Android 12, iOs 15, personalisation & minml app
Not intentional, yet we launched at around same time-frame.
All about hustle-bustle, behind the scenes and learning by doing frame-work, how we came up with the idea for minml app and developed it overnight(not really!).
We are going to cover:
What did we try to solve through minml app?
In a nutshell its a wallpaper creation app, minml enable users to create unique composition for lock & home screen. The compositions or wallpaper in this case, consists of a handpicked solid background color in combination with characteristic graphic.
How the idea! stricken ⚡ for minml app?
One bright shiny day, I was on a regular morning walk and I looked up at the sky.. awestruck wow! how minimal mother nature is? I asked myself. Stop! stop! stop! alright, that’s not how it all happened.
How it actually happened: I own a samsung smart phone and believe me the default wallpaper that it comes with are way too much for what I prefer, a minimal look & feel. And that’s how it all begin, I straight away opened Figma (a really great design tool, also minimal from my perspective) and created first drafts. Initial design was only one composition screen with a background color, graphic and action buttons to apply & shuffle.
Developing it overnight, for real? 🤔
Yes, this happened no doubt and I will explain how.
As I was designing the screen I really got convinced to develop it and see where it goes, so being a product designer with front-end development background I thought of giving a try with flutter. But then I showed it to my mentor Dominik Keller who I was going to learn flutter from. He instantly said its just few hours of efforts for him, voila! the next day I saw a functional prototype build shot on simulator.
From there on we started brainstorming further. Introducing features like category selection, favourites, interaction design & all sorts of sleek animations and interactions to bring the delight into the minml app.
🤑 Million dollar question, now that the app is live “how to acquire users for minml app?”
There must be many ways to do that. But we didn’t knew one, fortunately and unfortunately.
I personally felt scared and enlightened at the same time when we entered this phase. Scared because I had no prior experience with marketing and user acquisition, enlightened because there is now an opportunity for me to learn and gain practical experience throughout the journey which we have just begin. And I must quote here:
The core is to perform largest number of experiments to see what works, don’t spend your energy focusing on getting millions user with the snap of a finger. You will eventually get there with the right approach & mindset.
In this on going journey I’m learning how to get that 1st user on boarded and grow organically. Of course I started out with reaching out to ‘so called friends’(just kidding you all have been an amazing support, if you are reading this 😛) and family, which is a kind of guerrilla marketing in itself, low-cost yet requires good amount of efforts. Looking out for relevant forums, reaching out to them, explaining what minml app does and where we stand on in comparison to other products and services. No doubt, if you found the right forum(s) you are in good hands, people are amazing I should mention that. Encouraging remarks, constructive feedback and most important, willingness to try out your product/ service.
To summarise I would like to pause here for now and let you experience the outcome of this discovery, design to launch. I really look forward to your support through feedback, thoughts and giving minml a space in your heart more than on your smart phone storage 😇
“Marketing is inside the product.” — Language, flows, social elements, incentives & delight that users get while experiencing your product. Keep hustling!
