Under the Radar

◼   ► welcome to under the radar a show but

◼   ► independent iOS app development I'm mark

◼   ► Worman and I'm David Smith under the

◼   ► radar is never longer than 30 minutes so

◼   ► let's get started so today I wanted to

◼   ► talk through an experience I've been

◼   ► having recently where I so it's very

◼   ► fair to say I typically do lots and lots

◼   ► of small little bursts of work on a

◼   ► variety of my different apps like I have

◼   ► a lot of different apps so I tend to

◼   ► just like be like a little bee just

◼   ► buzzing from flower to flower like

◼   ► taking care of little things as they

◼   ► come I never know and then I find myself

◼   ► in a situation where instead I need to

◼   ► kind of sit down and have a kind of a

◼   ► long extended you know development

◼   ► project to really push a product forward

◼   ► and for me right now that's around

◼   ► workouts plus plus which is my workout

◼   ► management and configuration app for the

◼   ► Apple watch and so usually I would say

◼   ► the longest I work on a you know on a

◼   ► particular update to an app is maybe a

◼   ► week sometimes two at the most and at

◼   ► this point I'm coming up on two months

◼   ► working on this update for workouts plus

◼   ► so it's a pretty substantial amount of

◼   ► time and energy and investment that has

◼   ► gone into this update and you know while

◼   ► I've had to do bits and pieces from side

◼   ► to side which I'll actually get into as

◼   ► a topic it's a long time thing and I

◼   ► think is it looking right now I'm aiming

◼   ► to have the update out at the beginning

◼   ► of December which would have meant that

◼   ► we've been about three months of work

◼   ► which is a substantial investment in him

◼   ► for me in this case too and I also have

◼   ► this vague sort of outside pressure that

◼   ► I want the app to be out at the

◼   ► beginning of December so that it can be

◼   ► you know sort of nice and stable and out

◼   ► and available for the new year when is

◼   ► typically a good good time and a big

◼   ► time for workout and health and fitness

◼   ► related things

◼   ► so as I've been going through this

◼   ► process I've been trying to keep be

◼   ► aware of kind of some of the things that

◼   ► I've had to keep in mind and some of the

◼   ► things that I've done as a result and it

◼   ► seems like an interesting topic to talk

◼   ► about through the show so like probably

◼   ► best place to start it's just to kind of

◼   ► unpack some of the things that I've

◼   ► tried to make sure that I did before I

◼   ► started and so use some of the questions

◼   ► that I thought I needed

◼   ► like it's like why am I doing this like

◼   ► and you know why do I want to do this

◼   ► update do I think this is actually a

◼   ► good idea is it worth it like is this

◼   ► going to be worth it either in terms of

◼   ► me you know making the apps dramatically

◼   ► better expanding my market making more

◼   ► money or honoring the attention of press

◼   ► or Apple like whatever it is it's like

◼   ► trying to understand why I'm doing it

◼   ► and if it's actually going to be worth

◼   ► doing trying to understand what I'm

◼   ► actually trying to accomplish most least

◼   ► so that I can know when I'm done because

◼   ► from experience I know that often

◼   ► what'll happen is I will go into one of

◼   ► these development projects where I'm

◼   ► like okay I give myself permission to

◼   ► kind of run wild and to not have it be

◼   ► just a couple of weeks and then I can

◼   ► just sort of end up aimlessly wandering

◼   ► in the wilderness for weeks and weeks

◼   ► because I don't really know where I'm

◼   ► going and I'm just enjoying like the

◼   ► development process which can be kind of

◼   ► fun sometimes but can be really damaging

◼   ► or problematic to getting other things

◼   ► done if I just like to have this aimless

◼   ► wanderer so trying to think about like

◼   ► when will I know I'm done what are the

◼   ► the core features what it's like my

◼   ► basic it's almost like when you're

◼   ► running a term paper or something and

◼   ► you so if you try and write the

◼   ► introduction and the conclusion and then

◼   ► you fill in the middle it's like trying

◼   ► to work out well what am I going to put

◼   ► in my release notes when I submit this

◼   ► to the app store and while that may

◼   ► change you know how this development

◼   ► goes it's like if I can't concisely

◼   ► describe what it is I'm trying to do I'm

◼   ► almost certainly going to get into

◼   ► trouble then asking questions like is it

