Building FaithStreet’s App

See the work

The Problem

In conversation with customers, market research and personal experience, we kept hearing people increasingly felt disconnected from their faith community. Leaders from churches asked if FaithStreet would build an app to help their congregations feel more connected.

Our Objective

Our approach incorporated two objectives. For the business, to develop a new product to leapfrog our competition as they expanded their SaaS suites. For our customers, it needed to be more than a church website or magazine in app form, but deliver a value only possible because its form, an app.

My Role

I led product development from discovery to launch, as well as designed and engineered the native iOS/Android app and API.

The Project

We set a target of 6 months to run parallel processes of development, design and customer development. I used React Native with Expo to be able to simultaneously launch for both iOS and Android and build the API on our existing Ruby on Rails monolith to create a seamless experience for Giving and Directory members who adopted the app.

The Audience

The target audience for this app became low to moderately engaged congregation members who wanted more felt connection to their community, often 25-50 years old in small to mid-size cities or suburban areas.

Research

  • Interviews with existing customers, church members, and leaders of growing congregations informed our understanding of the problem.
  • Competitive Analysis found a gap in market where we could be the best in class.
  • Technology assessment determined if could we build this with a very small team in a reasonable timeline?

Ideation

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Iteration

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Design

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Technical

  • Ruby on Rails API
  • Custom newsfeed build on Ruby and Redis
  • React Native
  • Expo to build and facilitate distribution of app
  • CI/CD for rapid iterative development

Results

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the app became a vital point of connection for displaced and hybrid congregations. Members shared thousands of prayer requests, coordinated events, and leaders were able to quickly share updates that members received in real time.