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Let's built great things together!
After you fill out this from, one of our client success managers will contact you within 24 hours. We have three types of notifications set to make sure your message is received.
By clicking the button you agree to our Privacy Policy.
The Client
Being a startup project, "Leepse" was introduced to the market in 2019, whose owners were conducting all of their business operations in the USA, but resided in France. Initially, the client's main idea was to develop a brand new social network with a specific perspective in mind. This prospect consisted of a communication channel that was based specifically on personal interests and to have a newsfeed that will be adjusted to the user preferences. The other functional features included an opportunity to communicate anonymously within a network and to regulate privacy settings whenever a user is posting a news feed or commenting on the existing one. To make it more exciting and proactive, Gabriel Mulko, a startup founder has begun constructing the application "Leepse" with us.
The Milestones
Users will have the opportunity to create a post containing images and text while applying specific tags. After doing that, they should receive notifications about any actions associated with their post (new comments, likes and replies). All of the activities will be displayed as push notifications and will be saved in the notifications tab in the application.
The main goal of the project was to develop a mobile application that allowed users to do all of the following:
• Create posts with a set of tags, with public or limited access;
• Comment or respond to comments publicly or anonymously;
• Create private tags and share them with friends using a unique access code;
• Secure communication channel through the mechanism of blocking unwanted users and hiding certain content;
• Have direct access to relevant content based on the user's feed.
• Create posts with a set of tags, with public or limited access;
• Comment or respond to comments publicly or anonymously;
• Create private tags and share them with friends using a unique access code;
• Secure communication channel through the mechanism of blocking unwanted users and hiding certain content;
• Have direct access to relevant content based on the user's feed.
1. The constant change of requirements: We had to establish close interaction with the client and offer our own solutions for optimization with substantial reasons for doing so.
2. Meeting the results on time: As startups can't usually afford years of pre-release development, "Leepse" is no exception. We had to provide a high-quality MVP version to avoid any issues with deadlines.
2. Meeting the results on time: As startups can't usually afford years of pre-release development, "Leepse" is no exception. We had to provide a high-quality MVP version to avoid any issues with deadlines.
As we started to analyse the application development process we have found a few compelling challenges that we highlighted below:
Another milestone to surpass is to properly track user engagement and conversion rates, this way the client will collect all of the important application metrics for further improvement of the existing marketing strategies.
The main development phase included several major release iterations of different product prototypes variations that were accomplished by intermediate sprints, in accordance with the Agile methodology. In the beginning of each sprint, our architects worked out the requirements in detail and came up with optimal technical solutions. We wanted to make sure that the client was involved deeply in the development, so we have made decisions altogether and discussed the movement of the product and new functionality. The process was flexible enough and the client always had the opportunity to affect changes in functionality and prioritize current tasks.
The Implementation
After just two weeks of project development, it was already clear that the client requires help in the project organization, but not in the development itself. With the new test versions being released, the client can assess the current results and adjust the future direction of the development. Our shared goal with the client is to bring the product into the market site and make sure that the customers will use it. Pretty much anyone in this world can write the code, but not everyone can make a valuable product to its targeted audience. That's why we decided to involve our Head of Delivery.
Due to the continuous changes from our client, the fixed price model that we originally planned didn't work at all, instead we switched to weekly Scrum sprints and Time & Material cooperation model correspondingly. This decision has been specifically done to give the client the most fastest and complete results.
Originally, the client had planned to produce a hybrid platform for both the Android and iOS platforms, using either the ReactNative framework or some other hybrid framework for mobile development. And it seemed pretty reasonable, since the support of both platforms will be sufficiently and initially easier to make, plus it was cheaper. Once each of the application native platforms would be presented as a percentage of 100%, the total costs for two platforms would be 200%, while a hybrid application would require only 150% of the total effort. This is due to the components reusability of the server, which were built on NodeJS and the business logic. Seems pretty obvious as to what kind of direction our team has to choose, right? Unfortunately, the presentation layer for every platform must be done everywhere individually and that's where we hit a dead end.
The first stage lasted two months, resulting in a MVP (Minimum Viable Product). When completed, the client received the iOS application to give his final approval. Based on the initial stage results, the client decided to continue development with our team and began to provide additional user stories and feature requests, which were separately reviewed and estimated. After a total of eight months of development, the product moved from closed beta to the release version.
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what we offer
Deriving directly from our estimates, our team has concluded that by developing a separate Android application with the final changes and the constructed design will be more cost-effective rather than building both of the platforms simultaneously. Our team has recognized this fact as a small victory, since it allowed us to propose a cost-reduction plan for our client.
In the end, the client and our team have worked tightly to gain the maximum expectations for the targeted audience. We have built a product that was completely different compared to the original idea, but it was what the customers really needed. Due to the high quality MVP we developed, the client decided to continue cooperating with us for future enhancements such as: additional tasks, analytics and post-release project support.
By analyzing the given requirements, we have deduced that the application requirements have exceeded the available capabilities of the hybrid platform and some of the functionalities just won't work as the client wanted to. Therefore, we decided on our next step - we knew that the budget was fixed and we had only one choice: to make the app on one platform using whatever time we had left. Since it allowed us to properly handle all of the unexpected errors, which subsequently reduced the overall budget. As a result, the client received a full-fledged iOS application built on native Swift technologies.
Business Results
"Leepse" is an app comparable to your college social club, where you meet people who study in the same city. It is mostly targeted on the new young generation and since its initial launch, it has gained almost 500 positive reviews on the Apple Store, growing rapidly in popularity! It was created with a purpose to have a ton of awesome and unforgettable moments, experience new things and play the party games (like "Truth or drink", "Would you rather", "Finish the story", etc.). The application connects college students in the most authentic and effortless way: through the casual group chatting of friends. You can connect with like-minded people through exciting group conversations, just like in college!
500
reviews on App Store
10.000
installations
Within just a month of constant and diligent development, "Leepse" was released and has gained a massive amount of popularity and feedback from youngsters. Its business model is currently based on the limited number of "Friends'' that you can add to your profile. Once you'll get a specific subscription plan, this limitation will be lifted. Annually, the application is hitting nearly 10,000 installations and is widely being used on the iPhone platform across the USA. We managed to reach the balance of being flexible in our planning processes while also offering expert guidance. Our company was happy to assist "Leepse" during all stages involved in the application development and to finally launch it into the live product.
"The project was very well done! Thanks to everyone in the team for the new builds and that the app now looks great, good work!"
Gabriel Mulko
CTO of Leepse
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