◼   ► possible and if it's not how do I know

◼   ► or if I'm not sure if something's

◼   ► possible like in for example in this

◼   ► update I've been working on a lot of

◼   ► Apple watch audio playback stuff some of

◼   ► that is like kind of possible some some

◼   ► of it is completely impossible you're

◼   ► being very kind we've talked about this

◼   ► before I didn't in Kate detail but

◼   ► finding that line between possible and

◼   ► impossible was very important to find

◼   ► out up front and to make sure before I

◼   ► committed a lot of energy to the parts

◼   ► of audio playback on the watch that are

◼   ► the support of supporting stuff you have

◼   ► to do you know

◼   ► the easy part in some ways is that is

◼   ► that core playback experience like the

◼   ► hard part is all the other management

◼   ► and file management and configuration

◼   ► and syncing and stuff you have to do

◼   ► it's like making sure I deal with that

◼   ► first but it's kind of this process of

◼   ► saying like is this possible am I sure I

◼   ► can do it what do I want to do and then

◼   ► why am i doing it and if I can answer

◼   ► those questions that I'm probably in a

◼   ► pretty good place to get started yeah I

◼   ► this is an area the whole just like long

◼   ► term update or new app management that

◼   ► I'm just very bad at this I'm very very

◼   ► bad like I I gave a talk a while ago to

◼   ► NS conference about how I planned

◼   ► overcast from a marketing perspective

◼   ► like 404 1.08 for the initial app launch

◼   ► and I I made this big document you know

◼   ► similar to what you were just saying

◼   ► about how you know how you you kind of

◼   ► imagine the app store release notes as

◼   ► like a goal and like what what what

◼   ► should those say and how do I get there

◼   ► I did I did a similar thing where like I

◼   ► basically like laid out the the

◼   ► marketing bullet points for overcast why

◼   ► choose this over any other podcast app

◼   ► and Latos had early on and did a bunch

◼   ► of market research you know looking at

◼   ► the other apps to see like it that were

◼   ► in the that were competitive at the time

◼   ► and saying like I well why would

◼   ► somebody use overcast over app X and I

◼   ► went through all the competitors at the

◼   ► time big and small why should somebody

◼   ► choose overcast over this app and that

◼   ► kind of helped me plan my marketing you

◼   ► know focus for the app it kind of helped

◼   ► inform the the feature selection what to

◼   ► focus on what what to not really focus

◼   ► on certain markets that I would chose

◼   ► just to not address I'll have my app do

◼   ► XY and Z is you know things like smart

◼   ► speed and voice boost and the main you

◼   ► know the the reorder of a playlist stuff

◼   ► and everything all that stuff that was

◼   ► like my main marketing bullet point list

◼   ► an app is so much more complicated than

◼   ► that in practice there's so much more

◼   ► you have to do those core features of

◼   ► the app were done probably after three

◼   ► or four months or at least close enough

◼   ► to done and then during the beta I kind

◼   ► of finish them but the app took me like

◼   ► a year and a half or two years to make I

◼   ► think so I forget exactly it's been a

◼   ► while and so the entire rest of the time

◼   ► was spent

◼   ► things that were not on my planning list

◼   ► you know just doing all the different

◼   ► administrative screens and the backend

◼   ► on the servers and all the different UI

◼   ► details and I find that I'm very very

◼   ► bad at time management and and I would

◼   ► say completion estimation deadlines

◼   ► estimation once I get into all that

◼   ► nitty-gritty stuff of you know like the

◼   ► main feature might be complete or close

◼   ► to complete because the main feature

◼   ► might be some cool technical thing that

◼   ► I'm doing that you know that took maybe

◼   ► a day or two or a month and in the worst

◼   ► cases you know but then the entire rest

◼   ► of the app around it that's so much more

◼   ► complicated you know I had a major

◼   ► problem with this this past summer when

◼   ► the iOS 11 changes came in and and even

◼   ► before I knew about the I out the the

◼   ► iPhone 10 you know even when I when it

◼   ► was just I was 11 and drag and drop and

◼   ► all the new tableview mechanics and and

◼   ► everything else I thought I would have

◼   ► time for a major feature update this

◼   ► fall as well as a UI update to iOS 11

◼   ► and not only did I did I totally fail at

