Case Study
Holded didn't need saving. Founded in 2016, they built one of Spain's most complete business management platforms — invoicing, accounting, inventory, CRM — and grew it into a company acquired by Visma for over €120 million in 2021. The founding team remained at the helm throughout, running a nearly 200-person organisation across product, engineering, data, design and infrastructure.
This is what makes the case so relevant: Holded was already a success story — and they still had a delivery problem. Not because the people were wrong, but because the system hadn't kept pace with the company's growth.
If a company that was on its way to a €120M acquisition had room to ship faster and more predictably — so does yours.
Holded's management felt increasingly dissatisfied with the predictability of their teams — not because people weren't working hard, but because the system had no way to measure, forecast or improve across 10 teams spanning product, engineering, data, design and infrastructure.
Without velocity or capacity data, teams couldn't meet their own predictions — creating frustration and distrust between developers and business stakeholders.
Agile processes were being applied incorrectly across the board. The QA team — last in the delivery chain — absorbed the most friction. Developers lacked a clear, shared methodology.
Development and infrastructure projects were managed inconsistently. Communication between teams was breaking down, and documentation was scattered or nonexistent.
Teams went from delivering 38% of what they committed — to 103%. Same people. Different system.
Planned vs Done · ZERMATT & STUBAI
A ticket that used to take 11 days to close was done in 2.5. Cycle time cut by 77% — no new hires.
Cycle Time P85 · TAHOE
One team tripled its throughput in 90 days — and shipped 61% fewer bugs. Same headcount.
Throughput & Defects · TAHOE
Average days to close a ticket per sprint across 3 representative teams from the 10-team transformation. The vertical line marks when Elevate went live. Lower is better.
Story points committed vs. story points actually delivered per sprint — 3 representative teams from the 10-team transformation. The closer the bars, the more predictable the team.
Number of items delivered per sprint — 3 representative teams from the 10-team transformation. The vertical line marks when Elevate went live. Higher is better.
The work done has had a thousand good things. I thought we were agile, but now I realize we weren't.
I appreciate the transparency and team mentality, thanks to the fact that we now see the failures of other teams and help each other improve.
Both the language and common processes have been improved. This has facilitated both understanding and synergies between teams.
As a result of this work, the cognitive load on both the Tech Lead and the developers has been greatly reduced.
I went to a development event with other companies, where I explained how Holded currently works, and people were amazed.
It's the first time I've seen Design, Infrastructure, and the Data team integrated into the development dynamic. A twelve out of ten.
I had worked in places where Scrum is used, but I had never seen such a clear orientation towards Metrics.
A company on its way to a €120M acquisition still found room to ship faster and more predictably. One call is all it takes to find out what that looks like for yours.
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