Advancing a Web Platform & Product: Assessment Training

The client, Making Moves B.V, created a web platform product — https://www.assessment-training.com/. In 2016, they reached out to RUBICON with the idea of improving and refreshing the website in order to meet users’ expectations and expand the business on a global level.

What is Assessment Training?

Assessment Training is a web platform that helps job seekers prepare for their job assessments in the best way possible. The platform offers tests and packages ranging from numerical reasoning to verbal analogies tailored for users all around the world with different occupations. Customers are able to purchase the tests and packages in order to excel at their future job assessments.

The Goal

To move from an outdated and unresponsive website to a modernly designed platform suitable for Assessment Training customers. A custom solution that is configurable, scalable, fast and offers a great user experience.

The new project entailed a complete software solution including the front-end, back-end, cloud and UX/UI for B.V Making Move’s platform.

RUBICON’S ROLE

RUBICON collaborated with Making Moves B.V to enhance the software and business. The first step was to develop a new web platform to solve the previous issues that emerged with the old platform before growing the business. We were assigned the task of building a modern, user-friendly, and secure platform that is available anytime and anywhere in the world.

THE OLD PLATFORM

Assessment-Training.com was originally based on an outdated and unresponsive WordPress template which affected users’ experiences when using the product. Some of the core issues behind the old platform were:

• Poor usability-An unapproachable design that was not meeting users’ expectations.
• SEO issues
• Security Issues-missing SSL certificates and attacks on the WordPress website.
• Performance issues under high load-unable to support an increasing number of users.
• An unstructured Content Management System (CMS) -Making it difficult for Making Moves B.V employees to add and manage content (tests & packages).

THE CHALLENGES

A series of challenges had to be overcome in order to build the envisioned product:

A multilingual platform

To develop a platform that would support multiple languages around the world (English, Dutch, German and Spanish). The content for all languages needed to be centralized and unified allowing for tests to be created in different languages. Each test would be tailored to meet the needs of a specific market and its language. The old platform used an independent WordPress installation with its own databases for each language.

A centralized administrative application

To build a centralized administrative application providing test managers and translators with more control and efficiency, to be able to easily manage day-to-day operations, create new tests and packages, translate and address customer support.

Data migration

A substantial amount of customer data such as login credentials, purchases, and subscriptions needed to be transferred. Moving from the previous WordPress platform to the new web platform, it needed to be executed in an efficient and secure manner.

The UX/UI Approach

The new website had to be re-designed to look aesthetically pleasing and work functionally, allowing customers to easily navigate through the platform and complete their online tests efficiently.

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Our team consisted of a product owner, a software architect, developers and UX/UI designers. We ran a design sprint to validate the idea behind the product before starting the development process.

Once both teams validated the idea, RUBICON used the agile framework of scrum for the development process. We worked in smaller teams of 4–5 people. The first step was creating a backlog with a set of tasks to be completed for the MVP version of the product. The tasks were divided from highest to lowest priority.

Once the scrum began, we divided the project into two-week sprints. Each sprint started with a sprint planning meeting to prepare and estimate the size and time of the dedicated tasks for the following two weeks. During the two week sprints, daily standup meetings would take place where teams would recap the following day and touch base with team members. At the end of each sprint, we completed a demo with Making Moves B.V where the developers would showcase their work before moving onto the next iteration. At the end of the scrum, our software development team had a complete and functional customer-oriented product.

Throughout the development process, a DevOps workflow was integrated allowing our team to develop the platform, deploy it and learn from production, making the next development cycle quick and easy. Automatization, source control and continuous integration and delivery enabled our DevOps workflow to be successful.

The software development process we followed led to a complete and functional web platform that was ready to be launched into the market.

“RUBICON’s input on the UX/UI developments on our platform were outstanding. For what essentially was a lot of work to be done in a short amount of time, they delivered everything we asked for.”

(Daniel Funcke, COO of Making Moves B.V)

THE NEW PLATFORM

The new platform is bold and organized making it easy for users to adopt. Navigating the website and accessing packages and tests is very simple. Most importantly, users can easily and successfully practice for their job assessments.

For the Making Moves B.V team, the management process became a lot more efficient and organized. Employees could simply upload new assessment tests and packages faster and in larger amounts. As a business, Assessment-Training was able to grow and attract new customers to purchase the products.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

By developing a successful software solution for Making Moves B.V, we built a relationship based on trust. With efficient communication, we delivered the product in a timely manner and successfully carried out our client’s requests.

After the six-month development process, we launched Assessment Training into the market. Seeing our client’s product prosper was rewarding so we decided to continue to work alongside B.V Making Moves achieving further success. After the release, our team turned our focus to product development looking to further grow Assessment Training by implementing new features and meeting customer needs. Our dedicated team consists of a product owner, designers and developers that work together to brainstorm, plan and execute new improvements. UX/UI designers are responsible for delivering the best possible user experience and developers for building new features. Both designers and developers are responsible for validating ideas presented by the product owner.

A product owner is dedicated towards leading the project and fulfilling the following tasks and responsibilities:

• Pitching ideas to team members
• Creating and conveying the product vision
• Producing a development plan
• Overseeing the product development and following the product roadmap
• Researching the market
• Discovering the best angles for reaching new markets
• Analyzing feedback from customers
• Measuring business analytics

In order to improve the existing software experience, we’ve integrated the lean approach into the product development process. Following this approach, the entire team constantly generates new ideas which are then turned into hypotheses and tested for real results. The method we use for testing our hypotheses is A/B testing providing us with quantitative results so we can decide whether to go further with the implementations after analyzing the provided data.

By pitching innovative ideas, creating new features, measuring growth and providing customer support we work towards the goal of globally expanding Assessment-Training.com. Together we’ve achieved exceptional results by advancing the business globally and satisfying customers.

RESULTS

Assessment-Training.com has become a new & improved web platform meeting customers’ needs. Together we’ve made some pretty impressive accomplishments:

• Fast delivery- new website and core platform launched within 6 months
• Migrated more than 23,000 customers and their specific data
• From 2016 to 2019, the user base grew by 10x and revenue increased by 7x
• Launched over 3,500 new tests and 200 new packages
• Significantly improved SEO

TECHNOLOGY STACK

• ASP .NET MVC
• Umbraco CMS
• AngularJS
• Azure App Service
• Azure SQL Database
• Azure Blob Storage
• Azure Application Insights
• Redis Cache
• Visual Studio Team Services
• Git
• Atlassian Jira and Bitbucket

PROJECT SCREENSHOTS

Product screenshots

About the client

Making Moves B.V specializes in developing software for human resource management solutions. Their products mainly include websites and applications. The core business focuses on training and preparing candidates for their job applications. Their goal is to make moves in careers.

INFORMATION

Company Name: Making Moves B.V

Region: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Industry: Human Resources

Project Duration: 2016- present

Staff: Less than 10 employees

Project: Web Development & UX/UI

Originally published at www.rubicon-world.com.