◼   ► that but then at the very last minute

◼   ► the iPhone 10 was announced and you know

◼   ► we all knew it was rumored we and we

◼   ► kind of knew that something like this

◼   ► was coming but I don't think any of us

◼   ► really knew how much work it would be

◼   ► for apps to adopt it well my original

◼   ► plan for my 4.0 update could contain so

◼   ► much more than what I actually shipped

◼   ► us 4.0 because the basics of it of just

◼   ► like keeping up with Apple that took the

◼   ► entire amount of time I had and the very

◼   ► very small number of bullet point

◼   ► features that actually made it out in

◼   ► addition to those like though like the

◼   ► new like contextual row actions where

◼   ► you can pull across the whole road to

◼   ► delete like mail I added those on the

◼   ► very last day of the beta it took me

◼   ► half a day I added them in the very last

◼   ► build I think the entire rest of the

◼   ► time was spent on yeah every on the

◼   ► massive amount of work required to just

◼   ► update the UI for these things and to to

◼   ► pull out some of my old hacks and put it

◼   ► in a couple of new hacks but try to keep

◼   ► the new hacks at least fewer a number

◼   ► that were severity than the old one

◼   ► and I just completely mismanaged and

◼   ► more importantly totally miss estimated

◼   ► the entire project yes I feel like

◼   ► through the thing that I sound similar

◼   ► happened to you but I know happens to me

◼   ► many times is not necessarily realizing

◼   ► to how once you start embarking down the

◼   ► road of a big update the awkward

◼   ► position it finds you you find yourself

◼   ► in is then like the app from a

◼   ► user-facing perspective essentially

◼   ► appears stalled then your note use all

◼   ► of a sudden you stop getting small minor

◼   ► like incremental updates that you know

◼   ► like the things that just take a half a

◼   ► day to work on to build an ad to the app

◼   ► like all of a sudden they get sort of

◼   ► stuck behind this dam of this big

◼   ► feature that it feels really it's either

◼   ► technically difficult to ship because

◼   ► you end up with weird like version

◼   ► control management stuff of like well I

◼   ► could add it to the old version but the

◼   ► old version is like massively gonna be

◼   ► you know ripped apart and we put back

◼   ► together or it's doing work that is

◼   ► going to be you know replaced or have to

◼   ► be repeated and you know in the actual

◼   ► like the new for the new feature branch

◼   ► or things like that like you end up in

◼   ► these really awkward places where

◼   ► suddenly the app just kind of gets stuck

◼   ► and that's really awkward and I feel

◼   ► like in some ways it's a good thing to

◼   ► keep in the front of my mind that you

◼   ► know right now all of my apps

◼   ► except for workouts plus plus have been

◼   ► updated for the iPhone 10 and that's

◼   ► like that's good like that all those

◼   ► update those updates are up but for

◼   ► users of workouts plus plus as much as

◼   ► it's nice for me be able to say oh

◼   ► coming soon like awesome amazing update

◼   ► that I think you're really going to love

◼   ► it's kind of awkward to that it's you

◼   ► know the app that I'm putting the most

◼   ► effort into is the one that is falling

◼   ► the most behind and so it's probably

◼   ► worth making sure that as we're starting

◼   ► on these projects it's like a sort of

◼   ► timing them right like often I I think

◼   ► we've talked about before in the show

◼   ► where it's often good to do these types

◼   ► of updates maybe in the sort of like

◼   ► February to April time group timeframe

◼   ► in sort of apples development cycle

◼   ► where things tend to be fairly calm

◼   ► before wEDC

◼   ► which I didn't do this time

◼   ► but in general it's just a weird thing

◼   ► to keep in mind that like you have to

◼   ► make sure that is undertaking this

◼   ► project and pushing making putting the

◼   ► app into this weird sort of hiatus state

◼   ► like worth it and a good thing to do I'm

◼   ► just otherwise you can just sort of you

◼   ► could actually end up shooting yourself

◼   ► in the foot by making the app get where

◼   ► feel sort of feel worse and worse to

◼   ► your customers and by the time you

◼   ► finish you arrive it's like you arrive

◼   ► you arrive back and be like hey here's

◼   ► this great new thing and they've all

◼   ► left and that could be rather

◼   ► problematic this episode is brought to

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◼   ► gotten through all that and you're

