Our Playbook | Mainmatter

Build lasting products, systematically

Our playbook describes methodologies for building sustainable digital products and running an effective, collaborative product development process. It is based on our experiences working on projects with international clients in various industries for many years.

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For big and small teams – on-site or remote

The patterns and practices in our playbook work for teams and companies of all sizes with all kinds of projects – whether it is an established company aiming for a modern, remote-friendly process, a founder setting up their own product team or an individual product manager, designer or developer looking to make their team more effective.

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Collaborating closely among all stakeholders
Iterating in small, functional increments
Validating assumptions early and often
Supporting remote teams through transparency
Delivering products with sustainable foundations

Organization of this book

Digital product projects
The key to effectively addressing business needs with digital products is to iterate in small increments and validate assumptions at every step of the process.
Development process
Organizing and preparing work based on the input of all project shareholders maximizes a team's effectiveness and output quality.

We started working with simplabs to build a state-of-the-art mobile web app from the ground up and it was an absolute success! Not only are they web specialists, but their expertise in development practices and agile processes made our collaboration an absolute delight.

Carl Andersson, General Manager of Trainline international

From the book

Decomposition
Large tasks become more manageable when decomposed into smaller units. This applies to full products that should be broken down into an MVP and subsequent increments, but also for finer grained development or design tasks.
Transparent Communication
Transparent communication and decision making processes are crucial for successful projects. Channeling communication through tools makes it transparent to all stakeholders and allows for a persistent record of discussions and decisions, which is critical for remote teams in particular.
Self-Organisation
We believe the classic project manager role is an organisational anti-pattern, and instead advocate for self-organised project teams. Close and direct collaboration between all stakeholders fosters alignment towards a common goal and is essential to a project's success.

Increase focus and stability in your products now

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The playbook cover, featuring a vector illustration of hands stacking shapes

About Mainmatter

It takes brains to develop a no-brainer. At mainmatter, we teach, cross-pollinate, and collaborate with our clients to develop digital products and practices they can build on. We don’t care for trends or theory if the results are impractical, so we strive for effective and pragmatic solutions for complex problems. Through guidance and knowledge transfer, we take a long-term view, rather than chasing a short-term high, enabling our clients to shape the future of their digital products.