Building An App for Over 30 Million People

On deciding to build the mobile app: Our existing users and ecosystem is made up of ambitious and goal-oriented individuals. As an extension of that, we felt the need to create our app to empower women to take control of their days. It’s time to focus on making each day matter and take action, small or large, everyday to get closer to your goals. At the heart of our mobile app are two rituals to help you own your day. One in the morning and one in the evening. We believe the key to success lies in daily reflection and proactive planning to turn each day into an investment in yourself. One of the great features of our app is that it integrates with your calendars, so you never have to exit the app to check any other commitments. Your goals also live alongside your day-to-day and to do's, so you can see what you’re working on is impactful and leading to success. Our app is meant to support you through daily reflection, proactive planning, and a community to walk this journey with.

On the hardest part of preparing to launch: Creating our app was really exciting for us, as we wanted to provide tools to individuals to achieve optimal productivity, learning & growth. However, getting a new product ready and out the door can be a daunting task. For us, positioning our app and building trust within our existing community and the market was one of the most challenging. Over the past five years, we’ve built a community of users who turn to Mogul for various personal and professional reasons and we needed our app to reflect this support system.

On unintentional discoveries: We did a ton of testing - externally and internally that helped us shape all of the functionalities and features of the app. We learned that each customer has a different use case for the app — so it was really unique being able to tap into those different segments and ensure our app was delivering on its promises of helping individuals accomplish personal and professional goals.

On setting goals internally: We’re a big believer in OKR’s (objectives and key results) for their ability to help us focus on a few but very important goals, to make sure everyone is working towards the same goal, to allow cross-functional teams to support each-other, and to stretch us to achieve ambitious goals. You’ll find lots of similarities between the OKR system and the app!

On the most rewarding moment building the app: There’s been many - but the most rewarding moment has been interacting with our users directly and getting their feedback and thoughts on how the app has helped change their outlook or even daily regimen. Our team is working with our community to build products that make them their best selves - and hearing first hand the impact the app has had in its early stages is what keeps us going.

On advice for other Makers: Listen to your users. In-app feedback is an easy way to interact more with your customers as using and giving feedback occurs in the same place. Empathy is the key to understanding user needs. When you interact more with your customers, you recognize their perspective and their needs better. When you understand them better you build products or features your customers love.