In this video, ENO8 founder Jeff Francis dives into one of the biggest challenges in software development communication — the dreaded “black box” — and how you can avoid it by embracing radical transparency.
We’ve helped more than 200 project teams and companies launch successful software products, and one of the main tenets of our approach is radical transparency.
There was a time that developers would be given the idea and some parameters, they’d go away to build it, and they would present it to the client or stakeholders.
You can imagine how many revisions took place afterward or if they didn’t allow time and budget for revisions, how many misaligned products went live. Not because the developers were unskilled, but because they were missing important perspectives from key stakeholders.
One of the hardest problems to solve in software development isn’t the code — it’s misalignment and a lack of trust.
Developed by Ray Dalio founder of Bridgewater, a global investment management firm, radical transparency is said to help create the understanding that leads to improvements on a team. This understanding is a building block of trust.
In the episode, Jeff covers:
✅ How radical transparency builds trust and keeps stakeholders aligned
✅ Tools like Slack, Jira, and sprint demos that create visibility
✅ Data’s Impact: Why getting a handle on your data early is non-negotiable.
✅ Why inviting stakeholders into the process strengthens relationships
✅ How to catch small issues early before they become big problems
Whether you’re building software with an in-house team or hiring an outside development company, radical transparency should be the leading tenet of your software development communication plan. Implement the strategies in this episode to get better results, reduce surprises, and build stronger collaboration.
Or just hire the leading software development company Dallas has to offer (cough, that’s ENO8, cough), where we always pursue radical transparency with our clients.
