A Solar Design Software Achieves 99.5% Accuracy with Hugo

Client

Since 2012, our client has become a leading technology provider of modeling software that enables solar professionals to remotely design and sell solar and storage projects. To date, they hit 5 Million Solar Project designs and raised over 320 million dollars, achieving unicorn status with a $2 billion valuation.

Problem

When the pandemic caused the solar installation industry to struggle, they saw a seismic uptick in demand. The pandemic had rapidly shifted customer behavior from manual, onsite solar designs to remote, computer-generated geospatial modeling. Given the company’s lofty goals of putting solar panels on every rooftop, their leadership realized they needed to outsource design work, despite it being a critical element, to focus their energy on sales and platform development.

They tapped Hugo to help provide a highly-skilled, remote team of geospatial modelers proficient and production-ready on their proprietary platform in four weeks. “With Hugo’s ability to create and scale flexible remote digital workers, they embraced this challenge, ensuring that our engineers can focus on just building great products.” – O. Aguilera, Design Services Manager.

Solution

Hugo approached the challenge by examining the existing people, processes, and technology supporting geospatial modeling. Through meetings with a broad group of stakeholders, consultations with the engineering team, and examination of the platform, Hugo built a solution focused on three key areas:

Modeler Selection

Recognizing that the task required both technical skills and architectural knowledge, Hugo assigned formally trained architects to the project.

• The architects’ expertise in building design allowed them to excel at creating complex models, tackle challenging edge cases, and provide insightful feedback on software performance.
• By leveraging these specialized skills, Hugo ensured the software received not only accurate models but also valuable insights to drive future platform innovations.

Training & Development

Upon review, Hugo discovered that existing training materials were outdated and ineffective, often referencing obsolete platform features.

• Hugo initiated daily feedback sessions to revamp all training manuals and videos, creating a comprehensive, up-to-date program.
• Thanks to this collaboration, the team was trained and production-ready within the 4-week deadline.

Workflow Execution

The team needed to balance speed, discretion, and quality in this workflow. To consistently deliver high-quality, responsive outputs for customers, the Hugo team implemented:

• An internal Quality Assurance (QA) grading system that measured model accuracy across five critical roofing dimensions, ensuring high-quality outputs.
• A best practice workflow enabling around-the-clock service delivery, accommodating quick turnarounds and global time zones.

Results

Hugo’s work yielded impressive outcomes:

• On average, quality accuracy scores were 99.5%, exceeding the target by 1.5 percentage points.
• Team size doubled within three (3) months, with new members achieving production readiness in 2-weeks vs. the initial 4-week target.

“For us to focus on explosive growth created by the shift in our client’s behavior, we needed a managed-service provider who could deliver a team that understood the technology, training, and context. Through it all, Hugo has been that great partner,”  – J. Dakof, Design Operations Manager.