Behind the Music: Buckets iOS 2.0
…let’s join the story, where in hindsight, it all began.
After careful consideration, we had decided to engage a 3rd party company in the creation of our Buckets iOS App. It was our first mobile app, and we just as soon thought we should hand it over to the “experts” and learn from watching their development cycle. However, 6 months later, I found myself staring at a largely incomplete build with problems at every turn. I had to make a decision:
Was I going to be the guy that stays with his shitty girlfriend just because he’s too invested? Or was I going to tear off the band-aid and start fresh?
That afternoon I sent our mobile development company an email that basically told them that the writing was on the wall, and it would be better if we parted ways. I’m not going to tell you the name of that company because I’m bigger than that (or perhaps I signed an NDA preventing me from doing so). But that’s how I spent my Thanksgiving that year. Full of anger, frustration…but more than anything, “disappointment” that I had failed the company. I laid in bed that night, alone with my thoughts, and accepted the realization that we were in fact starting over.
We needed a stronger mobile experience, but the one thing we didn’t have was time. Over the previous 6 months while the mobile development (if we can even call it that) had taken place, the one smart thing that we did do, was invest in strong responsive design and code. Our lead developer, Andrés Torres, took it upon himself to start experimenting with a “hybrid” app solution. What is a hybrid app you ask? It is an app that leverages existing web-based code and wraps it in a native container that can connect to your phone’s various API’s (camera, notifications, etc.). An initial prototype showed promise, and we were off to the races. Less than 30 days later we had an internal beta; 30 days after that we were live in the App and Play Stores. We were in the game.
I was very proud of what we had accomplished with the Buckets hybrid app. There were functionalities where I couldn’t tell the difference between our hybrid app and other native apps on the market. But there were other times when it felt limiting in performance and creativity. Eventually there came a time when I asked myself:
“Are we doing this to be ‘in the game’, or are we doing this to be ‘best in show’?”
When I found myself immediately answering in the latter, the decision for how to proceed was obvious.
Enter Miyagui.
I had first learned of Miyagui at a sushi dinner with our lead developer, Andrés, months before this story even started. He told me of his strong reputation as a mobile developer in Morelia. This was the guy we needed. There was only one problem, we couldn’t get him. He had a contract, and had every intention of fully honoring it. In the months that would follow, I reached out to him consistently. I let him know what we were up to, what our plans were, and why this was such an exciting project to be a part of. At one point, I even received a restraining order (okay, that last part is not true). But believe me when I say, my recruitment of him was probably on par with Duke’s failed attempt to get Lebron James to come to college.
Eventually I guess I just wore him down. Or maybe he convinced himself to take a leap of faith. However we got there, we did…and our wolf pack grew by one.
I wish I could say that it was all downhill from that point forward. But the hard work was just beginning. The difference this time was that the result we were producing was indeed the “best in show” experience that we wanted for Buckets all along.
Every UI concept, every icon, every navigation element…they all had internal debates, user polls, focus groups, and most importantly…wives’ opinions, behind why we chose them. We scrutinized every detail. And even with those efforts, the new app you see today, will not be the app that you see next week, or the week after that. We know we have to keep getting better. But now that “game” that we wanted to be a part of, is at the big boy (or girl) table, and we’re playing for keeps.
Hello world. We are Buckets.
