Zach Schmid and Todd Dobberstein walk through eight axioms (principles) that guide the product and engineering decisions for YouVersion, The Bible App. 1. Mission First 2. Why Before What 3. Latest Doesn't Mean Greatest 4. It's All About the People 5. Data Has a Seat at the Table 6. Move Fast, Follow Momentum 7. Innovation Happens Where Passion Meets Constraint 8. Simple is Better

1. Digital Mission Axioms
Zach Schmid, YouVersion Engineering Manager
Todd Dobberstein, YouVersion Product Manager

4. 235+
1385
1021 Languages
Bible Versions
Million Installs

6. What is an Axiom?
• a statement or proposition that is regarded as being
established, accepted, or self-evidently true.
• a guiding principle that can be called upon at a second’s
notice to inform a critical decision.

8. People don't buy what we
do they buy why we do it.
Simon Sinek, Start With Why

9. Leading People to Become
Fully Devoted Followers of Christ

10. To Help People to
Fully Engage with the Bible

12. Mission Goals Features

13. Complexity
Value
High Value.
High Complexity.
High Value.
Low Complexity.
Low Value.
Low Complexity.
Low Value.
High Complexity.

15. In 2015, Only 47% of the world’s mobile subscriptions
had access to a 3G or higher connection.
Source: 2016 GSMA Mobile Intelligence Report

16. Developing for low-speed connections
3G and Faster 2G and Slower Manual Settings

18. 29.8M
121K
4.5M

19. Behind Every Number is a Person.
Behind Every Person is a Story.

20. "Our team is working with refugees who have been displaced because of the
war in Syria and Iraq. The country we are working in is very heavily influenced
by Islam, so while it's not illegal to be a Christian, asking someone to turn
away from Islam is against the law. The government also frowns upon
massive distributions of the Word. Also, physical copies of the word are hard
to get in the right language, heavy, and can be expensive. As an added
frustration, many people we work with can't read very well.
This is where YouVersion comes in. Whenever we find someone interested in
reading or studying, we have them download YouVersion to their phones we
are able to explain how it works. The looks on their faces when we play the
audio for them is the best thing ever. Whenever we study with them, they pull
up the app on their phones and we pull it out on ours and we study together.
The fact that it's so easy to switch between languages is perfect…YouVersion
is helping us take the Word to people who have never heard the Good News."
—Bible App User

23. Where are we seeing the most engagement
growth?
Are we seeing a downward or flat trend in certain
countries?
What impact does rolling a new feature out to a
subset of users have?
DASH Analytics Platform

24. A/B Test - Pick Me Up Where I Left Off
Does changing where we take a user in a
plan after missing days, impact how long
it takes the user to complete the plan?
Ideal Outcome: Velocity of Plan
completions increase
Proposed Change
Take user to where they left off
in the plan
Current Approach
Take user to the current
calendar day
2-3% Negative Impact with Proposed Change.
Equates to 500,000 less plan completions per year.

25. Case Study: Twi
Twi is a dialect of Akan. Primarily spoken in
Ghana
9 Million Speakers
20K Monthly Active Users in Ghana
Only 120 Requests Per Day for Twi Bible Version

26. Case Study: Twi
What if we target users in Ghana and
let them know this new Bible version is
available?
Results of Experiment
Fastest growing Bible App language
overnight
Average Users / Day up 90% YoY
165% Increase in Installs YoY

29. 2008

30. “Some startups have
been able to generate
millions of dollars from
the iOS keyboard
platform and tech
giants like Google and
Microsoft got on board
too.“
- Forbes

31. “Bots, the next frontier”
-The Economist

34. Bible App 6

39. 1021 Bible Text
Languages

40. 1300+ Versions
2000+ Bible Plans
Videos
Events

41. 8 Axioms of Digital Missions

42. Thank you!
Questions?