Introducing
The Friend Club

We were all set to jump on a project and serve both sides; creators, who showcase their work & try to find qualified leads, and members, who are seeking vetted, curated & community-driven content, get inspiration, or request creators’ services.

Starting with the Wedding club, our plan was to launch our MVP within 12-16 weeks with a goal to collect first feedback from users, and more lifestyle clubs rapidly (gatherings, interior, travel, you name it). The months after were planned to be marked by intensive user research and data analysis, which would enable us to adjust features and add new clubs based on user needs and give us some time to fundraise money for future development.

In the initial stages of the Friend Club project, our client arrived armed with a well-defined design concept, laying out their vision for the entire product and outlining the key objectives they aimed to accomplish. However, upon closer examination, it became apparent that not all proposed features would provide immediate value to users or contribute significantly to our overarching goals.

In response to this fact, a collaborative effort unfolded in a series of meetings with the client. Together, we distilled the comprehensive product idea into its essential components, pinpointing the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) or the distinctive value that our product would bring to the market. That was the kick-off to the prioritization phase.

The first pivotal step involved the identification of the Core User Journey, where we identified the indispensable elements of the app. These elements formed a strategic pathway from the initial entry point, guiding users through a series of steps toward a successful outcome and final action, thus creating a post.

One important note here! The number of the U.S. top-notch wedding creators who were queuing for the release was counted in the lower hundreds. So, we decided to split the MVP into two parts & go with a first private release for creators only after completing the Core User Journey. That was exactly the part when such creators could have early access to it, starting to pre-populate their profiles while getting ready for the main release. With such an approach, we ensured that all creators gained access to the key pathways they would usually go when using our app. Once we released it, they were already familiar with the app and most of the questions, limits, and other plans to develop the app had already been communicated.

Subsequently, we delved into the realm of should-haves—integral features that would define the essence of our app. Emphasis was placed on incorporating features based on their potential impact and added value for users. Given the abundance of ideas within the should-have category, a thorough examination led to the categorization of certain features as could-haves. These were features deemed to lack immediate impact and added value for the product.

As the scoping phase unfolded, it served as an opportune moment to make definitive decisions. Some of the initially proposed features were relegated to the won't-haves category, with a mutual understanding that these would be post-MVP considerations. This scoping exercise ensured that the product's development focused on the most crucial elements, laying the foundation for a streamlined and impactful Friend Club app. At the end of the day, we were able to deliver our app in 16 weeks armed with analytics to measure progress ready to collect feedback and data for future fundraising & development.

Our agile approach was a game-changer. We adopted 1-week sprint cycles, breaking the project into manageable features to ensure efficient delivery.

Each feature received dedicated attention from a single developer, responsible for both front-end and back-end tasks. This streamlined approach effectively removed unnecessary bottlenecks, enhancing the speed of our feature delivery.

Since we have been fully in charge of the technical side of the project, we decided to go with "battle-tested" technologies we had previous experience with, to make sure we as engineers can use their full potential and focus on delivering high-quality code with blazingly fast delivery.