◼   ► actually in the middle of building an

◼   ► update the hardest things I find in a

◼   ► lot of ways is keeping motivated keeping

◼   ► keeping progress moving forward every

◼   ► day because you know in a large port

◼   ► like you an independent development

◼   ► often feels you know fairly isolated or

◼   ► lonely but I definitely feel is the most

◼   ► isolated for me when I'm working on

◼   ► features that take weeks and weeks or

◼   ► months and months to work on because

◼   ► it's just kind of like me often though

◼   ► my own little world working on stuff one

◼   ► thing I wanted to mention in the show is

◼   ► over the years of doing this I've

◼   ► developed a little like I don't know

◼   ► like it's a little mental crutch that

◼   ► for me helps me to stay motivated and to

◼   ► feel like I'm continuing to move forward

◼   ► because often what will happen you know

◼   ► you is you can spend all day like a

◼   ► definitely a focused hard-working day of

◼   ► effort and you get to the end and you

◼   ► don't feel like you accomplished

◼   ► anything and that is just so motivate

◼   ► demotivating so crushing like those days

◼   ► are that like then make me start

◼   ► questioning all kinds of things about

◼   ► whether I should be working on this is

◼   ► this good should I just completely drop

◼   ► this app and like go do something else I

◼   ► find a new career I'm terrible at this

◼   ► like lots of lots of knock not

◼   ► productive good things but you're lucky

◼   ► if those are just days to I've had

◼   ► months like that yeah but one thing that

◼   ► I have found to be helpful for me

◼   ► personally is to try and every day have

◼   ► something one thing that I did that day

◼   ► that I can point to which is can be as

◼   ► small as Paul can be big whatever it is

◼   ► but I try and structure my work such

◼   ► that at the end of the day I have

◼   ► something that one thing that I can

◼   ► point to and say like that's what I did

◼   ► that little feature that thing and it's

◼   ► a concrete tangible example and

◼   ► sometimes you can't do this you know

◼   ► some some projects will just

◼   ► you're do you're doing some deep model

◼   ► layer work that takes a few days and

◼   ► like okay but once you've done it like

◼   ► then that becomes your thing for the

◼   ► land those three days but I found that

◼   ► to be a really and then at the end of

◼   ► every day I consciously make the that I

◼   ► consciously make the decision to think

◼   ► about what I did and to like remind

◼   ► myself of what I of that thing that I

◼   ► accomplished even if it is just one

◼   ► thing and typically it is just one thing

◼   ► and that I found doing that over and

◼   ► over again kind of that this that keeps

◼   ► me honest in terms of keeps me from

◼   ► getting sucked down rabbit holes that

◼   ► are sort of unproductive and I'm not

◼   ► actually getting anywhere in you know

◼   ► it's like if I have nothing to show for

◼   ► the end of the day and that happens like

◼   ► two or three days in a row like maybe

◼   ► something's wrong maybe I'm doing

◼   ► something that I really shouldn't be

◼   ► doing and it gives me that that that

◼   ► awareness and on the flip side it helps

◼   ► me to just be aware of that and say like

◼   ► yes like I did that I did this and if

◼   ► you and I what I found is like it's

◼   ► somewhat obvious but like if you string

◼   ► together enough days where you

◼   ► accomplish something tangible every day

◼   ► you make genuine progress and so I don't

◼   ► that's just like it looks like silly

◼   ► trick that I've found for tricking

◼   ► myself and to feel into making progress

◼   ► especially in the midst of things that

◼   ► can take a long time yeah it also you

◼   ► know for me like you know as I mentioned

◼   ► them a few minutes ago do my little

◼   ► swipe actions thing in half a day at the

◼   ► end it made me feel a lot better about

◼   ► the release like it made me you know I

◼   ► was having so much doubt during the

◼   ► development cycle of my for of like am i

◼   ► doing enough here that customers will

◼   ► actually care about like if this is

◼   ► taking you know I'm spending as we

◼   ► talked before - I'm spending months on

◼   ► this update and is this actually

◼   ► including anything that my customers

◼   ► will get excited about or is it just

◼   ► changing things or just keeping up with

◼   ► iOS and new phones like that's just a

◼   ► bare minimum of what I should be doing

◼   ► is just keeping up you know ideally I'm

◼   ► also making things better and so I

◼   ► started to look for features that were

◼   ► fairly low complexity to implement that

◼   ► people have been asking for and just try

◼   ► to knock some of those out in in like

◼   ► the last few days that I had

◼   ► and that really helped a lot not only

