With the need and adoption of cloud solutions continuing to increase, we created a helpful guide for businesses to help them understand the questions they will need to answer to find the right cloud solution.

4 Critical Questions Every Business Needs to Answer Before Moving to the Cloud

Over the last two decades, cloud solutions have become an integral part of modern IT strategy — and for good reason. The cloud offers businesses greater flexibility, scalability, and efficiency compared to hosting on a local server.

The Covid-19 pandemic has only increased the need and adoption of cloud solutions. Between school closures, social distancing, and work-from-home, data center are experiencing massive surges in the usage of compute resources. Shifting societal norms have resulted in greater dependence on technology that makes data accessible from any location.

With 94% of enterprises already using a cloud service, companies that are not embracing the cloud are sure to be left behind in 2021. Not only are customers demanding it, employees need it to effectively work remote.

When selecting and implementing cloud solutions, there are many different options available depending on an organization's unique needs.

: computing infrastructure is located on the premises of a third-party provider that offers a cloud service to a variety of users. Public clouds can be free services, or require that customers purchase a certain amount of usage (CPU cycles, storage, or bandwidth).

: a cloud computing model whose resources are provisioned over a dedicated, private infrastructure that is solely used by one organization.

: a combination of private and public cloud to meet an organization's needs. For example, public cloud can be used to interact with customers, while sensitive data is secured on a private cloud.

: a form of cloud computing that hosts its resources over the Internet. Examples of IaaS companies include Amazon, Rackspace, Flexiscale.

: a service that provides a platform for consumers to develop, run, and manage applications in the cloud without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure needed.

: a software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over the Internet.

 a custom built software designed to meet the unique needs of an organization delivered over the Internet in a subscription-based model.

Selecting the right solution for your business

With a variety of options available, choosing the right solution based on your needs and budget can be a difficult task. To help organizations select the right solution, we have compiled 4 questions to help you calibrate your mindset in order to determine which solution is right for you.

1. What are my business goals for the cloud?

It is important to first understand how the right cloud solution will align with your business needs. For example, some organizations may be looking for a solution that will be revenue generating. Others might be looking to support their business from an operations perspective. Some businesses will want a solution that will help them to scale and grow, while some are more focused on cutting costs. With different goals in mind, each business would require a different solution to meet their needs.

2. How can my current network and infrastructure support cloud offerings?

While moving to the cloud might mean a smaller IT footprint in-house, it would likely demand additional network capacity. Understanding the current state of your network and infrastructure will allow you to set a baseline for what you may need to support cloud adoption.

3. What is the structure of your technical team?

What is the size of your technical team? Who is maintaining your technical resources? Is your team internal or external? These are all important questions to think about when selecting a cloud solution. Depending on the expertise you have in-house, you may require additional resources to manage your solution.

4. What problems can the cloud solve for your users?

This is the most important question of all. At Foxbox, we are always focused on first identifying your users and how we can meet their needs through cloud solutions.

Where do you users access the application? Is it in your office? Is it at home? Are they online or offline? Do they like the application? Would they prefer to use a public platform/known technology? These are some of the questions we may ask to dig deeper into how we can craft a solution that would be most beneficial to your users.

Taking a user-centric approach is what we at Foxbox Digital do best. If you would like to learn more about our cloud consulting and development services, 

. We would love to help you find the right solution to meet the needs of your users.

Striking the right balance between Agile methodologies and Human-Centered Design (HCD) principles can be a challenge for product development teams. We examine how to relieve healthy tension between the two strategies to find the right customer-market fit.

How to Build Better Digital Products By Embracing Human-Centered Design (HCD) + Agile

Striking the right balance between Agile methodologies and Human-Centered Design (HCD) principles paves the way for product development teams to find the right customer-market fit. At the risk of oversimplifying, HCD provides a framework for "thinking" about product development, while Agile provides the framework for "doing". Calibrating the “thinking” vs “doing” is critical to developing great digital products.

When combining these strategies, it is important to note that some of their basic tenets are at odds with one another. Agile methods focus on eliminating inefficiencies found in the Waterfall model of project management (“doing”). They encourage design and development to happen concurrently to foster increased collaboration and teamwork. On the other hand, HCD principles highlight the importance of user research to discover and solve real user-facing problems (“thinking”). They suggest a discovery phase at the beginning of the project with limited or no developer involvement.

To better understand each method and how to resolve this tension tension between them, let's review the basic tenets of each strategy.

The Manifesto for Agile Software Development

Agile methodologies are best explained by the Agile Manifesto, which was penned by a group of seventeen leaders from the software community while on a ski trip in Utah in early 2001.

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan

Although the technology landscape has changed significantly since the Agile Manifesto was written, Agile Coaches, enthusiasts and avid practitioners agree that these principles are still key to guiding successful Agile development. While different frameworks may interpret them differently, they remain a core component of both conversation and study around this strategy.

The Top 4 Principles of Human-Centered Design

One of the top scholars of HCD is Don Norman, an accomplished researcher and professor who serves as the director of The Design Lab at University of California, San Diego. He is best known for his books on design, especially 

Much of Norman's work involves his advocacy of HCD. His talk 

 is considered by many to cover the fundamental teachings of the theory.

1. Focus upon the people
2. Find the right problem
3. Think of everything as a system
4. Always validate your design decisions

In his talk, Norman identifies two types of problems — fundamental problems and symptoms of the problem. He argues that it’s essential to solve a fundamental problem first because by doing that you’ll solve a root cause of other problems. He contends that no matter how much time it takes, development cannot begin until the right problem to solve has been identified. Failure to do this could lead to an ineffective product that does not meet the needs of users.

