7 min read

ComgyOS provides energy data infrastructure for buildings. The software automates billing reporting, utilizes decarbonization potential, and ensures compliance with regulatory requirements for apartment portfolios.

<aside> 📚 Before we begin, here are some basic technical words from the industry that I will be using: Real estate = a building Estate unit = an apartment, a flat Tenant = a person who lives in an estate unit

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Background

When I first joined Comgy, there was a bit of chaos due to the departure of two designers and the absence of an established design culture within the company. Comgy develops software for installers, tenants, and tenant managers, and they constantly require support from designers. Product team at Comgy was primarily focused on adding new features or rebuilding existing ones in their software.

Challenge

Each designer in organization was responsible for different parts of the product. In my case, I was responsible for two areas:

Tenant portal: This is a platform where tenants can view their usage and CO2 emissions.

Management portal: Designed for different users, my role focused on the tenant managers section.

<aside> 🎓 In this case study, I will focus on one specific problem related to Management portal.

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Problem: How can I manage tenants in customers' apartments?

• Users are required to send letters with consumption information to tenants.
• Users need to update their data in the system.
• Users need to have a clear understanding of the entire process.

<aside> <img src="https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/39daefa7-7e90-4358-9bc7-9b3565eb156d/4f558a69-5ebc-4519-a492-97248a6de697/apple-touch-icon-aa535b32a95bf807024f70929a6c30b13785da00686e07b5f5dbc794c3fc33bb.png" alt="https://prod-files-secure.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/39daefa7-7e90-4358-9bc7-9b3565eb156d/4f558a69-5ebc-4519-a492-97248a6de697/apple-touch-icon-aa535b32a95bf807024f70929a6c30b13785da00686e07b5f5dbc794c3fc33bb.png" width="40px" /> Shape Up Methodology in Comgy

Comgy experimented with different project management methods, but ultimately found that Shape Up was the most efficient one. As a result, they have decided to adopt it. With this approach, teams prepare a pitch every 6 weeks (a cycle). The pitch is a brief proposal that outlines a specific problem, proposed solution, potential challenges, and project scope. After completing the pitch, the C-level management selects the best projects. Then, teams begin developing solutions and the entire process repeats. Each team consists of a Project Manager, a QA specialist, 3-4 developers, and a designer.

Read more about this methodology here: https://basecamp.com/shapeup

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Project execution process

Problem research

At the beginning, I needed to understand the issue. I had a call with the product manager, who showed me the previous solution they had implemented and also highlighted the problems reported by users after implementation. Before we began, I asked the product manager to provide more information about the users experiencing these problems. As a result, we created a simple persona.

User Tenant manager

<aside> <img src="/icons/flag-swallowtail_green.svg" alt="/icons/flag-swallowtail_green.svg" width="40px" /> Goal maintenance all data from tenants in their apartments

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<aside> <img src="/icons/emoji-sad_red.svg" alt="/icons/emoji-sad_red.svg" width="40px" /> Pain points A lot of apartments to manage, often get lost with current software

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