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Braintree Payment Solutions LLC provides payment processing services. The Company offers processing of credit card payment, customer accounts management, payment gateway, recurring billing, and credit card storage.

Braintree

Online payment platforms have changed the way we shop every day. With the help of such payment platforms, we can easily send and receive without going to the bank. And the fact is people are becoming quite comfortable with such online payment platforms. But many of us still get confused about which is the best online payment platform. Henceforth, in this article, we will compare the three most popular and appealing online platforms i.e Stripe vs Braintree vs PayPal. I’ll talk about the few about the three apps and will see which one is the best app out of all three. Before moving towards the comparison, let us first have a glimpse on all the three payment apps. Brief on Online Payment Platforms Stripe A powerful payment app based in the US which makes a seamless online payment. It lets an individual user, as well as companies, make their payments seamlessly through Stripe. This app is suitable for both startups and large companies. is used by Shopify, Dribble, Amazon, Foursquare and many more. Stripe Braintree A payment gateway software which especially works for the eCommerce companies. It works perfectly for the web as well as mobile. was launched in 2007 and accepts almost every type of card for the online transaction. This software is used by Airbnb, Github, Twillo, Uber and many more. Braintree PayPal It is one of the most successful and popular payment gateways across the globe. It allows users to send and receive money online to any foreign countries. offers a peer-to-peer payment gateway service to its users. The online payment platform is used by almost every company you can think of. PayPal So, now let’s move towards the comparison of all the three platforms. Stripe vs Braintree vs PayPal - The Workflow The workflow of all the three is almost similar. The custom chooses the type of payment method to make the transaction and enter the necessary details. The payment software will then encrypt the data and will pass it to the servers for the further process. Later, if the credit gets successfully approved then the transaction is successfully done. The time for the money to reflect in your bank account depends on the payment gateway you have used. Out of all the three mentioned here, PayPal is the fastest one to make the transactions. The money for foreign transactions will reflect in a period of only 2 days with PayPal. Stripe vs Braintree vs PayPal - Pricing The pricing of all three payment gateways is quite similar. Let us see the pricing of each one by one. For Stripe, they charge 2.3% of the fees each time you make the transaction. There are no other hidden costs except this. And when it is an international transaction, there will be 1% extra fees added to the regular one. Another thing here is, Stripe does not charge any type of fees for the refund process. For Braintree, the fee they charge is 2.9 % for every transaction done from the card or digital wallet. There will be no hidden cost but it will charge a 1% fee for the multicurrency as well as international transactions. This fee is applicable to any other currency except USD. For the refund, 0.30% charges will be taken. For PayPal, the same as Braintree, 2.9% of the transaction fee is applicable. The unique thing about PayPal is that it has a discount rate of 2.2% for the transaction made on charity things. The international tractions fees of PayPal is higher than both of the above. It will take around 4.4% of the fees and additional fees based on the currency. Stripe vs Braintree vs PayPal - Payment Methods & Countries The common payment methods that all of the three online payment gateways possess are Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Maestro, Discover, and Diners Club credit cards. But except this, the users of PayPal can even make a payment through the PayPal accounts. PayPal does not accept any transaction for the Bitcoins but the same is possible with Braintree and Stripe. PayPal services in worldwide. Similarly, the Stripe services are available in 26 countries and Braintree is available in 45+ countries. more than 200 countries Stripe vs Braintree vs PayPal - Online Marketplace We all know that the marketplace requires special attention to manage the payment thing. The main reason for it is the owner and the seller must get their parts without any confusions and issues. Stripe as well as Braintree both have introduced the split payment method on their platforms. So that the payment can be made without any confusion. Similarly, a solution for this provided by PayPal too. All the three have their own easy to go splitting methods. But, here you need to make a choice which one will suit best to your marketplace. Who Won the Battle? Well, what I can say is there is no straightforward answer to who won the race in vs PayPal. And the fact is there even cannot be a single answer for the same. As all the three online payment platforms have their own speciality Stripe vs Braintree So, what I would suggest here is that your choice should be completely based on your needs. Look at your personal as well as the business needs and choose the platform which suits best to you.

Stripe Vs. Braintree Vs. PayPal: Which Is The Best Payment Platform?

