Small Steps, Big Impact: How Incrementalism Drives Success

Incrementalism means focusing on making small, testable and measurable changes in pursuit of a goal.

Although it may not be our catchiest “value” at Counter, incrementalism is arguably one of the most crucial. It shapes the way we collaborate with clients, colleagues, and technology. But what does this look like in practice?

Our Teams: Incrementally Up-skilling Staff

For engineering teams at Counter, the goal is to develop our capabilities so they align with the needs of our clients whilst building a solid base of modern engineering skills that our engineers can depend on for the rest of their careers. As a team, we prioritise fast feedback and constant iteration on concepts. And naturally, our clients play an active role in directing this learning and steering our development to ensure we meet their evolving requirements. 

Working in this way allows us to remain flexible, reducing the need for a rigid, pre-defined training plan up-front, since we understand that requirements evolve as we gain deeper insights into the problems we’re addressing. The diverse backgrounds of our teams further enhance this approach as their alternative pathway to tech differs from traditional software engineering routes, bringing unique perspectives that enrich our problem-solving capabilities.

Our Clients: Incrementally Transforming Client Practice

It’s important that our teams collaborate closely with our clients and actively contribute to shaping their practice and engineering culture. This starts with a thorough assessment of the client’s current state, goals and challenges. We bring a fresh pair of eyes and a problem-solving mentality to challenges and actively encourage experimentation with new ways of working. To do this safely and efficiently we gradually incorporate new skills into daily workflows.

We deliver monthly Engagement Progress Check-ins during which we set measurable targets and agree timescales for any proposed changes to working practices. We introduce new methodologies or tools gradually, allowing time for adaptation. We believe in the use of metrics to show incremental improvements and ROI at each stage of the project.

Our Working Practices: Incrementally Producing Good Software, Fast

At Counter, we follow modern engineering practices like Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery and Test Driven Development. As well as emphasising the creation of small changes to a system when doing development work, we recognise that releasing those improvements in small increments (e.g. with feature-flagging and canary releasing) is a safe way to manage change in a complex system. This also allows us to ‘Fail Fast’, highlighting issues quickly and with high visibility, so we can fix forward in a timely manner.

We develop bespoke testing strategies with our clients and encourage using a range of automation tooling to perform quality checks (meaning that the ‘correctness’ of a system can be verified more regularly).

Incrementalism: A Path to Sustainable Success

Incrementalism is not just a value at Counter; it’s a fundamental aspect of our identity. By making small, deliberate changes and continually adapting, we ensure that our solutions remain relevant and effective. This approach not only allows us to respond swiftly to evolving client needs but also fosters a culture of ongoing improvement and innovation. As we progress, our commitment to incrementalism helps us build stronger client relationships, enhance our engineering practices, and achieve sustainable success, one step at a time.

To learn more about how we solve problems with businesses, get in touch with our team today.

We use cookies