Atlassian + Mettle
Atlassian tools have been instrumental in accelerating our product development, enabling better collaboration between departments, smoother workflows, and reduced inefficiencies.
Charlie Duke
Senior Product Manager, Mettle
300+
Employees benefiting from increased collaboration
100%
adoption by product owners, exceeding expectations
About Mettle:
Mettle, as part of NatWest, is a business bank account with a unique focus on empowering small business owners with effective financial management solutions. With Atlassian's support, Mettle embraces innovation and collaboration to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
Industry
Financial Services
Location
United Kingdom
Number of users
<1000
Atlassian Products
Solution Partners
Mettle improves processes thanks to Jira Product Discovery and Jira Software
Challenge: Before implementing Jira Product Discovery, Mettle, a part of NatWest, faced project management and communications challenges for their fast-growing team.
Solution: The Mettle team implemented Jira Product Discovery to capture and prioritize ideas and improve product development processes.
Impact: The implementation of Jira Product Discovery has allowed Mettle to achieve increased collaboration, leading to faster product delivery and decision-making.
Mettle, as a part of NatWest, is on a mission to empower small business owners with the resources they need to manage their business finances effectively. Their unique blend of drive and ambition sets them apart, and with the support of Atlassian Jira and Jira Product Discovery, they can deliver on their promises.
As Mettle scaled quickly, they faced project management and communications challenges for their fast-growing team, and the backlog grew.
If left unchecked, these would hamper their ability to evolve and iterate at pace to improve the experience of their small business owner customers. The Mettle team needed a solution to streamline project management, improve collaboration, and deliver better customer experiences.
The team also recognized a need to better plan for the future and prior to engaging Atlassian was using a range of tools and apps, with mixed results.
They implemented Jira Product Discovery alongside Jira. Jira is where ideas come to life via work delivered by the engineering teams, and Jira Product Discovery lets teams capture and prioritize ideas. The latter also allows them to share their roadmap business-wide, improving product development processes.
We didn’t mandate the use of Jira Product Discovery, but it quickly became popular. Another benefit of Jira was everyone knew how to use it, no training was required.
Charlie Duke
Senior Product Manager, Mettle
The impact of Jira Product Discovery
Jira Product Discovery was initially rolled out as a proof of concept. It received a great response and was quickly adopted across the business. Jira Product Discovery is now actively used by the product, engineering, and design teams and across the wider organization as a reference point.
“We didn’t mandate use of Jira Product Discovery, but it quickly became popular,” says Charlie. “Another benefit was everyone knew how to use Jira, so no training was required.”
With Jira Product Discovery, Mettle achieved increased collaboration among teams, leading to faster product development and more informed decision-making. This has significantly improved the user experience, building trust and loyalty.
By using both Jira and Jira Product Discovery, Mettle has established a feedback loop between product research and development. Insights gained from user feedback and product discovery activities can inform the iterative development process, helping their team build products that better meet customer needs and expectations.
By increasing the visibility of what’s happening in the business, Jira Product Discovery has further enhanced cross-functional collaboration among engineering, design, and product teams. This collaboration has facilitated better communication, ideation, and coordination, leading to more effective teamwork.
Being able to show teams what else is going on elsewhere in the business drives a more constructive discussion and enables prioritization. It also makes it easier to ensure work aligns with business objectives.
Charlie Duke
Senior Product Manager, Mettle
Exceeding adoption targets
The team set a target of 75% of product owners using the tools in the period following implementation, then quickly found everyone was using it. “It’s become the tool of choice across departments,” says Charlie.
An internal survey of product owners found 100% of respondents would be disappointed if they could no longer use Jira Product Discovery. The tool became a valuable asset for Mettle's project management, providing teams with a central platform to collaborate and track progress. “One of the really useful things is the ability to report on the now, next, and future, giving everyone a high-level summary of where projects are,” says Charlie.
By implementing Atlassian tools, Mettle has experienced a boost in productivity, resulting in increased revenue and profit. Their focus on agile practices and streamlined project management has led to significant savings and better utilization of resources.
The Mettle team also finds it easier to track metrics, such as product owner adoption and user feedback, and this contributes to ongoing improvements and better decision-making. “Being able to show teams what else is going on elsewhere in the business drives a more constructive discussion and enables prioritization. It also makes it easier to ensure work aligns with business objectives,” says Charlie.
These improved internal efficiencies allow the Mettle team to focus on delivering better results for their customers.
Future-proofing with Atlassian tools
Mettle's journey with Atlassian continues, and they look forward to leveraging the capabilities of Atlassian cloud for further scalability, seamless integrations, and continuous improvement.
“Where previously as we got bigger, we may have started to see inefficiencies creep in, we now have a really clear direction of where we're going. We’ve moved from a quarterly view of prioritization to one where we know what we’re doing now, next, and in the future,” says Charlie.