◼   ► for making the update better but for

◼   ► making me feel like I had spent all this

◼   ► time - for a for like a sum total

◼   ► product here of something that was

◼   ► actually worth that time even though the

◼   ► distribution within that of how I spent

◼   ► that time versus those meaningful

◼   ► features might not have been ideal yeah

◼   ► and I think the important thing there is

◼   ► even it almost makes me wonder if you

◼   ► would have been well served to do those

◼   ► small little features in the middle of

◼   ► your development cycle as best as you

◼   ► could to try and like have these little

◼   ► rewards or these little like

◼   ► psychological perks clean Oh for myself

◼   ► like I love having every now and then

◼   ► I'll often ends up happening like this

◼   ► on a Friday but I'll just kind of like

◼   ► have a day where I just allow myself

◼   ► like the thing I'm going to do is try

◼   ► something kind of crazy and I enjoy that

◼   ► and it's like it's a motivating thing

◼   ► and an encouraging thing and it allowing

◼   ► myself kind of a conscious decision to

◼   ► do that it allows me to make progress in

◼   ► the like that the kind of the meat and

◼   ► potatoes part of the app where it's

◼   ► maybe not quite as fun or not quite as

◼   ► interesting it's like well once I've

◼   ► done this then I can work on that cool

◼   ► thing that I know I'm gonna feel good

◼   ► about even though even if it mazey might

◼   ► may be just a teeny little detail or

◼   ► something that most users will never

◼   ► notice like I remember when I was

◼   ► working on the achievement system in

◼   ► pedometer plus plus where you can earn

◼   ► badges if you work on them like I

◼   ► allowed myself a day where I was just

◼   ► gonna work on making the badges sparkle

◼   ► when you earn them that's so cool which

◼   ► was just like a totally silly idea like

◼   ► it's it's I love that this I love it in

◼   ► the app I think it works really well and

◼   ► like it's you know the the menu bar

◼   ► button at the top that opens the badge

◼   ► page sparkles too with the same effect

◼   ► when you have you know have you when you

◼   ► earn a new badge and things and like

◼   ► it's great but it was like it was a

◼   ► reward for a lot of the other hard work

◼   ► of doing like some ridiculously or so

◼   ► maybe surprisingly hard and logic

◼   ► computation to work out you know how you

◼   ► how you calculate how long your streak

◼   ► is and what the longest streak you have

◼   ► is and like there's a really

◼   ► nasty work you have to do to make that

◼   ► make that happen but it's like having

◼   ► these little these little checkpoints

◼   ► along the way and I thought it was so

◼   ► fun on that day too the thickness for my

◼   ► one thing to be like cool sparkly pixie

◼   ► dust like that was great and it's just

◼   ► being okay with the fact that like it's

◼   ► if it sounds a little silly that like

◼   ► you know I'm a grown professional but

◼   ► like these are the things I have to do

◼   ► to make to keep myself motivated be

◼   ► understanding that if I if I'm

◼   ► unmotivated if I'm not working

◼   ► effectively like I'm not making progress

◼   ► like it's not like oh yeah it's like I

◼   ► should just intrinsically be motivated

◼   ► to always work at maximal efficiency

◼   ► it's like no I have to trick myself and

◼   ► I have to do things that get you allow

◼   ► me to get around the fact that I'll get

◼   ► stuck and I'll get demotivated and then

◼   ► my productivity overall will drop

◼   ► precipitously as a result well that you

◼   ► know you're human like you know you

◼   ► can't you can't blame yourself or feel

◼   ► bad for being human and like nobody

◼   ► likes working tirelessly day after day

◼   ► on on a project that feel like it's

◼   ► going nowhere and a lot of people don't

◼   ► have the choice in the matter you know

◼   ► they they just have to do that because

◼   ► their job is you know not very

◼   ► fulfilling or not being managed well we

◼   ► as Indies have the freedom we're lucky

◼   ► that we have the freedom that we can

◼   ► actually take a day in the middle of a

◼   ► giant slog of trying to figure out UI

◼   ► tableview x' new crazy behavior or

◼   ► something like that or some weird bug or

◼   ► trying to implement some really tedious

◼   ► new thing we can take a break in the

◼   ► middle of that and do something for an

◼   ► afternoon or a day that that is

◼   ► fulfilling that we can complete in that

◼   ► time and that can work that can you know

◼   ► the whole reason that we that many of us

◼   ► that I should say but certainly for me

◼   ► the you know one of the reasons why I

◼   ► love programming so much and one of the

◼   ► reasons why I became first a self-taught

◼   ► and then eventually a more formally

