Pods: Boosting our Efficiency

We at Razoyo are always striving to improve ourselves and our process. Quite some time ago, we made the switch from Zendesk to JIRA to fix our flawed ticketing system. Though the transition took a short adjustment period, our clients were able to communicate their issues and requests with ease. In turn, this allowed our developers to quickly address client needs. And, while this was a great improvement for our team, we wanted to push things further, so we created pods.

What are Pods?

The Razoyo team had a simple process for tackling client requests: Tickets would come in, the project manager and head developer would assign these out, the developers would work on the task, and the client would be informed when the job was complete. It was an effective process, for the most part, but some tickets would slip through the cracks. Some tickets that needed extra attention might not receive it. Something needed to change.

To increase productivity and efficiency, we developed pods. This is essentially a team-based method in which we divide the client work between two teams of developers. Red team focuses on a specific group of our clients, while blue sets their sights on the others. When a request or issue is sent in from a client, the team leader will analyze the ticket and assign it to a member of the team.

Results of Creating Pods

The pods encourage teamwork and learning. If a junior developer gets hung up on a task, he/she can get with another team member or the team leader to figure out a solution together. And since the tasks are dictated by specific teams, they are completed much faster, much to the satisfaction of our clients.

It has only been a few weeks since we created the pods, and the results are stellar. On average, our office would complete around 30 tickets per week before we shifted to the new system. Now, our teams are knocking out roughly 60 tickets per week, doubling our finished tasks. No more tickets disappear or go unattended.

Continuing to Push Forward

We have only just begun with our pod structure. We can already see results in the short amount of time spent using our new system, but we will not stop there. Improvements can always be made. We will take notes and analyze what works best with pods over the coming months, tweaking the process as we go. Our goal is to have a seamless, quick, efficient process that works for all clients, both new and current.