BRAINTREE, BOCKING, AND THE FUTURE OF THE WORLD

When a new online merchant chooses a payment gateway, one likely narrows them down to Adyen, Braintree, PayPal, Stripe. They're indeed the most popular today, and they are all robust and easy to integrate. PayPal is unique, in that it's actually an integration to PayPal wallet, and credit cards, debit cards, ACH are just funding sources to the wallet. The integration model is via redirect. Adyen, Braintree, and Stripe are more traditional card payment integrations. We will look at how the simplest integration works on each of them. The simplest yet super powerful integration is so-called web drop-in. It's an all-in-one web UI via Javascript that requires minimal or no customization; its server side implementation usually comes in SDK and only requires configuration. Adyen of web drop-in is well written. Step-by-step guide is relatively accurate, with the exception of some side-track task which isn't explained well inside the guide (eg., originKey). Documentation When it comes to the complex "additional actions" such as 3DS and 3DS 2.0, the client-side library has excellent generalization and abstraction to hide the complexity, easing developer's life by simply bridging server side to the library's function. It's a pass through, UI library interprets it and carries on the correct flow. response.action dropin.handleAction() onSubmit: { makePayment(state.data)

	       .then( { (response.action) { dropin.handleAction(response.action);

	         } { showFinalResult(response);

	         }

	       })

	       .catch( { (error);

	       });

	   }, : { makeDetailsCall(state.data)

	     .then( { (response.action) { dropin.handleAction(response.action);

	       } { showFinalResult(response);

	       }

	     })

	     .catch( { (error);

	     });


	 } ( ) => state, dropin // Your function calling your server to make the `/payments` request => response if // Drop-in handles the action object from the /payments response else // Your function to show the final result to the shopper => error throw Error onAdditionalDetails ( ) => state, dropin // Your function calling your server to make a `/payments/details` request => response if // Drop-in handles the action object from the /payments response else // Your function to show the final result to the shopper => error throw Error One thing to note is that to collect and transmit card data, Adyen only requires merchant's web page to load Adyen's Javascript which, in turn, loads the iFrame HTML, and CSS. . The Javascript encrypts the secure data and passes the ciphers into onSubmit() event, so the ciphers can be passed to server. Server then is responsible to invoke Adyen API, from server side. There is no communication between the consumer's browser and Adyen otherwise In other words, the communication is between merchant's front-end and server side. This is a welcomed design, as the data flow is well controlled and funneled through merchant's server. The result is it's easier to log, trace and debug. Also in edge cases if consumer's environment has spotty connection with payment gateway, this approach eases the point of failures. Here is an example of what kind of card data event gets and will send to server: { : , : { : { : , : , : , : , : holderName: }

	 }

	} isValid true data paymentMethod type "scheme" encryptedCardNumber "adyenjs_0_1_18$k7s65M5V0KdPxTErhBIPoMPI8HlC.." encryptedExpiryMonth "adyenjs_0_1_18$p2OZxW2XmwAA8C1Avxm3G9UB6e4.." encryptedExpiryYear "adyenjs_0_1_18$CkCOLYZsdqpxGjrALWHj3QoGHqe+.." encryptedSecurityCode "adyenjs_0_1_18$XUyMJyHebrra/TpSda9fha978+.." "S. Hopper" Server takes , and calls API, similar to: data.paymentMethod /payments curl https://checkout-test.adyen.com/v52/payments \

	-H \

	-H \

	-d 'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY' 'content-type: application/json' '{

	  "merchantAccount": "YourCompanyECOM",

	  "reference": "My first Adyen test payment",

	  "amount": {

	    "value": 1000,

	    "currency": "EUR"

	  },

	    "paymentMethod": {

	    "type": "scheme",

	    "encryptedCardNumber": "test_4111111111111111",

	    "encryptedExpiryMonth": "test_03",

	    "encryptedExpiryYear": "test_2030",

	    "encryptedSecurityCode": "test_737"

