The Challenge
Our client had an idea: develop an app to make meal planning easier and more efficient by using the food you already have on hand.
The passion behind the idea came from a pain point in her life: feeding four young boys on a tight budget. She knew that this is something she had to make, “I have a good solution here that can really make a difference for people,” but she didn’t know how to get started.
She had worked with an app developer several years before, but after the contract was signed the company stopped contact and she never heard back from them. Knowing that she still wanted to turn her idea into a reality, she started looking for other local developers. She knew Clear Function’s CEO and asked him if he knew of any companies that could develop the app.
Clear Function was able to step in and let her know that they could offer development and business coaching at a price that fit her budget. Coaching was an attractive offer for her. She knew she had a good idea, but she didn’t know how to build a brand and make it succeed.
Ultimately it was a deciding factor for choosing to go with Clear Function, “They were offering the whole package which was a total game-changer for me.” Through coaching, the overall brand KitchIntentional and the app, Stash: Meal Planner was born. Coaching helped the client make crucial marketing decisions and develop a brand that could succeed in the future. It also helped take her through the process of creating Facebook ads to reach her audience, with the low price of 2 cents per page like and 55 cents per opt-in.
The Process
We fleshed out the needed features and developed an eye-catching design.
The first step in the process was to guide the client through Innovation & Design Coaching. This helped to flush out the ideas she already had and to discover new features that would benefit future customers. For the first version, the simpler the better, as it was important to gather feedback and identify what was actually needed.
Developing apps is an expensive process for anyone, but Clear Function wanted to present an option to the client that was not only cost-efficient but also offered a high level of development. Clear Function and the client decided to go with an offshore team of developers with a member of the CF staff acting as the project manager.
Having a good relationship with an offshore team is important and thankfully Clear Function already had an established one.
The offshore team, Galaxy Weblinks, had a project manager who made sure everything was being done according to specifications. At first, the client was nervous about voicing her opinions to Galaxy but eventually, with the support of Clear Function, she felt confident commenting on issues and offering feedback.
Galaxy provided strong communication, even through the challenge of different time zones, they made sure Clear Function and the client were always informed about where the project stood. Using Slack to communicate back and forth between teams and a combination of Jira, ProductBoard, and Confluence to manage the product contributed to the high level of communication. Google Workspace allowed each team to collaborate on documents and to make sure the latest version was easily known.
The Outcome
Where are we now? Stash: Meal Planner has officially launched to the market on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
Brand identity and marketing coaching helped our client build the app’s audience well before the launch. With coaching, it only took 5 months for the client to reach over 1000 email subscribers. Even better, a 38% open rate and a 13% click-through rate ensured that the readers were excited and engaged.
The next steps for the app are to collect feedback from customers and to map out new features for the next version. The goal is to see more customers subscribe to the paying version of the app and for the brand KitchIntentional to grow into new products and merchandise.
In the words of the client, “I want KitchIntentional to be a household name in the realms of people who care about food and eating at home. I want it to be something that people say, ‘I have heard of that!’”
The experience working together to build Stash was great for both Clear Function and the client. Each side was able to take a small idea and give it the strong roots to have a huge potential. The combination of coaching and development shaved years off of the process and the client was left with a fully established brand and a product that is set up for success.