Cafeyn connects 2.5 million users across 14 European markets to quality journalism from 1,000+ publishing partners. With 10+ developers across iOS, Android, and Web, implementing accurate tracking is essential for understanding how users discover and consume content—but their text-based specs were creating chaos.
Before, it was pretty difficult to know if we were talking about the same button because we didn't have the link to the design.
— François Billeaud, Web Tech Lead
The Challenge
Cafeyn's development teams faced a daily challenge: GitHub markdown files trying to describe visual UI elements. This often led to confusion, unnecessary meetings, and tracking implementation bugs that created technical debt for future milestones.
The core problems:
- Tracking alignment meetings — At least one tracking handoff meeting per feature, plus multiple Slack threads for clarification during implementation
- Time-consuming interpretation — Developers spent as much time decoding markdown tracking specs as actually implementing them
- Frequent bugs — Text-based descriptions often led to misunderstandings, with each tracking bug consuming on average half a day to fix
- Platform inconsistencies — iOS, Android, and Web teams interpreted specs differently, leading to data quality issues
Just decoding the document to ensure that we understand everything would take maybe as long as the development.
— Fabien Prevost, iOS Tech Lead
The Solution
Cafeyn adopted Glazed's visual tracking approach, which links tracking specifications directly to their Figma designs. Developers could now see exactly which UI elements trigger which events — no interpretation or follow-up questions required.
The key was eliminating the visual disconnect. Instead of reading "user clicks the primary button in the checkout flow" and guessing which one, developers could click on the actual button in the Figma design and see its tracking specifications.
The Results
- +50% faster implementation: Understanding and implementing specs now takes at least half the time because visual context eliminates guesswork
- Zero alignment meetings: From one meeting per feature (plus Slack back-and-forth) to virtually none. Glazed's visual specificity answers the questions upfront.
- 50% fewer tracking bugs: When developers can see exactly which design element triggers which event and what property values need to be sent, implementation accuracy improves dramatically
- 100 hours saved per month: Eliminating meetings and reducing bugs has freed significant development capacity that is repurposed without additional hiring
- Cross-platform consistency: iOS, Android, and Web teams now all reference the same visual source of truth
It's now much clearer how to implement the tracking; we don't need meetings with the data team anymore.
— Romain Sion, Android Tech Lead
The Business Impact
By eliminating alignment meetings, cutting implementation time in half, and reducing tracking bugs by 50%, Glazed helps Cafeyn reclaim significant developer capacity.
- Time saved: 100+ hours per month across the development team
- Annual value: €56,000+ in reclaimed developer capacity
- Investment: €1,800 per year for Glazed
- ROI: 31x return on investment
- Payback period: Under 2 weeks
Put simply: for every €1 Cafeyn invests in Glazed, they reclaim €31 in developer productivity.
Beyond Development Teams
The benefits extended throughout the organisation:
- Data team receives fewer questions and reports fewer bugs
- Product managers can better self-serve event discovery in Amplitude
- Non-technical teams like CRM can easily get onboarded to what data is available
- Overall data culture improves with better accessibility and trust
We have the same tools for all the teams. That's pretty great.
— François Billeaud, Web Tech Lead
The Bottom Line
All three tech leads strongly recommend Glazed, rating it 4.5 out of 5 for ease of use. Fabien, who previously worked on teams with 20+ iOS developers using Google Sheets, sees Glazed as transformative:
There is a massive opportunity for Glazed... it fills a gap, particularly for large teams that rely on less efficient methods like Google Sheets
— Fabien Prevost, iOS Tech Lead
Ready to Transform Your Tracking Process?
If your team is wrestling with tracking spreadsheets, drowning in alignment meetings, or constantly fixing implementation bugs, see what visual tracking documentation can do.