One system, fewer mistakes: How StudioVi runs operations with Productive
StudioVi is a digital product and automation studio helping complex organizations streamline workflows and build smarter systems. Founded over a decade ago and headquartered in Amsterdam, StudioVi combines design thinking, custom development, and process automation to deliver end-to-end solutions for clients across real estate, project development, construction, and civil engineering.
We spoke with Victor Eekhof, CTO and Co-Founder of Studio Vi, about how the team uses Productive to centralize project operations, connect budgets with time and resources, and maintain control and confidence as the company scales — without adding unnecessary complexity to their way of working.
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Tell us a bit about StudioVi and your role
StudioVi has been around for about ten years now. We actually started very organically — my founding partner and I began at a kitchen table, building websites. He comes from a design background, and I come from development, and that combination worked really well from the start.
Over the years, we’ve grown the team step by step and evolved our focus. Initially, we worked mostly on websites and some apps, but in 2019, we started exploring conversational AI and automation. In 2023, we’ve shifted toward working with larger clients, particularly in industries like real estate, project development, construction, and civil engineering. A big part of our work now is to help our partners improve their mission-critical processes through design thinking, automation, and custom development — from strategy through implementation to maintenance.
As CTO, I am responsible for the company’s overall technical vision and execution. This includes defining and evolving the tech stack, making architectural decisions, leading technical teams, and planning resources to ensure predictable delivery. I work closely with clients to provide transparency on scope, timelines, and ownership. As a co-founder, I am also actively involved in operational and strategic planning.
How was your business overview before switching to Productive?
Before Productive, our setup was quite fragmented. We used Asana for project management, tried Jira for some technical projects, tracked time in Harvest at one point, had HubSpot for CRM, and still used our own invoicing system. On top of that, many things were either handled manually or lived only in people’s heads.
As the team grew, this became harder to manage. Reporting was especially difficult because the data was spread across multiple tools, and some insights were just too time-consuming to pull together properly.
What was the final push that made you look for a new tool?
The biggest trigger was reporting frustration. We couldn’t easily get a clear overview of budgets, time, and resources, and pulling reports required significant manual work. Because of that, things either didn’t get done at all or weren’t done often enough.
At the same time, with more people working on more projects, the way we were operating simply didn’t scale. That’s when we realized we needed a central platform to bring everything together.
Overall, Productive has given us more control, fewer errors, and a much calmer way of running our operations — even as we’ve grown and our projects have become more complex.
What benefits did you see after switching to Productive?
After we switched to Productive, the biggest benefit for us was having everything connected in one place — budgeting, time tracking, and resource management. We can create budgets, track time against them, and immediately see how projects are performing, without having to pull data from different systems.
My job became noticeably easier. I was heavily involved in resource planning and budgeting developer costs, and before Productive, that meant a lot of manual work and guesswork. Now everything is stored centrally, and creating reports is straightforward. It eliminated a lot of noise.
Because all the data is already there, it’s much easier to get a clear overview and make decisions with confidence. We spend less time chasing information and more time actually working on the business. Overall, Productive has given us more control, fewer errors, and a much calmer way of running our operations — even as we’ve grown and our projects have become more complex.
How was the onboarding?
The onboarding was handled mostly by my colleague Viktoria, who spent a lot of time really diving into what Productive could do. The support was very good — whenever we had questions or specific requests, we had calls with the team and always got clear answers.
Of course, some things required us to adjust our workflows slightly, but once we committed to Productive, we never regretted it. We’re now in a very stable setup where everything just works.
What’s your favorite feature?
“Favorite” is a big word, but for me, it’s everything around company time and time approval. That’s what I use most personally.
Being able to see who’s working on what, approve time, and connect tasks directly to time entries works very smoothly. It gives a lot of clarity and control, especially from an operational perspective.
How would you feel if you didn’t have Productive?
Honestly, I’d be completely lost.
Work life would be much more chaotic, with more room for mistakes and less confidence in our approach. We’d have far less control over budgeting, time tracking, and workflows. Productive gives us structure and confidence — without it, everything would feel much harder to manage.
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