Kahoa

Software projects often fail at the join between strategy and delivery, and Kahoa says closing that gap is what sets it apart. The firm calls itself a strategic digital business consultancy: it works with a client to decide what should be built, then builds it using agile methods, so that one partner covers the whole route.

Working with the team a client already has

Kahoa describes software as an art and team building as another. It aims to bring out the best of a client's internal staff and use existing technology investments, then fills gaps with blended teams it selects for each project. Onshore and nearshore developers can be part of that mix, and staff augmentation is on its list of services.

Three stages of work

The first stage is digital strategy and business consulting, which includes competitive analysis, user research, technology choices, agile implementation and scaling, resource and talent planning, and cloud, edge and managed services strategy.

The second stage is product discovery and design. Workshops, stakeholder input, user personas, design sprints, research and testing, user story mapping, prototyping and visual design clarify a product's purpose and rank the features that matter most. Once the client and Kahoa share a definition of success, the firm drafts a plan with estimated costs and deliverables.

The third stage is architecture, development and quality management. It covers information architecture, scalable services, system integrations, DevOps, cloud infrastructure, data security and data mapping, on top of a client's current technology.

Industries it knows

The firm says its services suit almost any sector but stress four. For online retail it talks about checkout flows, card payment compliance and protecting customer data. For education technology it builds learning management and communication systems that cope with heavy loads. For network marketing it handles pay plans, commission runs, member onboarding and recurring orders. For blockchain it supports adoption from design and proof of concept to a complete solution.