A visit from potential client opens a door of opportunities for both the parties. The client gets to experience the first-hand account of culture and working style, especially when traveling to another country. On the other hand, the hosts get to understand the work and the expectations.
Dan came to India, still not sure on who his development partner would be. No contracts signed, we had just convinced Dan to take the visit with open mind and really know us in person, understand how we work and what value we can bring to the product. In the worse case, he had the choice to still own all work that we create during his visit and not pay us a dime.
This is an account of a week spent together with a client, brainstorming on his ideas, act like the “actors” of his app and building a plan while also enjoying mouthwatering Indian delicacies
We had been in touch with Dan for his app for more than two months. All discussion had gone back and forth. He had compared us with others and had kept us in his top 2 or top 3. He had met local teams but used to keep coming back. One thing we really liked about Dan was his transparency. He used to tell us about other teams he was speaking to and ideas that it was leading to.
So one of the days we introduced to Dan our Wired in India Programme and told him how it is not much difficult for anyone to travel to India, especially when you are looking to build a team and apart from the long flight (which we can’t help much on), everything is actually a breeze. Importantly, the return on the time and investment from such a trip is multifold. Saying that a trip will end up saving months of rework that could occur if team is not on the same page is an understatement. Exercise such as this can actually be the difference between building the product right and not being able to build it right.
The Mindbowser squad consisted of Ayush (CEO), Vishvajit (Project Manager), and Arun (Senior Android Developer).
Dan already had a launched MVP version of the app that he had created himself to test the waters. At this stage, Dan was confused about the UI/UX of his app and was looking for an investor as well. After meeting him, we came to understand what his project is all about and how he wants to revamp the existing app.
A fun exercise was the role-playing exercise for Dan’s investor pitch where Ayush played Dan and Dan acted as an investor. This provided Dan with the profound insights on what could be the hard questions that will come to him. Dan was asking those questions now.
After having an in-depth discussion with Dan about how he wants to lay out his app, we observed that there might be few areas where the design and UX of the app were lacking. As the saying goes “Two Heads Are Better Than One,” after immersing deeply into the product idea as a team we found a few magic beans. For example, in the previous version, the app had a collapsible list which restricted the users to view the tab above it, so we switched the whole thing with a horizontal tab bar to enhance UX/UI.
We believe that all this was possible only because we met face-to-face, just talking over the phone would not have made it possible.
Along with understanding Dan’s working style and behavior, it came to our knowledge that Dan is one hell of a bookworm, who loves to read and discuss his favorite books. Ayush and Dan exchanged their book lists and Ayush forwarded to Dan his current favorite “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel. It was amazing to see that within days we were applying the learnings from the book to the product itself.
Coming to India made Dan realize how the things work here at the ground level, breaking the cultural wall. Along with this, Dan got a nice first-hand account of Indian culture and Indian food.
If you don’t know where to begin when working on a new product or service, a design sprint is ideal to give you a jump start. You should start by deciding which challenge you will try to tackle.
Your scope should be a manageable size. Don’t try to design a complete lunar lander within a week, but instead focus on a smaller task like a specific improvement of the landing mechanism. Also, be careful not to focus too much. Spending five days choosing a color for door handles will only waste a lot of time from your team.
After you have chosen your challenge – a new business plan, a product to extend your portfolio, or a marketing strategy to reach new customers – it is time to form a team.
Selecting the design sprint group is clearly described in “Sprint”. A sprint group should be about seven people, preferably from different departments, and include a decision-maker and facilitator.
The group should take the sprint seriously and know they’ll be attending a full week of intensive brainstorming and development. If you’re working in a small company, it is advisable to explain to the rest of your colleagues why they are not invited to join the sprint team and/or invite them for the expert sessions on Monday.
When doing your first design sprint, you’ll find out that it takes time to understand all the different assignments of the sprint. Therefore, it is important to be well prepared. At least one of the participants should know the ins and outs of all the assignments.
For my first sprint, I prepared myself by taking the online become a design sprint expert course by Udacity. This course was created in collaboration with experts from the design agency AJ&Smart and is well-structured and fun. Top designers and even Jake Knapp himself help you understand the material with instruction videos that take you through the sprint process step-by-step. Use this knowledge to be the facilitator of the sprint or instruct your facilitator before starting.
It is also recommended to hand out the sprint book to all the participants of the sprint. Not only because it’s a good read but also because it emphasizes the importance of the sprint. It will also help familiarize group members with the assignments and get them into the vibe.
Whiteboards, markers, sticky notes: a design sprint involves a high level of creativity. Therefore, when choosing a location for the design sprint, consider a creative atmosphere. Go for a light space that is large enough for all the participants to be comfortable for five days. Make sure there is enough whiteboard space for the entire week. You don’t want to erase all your creative steps during the week because you must reuse the whiteboard.
