Revolutionizing customer data generation with Flutter

Led by Karyn Mukerjee (Director of Data Innovation) dunnhumby came to Kin + Carta Create with the vision for HuYu – their first proprietary data asset that would provide a wide market view of shopping behaviour across the UK by rewarding users for sharing data by scanning their receipts and taking surveys.

dunnhumby looked to leverage Kin + Carta Create’s delivery expertise to rapidly get the product to market enabling them to start building a user base. In practice, this meant using a collaborative problem-solving approach and building trust in order to make key technical decisions to enable the team to move fast.

Kin + Carta Create’s design and engineering excellence complemented dunnhumby’s own specialism in customer data science creating the foundation for the perfect partnership. A trusted relationship grew as the joint teams collaborated across design, engineering and delivery.

While creating a consumer app was a new venture for dunnhumby, the team was set up to embrace this venture with a lean startup model. Through identifying the business outcomes and an experimental mode of working, the joint dunnhumby and Kin + Carta Create team were able to learn and adapt quickly to the market and minimize waste.

Rapid learning and iterations were facilitated through key ways of working:

• Establishing clear business and user outcomes and KPIs from the start
• Taking an outcome-driven approach to prioritizing features and analytics
• Choosing technologies that enabled fast delivery and change Focus on reducing cycle time (the time from starting work, to delivering value)

The joint team of Kin + Carta Create and dunnhumby product owners, engineers and designers were uniquely cross-functional and collaborative. Bolstered by the guidance and expertise of Lead Engineer Swav Kulinski, a trusted leader and ambassador of Flutter, the team delivered:

• Value at pace through unblocking problems and upskilling fast in a cross-functional manner as designers and testers picked up coding, engineers learned new languages like Dart and delivered full-stack stories.
• Rapid capability growth, as the team learned and adapted quickly facilitated by the cutting-edge tech stack (Flutter, Serverless Architecture, Google Cloud Vision and Firebase).
• Quick problem-solving through tight feedback loops and the decision to adopt serverless architecture, removing the provisioning or managing of physical servers.
• An exceptionally smooth handover to dunnhumby at the completion of the project due to the collaboration and extensive upskilling within the team.

• High levels of user satisfaction - 87% found the app easy to use while 80% would recommend HuYu to a friend (source: in app survey to 2,000 users, Dec 2018).
• A successful first release in 12 weeks allowing users to scan receipts, fill surveys and earn points followed by a second release enabling rewards redemption (gift vouchers etc) and customer spending insights.
• Entire architecture was built using Flutter and Serverless Architecture based on Firebase and GCP enabling Kin + Carta Create to deliver iOS and Android with one code.
• Use of native components making it easier to develop new features and keep the app up to date with new releases.
• Quick and easy app testing facilitated by the Flutter and Firebase relationship resulting in tight feedback loops and immediate deployment of changes.