I helped Good Mood Group bridge the gap between business vision and technical execution, delivering both immediate stability and a comprehensive technology strategy to scale their second-home services platform beyond launch.
The Challenge
Good Mood Group was building a platform to connect second-home owners with local businesses. They outsourced the development, but they struggled to work with the vendor. The business described what they needed in business terms, but the vendor needed technical specifications. Neither could bridge the gap. The launch date was closing in. They needed stability.
What I Did
Stabilized Development
In the first three weeks, I brought clarity and bridged the gap between business and vendor teams. I worked through ambiguous requirements and documented decisions to prevent rework.
- Personas: Gave all the roles and authorization levels a concrete example to use and re-use
- User stories: Translated business requirements to smaller deliverables
- UI mock-ups: Supporting material for user stories and help guide discussions
Delivered Technology Strategy
Over the remaining four weeks, I developed a technology strategy to cover the first 2 years after launch:
- Architecture: Evaluated their low-code stack against alternatives, considering their stage, team skills, and growth plans
- Build vs. buy: Determined which capabilities to bring in-house versus outsource based on strategic importance
- Team roadmap: Designed a path from outsourced development to internal team, with hiring priorities
- AI strategy: Identified where AI could create competitive advantage through better user experience
- Operations: Established metrics to track what matters and catch problems early
Impact
Kept development moving: Clarified requirements and bridged communication gaps.
Vendor selection: Provided retrospective analysis to guide future vendor choices.
Informed architecture: Evaluated market options against their actual needs.
Defined team structure: Defined hiring priorities based on what capabilities matter most.
Bootstrapped AI strategy: Identified where AI investment creates competitive advantage.
Early warning signs: Established metrics to catch problems before they become crises.
Client Perspective
“Working with Ivo brought exactly the stability and clarity we needed at a critical moment in our IT project. What stood out most was his ability to translate our vision into practical, workable solutions for development, bridging the gap between strategy and execution.”
— Good Mood Group