	  } Of course, Adyen sends of authorization status to merchant's webhooks asynchronously. Notifications can be treated as source of truth of transaction status. notifications Braintree " " is also well written, although to complete and sides, one may need to flip between 2 pages, unless one's preferred server is . Get Started client server node Different from Adyen, Braintree client side sends secure card data to Braintree Server, securely, and gets a nonce back. This nonce (or token) represents the card user has entered, and can be used in payment API. Thus, client needs to pass the nonce to merchant's server, and merchant's server invokes Braintree API with it. In order for Braintree to identify who the merchant is when it receives card data from client, the client needs to retrieve a client token from merchant's server at the beginning. To generate the nonce, Braintree Javascript invokes Braintree GraphSQL API "TokenizeCreditCard" and passes in card data. { : { : , : , : }, : , : { : { : { : , : , : }, : { : }
    }
  }, : } "clientSdkMetadata" "source" "client" "integration" "dropin2" "sessionId" "31f67c62-0659-4f28-84e7-3f80812aaa6d" "query" "mutation TokenizeCreditCard($input: TokenizeCreditCardInput!) {   tokenizeCreditCard(input: $input) {     token     creditCard {       bin       brandCode       last4       expirationMonth      expirationYear      binData {         prepaid         healthcare         debit         durbinRegulated         commercial         payroll         issuingBank         countryOfIssuance         productId       }     }   } }" "variables" "input" "creditCard" "number" "4111111111111111" "expirationMonth" "11" "expirationYear" "2021" "options" "validate" false "operationName" "TokenizeCreditCard" The response includes the nonce (token): { : { : { : , : { : , : , : , : , : , : { : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : }
      }
    }
  }, : { : }
} "data" "tokenizeCreditCard" "token" "tokencc_bf_9m54x2_z5jmpw_p7rx27_b3thkd_gw7" "creditCard" "bin" "411111" "brandCode" "VISA" "last4" "1111" "expirationMonth" "11" "expirationYear" "2021" "binData" "prepaid" "UNKNOWN" "healthcare" "UNKNOWN" "debit" "UNKNOWN" "durbinRegulated" "UNKNOWN" "commercial" "UNKNOWN" "payroll" "UNKNOWN" "issuingBank" null "countryOfIssuance" null "productId" null "extensions" "requestId" "gmbVRWzzFpKtTai4bQXJuIHp81wJ5JyQhrn4sIqh_SkRUYwzpVdpYg==" To invoke API from server side is simple using SDK, simile to this: $result = $gateway->transaction()->sale([ => , => $nonceFromTheClient, => $deviceDataFromTheClient, => [ => ]
]); 'amount' '10.00' 'paymentMethodNonce' 'deviceData' 'options' 'submitForSettlement' True What's missing in the "Get Started" guide is how to handle verification such as 3DS and 3DS 2.0. The starter guide demonstrates the happy path only. In fact, 3DS verification requires additional customer data in addition to card data, therefore, is explained in a separate section of . documentation It uses the same drop-in Javascript library but requires additional data to pass to Braintree. Once 3DS passes, client has a nonce just like normal transaction, plus an threeDSecureAuthenticationId. Either can be used by server to invoke Braintree API. (note as of May 20, 2020, the using authentication ID is wrong, probably a result of copy and paste). example So, Braintree's integration enables communication to Braintree on both client and server side: client works with Braintree to tokenize card data, server uses the token to authorize payment. Verification flow such as 3DS and 3DS 2.0 in Braintree's implementation requires extra conscious handling and may introduce complexity in integration code. Stripe Stripe has been taking on APIs from a quite different philosophy since long time ago. It builds APIs with abstraction similar to object-oriented programming, rather than treating them as resources and documents. Before, Stripe abstracts different payment methods as "charge"; the latest revamp, in order to encompass even more diverse payment methods globally, is called " ". Payment Intent Stripe, as many have already claimed, is the most developer friendly. Its documentation is