How might we...automate our user lifecycle to ensure alignment with retention policies

Data is a big deal. With access to the right data, we can do amazing things - we can make data-driven decisions and forward plan with confidence. However, managing data comes with regulatory and sovereignty constraints and having confidence in how we handle data has never been so important.

A client had a SAAS offering which revolved around short-lived user sessions. A customer would be invited to the platform, consume some online training and then later be off-boarded. It was rare that the user would return to the platform, but when they did, they often had to reset their credentials because the infrequency of their visits resulted in them forgetting their login details.

The result was an ever-growing userbase, which was largely made up of redundant accounts. These accounts incurred storage costs, but also accumulated technical debt due to infrequent and manual archiving processes.

Spike Squad were tasked with finding an appropriate solution. Traditionally, this type of activity would have been addressed by a scheduled 'clean-up' function that executes on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. However, we identified that there were more deeply routed improvements to be made within the user lifecycle - including the ability to send comms to users before their accounts were archived. This led to a very different proposal to that mentioned above, and instead inspired the re-architecting of the entire backbone that manages the user lifecycle.

A durable workflow orchestration framework was proposed to handle a long-running workflow which would track the entire user lifecycle. It would be initiated upon 'inviting' the user to the platform, send comms, handle registration and ultimately archive the user once they had completed their engagement with the platform. Reimagining this workflow was a truly transformative result for the client, as the adaptable technology and newfound expertise also provided the potential to refactor other system components, including the replacement of existing inefficient background processes.

This was also a victory for the Engineering team too - as the approach yielded additional benefits, including durable execution as well as first-class telemetry and observability. Our experience in software engineering places developer experience at the heart of everything we do - ensuring our proposals strike a harmonious balance between strategic considerations and engineering-driven decision-making.

Spike Squad's ability to introduce innovative concepts and offer impartial evaluations of existing systems facilitated this success. Reach out today to explore how our approach could unlock similar possibilities for your business.

Why the Business loved it

• Opening the development team eyes to innovative possibilities inspires and boosts team morale
• Numerous manual processes were automated, saving time and ensuring compliance
• Increased understanding of associated risks - particularly around sovereignty!

Why the Engineers loved it

• Building software is exciting again - working with market-leading technology which can be applied further in the codebase
• Increased observability assists troubleshooting and increases confidence
• Automating manual archiving processes reduces the burden on the engineering team