Case Study: SAAS Startup
MediaKits
Developing a paid version of a growing product, while creating processes to support long-term success
Idea
Create a “pro” version of a platform that empowers digital creators to showcase their success to agents, media, sponsors, and fans
Challenge
Enhance and expand an existing SaaS product, with a partner with limited technical resources and undefined processes
Services
Custom software development, staff augmentation, product management, and process improvement
The Situation
MediaKits is an easy-to-use platform that enables artists, influencers, and bloggers to create custom, numbers-driven digital media kits using real-time data and analytics. By compiling data from social media channels, Google Analytics, and other relevant streaming services – and presenting this information in a fully customizable, beautiful dashboard – MediaKits makes it easy for creatives to showcase their achievements to agents, media, sponsors, fans, and more.
When MediaKits engaged Revelry, it was an early-stage startup, whose founders were ready to build a pro version of their product. But MediaKits’ internationally distributed, part-time technical team was not moving quickly enough. To achieve its goals, the company hired a full-time software engineer, and partnered with Revelry to overcome technical challenges and develop a process that would allow them to scale the product for years to come.
“I’m a non-technical founder and so is my co-founder. So that’s why Revelry Labs was a godsend. We were really trying to make sure that we put the right team in the right seats at MediaKits. Overall the experience was incredible and I have nothing but good things to say about it.”
– Kieran O’Brien, Founder, MediaKits
The Challenge
Product, Process, and People
Revelry partnered with MediaKits to:
- Engineer new product features
- Create sound technical processes
- Integrate product management principles into all phases of development
- Augment its team as it expanded for the future
The Solution, Part I
Cleaning Up Technical Debt
Revelry began by working with MediaKits’ senior engineer to identify the application’s technical strengths and growth opportunities.
After completing a code audit, we addressed technical debt in the front and back-end codebases and updated database schemas. Beyond cleaning up the codebase itself, Revelry emphasized the importance of using a development and deployment process that exceeds industry standards. Together, we implemented a two-review-required pull request (PR) review system with protected branches to prevent individual users from pushing to them without making a PR. To improve communication and increase momentum, we restructured sprint commitments into Revelry’s lean agile model.
What began as an unorganized set of numerous branches without reviews, approvals, or version control, became a unified process for growing the product. Along the way, Revelry consistently created documentation to make things easier for future engineers to work on the application. Today, MediaKits team members can quickly understand a feature request, work with product owners to understand the simplest version to build, and make updates to the app as soon as possible.
The Solution, Part II
Engineering Features for a Growing Product
Revelry drove the development of new features and functionality to meet the company’s evolving needs. Highlights include:
- Implemented a version of “pro” functionality to monetize the app
- Refactored codebase to support multiple media kits per user
- Implemented a beta version of “Agency” functionality to increase user base
- Created Tiktok and Twitch social media platform integrations
- Automated syncing of data from users’ social media connections
- Implemented a tool to record and aggregate user bugs to detect pain points automatically
“With other partners, there have been so many times that code reviews fail over little things, or obvious design decisions aren’t implemented because someone was simply trying to get their job done and go home. This wasn’t the case with Revelry; their people asked questions and went above and beyond any time they could.
Hands down, the best and most enjoyable product managers and developers I’ve ever worked with. Dream team.”
– Trevor Austin, Senior Engineer, MediaKits
The Results
Rapid Growth and a Solid Foundation for the Future
After five months of work with Revelry, MediaKits experienced exponential growth – growing its user base by 15x.
MediaKits’ platform was fully monetized and included a robust set of feature enhancements. The company also had a clear, thoughtful process for managing future product improvements and a documented approach to make onboarding future developers easy.
With a technical foundation in place, MediaKits stood ready to continue growing and supporting creators worldwide.
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