Paul, isn’t that exactly what this report does? http://www.kashflow.com/change-log/added-pending-delivery-to-stock-overview-report/
And more, as it shows you any you are awaiting delivery of.
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Rachel, re upcoming developments, it may be worth reading this post if you haven’t already: http://www.kashflow.com/blog/buy-what-we-have-today-not-what-we-might-have-tomorrow/
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See what all the fuss is about
This is very similar to the model which we will be using for our eCommerce framework when we re-launch in the near future – so I’m glad to see you’re using this sort of approach and find that it works well.
Have you thought about exposing any of the “internal” information as to what is in the queue, etc to users (e.g via UserVoice or similar)? This is a point which is still very much open for (heated) debate in our camp!