◼   ► taught programmer is that you know when

◼   ► when normal people I you know I say I

◼   ► say loosely attempt to program or do

◼   ► something else that they don't really

◼   ► enjoy doing like it may be a certain

◼   ► subject in school growing up when they

◼   ► succeed they might not get any kind of

◼   ► satisfaction out of that

◼   ► the people who stick with programming

◼   ► are the ones who can make it through all

◼   ► the incredibly

◼   ► tedious and frustrating parts of it

◼   ► which there are many because they are

◼   ► motivated so much by the satisfaction

◼   ► when you make something when something

◼   ► works when you build something you know

◼   ► programmers who really get into it are

◼   ► the ones who like that little hit of

◼   ► satisfaction or adrenaline or whatever

◼   ► it is it motivates us through the rest

◼   ► so you have to find ways if if you're if

◼   ► you are that kind of person like I am

◼   ► you have to find ways to keep that

◼   ► motivation going even when you have to

◼   ► go through a very very long slog and I

◼   ► was very bad at that this summer found

◼   ► it very very hard to to keep myself

◼   ► motivated and to work hard and to make

◼   ► forward progress that have just banging

◼   ► my head against the wall and I think one

◼   ► thing to this I have found to be very

◼   ► helpful is trying to involve other

◼   ► people in the process as best as you can

◼   ► is another thing that I find really

◼   ► helps for these kind of these long slogs

◼   ► and so you know often it's having a very

◼   ► small there's not even really a beta

◼   ► group but just other people who are

◼   ► using the app who can then be giving you

◼   ► feedback giving you suggestions giving

◼   ► you reactions and even just giving you

◼   ► that sense of like you know you ship

◼   ► something that they enjoy or they like

◼   ► and they can tell you they like it like

◼   ► that's encouraging and motivating and

◼   ► this is well before you'd get into the

◼   ► you know kind of a broader beta test or

◼   ► something but just to try and make it so

◼   ► that it's not just you you know even if

◼   ► it's just you and a couple of friends or

◼   ► you and your spouse or whoever it is but

◼   ► just making it so that it's not just

◼   ► like if you can make that a little bit

◼   ► bigger I find this really helpful and

◼   ► it's also probably helpful in making

◼   ► sure that you're actually making

◼   ► progress that you know you can get some

◼   ► prick you can have some perspective

◼   ► shared perspective on like is the app

◼   ► better now with this update than it was

◼   ► before or not because you can easily

◼   ► sort of find yourself sucked down into

◼   ► the rabbit hole where you are doing

◼   ► something because it's what you've been

◼   ► working on for a long time but you may

◼   ► be kind of losing the forest for the

◼   ► trees at a certain point so it's

◼   ► definitely helpful to kind of spread

◼   ► that out a little bit if you have the

◼   ► ability to do that

◼   ► yes one of the reasons why I took the

◼   ► somewhat I think unusual step of

◼   ► developing the 4.0 UI kind of in the

◼   ► open I did a lot of like Twitter

◼   ► development he's clear I'd like post

◼   ► screenshots on Twitter and say hey what

◼   ► do you think of this or it's kind of

◼   ► weird or which of these four options you

◼   ► think would be best or work well or

◼   ► whatever else taking kind of a lot of

◼   ► like informal Twitter polls basically

◼   ► and normally I would do all this

◼   ► development in secret and then just

◼   ► really you know really support the final

◼   ► product and you know try to make a big

◼   ► splash or whatever else then and try to

◼   ► keep everything secret the whole time

◼   ► which is very stressful and difficult

◼   ► especially if you want to do a large

◼   ► beta and this time I just I decided to

◼   ► just do it in the open in part because I

◼   ► was tired of keeping things secret but

◼   ► also in part because I wanted a little

◼   ► bit more of that validation of that

◼   ► testing and it actually made a better

◼   ► product in the end

◼   ► like having public feedback on it and

◼   ► you know I know that it's a luxury not

◼   ► everyone has you know the audience size

◼   ► to do but you know everyone has

◼   ► something like that like you know

◼   ► whatever your you know abilities or

◼   ► resources are use them you know even if

◼   ► it isn't you know a bunch of people on

◼   ► Twitter like it can be friends in real

◼   ► life it can be you know other testers it

◼   ► could be people whose opinion you trust

◼   ► who can take a look at something and can

◼   ► give you feedback on it like that's

◼   ► incredibly valuable for not only the

◼   ► quality of the product which of course

◼   ► is the ultimate goal at the end but also