Also, consider a wall where sticky notes do stick, nothing is more annoying than falling sticky notes all the time.
We continue working with Dan now since last three months. Meeting up and spending time together has just taken the comfort between us to another level.
Mindbowser played a crucial role in helping us bring everything together into a unified, cohesive product. Their commitment to industry-standard coding practices made an enormous difference, allowing developers to seamlessly transition in and out of the project without any confusion....
CEO, MarketsAI
I'm thrilled to be partnering with Mindbowser on our journey with TravelRite. The collaboration has been exceptional, and I’m truly grateful for the dedication and expertise the team has brought to the development process. Their commitment to our mission is...
Founder & CEO, TravelRite
The Mindbowser team's professionalism consistently impressed me. Their commitment to quality shone through in every aspect of the project. They truly went the extra mile, ensuring they understood our needs perfectly and were always willing to invest the time to...
CTO, New Day Therapeutics
I collaborated with Mindbowser for several years on a complex SaaS platform project. They took over a partially completed project and successfully transformed it into a fully functional and robust platform. Throughout the entire process, the quality of their work...
President, E.B. Carlson
Mindbowser and team are professional, talented and very responsive. They got us through a challenging situation with our IOT product successfully. They will be our go to dev team going forward.
Founder, Cascada
Amazing team to work with. Very responsive and very skilled in both front and backend engineering. Looking forward to our next project together.
Co-Founder, Emerge
The team is great to work with. Very professional, on task, and efficient.
Founder, PeriopMD
I can not express enough how pleased we are with the whole team. From the first call and meeting, they took our vision and ran with it. Communication was easy and everyone was flexible to our schedule. I’m excited to...
Founder, Seeke
Mindbowser has truly been foundational in my journey from concept to design and onto that final launch phase.
CEO, KickSnap
We had very close go live timeline and Mindbowser team got us live a month before.
CEO, BuyNow WorldWide
If you want a team of great developers, I recommend them for the next project.
Founder, Teach Reach
Mindbowser built both iOS and Android apps for Mindworks, that have stood the test of time. 5 years later they still function quite beautifully. Their team always met their objectives and I'm very happy with the end result. Thank you!
Founder, Mindworks
Mindbowser has delivered a much better quality product than our previous tech vendors. Our product is stable and passed Well Architected Framework Review from AWS.
CEO, PurpleAnt
I am happy to share that we got USD 10k in cloud credits courtesy of our friends at Mindbowser. Thank you Pravin and Ayush, this means a lot to us.
CTO, Shortlist
Mindbowser is one of the reasons that our app is successful. These guys have been a great team.
Founder & CEO, MangoMirror
Kudos for all your hard work and diligence on the Telehealth platform project. You made it possible.
CEO, ThriveHealth
Mindbowser helped us build an awesome iOS app to bring balance to people’s lives.
CEO, SMILINGMIND
They were a very responsive team! Extremely easy to communicate and work with!
Founder & CEO, TotTech
We’ve had very little-to-no hiccups at all—it’s been a really pleasurable experience.
Co-Founder, TEAM8s
Mindbowser was very helpful with explaining the development process and started quickly on the project.
Executive Director of Product Development, Innovation Lab
The greatest benefit we got from Mindbowser is the expertise. Their team has developed apps in all different industries with all types of social proofs.
Co-Founder, Vesica
Mindbowser is professional, efficient and thorough.
Consultant, XPRIZE
Very committed, they create beautiful apps and are very benevolent. They have brilliant Ideas.
Founder, S.T.A.R.S of Wellness
Mindbowser was great; they listened to us a lot and helped us hone in on the actual idea of the app. They had put together fantastic wireframes for us.
Co-Founder, Flat Earth
Ayush was responsive and paired me with the best team member possible, to complete my complex vision and project. Could not be happier.
Founder, Child Life On Call
The team from Mindbowser stayed on task, asked the right questions, and completed the required tasks in a timely fashion! Strong work team!
CEO, SDOH2Health LLC
Mindbowser was easy to work with and hit the ground running, immediately feeling like part of our team.
CEO, Stealth Startup
Mindbowser was an excellent partner in developing my fitness app. They were patient, attentive, & understood my business needs. The end product exceeded my expectations. Thrilled to share it globally.
Owner, Phalanx
Mindbowser's expertise in tech, process & mobile development made them our choice for our app. The team was dedicated to the process & delivered high-quality features on time. They also gave valuable industry advice. Highly recommend them for app development...
Co-Founder, Fox&Fork
