About the client
Oper gives the paper-based mortgage industry access to a digital future: its white-labelled product allows lenders and brokers to digitize the mortgage process from contact to contract while increasing conversion and lowering the transaction cost.
Founded in 2018, Oper is active in Belgium & Switzerland, expanding into other European markets (Germany, France, Hungary, and the Czech Republic...). Oper is a remote-first company with almost 50 remote talents all over Europe.
The challenges
Oper is a rapidly growing company that has ambitious plans for scaling.
Their hardest challenges were expanding their product offerings, shifting from a delivery-focused approach to a more discovery-focused approach, and establishing a structured process for measuring and iterating.
In addition, they were also dealing with operational backlog issues, trying simultaneously to move their target market from small broker accounts to larger lender accounts.
To tackle these challenges, Oper's teams needed additional resources, so they sought the expertise of dualoop consultants.
“We were looking to hire two product managers. But the recruiting process took a lot of time and energy, so when we reached out to dualoop, and there was a match, we decided to go for it.”
Wouter Lachat, co-founder and CPO at Oper
The solution
Initiating the change
We have investigated the company's objectives, analyzed the market, studied the company's sales, and considered how we could prioritize strategically, all while keeping the customer's needs in mind.
After a thorough analysis, we hired additional product managers and created autonomous teams to enhance productivity and accountability. We implemented more systematic user testing before releasing products to improve product quality and customer satisfaction, enhance our product marketing and strengthen client communication.
Additionally, we helped the product managers to prioritize discovery.
"We were shipping features without spending enough time to think it through and not doing the discovery part enough. So instead of focusing on building things, we needed to step back and see how to solve the problem. That’s what dualoop helped us with a lot.”
Wouter Lachat, co-founder and CPO at Oper
We communicated the company's strategy to ensure alignment and direction for all team members and defined OKRs for each squad so that they could contribute to the overall company objectives.
We then established a design system to create consistency and efficiency in product design and development. Lastly, we aligned with customer needs to improve overall business performance.
"We brought some techniques and frameworks and tailored them to the company. You must find the right balance; you don't want to reinvent the wheel. So that’s what we did. At Oper, we’ve implemented the dualoop framework but still changed it to fit the company’s culture and goals.”
Mathieu Van Belle, VP of Product at Oper
The Timeline
Our first step was conducting an initial assessment and ensuring stakeholder alignment. We then facilitated mission and vision workshops, followed by a progressive reorganization process that included cycle meetings, installing templates, and guiding teams through the changes.
We arranged expertise sessions for product management, utilizing peer learning methods and gamification to promote growth and learning. Our team also worked to align the product strategy with the commercial strategy, introducing product trio to transition from sole PM responsibility to a collaborative product triad approach.
We reviewed the insights process and prioritization to ensure alignment with the vision and strategy as part of a discovery reboot. Our efforts helped Oper prioritize tasks, set clear goals, and appropriately focus on the most critical areas.
Taking one thing at a time
We began by categorising our tasks into two sections:
- urgent and important
- important but not so urgent
The “urgent and important tasks” included freeing up PMs' time to work on discovery and coaching them to become more problem-oriented.
For “important but not so urgent tasks”, we set out to grow the PM team and product/engineering to meet new challenges, bring product managers closer to the market and users, and evangelise product management to communicate what we do and why.
After six months of collaboration between dualoop and Oper, Mathieu, a dualoop consultant, joined Oper as VP of Product. Then, we also brought on another dualoop consultant to support Mathieu in his new role and help Oper continue to grow and scale.
Our consultant focuses on improving customer satisfaction, helping the teams to build features that Oper’s customers will love, and helping to transition from smaller broker accounts to larger, ideally lender accounts. The mission is still ongoing!
Reflection
Working with Oper has been an exciting and rewarding experience.
Oper was facing a few challenges when they came to us for help. They needed to scale their product and focus more on discovery, all while keeping their customer satisfaction high. Teams are now aligned with organizational goals, clearly defining responsibilities and roles.
There's better prioritization of urgent tasks, and new processes were established to reduce pressure on engineering and product teams.
Oper was able to set clear goals and help Oper scale efficiently. We helped them analyze their market, understand their customers' needs, and prioritize their objectives. By focusing on aspects like bringing in more product managers, implementing user testing, and creating a design system, Oper was able to transform into a product-led company and position itself for success.
Of course, this was no small feat. Yet, by aligning the expectations of all stakeholders, doing an initial assessment, and holding mission and vision workshops, we made significant progress.
dualoop remains a trusted advisor for Oper, and we are beyond excited to see their progress in the following months!
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