Planeo

From Idea to Product – Metosin & Planeo

Challenge

Norwegian zoning plans are made by planning companies, who describe the wishes of the property developer in the technical terms and formats required by the municipality. Over the years, the requirements for zoning in Norway have gotten more and more complex. These days, a typical zoning plan takes 5-7 years on average in bigger cities, when it used to take only a year or two!

Currently, most plans are worked on by a distributed team that collaborates over email and Microsoft Teams. Files are stored in shared folders in an ad-hoc structure. It can be hard to know if a document has been updated, or if the updated document has been delivered to the municipality. Mats Mastervik, who has been working with zoning planning for decades, had a vision of a tool that facilitated collaboration and would make it easier to finish zoning plans in shorter time.

Mats founded Planeo to build the tool of his dreams. The vision is to have a single tool that hosts all the collaboration related to a planning project: the project timeline, the various documents and their revisions, the official communication with the municipality. The participants of the planning project can log into Planeo and see what the state of the project is. The property developer can see how the estimated timeline of the project has held up. The planner can see which parts have been delivered to the municipality and which are still being worked on by individual experts. The experts can access the latest versions of deliverables from other experts as well as submit their own work. The municipality can see a clear log of all document versions delivered to them. Finally, the neighbours can also view the materials and send official comments.

In Planeo’s words:

"At Planeo, we aim to develop a digital planning tool that ensures efficient and flexible development of zoning plans – from idea to approved plan. We want to make interdisciplinary collaboration seamless and improve communication between municipalities, developers and other stakeholders."

To create the product, Planeo’s CTO, Peder Refsnes, wanted a small team that could build the first version rapidly and flexibly. He was familiar with Clojure and Metosin’s work, so he called us in.

What Was Done

Thanks to Mats’s strong product vision, our small team (initially 2 developers) got started quickly in April 2024. First, the team took a crash course in Norwegian zoning plans. Next, we helped Planeo distill a Minimum Viable Product spec out of the product vision and to lay a roadmap towards Launch.

Even though work was remote, daily video calls kept everyone on the same page and let us rapidly change priorities when needed.

The first demos to potential customers and collaborators were held already in June.

Work continued with Metosin handling the backlog, design and technical implementation. Pragmatic technology choices were made, picking simple, tried and true components like PostgreSQL and Hetzner Object Storage to keep the focus on delivering features, not building castles in the clouds.

Along the way, Metosin also conducted user interviews and usability tests. Even the strongest product vision isn’t always right – decisions needed to be revisited and parts of the system reworked. Metosin’s approach during the project has been continuously shipping visible improvements in the system, collecting feedback on them, and iterating.

In the start of 2025, Planeo hired their first in-house developer, Hussam. Metosin helped onboard Hussam into the project and mentored him in Clojure, a new language for him. We can’t take all the credit for Hussam’s rapidly increasing productivity, but we probably helped. Today, we are still a small team of 4 developers, working together every day.

Result

The first leg of our shared journey culminated in a public launch in Bergen in March 2025. Already by mid-April, several planning projects had signed up as paying customers. All the basic features for planning are in place, many of them at their second or third iteration.

One of the most well-received features in Planeo is the possibility of getting AI summaries of large PDF files. Another unique feature we managed to implement for Planeo in addition to the core planning features is an in-browser preview for 2D and 3D map and CAD files.

Of course, the work is far from over. Planeo has reached the market and the users. Next, we will need to start following user feedback and market signals in addition to the product vision. Metosin will be there to help Planeo grow their in-house team and tackle future product & technical challenges such as national integrations.

"We would not be here without the team!"

Customer Testimonial

"Metosin has helped us get from an idea to the first demos and finally to an actual product. The team has supported and challenged us when necessary. Metosin has been able to provide different types of expertise from technical to project management and UX as our needs have grown. We would not be here without the team!

"Planeo looks forward to continuing to work with Metosin, both in the operation of the platform and in further development work!"

Mats Mastervik
CEO, Planeo

"I’ve had the pleasure to work tightly with the Metosin team as a developer on the Planeo project. Metosin helped onboard me, showing both interpersonal skills such as patience, a strong communication ability, and great understanding of team dynamics. These characteristics not only made the onboarding process efficient but also enjoyable and motivating.

"Joel took charge of the development process, implementing a flexible yet structured process. He provided Mats Mastervik, the domain expert and visionary of Planeo, with the needed space to define the needs of the users and the behavior of the program. Joel has an impressive, sponge-like ability to absorb a very peculiar domain in Norwegian planning.

"I’d also like to mention the rest of the team. Eeli and Pekka have been a delight to work with. They approach tasks in a structured and clear way, communicating extremely well throughout the entire process, providing me insight into problem-solving and the challenges of programming in Clojure.

"Arttu has been an excellent designer, working swiftly and efficiently, often providing multiple designs of a feature—delivering a preliminary version and a more polished and detailed final version. He tackles every task with enthusiasm—whether it's testing, design work, or creating figures.

"The entire team has cultivated a positive culture where one can speak their mind, knowledge sharing is valued, and where the team’s needs are set above the individual. This has resulted in a team which works at a high speed, yet always takes the time to have enjoyable conversations and a happy environment."

Hussam Yousif
Developer, Planeo