detailed, accurate, and in the flow of a developer's mind, therefore, easy to follow. Its "drop-in" implementation looks like this: As we can see, Stripe's philosophy is heavy on client side. Server's involvements are: Create a payment intent Get payment status using webhook The rest of interaction is all on client side, which server doesn't participate. When client confirms payment to Stripe, Javascript invokes the /confirm API with payload in URLEncoded format with card data, something like this: payment data[ ]=card&amp;payment data[ ][ ]=Jenny+Rosen&amp;payment data[ ][ ][ ]=11111&amp;payment data[ ][ ]=4111111111111111&amp;payment data[ ][ ]=111&amp;payment data[ ][ ]=11&amp;payment data[ ][ ]=21&amp;payment data[guid]=1111&amp;payment data[muid]=1111&amp;payment data[sid]=1111&amp;payment data[payment agent]=stripe.js%2F659b1055%3B+stripe-js-v3%2F659b1055&amp;payment data[time page]=35204&amp;payment data[referrer]=http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%2Fstripe%2Findex.php&amp;expected method stripe test secret=pi secret_1111 _method_ type _method_ billing_details name _method_ billing_details address postal_code _method_ card number _method_ card cvc _method_ card exp_month _method_ card exp_year _method_ _method_ _method_ _method_ _user_ _method_ _on_ _method_ _payment_ _type=card&amp;use_ _sdk=true&amp;key=pk_ _1111&amp;client_ _1111_ A successful confirm response: { : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : [ ], : , : , : , : , : } "id" "pi_1111" "object" "payment_intent" "amount" 1099 "canceled_at" null "cancellation_reason" null "capture_method" "automatic" "client_secret" "pi_1111_secret_1111" "confirmation_method" "automatic" "created" 1589994584 "currency" "usd" "description" null "last_payment_error" null "livemode" false "next_action" null "payment_method" "pm_1111" "payment_method_types" "card" "receipt_email" null "setup_future_usage" null "shipping" null "source" null "status" "succeeded" The biggest advantage of heavy client side interaction is the ease of orchestrating user flow. For example, in 3DS flow, as we have seen with Adyen and Braintree, additional data or some form of special handling code are needed, however, with Stripe, it's all handled within client side library, and is transparent to merchants. Here is what a confirm response looks like that requires 3DS, and client automatically handles "require_action" and "next_action" to render 3DS: { : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : , : { : , : { : , : , : , : }
  }, : , : [ ], : , : , : , : , : } "id" "pi_1111" "object" "payment_intent" "amount" 1099 "canceled_at" null "cancellation_reason" null "capture_method" "automatic" "client_secret" "pi_1111_secret_1111" "confirmation_method" "automatic" "created" 1589994963 "currency" "usd" "description" null "last_payment_error" null "livemode" false "next_action" "type" "use_stripe_sdk" "use_stripe_sdk" "type" "three_d_secure_redirect" "stripe_js" "https://hooks.stripe.com/redirect/authenticate/src_1GkvWcEccjWVutyemmjLB0Vr?client_secret=src_client_secret_QhNk0j5vrKbK6leTQdijOAYQ" "source" "src_1111" "known_frame_issues" "false" "payment_method" "pm_1111" "payment_method_types" "card" "receipt_email" null "setup_future_usage" null "shipping" null "source" null "status" "requires_action" The drawback is that server is completely in the dark. Once a payment intent is created, client secret sent to client, the payment is in the hands of consumer and Stripe. In most of the cases, it actually should be this way - as long as Stripe, through webhooks, tells merchants details about the payments, why would merchants want to be in the middle of a payment? In some rare cases where server may want to make a final decision whether to authorize this transaction, it cannot be done with this integration. Summary Although the primary factors of deciding a payment gateway may not likely be technical integration, it's insightful to understand the design philosophy of each integration. However, there are no right or wrong designs, nor best integration method, knowing the differences help merchants to design a better overall online payment experience.

