Halloween update 🎃
"Mission Impossible" Project
You can listen it, up here:
⏳ Current status
👥 Active users: 1376
📝 New Developments: Halloween Update 🎃
Boooo👻kbase - Halloween Edition 🎃
Halloween was approaching, which I quite honestly almost never had EVER.
I think it's cool anyway, but somehow I've never had the chance to have one with friends.
However, I felt like we should do something, something to please YOU and add a little something extra to the experience. So I arranged a quick call with the guys.
📕Book recommendation: “Delivering happiness" has given me so much, it has made me think even more about providing the best possible experience for BookBase members in all areas. Because that's what really pays off in the long run.
🎥 That Zoom Call
On the call, I suggested to the guys that we should do something for Halloween. The guys didn't need to be told 2x, they got the idea immediately and we started brainstorming. 🎣
More and more outrageous ideas have come to our mind, which I loved by the way!😅The problem was that we came up with these 7 days before Halloween, so we didn't have time for a huge development (or so I thought).
Here are some ideas that came up:
Treasure hunt inside App 💰 (not bad, but not for now)
Halloween event inside the app 🗓
Halloween theme for the whole App 🎃
We spent a lot of time sharing and discussing what would be the best, what could be done quickly and what could be a good experience.
📚 Lesson learned: when you want to get creative ideas from your team, brainstorm where you create a safe environment for THEM so they know there are no stupid ideas and no one will think they're idiots. The way I usually do this is to shoot off a huge load of bullshit as an "idea" at the very beginning, so they can see that they really can't miss with any ideas. There have been plenty of times when the best solution is to reformulate the most outrageous idea.
💡 Side note: Here we used the Mental Models mentioned in the previous post, including the Decision Matrix, to select the best decision from the 3 options.
🧐 The decision
The Decision Matrix released that based on our criteria, the biggest change would be the Halloween theme. 🎃
Yes, but...
Developing an application theme is not 2 minutes. ⏳
When Kokesz realized that this was going to happen and that he would have to do it in about 5 days (only 5 because Appstore has to accept it), I could see the mini shock on his face (but the guys are so grossly dedicated and enjoy what they do that they wouldn't say no to such an... "Impossible situation").
I show you the conversation that took place after I saw his face.
Me: Kokesz, do you think you can do this in time?
Kokesz: Umm I think I can... I mean, I think I can. I don't know how yet, but I think I can.
I could feel the "confidence" in Kokesz...😅
(Don't get me wrong, the problem wasn't his skills, it was time, time was our biggest enemy in this project).
📚 Lesson 2: It's good to be clear in advance which holidays you want to target and what you want to make developments for or marketing at, so you can work ahead and not have a last-minute mess around.
📕 Book recommendation: It perfectly teaches you to focus on the essentials only and not to twist and turn unnecessary things. Of course, it is up in the BookBase.
As soon as the Challenge was over, I knew that this could now be a Challenge for us that we would not be able to accomplish in time. I had a feeling this was going to be very risky and challenging. 😰
But the guys got to it and started the...
🔥"Mission Impossible" Project
⏳ 4 days to go...
Kokesz has been working hard at Figma to get the design done, because that's the first step.
Meanwhile, Edu has optimized few things so this update can go out just in time.
⏳ 3 days to go...
Didn't have to wait long, Kokesz hit his "be playful but a bit scary and cool enough" combo on the first try!
The design is done and looks brutally good! 🤩
Let’s get the coding (which is always the bigger bite) begin! 👻
⏳ 2 days to go...
Edu and Kokesz are spinning their wheels to put this visual into code. Of course, there are always difficulties, e.g., the tombs at the bottom are prominent, but it was hard to find the "Layer" in front of and behind what to make it work. 🤯
They pushed all afternoon to get it done!
And eventually it got fully completed!
⏳ 1 day to go...
Get the Beta for ourselves! 😰
Surprisingly everything was working and we seem to be ready, BUT...
It occurred to us; how will they know it's a big update? What if they don't make the update and just simply skip it? 🧐
So, we thought we should plan a whole new App Icon for it!
We couldn't have turned to anyone else but good old @noefrohlich!
Noah also designed the Cheetah for us, he's up for anything and help us out with mind-blowing creative solutions! That was the case this time too:
1 day to go... 24 hours in total 🚨
And in the last hours, a message came:
Instagram: Noah sent you a picture
I opened Instagram right away...
And I just blown my mind!
Noah sent me this:
A few hours before the end, a huge stone fell from my heart! 🧡
I couldn't believe it, but...
🏆 We did it!
More specifically credit to the Boys, I just kept the team together and managed things. But the work ethic they put down in those 5 days was superhuman! I seriously sometimes wonder if they are some kinds of UFOs sent down to me to change the education system. 👽
📚Lesson 3: Tight deadlines are very stressful, but they make you as productive as possible and if you can use them sensibly, you'll just be more productive instead of becoming burned out.
📚Lesson 4: If you're ever going to embark on another sprint like this with the boys, remind me of this Post before you do anything. 😅
💡 Side notes 2: "Little things" like changing the theme also mean a lot to users because they feel the work that goes into it and they feel that we are paying attention. It's not the theme that made us want to do this anyway, it's the gesture to really make you feel that we're here and listening!
❓An interesting suggestion
In response to the last email, 3 people raised that they would like to see a premium section for 3-4.000 HUF per month, with either videos or more in-depth articles or smaller but more updates on milestones.
We really didn't set up this newsletter with the intention of making money from it, just to document our journey, but if more people want it, we can create such a section!
Whatever happens, the free part will STILL be there, I'll make sure of it! 😉
What do you guys think...
Should there be a paid section in the newsletter?
Thank you for reading this letter too!
Have a nice day!
Kristóf