PayFit
PayFit
Company Founded

2016

Location

Europe

Challenges

Challenge:

“Product was a black box. Other teams didn’t know when a release was coming because they couldn't follow the information through the process from feedback-gathering to delivery. So, the first thing we see now with Productboard is a sense of trust again.”
Raphael Dozolme | PayFit

Raphael Dozolme Product Ops, PayFit

PayFit

PayFit

After adopting Productboard, PayFit has built a more transparent approach to product management, improving collaboration between cross-functional teams across the nearly 1,000-person company. See how.

PayFit offers small and medium-sized businesses a tantalizing possibility: the chance to “focus on higher value tasks.” How, exactly? With an intuitive platform that helps teams simplify their payroll and HR processes. 

PayFit Product Operations Manager Raphael Dozolme puts it nicely: “our goal is to help the life of that small entrepreneur, so they can pull everything from a single place and move on.” 

Interestingly, Raphael says PayFit’s own Product team knew this struggle firsthand. “It was the same problem for us — having very manual processes.”

Navigating disconnected feedback channels and multiple roadmap versions, PayFit teams struggled to prioritize customers’ biggest needs, align on product strategy, and effectively coordinate dependencies. 

Learn how PayFit improved visibility across the product lifecycle with a comprehensive product management platform — and why the company’s thoughtful onboarding effort has helped teams collaborate more effectively.

How it started: duplicate roadmaps, disconnected feedback channels

On a mission to create a rewarding experience for both its employees and customers, PayFit product leaders acted quickly when they identified ways of working that weren’t working.

1. Losing time, lacking alignment: a manual journey from backlog to roadmap

“We started looking for a product management tool when we realized the process of translating backlogs into roadmaps was frustrating product managers,” Raphael says.

It was very manual and disconnected. They were creating their feature backlog in Notion, but all of their roadmaps were in Google Slides or Miro, which meant each product team used a different link to share information and make changes — even if they were working on the same user experience.

Product lost valuable time wading through multiple versions of roadmap information; cross-functional teams saw a “lack of general alignment” without real-time visibility to bridge gaps across the product lifecycle.

2. Developers worked in silos, limiting PayFit’s ability to coordinate dependencies affecting multiple teams and products

Before Productboard, Raphael says some engineers “were really focused on their own squad, doing tasks, without information on other squads or even fully understanding the OKRs of their own group.” As a result, Product and Engineering missed opportunities to work together and more effectively manage dependencies affecting multiple product outcomes.

3. Discovery roadblocks: missed opportunities to build high-value features

Discovery proved the most taxing issue. PayFit product managers faced a challenge on two fronts — aggregating customer feedback and using the same process to turn findings into the right features. Raphael explains:

  • Some product managers received feedback straight from Customer Success; others learned about customers’ needs through Slack.
  • While some product managers tried to implement their findings in JIRA, elsewhere in Product, teams turned to Notion and a range of other tools.

The end result? Product managers missed opportunities to discover and act on what customers needed most and, just as distressing, Product’s working relationship with Customer Success and Sales grew strained.

“Product was a black box. Other teams didn’t know when a release was coming because they couldn't follow the information through the process from feedback-gathering to delivery. So, the first thing we see now with Productboard is a sense of trust again.”

Raphael Dozolme
Raphael Dozolme
Product Ops, PayFit

How it changed: selecting a product management tool built for collaboration

On a quest to improve its own discovery process, PayFit left no stone unturned researching product management platforms. Pitting Productboard against eight other platforms in the beginning of its search, the company made sure a few product managers personally tested the final two contenders. 

The top priority: that PM’s and cross-functional teams could easily track feature initiatives and release plans in real-time — and with a high level of detail. 

But there was one more reason Productboard won out; its potential to expand in scope and offer PayFit even more value over time proved too persuasive to pass up. 

“We went with Productboard because it was critical for our software partner to grow with us — that it had a solid financial foundation was very important,” says Raphael. “In fact, the sponsor of the Productboard project was one of our co-founders.”

How to streamline onboarding: drive value quickly with PayFit’s 5 tips

Training teams to use a new tool can be a difficult experience — but Raphael shared 5 ways to change minds and platforms successfully. Here’s the full story.

How it’s going: shipping the right products faster with better visibility

On the other side of onboarding sessions, PayFit is now reaping the benefits of better visibility and collaboration. Leveraging the same real-time information, teams can more effectively apply PayFit’s preferred product management framework to identify and act on customers’ core challenges.

  • PayFit’s Double Diamond framework is strengthened by a comprehensive system

Leveraging the Double Diamond approach to product management, PayFit teams first go to work on a larger customer problem or business need, diverging to explore all directions of relevant feedback. After capturing a holistic view of possibilities, they converge on a solution.

“Productboard helps us make sure all steps of the solution that will come to life are represented at the right points across the initiative. We create releases and sub-releases, include one-pagers, and use the fields for filtering.”

Raphael Dozolme
Raphael Dozolme
Product Ops, PayFit
  • Teams can quickly find information and better coordinate dependencies

Product has come a long way from its “black box” days. 

Working from the same real-time information in Productboard, PayFit teams can more successfully close feedback loops with customers and maximize Dev resources.

“Anyone can now see and dig into a specific topic to find information — not only for Customer Success and Sales to better understand things from the client perspective, but also for Product teams to better plan their dependencies because now they can understand new releases for users in all countries,” Raphael says.

  • Engineering and Customer Success participate more actively across the lifecycle

Now, more and more engineers are well-read on the roadmap, and can even be seen challenging their manager or product manager counterparts for the good of the business. Raphael says the culture change is palpable, as many developers admit: “I’m very happy to be more involved.” 

Customer-facing teams, meanwhile, “have a lot more people pushing feedback” following group Productboard trainings. This, Raphael stresses, represents an important turning point from a situation fraught with customer retention risks, where it was “very dangerous to lose trust from other departments.”

By bridging information gaps and improving communication between stakeholders, Productboard is helping PayFit embody its core values, Raphael says. 

“We have a double mission statement at PayFit — one for employees and for customers. The goal is really to create a fulfilling experience and culture for everyone and it starts with transparency.”

Raphael Dozolme
Raphael Dozolme
Product Ops, PayFit


Want to see stronger cross-functional collaboration? 

Sign up for a demo today!

PayFit

Successful
customers

Previous Next Previous Next

Ready to make products people want?

Try it For Free