Digested Read
US-based consumer tech business Depict had created a new IoT product – an in-home hi-res, framed digital screen that displayed a curated list of artworks.
Key Themes
Product Strategy • Engineering • AOSP •
The Brief
US-based consumer tech business Depict had created a new IoT product – an in-home hi-res, framed digital screen that displayed a curated list of artworks. Unfortunately, due to the high staff turnover of the technical developers that had worked on the Android (AOSP + Frame apps) part of the product, they were left without critical insights and knowledge - so they didn’t have a clear understanding of what the digital frame was capable of.
Concerned about the frame's hardware capabilities and its existing code base, they asked us to lead the technical strategy. We were asked to undertake a complete system audit and help them understand what updates were needed, what to prioritise for their product and how to go about making the necessary changes.
“Novoda were initially brought in to help with our Bluetooth connectivity issues and then they set their sights on creating a great development process.”
Jon Jecker, Principal PM
System Audit
After a thorough hardware and software systems audit, we were able to resolve some of their most pressing bug fixes and quickly helped them regain control over their firmware build system (AOSP and OTA's builds).
We also found a number of technical issues
Their source code was unworkable, so we recommended a rewrite of their application layer (digital frame apps) - to help give their customers a better user experience.
They also urgently needed to make improvements to the system's:
- Security
- Architecture
- OTA upgrade software component
- Code stability, maintainability and testability
Key Challenges
There were a number of challenges we had to overcome, but there were two major obstacles:
Lack of hardware
The biggest problem to overcome was how best to resolve the technical hitches that come with working on hardware belonging to a third party. From our previous experiences of working on a number of connected hardware projects, we knew the importance of getting our hands on a device as early as possible. However, Depict’s frame was a unique and bulky piece of kit, which the client was unable to supply - so we couldn’t physically work on the frame during the initial phases of development.
This threw up a number of complications, as we carried out device-specific tasks and testing. We managed to solve these issues by coming up with two workarounds. First, we set up emulators for all the distributed teams so they could start on the first few development sprints.
When we finally did receive a device in London, our next solution was to set up a live webcam stream with a lighting rig, which enabled our developers in Mexico to immediately see the impact their code updates were having on the London device – which helped ensure their development work was far more accurate and efficient.
Remote Working
We took the time to develop a bespoke strategy and process with our tried and tested remote approach to engineering excellence, that enabled high-performing remote teams.
“They went out of their way to communicate potential hurdles and show deliverable results.”
Jon Jecker, Principal PM
Results
We made the IoT product more reliable by building their new application layer to the best possible development standards in testability, scalability, maintainability and SOLID principles.
“Novoda proactively added structure and communication, which distinguished the team from our previous vendors. They went out of their way to communicate potential hurdles and show deliverable results.”
Jon Jecker, Principal PM
