Rapid MVP for the mobile marketplace in the beauty industry

Client

Max, a seasoned professional in the beauty industry, spotted an opportunity. A staggering 80% of Ukraine's beauty masters work from home and lack the right tools to display their work or manage bookings and calendars.

Spotting the gap, Max founded Best of Masters, a marketplace catering specifically to their needs. With an iOS app design in his back pocket and a bunch of unique features in requirements, Max searched for the right developers to bring his vision to life.

Industry: Beauty

Location: Ukraine

Challenge

Best of Masters found themselves in a real challenge: a lean budget and a host of features to be implemented across iOS and Android platforms. Though trendy and attractive, the design wasn't fully optimized for mobile development, threatening to stretch the development timeline and budget.

Time was of the essence as the client aimed to apply for an accelerator program. However, without a CTO, navigating through the technical aspects of development posed a problem. It was imperative for the CEO to work closely with the developers, fostering a less formal and more fluid approach. Prior experiences with other developers had left him feeling the pinch of inflexibility, something a dynamic startup couldn't afford.

"Implex acted as a true technical partner, as if I was working with my own engineers. Together with Slava we selected the features necessary for the MVP and then dynamically implemented them over two months, modifying the design and requirements to get a product as close as possible to the demands of our discerning users. In another month, we conducted a short round of usability testing with real users, made UX adjustments, and launched the product in the AppStore. What sets Implex apart from others is their understanding of your business challenge and their ability to help you solve it."

Maxim Vosk

SEO & Founder of Best of Masters

Solution

Our approach to Best of Masters was defined by two key strategies: meticulously honed scope optimization and open, effective communication. Serving as the bridge between technological execution and business objectives, our technical PM adopted the CTO role, ensuring critical decisions appropriately balanced business demands with technological constraints.

Scope Optimization

Upon initial evaluation, we discovered that the client's desired features significantly exceeded the allocated budget. To address this, we strategically optimized the project scope, adopting the Story Mapping technique to dissect the requirements into individual Scrum stories. This allowed us to prioritize and implement only those functionalities essential to the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Our focus was directed toward creating a captivating mobile interface tailored for iOS alongside a solid backend. Non-essential elements such as front-end and other features were deferred, ensuring budget compliance. For instance, we streamlined processes by adopting an Excel file to load the service tree into the system, effectively optimizing resource utilization.

Communication

Open and effective communication was a cornerstone of our relationship with the client. Max remained engaged 12x5, participating in all Scrum ceremonies and actively contributing to the shaping of product requirements.

We harnessed this open dialogue to swiftly outline feature requirements and assist the client in modifying their existing designs to suit the evolving needs better. Our development team, focused on achieving the optimal outcome, continually provided valuable input on mobile app functionality optimization. Additionally, they demonstrated creativity and agility in devising efficient technical solutions and workarounds to navigate unexpected challenges.

The tools and technologies we used were:

Results

In just two months, we built a full-fledged MVP for Best of Masters that facilitated free registration for masters, creation of portfolios and service catalogs, location-based searching, scheduling, booking management, and more. And all of this in 3 languages!

This allowed our client, Max, to apply for an accelerator, opening up new opportunities for growth. The MVP delivered within budget, attesting to our commitment to delivering high-value solutions in a cost-effective manner. Check out the app in the video below:

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