Mizito, an Iranian project management tool

Arman Safe Strategy Development Company is active in the field of software product development. You are probably more familiar with its products, especially Mizito, than the company itself. This product, which was developed with the theme of work and project management, is a fierce competitor for similar foreign services such as Asana and Trello, as its growth in the Iranian market has been significant, and now more than 45 thousand organizations, companies and teams use its services. In a conversation with Ahmed Arab, technical director and co-founder of Mizito, we got to know more about this product:

How was the Mizito team formed?

At the beginning of the work, there were four of us who had a friendly relationship with each other, and later other people were added to the team. In many cases, people’s duties overlap, and we do most of the work together, such as even matters related to Marketing And the sale is planned by collective opinion. Determining new features and scheduling updates is the same.

Why do you meet?

Before Mizito, we were engaged in project work, but after a while, due to the problems in project work, their support, and non-timely payment of claims by employers, especially government organizations, we decided to work product-oriented. On the other hand, we felt the need for a program that can manage the work and give coherence to the project, and it was relevant for us. We had worked with many project management services, but they did not fully meet the needs. Considering these things, we came to the conclusion to design a service and use it, and with the knowledge we have about the shortcomings of the products in the market, develop it and turn it into a product.

At that time there was no special internal service, except for two cases. According to our review, they also had problems in providing customer service and needed a series of new quality features. During six months, we reviewed internal and external services and identified their strengths and weaknesses. Due to the prevalence of doing things in bed Social Networks Like Telegram and Instagram, we decided to produce the service based on social networks. The feature of this type of product is to establish fast interactions between people and groups.

What companies is Mizito developed to meet the needs of?

Our main target market is private companies. Most of these companies do not have the specific bureaucracies of government organizations, and their management and work promotion structure is such that they can use services like Mizito. These companies use various tools to manage their work, including Accounting, customer management, document management and communication systems are needed. We do not claim to provide all of these things at the same time, but we claim to meet the needs of such companies in the field of project management.

On what basis are Mizito updates and new features determined?

Every season we have comprehensive and complete updates that include new features. These facilities are designed according to the analysis of the technical development team and the needs that the customers declare. In addition, we continuously check the updates and new features provided by foreign services, and if there are any that are compatible with the needs of Iranian companies, we plan to add them.

Was the market for project management products active or did you need to expand the market?

When we started Mizito, the concept of project management was very complicated. Most of the big and professional companies used foreign products or had their own program. Other companies did not use special tools for project management. In fact, they did not want to pay for such a service.

We tried to gradually expand the product market with targeted advertising and marketing. A large number of text, image and content Video We produced and published it on Mizito blog to explain the concept that every company needs a management tool for better management and achieving its financial and organizational goals.

What steps did you take for marketing?

At the beginning, our clients were relatively small companies with between 10 and 50 employees. After several years, continuous updates have been made so that Mizito can cover the needs of large enterprises. Now, companies with a size of more than 100 and 200 people also use Mizito. This year, companies with a size of more than 500,000 people have also joined Mizito’s customers and we are providing service to them without any problems. Step by step Mizito’s target market expands and simultaneously the program evolves to cover the needs of the new market.

Mizito’s marketing has progressed slowly but logically. In the summer of last year, we had 20,000 customers. It means 20 thousand teams, organizations or companies. By the end of the year, this number increased to 35,000 customers, and now more than 45,000 companies use Mizito’s services. Our plan is to serve more than 75 thousand companies and organizations by the end of the year.

At first, because we were a software company, we targeted software companies and IT activists. We introduced Mizito to them in person to get feedback and use it to improve the product. After some time, we widened the audience and introduced Mizito to technical companies. Engineers are of the same gender and have a common language in understanding work concepts and work management. This made it easier to introduce the product to them compared to other strata.

How did Corona affect the expansion of the use of project management tools?

Corona and the requirement for remote work caused all companies to use tools to perform activities in a telecommuting to turn Project management tools also received more attention and a large number of companies became familiar with this service. We were behind other countries in terms of technology and project management concepts. The need for remote work during the Corona period was a catalyst that made companies realize that they need project management tools to better manage their work and achieve their goals.

After Corona, the expansion of this market will continue even faster because old automations were used in Iran and it was necessary to change the view of managers and to pay attention to new concepts. The experience that occurred during the Corona era has created this vision and attention.

If there are no restrictions on foreign apps, can Mizito compete with them?

Most of the customers who entered Mizito this year and late last year were already using foreign services. Some of them did not have any restrictions to use external service but preferred to work with Mizito. This welcome has two reasons. First, in terms of cost, Mizito is much cheaper than foreign services. Second, Mizito is a native and domestic product, when such a service exists, we use this service to support each other in order to improve and raise the efficiency and quality of domestic businesses. We assure our customers that since we are inside Iran, we are much better than other services in terms of security.

Most of the features of external services are also available in Mizito, even in some cases Mizito has more features. Our service has been developed according to the conditions of Iranian businesses and of course it has the ability to be provided in multilingual form. These cases show that if the embargo is lifted, Mizito can compete, although it will certainly be a tough competition. We welcome this competition because if there is no competition, the quality will not improve.

Are you ready to enter foreign markets?

We currently have customers from abroad. Of course, most of them are Iranians who work abroad. Because Mizito is designed and developed in a standard way, it is easy to change or add other languages ​​to it. We have had many proposals for cooperation abroad, but to enter the foreign market, one must act professionally and calculatedly. We want to enter foreign markets as we have grown slowly and steadily in Iran.

How are Mizito’s financial needs met?

From the income of the company’s projects and then the income of the product itself, we have advanced Mizito. So far, we have not attracted capital. We are happy that we did not find the need to attract capital.

What was the most important experience you gained at Mizito?

The most important experience in the design was that a successful design requires accurate needs assessment. We focused on one product and you did a detailed needs assessment. We looked for a product that was the real need of the society. Many startups are looking for a product that is attractive at first glance but not practical. A product that does not match the needs of the society will have problems in sales, it will not be provided with sufficient financial resources and will eventually fail.

The best experience was having an empathetic team that pursues a common goal. The most important asset of the company is the specialized and committed human resources that work together with good management. A team is successful that uses all the capabilities and talents of people and uses all the opinions. We faced financial problems at Mizito, but because we were empathetic, we were patient and got results.

In terms of growth, the role of good support was significant. At Mizito, we try to respond to customers as soon as possible. This approach has made customers feel that Mizito as a dynamic product is always ready to respond to their needs.