Integration Comparison: Adyen, Braintree, Stripe

Interview with Maggie Lou Half the battle of getting what you want in life is believing you can. As humans, we tend to make vast over/under estimations on our own worth and capabilities. For some things, we aim high. Others, especially career related things, we tend to aim low. As Maggie demonstrates in this really interesting interview, an optimistic mindset and belief in yourself can really go along way. More than that, investing in “softer skills,” even when you are working in very technical spaces like Data Science or Software Engineering, are far more important than you think. At the end of the day, we are all human. Building strong bonds with those closest to you can greatly accelerate career as you learn more not only about how to interact and work with others but also about yourself — as understanding and becoming self aware is immensely valuable. This interview will make you think! Be sure to comment, share and subscribe — and big shoutout to Maggie for this one. Want to learn how to cold email? Read Our Internship Guide Hey Maggie! Thanks for taking the time to share on . Student Hustle Introduce yourself! Tell us about where you go to school, what you have done over the past few summers, and what you are up to nowadays. My name is and I’m about to be a junior at , where I’m studying computer science in the engineering school. This summer I’m working as a software engineering/devops intern for the Cloud Infrastructure team at . Maggie Lou Northwestern Braintree Payments What are you studying in school? Have any classes been helpful in the real world? If not, where did you learn what has been most helpful at work? I wouldn’t say that any of my classes have been directly helpful in a professional setting (I.e. In helping me get an internship or for what I’m working on at the internship), but I still really love school and learning. Especially in a fast paced environment like tech, its most important that you’re excited and eager to learn new things. I think that `excitement to learn` is a learned skill. If you complain all the time in school and only do things because you feel like you should, that attitude will inevitable carry over into your personal and professional life. On the other hand, if you’re passionate enough to pay attention to detail, focus deeply for long periods, and ask good questions in school, that will also carry over. So I try to take classes that interest me. My favorite class I’ve ever taken was on Buddhist psychology. This even helped in an interview! A 30 minute interview prompt was ‘teach me something’. I spent the entire time teaching my two interviewers about Buddhism. What are the biggest advantages of going to Northwestern? The prestige. For example, I went to a recruiting event and I was the only student at our table that the recruiter would focus on, because he saw the school on my resume. Shitty but true. What made you decide to apply and go on and what was the application process like? iXperience My best friend was going and I thought I wasn’t going to be able to study abroad during the school year if I wanted to graduate on time, so I signed up. I had no other summer plans and I’m lucky enough my family could afford to pay for it. The application process is online questions and a video interview. It wasn’t extremely strenuous and I wouldn’t recommend spending too much time on it. Can you share about the experience? What you did during the time, where you worked, and what you learned? I took a data science course and learned a lot, but realized I hated data science and machine learning. I interned at , a photo editing iOS app. It lets you put words ‘over’ images. Think of a phone friendly photoshop — it’s a really cool product! I made an automated metrics dashboard that they display at their weekly town hall, that displays weekly updated numbers like revenue, number of paying customers, retention etc. I also worked on an iOS feature with other interns. Based on the photo you want to use, it suggests a caption to overlay, using image recognition and natural language processing. Over The most important lessons I learned were about valuing patience, positivity and kindness Those qualities aren’t valued in our society, and especially not in tech. Humor, confidence, intelligence etc. Seem much sexier, but none of those have to come at a tradeoff of being a good person. Most people agree that teamwork and communication are critical to success, but don’t give enough weight to how powerful patience can be. Not even from a purely moral perspective, patience is really pragmatic. It helps set clear expectations and keep morale high for tedious, hard work. Personally, I’ve found it helpful in really paying attention to what’s going on around me. I feel like I’ve made stronger relationships and it helps me learn quicker, because I’m less distracted and can absorb complex concepts more easily. The book version of this kindness and patience philosophy is by Dale Carnegie. Highly recommend a read. How to Win Friends and Influence People How did you get your summer job at Braintree and what did you do to prepare for the interviews? I dropped my resume at a career fair. I did a coding challenge, two phone interviews, and 4 more interviews during an onsite. My tech prep schedule: Starting Out: Become familiar with a language of your choice (I chose Java) – I started from Ground 0 with this ’30 days of code’ module on . There’s one challenge every day for 30 days. There are tutorial videos with each question and the beginning ones are really easy. They start with the complete basics, like how to print a variable hackerrank.com Problem Solving: Do problems and you’ll begin to see patterns – I did problems from (you can download the pdf free online). People are always like ‘do the whole book cover to cover’. That’s probably overkill. I probably did like 10% of the problems, only focusing on strings, binary trees, stacks, queues, and linked lists Cracking the Coding interview – For harder questions, go to leetcode.com Become Familiar with Interviewing: Do mock interviews so you don’t feel awkward – I asked random friends to call me and ask me a question that they randomly selected from Cracking the Coding interview, even friends that aren’t technical. It’s just freaky talking out loud while you program so it’s good practice Getting started is the hardest because it’s like ‘where the fuck do I begin I can’t do this shit.’ You can do this! People seem to believe that I came out of the womb as a tech wizard. No. I took one computer science class in high school and almost didn’t take it because I wanted to take yearbook. Honestly, I’ve taken like 5 CS classes total. You don’t have to be born as a certain type of person to get good at programming. You don’t even have to study computer science. It’s all about practice and googling things you don’t know (I’ve Googled ‘browser’ and ‘server’ like 30 times each because I keep forgetting what they do and how they work). I started with 7 minutes a day with 30 days of code Last October, I was incredibly overwhelmed and had no idea what I was doing. I started with 7 minutes a day with 30 days of code. Like I literally set a 7 minute timer and only worked until the timer went off to not overwhelm myself, and to make myself confront the fact that I ALWAYS have at least a free 7 minutes. How has the experience at Braintree been similar and different to your expectations going into this summer? All engineers at Braintree pair program, which means that there are always two people working on the same code at the same time, but on separate computers (think of a Google doc). It’s been a really interesting learning experience. This is really good for productivity, because you can’t zone out or procrastinate on email or slack during the day, or your pair will judge you. It allows for great work life balance because we spend 8 hours productively working every day. This is very tiring, especially because I’m not used to this level of concentrated, extended work. I hope I can extend this productivity into the rest of my life. How is it being one of the youngest people on the team? Do people treat you differently? Braintree’s internship program is really good in that we don’t have special intern projects. We just go into the regular pairing rotation with the rest of the full time engineers. I obviously know less than other developers, but they listen to my suggestions, encourage me to contribute to the code and team meetings, and I don’t feel like I’m treated differently from a fulltime engineer. What have been your biggest takeaways through your first half of the internship at Braintree and during your first summer in SF? It doesn’t matter if I ‘deserve’ it. It’s too late to worry about that I’m trying to get over the concept of ‘deserving’ things. I still get overwhelmed and feel insecure about my technical abilities and how much Braintree is investing in me. My mentor at work gave me really good advice that it doesn’t matter if I ‘deserve’ it. It’s too late to worry about that. the only thing I can do is work as hard as I can to learn and take advantage of the opportunity. What is the worst advice someone has ever told you? This isn’t advice, but it is a horrible thing that people should be wary about. It is infuriating when people tell me that men get hired over women because they are better engineers. Sure, sometimes men are more technically qualified than women during performance reviews. this argument ignores a lot of structural problems that make it invalid. We can even ignore the blatant cases where equally qualified women are explicitly discriminated against because they are women The reason that men are better engineers is because they spend more time being engineers. Not because they care more, but because they have the luxury to do so. Boys are encouraged to pursue STEM starting from elementary school, in robotics clubs and STEM classes. Girls are taught that this is very nerdy and social suicide (:re me almost taking yearbook over computer science senior year, even though tech is now like my life’s passion) Then, during hiring, women are traditionally under-valued because they don’t have as many years of experience on their resume. They are mis-placed in lower roles. During an unrelated conversation with female devs at work, it randomly came out that 50% were mis-placed during hiring. They were promoted within a couple months to their proper role, but while they were negotiating this raise, their male counterparts had the luxury to just focus on development and become better programmers. Also, women are traditionally much more involved in attending and planning diversity and inclusion initiatives. This is not a choice. It is unfair for men to claim that women do this because it interests them. As a woman I feel like I to care about diverstiy, or I’m going to get fucked professionally when I can’t get promoted ever. This also takes away hours where we could be getting better technically. have Men are not better developers than women because they are men. They are better because they are spending physically more hours programming, because women have to sink hours into fighting structural problems. I already struggle with this a lot at school. I spend A LOT of my time on Women in Computing at Northwestern. I quit literally all of my other extracurricular including my sorority, largely to focus on tech. But a lot of that time is not even going to becoming a better developer. It’s going to diversity and inclusion. But I don’t really feel like I have a choice. You’re working on a bike sharing platform at Northwestern, can you share a little bit about what motivated you to work on it and how it has been going? Bikes spend a lot of time chained to bike racks or resting unused in garages. Passionate bikers that travel a lot (like me, because I live in Colorado, go to school in Chicago, and work in SF), spend a lot of time and money acquiring bikes in every location. I’m making a bike sharing marketplace called Cyclical to connect these two parties. Think or , but with bikes. I’m launching in Northwestern this fall. A lot of students are studying abroad, and their bikes are sitting unused for an entire quarter. I hope to connect these bikes with students who don’t want to spend $350 on a new bike that they’ll use for 4 years and then sell for $30 on Craigslist. Airbnb Getaround — Where can people find you and what opportunities are you looking for? (Twitter, linkedin, personal site, medium, etc). LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggie-lou-4a3bb110a/ Github: https://maggie-lou.github.io — Want to learn how to cold email? Read Our Internship Guide Originally published at studenthustle.co

