Else Studio

Our first App for first client, how it went, and still going.

5th October 2023, Else Studio helped our first client, SpeedHome, to launch their third-time-rewrite of their mobile application SpeedHome: Android, iOS. This is Else Studio’s first project and it is a big collective work done by the team for 6 months.

The work didn’t stop there. For the next two months after launch, we dished out a ton of features, bug fixes and GUI polishes. Not only the users were served with a prettier, smoother and more solid stable mobile app. They are experiencing waves of quick bug fixes and GUI improvement at an unprecedented speed.

For November 2023 alone, we:

  1. Ship a brand new frontend function for a ticketing system (creating tickets, attaching photos, videos and files, viewing tickets).
  2. Built an event-based Firebase Analytics system, to avoid littering GUI and business logic with event tracking calls.
  3. Refactor the legacy web application to support the localization of a new language.
  4. Refactor the legacy web application to reliably display the product pricing structure.
  5. Revive Deep Linking from previous old and outdated setups.
  6. Polish the Chat Lobby and Chat room according to Figma.
  7. +/- 20 miscellaneous bug fixes.

All these are without a single video call, without a fire from the live app which disturbs the team trance, without any over-time or rush, within or arriving earlier than the expected due dates.

No video calls? Yes. We managed November without a video call with the client or within the team. All communication is done in text, asynchronously. The client wrote down the requirements and followed up with answers and discussions mostly in a forum/long message type of thread. Feature shipped with proper Beta build available in PlayStore and TestFlight, the client tests the build and signs it off with their own devices. Create a bug card, have a discussion, and see the card resolved with another new build on their devices. No more “look at the app on my screen” video calls that last 2 hours with no product. No more hours of meeting with 5 people in it to discuss something that can be done in 3 text messages.

No fire. We shipped a robust and stable mobile app to the users. Since launch, we started to use our own in-house QA to provide better coverage before the build hit the production release. Things will still go wrong, we cannot be bulletproof. Rest assured, Else Studio owns the codes and we have a well-engineered foundation. There have not been any bugs that we cannot find the fix in hours and prepare a build in a day.

No crunch. We crunched once before the launch. But we have been cruising casually post-launch with the equivalent of contributions. I did not sign up for busy work with no life.

On-time delivery. We kept our promise so far and intend to keep it forever. A successful delivery is not only about a job well done. It is about managed expectations and well-formed requirements. This takes a lot of effort from both the client and the team. Having on-time deliveries thus far proved Else Studio has the ability and flexibility to work with the client in setting reasonable payload and deadlines.

About Kuan, who started Else Studio

I have been working as a solo freelancer and solo tech founder for four years. Thanks to my sole client, itbh, I managed to enjoy a flexible lifestyle and a respectable earning to keep my wife and me afloat in the lovely Sabah, my homeland. I don’t mind continuing this way, but I have this little nudge in me that, asks me to work in a team.

Recently (or early 2023 if this post got old), an opportunity knocked on my door. It is a mobile app rewrite project that requires multiple me, working full time. At the same time, I still have an ongoing project, which I am committed to see it through. Workload overflows, and funding overflows. Time to grow!

I am now expanding my team of one, and forming a software house by the name Else Studio.

I have nothing much to show as a track record. Here’s what I did in terms of web and mobile applications, from the most recent:

  1. SpeedHome: Frontned only. Flutter, Andoird and iOS. Teamwork with Else Studio.
  2. Noehmer: Frontned only. Flutter Web with Badger. It has three parts: public for ordering new broadband service, customer self-service and sales for internal use.
  3. CariTenant: SvelteKit.
  4. Badger (private): A Dart programming language framework that generates Flutter projects with routing, Stream-powered services and components.
  5. B4 the date : Svelte + PouchDB/CoucbDB + Cloudflare workers and pages.
  6. TaraKita : Svelte + PouchDB + Cloudflare.
  7. fp-svelte: Svelte starter template with a functional programming twist. Used by the two projects above.
  8. ANA (private): Offline first web application to support heavy industry asset management in the field. AngularDart + PouchDB/CouchDB.
  9. dorker : Web worker for AngularDart.

Before I built these web applications as a solo freelancer, I was a game developer. Worked in Unity and Ubisoft Singapore.