Web 2.0 Mobile Comparison Site: TrafficBroker, one of the UK’s leaders in affiliate marketing, wanted to launch an innovative comparison website for mobile phones and services. TrafficBroker and ThoughtWorks moved the project, www.omio.com, from concept to release in just 50 days.

1. Web 2.0 Mobile Comparison Site
TrafficBroker, one of the UK’s leaders in affiliate marketing, wanted
to launch an innovative comparison website for mobile phones and
services. TrafficBroker and ThoughtWorks moved the project,
www.omio.com, from concept to release in just 50 days.
The Client The Benefits
TrafficBroker is an award-winning Internet marketing agency, founded in 2004 by Neil Hutchinson.
Channelling traffic from search engines to merchants, they work hard to keep driving innovation through • Fast turnaround – the omio site
went from conceptual story
their range of services, which includes affiliate marketing, search management, campaign management,
meetings and scoping
and content web sites. In 2007 they achieved £100 million in sales, and over 200 million clicks.
to consumer release in just
Through a combination of extremely talented staff and a focus on developing cutting-edge technology, 50 days, in time for
TrafficBroker’s success is the benchmark in online marketing. TrafficBroker to benefit from
Christmas shopping.
The Situation
TrafficBroker’s strategic projects group identified a need for a heavily user-centric mobile phone • Lean and Agile approach –
comparison site which could direct qualified traffic to merchants. With their background in search evolving rather than rigidly-set
marketing and ability to generate vast volumes of traffic, TrafficBroker was confident in the concept requirements brought
the flexibility TrafficBroker
but needed help with the technical challenges it posed. A multidisciplinary team from ThoughtWorks
needed during and following
were engaged to work with TrafficBroker’s in-house staff to devise, build and test the www.omio.com
the site build.
web site.
• Stable and attractive
“...we knew if anyone could deliver a great Ruby site, environment – Ruby on Rails
ThoughtWorks could.” is a flexible open-source web
Matt Wheeler, Concept Designer, TrafficBroker framework that helps speed up
development and allows quick
The Challenge changes. It’s also a technology
It was obvious to the client from the outset that the building of the omio site required skills and resource with a lot of developer interest,
making it a selling point for
capacity that were simply not covered in-house. The timeframe for delivery was formidably short; the
recruiting additional talent.
business case rested on being able to take advantage of the upcoming Christmas shopping season.
• Shared risk and committed
TrafficBroker had already selected Ruby on Rails as the platform, and invited a number of qualified
follow through – ThoughtWorks
vendors to bid, specifying that delivery of everything was needed by a set deadline. ThoughtWorks had
committed to deliver a fixed
the most experience with Ruby, but that was not the only reason for the partnership. TrafficBroker was scope for core functionality,
impressed with the unconventionally frank ThoughtWorks’ response. Some vendors claimed they could and to invest additional effort
deliver everything by the deadline. ThoughtWorks was clear that the desired scope was not feasible, if the deadline was not met. In
but provided an alternative roadmap to a viable site in the time available. This gave TrafficBroker greater actuality, 120% of scope was
delivered by the deadline.
confidence in ThoughtWorks’ ability to drive the business result within the technical and time constraints.
www.thoughtworks.com

2. Web 2.0 Mobile Comparison Site
The concept itself wasn’t fully tested and no one had done this Within four weeks the site was in production internally, with 100
type of site before. TrafficBroker knew they needed a development people accessing and testing it. The majority of functionality was
partner capable of working flexibly, with evolving requirements. there from the first iteration, enabling the team to constantly improve
ThoughtWorks’ Agile approach directly fitted this need. usability, and hone down specific functionality for consumer release.
Working Towards A Solution The Future
ThoughtWorks and TrafficBroker worked together to quickly capture The entire agreed scope was finished ahead of time, leaving room to
the core functionality from the consumer’s point of view; with a add back in some features that had been removed at the start. The
visionary team there was no shortage of ideas, which were all business was much more comfortable with the production release
captured in the inception phase. The team created a storyboard – a as a result of the Agile iterative approach – the ongoing testing with
card wall of requirements that could be prioritized physically. The live data gave them a good idea of what handsets to target, for
low-tech organization surprised TrafficBroker, but the simplicity example.
of the approach soon showed itself to be effective. With the tight
The short-term focus for the site is finding the best phone and the
project timeframe, the joint team focused on key features that would
right deal for the consumer, taking advantage of the Christmas
be needed by the site’s customers for the initial launch. The Agile
shopping traffic. The next phase was kicked off immediately
method of working meant developers and users worked together to
following the site’s successful launch – expanding the site
prioritize features based on effort and end-user value, eliminating the
considerably and building in added functionality and innovations in
usual document/review/update cycle.
the mobile market.
“ThoughtWorks even gave us
ideas for features which weren’t
in the original scope. They’ve been ThoughtWorks is a registered trademark of ThoughtWorks, Inc.
All other brand names, product names, or trademarks
more than a development company belong to their respective holders.
– they’ve had a real sensitivity © 2008 ThoughtWorks, Inc. All rights reserved.
for the business.”
Matt Wheeler, Concept Designer, TrafficBroker
Rather than working from a specification, the teams collaborated
on a daily basis. David Pattinson, project manager explains: “An
evolving brief is far preferable to a pre-specified one because the
latter tends to stop people from innovating. In such a ground-
breaking project, innovation is vital.” After a week-and-a half of
planning and scoping, development kicked off. Work immediately
started on a basic version of the site for internal testing and feedback
– essentially allowing the business team to see and feedback on
requirements live, rather than in detailed specification documents.
www.thoughtworks.com