Native iOS and Android Development Announcement
by the_alchemist_devTLDR:
- Read "Crossing the Chasm" by Geoffrey Morre
- Look up "Diffusion of Innovations"
- Blog Post: The PWA Elephant in the Room
- Shareability is part of the product.
- JustFitness.io is coming to iOS and Android
Until very recently, I was trapped in a reality marble. Not literally, of course, but a metaphoric one constructed of my assumptions. I assumed that every potential customer viewed technology in the same manner as I. I knew from day one that JustFitness.io would need an Android application to succeed, but I assumed a Progressive Web App would be enough. How hard could it be? Just teach your users how they work, and everything should be fine. Right?. Wrong. Mostly. But not for the reasons I initially suspected.
In the book “Crossing the Chasm,” author Geoffrey Morre details how technology users react and adopt innovation. To summarize, he segments technology adopters into five distinct categories. Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, and Laggards. This grouping of people comes from the Diffusion of Innovations. I won’t go into further detail, but I highly recommend checking out the book and looking further into the theory.
We all may have different motivations for being here on IndieHackers. Some of us are trying to build the next groundbreaking product. Others are attempting to quit our day jobs through “ramen profitability.” And a sizeable amount of us are simply trying out a few ideas to see what sticks. In any case, I think this customer segmentation model would lead to better decision-making in terms of growth and marketing.
Concerning JustFitness.io, I’ve concluded that all of its current subscribers are in the Innovators category. Why?
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They didn’t mind installing a PWA workout tracker, given the rigid expectations of its category.
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They send me detailed bug reports signaling that they are invested in the solution.
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Their feature requests fit the company’s vision of a workout tracker where the individual comes first.
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They’re very forgiving of JustFitness.io’s issues and shortcomings. See The PWA Elephant in the Room blog post for details.
So what does this all mean? First, it means that the app is not yet ready for the people who signed up and never returned. Second, it means that JustFitness.io cannot yet deliver on the promise of a seamless, intuitive, well-designed, cross-platform workout tracker for experienced lifters. And Finally, it means that I should focus my efforts on improving the product so that the innovators can share and recommend the app to their peers with 0 friction.
“Is it in the app store?” is the most common question I get. I don’t mind explaining PWAs and teaching others how they work. But JustFitness.io’s customers should not have to bear that responsibility. Shareability is part of the product. This rant can be much longer, but I’ll cut it here. JustFitness.io will arrive on the App and Play Store very soon. At this time, all that remains to do are the fulfillment of the marketplace requirements.
