When César D’Onofrio started working as a software engineer, he realized a critical problem with how everybody around him built software: a complete blindness to user experience.
Developers didn’t think about how users feel while operating their programs. This was astonishing for him, but nobody else seemed to be aware.
César resolved to see software like the users and to become an expert on user experience concepts. Soon, that called the attention of his bosses and colleagues.
“20 years ago, no one was talking about UX and how to incorporate it into software development. When I started thinking about it to create the products I was in charge of, that gave me a competitive advantage,” he tells us.
After learning everything he could about UX, César was working for Y&L Consulting, in Texas. He decided to incorporate screenshots to the proposal of a project (at that time, there was no mockup software).
When the team presented the proposal, the clients were amazed because they could already see themselves using the software and the company closed the deal right away.
César D’Onofrio explains: “I was confirming then what many developers still don’t know: that a visual click-through prototype was far more effective than a software architecture diagram.”
Shortly after, having noticed how César’s innovative approach to making software was paying dividends, one of the top executives offered him the opportunity to develop a project for the company with an independent team. César asked his brother to recruit a team of young designers and programmers.
That was the beginning of Making Sense, his UX/software development company that has built an international reputation by building software with an unparalleled focus on user experience.
Making Sense’s unique UX perspective
César makes it clear:
“Other companies can say that they incorporate user experience as part of their development process, but few are capable of doing it at the level we can.”
César has designed the company to put the users in the driver’s seat from the beginning. Every team in charge of a new project is composed of developers and UX specialists, and the concepts of user experience take prime importance from the first stages of the design.
“The perspective of user experience is at the center of how we imagine digital solutions. That’s why we have built a strong UX department whose members have a protagonic role in every project,” César states.
A Digital Transformation Powerhouse
They have taken advantage of this unique approach to transform their partner clients’ businesses.
Making Sense is not a simple software manufacturer. César has built Making Sense as an innovation hub, a company that crafts digital solutions to change businesses to their core, making them evolve to greater success.
Their unique approach to UX and business transformation has made Making Sense a groundbreaking force in every industry they come in contact with. In over a decade, they have revolutionized businesses in areas as diverse as marketing, healthcare, law or agriculture.
They have also used this disruptive power to create proprietary products and build flourishing ventures around them.
“We created very successful products. One is a novel easy-to-use landing page software which was sold to a Silicon Valley company. Another is an email marketing platform that ranks among the top five in LATAM, and we keep focused on developing more,” the CEO reveals.
Their Innovation Lab is the powerplant from which everything generates: “This is where we create new technologies, imagine and test novel solutions and improve our ability to serve clients and their customers,” César explains.
A Work Culture That Puts People First
Making Sense has also transformed the work culture of the software dev world, where developers are often jumping from one company to another because they feel like interchangeable pieces of a coding machinery.
The company has changed that by putting people first. Through their culture program Making Us Better, they have achieved high levels of job satisfaction by creating a work environment where all Making Sensers feel their needs are also a priority.
One of the pillars of this program is team member support. Martina Massa, Marketing and Communications Manager of Making Sense, explains: “we have a philosophy of taking care of each other. If a team member has a problem or a particular need, everyone else and the company does what’s necessary to support them”.
The other one is values. The challenge of permeating values into any organization becomes greater as it grows. Regardless of that, the permanent effort to transmit those values through Making Us Better has successfully kept the company acting on them every day, even when Making Sense is getting close to 400 collaborators.
“We try hard everyday to transmit to our people how we do things. We are always sharing best practices, communicating our values and acting according to them.
We can sleep when we know people feel that being in Making Sense is something different than being in other software development or IT firms,” Martina states.
Do Everything With Passion
One of the central values of Making Sense is passion. Passion has driven César D’Onofrio’s long and successful career: “Whatever you do, if you don’t put passion into it, you’re gonna fail,” he says.
César is convinced that creating anything worthy in life is not only a matter of intelligence, it is also about going at it with passion to become better. César makes sure each day that every Making Senser remembers this.If you’d like to know more about Making Sense’s passionate journey and unique perspective on software development, we invite you to visit their website, Facebook and Instagram.
