When the City of Helsinki selected us to deliver its new service information system, it wasn’t just a technological decision. It was a commitment to make public services easier to find, understand, and use for every resident across the Helsinki metropolitan area.

The four-year, €3.5 million project will unify how municipalities and wellbeing services communicate with citizens. For us, it’s our largest full delivery to date, but still a natural continuation of the work we do every day.

Nikolas Kohvakka, our Project Manager in the partnership, sees it as a familiar kind of challenge: managing large, multi-stakeholder digital projects with composure and clarity. The difference here is simply scale.

“It’s a significant project for us, but not a foreign one. The principles are the same: understanding, clarity, and collaboration.

Making sense of the unknown

The early weeks of a major project are defined by uncertainty. There are hundreds of questions and only fragments of answers to start with. Our approach is to take the unknown seriously and work through it, rather than rush past it.

The team begins by identifying what isn’t yet known. In practice, this means gathering context, surfacing assumptions, and encouraging the client to share even the details that might seem too small or obvious. The goal is not to achieve control immediately, but to build shared understanding.

“Starting large projects is about accepting that some chaos is unavoidable. You have to tolerate uncertainty long enough for the real structure to emerge.”

Turning risk into structure

At the start of every major delivery, we create a living risk list. It isn’t a formality, but a practical tool for ongoing management. Each potential issue is discussed openly with the client to ensure nothing critical stays buried.

This habit of proactive transparency helps avoid surprises and keeps expectations aligned. If something cannot be done as originally planned, we say it early and directly. That honesty keeps projects moving.

By bringing risks into daylight early, we create the clarity needed to move forward without unnecessary escalation later.

The Kodan Way: Clarity over complexity

Our philosophy is simple: projects succeed when people can think clearly. Processes and frameworks exist, but they serve the work, not the other way around.

The project team is given enough structure to stay coordinated, yet enough freedom to adapt when needed. Processes only help if they support the work, so we adapt them whenever the situation demands it.

In practice, this means ensuring experts can focus on one problem at a time, while project management handles the operational noise. It’s a leadership style rooted in calmness, not control.

“Software development is essentially the art of turning real-world chaos into something a computer can understand.” 

That is where our strength lies: transforming complexity into clarity, not by oversimplifying but by organizing what matters.

Preparation wins projects

While Helsinki’s selection process was formally decided on price, the groundwork behind our offer played a major role in making the numbers even possible. We invested significant effort in understanding the project before submitting a proposal: reviewing documents, sketching the architecture, and identifying potential risks in advance.

Because of this groundwork, we were able to price accurately without padding for uncertainty. We spent a significant amount of time preparing, so we knew exactly what we were committing to.

We don’t sell hands or hours but understanding and solutions. That mindset allows us to offer competitive proposals built on insight, not guesswork. It also reflects a broader truth about our culture: we don’t chase volume, we build understanding.

For us, a proposal can’t just be a price tag. It needs a point of view. One that shows how we understand the client’s challenge and what the first steps might look like. That early direction often evolves once the work begins, but having one helps create clarity from the start.

That initial vision doesn’t have to be final, and it often evolves once the project begins. What matters is showing that we have thought deeply about the problem and can bring clarity from day one. That mindset, he adds, is what sets our approach apart from the competition.

People first, always

Much of what defines our work has little to do with tools or processes. It comes from how we show up. We approach each project as people first — not as an anonymous vendor, but as partners working alongside the client.

“We don’t hide behind corporate layers. We show up as ourselves; people solving problems together with other people.”

That human element carries through every phase: open dialogue, shared ownership, and genuine curiosity. It’s a culture where clarity is not just operational but emotional. Everyone knows what they are building and why it matters.

For us, success isn’t defined by technical milestones. It’s defined by how the end users experience the system once it goes live.

Nikolas puts it simply: if city employees and residents feel that their work or access to services becomes easier, we’ve succeeded. “If someone says wow, this actually helps me, that’s the moment we’re aiming for,” he says. “That’s the Kodan moment.”

The one rule for big projects

Projects of this scale demand a way of thinking that accepts how things unfold.

“Tolerate uncertainty. Accept that you can’t know everything right away. Write down what you don’t yet know, and come back to it later. That’s how you manage complexity without losing focus.”

That mindset — calm, methodical, and human — sits at the core of how we work. In the end, major projects succeed not because complexity disappears, but because people learn to navigate it together.

If you want to know more about the project or Kodan's project management methods, contact us by phone or email, or connect with Nikolas Kohvakka on Linkedin.