
MVP app development
How the Wise team helped a startup build an MVP app from the ground up and then contributed to its further scaling working closely with the US in-house engineering team.
The Wise team responsible for MVP engineering delivered an end-to-end, working basic version of the digital fitness platform in 3 months and helped launch it with many improvements and extensions to reach 1.0 in another quarter. Our engineers deployed the product within tight deadlines and worked at a very fast pace throughout the project.
Along with the US in-house teams, we created a video upload and playback library and developed a highly flexible, feature-rich custom payment system. The Core platform was launched publicly and aimed at helping sports instructors build custom digital fitness chains and continue interacting with their audiences in the new reality impacted by the Covid-pandemic.
Linode: Object Storage (S3-compatible), NodeBalancers, Linodes, Stackscripts
Cloudflare: Stream, DNS, Cache
Web development: Elixir, Svelte (Sapper), Postgres, PWA
Integrations: Stripe, Google Analytics, Zoom, Google Maps, SendGrid, OneSignal
Though the Core platform's structure was very similar to the one of a marketplace in its broader sense, it had multiple important customizations that needed specific expertise from the tech team's perspective. That included different user flows for different personas, flexible subscription rates for vendors, and a variety of product types offered on a platform like programs, live events, and more.
The plan was to have a minimum viable product developed in three months after we started working on the project. At the MVP startup engineering stage, the Core platform was expected to have a number of important features and rather broad functionality for instructor page customization and video library itself.
After a successful MVP launch, the US team focused on users’ feedback analysis and specified the feature set both tech teams would collaborate on preparing the platform for the beta launch. Our team's responsibilities included progressive app development, a custom payment system, student profile functionality, and integration of automated emails.
At this step, the Wise team enrolled in the project consisted of six engineers – three with the back-end focus and three with the front-end specification. Though, everyone could work full-stack to cope with small issues and not block the engineering process.
In the third phase, we continued to enhance the functionality of the Core platform. We analyzed instructors’ and students’ feedback after the beta launch and focused on the functionality for scheduling and performing live classes, both offline and online. We also set up some handy integrations to make this functionality more user-friendly.
The collaboration with the Core team inspired us to gather these essential tips for the startup teams that are only beginning their MVP development journey. At Wise Engineering, we also launch in-house products and find the Core team's approach very efficient. Here are the key takeaways we would like to share.
The collaboration with the Core team inspired us to gather these essential tips for the startup teams that are only beginning their MVP development journey. At Wise Engineering, we also launch in-house products and find the Core team's approach very efficient. Here are the key takeaways we would like to share.