From Zero to Software Engineering Intern, and All the Steps in Between

In less than four months, our client's idea went from concept to acquiring their first B2B client. Like many , they had a question: “How do we swiftly demonstrate a functional product to our customers without compromising quality?” startups over four major projects like this in the past 1.5 years. Let's be honest: . In this article, we will share three fundamental blocks for building a product. We hope these insights will inspire and help kickstart your startup journey. Our team has successfully built moving fast without an established process is tough Additionally, we will provide our best practices for an efficient development process that leads to successful partnerships and positive outcomes for everyone involved: founders, technical teams, and users. Part I. Vision As a startup owner, you're filled with excitement about the potential of your idea. This enthusiasm pushes you to jump right into building and introducing your product new to the market. But let's keep this spark and start by doing market research and talking to potential users first. You need to validate your idea and ensure there is a demand for it. This process should not take too long, as we're in a startup reality. However, it's important to have a clear vision of what problem your product solves and who your target audience is. In this section, we'll spotlight key aspects of the vision-refining process. 1. Team collaboration Having open communication between founders and technical teams is vital. Founders need to communicate their vision and goals for the product, while developers can provide valuable insights on what features are feasible and how long they may take to develop. We conduct to brainstorm, exchange perspectives, and delve deeper into the concept. This collaborative process helps shape your product's vision as a technological solution. discovery workshops 2. Positioning Even at the beginning of the path, when you haven't tested the product itself, positioning is something that helps to speed up time for development 3-4 times. How? Positioning helps you stay focused on your differentiated value and prioritize what to incorporate into your MVP. "The perfect positioning" is a rare occasion before the product hits the market. , a marketing expert who works with positioning for tech companies, recommends using the . It serves as a framework to address : April Dunford positioning thesis several critical questions Who do we think we compete with? What sets my product apart from the rest? What unique value can I bring to the market? Who are the people that I believe will love it? It is used more for internal purposes: to test assumptions and find out where we can be wrong. There always can be a customer segment that we never thought of or a functionality that wasn't planned. But the thesis helps you get off the ground, and it evolves into a statement when your proposition finally aligns with the market demand. 3. Pre-sales: idea as a business "Should I go ahead and build this product?" "Is there a market demand?" and "Can I build a business around this product?" - these are all questions that might still cross your mind, and they're valid. Pre-sales is a great method to find out if your idea can turn into a successful business. The goal is to share your vision with your target audience to see if there’s enough demand. According to , pre-sales can boost win rates to 40–50% for new businesses and 80–90% for existing ones, compared to average rates. McKinsey research Here's why pre-sales are so useful: This tells you if people like your idea. You get real customer feedback. This cash can help you with production. You earn some money upfront. You know there's a demand before you invest in a product. It reduces risk. You can test your positioning, unique benefits, and pricing model by creating a landing page, running an ad campaign, or even using networking and social media connections. It can result in a base of leads, early adopters, and valuable user feedback. And you might be thinking, . Well, let's talk about that. "But wait, we have nothing to pre-sell" Part II. Strategy Every product enters a vibrant market. There is an existing competition, customer expectations, and hidden challenges. Your idea may be fully formed or be just an outline. However, without a well-defined execution plan, it becomes difficult to convince investors of its value. The purpose of the strategy is to minimize risks and maximize opportunities. A strategy helps you stay focused and on track, while also providing a roadmap to follow. Here are a few rules that make our strategy quick and effective to put into action. 1. Lean Startup methodology It is important to set realistic goals. If you want to go far and fast, it is better to start small. The method says that there is no need to spend lots of time and money on a final, polished version, as this version won't be the final one. It is crucial to achieve customer feedback as fast as possible to continue refining the product. Lean Startup An entrepreneur's aim isn't only to build a product, but to solve a problem. Making a product is just one way to achieve that goal. Most startups and new products rely on MVP (Minimum Viable Product). shares the idea that an MVP is not just about building the simplest possible version of a product. It's about taking minimal time and effort to start to from MVP. Aaron Dinin learn 2. Start validation before development Our team usually works on a functional prototype before an MVP. This is a cost-efficient method to present the product's concept and validate the most critical hypotheses. (or a functional, interactive prototype) is like an early model of a product. It's built to test a concept or process, learn from it, and show to investors and users. A working prototype Creating a prototype like this usually takes us around a few weeks. We don't have to do any actual development; we can create it while we're in the discovery phase. https://youtu.be/SLCQTOU7MPI?embedable=true Once we've got a functional UI prototype, the idea owner already has a demo version of the product that can be shown to customers. It's time to do customer interviews, present the product to potential investors, gather all the feedback, and process the information. This knowledge guides the following decision-making for both the client and the technical team. It helps : to address key questions when developing an MVP? What areas should we prioritize with our product-market fit, and adjust our strategy? Are we on the right track or do we need to pivot our future iterations? How do we strategically plan This is a moment to start pre-selling, check if there's market demand, and do customer discovery to find out the pain points and motivations of customers for future product development. 