Frequently Asked Questions
The Product approach is inherently a recognition that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A product is not in the project management, it is not only in the design or in development. This recognition has been paradigm-shifting. It has given birth to a new generation of product thinkers.
New thinking needs new tools.
Who is SquareBear?
SquareBear is a Sydney based software company that gives product teams the power of true cross-functionality – allowing them to deliver maximised value in synergy and with continuous flow throughout the entire product design, development and delivery cycle. The SquareBear vision is to reduce product failure, eliminate silos in product, and to elevate what is possible in product.
Why we think you’ll love SquareBear:
We designed SquareBear to alleviate your pains and to amplify, and build, your team’s joined-up potential.
With SquareBear, value delivered in any one product domain is dynamically linked and intelligently translated to inform other parts of the product automatically, in ways that make sense. All team members can see and interact with the product as a whole. Product and Program Managers can see the product emerge as it happens, and fidelity to the design is never a problem.
With 95% of all digital products ending in failure, 70% of all digital transformations ending in failure, and at least 70% of those failures being attributed to poor communication between domains, you can be assured that when you use SquareBear, you are joining our mission to reduce product failure, eliminate silos in product, and to elevate what is possible in product.
Why we love SquareBear:
As agilists, product specialists and SAFe practitioners, we know that the level of manual handling increases during ‘hand-over’ of work from one product domain, or phase, to another (think workflow from journey map, journey map to feature design, user stories from feature design, risks and issues from the workboard as they emerge). With this, risks to delivery and quality of output are increased, and the costs skyrocket too.
With SquareBear, product design, development and delivery are managed in one space – and translation of information and insights between domains is algorithmically supported – so your team is free to do more of what it does best, with greater opportunity and less risk.
How does SquareBear deliver on these promises?
When you use SquareBear, you are using an intelligent, integrated, and dynamically linked digital environment that has been specifically built for Product (and, no, we do not think that Project Management is the same as Product Management – although our project managers are an important part of the team too).
Dedicated spaces, or ‘Squares’, allow for full value generation in key areas of product design, development, and delivery. Content is intelligently (AI) and algorithmically translated to deliver value from this work into other ‘Squares’ automatically – significantly reducing the manual work, risk to delivery, and cost of product delivery.
All team members can see and interact with the product as a whole. Project Managers can see the progress of work and know if milestones will be achieved on time, and risk managers are alerted to risks and issues in real-time. Product and program Managers can see the product emerge as it happens, and fidelity to the design is never a problem (as design and delivery is inherently linked).
We like the look of SquareBear, but we already have our approach, and we use a standard set of packages… Does SquareBear integrate with Jira, AZURE Devops, Trello, Miro etc?
We recommend you keep your work in SquareBear so that you can have the full dynamic experience, but we understand that transition takes time.
The good news us that SquareBear allows for the export of information in industry standard formats, so your team can continue to use legacy tools while you test and explore the full SquareBear experience.
Once outside of the SquareBear ecosystem however, your updates will cease to be ‘live’ and new parts of your product will not be integrated with the rest of it unless manually updated. To us, this feels a little bit like going back in time…
How does SquareBear’s cost model work?
It is free to create and use your SquareBear account, and we give the first seat full access to all our features without constraint.
Depending on your team size, SquareBear will cost you around $20USD or less per additional seat per month. Obviously, the price reduces as seat numbers go up. Talk to us to find out more.
You can scale the number of seats up or down as circumstances change, so you will never pay for what you don’t use.
Consultants can hand ownership of projects within SquareBear to their clients – allowing for even more flexibility and providing for additional value-add. Instead of handing over a folder of artefacts that get lost in the ‘top drawer’, our consultant Bears can now hand over a piece of work that is truly living.
How does SquareBear’s cost model work?
It is free to create and use your SquareBear account, and we give the first seat full access to all our features without constraint.
Depending on your team size, SquareBear will cost you around $20USD or less per additional seat per month. Obviously, the price reduces as seat numbers go up. Talk to us to find out more.
You can scale the number of seats up or down as circumstances change, so you will never pay for what you don’t use.
Consultants can hand ownership of projects within SquareBear to their clients – allowing for even more flexibility and providing for additional value-add. Instead of handing over a folder of artefacts that get lost in the ‘top drawer’, our consultant Bears can now hand over a piece of work that is truly living.
What other things should I think about when I’m considering if SquareBear will help my team?
Cost and waste: You’ll save money with SquareBear. But more importantly, you’ll reduce friction and waste. Consider these questions:
- What do the array of point solution packages cost your project or team month on month, as a combined total? – Think Jira, AZURE Devops, Trello, Miro, Monday etc.
- See SquareBear’s pricing model – how much could your organisation save in the current or coming financial year?
- How much have you paid for your team members to manually write user stories this month?
- SquareBear’s Dynamic User Stories™ means that this could be a thing of the past.
- In the past 6 – 12 months, how much of the valuable work done in design and development has been wasted or not translated well enough into delivery?
- With SquareBear, live connections between key product domains and phases means that the translation of value is traceable.
- At delivery, and throughout, can you demonstrate fidelity to the design?
- With SquareBear, you can.
Flow and synergy: Flow and synergy are key to your team’s success. Consider these questions:
- Do point solutions like Jira, Miro and Monday provide you with the opportunity to reach flow as a team?
- Are you able to follow best practice while juggling between these point solutions?… Or do you find that you’re adjusting your practice to accommodate for your tools?
SquareBear gives your team the power of true cross-functionality. Your team members are free to work in dedicated spaces set up for their specialty (with best practice baked in), so their practice and their value is not watered down.
All the while, SquareBear’s algorithmically supported, and intelligently integrated digital environment makes the important connections. The whole team can always see the whole product as it emerges, in ways that make sense for them. Every bit of value created is utilised (reducing waste) and is linked throughout (amplifying value generation).
Collaboration is closer and more meaningful, because the whole team is operating in the same space and are part of the same process. Something doesn’t look right? Teams can identify the knock-on effects of work in any one product domain quickly and address any issues before they become costly.
- Something looks great? Clone this project so that you can use key elements next time
- Want to experiment to see what might happen? Welcome to the home of product™!
Risk Management: Effective risk management is key to your product’s success. Consider these questions:
How many risk management meetings have you attended where risks are noted but not managed, or where risk management tasks are unowned or not actioned?
With SquareBear’s Risks and Issues board, your risk manager is updated on risks in real time and can allocate ownership and treatments to each one as they arise. Risk and issue management is open to everyone to see, not hidden away in a spreadsheet that is visible to a select few people in the organisation.
How many risks and issues might be currently under-reported, under-managed and under-monitored in your product because it is hard to achieve good, real-time communication on this with your delivery teams?
Don’t let delivery issues and risk go unreported. In SquareBear, team members can raise an issue in the Risks and Issues Square directly from the card that is blocked. This promotes prompt and accurate reporting of issues.
Project Management: SquareBear will track your team’s velocity and let you know if you are on track to meet your milestones! Consider this:
- How accurate is your velocity estimate, and how well are you using this information to meaningfully predict delivery against milestones and manage your stakeholders?
- Based on the average time taken to deliver tickets identified as “Large”, “Medium” or “Small”, by your team, SquareBear can predict if the team will be able to reach delivery milestones within promised timelines. If SquareBear calculates a risk to the milestone date, the team is alerted. This empowers the delivery team to address delivery risks proactively.
- SquareBear provides a velocity trend report, which is conveniently located on the dashboard. This helps the team see that they are consistently and accurately estimating the size of tasks. This gives your team confidence that they are working in line with the delivery plan.