Hands-on experience vital in tech development

There are a number of different models that software developers can use, but they will all attempt to answer the questions of “who, what, when, where and how”. In order to answer these, extensive research will need to be undertaken. This should cover both technical and more human requirements: the developer needs to establish the user’s expectations so that they can ensure that the software does what it needs to, but equally as importantly, does it in a manner which makes sense to the user.

In the case of software for mortgage brokers, if the software developers themselves are mortgage brokers, you can see how a considerable amount of time (and money) can be saved, because they can answer all the questions themselves.

That’s why a platform like Mortgage Magic is easier to use and more powerful for brokers than other platforms because it has been developed by brokers with first-hand experience of the issues they face. These can be technical – for example, we know about validation rules for eligibility criteria or how user experience (UX) can be designed because of tasks that are more common than others or would follow another particular task. We know how the mortgage application process works as well as what could trigger post-completion customer contact, for instance.

Of course, just being a mortgage broker doesn’t mean you can design the best software for mortgage brokers; you also need to be a good software developer! In my view, this isn’t just down to generating the best software code. It equally needs to entail using the best methodologies. That’s why at Mortgage Magic we adopt an Agile framework. I would argue this means we are more likely to deliver the type of intuitive user experience customers would expect due to a higher focus on user interface design and a stronger capability to ‘flex’ solutions based on feedback.

Our agile approach, combined with our mortgage broker experience, means we can be more responsive to changes in the market, and adapt the product to reflect those changes, quickly and effectively.

I’m a great believer in the view that the technology you use shouldn’t require training for you to be able to use it. Steve Jobs was a leading advocate of this approach and had an obsession with simplicity. In an interview with Business Week in the 1980s, he said: “That’s been one of my mantras - simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

As he notes, simplicity can be very hard to achieve. I’d argue it’s even harder when you don’t have experience in the field that you’re designed a product for. I’m sure you’ve had the experience of using hardware or software where you suddenly get that sinking feeling from the realisation that the user experience has been designed by someone who doesn’t have the faintest clue about how the customer would actually want to use the product. Why do I have to go through this particular step every time I want to do something? Why do I have to go to C to D in order to get from A to B?

Sometimes there’s another reason for this; it’s because the new functionality has been bolted onto to a much older, ‘legacy’ system. You have to jump through unnecessary hoops because the underlying system won’t allow you do to it any other way. Of course, the developers could fix this, but it would mean starting again and writing the whole code base from scratch (which isn’t going to happen).

I believe that fundamentally a mortgage management and CRM system should be intuitive and easy to learn, offer good value for money and be working from the moment you power it up. This is best achieved by using developers who know the market because they’ve operated in it themselves, have written the code from scratch rather than basing it on a pre-existing legacy system, and who have used a modern methodology such as Agile to get the product to market as quickly and effectively as possible. That’s not be too much to ask in this day and age, is it, surely?