3. Prioritize and focus on essential features When you're launching an MVP, make sure to prioritize the key features that support your unique value proposition. Various techniques like the Value & Effort matrix, MoSCoW method, or Kano model can help you decide what to focus on and organize your development process into efficient cycles. If you're planning to handle the implementation on your own, we recommend putting your focus on: that solve the main problem. Core functionalities that users are explicitly asking for. High-demand features that can be implemented fast and have a significant impact. Quick wins An MVP focuses on solving a single problem. It usually has basic functions and 2-3 key features. Part III. Tactics: how to build products faster Let's dive right into development! Our goal here is to create a product in a fast and efficient way, without compromising on quality. To speed up the development process, you have options like hiring developers (freelancers, in-house, or outsourcing). Alternatively, you can leverage tools specifically designed to assist non-technical founders. In this section, we'll share tactics to help you quickly and efficiently build your MVP. 1. Low-code / no-code technologies The name itself suggests that you don't need to code much. These tools are user-friendly and empower non-tech founders to build their first product versions. This approach saves time and money, which makes it a top choice for technical teams that work with startups. Plus, it's a great way to test the waters before committing to complex development. From the other side, these platforms have limitations. You won't have complete control over the code, but you can still make some tweaks and customize your software to a certain extent. Having some programming knowledge helps with that. Our team thoroughly analyzes all project requirements before making a decision, taking future scalability into account. Each platform has unique features, so if you're working on your own, don't forget to do a platform audit and see how future-proof it is. Choosing the right tool is key. 2. Pre-build solutions and third-party integrations Whenever possible, integrate existing tools, platforms, and services to avoid reinventing the wheel. This can significantly reduce development time for functionalities like payments, authentication, and data analytics. Popular use cases for API integrations: like PayPal, Stripe, or Braintree for online transactions. Payment gateways like Zoho, Salesforce, HubSpot, or Zendesk to streamline customer data management. CRMs and ticketing systems tools like Zapier to automate tasks and streamline processes. Workflow automation for inventory management, order processing, and product search capabilities. E-commerce APIs like LiveChat, Intercom, or Zendesk Chat to improve customer communication and support. Chat systems to provide real-time availability and booking options for customers. APIs from popular travel and booking services 3. Iterative development Sometimes startup founders come to us with a key goal: release the MVP out ASAP. Iterative development is the way we make that happen and keep the product moving forward. Each iteration produces a new version of the program, continuing until the final result is achieved. This approach enables us to: Iterative development is structured in cycles, including planning, development, testing, and reviewing. after each iteration and learn faster; gather feedback a continuous process based on relevant user data; make improvements to keep up with the market. reduce risks and be flexible 4. Use existing frameworks and libraries These tools offer ready-made components and functionalities that can be effortlessly integrated into your product, saving time on coding from scratch. But don't forget to consider your project's specific needs before choosing a framework or library. It's also a good idea to regularly update and maintain these tools to ensure they keep working smoothly and stay secure. 5. Development practices When it comes to quality, the approach is vital in creating software that can be easily maintained and scaled for the future. Here are some important methods to consider: : Breaking down a system into smaller, manageable parts makes it easier to understand, develop, and test. Modular Design : Writing code that can be used across different parts of the application saves time and effort. Code Reusability : Code should be easy to read for anyone who may work on it in the future, which includes using naming conventions and writing clear comments. Readability : Using tools like Git helps keep track of changes and enables collaboration among developers. Version Control : When the team implements tests that run automatically, it ensures that new changes don't break existing functionality. Automated Testing : Automating the build and deployment process speeds up the release cycle and reduces human error. Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) : Maintaining good documentation is crucial for making technical aspects clear for different team members, onboarding new people, and for reference purposes. Documentation 6. Prioritize communication and collaboration Ensure that everyone is on the same page, because this is how encourages sharing of ideas, and helps resolve issues early. Here are some that we use: rules for effective communication and collaboration to keep everyone updated daily team stand-ups with clients to discuss progress, updates, and gather feedback weekly or bi-weekly meetings to track our progress agile project management tools for open communication and constant connection between our project team, clients, and key stakeholders. clear communication channels Conclusion A well-planned and executed launch plan sets the stage for a successful product that meets customer needs, drives engagement, and creates a loyal user base. We're eager to offer our skills in and handle technical along the way. from scratch building products If you decide to work on your own, there are still plenty of possibilities to validate your idea and leverage pre-built solutions. Use these strategies to effectively prioritize tasks and ensure you're directing your resources towards the right things.

BRAINTREE

braintreepayments.com

501-1K employees

Since 2007

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BRAINTREE

braintreepayments.com

501-1K employees

Since 2007

COMPANY RANKING

BRAINTREE

EVERGREEN INDEX #80

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