Emilie Lindqvist is the CEO of Juvo, an Oslo-based company that targets various organizations and local groups in Norway. The Juvo team wanted to build a mobile app that would unite people with similar needs and interests. Today, Emilie shares her experiences of working with a mobile app development company.
To bring her idea to life, Emilie partnered with MindK, as we proved our expertise and accountability in previous joint projects. As a result of our union, a native iOS and Android app named Juvo first saw the light of day in May during the Juvo Release Party in Oslo. We decided to ask Emilie about the business, future plans, and her experience of working with a mobile app development company.
Juvo team: Emilie Lindqvist, Ida Thomstad (Juvo medlemsarena) with MindK team members engaged in the project
What’s the idea behind Juvo mobile app?
We work closely with various organizations and associations in Norway. These communities often lose their steam due to lack of communication or absence of initiative on the part of their members. We felt like we needed to create a tool, that will help owners inject some warmth back into their communities.
Juvo is tailor-made for the needs of local communities. It is an app that allows their members to organize meetups, post questions and provide the answers, offer some advice, share the relevant news and useful info. One of the most important features of the app is the ability to make a request for assistance or help to members nearby. All of this is done to assist communities keep their local branches active and connected.
Moreover, an owning community can control member access to Juvo with their favorite member management ERP, CRM, or any other back-office system. We also thought about user security and privacy, so all user activities can be done anonymously.
Why did you decide to work with MindK?
We have been working with MindK for several years. It was a great experience, so the decision to develop a mobile app together came to us naturally.
What were the main challenges in building such an app?
The main challenge when you build a mobile app is finding out what you need for the first version. That’s why it is important to work with a development team, that will perfectly understand your business needs. It must be guided by your business objectives on all development stages.
Firstly, you need an experienced business analyst to crystallize the vision for the app and help you choose the most valuable features. You also need a good designer, so that the users could fall in love with your app at first sight. You need a team of seasoned developers and QA engineers who will ensure that your MVP does the core functionality well. And of course, you need a project manager to help you with the planning, risk management and bring the whole project together.
What was it like to work with MindK?
It’s always great to work with MindK and I enjoy working with all the people here. They consistently show a degree of involvement in the project that is admirable. We meet challenges together and overcome them together. We all feel like a team.
How did you like working remotely?
Working remotely can be a challenge. But if you use tools like Skype to have face-to-face contact, you can easily stay in touch with the team. Thus, I don’t see much of a difference between working remotely or under one roof.
How are you doing with Juvo after the Release Party in Oslo?
We’ve released the app a little bit over a month ago and right now we are having follow-up meetings with our customers. Things are going really well, a lot of organizations have shown great interest in our product.
We’re really looking forward to seeing all the ways they use the app to determine how we can improve it in the future. When the customers will start using the app en masse we’ll be able to update Juvo with new functions based on the experience of real users.
What advice would you give to people developing the first version of their product?
If you are developing the first version of a mobile app you should think about reducing your scope. You just can’t have everything you want in the version 1.0, you need to set priorities. That’s where your development team can be of a great help. Based on their development experience and expertise, they can find ways to speed up your time to market.
It’s extremely important to deliver the app to the market as soon as possible and get real people to use it. Then you can gather users’ feedback and deliver the next version based on their most acute needs.
Any advice for people thinking about hiring a development team?
Well, if you’re thinking about hiring a development team, hire MindK! (Smiles)
