Matt Brezina, Sincerely, Secrets of Rapid Mobile App Development @ The Lean Startup Conference 12/3/12

1. Secrets of Rapid Mobile
App Development
Matt Brezina, Co-founder & CEO Sincerely Inc.
@brezina
matt@sincerely.com

2. Sincerely
We help the world be more thoughtful
Sincerely @brezina

3. Sincerely
We help the world be more thoughtful
We’ve built the world’s
largest gift network
Sincerely @brezina

4. Sincerely
We help the world be more thoughtful
We’ve built the world’s
largest gift network
•1.2M members
•1.6M mailing addresses
• Shipped products to
800k homes
Sincerely @brezina

5. Sincerely
We help the world be more thoughtful
We’ve built the world’s
largest gift network
•1.2M members
•1.6M mailing addresses
• Shipped products to
800k homes
Sincerely @brezina

6. Our first year
May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Sincerely @brezina

7. Our first year
May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Sincerely @brezina

8. Our first year
May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Sincerely @brezina

9. Our first year
May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
30+
Sincerely @brezina

10. Our first year
May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
30+
Sincerely @brezina

11. Our first year
May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
30+
Sincerely @brezina

12. Our first year
May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
30+
Sincerely @brezina

13. Our first year
May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
30+
Sincerely @brezina

14. Our first year
May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
30+
Sincerely @brezina

15. Our first year
May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
30+
Sincerely @brezina

16. Our first year
May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
9 products30+
in 12 months
Sincerely @brezina

17. Why rapid app development?
Sincerely @brezina

18. Why rapid app development?
We wanted to learn:
• How is mobile commerce different?
• Purchase flows
• Pricing
• Audience
• Positioning
• Physical delivery
• and more...
Sincerely @brezina

19. 10 tips for rapid app development
Sincerely @brezina

20. 1. MVP
Sincerely @brezina

21. 1. MVP
Billing
Printing
Sincerely @brezina

22. 1. MVP
Billing Library
photos
Printing
Image
upload
Sincerely @brezina

23. 1. MVP
Billing Library Address
photos book
Printing
Image Send to
upload others
Multiple
recipients
Sincerely @brezina

24. 2. Off-brand testing
(or test in Canada)
Sincerely @brezina

25. 2. Off-brand testing
(or test in Canada)
Off-brand
Sincerely @brezina

26. 2. Off-brand testing
(or test in Canada)
Off-brand Sincerely
Sincerely @brezina

27. 3. De-emphasize visual design
Sincerely @brezina

28. 3. De-emphasize visual design
• Especially off-brand products
Sincerely @brezina

29. 3. De-emphasize visual design
• Especially off-brand products
• Not interaction design
Sincerely @brezina

30. 3. De-emphasize visual design
• Especially off-brand products
• Not interaction design
• Engineers do their own visual design
Sincerely @brezina

31. 4. Reuse common components
Sincerely @brezina

32. 5. Buy cheap, disposable users
Sincerely @brezina

33. 5. Buy cheap, disposable users
• No cross promotion
Sincerely @brezina

34. 5. Buy cheap, disposable users
• No cross promotion
• No PR
Sincerely @brezina

35. 5. Buy cheap, disposable users
• No cross promotion
• No PR
• Buy users from Stumbleupon,
Admob, iAds, Tapjoy, Google
Sincerely @brezina

36. 6. Be willing to kill apps
• We’re killing an app this month
• You will have upset customers
Sincerely @brezina

37. 7. Use Android for quick testing
Sincerely @brezina

38. 7. Use Android for quick testing
• Android apps have no app approval
Sincerely @brezina

39. 7. Use Android for quick testing
• Android apps have no app approval
• Android updates go live in hours
Sincerely @brezina

40. 7. Use Android for quick testing
• Android apps have no app approval
• Android updates go live in hours
• Apple updates go live in 7 days
Sincerely @brezina

41. 7. Use Android for quick testing
• Android apps have no app approval
• Android updates go live in hours
• Apple updates go live in 7 days
• Closest thing we have to the web in
the mobile app world
Sincerely @brezina

42. 8. APIs are everything
Internal API
Sincerely @brezina

43. 8. APIs are everything
Internal API
Payment processing
Order fulfillment
User accounts
Address book
Transactional emails
Sincerely @brezina

44. 8. APIs are everything
Internal API
Payment processing
Order fulfillment
User accounts
Address book
Transactional emails
No Sincerely product engineers touch our database
Sincerely @brezina

45. 8. APIs are everything
Internal API
Payment processing
Order fulfillment
User accounts
Address book
Transactional emails
No Sincerely product engineers touch our database
External API
Sincerely @brezina

46. 8. APIs are everything
Internal API
Payment processing
Order fulfillment
User accounts
Address book
Transactional emails
No Sincerely product engineers touch our database
External API
60
+
Sincerely @brezina

47. 9. Team Structure
Internal
API
Sincerely @brezina

48. 9. Team Structure
Internal
API
Dev
Design
Sincerely @brezina

49. 9. Team Structure
Internal
API
Dev
Design
Dev
Design
Sincerely @brezina

50. 9. Team Structure
Internal
API
Dev
Design Dev
Dev
Design
Sincerely @brezina

51. 10. Minimize interdependencies
Sincerely @brezina

52. 10. Minimize interdependencies
My Goal: empower an engineer to have
4-6 hours of uninterrupted magic
each day
Sincerely @brezina

53. Secrets of Rapid Mobile
App Development
Matt Brezina, Co-founder & CEO Sincerely Inc.
@brezina
matt@sincerely.com