The Bottleneck Method
Most software fails in the gap between how vendors imagine work and how work actually happens. Our method closes that gap by starting somewhere unusual: inside the process of real Australian businesses, at the exact step where things jam. Four moves, applied to every tool we make.
Find the bottleneck
Every business has a step the whole team quietly routes around — the pile that builds up, the spreadsheet only one person can touch, the job that always waits for Friday. We don’t start with a requirements workshop; we start by finding that step. Partner businesses tell us where the work actually jams, and patterns across businesses tell us which jams are worth a tool.
The artefact: A one-page bottleneck brief: the step, who it hurts, what it costs in hours.
Map the real process
The org-chart version of a process and the real one are different documents. We map how the work is actually done — including the workarounds, the double-handling and the “oh, that part lives in Karen’s head” steps. The workarounds aren’t noise; they’re the spec. They show exactly what the tool has to absorb.
The artefact: A process map of reality, not policy — reviewed by the people who do the work.
Ship the smallest tool
One bottleneck, one lightweight tool, live in weeks. Not a platform with the fix buried in module four — the smallest piece of software that removes the jam. Small tools get adopted because they demand almost nothing: no rollout plan, no training day, no consultant. If your team can’t use it the afternoon it arrives, it’s too big.
The artefact: Working software in production with partner businesses — not a prototype, not a deck.
Iterate on reality
Real usage beats every planning meeting. Partners run the tool against their actual week and the friction they hit sets the roadmap — before the tool goes public and long after. This is also why every Indxtree tool stays light: we only add what real use demands, and we say no to the rest.
The artefact: A visible changelog driven by partner feedback, not a feature wishlist.
Proof it works
RecruitScreen is the method end to end. The bottleneck: recruiters phone-screening piles of applicants — days of phone tag for information candidates could give in five minutes. The real process showed the workarounds (notes in heads, shortlists in inboxes). The smallest tool: one link, short video answers, side-by-side review. It went from bottleneck to live product this year, and it’s being shaped by the recruiters using it right now.
Important honesty: we don’t do custom software builds. The method exists to make tools that many businesses share — partner businesses shape them and get them first, but every tool ships as a product, priced like one.