◼   ► you know this mode this motivation

◼   ► factor in the middle when you're just

◼   ► slogging through it's nice to know that

◼   ► you're working on something that people

◼   ► actually are going to like and probably

◼   ► the last thing that seems like worth

◼   ► talking about through is it's like how

◼   ► to wrap up kind of a big project like

◼   ► this in terms of some of the little like

◼   ► I don't know mistakes I've made in the

◼   ► past that I try and avoid now as I was

◼   ► thinking about that like one thing that

◼   ► I do I've never found that like having

◼   ► an external to-do list management for

◼   ► code level issues or questions like

◼   ► never really it just doesn't work with

◼   ► it great for me but one thing I have

◼   ► found to be really helpful is to leave

◼   ► little like bread crumbs in my code that

◼   ► help me keep track of things that I need

◼   ► to take care of before I wrap up and

◼   ► before I ship and so an objective-c I do

◼   ► these with the pound the warning

◼   ► I don't know what you call it like

◼   ► direct declaration where you can

◼   ► anywhere in Objective C if you just say

◼   ► pound warning and then you write some

◼   ► straight write some text that'll show up

◼   ► when in 8 anytime you build you'll get a

◼   ► list of those sort of and they're almost

◼   ► like to do Zoar things that I need to

◼   ► make sure I check in Swift you don't

◼   ► have quite the same ability but I would

◼   ► have taken 2 there which is kind of a

◼   ► horrible hack but it works is I just say

◼   ► let warning equal and then a string that

◼   ► is what needs to be fixed or taken care

◼   ► of

◼   ► so then Swift complains that that that

◼   ► variable is unused and should instead be

◼   ► assigned to underscore which works just

◼   ► as well

◼   ► but for easyacc it works though like

◼   ► it's it's Swift does not like variables

◼   ► that are unused so that it that's how I

◼   ► do it now these are great because these

◼   ► are usually these are little details

◼   ► they're like things I need to check or

◼   ► because you know but I don't want to do

◼   ► well in developing is like half that

◼   ► feel like I need to take care of every

◼   ► little detail as I'm going along because

◼   ► I made it but wasting a lot of energy on

◼   ► stuff that ends up not getting into the

◼   ► final version so these tend to be little

◼   ► things that like you know it's like make

◼   ► sure this works in like sometimes it's

◼   ► localization stuff or you know different

◼   ► units or it could just be you know trim

◼   ► it's like make sure this actually works

◼   ► on the you know the iPhone 5s whatever

◼   ► the slowest devices or like lieu of

◼   ► reminders and hints it's like a great

◼   ► way to kind of do it and then has like

◼   ► you know as I once I do my final build

◼   ► for the App Store hey you know if

◼   ► there's no warnings then I've taken care

◼   ► of all of those so that's a useful

◼   ► little trick one thing I always do is I

◼   ► do a get diff from the last ship version

◼   ► to the current version that I'm about to

◼   ► ship and just look through it like it

◼   ► sometimes it'll be a little tedious and

◼   ► it'll take a little while but I've got

◼   ► weird bugs or issues that way and it

◼   ► also is just really helpful as I'm

◼   ► preparing my marketing material to

◼   ► actually like remember all of the things

◼   ► that have changed and so I don't forget

◼   ► like cool little you know nuggets or

◼   ► features and things that I added because

◼   ► just you know in the scope of the size

◼   ► of the update I may have missed it so

◼   ► it's usually a worthwhile like you know

◼   ► just spend an hour going through that

◼   ► diff and just kind of getting a sense of

◼   ► all those changes that you made

◼   ► and then lastly it's probably a assume

◼   ► that I have been bitten behind many

◼   ► times by not doing and so now I'm very I

◼   ► try to be very regimented about is

◼   ► making sure that you do it clean or App

◼   ► Store install of the app onto a via onto

◼   ► a fresh device use it for a little while

◼   ► get it set up and then test the update

◼   ► process to Europe you know to this big

◼   ► update because the number of times you

◼   ► kind of forget about things that way you

◼   ► know even back to bite you it can be

◼   ► awful so always make sure that you do

◼   ► that to just catch any weird migration

◼   ► issues or just things that become really

◼   ► confusing because if I've you know I

◼   ► have not been haven't been using the App

◼   ► Store version of my app for months at

◼   ► this point so it's important for me to

◼   ► be reminded of where my customers are

◼   ► coming from and it should feel really

◼   ► old when you see it ideally all right

◼   ► thanks listening everybody I'm going to

◼   ► talk to you next week bye