Denver Startup Week - "700+ Breweries, 3,000+ Beers, 49,000 Enthusiasts, and 1 Amazing Experience"
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This was a presentation created for Denver Startup Week. It was a joint talk between myself from The1stMovement and Nate Zander from Brewers Association to highlight the role that Agile and a great client relationship plays in creating a successful app. "My GABF" is the official companion app for the Great American Beer Festival for iOS and Android.
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Denver Startup Week - "700+ Breweries, 3,000+ Beers, 49,000 Enthusiasts, and 1 Amazing Experience"
- 1. & The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 2. 700+ BREWERIES, 3,000+ BEERS, 49,000 ENTHUSIASTS, AND 1 AMAZING EXPERIENCE #dswbeer The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 3. INTRODUCTIONS The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 4. WE ARE: THE1STMOVEMENT · Digital agency focusing on UX/UI, digital strategy, responsive web design, and native app development · A minority owned company in business for more than 8 years · Offices in Denver, Los Angeles and Hong Kong · 4 time Inc. "Fastest Growing Company in America" · Full agency Agile methodology The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 5. WE ARE: BREWERS ASSOCIATION · Trade Association established in 1983, representing US small and independent brewers · There are now more than 3,000 US Breweries - more than any time in history (prohibition)! · Purpose: To promote and protect American craft brewers, their beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts. · Based in Boulder with 50 employees · ...and the organizer of the Great American Beer Festival! The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 6. The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 7. ABOUT GABF · The first festival was held in 1982 at the Harvest House Hotel in Boulder · There were 22 breweries, 40 beers and 800 attendees · In 2014 we expect 49,000 attendees, 700+ breweries pouring more than 3,000 beers on the festival floor · In addition to the festival, the GABF is the most prestigious US brewery competition and an integral part of the festival · GABF is the largest ticketed beer festival in the country The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 8. THE CHALLENGE The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 9. GABF APP PURPOSE · Educate · Navigate · Value - Both during the festival and throughout the year The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 10. GABF APP CHALLENGES · How will our users physically use the app? · Internet Black Hole · Scalability · Constantly updating data · Short time frame for success The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 11. OUR PROCESS The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 12. THE PROCESS · User Stories · Prioritization · Cycle Planning · Work Items vs Deliverables · Collaboration The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 13. THE APP The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 14. APP FEATURES · Keep track of all the beers rated or tasted at the festival · Create a list of your favorite breweries by section · Brewery booth locator · Map with visual indicator for favorite breweries · Push notifications · Data synchronization for quick updates The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 15. APP TECHNOLOGY · HTML/CSS/JavaScript (AngularJS) · PhoneGap · CMS built with CakePHP · Content updates delivered using CDN The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 16. THE RESULTS The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 17. THE RESULTS · Downloads increased 35% year over year · 17,500 active users (35% of attendees) registered 154,000 sessions, an average of 8.8 sessions per user · Engagement was high, with the average session lasting 3 min 29 sec. · Featured as the “Festival app for beer lovers” by Adobe · Honored as one of the “Best Mobile and Apps Handheld Device” (Event) in the 2014 Webby Awards The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 18. WHY SHOULD YOU CARE? · Solid process can and will transform your client’s experience · Being agile can and will help you keep your sanity · It is possible to manage complex technology processes, and still delight your customer The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 19. WHAT WE LEARNED The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 20. No. 1 SHARE A VISION The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 21. No. 2 PRIORITIZE The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 22. No. 3 BE AGILE WITH YOUR AGILE The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 23. No. 4 GO OUT DRINKING The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
- 24. THANK YOU! #dswbeer The1stMovement | Brewer’s Association | 2014 #dswbeer
Editor's Notes
- This is the story of how two companies came together to create the “My GABF” iOS & Android app for the Great American Beer Festival.
- Randy Winch Technical Lead, The1stMovement @liquidlev Nate Zander Web Architect, Brewers Association
- Educate. Part of our mission is how to educate craft beer drinkers. Can we get more information in front of our guests about the breweries and the beers they are drinking. Can we get them that information BEFORE they arrive at the festival Navigate. The festival hall is ENORMOUS and overwhelming. How can we help our guests get straight to the breweries or beers they’ve bookmarked? How can we help our guests discover new beers? Value. Besides 4 hours of beer drinking - how can we add value for our guests, both during the festival and after the festival. How do we share medal winner beers with our attendees within moments of the winners announcement?
- Beer in one hand, app in the other. How much can we do with one thumb (and blurry vision) The festival hall is a black hole for cell and internet connectivity. Must keep all functionality useable without internet connection. Scalability - How do we build a cross-platform solution that allows for enhancements on a yearly basis Data - The data could not be static. Small data updates trickle in all month with last-minute brewery changes. On Saturday the winners list is announced - how do we quickly and seamlessly upload that data and push it out to 49,000 devices. Time Frame - Our users will have 3 days heavily using the app. If there are bugs or UX issues, there is no flexibility for polishing or a version 2.0. Need to be perfect right out of the box. Also, September launch time frame always presents issues with new iOS hardware and software coming out weeks before the fest.
- PhoneGap was a great platform because it created a cost effective way to build and maintain this particular app. Once we decided on the platform, we were very careful about building an app that felt responsive and tried to avoid the “try to pretend it is native code” mentality, that often leads to the uncanny valley, and a poor user experience. Using JSON files with a CDN was a great way to easily scale for the users when they were all trying to update data from the server at the same time. Since the app was designed to work entirely offline, the user just downloads updated data files and all data is converted to SQL and updated locally. This meant no potential MySQL crashes
- From the BA/client perspective - we found a ‘partner’ rather than a ‘vendor’ for the GABF app. T1M was instrumental in helping us focus the app to the core features that would truly enhance the GABF experience, helping us brainstorm ideas and solutions far beyond the basic requirements we brought to the table. This was our first time through the Agile process, and we were able to watch the project grow and morph every two weeks, tweaking UX elements and functionality, catching bugs etc all along the way. For us, this was a major departure from our previous experience with the development process - where we’d see a few major builds and scramble to fix bugs and publish to the store in the weeks leading up to the fest.
- Sharing a vision or having a common goal is important for always having something to point to at every step of the process. This is critical for helping the agency and client to put themselves aside and focus on that vision most importantly. We collaborated a lot on features and ideas, but always tried to circle back to if we were really creating value.
- Prioritizing features and goals is critical to focusing on the things that need the most attention first. Rather than operating under the assumption that every feature weighs the same, we really focused on creating a backlog that represented the project from most to least important. In the end, some smaller or less important items fell off the backlog, but the result is that we were able to focus on every feature getting the attention it deserved, rather than getting sloppy just to mark every feature as done.
- We are constantly iterating and making changes in how we interact with clients, how we interact with each other and how that drive constantly improves engagement. Process is never a “one and done” type of exercise. If we feel things are not making sense, not efficient enough, or it there are things that are not strengthening the communication with the client, we work to improve it.
- Having the team actually interact with each other. Usually the AM or PM does most of the communication with the client. With this project, the team members from both Brewer’s Association and T1M went out for beer tastings before our cycle review meetings. This helped elevate the relationship between all members. Building that bond helped increase transparency, communication and trust. A big result from the T1M perspective is that the team members took much more responsibility for the project because they were invested in the client once it become much more of a human interaction.