Larry Ehrhardt of Ballast Lane Application shared again at the North Shore Technology Council's IT SIG meeting

1. Picking
the
Right
Areas
for
Mobile
in
Your
Por7olio
Larry
Ehrhardt
Ballast
Lane
Applica>ons,
LLC

2. Agenda
• A
look
at
a
few
“Men>oned”
apps
• Por7olio
Selec>on
Criteria
• A
couple
of
case
studies
• Ques>ons
/
discussion

3. Card
Munch
• Men>oned
by
App
Annie
on
MSNBC
• Bought
by
LinkedIn
in
2011
• Camera
connected
to
a
sweatshop

4. Uber
• Men>oned
at
Xconomy
• Removes
scheduling
and
transac>on
fric>on
• Historically
mundane
industry
with
liQle
tech

5. Ne7lix
• Men>oned
at
My
House
• Portability,
search,
recommenda>ons
• Same
content,
but
much
beQer
user
experience

6. 1.
Removed
the
Data
Collec>on
Barrier
• Gather
Data
With
Other
Tools
– Camera
– Loca>on
• GPS
X
• Wifi
/
bluetooth
– Scanner
– Transac>ons
– Algorithms
– Voice
– Facebook
/
customer
account

7. 2.
Focused
and
BeQer
• Limited
use
cases
• Offloaded
data
intensive
work
to
the
web
• Built
on
rich
content
• Significantly
improved
status
quo

8. 3.
Neatly
Fit
a
Business
Driver
• Marke>ng
/
customer
acquisi>on
OR
• Help
users
do
something
beQer
OR
• Deliver
something
new

9. Adding
Mobility
to
Current
Assets
• Picking
the
opportunity
• Designing
for
the
opportunity
• Dealing
with
APIs
• Selec>ng
the
pla7orm(s)
• Improving
the
app
over
>me

10. Case
Studies

11. Website
–
Designed
for
Scanning
&
Drill
Down

12. Mobile
App
–
Designed
for
Paging
and
Discovery

13. Website
–
Color
Matching
Online
Items

14. Mobile
App
–
Matching
Your
Items

15. APIs
• Custom
APIs
• Quality
Checks
– RESTful
– User
Management
– SOAP
– Performance
• Web
Pla7orm
APIs
– Completeness
– Drupal
– Consistency
– Wordpress
– Error
Messaging
• Mobile
“Back-­‐Ends”
– Versioning
– Kinvey
– Mobile
Libraries
– Parse
– Caching

16. App
Pla7orm
Choice:
Business
and
Technical
Decision
Na-ve
Mobile
Web
Cross
Pla7orm
Quality
of
Experience
Owner
Demographics
Library
Support
Distribu>on
Flexibility
Development
Costs
Pla7orm
Op>miza>on
Pla7orm
Switching
/
Evolu>on

17. Design
In
Ways
to
Learn
About
Users
Surveys
Event
Tracking
App
Sign-­‐up
Crash
Reports

18. Adding
Mobility
to
Current
Assets
• Picking
the
opportunity
Ø Based
on
goal
and
the
fit
• Designing
for
the
opportunity
Ø Leverage
the
device
• Dealing
with
APIs
Ø Start
here
and
monitor
quality
• Pla7orm(s)
selec>on
Ø Na>ve
• Improving
the
app
over
>me
Ø Add
analy>cs

19. Discussion
/
Ques>ons
Larry
Ehrhardt
617
233
8381
larry@ballastlane.com