Bridging the Gap Between Conflicting Strategies

In essence, both strategies are trying to achieve the same goals of fostering collaboration, solving real problems, and keeping customer satisfaction at the forefront. The main difference between HCD and Agile is how various staff roles are applied to a project and at what stages they are involved.

To remedy this healthy tension between the strategies, we assert the following practices that allow HCD and Agile to work together effectively.

Although developers may not participate in user research, they can still be part of the design process early on. Design sessions would ideally include developers, the people who will use the services, and designers who are experts at engaging users and interpreting qualitative feedback.

As the software is developed, designers would review changes regularly and the whole team would participate in validating the service with real users. This fosters greater collaboration and communication, as well as ensures that proper user research is performed throughout the project timeline to ensure that the right problems are being focused on by the team.

Some challenges, such as making a high-demand software component perform faster, require little user research, yet can deliver high impact results. While user research is certainly important, it should not be trusted over performance metrics. When a team can get something testable in front of real users, they will be able to make more informed decisions about their product roadmap.

Reserve very in-depth user research for user-facing functionality that is new or different. The more innovative your project, the more it justifies the amount of time spent on research.

Add More Customer Facing People to Your Team

In commercial technology industry, there is often a tendency to have too high a ratio of engineers compared to other roles on the team. This is often due to a focus on rapid development rather than customer-centricity.

When in doubt, always refer to the people in your organization who interface with the people that experience the problems that the team is trying to solve. A balanced team should involve the same number of user-facing people as software engineers. This includes product managers and user experience experts. In some cases, members from other teams such as sales, customer experience, and support should also be referred to in order to better understand the voice of the customer.

Measure Productivity by Value, Not Volume

More lines of code do not directly translate into a product that better meets user needs and business goals. In Agile, many teams try to measure their velocity to understand their progress. However, this practice can fall short as it is only important to a specific team in the context of its own achievements.

The only measure of productivity that matters is user satisfaction. Craft KPIs related to your users experience and the value it provides.

Above All, Act in the Best Interest of the User

In conclusion, Agile and HCD are best combined when they are utilized with the common goal of creating happy customers. This will calibrate the "thinking" and the "doing" in the best interest of the user.

Through this calibration, the product design and development processes will become more effective and more resilient. Resilience enables teams to focus exclusively on generating user value, rather than getting locked into a specific plan that does not result in meeting user needs.

By following the suggestions above and keeping users first, product development teams can work together to resolve the healthy tension between Agile and HCD in order to generate the most value for their users.

A pivotal member of the Foxbox team, Minh Quan Phan Huy seems to have the power to be 10 places at once. We wanted to get to know Minh better, so we asked him to take a few minutes out of his busy day to answer a few of our burning questions.

Get to Know Our VP of Engineering, Minh Quan Phan Huy

 seems to have the power to be 10 places at once. Whether he is onboarding a new engineer, or solving a highly technical problem, he is always ready and willing to lend a helping hand to a client or team member in need.

We wanted to get to know Minh better, so we asked him to take a few minutes out of his busy day to answer a few of our burning questions.

Q: Thanks for talking with me, Minh! Tell me a little bit about your role at Foxbox Digital.

A: Of course! I head up the entire engineering team at Foxbox where I am responsible for planning, implementing, and overseeing the team’s engineering strategy and process. I also recruit, train, and mentor new engineers which is something I really enjoy.

On some of our larger projects, like the 

 we launched earlier this year, I serve as the lead architect establishing the technical design and scope.

Q: What made you want to come work at Foxbox?

. When I met everyone during my interview, what really stood out to me was how dedicated the team was to solving real problems.

Throughout my career, I have seen projects fail because what we were building was trying to solve a hypothetical problem, instead of a real one. I could tell the team at Foxbox really cared about solving the right problems that were going to make the biggest impact for their clients.

Q: How has that culture at Foxbox impacted your role?

A: I think the key is investing in the right talent to help our clients succeed. One of the best parts of my role is that I source that talent, and mentor developers to improve their skill sets.

I’ve always wanted a role where I could be focused on supporting and mentoring a team. Engineers come to me throughout the day with a variety of different questions and concerns. It’s my job to make sure whenever they leave a conversation with me, they feel confident in what they should do next.

Q: What opportunities are you most excited for looking to the future of Foxbox?

A: Since I came to Foxbox over a year ago, we have grown so much both in our staff and our clientele. Initially we were focused on hiring strong React Native developers and project managers to support our teams.

Right now we’re really expanding the type of talent were bringing on. Over the past year I’ve hired some incredible backend engineers and QA engineers. Looking forward, I really see endless opportunity in terms of what projects we will take on next.

Q: What is your favorite part about working at Foxbox?

A: Every day is different. I always come to work ready for anything!

Q: How do you enjoy spending time outside of work?

A: During the pandemic it’s been a bit tricky. I really love the restaurant scene in Chicago and trying different places to eat. Lately it’s been a lot of ordering in and cooking food at home.

I also love spending time outdoors – hiking, biking, and visiting different scenic locations. It’s nice to relax and clear my mind after a busy work week.

Q: What’s something that your colleagues or clients might not know what you that might surprise them?

A: People are always surprised to learn that I’m Canadian! Actually, French is my first language. I can speak three languages – French, English, and Vietnamese. Not many people know that.

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