Custom workflows and scale
By Bryan Elder, Director of Product
Development, QA, UX, design teams use Targetprocess
Customer facing teams use Service Desk for free
Kanban and Scrum processes
65,000 customers across North America
01
Who is CallRail?
CallRail develops a marketing analytics application that’s used by over 65,000 companies and agencies around the world. They help businesses grow by giving them insight into which marketing channels are driving results through attribution of inbound sales leads. Their product is set apart from competitors by its intuitive UI, flexible pricing, and the the use of machine learning for Conversation Intelligence. They also have a pretty neat office.
Targetprocess was the only solution that could both reflect their custom workflows and scale with the company as they grew and processes changed.
Before Targetprocess, CallRail used a tool that was essentially just a bulletin board and a task list. It became clear that a central point for data and collaboration was needed. Their CTO had some experience with other tools, but found that Targetprocess was the only solution that could both reflect their custom workflows and scale with the company as they grew and processes changed.
02
How they use Targetprocess?
CallRail made the switch to Targetprocess in 2016. They now have eight cross functional teams working in the system. Customer facing teams, such as Support, Marketing, and Sales, use the Service Desk to submit bugs and feature requests to development.
Bryan Elder, Product Director at CallRail, is pleased with how well everything has come together:
“Targetprocess is the central point for our product development process. All our information is in one place. We have developers, designers, product owners, QA engineers, all looking at it. And I love the Service Desk; I’ve cut out 4 regular meetings just by using it. It was easy to set up, and someone who’s not engineering minded can easily use it.”
CallRail’s main process for handling work involves a mix of Scrum and Kanban. Typically, a User Story is added to the backlog from an incoming request or an existing roadmap item. Every 2 weeks, the CEO and CPO move priority work from the backlog into the “Planned” state, without assigning it to a team. They then meet with Product Owners to look at team bandwith, and assign teams.
Every week, Bryan holds a company-wide product catch-up meeting where he shares and reviews what’s currently in development. To prepare for this, he has written an API that asks Targetprocess to upload data into a Google spreadsheet in a nice, clean format.
For the rest of the company, the most commonly used view is a Kanban board that’s been customized to reflect CallRail’s process. Teams use filters so that everyone can just view their own work.
03
The benefits
One of the key benefits for CallRail is the time that their teams have saved. There’s nothing that gets in the face of developers and distracts them from their work. Targetprocess is integrated with Slack, so important notifications can be seen right from CallRail’s central communication hub.
Bryan is particularly pleased by the cross-team unification that Targetprocess has enabled. Customer facing teams now have a central place to communicate with developers and track information that’s important to them -- without having to waste time exchanging inquisitive emails or Slack messages.
“Our feature request process is something that’s drastically improved within the last 6 months. As our company has grown, we’ve gotten more and more requests, and we look at every single one because we care about our customers and want to build value for them. So now it’s easy to filter and prioritize requests immediately.”
04
Recommendations for other companies
For companies that are looking for the right tool, Bryan recommends careful research and an open mind.
“Find a tool that fits your needs, but offers enough flexibility to grow along
with your business process — rather than a tool that’s a burden on developers.”
