Results
Less time maintaining diagrams
Easier stakeholder conversations on system design
Faster discovery of architecture improvements
Introduction
Candeno is a HR-tech startup that offers a digital platform to help job seekers build resumes and applications, connect with employers, and stay organized through the entire job search process. It's used by over 75,000 job seekers.
Problem
Candeno's engineering team faced significant challenges transitioning from monolith to a service structure:
1. Unmanageable monolith
The company's legacy system had grown into a large, difficult-to-maintain monolith.
2. Lack of reliable documentation
Past attempts at documentation resulted in scattered PDFs, models, and general docs that quickly became outdated. Over time, the team defaulted to relying solely on tribal knowledge.
3. Difficulty communicating across stakeholders
Without interactive models, it was hard to adapt conversations to different audiences, from product managers to engineers.
"A product like IcePanel supplies this level of interaction, allowing us to maintain relationships between entities, and move between them with ease."
How IcePanel helped
IcePanel introduced a structured, interactive way to model and communicate architecture:
1. Interactive C4 model
By adopting C4 within IcePanel, the team gained a single, living model of their architecture. Unlike static PDFs, IcePanel maintained relationships between entities and allowed seamless navigation.
2. Improved stakeholder communication
Flows became a key tool for bridging conversations. The team could discuss a user story at the application level with a PM, then immediately use the same flow to discuss technical requirements with an engineer at the component level.
3. Learning and enforcing best practices
IcePanel's structure enforces C4 rules, helping the team avoid missteps. What initially felt like limitations became valuable guidance. "I had several occasions where I was frustrated I couldn't do something, just for me, at a later point understanding that I couldn't do it, as it would be breaking the rules of the C4 model - so it implicitly became a learning tool as well."
4. Flow-driven design validation
Candeno now uses Flows to validate user stories against their architecture. This process helps them quickly see if the necessary services and components exist or if the architecture needs to expand.
Is IcePanel for your team?
Try it out for free and see what you think.
